The Sex War

'In bed?' Daniel prompted, and alarm bells went off inside her.

'I don't want to talk about Aston,' she said hurriedly. 'I'm worried about Stephen, isn't there any way we can trace him?'

'I doubt very much if Stephen is in any danger,' Daniel dismissed coolly. 'He's far too intelligent to do anything really stupid. At a guess, I'd say he's gone away to think things out and he'll be back in a day or two. If lie's been under some heavy pressure lately he could have felt that life was just too much to cope with, he had to get away by himself. He might even have felt resentful because nobody seemed to realise the sort of load he was carrying. That may be why he didn't have any message for Alice. Someone who's used up all their energy gets into a burnt-out state where they want to hit back at the people around them for not noticing what was happening to them.' He gave her a hard glance, his eyes hostile. 'Men are human beings, you know.'

'Some may be,' Lindsay muttered, then her pulses leapt with alarm as Daniel's body swung sideways, his arm going across her to fence her into the corner of the couch and his face suddenly only inches away from hers.

'Don't touch me!' The panic-stricken words escaped before she could stop them and she saw his smile harden on his mouth.

'If you wave a red rag at a bull you must expect him to charge,' he told her, his grey eyes sliding down over her, insolence in them, as though he could see through the formal clothes to the warm flesh beneath. 'That remark was deliberate provocation and you know it—I'm a human being and I can prove it.' Before she could stop him his hand was touching her breast, shaping the silken roundedness in the curved cup of palm and fingers, while he watched her intently, his other hand taking hold of her wrist in ail iron grip and pulling her hand towards his shirt. He held her hand against his chest, still staring into her nervously flickering eyes.

'Feel my heart,' he said softly. 'Hear it beating? I'm flesh and blood, Lindsay, and when I touch you, every nerve cell in my body knows it.'

'Get your hands off me,' she began unsteadily, and the words were smothered as his mouth came down on hers, parting her lips with crushing force; a fierce demand which almost amounted to cruelty because it did not care if it hurt her or not, his mouth hard and insistent.

The hand touching her body moved sideways, she felt the long fingers opening her blouse, and tried to struggle free, her hands pushing at his shoulders, hitting him, thrusting at him while she writhed and fought to get away. His hand slid inside, the fingers cool on her skin, and she caught her breath shuddering, as she felt him touch her naked breast. Wild , tremors ran through her, she was trembling with shock, her body arching in bitter tension. A great part of her anger was with herself because she couldn't disguise from her own mind that her body was alight with excitement at what he was doing to it; fire flashed along her nerves, her flesh was melting, and she knew that Daniel was unlikely to miss the telltale signs that betrayed her.

Desperately dragging herself back from the edge of surrender, she deliberately ran her nails into his neck and felt him jerk back in pain.

'You little fool,' he muttered, sitting up. His face was flushed and hard. He put a hand to his neck and looked at his fingertips as he took it away again. A faint smear of blood showed on his skin.

'You've made me bleed!' he exclaimed, sounding shocked. 'Look at your claw-marks, you vicious little cat!'

'I told you to leave me alone.' Lindsay got to her feet, slightly unsteady as she moved; her head spinn

ing, the blood beating in her ears. 'I think you'd better go,' she said in a voice made raw by the wave of misery which had swept up inside her. Her body was aching with unsatisfied desire, and she hated him for having made her feel like this, she wanted him to go now before she broke down in tears. It was so long since she had felt his hands touching her, her flesh had seemed to dissolve in the furnace-like heat of her emotions.

'I'm staying here tonight,' he muttered, and she stiffened.

'Oh, no, you're not!' Did he really think she would let him stay the night? She moved backwards, watching him with nervous, frightened eyes that spat green fire in defiance, and Daniel looked back at her, his mouth crooked in sardonic mockery.

CHAPTER THREE

'Don't be stupid, Lindsay,' he said with an impatient smile that she found infuriating. 'You need sleep as much as Alice does, but there ought to be someone awake in case something happens— I'll stay down here on the couch, I can go without sleep for days if I have to, you should remember that.' She did, of course; Daniel could work through the night and still get up at the crack of dawn looking as bright as a daisy, she had often marvelled at that ability to go without sleep. If he felt tired he could catnap in a chair for half an hour; she had seen him switch himself off like a machine, close his eyes and be asleep within seconds, to wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to cope with whatever emergency was needing his attention.

'It's very kind of you,' she said hesitantly, and he gave her one of his sardonic glances.

'So gracious!'

'I meant it!'

'But it hurt to say it,' he drawled.

'If I sound surprised it's because kindness isn't something I expect from you.' She ran a shaky hand through her tumbled red-gold hair, sighing.

Daniel watched her, his face calm now. 'You look like death—I suggest we discuss your distorted view of my character in the morning when you've had some sleep and can talk rationally.'

'I'm perfectly rational now.' Lindsay said, smothering a yawn, and his mouth twisted.

'That,' he said slowly, 'is a matter of opinion.'

She opened her mouth to argue, then closed it. 'I'll get you some blankets and a pillow.' He was quite right, she was too tired to talk clearly, the emotional onslaught of the last few hours had shredded her nerves and left her feeling like someone who has just been in an accident. Anxiety and tension were killing, you couldn't switch them off for long enough to restore your equilibrium, and this evening she had had a series of mental shocks which she certainly couldn't have anticipated. It seemed an eternity since she had stepped into the shower with nothing on her mind but the prospect of a lively date with Aston at the theatre, she hadn't had any premonition of what was about to hit her.

She quietly went upstairs to the bathroom airing cupboard, found some blankets and a pillow on the top shelf and took them down to Daniel, who was looking along the bookshelves that filled the alcoves on each side of the fireplace. Lindsay was moving so softly that he hadn't heard her come back; she stood there, her arms full, staring at him. In the lamplight his black hair shone like polished jet, the ends of it tapering in to his brown nape, brushing his collar as he bent forward to pull out a book. He straightened again, his movement supple, the muscled elegance of a tiger rippling beneath his tailored suit. Her breath caught and Daniel turned his head quickly.

Lindsay pulled herself together and came into the room. She dropped her burden on the couch. 'Will two blankets be enough?'

'More than adequate.' He moved towards her and she felt her nerves prickling, and hurriedly walked back to the door before he glimpsed anything of what she was feeling. 'Goodnight, then, you'll wake me if anything happens.'