She lay limply in his arms. ‘I’m not trying to stop you,’ she said dully. ‘You’ll know the truth soon enough.’
His eyes narrowed as he looked down at her. ‘You have to be lying.’
‘Why do I? Just because you’ve seen me with Matthew a couple of times and Paul Forbes tried to rape me it doesn’t mean I—’
‘You lived with Day,’ he accused. ‘You told me that yourself.’
‘I didn’t live with him, he moved in with me for a while.’
‘A sort of trial marriage that didn’t work out,’ he taunted.
‘Nothing of the sort,’ she denied.
‘Oh, I see,’ he said sarcastically. ‘Neither of you made any pretence that marriage was what you had in mind.’
He moved his body from over her and she began to regain some of her composure, although his closeness on the bed was still unnerving. ‘You’re deliberately misunderstanding me,’ she rebuked. ‘All the time Matthew stayed at my flat he slept on the sofa.’
‘Is that true?’
‘Yes.’
‘Bloody idiot,’ he muttered.
‘He had nowhere else to stay or he wouldn’t have been there at all.’
‘Am I expected to believe all this?’
She sighed. ‘Believe what you want. But please believe me when I say you’ll be the first.’
Jake lay back at her side. ‘You have to be lying.’ He looked at her, briefly touching her naked breasts. ‘Your body is beautiful. Many men must have lost themselves in that beauty.’ He sat up to shake her. ‘You have to be lying. Stacy, tell me you’re lying!’
‘I can’t.’ She blinked back her tears.
‘So you’re a tease, is that it?’ he demanded grimly. ‘You push a man to the edge and then dare him to take your virginity. Is that the way it happened with Forbes? Did he have trouble regaining control?’
‘No! No, Jake, that isn’t what happened. I’m not trying to stop you, am I?’
He gave a harsh laugh. ‘In the most effective way possible. You’re daring me to take you, and if by some mischance I did happen to be your first lover I’d feel as guilty as hell.’ He stood up, buttoning his shirt. ‘I take back my offer of protection. After today I think it’s the men who need protecting from you. For someone so young you’ve learnt how to torture a man in the cruellest way possible.’ He shrugged his broad shoulders into his jacket.
Stacy secured her gown with shaking fingers. ‘You—you aren’t leaving?’
‘Yes, I’m leaving. Before I pass the stage of not caring a damn whether you’re telling the truth or not.’
Her bottom lip trembled. ‘Oh, Jake, please don’t go like this. I’m none of the things you think me. I just happen to lo—’ She broke off as she realised the enormity of her declaration. She couldn’t just baldly state that she loved him, he wouldn’t believe her anyway.
‘Yes?’ he queried sharply.
‘Nothing.’ She evaded his eyes.
‘Let me finish for you,’ he said bitterly. ‘You just happen to loathe all men.’
‘No! That isn’t true,’ she shook her head dazedly.
‘I think you’ll find that it is. And you enjoy the power your beauty gives over all of us. Well, not me, lady,’ he said harshly. ‘I don’t plead with any woman for her body. As far as I’m concerned one woman’s body is as good as another. And I don’t want any part of your emotional hangups. You’d be doing us both a favour if you stayed out of my way in future,’ he warned. His American accent was much more noticeable in his anger.
‘I’ll be leaving for London soon,’ she said miserably.
‘Day driving you?’