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Liza tried to explain that they had said goodbye in her office, but she knew she wasn't making much sense between hiccups so she said very loudly, 'Goodbye, Bruno,' and put the phone down.
She went to the kitchen and got some water and tried to drink it from the wrong side of the glass, but it made her choke without stopping the hiccups so she tried standing on her head, a trick someone had once told her about. That simply made her dizzy so she tried to make herself jump by dropping a cup on the floor, but it didn't break, it just bounced, and at that moment she heard a violent shrilling.
Someone was ringing the doorbell. She knew it was Bruno; she wouldn't answer it. He would go away in the end.
He didn't and the bell went on ringing and her head was aching now; bang, bang, bang her head went and she held it in both hands, hiccupping. She felt very ill suddenly, and she had to make Bruno stop ringing the bell so she staggered down the hall and yanked the door open.
'Please stop doing that!' she moaned without looking because she had had to close her eyes in case the whirling of the flat made her sick.
In the same moment somebody kicked the door shut and picked her up bodily. Liza's eyes flew open in shock and the hiccups stopped. She knew it was Keir before she saw him; she felt her whole body respond to the strength of his hands as they seized her.
'No,' she moaned, but he walked into the bedroom with her and sat down on the bed with Liza cradled on his lap.
'Are you crazy?' he asked harshly, those dangerous blue eyes inches away. 'Why have you been drinking?'
i hate you,' she said with violence, her dazed eyes eating him. He looked so familiar, as if she had known him a thousand years—and yet he looked like a stranger, as if she had never set eyes on him before. There were mysterious hollows in his cheeks, a darkness in his eyes, a threat in the tension of his body.
'How much?' he asked and kissed her, sending fever running through her veins. His mouth was hot and insistent, it wouldn't take no for an answer and her lips quivered helplessly as he took them.
'And why?' he asked as if the kiss had never happened, looking down at her out of hard blue eyes. 'Because I sent Bruno away? You aren't in love with him, so it has to be the money you wanted. Would you really marry a man for his money, Liza? Do you need money? Or do you just want to be rich?'
She was so offended, so angry, so hurt, that she spat back, 'That's right, I want to be rich. Why not? Why shouldn't I want to be rich? If it's OK for you to want money, why isn't is OK for me?' She had been shocked into a return of sanity; s
he wasn't drunk any more, but she felt very tired and still faintly ill.
is that why you've worked so hard to build up your agency? Are you obsesssed with success and money like everybody else?' He sounded disappointed, as if she had betrayed him, let him down. 'Does it really matter that much to you?'
'None of your business,' she mumbled, finding it hard to think because she was too conscious of his hand below her breast; one thumb was pressing slightly against the full, warm flesh and she couldn't think about anything else. She shut her eyes and at once she imagined her breast naked in his hand, and a strangled groan escaped her and she opened her eyes hurriedly.
'You're not going to be sick, are you?' Keir asked, sounding dismayed.
'Probably,' she threatened, staring at the incisive force of his features and wishing she didn't find them so deeply attractive.
'Bruno said you sounded ill or drunk,' he muttered, frowning blackly.
'Bruno did? When? Did he ask you to come?' She was bewildered by that and angry, too. Why should Bruno have asked him to come round to her flat?
'I was there when he rang you' Keir said. 'He was going to invite you down to Hartwell for his last weekend in this country.'
Liza's eyes opened wide. 'You agreed?'
it was my idea,' he said, watching her intently.
'But . . . why?' Liza was confused; suspicious. 'You wanted to get Bruno away from me, that's why you're sending him to New York. So why suggest he invites me down to Hartwell? What's the catch?'
He didn't answer that, but then she hadn't really expected him to, because Keir Gifford was devious and if he had agreed to let Bruno invite her to his country house he must have had some secret motive for doing so. She didn't know him very well yet, but she knew that much—Keir Gifford always had a very good reason for everything he did, but he certainly wouldn't admit to her why he had been ready to accept her as a guest in his own home.
'Do you often drink alone?' he asked and she looked angrily at him, turning her head to do so and finding his face far too close.
'I've never done it before,' she threw at him, a pulse beating in her throat as she stared at him.
"Why now, then?' His voice was low, husky, worrying, and he shifted his position, making her intensely aware of the intimacy with which he held her on his lap, the warmth of his body reaching hers through the layers of clothes between them. Her head was against his shoulder, she could hear the rapid beating of his heart and her own heart racing that tattoo of deep sound.
'Let go,' she said, trying to get up, but in the little struggle she fell sideways on to the bed and a second later found herself sprawling on her back with Keir arching over her.
Her ears drummed with immediate fear and excitement. 'Don't!' she gasped, shuddering, her hands against his shoulder, holding him away. She had never in her life been so passionately aware of a man's body or so terrified. She could feel his hands everywhere on her; stroking and caressing, exploring. But Keir wasn't touching her at all. He was leaning over her with his hands pressed into the bed on either side of her head. So why was her body burning and trembling? What was happening to her? Her mind was going.
'Go away,' she told him hoarsely and Keir smiled very slowly, as if he knew what she was imagining, how she felt. Could he read her mind? She shut her eyes because perhaps they were betraying her in a double sense; showing her Keir and making her want him, and at the same time telling Keir what was going on inside her.
