Fortune in the Stars (19 page)

'If you wanted to shower, why not say so?' he murmured.
'We can have one together, and after…who knows?'

'Get out of here!' she screamed at him, beating with her
fists against his chest. 'You unspeakable lout!'

'What on earth's got into you, Penny?' he taunted,
catching her by the shoulders and holding her at arm's length. 'You
don't seem at all happy—yet I can't for the life of me think
why.'

'You've had your revenge, Dominic,' she told him, her body
going limp as she exerted every shred of concentration she possessed on
regaining control of herself. 'Your intention was obviously to
humiliate me, and you've managed to do so in a way you know no other
man possibly could…perhaps that made your revenge all the
sweeter, who knows?' She stepped back from him as he removed his hands
from her shoulders and gave a mocking bow. 'Now, if you don't mind, I'd
like to shower—alone. And afterwards I intend packing my
things and leaving; I've had all I intend taking of you.'

'Brilliant performance, darling,' he drawled. 'You should
try the stage. Have your solitary shower, by all means, but as for the
packing and leaving, you can forget it—you're going nowhere
until I say so.'

Still clinging on to her self-control with all her might,
Penny gazed up at him, her head shaking in disbelief.

'You recommend the stage for me, do you, Dominic?' she
asked in tones of quiet disgust. 'Well, I recommend a banana republic
for you, with you at it's head—you're a born dictator.
Unfortunately for you I've had more than I'm prepared to take of your
dictatorial ways; I'm going, and unless you plan to bind and gag
me—'

'Binding and gagging you being precisely what I should
have done the moment we arrived here,' he informed her icily. 'Tell me,
Penny, do you still have that nice cosy feeling my sister will be all
right?' he demanded, taking a menacing step towards her as she began
backing away from him. 'Because, wonder of wonders, I don't!'

'Dominic, for heaven's sake stop this!' she protested, as
her last step back from this threatening approach brought her jammed up
against the bath.

'For heaven's sake, Dominic,' he mimicked silkily. 'Do you
honestly think that just because I happen to lust after your body I
wouldn't break every bone in it if that's what it took to protect my
sister from your yakking tongue?'

'Dominic, for God's sake, why won't you let me explain?'
she beseeched, hysteria edging into her voice. 'What justification can
you possibly feel there is for behaving like this when you refuse to
let me explain?'

He gazed down at her distraught face from eyes narrowed
and darkened with fury.

'It's quite simple, really,' he intoned with soft venom.
'I have no way of knowing a lie from the truth with you. But I'll give
you a truth, for what it's worth… Yes, I would take any
revenge I could on you, but there's little sweetness in it for me in
trying to take it via lovemaking…not when my body craves
beyond reason that of a woman my mind can't even begin to understand.'

He turned abruptly and walked to the door, pausing there
with his back to her.

'And because of this complete inability of mine to fathom
what makes your warped little mind tick, I repeat what I said once
before: I'm not letting you out of my sight until Lexy is returned safe
and sound, or, if you'd like it plainer, I simply don't trust you.'

'Dominic, you can't…you can't possibly think
I'd do anything to jeopardise Lexy!' she exclaimed in horror.

He swung round, his gaze coldly implacable.

'Try putting yourself in my place,' he suggested harshly.
'And then see what sort of an answer you come up with.'

She did just that as she showered, a sigh of hopelessness
and frustration hissing from her as she arrived at the inevitable
answer.

But it was his fault, she protested bitterly to herself as
she towelled herself dry; if he would only let her explain he would
find a completely different answer!

She buried her face in the towel, a terrible feeling of
desolation sweeping through her, bringing with it the agonising thought
of how things might have been. With a sharp exclamation of impatience
with herself, she straightened and folded the towel. Fantasising over
what might have been was a complete waste of time, she informed herself
harshly. She couldn't have chosen a worse candidate than Dominic on
which to squander her love—even under the most ideal of
conditions.

She slipped on her dressing-gown, her face pale and drawn.
The damage done was irreparable, and the result was that she loved a
man who despised her…and who despised himself for the desire
that still drove his body to seek hers against his will.

She belted the gown tightly round her, bracing herself
before going into the bedroom to face him.

He was lying on one of the beds, engrossed in a newspaper.

'Dominic, it was never my intention to make things more
difficult for you than they already are,' she stated as he continued to
read without once glancing up. 'I give you my word that I shan't make
any attempt to leave until Lexy has shown up.

'You give me your word, do you, Penny?' he asked, from
behind the paper. 'And that's supposed to mean something, is it?'

'You can take it to mean whatever you like,' she snapped,
horrified to feel the hot sting of tears on her cheeks. 'But you may
rest assured that I shan't leave.'

'Oh, I'm resting assured all right,' he mocked, lowering
the paper. 'Because I have no intention of letting you out of my sight
for as long as it takes. But, once I do,
you
may
rest assured that you're then free to leave.' His coldly mocking words
were followed by a soft chuckle of disbelief as he tossed the paper
aside. 'Tears, Penny? Now that really does surprise me,' he drawled.
'Surely they couldn't have been brought on by the thought of being free
to leave me?'

'Wrong again, Dominic,' she retorted with naked loathing,
as she gathered up her clothes to take into the bathroom—she
had no intention of dressing under the gaze of those cruelly mocking
eyes. 'That's exactly what they're brought on by—and they're
known as tears of joy!'

'You've heard something,' she accused him over dinner.

There had been two phone calls, and since them there had
been an edgy, brittle tension in him so palpable that she almost felt
she could reach out and touch it.

'Let's just say I'm
waiting
to hear
something,' he muttered, his mind seeming only partially on his words
as his eyes scanned the room. 'This place seems extraordinarily festive
this evening—I wonder what's going on?'

'So that's how you plan getting your revenge on me, is
it?' she demanded bitterly. 'By keeping news about Lexy from me.'

'You'll get whatever news there is when it comes,' he
retorted. 'It's just that I'm not one to go in for counting chickens
prematurely… Where's that music coming from?'

Penny ignored his blatant change of subject, and gazed
moodily down into her coffee-cup. He was like a cat on hot bricks, and,
no matter what his claim, she was certain he was keeping something from
her.

'Dominic—'

'Excuse me a moment, will you?' he muttered, rising and
leaving the table.

Anger, frustration and a terrible hopelessness besieging
her, Penny picked up her cup and drank from it. She was sick and tired
of being treated like a pariah. And she was sick and tired of the fact
that half the time she almost felt as though she was one…in
fact, she was sick and tired full stop!

Returning her cup to its saucer, she gazed impatiently
around, wondering what he could be up to, when she spotted him in
conversation with the head waiter. It was with an almost fatalistic
detachment that she noted the familiar erotic excitement stirring in
her at the sight of his tall, athletic form silhouetted in the doorway
of the dining-room. Well, at least this would soon all be over, she
consoled herself, only to find that far from being consoled by such a
thought she was filled by crippling sensations of loss and despair.

She turned her eyes hastily away as he wound his way back.

'There's some sort of blues group playing in the
conference-room bar—wherever that is,' he announced.

She said nothing. What was she supposed to do, leap up and
down for joy?

'As I'm likely to go clean out of my mind if I have to
spend any more time gazing at the four walls of the room, I suggest we
go and listen to them for a while.'

'
You
go and listen to
them—I'm quite happy with the four walls,' snapped Penny.

'Penny, if you want a scene it's fine by me,' Dominic
drawled. 'But
we
are going to do the listening
together.'

'Do forgive me,' she seethed at him in mounting anger and
frustration. 'I understood you were making a suggestion, not issuing an
order. And now you're telling me you'll throw a tantrum if you don't
get your own way—is that it?'

'Right first time,' he retorted, his grasp on her arm
iron-like as he reached out and hauled her to her feet.

'Just stop this ridiculous behaviour!' she exclaimed
angrily, struggling with no success to free herself as he began
virtually marching her from the dining-room. 'Because this time the
worm has well and truly turned! I don't care how much of a scene you
choose to create—I'm going to my bed!'

They had reached the doorway when her words brought him to
an abrupt halt, and Penny was aware of every pair of eyes in the room
trained on them as he swung her round to face him.

'OK, darling,' he announced in a conspicuously loud voice.
'If that's what you want, back to bed it is.'

He pulled her against him, grinning with evil enjoyment as
he slowly began lowering his head to hers.

'You bastard!' she hissed, almost beside herself with rage
and humiliation.

'A quite unfounded slur on my lineage—but you
can't say I didn't warn you I was no gentleman,' he murmured sweetly.
'So what's it to be—a scene the management will probably be
obliged to step in and censor, or the music?'

It was the undisguised arrogance of his complacency that
tempted Penny almost beyond endurance to call his bluff as their eyes
locked in silent battle; but it was her increasing certainty that he
would derive every bit as much pleasure from the scene he would
undoubtedly create as from her capitulation that finally restrained her.

'All right,' she hurled at him through painfully clenching
teeth.

'All right what?' he enquired, his eyes mocking and
insolent.

'You win. Perhaps you'd like me to prostrate myself at
your feet and—'

'That won't be necessary,' he cut her off, placing a
heavily warning arm around her as he led her away.

But as she walked by his side into the dimly lit room she
felt the melancholy sob of the blues surrounding them waft into her
soul and resurrect the ghost of what had once been her pride.

Pride was something she had never considered herself to be
overly burdened with, she told herself miserably, and remembered having
once said as much to Lexy in connection with one of her astrological
pronouncements on the subject.

'With your beautiful, sunny nature, you've never had to
give it a thought,' Lexy had laughed. 'Everyone loves you…
All I'm saying is that when it comes to the crunch no Leo sits back and
purrs when his or her pride takes a knock. Never in a million years!'

Well, her pride hadn't just taken a knock, she reminded
herself bitterly—it had been bludgeoned almost out of
existence! But enough was enough. The sixth sense that had remained
dormant in her for years now seemed to be working
overtime—and it was telling her that this ghastly,
agonisingly bittersweet period in her life was about to come to an end.
Nothing could stop her loving him, just as nothing could stop the
devastation and desolation that such love would inevitably wreak on her
future existence. But she certainly didn't intend going down without
evening up the score a fraction. And even if it ultimately destroyed
her she would go down with the love gnawing away at her like a
destructive disease, as a secret known to her and to her alone.

She turned to him, her smile brittle and bright.

'You know, I'm really rather glad I took you up on your
charming suggestion that we come here,' she murmured. 'I love this sort
of music; let's dance.'

His palpable double-take brought her an inordinate amount
of satisfaction, as did the unmistakable gleam of suspicion in those
shrewd blue eyes as he led her to the tiny dance-floor and took her
into his arms.

The charge between them was instant and powerfully erotic,
and she found it the easiest thing in the world to blot out the shocked
protests of her mind and let her body melt against the familiarly
exciting strength of his.

'Perhaps it's just as well things turned out as they did
in the dining-room,' he muttered hoarsely, his body leaping swiftly to
urgent life as she wound her arms invitingly round his neck. 'Penny,
what exactly are you up to?'

She gave a breathy chuckle, her body revelling
outrageously in its effect on his. 'Facing reality—isn't that
what the experts usually advise?'

He drew back slightly from her, his eyes wary. Then the
wariness drifted aside to make way for the sultry gleam of desire as he
lowered his head and placed his cheek against hers.

'One aspect of reality fast making its way clear to me is
that it would have saved us a load of hassle if we'd gone straight to
the room,' he whispered huskily. 'God, how I want you!'

'Such impatience,' she murmured, her teasing words a
mendacious denial of the rage of impatience rampaging within her.

She gave a soft gasp of protest as his hand caught in her
hair, tugging her head back until she was gazing up into his scowling
face.