Red-Hot Affairs: The Crown Affair / Craving Her Enemy's Touch / A Lone Star Love Affair. Lucy King

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      Laura bristled. Was she really so boringly predictable? ‘That’s not fair. I do try different things.’

      ‘Like what?’ Kate’s eyes zoomed in on her.

      Like jumping into bed with scorchingly hot neighbours. Not that she intended to use that as an example. ‘Fine.’ She shrugged as if she couldn’t be less bothered, and took a sip of her drink. ‘I don’t. Boring and predictable, that’s me.’

      Kate’s blue gaze turned piercing. ‘I think you lie.’

      ‘Think what you like.’

      ‘Come on,’ said Kate, adding a wheedling smile to the penetrating stare. ‘I know something’s up and it’s got “man” written all over it. I’m not going to give up until you tell me so you might as well give in now and get it over with.’

      Not for the first time, Laura could see why Kate was so successful at what she did. Dogs and bones sprang to mind. Stifling a sigh, she weighed up her options. Denial and a battle with Kate’s formidable persistence, which would last all evening, or half an hour of interrogation, which would be sharp but probably short and would allow her to enjoy the rest of her sea bass.

      Hmm. If she wanted to be on top form for tomorrow she didn’t have much of a choice. ‘OK,’ she said, bracing herself, ‘you’re right.’

      ‘Aha.’ Kate grinned in triumph. ‘I knew it.’ She signalled for two more drinks and sat back. ‘You’d better tell me everything.’

      Ten minutes and two cocktails later, Laura had finished her rundown of almost everything, and was now watching her friend with faint amusement. She didn’t think she’d ever seen Kate lost for words before. She was sitting there, her eyes wide and her jaw almost on the floor. Even the arrival of their food didn’t snap Kate out of her state of shock.

      Laura decided to leave her to it and tucked in. Popping a forkful of fish in her mouth, she sighed in appreciation. As annoyingly hip as the restaurant was, the food was spectacular.

      ‘Well,’ said Kate, eventually pulling herself together and regaining the ability to speak.

      ‘Your lamb is getting cold,’ Laura pointed out.

      ‘Sod the lamb,’ Kate said, still looking on utterly shell-shocked. ‘Let me get this straight. You ogle. You engage in confrontation. You stand your ground. And then you have sex with a man you’ve only just met.’

      ‘Yes.’ Laura took another mouthful and decided that for all the benefits of the countryside, it didn’t do food like this.

      Kate’s mouth opened then closed. ‘To be honest I don’t know which part of the whole thing I’m more shocked by.’

      ‘I thought it was time for a change.’ Hah. Who was predictable now?

      ‘Have you seen him since?’

      ‘No.’ She’d known he’d stayed the rest of the weekend but he’d kept himself to himself. Not that she’d been keeping a special eye out or anything.

      ‘Do you intend to?’

      ‘Absolutely not. It was a one-night—afternoon—stand. Non-repetition is kind of the point.’

      There was another long silence as Kate absorbed this information. ‘Who are you and what have you done with my friend?’

      ‘Ha-ha.’

      ‘I knew moving to the country was dangerous,’ Kate muttered, picking up her knife and fork and attacking her lamb. ‘You’re unhinged.’

      Undoubtedly. But that had happened long before she’d met Matt. ‘If I am,’ said Laura darkly as the image of her ex-boyfriend in bed with his secretary flashed into her head, ‘it has nothing to do with geography.’

      Kate gave her a sympathetic smile. ‘No, well, I suppose I can see why you might need a bit of an ego boost. Lying cheating bastard.’

      Laura couldn’t help smiling at the disgust in Kate’s voice. ‘Yup.’

      ‘You know, I still can’t believe he did that. To you of all people.’ Kate shook her head in bafflement. ‘I mean, you’re one of the most easy-going people I know.’

      ‘Too easy-going apparently.’

      ‘What?’

      ‘Paul said that I was partly to blame for his affair.’

      Kate’s jaw dropped. ‘The cheek,’ she muttered. ‘How did he work that one out?’

      ‘He said I was too acquiescent. That if I’d stood up to him a bit more, been a bit more demanding, he might have thought twice about bonking his secretary.’

      ‘The complete and utter snake.’

      Laura caught her lip between her teeth and frowned. ‘But maybe he did have a point. He kept calling me babe, and not once did I tell him not to even though I hated it.’

      ‘It used to make me wince.’

      ‘Me, too.’ Laura grimaced. ‘Anyway I’ve had time to think about it and, you know, I have been a bit of a pushover.’

      ‘Rubbish.’

      ‘So why do I end up giving the old people in the village lifts left, right and centre?’

      ‘Because you’re a nice person.’

      ‘Huh.’ Laura frowned. ‘I have a backbone of rubber. Well, not any more.’

      ‘So what’s the plan?’

      ‘I’ve already put it into action.’

      ‘So I can see.’

      ‘Not that,’ she said, batting back a blush. ‘The minute I moved to the country I enrolled on an assertiveness course.’

      Kate’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Wow.’

      ‘I know.’ Laura nodded. ‘We learned to Embrace Confrontation, Say No With Confidence and to Go For What You Want.’

      ‘So you embraced confrontation and went for the afternoon of hot sex that you wanted.’

      ‘Quite.’ Something kicked in the pit of her stomach.

      Kate grinned. ‘I can’t imagine there was a whole lot of saying no, either with confidence or without it.’

      ‘Not a lot.’ Just rather a lot of breathy yeses.

      ‘Well, I’m not sure about the rest of it, but that’s one way to get a lousy ex out of your system.’

      ‘That’s what I thought.’

      Kate tilted her head and looked at Laura with something resembling admiration. ‘Reckless. Totally out of character. I like it.’

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