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Her mouth tightened. ‘Don’t be ridiculous! If I required that sort of tuition I certainly wouldn’t come to you for it. I have a boy-friend who can supply me with all the experience I need.’
Those grey eyes narrowed. ‘Roger Young.’ His top lip curled back contmptuously.
‘Yes! And he’s the reason I’ve come over here.’
‘He is? Well, I’m not about to give him any tuition,’ he taunted. ‘It wouldn’t be half as much fun.’
‘Ooh, you’re such a conceited swine!’ Alexandra stamped her foot in childish temper. ‘Just because you’ve slept with more women than you can remember the names of you think you know it all! I happen to believe that making love is more than just sex between two people, it should be something private between man and wife.’
The contempt was still there in his face and it was directed at her now. ‘I’ve tried being married. Believe me, it isn’t all it’s supposed to be.’
‘You were married for exactly a year, hardly long enough to be able to pass comment on it. You treated your wife shamefully.’
‘Did I now?’ he mused. ‘And what would you know about it? You would have been five at the time, and as we didn’t even know you then I don’t consider you in a position to judge how I treated my wife.’
‘I didn’t need to know you when you were married to know it was all your fault that the marriage failed. I know for a fact that you weren’t even in the same country six months out of the twelve.’
Dominic looked angry now. ‘Like I said, you aren’t in a position to judge.’
‘I am when it affects my life,’ she told him crossly.
‘What does my marriage have to do with your life?’
‘Gail told me this morning that it was mainly due to your disapproval of the idea that they refused to give their consent to my marriage to Roger.’
‘I see,’ he nodded his head, his look thoughtful. ‘Gail told you that, did she?’
She flushed. ‘With a little persuasion, yes.’
Dominic’s mouth twisted. ‘I can imagine what type of persuasion. You’re a bully, Alexandra. And you’re spoilt too. Poor Gail doesn’t stand a chance when you have one of your tantrums.’
‘I do not have tantrums!’
‘Oh yes, you do, and Gail isn’t strong enough to say no to you, neither is Trevor for that matter. You’re wilful and utterly selfish and not grown up enough to marry anyone, let alone a kid like Roger Young. He’s just as spoilt as you are.’
‘You have a nerve!’ she exclaimed furiously.
‘Not really,’ he answered calmly. ‘I just thought it better to stop you becoming just another statistic in the divorce figures.’
‘And you’re arrogant too,’ she continued. ‘You have no way of knowing whether my marriage to Roger will succeed or not.’
‘I can take a pretty accurate guess,’ he drawled. ‘I’ll also make another guess, that by the time you reach your eighteenth birthday in a few months’ time you’ll have changed your mind about marrying him.’
‘I will not,’ she said indignantly. ‘I love him.’
He smiled at her outburst. ‘You say you do now, I wonder if you’ll feel the same in six months’ time. I doubt it. You’re at an age when you fall in and out of love every month.’
‘Like your wife did?’ she taunted bitterly.
‘Exactly as Marianne did,’ he agreed tautly.
Alerandra realised that perhaps she had gone too far this time. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, shamefaced. ‘I shouldn’t have said that.’
‘Oh, don’t start apologising now, Alexandra. We’ve gone way past the stage of not being able to speak our minds to each other.’
‘Yes, I suppose so.’
He smiled. ‘I know so. Look, Alex—Alexandra,’ he amended. ‘I’m older than you, exactly twice your age, and I can see the pitfalls of marrying at your age. Marianne was no older than you when we married, and look how disastrously that turned out. We were divorced before she reached nineteen.’
‘You can’t compare me with her—or my intended husband with you.’
‘Meaning?’
She didn’t flinch from his icy grey eyes. ‘Meaning that there is no way Roger can be compared with you. He doesn’t have to keep proving his sexual prowess, whereas you—well, it’s pretty obvious that your guest didn’t sleep in any other bedroom but your own. Is she your latest mistress?’
Dominic raised his eyebrows. ‘What does that have to do with you?’
She shrugged. ‘I was just curious.’ She flicked back her long black hair, long sooty lashes surrounding her deep blue eyes. ‘Is she?’
‘Yes,’ he answered with violence.
‘But you don’t intend marrying her?’ Alexandra’s curiosity had got the better of her now.
‘I don’t intend marrying ever again.’
‘Does she know that?’
‘Oh yes,’ he smiled. ‘Sabrina knows exactly what I feel for her.’
‘I’ll bet she does,’ her mouth turned back with distaste. ‘But I still maintain that you had no right to interfere in my life. I love Roger and I want to marry him.’
‘I didn’t stop you. I merely told Gail and Trevor that I—–’
‘Didn’t think it a good idea,’ she snapped. ‘It was nothing to do with you, nothing at all.’
‘I’m sure that what I said meant little to either of them, they’d already made up their minds about it.’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t agree. I think what you had to say had everything to do with their decision. They hardly dare breathe without your permission. I’m well aware of the fact that you’ve helped them out a lot since they married, but I don’t want to be included in that care. I want you to just stay out of my life.’
‘A little late for that, isn’t it?’
She looked at him sharply. ‘What do you mean?’
He shrugged. ‘It isn’t important. Let’s just accept that I’m the villain of the piece and forget it.’
Alexandra’s mouth set angrily. ‘I don’t want to forget it. I want to know what you meant just now. What else have you had a hand in that I know nothing about?’
‘I said it isn’t important.’ He looked at his wrist-watch. ‘I have to leave now, I’m much later than the twenty minutes I said I would be.’
‘Dominic,’ she held his arm. ‘Please tell me.’ Her look was pleading.
He looked down pointedly at her hand on his tanned forearm and she snatched it away hurriedly. ‘There’s nothing to tell. Let’s go,’ he pulled her out of the house. ‘We can talk some other time.’
She wrenched out of his grasp. ‘We’ll talk now! I—–’
Charles, the butler, appeared in the open doorway. ‘Telephone for you, sir. It’s Mr Trevor,’ he added.
‘Tell him I’m on my way, Charles,’ Dominic answered him.
‘I did that, sir. But he says he has to speak to you urgently.’
‘Very well, Charles. Tell him I’ll be right there.’
‘Yes, sir.’ The butler disappeared back into the house.
Dominic gave Alexandra an impatient look. ‘Wait here and we can drive back together.’
‘Forget it.’ She ran down the remaining steps to the driveway. ‘I’ve seen you quite enough for one day.’
‘Alexandra, you’ll wait—–’
‘Goodbye, Dominic.’ She walked hurriedly away as he turned angrily to go and answer the telephone.
There were still quite a lot of questions she would like answers to, but she was just too angry to talk to him any more. She would go straight over and see Roger, he always put her in a better mood.
As she accelerated the Mini past the house Dominic rushed out of the doorway, waving frantically for her to stop. She gave him an impudent grin and cheekily waved back. She smiled as she looked in the driving mirror as she saw him standing in the driveway angrily watching her leave.
Just thwarting him in this way put her in a better humour and by the time she reached Roger’s parents’ house she was feeling much happier. They should have finished lunch, it was after two o’clock, so she felt no hesitation about knocking on the door.
She was shown into the lounge where the Young family were just having their coffee. Her eyes went instantly to Roger, her heart pounding loudly just at the sight of him. He looked pleased to see her too and they smiled dreamily at each other.
‘Hello, my dear,’ Mrs Young greeted politely. ‘Would you like to join us in some coffee?’
The rumblings of her stomach told her that she should really have gone home and had her lunch before coming here, but as she hadn’t the coffee would have to sustain her until her evening meal. ‘Yes, please, Mrs Young.’
Roger made room for her on the sofa beside him, his arm about her shoulders pulling her close against his side. ‘You’re over early today,’ he murmured softly.
She snuggled against him. ‘Does that mean you aren’t pleased to see me?’
His hold tightened. ‘Don’t say that! I just wasn’t expecting you yet.’
Alexandra sat up as his mother handed her the cup of steaming coffee. ‘Thank you,’ she smiled.
Roger was frowning. ‘I don’t see how you can possibly have eaten lunch and got over here since we parted at the pool this morning.’
She squeezed his hand reassuringly. ‘I’ll explain later.’
‘Yes, but—–’
‘How is your sister keeping?’ Mrs Young asked her. ‘I should think she’s getting quite impatient now.’
‘A little,’ Alexandra agreed. ‘Only another four weeks to go.’
‘I suppose that brother-in-law of yours is kept busy at the hospital,’ put in Mr Young. ‘Although it must be quite convenient having a doctor in the house.’
‘Yes,’ she smiled. She liked Roger’s parents immensely, although they tended to be a little possessive about their only child. Both in their mid-fifties, they had had Roger after ten years of marriage, and he was destined to be the only child they would have. After his initial training he was expected to join his father’s law firm.
The Youngs were the nearest thing the village had to the local people of the manor, the large house they owned set in vast woodlands. With Mrs Young’s twin-sets and tweed skirts and Mr Young riding to hounds and arranging shooting parties, they were everything that could be expected of real gentry.
‘Would you like a game of tennis?’ Roger asked her softly, the gleam in his deep brown eyes showing that he had more than tennis in mind.
‘Let the girl finish her coffee,’ his father said sternly.
‘But I have.’ Alexandra put her empty cup down in the tray.
‘You can’t go running about a tennis court now, Roger,’ his mother reprimanded. ‘You’ve only just eaten.’
‘We’ll be fine,’ he pulled Alexandra to her feet. ‘See you later.’
Alexandra giggled once they were outside. ‘Don’t you ever listen to your parents?’
He grinned. ‘Not usually. They tend to fuss too much.’
‘They love you, that’s why.’
He took her hand in his own, leading her round to the garden at the back of the house, the green lawns stretching down to the tennis courts just out of sight of the house. ‘They still fuss too much.’ He pulled her close against him, his lips lingering on hers. ‘I’ve missed you,’ he said throatily.
She blushed. ‘We only parted two hours ago.’
‘Much too long.’ He kissed her again. ‘Now tell me why you haven’t eaten lunch?’
She stood back. ‘How did you know that?’
‘You haven’t had time. Did something happen?’
‘Let’s go down to the tennis court, we can talk better there.’
‘Something did happen,’ he said.
She laughed. ‘Come on, it’s nothing we can’t sort out.’
They walked down to the comparative privacy of the tennis courts, sitting down on the seats provided, tennis the last thing on their minds at the moment. Their kiss lasted for a long time, and both of them were breathless at the end of it.
‘Mm,’ Roger’s face was buried in her throat. ‘I wish we were married.’
It reminded her too much of her scene with Dominic Tempest earlier and she moved out of Roger’s arms, an angry glitter to her big blue eyes. ‘It’s funny you should mention that. I found out the reason for Gail and Trevor’s refusal today. Trevor’s bossy brother put his spoke in.’
Roger frowned. ‘Dominic Tempest did?’
