For a moment she thought he was going to argue with her, but to her relief he didn’t, walking instead towards the door. Eager to see him leave, Sylvie went with him. As she opened the door for him she saw the Land Rover pulling to a halt a little further down the road and her heart started to race with frantic excitement. As though aware of her loss of attention, and angered by it, to her shock Wayne suddenly reached for her, grabbing hold of her and forcing her back against the open door, his mouth hot and wet on hers as he kissed her roughly.
Immediately Sylvie pulled away, but not in time to stop Ran, who was stepping out of the Land Rover and walking towards her, from seeing what had happened, nor from witnessing how she was dressed, she saw uncomfortably as she felt his glance scorch her shirt-clad body.
To her relief Wayne’s mobile phone had started to ring and he was already heading for his car, his back towards her as he talked in a low voice into the telephone.
As Ran’s long-legged, determined stride brought him closer to her door, Sylvie could only stand and watch.
‘Ran!’ she exclaimed weakly when he reached her. ‘What a surprise. I didn’t know... I didn’t expect...’
‘Obviously not,’ was Ran’s terse response as he stepped past her and‘into her small hallway, firmly closing the door behind him as he told her sardonically, ‘I’m sorry if my arrival is inopportune, although something tells me that it would have been a lot less opportune had I arrived, say, half an hour ago.’
Sylvie’s face flamed as she saw the way he was looking at her and realised what he meant. Ran thought that she and Wayne were lovers.
‘It’s not...we weren’t... Wayne is just a friend...’ she finally managed to tell him defensively.
Ran’s eyebrows immediately shot up.
‘A friend! Tell me, Sylvie, do you normally receive your friends wearing just one of their shirts...?’
‘This isn’t Wayne’s shirt; it’s one of Alex’s old ones,’ she protested, hot-faced.
What was Ran doing here? Why had he come to see her? Her heart started to thump frantically.
‘Alex’s shirt?’ Ran was frowning at her as he studied her.
‘Yes... I...I like to wear it... It makes me think of home...of Alex and you. I miss you both,’ she told him daringly, holding her breath as she waited for his response.
There had to be some reason for his being here and his reaction to Wayne’s presence... Was she daring to hope too much in thinking that beneath his anger he might just be a little jealous? She was a woman now, she reminded herself, not a child, and—
‘Home...?’ Ran cut across her increasingly buoyant thoughts. ‘I doubt your mother would enjoy hearing you describe Otel Place as your home.’
Sylvie bit her lip. It was true that her mother did not approve of her attachment to Otel Place and would have preferred it if, like her, Sylvie had been a city person.
‘I’m an adult now,’ she told Ran bravely. ‘I make my own decisions, my own choices...’
‘I see... And entertaining your friends wearing nothing but one of Alex’s shirts is one of those choices, is it, Sylvie?’
Her face burned. There was no hint of jealousy in his voice now, only a familiar older-brother note of censure.
‘I...I wasn’t expecting Wayne to come round. It was so hot. I had a shower and...’
‘Wayne... This wouldn’t be the friend who’s borrowed half your last quarter’s allowance from you, would it?’ Ran challenged her.
Sylvie blanched. Alex had obviously told him about that; she wished that he hadn’t.
‘I... He’ll pay me back.’ She defended both Wayne’s request and her own acceptance of it.
“things have certainly changed since my time at university,’ Ran told her cynically. ‘Then it was the man who did the chasing, the pursuing, not the woman who had to secure the man’s attentions by offering him money.’
Sylvie stared at him, unable to keep either her shock or the pain his words had caused her from showing in her eyes.
‘It isn’t like that... I haven’t been pursuing Wayne. I don’t...’
She stopped abruptly and looked away from him. How could she tell Ran of all men...people...that she didn’t run after his sex, when he had good reason to believe otherwise after the ways she had so blatantly revealed her feelings for him? Now he was looking at her in that horribly cynical way, his mouth twisting in mocking contempt.
‘Alex asked me to come,’ he told her as she remained silent. ‘He’s had to go away on business but he asked me to come and give you this...’
As he spoke Ran was removing a cheque from his wallet which he handed to her.