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Angie sighed and shook her head. ‘I doubt it will do any good. He’s very angry with me.’
‘No. He’s very angry with me. And with good reason.’
She halted, her head snapping round to stare up at him with questioning eyes.
‘That summer,’ he explained with a weary sigh, ‘after we got back to uni, Bud had some photos developed that he’d taken of all of us during my stay at the farm. They showed in living colour what he hadn’t noticed in the flesh; that you and I had... feelings... for each other. He accused me of having already seduced you. I assured him that I hadn’t, but he still went right off his brain. He told me if I ever touched you he’d kill me. He pointed out how young you were, and how innocent. He made me see you deserved a whole lot better than a cad and a spoiled bastard like me. Frankly, Angie, I agreed with him. I still do. And so do you. That’s why you won’t marry me.’
Angie was shaking her head and trying not to cry. So that was what had happened all those years ago...
‘But I’m not as bad as Bud’s made me out to be,’ Lance added ruefully. ‘I think I might even be redeemable. I just hope it’s not too late.’
Angie looked up at him again, frowning her confusion at his cryptic remarks. ‘Too late for what?’
‘Too late to win what I want,’ he said seductively, the brilliant blue of his eyes darkening as they caressed her. ‘You, Angie. I want you...’ And his mouth bent to hers.
She flinched back from his kiss in the end, frightened by his growing sexual power over her. For she wanted him back—right now and in the most basic way. How could she possibly want him like that? Here, of all places, with her mother lying ill down the hallway, and with his giving her nothing but bewildering and probably hollow promises about redeeming himself.
What kind of redemption was there for a man like him? she thought savagely. He was still going back to Melbourne tomorrow. In the end, any feelings he had for her weren’t strong enough to keep him here, by her side.
No doubt he would send for her. Till she could move down there permanently there would be plane tickets and hotel reservations for romantic weekend rendezvous. And, weak fool that she was, she would fly to him and let him use her shamelessly. She actually felt perversely excited by the prospect.
Her laugh carried both nerves and a bitter acceptance of her own folly. ‘Then you’ve got what you want, Lance. I’ve already agreed to become your lover.’ She refused to use the word ‘mistress’, which had connotations she did not like. It was too removed from love, sounding like a business arrangement rather than a personal one.
‘An agreement I will never let you back away from,’ he ground out, pulling her into his arms. ‘No matter what.’
His kiss, this time, allowed no room for escape. It dominated and devoured, giving her a further taste of what was to come. She was trembling inside by the time he let her go, and it wasn’t all from desire.
Dear God, what had she done, becoming involved with Lance like this? She might not have told him in so many words that she loved him but he knew it. Everything he did and said betrayed that knowledge. She wanted to scream, but instead she wound her arms up around his neck and pulled his mouth back down on hers, kissing him as violently and possessively as he had kissed her. When she finally wrenched her mouth away, her heart and head were pounding.
‘Don’t go thinking my agreeing to be your lover is a licence to treat me badly, Lance,’ she bit out breathlessly. ‘I will have your respect, or you can go to hell!’
‘If I ever fail to respect you, my darling, I’ll willingly go there myself!’
Angie was taken aback by the fierceness of his vow. If she’d been a complete fool, she might almost have thought he truly loved her. Common sense, however, told her that Lance didn’t have the capacity for that kind of love. He’d never grown up with it and had married without it. His wanting her didn’t mean that he loved her.
But she could pretend, couldn’t she? Pretend he loved her as much as she loved him. He did care for her, in his way. And he did want her. That much she could attest to. If last night was anything to go by, he wanted her one heck of a lot!
