Sander rolled all the way back from her and sprang off the bed in one defensive movement. ‘So what’s your game?’ he demanded before he disappeared into the bathroom.
‘I beg your pardon?’ Confused, Tally hastily flipped the robe back across her exposed body and sat up, wincing at the tenderness between her thighs. She was totally mortified by the ignominious ending to their intimacy. He had stopped dead, clearly had had no desire to continue and he was angry as well. Having always assumed that men found it a challenge to stop at the eleventh hour, as it were, she was bewildered and inclined to think that she must have turned him right off.
Sander reappeared and scooped up his boxers to pull them on. He sent her a scorching glance of suspicion from stunning dark golden eyes. ‘What are you playing at? You’re a virgin. I didn’t sign up for complications.’
Although she wanted to sink through the mattress, Tally, in her turn was becoming angry at his attitude. ‘What’s your problem? Perhaps I should’ve warned you—’
‘Of course you should’ve warned me!’ Sander blasted back at her, his lean dark face grim. ‘If I’d known I would have taken my time and I wouldn’t have hurt you!’
Her cheeks red, Tally tied the sash on her robe and slid off the bed onto nerveless lower limbs. ‘Well, let’s not make a meal of it. I appreciate that you’re surprised but I don’t think there’s any reason for you to be so annoyed with me.’
‘I don’t like surprises. Women usually have an agenda with me …’
Tally pulled a face as she stooped hurriedly to gather up her dress and shoes. ‘Could my agenda be … getting away from you as quickly as possible?’ she prompted dulcetly, fighting her sense of humiliation with all her might.
‘Women don’t usually sacrifice their virginity in a casual encounter.’
‘Well, that’s me told, is it?’ Tally quipped, paling at that description of their intimacy. ‘Sorry if I departed from the norm and spooked you. I didn’t realise that you only dallied with identikit females. What sort of women are you used to? Or is that a rude question?’
Sander could not recall when he had last met a woman who could have equalled Tally Spencer’s innocence. Even when he was a teenager his female companions had been as sophisticated and nonchalant about sex as he was himself. In the world in which he moved everyone was sexually experienced and it had not even crossed his mind, in spite of the shyness he had noticed, that she might be any different.
‘You’re my very first virgin,’ Sander admitted, zipping his jeans, and surveyed her with brooding tension. ‘I’ve heard that the less experienced a woman is, the more she expects from a man.’
‘You heard wrong, where I’m concerned anyway. I may have almost zero experience but I expect nothing from you, least of all a lecture about sacrificing my virginity in a casual encounter!’ Tally traded flatly, tilting her chin, corkscrew curls shimmying back from her flushed cheekbones, enhancing the bright green colour of her eyes.
‘I wouldn’t have chosen to make love to you if I’d known I would be your first lover. You must’ve had some reason for waiting so long to have sex …’
Tally flinched, determined not to stroke his ego by admitting that it had taken him to fill her with the desire and need to experience that ultimate intimacy. ‘I’m not exactly an old lady. Nor am I as unusual as you think. Not every girl sleeps around from a young age. The time just felt right.’
‘But why did you pick me? Or is that a stupid question?’ Sander enquired cynically.
‘A stupid question?’ Tally queried from the bathroom doorway, because she was planning on getting dressed but not in front of him.
‘Maybe working for the Karydas girl has given you a taste for her lifestyle and you’re hoping that I will deliver it,’ Sander derided.
‘Oh, so now you think I’m a gold-digger … my goodness, you’re as obsessed with your financial worth as Cosima is!’ Tally condemned furiously, outraged by his suspicions about her character. ‘Get a life, Sander! We had sex but I’m not expecting a commitment of any kind from you! In fact if I ever see you again after this fiasco, it will be too soon!’
Within minutes, Tally had shed the robe and donned her clothing. She emerged from the bathroom again and pushed forcefully past Sander, who was in her path, by raising her hands to push against his broad chest in vehement rejection.
‘Tally—’
‘Get lost!’ Tally launched back at him angrily as she stalked out of the room and headed straight upstairs to her own.
So much for him being the special guy whom she was connecting with, she castigated herself bitterly while she eradicated all evidence that she had not spent the night in her own bed. Having donned casual clothing and packed her stuff for departure, suddenly she could not wait to go home and she took out her mobile phone to check out the local train times and then to ring her father. It was not a call she enjoyed making but she felt that it was only fair to tell him what had happened, lest he receive some other version of the truth from his daughter. Anatole Karydas was shocked and rather silent and it was with a heavy heart that she finally went downstairs to confront her sister.
‘Oh, it’s you …’ Wrapped in a colourful silk kimono, Cosima pulled a long-suffering face and reluctantly let her into her bedroom. ‘I suppose you’re expecting me to grovel but you should’ve minded your own business last night. Even though Chaz had nothing to do with what happened, he was thrown out of the party. No doubt you’re pleased about that!’
‘Right at this minute, I couldn’t care less about you or your boyfriend. Thanks to you, I passed out in public and was left to depend on the kindness of strangers while I was unconscious,’ Tally reminded the younger woman, her bright eyes level and accusing, her hurt over Cosima’s lack of concern or guilt on that score well concealed because she had her pride. ‘How could you put me through that? It was a very dangerous thing to do and a very unpleasant experience.’
Cosima was defiant. ‘So?’ she traded sulkily. ‘I didn’t want you here this weekend.’
‘It won’t be a problem you have again,’ Tally assured her drily. ‘I’ll see you … or maybe I won’t.’
Her sibling followed her to the door, only then noting the small case Tally had left in the corridor. ‘Where are you going?’
/> ‘I have a train to catch—’
‘But you’re supposed to be leaving with me this afternoon,’ the pretty brunette protested, her surprise and annoyance patent.
‘I’d like to go home now. All the best, Cosima,’ Tally pronounced with sincerity and departed in relief …
CHAPTER FOUR
HAVING breakfasted, Sander was just settling down with the financial section from one of the Sunday broadsheets when he glanced out of the window and saw Tally’s small figure wheeling a case at a brisk pace down the driveway.
Thinking about what might have prompted her sudden departure from Westgrave Manor, Sander’s lean powerful body became tense and he stifled a curse. It was nothing to do with him if that spoilt little shrew, Cosima, had sacked her assistant. But, a moment later, prompted by the same instincts that had once made him search night and day for a week to find a lost dog, Sander sprang upright with a frown and headed out to his car.
It was not that he regretted what he had said to Tally Spencer—he did not. Given a choice he would never have chosen to sleep with a virgin. It was not even that he was still interested in her—he was not. Sander liked sex to be simple and his very frustrating encounter with Tally had persuaded him that in straying from his usual female format he had made a cardinal error. Instead of experiencing a refreshing difference and a lot of passion with his choice of an ‘ordinary’ girl as a lover, he had landed a virgin and a feisty and ungrateful one at that. A fast learner as he was, he knew that in future he would stick to the experienced sophisticates he was accustomed to.
Tally glanced up when she heard the growling sports car behind her slow down, but when she saw Sander gazing back at her from the lowered driver’s window, colour stung her cheeks and her chin came up at a defensive angle. ‘What do you want?’