'Clarify that,' Andreas instructed in the cool tone he used in the office to make underlings jump. But his dark golden eyes shimmered with intensity. He could not credit the idea but for a split second he wondered if she was threatening to dump him.

'Once you told me that nothing stays the same and that everything must progress,' Hope reminded him unsteadily. 'You said that the things that remain static wither and die. Yet from what I can see, in the last two years we haven't changed at all.'

Right there and then, Andreas decided that in the future it would be wiser to keep all words of wisdom on the score of goal-orientated achievement targets and healthy change to himself.

Every word Hope spoke came from her heart and nothing was pre-planned or judged for its effect. She was very upset. Horribly conscious of his cool distance, she was desperate to make sense of what was happening between them. She needed the reassurance of finding out exactly where she stood with the man she loved.

'So what about us?' Hope continued half under her breath, doggedly pushing the question out, refusing to surrender to her inner fears. 'Are we going anywhere?'

Incredulous that Hope should be subjecting him to such an onslaught, Andreas snatched in a charged breath and reached for her with determined hands. Gathering her small, curvaceous body to him, he reclaimed her mouth in a fierce, sweet invasion that left her quivering with disconcertion. 'Back to bed?' he murmured with hungry intent as he finally lifted his arrogant dark head.

Her pale face flamed as though he had slapped her.

Indeed she felt as though he might as well have done, for she was bitterly ashamed that he had found it so easy to distract her. 'Is that my answer? I want to feel like I'm part of your life, not just someone you sleep with,' she confided painfully.