Bittersweet Passion

At that instant she did hate him for employing that rapier tongue upon her. ‘Would you?’

He sprawled down lazily along the faded window-seat, raising one knee. ‘You seem to have it in your head that I want rid of you. I don’t want you fleeing back to England because you feel you have to. I’d prefer you to deliberate carefully about what you’re doing first.’

‘I don’t need to deliberate, Dane. I’m not a silly teenager, although you like to treat me like one. I’m a woman,’ she stated with quiet dignity.

‘That did penetrate during one of those accidental brushes in the dark.’ His retaliation was smooth. ‘But you’re not the same woman you were a few months ago, and I can’t believe after the way you responded to me that you still want Max to the same extent.’

She bore his ungentlemanly reminder with tortured calm. ‘There is a subtle distinction between love and sex.’

Vibrant blue eyes zeroed in on her consideringly. ‘And I was the corrupting influence who taught you the distinction. Correct?’

‘It doesn’t matter any more,’ she stressed with sudden unsteadiness. ‘And I don’t know why you’re making this so unpleasant, unless it’s because you’ve decided that four weeks isn’t long enough for this fake marriage to last!’

‘I don’t give a damn what’s said in the papers!’ he raked back with contempt. ‘But I think you’re being childish. You’re not going to be free to marry Max for a long time. There’s no need for haste. If he’s still interested in you, he’ll wait.’

‘Maybe I don’t want to wait.’

His shrewd gaze shimmered. ‘OK,’ he capitulated abruptly, unexpectedly. ‘You can leave today if you like, but I want to know where you are the minute you land in London. Then you can get on with your life and make a mess of it if you want to.’

‘I started doing that the day I asked you to marry me!’ she informed him curtly and slammed out of the room. He had only put up those arguments against her leaving to conceal his relief. Just for a tiny moment she had almost believed he really wanted her to stay. But his reluctance had merely been a polite pretence.

Hannah came to her room when she didn’t appear at lunch. ‘Dane tells me you’re leaving.’

‘You can’t be surprised.’ Claire was rehanging garments in the wardrobe. Trailing home designer leisure wear and cases of glamorous evening clothes was a waste of energy. ‘You must have realised it wasn’t a normal marriage.’

Hannah’s broad face was openly troubled. ‘I can’t deny that, but Dane’s very attached to you, Claire. He’s made an enormous effort to please you over the past weeks.’

The hint of rebuke disconcerted her. ‘You don’t understand—–’ she began.

‘I have eyes and ears. Look at that jewellery you never wear,’ Hannah invited drily. ‘If that isn’t a kick in the teeth I don’t know what is. I don’t know what happened between you, and it’s not my affair, but Dane has taken the separate bedrooms without a murmur, and that amazes me.’

It would have amazed Claire too, had it not been Dane’s choice. She was feeling dizzy again and she lowered herself down on to the foot of the bed. ‘He feels guilty,’ she whispered miserably. ‘And I don’t want his guilt, or his gifts.’

There was a lengthy silence during which Hannah paced over to the window. ‘I don’t care what you say. Dane’s not riled by conscience. There have been times I’ve wished he was, but he’s not that scrupulous,’ she conceded wryly. ‘He finds it hard to show his feelings. He tends to make up for it by buying presents. That doesn’t make his generosity questionable. He married you. He must have cared for you. I really never thought Dane would marry but when it was you, well … I did feel it might work.’

Claire breathed in slowly until the light-headedness receded. What was wrong with her? Anxiety? Blood pressure?

‘Dane married me because I asked him to,’ she confided with a choked laugh. ‘So that I could qualify to inherit my grandfather’s estate. Now will you believe me when I tell you that Dane will be relieved to be released from what he finds a very onerous responsibility?’

Hannah had spun round, her face perplexed. ‘So that’s why!’

‘Yes.’ Doggedly she got up again to resume packing. ‘I’m not entitled to his generosity. I already owe him more than I could repay in a lifetime.’

‘But you love him. If you leave, you’ll never know whether or not he could have started to care for you,’ Hannah protested.

Claire’s strained smile was a plea for understanding. ‘He cares, Hannah, but he doesn’t love me and why should he? I couldn’t hold a candle to the sort of woman he’s attracted by.’ Her voice sliced off before she broke down. ‘Don’t you see that he’d blame himself for the way I feel, too? Please don’t make this any harder for me than it already is.’

Randy opened the door, still talking animatedly to someone to one side of her. She surveyed Claire and her three cases in forgivable astonishment. Then absolute fury glittered in her huge blue eyes. ‘That bastard!’ she pronounced, and enveloped Claire in a cloud of musky perfume and sympathy and a breathless monologue on the evils of the male sex, with not a question on the horizon.

Dane’s reputation had gone before him. Not for one moment did Randy doubt that Claire’s descent hinged upon Dane’s reputation as a womaniser. It was some minutes before the male, left to hover in the hall forgotten, entered the lounge.

Claire stilled as recognition darted through her. ‘Gilles?’

Randy relayed the pair of them an amused glance and laughed. ‘That’s right. You two have already met?’

‘Not really,’ Claire muttered, suddenly wondering what she had blithely walked into.

‘Not for very long,’ Gilles le Fren