On Equal Terms. Catherine O'Connor

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СКАЧАТЬ father had first remarried, but she had been a child and not used to sharing her father’s affection with anyone. The adjustment to sharing his love had not been easy but she had grown to accept his new relationship, hard though it had been. She had carefully hidden her pain behind a mask of outrage.

      ‘Then why did you run away?’ Sebastian challenged. ‘When you should have come home?’ he added.

      ‘I couldn’t,’ she protested angrily, not wanting to explain, to let him know he had won everything—the business and her father.

      ‘You mean wouldn’t!’ he returned.

      ‘You don’t understand—surely—’ Kate began, but Sebastian interrupted, anger sharpening his voice to a rapier edge, cutting deeply into her heart.

      ‘Oh, grow up! You just ran away,’ he snapped.

      ‘I didn’t run away,’ she protested indignantly. She was ashamed to admit the truth that her father had not wanted her here. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing the awful truth…‘I chose to live away from home, and I’m twenty this year—hardly a child,’ she informed him crisply, ignoring the mocking rise of his dark eyebrows. ‘I’ve grown up a lot in the last couple of years—’ she began to explain, suddenly wanting him to know the work she had been doing. She was so proud of it. She had to make him realise the past was behind them.

      ‘Physically, perhaps,’ Sebastian cut m, his eyes making a swift inventory of her slender body. But Kate ignored his appraisal; she was still too angry with him. He was putting her down, refusing to acknowledge that she was no longer a child, totally disregarding what she was saying, and she was incensed.

      ‘I’m not a child any more, Sebastian,’ she managed to say calmly, despite her annoyance and the fact that her stomach felt weak under his cold scrutiny.

      ‘You certainly behave like one,’ he said sharply.

      ‘I don’t!’ Kate came back, hating the way her impulsive denial sounded so immature. Sebastian’s expression showed his dry amusement at her remark. Kate seethed. He would never know how she had longed to return home, but there had been a myriad other reasons, too, why she couldn’t, reasons that he still seemed oblivious to. What about the relationship that had been developing between them? It hurt that he didn’t seem to have thought of that at all. It was true that she had not been welcome here, but she had also wanted some independence. A chance to show her parents that she had changed, become responsible, that she was no longer the spoilt, selfish child. The work she did now made her realise just how privileged she had been, which made her feel uncomfortably guilty sometimes.

      ‘Then you don’t consider running off and upsetting your father childish behaviour? I’ve wasted quite a lot of money over the last few months searching for you,’ Sebastian growled. His face was dark with intent, lightened only by the fierce light that flamed in his blue eyes. Kate felt her anger bubble up again inside her. It seemed to feed off him. He just wasn’t prepared to listen. He wouldn’t even give her the chance to explain.

      ‘I’m sorry you wasted your money. You should have left me where I was and your money in the bank,’ she replied.

      ‘Left you in that tawdry flat, with that man? How long do you think you would have survived?’ Sebastian asked.

      ‘I happen to like that flat. OK, it was a little rundown, but it was cheap,’ she defended herself. Terry, her boss, shared all the expenses, making it very economical.

      ‘I’ can believe that.’ A smile touched the corners of Sebastian’s mouth as he enjoyed her flaring temper. Kate knew what he was implying and she was furious. Did he not realise that she worked? That Terry and she were merely flatmates? She would not lower herself to explain. It might do him good to think she had a relationship with Terry. She tossed her head back as she spun away from him and marched over to her dressing-table, throwing herself down heavily on the chair. It creaked in protest. She glared at his reflection in the mirror.

      ‘I’d rather be on my own,’ she told him aloofly as she picked up a hairbrush and made a desultory attempt at brushing her damp hair. She hoped that her cold attitude was coolly dismissive but Sebastian remained impassive.

      ‘Quite the Greta Garbo, aren’t we?’ he mocked, his generous mouth widening still further while her mouth thinned to a grim line. He folded his arms across his muscular chest, his stance warning her that he had no intention of leaving. She knew how stubborn Sebastian could be.

      ‘Shut up, Sebastian. Shut up and get out,’ Kate shouted, unable to stand his presence any longer. His taunting smile only reflected his lack of understanding. He raked his fingers through his hair and shook his head, tutting softly at her outburst.

      ‘Now that’s not very polite, is it?’ he teased. ‘I see your manners haven’t improved. Clare was right—you should have gone to a finishing school.’

      But Kate was in no mood to be taunted. She was determined to wipe the smile from his arrogant face.

      ‘Clare still managed to get rid of me,’ she turned to remind him. She hoped the jibe would hit home. But her sense of victory was quickly squashed. For a moment there was a flicker of annoyance on his face but then he grinned, his eyes bright with humour.

      ‘Of course! It was the wicked stepmother,’ he said dramatically, laughing as he raised his hand to his forehead, as he were part of a Victorian melodrama.

      ‘Well, it was, wasn’t it?’ she said coolly, trying to ignore his mocking attitude and the obvious amusement she was affording him.

      ‘Yes, my mother did suggest you should go away for a while. It was a sensible decision in the circumstances,’ he said, his voice taking on another edge. His tone warned her that he had totally agreed with that decision. So, he was as much to blame as Clare, perhaps even more so. Kate tried to suffocate the flush of discomfort she was feeling. She rallied, suddenly wanting to turn the tables on him.

      ‘And what circumstances were they?’ she asked, her eyes bright with a challenging gleam.

      Sebastian sighed loudly and shook his head. He viewed her like an adult looking at a disobedient child. He sunk his hands deep into his trousers pockets, till the material of his trousers was stretched across his flat stomach.

      ‘Why, Kate, do you insist on making life difficult?’ he growled, his jaw tensing with annoyance. ‘Aren’t there enough problems in the world without you adding to them?’ he continued. His tone was weary, as if she were still a besotted schoolgirl in total awe of him.

      ‘Problems? Doesn’t that just sum it up? In your eyes I was a problem, so you all decided to ship me off to school,’ Kate retorted, flicking her hair back from her shoulders as she stood up to face him. ‘But naughty Kate wouldn’t do as she was told,’ she taunted. How, in reality, she had hated going away, leaving him and her family and friends. The same sense of hurt and betrayal still gnawed away at her, despite the fact that it had been almost two years ago. He had remained here, at home, while she had become the outcast, struggling to prove to him that she was an equal.

      ‘It wasn’t like that, Kate, and you know it,’ Sebastian reminded her, his voice dangerously quiet and his features softening.

      ‘Wasn’t it?’ she returned, wrinkling her nose in an expression of scorn as she moved closer to him, her body aching for a response, even if all she got was an arousal of his wrath.

      ‘No,’ СКАЧАТЬ