She blushed. ‘You won’t get round me like that,’ she told him sharply. ‘I don’t react to that sort of flattery.’
‘No, I know what you react to.’
‘Your arrogance is beyond bearing! Are you going to stop this car or not?’ she demanded.
‘Not.’
‘You—’
‘No more names, Lauren. If you force me to stop the car you know what the consequences will be.’
‘Consequences …?’
‘Don’t you remember what happened the last time?’
‘Oh!’ Colour flooded her cheeks once again. ‘Yes. I—In that case, don’t stop the car.’
She turned to stare stubbornly out of the window. She didn’t want any more reprisals like that. In fact, she didn’t even want to be here with him any more. He made her say things, things she didn’t mean. She did feel that with the wrong man marriage could be a trap, but with the right man … She dreamt of marriage like any other woman, but this man made a mockery of even that.
‘I’m sorry.’
Lauri raised startled green eyes, searching his face for some sign of that mockery, an apology the last thing she had been expecting from him. He looked perfectly serious. ‘For what?’ she asked sulkily.
‘For being—now what was it?—insulting, self-opinionated, supercilious, arrogant, rude—’
‘Don’t say any more,’ she interrupted desperately. Had she really called him all those dreadful things? ‘You seem to have remembered what I said very well.’
‘I think so,’ he nodded. ‘I only missed pigheaded, and that was because you didn’t let me get that far. I’m sorry for being all of those things.’
‘That’s all right,’ she said cheekily. ‘You can’t help it.’
His mouth quirked with humour. ‘I shall have to stop this car and kiss you in a minute.’
‘Don’t you dare!’
‘There’s no satisfying you, is there?’ he laughed, a deep husky sound that stirred the senses. ‘You’re good for me, Lauren. You make me laugh, and not many women can do that. Did you really mean it about thinking marriage a trap?’
‘It can be,’ she evaded.
‘Weren’t your parents happy together?’
‘Does there have to be a reason for my distrust?’ she mocked. ‘Can’t I just have decided it isn’t for me?’
He shrugged. ‘It isn’t normal in one your age.’
‘You mean I should be dreaming of white lace and orange blossom?’ she mocked her own dreams before this hardened cynic did so. ‘As far as I can remember my parents were very happy together.’
‘As far as you can remember?’ he asked interestedly.
He didn’t miss much. ‘I was only seven when they died. Jane more or less brought me up.’
‘Did she bring Steve up too?’
Lauri nodded. ‘Their own parents died years ago. Steve was fifteen when Jane took over, but it can’t have been easy for her.’
‘Not if Steve was as much of a little devil at that age as I was,’ Alex agreed seriously. ‘I’ve always admired your aunt, now I have even more reason to do so. Are you the reason she’s never married?’
She didn’t take offence at the question, it was a normal conclusion to come to. ‘She says no,’ she shrugged. ‘But I’m not sure. Anyway, that could be changed in the near future. She has a steady boy-friend—sorry, man friend,’ she amended.