Angel of Darkness

‘I don’t think that’s why you didn’t choose to enlighten me,’ Angelo fielded. ‘I think you felt cornered and he was a good excuse to employ when I jumped to the wrong conclusion.’

‘I didn’t need an excuse. It wasn’t important enough for me to feel I should explain myself,’ Kelda told him carelessly.

A muscle jerked beside his unsmiling mouth. ‘You didn’t care what I thought?’

‘It wasn’t anything different from what you’ve thought so often before.’

‘But these days you don’t mind actually encouraging me to misjudge you...in fact, you get something of a high out of it!’

The condemnation roused colour in her cheeks.

Angelo scrutinised her with impassive eyes. ‘And when he strolled out on to centre stage in that towel it was just too convenient for words...’

Every muscle in her body tensed. Striving to look blank, she stared back at him.

‘You asked him to play ham, didn’t you? It was prearranged,’ Angelo essayed

Kelda decided defiance was the better part of valour. ‘So what if I did? I wanted you out of my life again!’

He was pale beneath his bronzed skin, his dark eyes hooded. ‘Game-playing is dangerous in relationships, cara.’

‘I wouldn’t dignify what we shared with the label of “relationship”,’ Kelda responded tightly. ‘Men like you don’t have relationships with their mistresses.’

‘Dio...I’ve never had a mistress!’ Angelo slashed back at her with sudden frustration. ‘Do you remember cutting me dead that first night? Do you remember challenging me later in your apartment? Do you remember letting me believe that you would continue to come between our parents? Or was all that my imagination?’

Kelda had stiffened under attack. ‘No but—’

‘You drove me over the edge that night and you meant to do it,’ he condemned.

‘I certainly didn’t ask to be lured out to Italy—’

‘Where you had a hell of a good time in spite of all your complaints—’

‘I did not enjoy being arrested and locked up!’

‘But you had no complaints about what followed,’ Angelo murmured softly.

That was unarguable. He had hit her on her weakest flank. Involuntarily she reddened, her undisciplined mind suddenly awash with erotic recollections. She bent her head. ‘I have no desire to talk about that—’

‘That is unfortunate, considering that your present—condition,’ he selected smoothly, ‘relates to mutual passion and an outstanding lack of common sense.’

‘Is the lack of common sense laid at my door or yours?’ she sniped hotly.

‘I should think entirely at mine,’ Angelo sighed, languorous dark eyes uncomfortably intent on her. ‘Considering that I was the idiot who grossly overestimated the extent of your sexual experience—’

Kelda very nearly dropped the glass of water in her hand. Her head shot up, fiery hair springing back from her disconcerted face.

Angelo dealt her a searching glance and then strolled gracefully over to the window. ‘In Italy, I was still hung up on six years of bitterness. Your near-death experience yesterday may not have done much for you but, believe me, it focused my intelligence as never before on all the inconsistencies between rumour and reality. And the reality is that you have not had that many lovers...’

Kelda was appalled by what he was saying. Her brittle front of sophistication and bitchiness was her sole defence against Angelo. And he was coolly ripping it to shreds. Yet her pride depended on that front. She could not bear the idea that Angelo should even come close to suspecting that she was less experienced with men than he had assumed.

‘And even now, when we have so many more important matters to deal with,’ Angelo essayed drily, ‘you’re wondering how to overturn my assumptions because I have come painfully close to blowing your mystique right out of the water! In my opinion, you hadn’t had a recent lover and I assume that you were not taking any contraception either—’

‘Contraception fails sometimes,’ Kelda responded with rich sarcasm.

Angelo shot her a glittering glance of naked perception. ‘You may be the most passionate woman I have ever shared a bed with, but a woman who slept around with the generosity you suggest would have demonstrated practised skills that you did not—’

Her humiliation plumbed new depths. Her eyes blazing, her generous mouth flattened into a strained line, she snapped, ‘Shut up!’