Polly had had enough.
‘That he’s what?’ she interrupted him angrily. ‘That he’s younger than me? Yes, I do realise that, Marcus, but it isn’t exactly unheard of these days for a woman to…Anyway,’ she continued hastily, ‘I could point out to you that Suzi is younger than Phil and you are older than me, but of course that doesn’t matter, does it?’ she flung sarcastically at him.
‘What is it that’s the big attraction, Polly?’ Marcus demanded, cutting across what she was saying. ‘What exactly is it that he’s got that—’
Abruptly he stopped speaking and then began again curtly. ‘Have you considered how Briony’s going to feel if you become involved with him?’
‘How Briony feels is for her to discuss with me,’ Polly responded passionately, biting her lip, reluctantly aware that Briony herself probably did consider Marcus to be as close to her as the father she had lost, honesty compelling her not to accuse Marcus of laying claim to a position in Briony’s affections which he did not have when she knew very well that he did.
‘Well, if you’re intent on making a fool of yourself…’ Marcus told her savagely. ‘According to Suzi he’s a womaniser who—’
Making a fool of herself? Polly saw red. ‘If responding to a man’s very flattering appreciation of me as a woman is making a fool of myself,’ she exploded.
‘So you are interested in him,’ Marcus stated flatly. His eyes were hard and black as he told her cruelly, ‘I suppose it’s to be expected in a woman reaching that “certain age” of her life when she feels that her youth is over…’
Polly gave an outraged gasp, shocked by the unexpectedness of an attack which was so out of character. Marcus was normally far more subtle, far more urbane. Something or someone must really have rattled him to make him speak with such open aggression—unless his antipathy towards Phil was on Suzi’s behalf. They had, as Briony had mentioned, apparently been more than merely employer and employee at one stage. It crossed Polly’s mind that in many ways the two of them would be quite well suited. Perhaps Marcus thought so as well and was jealous. Even so—
‘How dare you imply…?’ she began breathlessly, and then stopped as she tried to find the right words to deny his implications without descending to his own level of insult. Taking a deep breath, she told him quietly, ‘Contrary to what you seem to imagine Marcus, a woman of thirty-seven is neither past it nor desperate to use the same crude analogy you seem to prefer.’
‘No?’ he asked harshly. ‘Then why the sudden hurry to crawl into Bernstein’s bed when, so far as I’m aware, you’ve spent the last fourteen years since Richard’s death keeping out of any man’s, but specifically—’
‘So far as you are aware,’ Polly cut in quickly, her head lifting proudly as she dared him to contradict her. ‘You don’t know everything there is to know about me, Marcus, and just because…’ She stopped and bit her lip, not wanting to lie but determined not to let him guess that he was right in thinking that she had remained celibate since Richard’s death.
‘You’ve always claimed that no man could replace Richard in your life,’ he reminded her flatly.
‘No more could they,’ Polly agreed, unaware of the quicksand she had marched into until Marcus questioned softly,
‘Not in your life, then, but perhaps it’s a different matter when it comes to your bed—is that what you’re trying to say?’
Polly stared at him. She had meant to say no such thing but she could feel herself sinking so fast into the dangerously unstable ground beneath her feet that she was too unnerved to know how to save herself.
‘You should have told me this before,’ Marcus continued silkily. ‘If I’d known that sexual frustration was such a problem for you I might have done this much sooner…’
And then, before Polly could guess what was going to happen, Marcus had crossed the small distance that separated them. She backed away from him, gasping in shock as she felt the wall against her back. Instinctively she put up her hands to ward Marcus off, but, ignoring them, he replaced his own hands at either side of her on the wall, his body so close to hers that if she hadn’t quickly dropped her arms her palms would have been flat against his chest.
‘That’s better,’ Marcus told her savagely. ‘After all, we both know that this is what you want, don’t we? You told me so yourself…’
‘No!’ Polly protested. She couldn’t believe this was happening, that he was behaving like this. Not Marcus of all people. Marcus whom she—