Ebony sucked in a startled breath, then laughed. 'I hope you straightened her out about that as well,' she scorned.
'I tried. She wouldn't listen. In the end I decided to let her think whatever she liked if it made her feel better.'
'How gallant of you! And did you also let her believe you're in love with me
'Her mind did start going along those paths. Eventually,' he added drily.
'And you didn't want to disillusion her about her beloved son's morals, is that it?'
'Something like that.'
'You bastard,' she bit out. 'You stinking rotten bastard. Why didn't you tell her the truth? That the only thing you've ever wanted from me is sex. It's why you're here now. You think you can take up where you left off. But you're wrong, Alan. I'm finished with you,' she stated harshly. 'For good!'
'Stop being so melodramatic. It doesn't suit you. But I can understand you might be a little upset. And I'm sorry.'
'He's sorry! My God, can you repeat that? I'd like to tape it for posterity. An apology from Alan Carstairs to his slut of a mistress.'
'Don't call yourself that!'
'Why? It's how you think of me, isn't it?'
'God, Ebony, can't we discuss this in private? Let me come up. It's cold
out here.'
'It'll be even colder in here, believe me. Just go home, Alan. And don't come back. I don't ever want to set eyes on you again.'
'You don't mean that.'
'Don't I? We'll see, Alan, we'll see.'
'Yes, we certainly will!' he snarled, and stormed off.
Alan sat in his car for quite some time afterwards, fuming. In love with him, was she? His mother was mad! That witch didn't know how to love. She was a vampire, a blood-sucking vampire, not content unless she drove a man to distraction.
And yet...
His gut twisted as he recalled her tears earlier on that night. God, but they'd affected him. Not with triumph as he'd once imagined, but with shock and real dismay. Ebony crying did not fit the image he had of her. Yet her tears represented some real evidence behind his mother's belief that Ebony was in love with him. Why should she cry unless her emotions were deeply involved?
And just now...
Was her bitter sarcasm another symptom of frustrated love? Had he finally driven her to the point where she couldn't bear to see him again be- cause it hurt her too much?
His whole stomach turned over with the possibility. Goddamn it, maybe his mother was right!
Alan gripped the steering-wheel, his head spinning. He remembered that his first reaction to such an outrageous idea had been a mocking denial.
'You're crazy!' he had told his mother.
But once he'd revealed that incident four years before in the library, his mother had been adamant that she was right, steadfastly resisting any suggestion that Ebony was nothing better than a tramp and a tease, even shrugging off his telling her about Ebony's reputation with other men.
'You shouldn't believe everything you hear, Alan,' she'd rebuked. 'As for
when Ebony kissed you in the library... you have no evidence she wasn't a virgin back then. I'm sure she was, just as I'm sure she was already in love with you. Can't you see that?'
He hadn't. 'A girl of eighteen? In love with a man of thirty? Oh, come, now, Mother. Next thing you'll be telling me I was in love with her.'
'No. I know better than that. You were in love with Adrianna.'
'Well, no, actually... I wasn't.'
'You weren't?'
'I was having an affair with her, but I wasn't in love with her, any more than she was in love with me. We were close friends as well as business as- sociates, and we were both lonely. That's the total sum of our relationship.'
'But you asked her to marry you.'
'Yes...'
'Why?'
Alan had no option but to tell the truth. 'To protect Ebony.'
'To... protect... Ebony...'
'Don't look at me like that, Mother. It was as much your fault as mine.'
'How, for heaven's sake?'
'Remember that white lace dress you put her in for her eighteenth birthday party?'
'Yes, why? She looked lovely in it.'
'And incredibly sexy. I took one look at her that night and wanted her. It's as simple as that. Suddenly, she was no longer that schoolgirl who'd been flitting in and out of my life for nearly three years. She was, body-wise, a woman—a beautiful and highly desirable woman. And I wanted her.' He shuddered with the memory. 'God, I've never felt such desire, or such guilt, in my entire life.'