For One Night. PENNY JORDAN

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      She was sitting staring out of the window, lost in her own thoughts when the door opened. She felt the draught of air, even before she heard the firm masculine footsteps and turned round.

      The cup tilted crazily in her hand, the room blurring out of focus as the shock hit her. He stood in the doorway, frowning down at her, his recognition as complete and instantaneous as her own.

      “You …” Diana said at last. How, how had this happened? How on earth could this man standing here be that same man from the hotel bedroom in London? It was like the worst kind of nightmare; stretching the long arm of coincidence far too far. And he obviously thought so too.

      “Well, well, congratulations on your detective work,” he jeered, sarcastically, overcoming his shock faster than she had controlled her own. “So you managed to track me down. I suppose I ought to have expected it.”

      He was dressed in worn jeans and a plaid shirt, open to the waist to show the leanness of his chest. Tiny beads of sweat clung to his kin, and there was a streak of mud across his cheekbone. His hair was ruffled, his eyes bitingly dark, his stance that of a man who knows he’s threatened but is determined not to give way.

      Diana noticed all these things without really being aware of doing so, her mind only registering the meaning of his words minutes after she had heard them.

      “What do you mean?” She stood up, trembling with shock and rage. How dared he appear like this, ruining all her plans, ruining all her happiness! She wanted to close her eyes and make him disappear. She couldn’t believe he was real; she didn’t want him to be real. She was ready to stamp her foot like a petulant child, only he wasn’t going to go away. He was still standing in that doorway, watching her with brooding resentment, and he thought …

      He actually dared to think she had deliberately sought him out … had actually and deliberately tracked him down! She froze with bitter resentment, and then another and even more appalling truth struck her. He was a married man, and she was carrying his child. No wonder he was so resentful of her appearance. A married man who cheated on his wife. Her mouth curled disdainfully as she controlled her shock.

      “Mr. Simons,” she said firmly, “I think there’s been some mistake.”

      “You’re damned right there has,” he agreed, cutting through the polite facade of her words. “And you’re the one who’s made it. I don’t know what you think you’re doing following me down here, but you can just turn right round and go back where you came from.”

      Oh yes, he would like that. Diana was seething. How dared he infer that she was chasing after him! Her eyes flashed warning signals, her lungs expanding as she fought for self-control.

      “Unfortunately, you’re wrong,” she told him crisply. “This is now my home.”

      She saw the shock glitter in his eyes, and if she hadn’t been so angry she might almost have felt hurt. After all, when they had made love he had been glad enough to have her in his arms … more than glad. She clamped down fiercely on the memories.

      “I’ve just bought a business down here,” her chin tilted aggressively, “that’s why I’m here, in fact. My builder told me that you have some beams for sale.”

      “A business?” His frown had deepened. “My God, don’t tell me you’re the one who’s bought Alice Simms’s shop?”

      “As a matter of fact I am.”

      She heard him groan and push strong fingers into his hair.

      “I learned it was for sale through my solicitor, Mr ….”

      “Soames,” he finished wearily for her. “Christ, of all the coincidences. I don’t think I believe this.”

      “You know him?”

      “Know him?” He laughed harshly. “Didn’t he tell you that I was his cotrustee in Alice’s estate?”

      For a moment Diana was completely dumbfounded. Of course Mr. Soames had mentioned his cotrustee and she had even known that he lived here at Whitegates Farm, but the shock of coming face-to-face with the very last person on earth she had wanted to see had driven that knowledge out of her mind.

      Her white face and strained eyes must have told their own story, because suddenly his attitude changed.

      “Look, coming face-to-face like this has obviously been a shock—to both of us.” He reached out as though to take her arm, but Diana wrenched away from him furiously.

      Oh, he wanted to placate her now that he realized he was in the wrong—and no wonder. No doubt he was terrified that she might spill the beans to his wife. God, what sort of man was he? She had never dreamed that he might be married. More fool her for not immediately guessing the truth.

      “A minute ago you were convinced that I’d pursued you down here,” she reminded him bitterly.

      “We have to talk ….”

      Oh yes, he wanted to talk to her now that he realized they were going to be neighbors, no doubt to ensure that she kept her mouth shut about their night together. He made her feel grubby and deceitful, she realized miserably. She hated the very thought of what had happened between them now that she knew he was committed to another woman.

      “We have nothing to talk about,” she told him curtly. “As far as I’m concerned we are two complete strangers, meeting now for the first time.”

      There, that should make her position clear enough to him; that should soothe his fears. The thought that he had actually surmised that she had pursued him … that she might actually try to make trouble for him with his wife, regardless of the latter’s feelings, sickened her.

      He was looking at her in a way she found hard to define; a mixture of rueful comprehension and masculine amusement.

      Oh yes, now that he knew he had nothing to fear from her, he no doubt felt he was in a far more powerful and safe position. She hated the thought that they were conspirators in something she considered morally wrong. She had never been involved with a married man. She was fiercely glad now that she had adopted the mantle of widowhood. He would never know that she had conceived his child. Never.

      He was shaking his head slightly, and grinning ruefully at her. “I never imagined when I asked Derek Soames to sell Alice’s place that this would happen.”

      “No, I’m sure you didn’t,” Diana agreed crisply, heading for the door. “However, it has. Oh, and for the record, Mr. Simons,” she told him from the open doorway, “I do not run after any member of your sex, but most particularly those members of it who happen to be married. I hope I make myself clear.”

      “As mud,” he told her with a frown. “You and I need to talk.”

      “No!”

      She’d done all the talking she intended to do. For a moment, she thought he actually intended physically to prevent her from leaving, but at the last moment he seemed to change his mind, and he let her walk through the still open door.

      More by good luck than anything else she found her way back to the front door. She was still shaking five minutes later when she drove her car out of the open gates.

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