‘You think that this—’ she spread her arms wide to encompass everything inside the cottage and outside it ‘—is the sum total of my life? Is that why you figured that I was a safe bet to entice into bed with you—because I was so backward that I would be grateful and excited that a man like you, a man of the world, might condescend to show some interest in me? Interest of a passing nature, of course—because, as you’ve told me, you’re not into permanence. Not that I wouldn’t have guessed that.’
Leo recalled his ready expectations that the attraction between them would result in bed and had the grace to flush.
‘No one could accuse you of being backward,’ he muttered grimly.
Heather looked at him with fierce, angry eyes. It would have been helpful if she could have superimposed Brian’s face onto his, but no such luck. All she could see was his stupendous beauty, the lithe muscularity of his body. It made her more determined to have her say, to make sure that he knew in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t up for grabs. That way, he would avoid her as much as she was desperate for him to. She didn’t want to constantly feel fearful that she might just bump into him. She didn’t want to be tempted.
His expression was still and watchful. For a couple of seconds, her imagination took flight, and she wondered where they would be now if she had never said anything, if she had given in to that kiss completely and had let it take her to the step beyond. They would be upstairs in her king-sized bed. They would be naked and entwined, and she would be burning up with lust.
She closed her eyes briefly, feeling faint. She had to make a big effort to remind herself that a bit of pleasure would never be worth the loss of her self-esteem, which had taken such a long time to reconstruct.
‘How long have you been divorced?’
Heather opened her eyes and inhaled deeply. ‘A couple of years.’
‘What happened?’ Did this qualify as drama? Leo didn’t know. He just knew that he wanted her to finish whatever it was she had to say. If only, he told himself, so that he could walk away and thank his lucky stars for his near escape. A woman with baggage was never worth the hassle.
Besides, he still hadn’t found out what the sheep farmer was doing on the other side of the world.
‘What happened was that I married a guy who ended up making money his god.’
‘Not following you. What did you say he did?’
‘He was an investment banker. In the city. So, you see? I’m not quite the rustic country-bumpkin you thought I was.’
Like a jigsaw puzzle, the pieces were now slotting together at mind-boggling speed. So that was why she had been so knowledgeable about financial matters; why she had been so wary and distrustful of him. Did she think that she could just stand there and make comparisons?
Leo didn’t know the guy, but he was outraged that he should be compared to anyone.
‘Investment banker. Hence your knowledge of the stock market.’
‘Oh yes,’ Heather said bitterly. ‘There was a time when I knew everything there was to know about what was happening in the world of high finance.’ Her eyes glazed over. She forgot that Leo was there. ‘You see, I thought that if I took an interest in what he did, I mean really took an interest, then he might be able to see that I was more than just the teenager who came from his home town. So I read up on all that stuff, even though it bored me to death.’
Leo, listening intently, could pick up on the hurt lying just below the surface, and he felt an irrational desire to find this character and knock him into kingdom come.
‘’Course, it didn’t work.’ Heather refocused on Leo. If he had tried interrupting her, asking questions, then she might have abbreviated everything, but his silence was the equivalent of a key unlocking a box. She hadn’t poured her heart out to anyone, and a part of her was stunned that she should choose to do so now with the most unlikely of candidates. But then it wasn’t as though she risked seeing him again. People bared their souls to their hairdressers, didn’t they? It was the same sort of thing, wasn’t it?
‘He was in less and less. How could I show off my knowledge of all things financial if he just wasn’t around?’
‘How old were you?’
‘Nineteen. Too young and too impressionable to see what was staring me in the face.’
‘He moved on,’ Leo said flatly, and she gave an imperceptible nod.
‘He was talented. A whizz kid. There was a whole list of “youngest ever” records which he’d broken, as he kept telling me. He had to work all hours, he also kept telling me, and fool that I was I accepted it. I busied myself with my art course and dashed back in the evenings to make meals that ended up in the bin most of the time.’ She glanced quickly at Leo but she couldn’t read what he was thinking. She had come so far with the sorry recital that there seemed little point in cutting it short now. And, besides, it was cathartic, spilling her guts.
‘I guess I knew it was all coming to an end, but I still hung on like an idiot until I got a call from an anonymous woman telling me that she was having an affair with my husband. She’d just been ditched in favour of a newer model, and I guess she decided that telling me was the best revenge she could have. ‘Course, I confronted Brian and, needless to say, he didn’t deny it. I think he was relieved, in a way.’
Watching her face was like watching a slideshow of emotions. He realised that he was clenching his fists and he slowly breathed out, unclenched them, and waited for her to continue.
‘You see, he was ashamed of me.’ Heather held her chin up and looked Leo squarely in the face. ‘Wrong clothes, wrong hair, not polished enough. The more money he earned, and the richer he became, the more his tastes changed. He no longer wanted small and plump and curly haired, he wanted leggy and blonde. Models. He was sorry, of course. And guilty too. He offered me as much money as I wanted, but all I took was enough to buy this cottage so that I could have a safe roof over my head while I kick-started my career back here. I didn’t know whether I’d find work or not, but it was a relief not to have to worry about meeting a mortgage while I looked. He got a transfer to Hong Kong, and good luck to him. As far as I’m concerned, he sold his soul to the Devil.’
‘And you’ve decided that I’m cut from the same cloth as a man who turned out to be an irresponsible philanderer.’
Put like that, Heather was uncomfortably aware that she might have been a bit liberal with her comparisons. But, when you looked at the bigger picture, weren’t they more or less the same—rich men who thought that they could buy whatever and whoever they wanted to? That their wealth entitled them to walk all over people without any regard to feelings? Leo and his ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ women were only a hop and a skip away from Brian and his ‘out with the old, in with the new’, weren’t they? Okay, so there might be some inconsistencies in the detail, but if you got bogged down in the detail, then you were lost.
She shrugged.
‘You were more than willing to use me,’ Heather began, but she faltered when she saw the thunderous, enraged expression on his face.
‘Use you? Use you?’
‘You think you can have whatever you want.’
‘You’re an adult. I’m an adult. As far as I’m concerned, sex between two consenting adults doesn’t involve exploitation of any kind, and believe me, I don’t need to coerce a woman into my bed. Your ex-husband may not have turned out to be the man you thought he was, but don’t even think of lumping me in the same category.’
‘You can’t deny that you’re cocooned by your wealth.’ Heather was angry that he was trying to trip her up, trying to use clever words to make her feel as though she had made a mistake about him. She hadn’t!
‘I don’t use it as an excuse to get women,’ he grated. ‘And that’s a despicable insinuation. Have I tried to buy you with gifts, in any way?’
‘No, but—’
‘But what? Are you going to eliminate every man from your life whose name begins with the letter B?’ he asked, his mouth twisting cynically. ‘Maybe it might just be safer to eliminate all men from your life. Then you can be guaranteed never to be hurt again.’ He stood up and noticed the way she cringed back, as though he posed some kind of physical threat to her. That was even more of a red rag as far as he was concerned.
‘Don’t worry,’ he said scathingly. ‘I won’t come near you.’
On his way to the door, Leo paused and turned to her. ‘An empty bed is a lonely place,’ he said coolly.
‘Better empty than littered with all the wrong kind of guys,’ Heather threw back at him. Her eyes were stinging. She knew that as soon as he left she was going to cry, because she could feel the tears pricking against her eyelids.
Leo swore softly under his breath. He should never have given in to this attraction, should never have seen her as a challenge. Challenge? The woman was more than a challenge! Had he forgotten how many thorns a rose could have? Damn it, the woman would have a hell of a time finding any man who wouldn’t run a mile in the face of that tongue of hers!
The fact that she was standing there, looking as though she would collapse like a rag doll the minute her strings were cut, was no concern of his. She had said what she wanted to say, wrapped up in the greatest insults possible, and he didn’t have time for this.