The Sex War

'I had to make it respectable by putting a ring on your hand first, didn't I?' he snarled, and Lindsay slapped his face so hard his head jerked back in surprise. He looked at her with dangerous eyes for a split second and before she had moved again his own hand came up and to her disbelief she felt it sting her cheek. Shock brought tears to her eyes, Daniel was darkly flushed, his brows black above brooding, angry eyes.

'Don't ever hit me again or next time I'll do more than give you a token slap!' he grated.

She touched the hot mark on her cheek with her fingertips and he watched her, frowning.

'Did that make you feel better?' she asked contemptuously. 'You get your kicks in a funny way.'

'You hit me first, but then that's typical — you provoke a reaction, then turn round and complain about it. Right from the first, you've done the same thing. When we met you kept giving me inviting smiles, but promise was one thing, delivery something else, wasn't it?'

'You just had a one-track mind. In my book accepting a dinner date doesn't mean you automatically go to bed with a man.'

His smile was hard. 'How long did Hill have to wait?'

'I haven't…' She stopped, biting her lip, and Daniel's eyes widened and gleamed.

'Well, well, well,' he said softly, and smiled. 'Haven't you, now? He must be one hell of a patient guy—and very frustrated.'

Lindsay did not like his smile, it held too much satisfaction and far too much self-congratulation. If she hadn't been afraid of his response, she'd have hit him again, but the glowing mark on her cheek urged caution.

'And so must you be,' he added slowly, watching her as a hot tide of colour ran up her face. 'Two years is a long time to go hungry, isn't it, Lindsay?'

'Will you leave my flat or do I have to call the police?' c She descended to bluff because she couldn't think of any other way of ending his taunts, she could have kicked herself for giving away the fact that she wasn't sleeping with Aston, it would only make Daniel more sure of himself.

'I'm still waiting for my answer,' he said without showing any sign of leaving, 'The sooner you agree, the sooner Stephen will be put out of his misery. He must be out of his mind at the moment.'

She closed her eyes, wincing, and knew he was watching her, calculating the effect of what he had just said. Opening her eyes again, she looked at him with a mixture of bitterness and regret. Why was he such a swine? His features held such strength: lean and hard-boned, with that firm jawline and beautifully shaped mouth, those cool, intelligent grey eyes. What sort of mind lay behind them? He was using a cruelly effective blackmail, enlisting her own emotions against her, how could he bring himself to do it?

'You're ruthless, aren't you?' she whispered, and he shrugged.

'If I have to be.'

'Why do you want to humiliate me?' she cried out, her voice shaking, and Daniel's brows jerked together, his features all tightened, his mouth levelling, his cheekbones angular, a tiny muscle jerking beside his mouth.

'If it humiliates you so much, I'm prepared to marry you first,' he said, and laughed, but it was a humourless laughter. 'I know how you insist on that wedding ring,' he added. 'That was what you held out for last time, wasn't it? And you got it, but even that wasn't enough, was it? You still couldn't bear being touched, you bolted. You're a psychological mess, do you know that? When I'm touching you, you burn. It drives me insane to feel that response one minute and the next have you freeze on me and push me away. What happens inside your head to make you ice up like that? Is it guilt? Are you afraid of sex?' His voice held an impassioned pleading now, Lindsay looked at him in shock, her eyes wide. He took a step closer, putting out his hand, and she flinched involuntarily.

'Don't move away from me like that!' Daniel snarled, then he turned away and walked to the. door in three strides. 'I said I'd give you until Thursday—I will, but remember, Stephen is waiting for your answer just as much as I am, so don't prolong the agony.' The front door slammed and Lindsay sank on to the couch, trembling, her thoughts in chaos. Daniel had come strangely close to the truth in his accusation that she was afraid of sex, but it wasn't sex she feared, it was love. Sex was merely the symptom of the disease, love was the sickness itself. Her love for Daniel had been too intense, too devouring: she hadn't been able to control it, she had wanted him too much, been jealous of everyone who came near him, and her jealousy had taken over her whole life in the end, she hadn't slept, hadn't thought about anything else, it had been a permanent torture.

She had thought Daniel knew. Had he forgotten her constant probing, her questions about what he had done, where he had been and with whom? She had thought she was so obvious—hadn't he realised, after all?,

She sat in the darkening room, a slender white statue on the couch, unmoving. Daniel seemed to see their marriage from an entirely dif

ferent angle—he remembered everything in a totally different way. But he had one thing right—she was a psychological mess, she couldn't deny that. Her jealousy was a desire for total possession, she had long ago faced that, and that was abnormal; she had had to leave him to escape the endless maze of that bitter, unrewarding emotion. She did not want to be drawn back into it, but if she allowed herself to love Daniel, she was afraid that she would.

CHAPTER EIGHT

'You're looking rather wan,' Chris told her next morning, eyeing her through half-closed lids as he lounged back in his swivel chair in his favourite position, feet on the desk and arms behind his head.

'The heat,' Lindsay lied, and looked out of the window at the blue, blue sky that floated overhead, unconcerned that London was suffering, far below, from the remorseless heat of the sun. 'Another scorching day,' she added. 'You're lucky I came to work at all, I was thinking of going off to the local swimming pool.'

'Poor little dear,' said Chris, and nudged a pile of reports with one beautifully shod foot. 'Take these and skim through them for me, will you? I'd like a brief resume by lunchtime.'

'Yes, boss,' she said with venom. 'Anything else I can do?'

'Not just now,' he decided, settling back for a nap with his eyes shut, and she left the office with a crash as the door banged behind her and the glass shook in all the windows on that floor.

'Temper, temper!' Chris yodelled after her.

Her secretary grinned as Lindsay passed her. 'Pleased with himself, today, isn't he?'