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'I've been waiting to do this all day.' His breath smelt strongly of beer and his voice was slurred—two facts that she absorbed at the same time as she felt his hands move up and under her coat, fastening on her breasts with supreme disregard for any niceties.
'Stop it.' She jerked in his hold as she slapped at his hands, but it had the same effect as hitting out at a block of granite.
'Aw, c'mon, Miriam, relax a little,' he said thickly as he turned her round within his arms. 'There's no one around—'
'Wrong.' Reece's voice was like a pistol shot in the cold air, and Miriam nearly jumped out of her skin as Donnie jerked violently with surprise. The next moment he had been plucked away, to be thrown to one side so savagely that he lost his footing and sprawled helplessly in the snow, a large lilac bush depositing its mantle of thick snow on the top of him as he banged into its trunk. 'The good time is in the house,' Reece growled grimly as the fair-haired man struggled to his feet, swearing profusely, 'and cut the bad language.'
'Like hell I will!' As Donnie made a swing for his jaw Reece moved slightly to one side, trapping the other man's arm behind his back as he forced him to his knees.
'You're way out of line here, mister,' he breathed tightly as he bent over Donnie's groaning form. 'Now, we can play this the nice way and assume you've had a bit too much to drink and are very sorry for bothering this young lady, or we can take matters further and see which of us ends up in the hospital first—'
'Please stop.' Miriam sprang in front of them both, her voice shrill and frightened. 'You're going to ruin Barbara's and Craig's wedding day if you fight. Please, just leave it.'
'Well?' Reece stepped back a pace as he let go of Donnie's arm, and the big man raised himself to his feet, his face red and scowling. 'Are you going to listen to good advice?'
'I don't know what all the fuss is about.' Donnie shook his head as his words blurred and ran into each other again. 'I wasn't going to rape her; I only wanted—'
'We both know what you wanted and it's no go.' Reece looked as though he was prepared to do murder, and after another sidelong glance at his dark, angry face Donnie clearly felt that discretion was the better part of valour as he brushed himself down, muttering quietly under his breath before turning and walking away.
Miriam watched him go until he disappeared from view into the house, her hands pressed in fists against her cheeks, and then she turned to Reece to see him watching her through deadly cold, narrowed eyes. 'Satisfied?' he asked tightly.
'Satisfied?' She stared at him as shock and relief warred with surprise. 'I don't know what you mean.'
'Don't give me that.' The silver gaze was lethal. 'Are you telling me you didn't arrange to meet that lout out here? You must have known what to expect.'
'I'm not telling you anything,' she snapped back furiously. 'As usual, it's you making all the assumptions.' She couldn't believe that he was acting this way, not with his present mistress and soon-to-be wife, who hadn't left his side all day, established cosily in the house and no doubt awaiting his return with eager anticipation.
'It doesn't need a great mathematician to put two and two together,' he growled tightly.
'And in this case come up with an answer of ten.' She drew her coat more closely around her as the cold began to make her feet numb. 'I don't have to explain myself to you and I have no intention of doing so,' she stated flatly. 'Now, I'm sure Sharon's waiting for you so if you've quite finished—'
'Damn Sharon.' He caught hold of her arm as he pulled her sharply to face him. 'And you're wrong; you do have to explain such conduct to me. In case you've forgotten, you are here for the express purpose of carrying out a job for me—'
'I know!' She was aware that her control had gone, totally, but she didn't care. The culmination of weeks and days and hours of being on a constant knife-edge, combined with the bitter hurt and humiliation that she had suffered that day at his hands, caused an explosion that nothing and no one could have prevented. 'Oh, believe me, I know; I've had it shoved down my throat enough today never to forget it.'
'Meaning?'
'Meaning whatever you like.' She glared at him, jerking his hand off her arm and baring her teeth like a small, cornered animal. 'Now just leave me alone, Reece, and get back to the people who matter.' One in particular.
'And I was beginning to think you just might be different.' His laugh was harsh and caustic in the biting air. 'But you're just the same as all the others after all.'
'The others?' Funnily enough, his words caused an ice-cold anger that was more potent than any hysterical rage. 'And you'd know plenty about others wouldn't you, Reece?' she said bitterly. 'Well, I'm sorry, Mr Iceman. I'm sure it would be convenient for you to package me up and slot me into one of the holes in that tidy little mind of yours but I won't oblige.' She was shaking from head to foot, but more with fury th
an cold. 'I'm not going to fit into your concept of what a female should be like, any more than I'm going to excuse your spineless attitude to life and love.'
'Spineless?' For a moment she thought that he was going to hit her so great was his rage, but she didn't move an inch, her eyes burning with hot tears that she was determined he would never see.
'Yes, spineless,' she reiterated tightly. 'What else would you call it when you try to get me into bed at the same time as telling me that it will only be a light affair, that you'll never love me or be prepared to stay? You were making excuses for yourself in advance, preparing an escape route just in case you should start to feel something for me and panic, and then you could turn round with the immortal line of 'I told you so'.'
'It wasn't like that—'
'Yes, it was.' She backed from him now, her face scarlet. 'It was. I hate you. I hate this place and your life and everything about you. I wish I'd never met you. You deserve people like Sharon—that's the truth of it. You wouldn't know a real woman if one rose up and bit you! You're shallow, that's all. Shallow and cold and I must have been mad to think I was in love with you.'
He stood completely motionless, a grey stone statue in the darkness, as she turned and ran for the house, sobbing helplessly as the realisation of what she had just said and done washed over her in a searing flood. She went straight to the flat, locking the door behind her and throwing herself on the carpet as she cried as though her heart would break—long, shuddering sobs that tore from her body in pain and despair and confusion.
How could she have said all that? she asked herself weakly after long minutes as she curled into a tight little ball. He would never forgive her, never. If there had been the slightest hope for the future—anything—she had just destroyed it more effectively than Sharon could ever have done.
It was a good deal later that she heard the knock on the door, and as she froze, her hand going to her mouth as her breathing stopped, the relief was indescribable as Mitch's voice sounded outside. 'Mim? Are you in there?'
