‘Yes, I went back to my room and took a shower,’ she told him woodenly, remembering the way she had stared at herself in disbelief through the steam-covered mirror, her skin still pink and flushed, her body still trembling with unwilling delight at what he had made happen for her.
‘And you don’t think that was a sick way to begin a marriage?’ he demanded. ‘If you were getting up to things like that before the ceremony even took place then what the hell was it like afterwards?’ His eyes glittered with stark silver accusation. ‘How could you bear to live like that, for God’s sake, Romy?’
Romy sighed. It wasn’t that he wasn’t listening; it was that he simply didn’t want to hear. ‘No one really knows what goes on in someone else’s marriage,’ she said slowly.
His voice was cold and critical. ‘And maybe too many people go into marriage with the wrong attitude.’
‘Maybe that’s why you’ve never married?’ she suggested quietly, acutely aware that she held her breath as she waited for his answer. ‘If your expectations are so high.’
He gave a smile laced with cynicism. ‘What are you implying, Romy? That no “modem” woman could tolerate the thought of living with a man old-fashioned enough to insist on sharing his bed with just one partner?’
‘What the hell are you suggesting?’
His mouth twisted with disdain. ‘Please don’t insult my intelligence by trying to tell me that everything was hunky-dory between the two of you. Particularly given your track record, Romy.’
She read the silent burning question which haunted his silver eyes and knew that however painful it might be she had to try to answer it for him. Though she ran the risk of him not believing her, of course...
‘Dominic...’ she began hesitantly. ‘I was never unfaithful to Mark after we were married.’
‘Just lots of times beforehand, huh?’ He casually tucked his white T-shirt back into his jeans, and Romy found herself having to suppress a shudder of awareness as she remembered just why he had to do so. And yet now they were standing talking to each other as though nothing had happened!
‘Although technically, I suppose, you weren’t actually unfaithful with me, were you?’ he ground out. ‘Since penetration did not take place. I suppose it’s all a question of degree, isn’t it, Romy? But I don’t think that I would be particularly happy if my best man had his hands all over my fiancée’s—’
She lifted her hand then and slapped his face.
Hard.
And in the rather stunned silence which followed Romy stared up at him, her breath coming in short, defiant bursts.
With a wry expression on his face Dominic lifted his hand to the dull red mark on his cheek, and began to rub the spot gingerly. ‘You little wildcat,’ he commented softly, but he sounded more amused than abused.
‘You deserved that,’ she told him firmly. ‘You know you did! Still, I shouldn’t have resorted to hitting you, Dominic.’
‘Yes, you should.’ He shook his head, the remnants of that reluctant smile still lingering around the corners of his mouth. ‘You should have done it a lot sooner, Romy. And maybe it’s brought me to my senses.’
‘What do you mean?’
His face tensed. ‘Perhaps it’s about time I faced up to the fact that I can’t keep blaming you for what happened. That I ought to shoulder an equal share of the responsibility for what went on between us.’
Suddenly he turned away to look into the middle distance, as if he was fascinated by the sight of the sunlight glancing off the lake. When he spoke, his voice was strangely sombre. ‘Of course, some people might say that you would be well within your rights to accuse me of having taken advantage of you that day.’
Romy blinked. ‘That simply doesn’t make sense,’ she said.
‘Oh? And why not?’
‘Because if I was so hot for you, and so sexually frustrated—which was, I think, the suggestion you made earlier—then how on earth could you have taken advantage of me?’
He uttered the words reluctantly, as if every one had been dipped in poison. ‘Because you were only nineteen!’ he ground out.
Romy frowned. ‘Yes, I was nineteen,’ she agreed, now feeling rather mystified. ‘But that’s hardly jailbait these days, is it?’
His face darkened. ‘And I was twenty-six.’
‘Well, that doesn’t actually put you in the category of ancient seducer either,’ observed Romy drily.
She saw the undisguised surprise in his eyes, and was suddenly glad that she had not just taken the easy way out.
Because it would have been so easy to agree with him and tell him that, yes, he had taken advantage of her. And maybe if he had suggested it at the time it happened she might have agreed with him.
But she was older now, and hopefully wiser. And she was damned if she was going to come over as a victim!
Everything that had happened between her and Dominic she had wanted to happen. And even though part of her had known that it was very wrong that had not stopped her from acting the way she had. Indeed, she doubted whether anything could have stopped her...
‘Thank you for that,’ he said quietly, and he obviously spoke from the heart, and Romy suddenly felt as though she was a non-swimmer who had landed in deep, deep waters.
She needed to get away from him. Away from that speculative silver gaze which reminded her all too poignantly of just how much she still wanted him.
‘Good grief!’ she exclaimed in mock horror as she looked down at her watch in the kind of exaggerated gesture usually seen on stage. ‘The Baileys will be arriving soon,’ she babbled. ‘And I haven’t even arranged these flowers, and I’ll have to be there to greet them, and—’
‘No, you won’t. I’m perfectly capable of doing that myself, Romy. Just check that everything is running smoothly behind the scenes, and then join us for dinner at eight.’
Romy frowned. She had never felt quite so redundant on a job before! She threw him a suspicious look. ‘Are you absolutely sure I’m needed this weekend, Dominic?’
‘Why do you ask?’
‘Only ten guests, for a start—’
‘You are needed,’ he interrupted quietly. ‘To put Archie Bailey at his ease and to see that his wife doesn’t drink too much whilst ensuring that she does not feel in any way deprived. The two of them bicker about nothing most of the time, and so a spot of light refereeing will also be part of your duties! And you’re needed to encourage his son’s heavily pregnant and rather shy wife to talk, and not to clam up with embarrassment. You are needed, Romy, because everyone I have ever spoken to about you tells me that you are a genius at handling people.’
Romy blushed scarlet at the unexpected praise. ‘Do they?’
‘They do. I’m only surprised that you haven’t yet learned how to handle me.’ His eyes glimmered with humour when he saw her reaction. ‘Perhaps I should rephrase that—’
‘I don’t think you should even try,’ she warned him, and had just bent down to pick up her flower basket when something very solemn in his voice halted her again.
‘Romy?’
She straightened up slowly, dreading the question she knew was coming almost as much as she dreaded meeting that piercing silver stare.
‘What?’
‘Do you regret what happened just now?’
Did she? Romy allowed herself a dizzy snatch of memory. Regret it? That was