The Sex War

'It seemed an irresistible opportunity,' he said wryly. 'I knew how much Stephen meant to you, you've always been very close, I figured you wouldn't be able to turn my offer down and I wanted you back at any price. When I saw you again, I knew I had to have you back, even if you hated me for it. You were lovely when you were five years younger, but now you're gorgeous.' His hand ran down her body from breast to thigh. 'Your figure was never this good before, you've rounded out beautifully. I couldn't take my eyes off you,'

'Or your hands,' Lindsay said in teasing dryness.

She felt him laughing. 'Or my hands,' he admitted without apparent shame. 'And when I kissed you I knew you were responding. I started to hope you still felt something, too. When I realised Stephen was in real trouble, I thought I'd use it to get you back. I wasn't sure exactly what was going on between you and Aston Hill.' He watched her sideways. 'I didn't think it meant much but I didn't like having him around. He was in love with you, wasn't he?'

'Poor Aston,' she said, frowning. 'Don't talk about him, it isn't fair to him.' She liked Aston far too much to discuss him with Daniel; Aston would hate that, it would be a betrayal of him, and Lindsay would hate to add insult to the injury she had done him.

'He didn't hide it,' Daniel told her. 'That night I bumped into him at the nightclub, he looked at me as if he'd like to kill me. I knew you must have told him something, I wasn't sure what, and I was afraid he might have hurt you, he seemed a very angry man and angry men get violent. That's why I rang—I'd have come round myself if I hadn't been with those Swedish guys.'

'Aston isn't the type to hit a woman,' Lindsay said, and Daniel grimaced.

'Not like me, you mean?'

'I shan't be able to sit down tomorrow,' she accused ,but with a smile.

Daniel put a hand to his shoulder. 'I'm pretty black and blue, myself. You're a very violent lady.' He paused. 'If I hadn't turned up again, would you have married him?'

'Hypothetical questions are a waste, of time,' Lindsay said.

'Would you?' Daniel pressed flatly, and she sighed.

'I don't know. I was never in love with him.'

He was quiet for a moment, then he said: 'I'm lucky I came back when I did. Another year and I reckon you'd have been married to him.'

'I didn't love him,' she insisted, and he nodded.

'Maybe not—you might have married him, all the same, and then all three of us would have been as miserable as sin.' He lifted his head, moving, and kissed her mouth possessively. 'Because you're mine and always have been, and sooner or later we would have met up again and once we saw each other we wouldn't have been able to stay apart. Hill may be as sick as death at the moment, bur sooner or later he'll realise it was inevitable.'

'You were quite ruthless in the way you used Stephen against me, though,' Lindsay told him. 'That wasn't very nice, Daniel.'

'Lindsay, bailing Stephen out is a stupid undertaking, believe me—financially, I need my head examined. It will take years before his firm shows a profit—if it ever does. My accountants smile politely, but they look at me as if I'd gone mad. If they didn't know Stephen was your brother, they'd probably have me in a straitjacket by now. The accounts speak for themselves.'

'It was still completely immoral to blackmail me!'

'I'd have committed murder to get you back,' he told her. 'A little blackmail seemed mild by comparison with what I wanted to do to Hill when I saw you kiss him at Stephen's house.' He looked at her, eyes glinting in the darkness. 'I love you,' he said, and she was silenced, the emotion in his voice held its own message, then he yawned and she began to laugh helplessly. 'Sorry,' he said. I'm used up, totally dead.' He yawned again widely and she pulled the covers over them, her arm cradling his head.

'Go to sleep then,' she said, feeling the warm, heavy weight of his body relaxing against her. This was how she had always wanted it; Daniel was hers, he belonged to her, and she belonged to him, but she had always been afraid of exposing herself by admitting the depth of her love because she could not have borne it if he left her once he knew. It would be different now. She was older, more sure of herself, more aware of what love meant. If there were problems ahead she would stand and face them, not run away, as she had before. If she had told him what was on her mind instead of walking away with her head in the air, they would never have parted. They hadn't known enough about each other, they hadn't talked enough, been honest enough. They had to learn so much, but they had already learnt the only vital thing—they loved each other.

Daniel was breathing in the regular rhythm of sleep, his naked body warm and slack in her arms, vulnerable, human, given up to her for safe keeping through the night. Lindsay let her own eyes close, a faint smile lingering along her mouth, and slowly drifted into sleep.