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Just for one instant longer Petra l ay motionless, totally dazed by her b o d y ' s reactions. Then, as she went to sit up, she caught sight of the diamond on her left hand, and as the full, shaming horror of what she had so nearly done hit her like a douche of ice-cold water she had to bite her lip on a low moan of misery.
'Sorry about that.' Jared straightened up from the fire and came to drop down beside her on the sofa again. 'Now, where were we?'
'I—I must go.'
Her voice was all but inaudible, totally unrecognisable as hers, but as she struggled to force her shaking legs upright he caught hold of her by the arm, his fingers—so delicate, so heartachingly tender moments before—cruelly digging into her tender flesh. He swung her round to him. 'Go? Go where?'
'H—home.' Her teeth were chattering, although the room had become unbearably hot. His grip tightened even more, until a l i t t l e cry was wrenched from her. What's the matter, Petra? Turning chicken all of a sudden?'
The naked savagery in his voice made her flinch. 'Please, Jared,' she murmured hesitantly, 'try to understand. I'm sorry—truly I am. It was all my—'
'Sorry?'
When a muffled whimper of pain came from her he looked down at his fingers biting into her arm, then, his face totally devoid of expression, he released her, flinging her hand into her lap.
'Please—Jared,' she began again, 'don't. You—you frighten me.'
She could feel the terror in her at the barely leashed sexual threat emanating from the lean, taut body beside her.
'You—you look at me sometimes,' she went on in a low tone, her eyes fixed on her fingers, interlacing in her lap, 'as though you're about to pounce on me and tear me apart, limb from limb.'
'What if I do, darling?' But there was no tenderness in the word. 'Surely you know how it is—
man the hunter, woman his prey.'
He lifted his hand and, before she could spring away, lightly circled her ear as she sat, staring rigidly ahead now into the heart of the fire.
'You know, Petra, we could make life very—pleasant for each other these next three months, you and I. Very pleasant.'
His voice dropped again to that sensuous, insidious purr, but with an effort that almost broke her she made herself turn and look straight at him, at eyes that were slivers of grey steel.
'You're totally amoral, aren't you, Jared? You always were, and you always will be. What about Simon? I suppose you'd think it a huge joke if you managed to s—seduce me—or had you conveniently forgotten about him?'
'If I had I'd say that makes two of us,' he replied brutally. 'But in any case, my sweet, you aren't scared of me—although I could make you so if I chose.' For an instant she glimpsed a stranger, even more frightening than the Jared she knew, in those cold eyes. 'What you're terrified of is what you know I can set free in you.'
'No! I tell you, no. That's not true,' she burst out wildly, clapping her hands to her ears. 'I won't listen to you.'
'Oh, but you will.' He wrenched her arms down, then grabbed her by the shoulders, swinging her round. 'It's very deep inside you, locked safely away most of the time, but it's there, ready to respond to a man who'll excite you, challenge you to face him as an equal in a marvellous, fulfilling relationship.'
'But I already have a fulfilling relationship,' she hurled back at him. 'With Simon.'
'For God's sake! Who are you trying to fool? Out there on the beach, here a moment ago—
your body's r e a c t i n g to me all the time. The chemical formula between us is in non-stop overdrive
'No—no, it isn't. You're quite wrong.'
'You were meant to be a passionate sensual woman.'
'I'm not, I tell you. I'm happy as I am.'
'And I tell you you're not, Petra, You've hidden behind that snow maiden exterior of yours for so long that it's gotten to seem like second nature, but we both know that b e h i n d the ice is a raging inferno, just li ke Iseult—'
'Oh, damn Iseult!' she yelled in him face. 'Shut up about her. I know perfectly well why you told me that story, but it won't work. All I have in common with her is auburn hair and green eyes. She was a—a randy l i t t l e alley cat, if you want my honest opinion, and—'
'No. You shut up.' In one fierce m o v e m e n t he dragged her to her feet and pushed her in front of the gilt m i n o r which hung over the fireplace. 'Look at yourself, Petra.'
H o l d i n g her in front
