Then he began touching her—nothing too heavy, just light brushes of his long fingers against her arm, her shoulder, her cheek and her hair. But she became so uptight with the situation, and felt so helpless to know what to do about it without causing a scene in front of the others, that she was glad when he suddenly asked her to dance.
At least dancing meant no body contact—not the kind of dancing they did here anyway—so she let him lead her down the stairs on to the dance-floor, then almost groaned when, determinedly, he pulled her into his arms.
‘No, Zac,’ she objected, trying to move away from him.
‘Don’t be stupid, Rachel,’ he drawled. ‘It’s only a dance.’
No, it wasn’t, and he knew it. After weeks of playing it relatively cool, he had decided to make his move on her. And if she didn’t put a stop to him now, then she really would be guilty of betraying Daniel.
‘No,’ she repeated firmly, slapped his hands away and turned to walk off the floor.
She shouldn’t have come. She had known she shouldn’t have come after that kiss they’d shared in his car. She’d known from the moment their eyes clashed across the lecture hall weeks ago that she should not have anything to do with Zac.
He wanted her and she did not want him.
She wanted Daniel. Only Daniel. And that hurt so much that it made her want to weep inside.
She sensed Zac behind her as she made her way to the main foyer, but refused to look back at him as she moved grimly for the line of phone booths and began ringing the several different taxi companies whose telephone numbers were scrawled all over the pay-phone backboard.
But to no avail. It was Christmas, and anyone with any sense had booked their ride home before even coming out.
In sheer desperation she rang home, her stomach flipping wistfully when Daniel’s deep voice came impatiently down the line.
‘It’s me,’ she murmured huskily.
There was a long pause on the other end, where all she could hear was Daniel’s steady breathing whispering in her ear. ‘What’s the matter?’ he asked at last.
‘I—can’t get home,’ she confessed. ‘I’ve tried all the taxi firms and they’re all booked out…What shall I do?’
Just like that. As easily as that she had fallen back into her old Rachel role. Any problem, refer it to Daniel. He would deal with it. He would sort it out. And all she had to do was stand back and wait for a solution to come via the man who had never let her down yet. Not in this way anyway.
There followed another silence, and Rachel lowered her head, hugging the dark grey plastic receiver to her ear, as though by doing so she was hugging tightly to Daniel himself.
‘Won’t your—Romeo bring you?’ he taunted eventually.
‘He’s not my Romeo!’ she denied. ‘And—anyway,’ she added, ‘I…’ No, she changed her mind about what she had been going to say, not wanting to give Daniel the pleasure of hearing that she did not want Zac anywhere near her. ‘I can’t drag him away from a good party so early just because I’ve had enough—can’t you come for me, Daniel?’ she pleaded softly.
‘What about the children?’ he came back sarcastically. ‘Am I supposed to leave them here on their own while I come out to get you?’
‘Oh.’ She felt foolish again. She hadn’t considered that problem. All she had done was realise she was in a mess and ring the man who always put things right for her.
‘Now she wishes she had taken my advice and employed a nanny!’ he mocked her acidly.
‘I’ll get Zac to bring me,’ she hit right back. The nanny thing was an old point of friction between them. Daniel wanted a bigger house, a housekeeper to take care of it, a nanny to take care of the children. What Rachel would like to know was what was left for her to do if he made her redundant in just about every part she played in his life.
‘I’ll call my mother, get her over here to sit while I come and get you.’ Daniel changed tack like a sailor, his voice like a rattlesnake waving its tail in warning. ‘I’ll have to get her out of bed, I suppose, and she won’t like it—for which I don’t blame her. But I’ll—’
‘Oh—no,’ Rachel drawled in angry refusal. ‘I wouldn’t like to think that I had inconvenienced you all to that extent. Zac will do it just as easily!’ And she slammed down the phone before Daniel could come back with a reply.
‘No luck?’ She turned to find Zac leaning against the wall, not three feet away from her, his eyes flickering curiously over her angry red cheeks. She had no idea how much of her conversation with Daniel he had overheard, and at that precise moment didn’t care.
‘No,’ she clipped. ‘I’ll just have to call one of the taxi firms back and book the next car they have free.’ Her shrug told him she was already resigning herself to a long wait.
‘I’ll take you,’ he offered. Rachel stared at him dubiously. She did not feel like half an hour more of his company. But then neither did she feel like hanging around here for the hour or so the taxi companies had said she would have to wait. Zac made the decision for her, reaching out to take hold of her wrist. ‘Come on,’ he said quietly. ‘I’ll take you—I’ll take you, Rachel.’
His green eyes mocked her foolishness. And, tired, fed up and feeling more than a little depressed by the constant emotional battle she seemed to be having with everyone around her, including herself, she gave in.
They went together to retrieve her coat, then braved the biting December wind outside to scramble inside the bright red Porsche. Then they were driving out of the club’s car park and on to the main road while she huddled into her thick woollen coat, watching emptily as the salt-stained road slid slickly beneath them.