Sharon Kendrick Collection. Sharon Kendrick

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       CHAPTER FOUR

      IT WAS only the sight of a police car on the opposite side of the road that made Romy realise how fast she was going as she rocketed out of St Fiacre’s gates, and she immediately eased her foot off the accelerator.

      Her journey back to London was surprisingly swift, but then it was the rush hour and most of the traffic was flowing in the opposite direction.

      Within an hour of leaving Dominic, Romy was back in her Kensington mews house, kicking off her shoes with a sigh of relief, glad that she now had the luxury of living on her own since her friend Stephanie had fallen in love and moved in with her boyfriend.

      She grabbed a cola from the refrigerator, threw herself down on the large, squashy sofa in the sitting room and sipped thirstily from the can, trying to work out whether or not the meeting with Dominic had done her good.

      She had gone over and over her reasons for going there until she was blue in the face.

      She had told Dominic that her reasons for accepting the job were curiosity and the desire to get him out of her system, but had that been entirely true? Had her pride perhaps been hoping to demonstrate that she was no longer Little Miss Vulnerable, who allowed herself to be seduced by strangers in broken-down lifts?

      She had gone there determined to show him how much she had changed, and in that she had almost succeeded.

      Almost

      But what about the woman who had allowed Dominic to kiss her today, and who had failed so spectacularly in her efforts to resist him? Was she really any different from the eager nineteen-year-old he had first encountered all those years ago?

      The telephone rang and she snatched it up on the first ring. It was Stephanie, her ex-flatmate.

      ‘Expecting someone, Romy?’ She giggled mischievously. ‘Surely not DDD?’

      ‘DDD?’ asked Romy, confused.

      ‘Dear Dominic Dashwood, of course,’ teased Stephanie.

      ‘Dastardly Dominic Dashwood, more like.’ Romy scowled.

      ‘How about Devastating Dominic Dashwood?’ laughed Stephanie. ‘Good grief—I could go on playing this game all evening.’

      ‘Not with me, you couldn’t,’ said Romy darkly. ‘I would have died of boredom long before then.’

      ‘Ooh! Fighting words! Do I take it that your meeting with the man achieved its objective of flushing him out of your system?’

      ‘You make him sound like some sort of toxin,’ complained Romy.

      ‘Now she’s defending him!’ declared Stephanie.

      ‘No, I’m not!’

      ‘So you told him what to do with his house party, right?’

      ‘That would have been highly unprofessional—considering he made the booking months ago,’ said Romy frostily. ‘I do have my reputation to think of, you know!’

      ‘Did he kiss you?’

      ‘None of your business!’

      ‘So he did!’ squeaked Stephanie delightedly. ‘Well, thank heavens for that! I couldn’t bear to think of you saving yourself for him since Mark died, if the man didn’t even do the decent thing and pounce!’

      ‘I have not been saving myself for anyone!’ said Romy indignantly.

      ‘Sure,’ said Stephanie, unconvinced. ‘You just get a kick out of turning down every dishy man who asks you out—’

      ‘Steph!’ said Romy warningly. ‘That’s enough!’

      ‘Oh, all right!’ sighed Stephanie. ‘Fancy going out for a drink later to fill me in on all the gory details? How he looked? What he said—?’

      ‘No, I don’t!’ said Romy immediately. ‘I’ve got some stupid tennis party to sort out for tomorrow. I need to write out all the place-names in my best italic writing tonight.’

      ‘Is that the tennis party in Yorkshire?’

      ‘It is,’ sighed Romy, thinking of the long drive ahead.

      ‘With a certain young, handsome and extremely eligible earl attending?’

      ‘The very same.’ Why was it, Romy wondered fleetingly, that you never fell for the kind of men you knew you really should fall for?

      Stephanie СКАЧАТЬ