The Sex War

'Which means so has he,' Aston thought aloud.

'Yes, he arrived just after you left last night.' Lindsay felt she ought to be apologising, Aston made her feel guilty, as though she had invited Daniel here.

'And stayed all night.' Aston's air of good humour was not so much in evidence at this moment, his jaw had hardened, he was frowning and she read accusation in his eyes.

'On the couch downstairs!' Lindsay knew she was very flushed, she hoped she did not look guilty.

'And where were you?'

'Upstairs,' she said crossly. 'In the spare bedroom.'

'All night?'

'All night!' she agreed, her chin up defiantly, meeting his probing stare without flinching. 'And before you ask—no, he did not make love to me last night. If he'd tried, I'd have knocked him into the middle of next week!'

Aston relaxed slightly, half-smiling. 'He seems very concerned for an ex-husband,' he said, though. 'I didn't expect to find him here.'

'He's interested in Stephen's business, if Stephen isn't careful Daniel Randall will be running his firm.' Lindsay heard the sting of bitterness in her own voice and saw Aston's eyes widen.

'Like that, is it? He isn't interested in you, then? He seemed very hostile when I told him I'd come to see you, I thought for a minute he was going to punch my face in…' .

'Daniel's an aggressive man.'

'You mean he always talks like that?' Aston whistled softly, his face wry. 'That must be wearing to live with.'

'It is—I told you, I can't stand the sight of him.'

Aston laughed. 'I'm not too smitten myself, but then I have good reason not to be—even if he'd been charming to me, there was no way I'd have liked the guy.'

Lindsay didn't pretend not to know what he meant, she smiled up at him, shaking her head. 'You don't need to be jealous of Daniel Randall, nothing would tempt me back to him.'

Aston wound a hand into her gleaming red-gold hair, kissed her gently on the mouth. 'I hope you mean that—in case you hadn't noticed, I'm your fan for life and you're much too beautiful to be wasted on a hard case like Daniel Randall.' He opened the front door, waved a hand at her. 'Stay in touch, and don't let Randall within a foot of you.'

'I won't,' she promised, and stood at the door waving as he got into his car and drove away under the watchful gaze of Daniel's security men. Lindsay resisted the temptation to put out her tongue at them, closing the door with a slam.

Slow clapping made her spin in shock, Daniel stood at the door of the kitchen, lounging casually against the frame, derisively applauding her.

'Were you eavesdropping?' Lindsay asked angrily.

'I was a fascinated audience,' he drawled. 'Your performance was touching—such wide-eyed sincerity, you almost convinced me.'

'I meant every word!'

'And I just imagined the way you kissed me half an hour ago!' he mocked, bringing a hot wave of colour flowing up to her hairline.

'You kissed me!'

'I don't remember you struggling.'

'Your memory has never been very reliable.'

'On the contrary, my memory is infallible,' Daniel corrected with a smile which she found detestable, the crooked amusement in it brought back too many memories of her own.

'Oh, of course, it would be,' she flung back, seething. 'Infallible and omniscient, aren't you?'

'I know you rather better than you seem to know yourself,' he told her, and she turned away, shaking with temper, to go into the sitting-room. Daniel did not follow her and a moment later she heard him talking to someone in the hall. Alice went to the door, looked out and came back a second later.

'Mr Datchet,' she said dully as Lindsay eyed her enquiringly.