Only it wasn’t Jon, it was Chris, the expression on his face frighteningly resentful as his fingers tightened round her unprotected breast, squeezing painfully...hurting her.
She was instantly and icily cold, shrinking instinctively from him, any thought she had entertained that she might be turning into a sex-starved female ready to welcome any man’s caresses dying instantly and completely. The only sensation Chris’s touch aroused was one of intense revulsion. Angrily she reached out to push him away, but he was too strong for her, burying his fingers in her hair, and tugging painfully on it as he pushed her back on to the ground.
Somewhere she could hear the sound of a car and struggled harder but all her struggles seemed to do was to inflame him further. She could feel the hot urgency of his breath against her skin, his voice thick and angry as he muttered, ‘You bitch...you deserve this!’ His mouth was on hers, his teeth savaging her tightly closed lips. She could hear footsteps coming towards them, shaking the sun-baked ground so that she could feel the movements against her ear. She tried to push Chris away thankful that they were about to be interrupted but was unprepared for the suddenness with which he released her and stood up. She turned her head, but the sunlight dazzled her for a moment.
‘I think you’d better tidy yourself up a bit, darling, your husband’s here.’
What an actor Chris was, pretending that she had welcomed his touch when...Jon...Jon was back! She sat up quickly, struggling with the ties of her bikini.
‘Why not let me do that for you?’ Chris was actually daring to reach out and touch her.
‘Get away from me!’ She stood up shakingly, securing the strings, and looked at Jon. He seemed to be studying the progress of a particularly heavy bee.
‘Thank heavens you’re back. Chris forced himself on me, Jon,’ she told him thickly. ‘I was asleep and...’
‘Oh come on, darling, surely you can do better than that?’ Chris was jeering now, but she could see the very real hatred in his eyes, and wondered at the cause of it. Why was Chris doing this to her? And then instinctively she knew. He had never forgiven her for her frigidity and now he wanted to punish her for daring to find sexual happiness with someone else.
‘I’m sure your husband is nowhere near as stupid as he looks.’ He looked tauntingly at Jon, who returned the look with mild curiosity. Grinning at her, Chris walked away from them. Sophy watched him go in complete silence. Hadn’t Jon understood what she was telling him?
She heard a car engine fire and then slowly purr down the drive and bitter resentment flooded through her body. It was wrong and unfair that Chris should be able to walk away like that after physically molesting her and humiliating Jon. She took a deep breath and found that she was shaking...tense with an anger that had to find an outlet.
‘Do you realise that if you hadn’t come back when you did he would probably have tried to rape me?’ she cried emotionally. ‘And you let him just walk away. You...for God’s sake, Jon, what kind of husband are you?’ she demanded thickly.
Had he even heard what she was saying? He appeared to be studying one of the flowers but at last he lifted his head and looked at her in that rather abstracted way of his, glancing away to remove a piece of fluff from his shirt-sleeve before replying.
‘The kind who feels that when he discovers his wife in the arms of an old lover, discretion might possibly be the better part of valour,’ he told her calmly. ‘You must admit that I had no way of knowing whether his embrace was welcome or not, Sophy.’
‘But I’m married to you,’ she pointed out despairingly. God, didn’t he even care the smallest bit? Wasn’t he the slightest bit jealous or resentful? If she had been the one to walk into that scene...if she had discovered him...
‘Our marriage does not give me the right to assume physical chastity on your part.’
‘But you said—’ She broke off. What was the use? Jon plainly did not care one way or the other, despite his statement before they were married that he would not expect her to take lovers.
‘Always logical and calm, that’s you, isn’t it, Jon?’ she demanded bitterly. ‘You’re just like one of those damned computers you’re so fond of—incapable of any human emotional reaction.’