'What you know about love could be written on a postage stamp,' Lindsay muttered in an impeded voice, trying not to lose control. She was too old to slap his face, she wasn't going to descend to that level, although no doubt he'd like that, it would give him an excuse to use his own hands in a very different way. She was going to keep calm, whatever his provocation.
'You can't hide love, I don't have to be an expert on the subject to know that,' Daniel drawled, smiling. She heard the smile in his voice and grew angrier. What was so funny? 'And I saw how you looked at Hill,' he added, giving the remark an intonation which she disliked intensely.
'Maybe I'm not as obvious as you think I am,' she returned with a bite, wishing she dared turn and hit him, because there was an element of truth in what he had said and to herself she couldn't deny it. She liked Aston very much, she admired and respected him, but she couldn't pretend she was head over heels in love with him, he didn't make her pulse beat faster, he didn't set her body on fire, but then she had outgrown that sort of love, it didn't last, and she wanted something more real, more permanent, which Aston could give her. Going up in flames is all very well, but what happens when the fire goes out and all that's left is charcoal? She never again wanted to end up in charred, blackened little pieces.
'Did I say you were obvious?' Daniel took hold of her elbows and spun her round to face him, so fast she didn't have time to break away. Angrily, she glared up at him, which was a mistake, because there was a wicked mockery in those silvery eyes, and more than that, an intention which she glimpsed too late, his gaze drifting downwards to her mouth just a second before his head swooped down. 'Only to me,' he whispered as his lips parted her own.
Had he used brutal force she would have struggled violently, hit him, fought free somehow, but Daniel was not making the mistake of using force this time, and he took her off guard by his devious, unscrupulous tactics, enlisting her own body as an ally against her. His mouth coaxed and incited, moving with slow, warm sensuality, the tip of his tongue flicking between her trembling lips, and Lindsay felt perspiration spring out on her forehead, she couldn't keep her eyes open. The way he was kissing her made her dizzy, she had to cling to him to stay upright as her head spun. She didn't want to feel like that again; the intensity of her passion for him had almost destroyed her once before, she had told herself she was free of him now, he couldn't get to her again, but where Daniel Randall was concerned she seemed to be schizophrenic, split into two. Torn between love and hate, between bitter contempt and a fierce compulsion, her body was dissolving in heated excitement as his hands touched her with that lingering seduction, one of them moving up and down her back while the other softly stroked her throat, her shoulders, her breasts. Her hands went up jerkily to catch his head, hold it, her fingers in his black hair, she swayed closer, wanting to melt into him, and remembered that that was how it had been, that was what love meant, this nagging desire to merge with him, hold him inside her and never let him go.
Daniel moved, breathing harshly, and she was separate from him again, their bodies parted, their mouths disentangled. She felt cold and desolate, she shuddered as she pushed him even farther away, almost too dazed to realise that they were in Alice's kitchen in the sunshine with the fragrance of fresh coffee filling the air. Time had seemed, to stop, she had moved outside herself into Daniel, existing in a black velvet world of hands and lips and smothering, sweet sensations. It hurt to come back to reality.
She couldn't bring herself to speak. Trembling and darkly flushed, she picked up the tray of coffee and walked unsteadily towards the door.
'That's it, run away from it,' Daniel said behind her, but she pretended not to have heard, she kept on going with her eyes fixed on nothing, the cups on the tray rattling as her hands shook. What had just happened had not come as any real surprise to hers she had stayed away from him just because he could do that to her. The physical chemistry between them was explosive, Lindsay couldn't deny that, she had always known that he could reach her on that level. Daniel was a male animal with powerful sexual magnetism, Lindsay couldn't deny that, either, but neither could she forget that other women felt his attraction. Daniel wasn't a man who belonged to anyone, Lindsay had wasted too much of her life burning with jealousy because he was turning those mocking grey eyes on another woman.
How many evenings had she spent alone during their marriage, wondering who he was with? How many parties had she gone to with him only to see him dancing with someone else and ache with misery over the way he was smiling down at his partner? He was ruthless in business, she hadn't expected him to be so ruthless in his private life; she had thought he was hers, but she had discovered just how wrong she was—Daniel Randall belonged to himself. Lindsay's dazed incredulity when he first told her he loved her and asked her to marry him had become gradually a bitter disenchantment. Her first uneasy suspicions had hardened into certainties, she had become sure that Daniel had only married her because he couldn't seduce her, but once he had got what he wanted he had gone back to his old way of life. Her jealousy began to corrode her every waking moment, she couldn't bear the unremitting pain, she had had to get away from him.
She shouldn't have let him get so close to her just now, she would be crazy if she walked back into that trap. However temptingly baited, it would end the way it had ended before, with her getting badly hurt.
In the sitting-room, she found Alice walking round and round, her arms clasping her shoulders, a hard flush on her cheeks. 'I'll kill him,' she was saying. 'I'll kill him.'
Aston glanced towards the door as Lindsay came in and winked at her surreptitiously. To Alice he said: 'He was worried about you.'
'Funny way of showing it!' Alice would not be placated.
Lindsay put down the tray. 'Coffee,' she said. 'Come on, Alice, sit down and relax.'
'Relax? I'm on wires, I couldn't sit down.' She kept on walking, scowling.
'We ought to tell the police that Stephen's okay,' Lindsay said to Aston as she poured, him coffee.
Alice stopped dead. 'I'd forgotten them— whatever will they think? I feel such a fool—there was I ringing the police, crying my eyes out, and all the time he was sleeping off a hangover!'
'Drink your, coffee,' said Lindsay, handing her a cup. 'I'll ring the police and explain, I'm sure they'll understand.'
They did; Lindsay heard the amusement in the duty sergeant's voice. 'Thought it might be something like that,' he said. 'Happens all the time.' I told you so, his voice silently breathed. Far from being angry at the waste of police time he was pleased with himself for having been right.
'I'm sorry to have troubled you over nothing,' Lindsay said, all the same.
'No trouble, miss, that's what we're here for. Very glad the gentleman turned up safe and sound.' He could hardly wait to ring off a
nd tell his friends he had guessed right. Lindsay put down the phone, grimacing.
As she turned round, Aston joined her. 'I've got a vital appointment this morning. I must be off,' he said, smiling at her, and she linked her arms around his neck, leaning towards him.
'Did I say how grateful I am? It was good of you to come over to give Alice the news, you're a darling.' She kissed him lightly and Aston's hands closed on her waist, drawing her nearer. His mouth came down with warm insistence on her own and Lindsay swayed against him, kissing him back.
A moment later, Aston murmured: 'What's Randall doing here? Didn't he go out of your life a long time ago?' The question made Lindsay stiffen.
She leaned back to look up at him. 'A reporter rang him and told him Stephen was missing, so he came round to find out what was going on.'
'This morning?' Aston asked, and her eyes flicked down, she felt herself flush. Before she could think of a way of answering that awkward question, he said drily: 'He looks very much at home here, and who are the two gorillas out on the drive? They made me prove my identity before they would let me near the front door, and even then they hung around until Randall had spoken to me. I picked up that they came from his zoo and took their orders from him.'
'The press kept ringing the door bell. Daniel felt we needed protection.'
'How long have they been out there?'
'All night,' said Lindsay, and then her eyes met Aston's and she sighed.