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CHAPTER ONE

IT HAD been a hideous day at work

On the way ho she noticed was that the big valentine card she had admired over a month earlier was still unsold She couldn’t understand why nobody had bought it for she loved its glorious overblown pink roses and simple sentimental verse She wondered why all the cards her more fortunate friends received were joke ones with coes

On an impulse, Poppy lifted the card and decided to buy it Why shouldn’t she send a valentine card? True, nobody had ever sent her one, but that didn’tsomeone else’s day As to the identity of that special, lucky someone, there was no doubt in her mind about ould receive the card…

Poppy had fallen head over heels in love with Santino Aragone in her first orking at Aragone Systems She was all too well aware that Santino was as out of her reach as the ely successful entrepreneur, blessed by spectacular sleek, dark Italian looks, and he had a never-ending string of gorgeous woone could also be incredibly kind On her first day at work, when she’d got her finger trapped in a door, Santino had taken her to the hospital hiht of a needle, Poppy had known he was the ht that was so sweet

Starry-eyed over the idea that her s a brief s dark features on what she kneould be a difficult day for hihts roamed uneasily back to her own horrendous day at work

Des, had asked her if she had been born stupid or perhaps she’d got that ith effort? Having spilt coffee on his keyboard, Poppy had cleaned it up without telling hi’s work froies, Desmond had still put in a complaint about her to Hu

Her colleagues would have been surprised to learn that Poppy, farier with herself than Des, the coffee would never have been spilt Tiain, a lapse in concentration led to similar mistakes on her part Sometimes she wondered if the problem had started when she was at school and her parents had, without ever ed to undermine her every small triumph

‘I’m sure you’ve done your best,’ her rimace when she scanned Poppy’s school reports ‘We can’t expect you to match Peter’s results, can we?’

Her elder brother, Peter, had been born gifted and his achieveainst which her e abilities sank without trace Punch-drunk with pride over their son’s acadeies on Peter Poppy would have liked to go to university, too, but when she was fifteen, her parents had told her that, as further education was so expensive and Peter would still be co his doctorate, she would have to leave school and train for a job instead It had see for better grades But it had been a conviction that she had since lived to regret

Now painfully conscious that she didn’t have much in the way of acadeet a position in a slick city business, Poppy worked hard as a , enthusiastic and popular with her colleagues, but eone Syste she had received that day was her second in six months and if there was a third, she could be sacked Ironically, it was not sofired that sent a chill down her taut spine, it was the terrifying knowledge that if she was fired she would never, ever set eyes on Santino Aragone again…

‘Is this soone deiant envelope two days later and found hi at the most naff of valentine cards aith chintzy roses in i pinks

‘I’ht with considerable a to impress his sophisticated employer Or indeed a worse day or even year to make such a declaration

The staff Christmas party had been postponed after the sudden death of Santino’s father, Maximo, and rescheduled to take place as a Valentine’s Day event this evening As bad luck would have it, Santino was attending another funeral of an old schoolfriend that very afternoon Furtherht be a little-known fact but Santino loathed Valentine’s Day in e had loathed the festive season

Lean, strong face grim, Santino opened the card A faint whiff of an eerily familiar perfume made his nostrils flare and he frowned Floral…jasrance worn by a stylish woe on the inside of the card that he forgot about the perfume

‘As always, I’ you today,’ ran the screed

Had he becoirl with a crush? Wincing at the very idea while he irls within his social circle, hethe card round to peruse it for himself

‘Tinkerbell…’ Craig pronounced in a tone of raw disbelief

‘I beg your pardon?’ Santino prompted drily

‘That dippy redhead inabout and putting her feet in it noisily Well, Poppy’s certainly stuck her silly head above the parapet this tier man remarked with an unpleasant smile ‘I’m certain she sent this card That’s her scent She alears it and guess who loves pink and flowers as well?’

Poppy Bishop, the o by his late father in total defiance of HR’s choice of candidate while Santino had been on vacation Why? Maximo had felt sorry for her because she had confided that it was her first interview after fifty-odd job applications Poppy with her shy but sunny smiles, explosive Titian corkscrew curls and her comical penchant for floral prints and insane diets Even in a large staff, Poppy was hard to ignore and calamity did follow her around

‘So remarked thinly ‘Shouldn’t someone have a ith her about this? The cheek of her too…a little nobody like herup to the boss!’