Part 9 (2/2)

One of them was a small blonde mouse of a child, who seemed to have no opinions of her own and who apparently needed to corroborate everything she had to say by appealing to her boyfriend for confirmation.

The other, a tall, striking brunette, appeared to be as bored by the exclusively male conversation as she was herself, and Heather quickly discovered that she was not here with a boyfriend, but her brother.

'I was staying in tonight and at something of a loose end. When Guy suggested I join him I agreed, forgetting what bores ex-public schoolboys can be at times.' She made a face. 'I live and work in London and I'm just home for a few days' holiday. This isn't my scene, really. I suspect it isn't yours, either?'

'Not really,' Heather agreed, turning to answer an almost inevitable, 'Have you known David long?' from the mousey blonde at her other side.

'No, I haven't. He rescued me the other night when my car broke down.'

'You don't live locally, then?' she persisted.

'Not normally, at the moment I'm staying with a... a friend. Kyle Bennett.'

The blonde's shocked expression might have been amusing in other circ.u.mstances, and Heather could almost have sworn she moved two paces away from her, as though distancing herself from someone carrying some sort of dread disease.

Written large in her expressive and ingenuous blue eyes were the words 'fast and dangerous'.

How amusing that she of all people, should be so judged! How amusing, and how untrue.

The brunette was obviously made of sterner stuff. Her eyebrows lifted a little, but her only comment was a rather envious one. 'Kyle Bennett. I've heard of him of course, but never actually met him. Are you... old friends?'

'You could say so.' Some touch of mischief stopped Heather from explaining too much. 'I've known him since I was... oh, in my early teens.'

'Really?'

Susie, the little blonde, moved a little closer. 'Your parents were friends with his or something, then, were they?'

Quite what made her do it Heather didn't know, perhaps it was the self-confident, irritating air of the men standing behind them, perhaps it was something she had read in Susie's curious eyes, she didn't know. She only knew that she was as appalled as Susie looked when, instead of explaining, she said carelessly instead, 'Oh, no, I've never met Kyle's family. We... lived together for quite some time, but he left and we'd rather lost touch until quite recently.'

Strictly speaking, it was the truth, but Heather was well aware of the connotation that would be put on her revelations. She was right as well.

Behind her the hum of male voices stilled, and as she turned her head she caught David looking at her with an odd, calculating expression in his eyes.

Claire, the brunette, broke the silence by saying casually, 'I'd like to meet him. I believe he's a most interesting man.'

'Very interesting,' Heather agreed, mentally thanking her for the lifeline. 'In fact, one of the reasons I'm here now is that I'm shortly to start work for him.'

She could see that none of them believed her. Behind her, one of the men made a soft comment to his companions, and the appreciative male laughter it caused made the back of her neck burn scarlet with temper and mortification.

The evening couldn't end too quickly for her after that, and when, at half-past ten David suggested that they leave, she was all too happy to comply.

She caught one of the suggestive leers his friends gave him, but ignored it, following him out into the crisp, icy coldness of the winter night.

It had been warm inside the pub, and she s.h.i.+vered as she waited for him to unlock the Land Rover door.

They seemed to have been travelling for an awfully long time, she realised half an hour later. Surely it hadn't taken them this long to reach the pub?

Just as she was about to comment, she saw a crop of buildings ahead of them and expelled her breath in relief. Until then she hadn't known that she was actually feeling tense, but now she recognised that Kyle's warning had taken root and had grown rapidly as she'd listened to the men's conversation.

Her relief was short-lived, however, as she realised that the outline of the buildings was unfamiliar to her.

'David?'

'Don't worry, it's a farmhouse we own, no one actually lives here, so we won't be disturbed.'

For a moment his casual manner almost deceived her, and then, as she turned towards him, she read the cold-blooded intention in his eyes and shrank back from him.

'David, I think you've made a mistake,' she said as evenly as she could. 'Please take me home.'

'Oh, come on.' How quickly he had changed from the charming young man into this leering threatening stranger. 'It's too late to pretend now. And it isn't as though it's going to be the first time. Lived with Bennett, did you? Well, he should have taught you a trick or two well worth knowing.'

She reached blindly for the door, but he beat her to it, taking her wrist in a painful grip.

'David, stop this! I don't...'

'Want me?' he laughed sourly. 'You will, I promise you. Bennett can't be that good in bed.'

What she was hearing horrified her, and if she had had any doubts about David's intentions, these were swiftly banished when he cursed her obscenely under his breath and told her explicitly and graphically just what he expected of her.

It was like a nightmare, and she struggled to hold on to some measure of calm. David couldn't force her to go into the farmhouse with him. She was safer staying here in the Land Rover. She was long past believing that he was far too civilised to want a woman he had to force into making love with him. She had read in his eyes his determination, and suspected that it sprang as much as anything from a boast made to his cronies that he could do so.

It was a type of male att.i.tude that had always sickened her, and now it frightened her as well. She had read about women being raped by men whom they knew, but she had never, ever expected it to happen her. But it would, if she didn't do something...

If only she could get David to leave her alone in the Land Rover... She could drive off then and leave him. But how?

There was only one way. Gritting her teeth, she forced a smile. She was going to play a role she had never, ever even envisaged playing, and the whole of the rest of her life would depend upon how successfully she played it.

'Kyle is good,' she agreed, trying to sound both coy and promising, closing her mind to the sickening sense of despair eating into her as revulsion for what she was doing hit her.

'That's more like it.' A self-satisfied smile curved the weak mouth. Oh, why hadn't she listened to Kyle. Why had she allowed her headstrong self-will, to overrule his cautioning?

'Come on, let's go inside.'

She looked wildly into the dark stretch of ground that lay between them and the house, and then inspiration struck.

'You go first. It's dark. It... it scares me.' She gave a realistic shudder.

'I'll turn on the headlights.'

'Then you'll have to come back and switch them off. I'm scared of strange places. It's so remote and... and wild up here. You scare me, too,' she added softly, sickened by the look of pleasure and gloating darkening his eyes, hating herself for what she was being forced to stoop to.

'All right... but first I want a taste of what you've been giving Bennett.'

He grabbed her before she could stop him, and Heather had to force herself not to push him away. If she fought him now she would lose everything she had been working towards. Even so, her throat tightened and locked against a rising wave of sickness as his mouth fastened over hers. His hands were inside her jacket, rough and unskilled as they touched her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

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