INTIMATE STRANGERS 13

Although she tried to ignore the couple, Kerrien felt her gaze being drawn to them every few minutes. It was hard to accept that her fears were confirmed. Everything Brett had said to her, all his compliments, were designed only to seduce her. Once he had accomplished that, he would presumably have cast her aside and looked for his next conquest.

‘Let’s order a dessert, if you’d like one,’ Ashton suggested.

‘I don’t think I could manage any more to eat. But you have one.” Her appetite had gone.

‘Not on my own,’ he answered. ‘I'll just order coffee.” He stared at her, sensing her disappointment and her hidden anger. He thought she was suffering the blow to her pride that any woman does when she sees her lover with someone else. He could not know that she was angry with herself. She was angry that she had been taken in by Brett enough to spend so much time with him. But it did confirm that she’d been right to refuse him what he seemed to want so much. She’d been right to stop his lov