‘Why did you lie to Sue about not seeing me?’
His question was so totally unexpected that it threw her completely, leaving her to stare at him while her brain tried to come up with a satisfactory response.
‘Are you so ashamed of making love with me that my presence here last night is something that has to be lied about and hidden? It’s okay to make love with me, but only as long as no one else knows about it, is that it?’
Kate struggled to understand the reason for his bitterness. Surely that was her line? After all, he was the one who had disappeared without a word or a note. But instead of challenging him with this all she could do was to stammer nervously, ‘How do you know what I said to Sue?’
‘Because I arrived at her house just after she had finished speaking to you. I went round there to apologise for my previous manner towards her, and she was rather surprised that I had taken the time and trouble to apologise to her, but not to you.’ He saw her expression and his mouth twisted in a bitter smile. ‘Oh, don’t worry,’ he told her harshly, ‘I haven’t betrayed you.’
Listening to the condemnation in his voice, Kate realised wearily that nothing had changed between them. She had been right to fear any further contact with him. He was still hurting her…causing her pain.
She looked at him, intending to ask him to leave, and her whole body trembled. Even without closing her eyes she could picture him as he had been last night when he made love to her…
‘Kate.’ His voice had softened to something almost approaching pleading, and if she hadn’t known better she could almost have sworn there was pain in his eyes too. ‘We have to talk…about last night…’
Panic flared inside her. He was going to tell her that it had all been a mistake, she could feel him gathering himself together to say so.
‘No…no…there’s nothing for us to talk about,’ she interrupted shakily, focusing her eyes on a point to the right of his shoulder so that she would not have to look at him. ‘We were both a little carried away by…by circumstances…but nothing’s really changed, Dominic. We both know that.’
She had herself under control enough to look at him now. Instead of looking relieved as she had expected, he looked bitterly furious, his mouth compressed in a hard line as he flung at her,
‘You want me!’
Oh, the humiliation of it…of him standing there and stating so trenchantly the obviousness of her desire for him. She searched feverishly for some means of defence that would not involve her in an outright lie, and managed huskily,
‘I wanted you eight years ago as well, but wanting isn’t loving, Dominic.’
For a moment there was silence and then he asked harshly, ‘Have I asked you for love?’
Her skin whitened under the taunt, and she knew then that she had been right to be wary of seeing him again. The pain was now worse, far worse than it had been before, because now he knew so much more about her; could hurt her in so many more ways.
There was nothing more she could say. By coming here and saying to her what he had Dominic had confirmed all her own worse doubts and fears about their relationship. Relationship? What relationship? she mocked herself savagely. She had simply been a one-night stand; a means of appeasing a physical hunger which she had known he deeply resented.
She walked to the door suddenly feeling very, very old, and opened it, turning to look blindly at him.
‘I think you’d better leave, Dominic.’
‘If that’s what you want.’ He sounded completely indifferent, almost callously so.
He was just about to leave when Martin Allwood’s car came up the drive. Kate kept her eyes fixed on it, but still she felt Dominic turn to look at her, his glance almost seeming to burn her sensitive skin.
‘So that’s it,’ he said curtly. ‘He can’t be very good in bed, Kate,’ he added coolly as he stepped through the door. ‘Otherwise, you’d never have responded to me the way you did last night. He’s very like Rick, isn’t he? Take care, Kate. It’s criminal folly to make the same mistake twice.’
He was gone before she could retort, nodding abruptly to Martin as the latter climbed out of his car.
‘Odd sort of chap,’ commented Martin, as Kate showed him into the house. ‘For some reason I get the feeling he doesn’t much care for me. Good friend of yours, is he?’ he asked Kate speculatively as she closed the door.
‘He was a friend of my husband’s,’ Kate told him repressively. She suspected that Martin was something of a gossip and she did not want him gossiping about Dominic and herself, especially not now…
What had he wanted to talk to her about? she wondered as she took Martin into the drawing-room and offered him a drink, her movements when he accepted automatic, her mind totally engrossed by the purpose of Dominic’s visit.
He had wanted to make his position clear to her, that was all, she derided herself. He had wanted to make sure that she understood that there was no real significance about what had happened last night. No doubt h
e had been anxious that she should not get the wrong idea…not make demands upon him or assumptions about the future.
Well, he need not have bothered. She knew exactly what the situation was.
Abruptly she became aware that Martin had stopped talking. Flushing slightly, she looked at him to find that he was eyeing her with frowning curiosity.