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Hi I am an idiot becauseCHAPTER ONE

, scattering the wad of papers she had been holding in a whirling arc round the feet of the tall dark man in the

doorway.'You made me jump...' Her voice faltered to a halt as she took in the blazing anger turning the cold grey eyes into

an iota. 'Sent you to do more of his dirty work?'

'I don't know what you're talking about.' Aline drew herself up to her full five feet, ten inches as she glared in her her heart-shaped face pale. 'Tim asked me to fetch some papers for him, that's all. I don't know who you are but it

nothing.' The cold voice was rapier-sharp. 'People have been phoning there for days, believe me.''Well, that's not a crime, is it?' She was beginning to feel furiously angry. Who did this great hulk of a man think hwas,.' He repeated her words slowly in icy mockery. 'And you, of course, have no idea what is wrong with him?'

'It's a virus of bite of laughter that made her flinch. 'I'll give him flu when I get hold of him. Youi dear brother, Mi

Marcell, is in a great deal of trouble, and if I find out that you are involved, as I suspect you are, you are going to

you had never been born.''Who exactly are you?' She was beginning to feel weak at the knees. She had only returned from a month's holiday

Greece a few hours before, to find Tim firmly settled in her tiny flat, pleading that the big house he shared with th

friends was being painted and the smell and commotion was making him more ill. She had beeii deeply shocked amentioned the name! Cord Lachoni. The Bij White Chief. Known far and wide for his ruthless efficiency and cold

blooded business sense that hat brought him from relative obscurity to the status of multi-millionaire in less than t

years. An entrepreneur to end entrepreneurs, hated and feared as well as deeply respected among his peers. At thirseven he had the world at his feet, a broken marriage and a string of much publicised one-night stands to his credi

giant among men with a lifestyle to match.

'Well?' The stony hard voice was unrelenting. 'What are you hatching in that nasty little brain of yours? I can fairlhear the cogs whirring.

'Look, Mr Lachoni, you aren't going to believe this,' she began slowly, 'but I haven't got a clue what this is all abo

He swore softly in a foreign tongue, the meaning unmistakable. 'You're right, I don't believe it,' he said crisply,

moving to stand in front of her, where he towered over her slender frame. His height was terribly intimidating, sixsix at least, with the sleek, broad-shouldered body of a prime athlete honed to perfection. She could see that some

women would find such powerful raw masculinity attractive, but the dark, rugged face held a touch of cruelty that

chilled her blood. He was like one of the big cats, fascinating from a distance but in-timidatingly unnerving close

'Tim told bis head of department he was ill,' she repeated desperately as tiny shivers of fear sped down her spine. sure he'll be back at work as soon as he can make it. Our uncle works here; he said to-'

'Do you think I am a complete fool?' There was just a glimmer of an accent on some of his words, an unusualpronunciation of certain letters that, along with the bronzed darkness of his skin, proclaimed he was not English.

tried desperately to remember everything Tim had mentioned about this man as she sat with a small plop on the h

surface of the desk. The hard grey gaze had her pinned like a butterfly on cardboard.