She was right. He didn’t have an answer. ‘You’re inventing this as you go along, David.’
‘What do you want most in the world at the present moment, Caitlin?’
‘A horse!’ The words flew out of her mouth before she had time to think.
‘You’d rather have a horse than me?’
‘More rewarding,’ she asserted.
‘Fine. A horse it will be.’
‘No, it won’t.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because the first thing you’ll want to do after we buy a horse is jump into bed.’
‘No, I won’t.’
She had to acknowledge he was working harder to get her back than she had ever imagined he would. It gave her pause for thought. ‘David, how long can you go without sex?’ she asked him seriously.
‘A fair while.’
‘A year.’
‘Caitlin, a year is a very, very, very, very, very long time.’ His face depicted horror.
‘Six months?’
He looked dazed.
‘One month?’
‘I would try,’ he said dubiously.
‘A week?’
‘I think I could handle a week. Exercising grim discipline and ab
solute control, I feel that a week is probably not beyond my capacity.’
Caitlin wondered how much she could alter David’s thinking in a week. It could be a measure of how important, how special she was to him, how much he wanted her. Not sex. David was the kind of man who could get sex any time he wanted it, but she was the woman he wanted. A warm glow of purely female pride took the chill off Caitlin’s heart.
They arrived beside their cars. Her little Mazda looked like a child’s toy next to David’s powerful Ferrari. He had made her feel like a child this morning. He probably thought she could be manipulated as easily as one, too. He was about to learn differently.
Caitlin took her car-keys out of her bag.
David produced his out of his pocket. ‘I’ll drive you,’ he said. ‘We can come back for your car later.’
‘No, thank you. That would put me under an obligation to you and I don’t care for that position, David.’ She proceeded to unlock her door. ‘You can come with me in my car, if you like. Or do as you please,’ she added with studied carelessness.
He hesitated. Caitlin could feel his tension as he decided on what move to make. She was well aware of the dilemma she had pushed him into. He wanted her with him. He hated not being in control.
‘Will you drive me back here after we’ve done what needs doing?’ he asked.
His voice was smooth but Caitlin could read the calculations in his mind. If he performed well with her parents, she would be in a more mellow mood and they could use the room her father had vacated. After that, he expected her to come back to work for him and then everything would be rosy again. The pain of being a passenger in a Mazda 121 was relatively trivial. To David, the end result would be worth it.
‘Yes,’ she said, silently vowing she would put him through so many revolutions he wouldn’t know if he was coming or going.