Dee was becoming increasingly alarmed at the thought of leaving Peter on his own with Hugo, but she sensed that it wouldn’t be wise to express her doubts. From what Peter had already said to her it was obvious that for him Hugo could do no wrong.
Dee was frowning over this unpalatable knowledge when she heard someone knocking on the front door.
‘That will be Hugo!’ Peter exclaimed with evident pleasure. ‘You’d better go and let him in.’
Yes, and no doubt lie prone in the hallway so that he could wipe his boots on her, Dee decided acidly as she got up off the bed.
CHAPTER THREE
‘HOW’S PETER?’ HUGO asked Dee tersely as she opened the door to him.
‘He seems a lot better, although I’m sure that Dr Jane Harper would be delighted to give you a much more professional opinion if you wanted one,’ Dee responded wryly, forcing herself not to wince as Hugo’s glance swept her from head to foot with open dislike.
‘It’s odd how one’s memory can play tricks on one. I had a distinct memory of you being an intelligent woman, Dee.’
‘Well, I’m certainly intelligent enough to wonder what it is that makes you so anxious to help Peter.’
As Dee stressed the word ‘you’ she could see the anger flashing like lightning in Hugo’s eyes. It gave her an odd, sharp stab of pain-tipped pleasure to know that she had drawn such a reaction from him, even whilst she had to force herself to blot out of her memory the knowledge that once there had been a time when that lightning look had been born of the urgency of his desire for her, instead of the urgency of his ire against her.
‘I am anxiou
s to help him, as you put it, because it concerns me that he should so obviously be on his own,’ Hugo replied pointedly.
‘He isn’t on his own; he’s got me,’ Dee protested fiercely.
Immediately Hugo’s eyebrows rose.
‘Oh...? He told me that the last time he had seen you was over two weeks ago.’
Angrily Dee frowned.
‘I try to see him as often as I can, but—’
‘Other people have a prior claim on your time?’ Hugo suggested. ‘Be honest, Dee, you couldn’t have moved in here to take care of him, could you?’
‘He could have come to Rye with me,’ Dee protested, without answering his question. ‘And if you hadn’t been here he would have.’
‘He would? Yes, I’m sure he would. But would that have been what he really wanted? He wants to stay here, Dee. This is his home. His books, his things, his memories...his life...are all here.’
‘Maybe, but you can’t stay with him for ever, can you, Hugo? And what’s going to happen to him once you’ve gone?’
‘Since, for the foreseeable future, I’m going to be based in the UK, there’s nothing to stop me from making my home here in Lexminster if I choose to do so. It’s convenient for the airport and—’
‘You’re planning to live permanently in Lexminster...?’
Dee couldn’t help her consternation from showing in her voice, and she knew that Hugo had recognised it from the look he gave her.
‘What’s wrong?’ he taunted her. ‘Don’t you like the thought of me living here?’
‘No, I don’t,’ Dee told him truthfully, too driven by the way he was goading her and the shock of what he had just told her to be cautious or careful. ‘I don’t like it at all.’
‘Oh, and why not, I wonder? Or can I guess? Could it have something to do with this...?’
And then, before she could guess what he intended to do, he had dropped the hold-all he was carrying and pinned her back against the wall, his hands hard and strong on her body as he held her arms, his body so close to her own that she could feel its fierce male heat engulfing her.
Once, being held like this by him would have thrilled and excited her, her awareness of the danger he was inciting only heightening her intense desire for him. The sex between them had been so passionately explosive that for years after he had gone she had still dreamed about it...and about him, waking up drenched in perspiration, longing for him, aching for him; and now, like a faint reflection of those feelings, she could feel her body starting to shudder and her nipples starting to harden beneath the practical protection of her jumper.
‘Cashmere... Do you know how many Third World people the cost of this would feed...?’ she heard Hugo murmuring contemptuously as his fingers touched the soft fabric of her sleeve. His mouth was only centimetres from her own, and Dee knew that merely to breathe would bring it even closer, but she still couldn’t resist the urge to verbally defend herself. After all, it wasn’t as if he was any less expensively dressed.