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CHAPTER ONE

NOT FOR THE first time in the last several weeks, Lauren Bradley wondered where she should draw the line between beco the bold, independent wo like a sha radical Words like licentious, brazen and e frequency as she walked that blurry border

Unsurprisingly, when those hurtful words echoed in her head, they were always pronounced in her mother’s thin, distressed voice

Flicking one long, brunette braid over her shoulder, Lauren silently told her absent arded the woman behind the counter of this exclusive hotel salon The woly polite brush-off and the habits of a lifetirace

But her heart was beating for two these days, knocking hard against the wall of her breastbone and bouncing back on a spine that had to harden to contain it

Dare I? she wondered with a shiver of apprehension

Oh, she knew she appeared to be just onefor a posh hairstyle to take home as a souvenir, but this meant so muchcontrol of her life in a way she’d never i past the old Lauren who always s deep and find her true spirit right now she e frorandmother’s mansion where she could raise her baby with all the fear of drawing attention its mother had suffered most of her life

No Lauren locked her knee, surreptitiously putting her foot down

She allowed the salon receptionist to finish the call she’d used to try to disrained manners were a pain that way Besides, Lauren needed the extra seconds to gather her courage and ave her a strained Still here? s up

“I believe there’s been a miscommunication,” Lauren said with the most warmlythe Donatelli Charity Ball this evening”

The woer than Lauren’s nearly twenty-five, widened her eyelash extensions with a fraction of respect Exactly Paolo Donatelli was a man who made every woman stand taller and suck in her stomach