The Mistress Scandal. KIM LAWRENCE

tresses came adrift. The rich warm cloud reached all the way to her slender waist.

      ‘I am.’

      The throaty confession surprised her. He didn’t look or sound drunk, she decided, but there was a certain wild, reckless gleam in his eyes. There were other things there too …

      Alice’s throat felt very dry when she spoke.

      ‘Were you caught in the blizzard too?’

      ‘No, I have a room …’

      ‘They’re turning the lounge into a dormitory for us.’ Personally she didn’t care if she slept on the snooker table.

      ‘British resourcefulness at its most impressive.’ The sultry intensity of his dark-eyed regard had not left her face for a second. ‘Would you like to share my room?’

      Alice couldn’t tell from his expression if he really expected her to take his offer seriously.

      ‘Yes.’

      If you discounted please she’d continued to say yes at all the vital moments during the rest of that long night.

      Alice dismissed the distracting images from her head by sheer will-power alone. ‘I’m in shock,’ she said with icy dignity. ‘I didn’t expect …’

      ‘Your sordid past to knock on the door?’ His helpful suggestion earned him a bitter glare. ‘Think how I felt! Greg had led me to believe you might be able to fit me in between baking for the church fête and …’ He paused with a frown. ‘Sorry, my knowledge of wholesome rural activities is a bit sketchy.’

      His patronising drawl made Alice grit her teeth.

      ‘And what do I get …?’ The mocking smile faded slowly from his face as he looked at her. ‘A lot more than I bargained for,’ he admitted huskily. ‘You were the most uninhibited lover I’ve ever had.’

      His uninhibited lover went scarlet, and a mortified squeak emerged from her throat.

      ‘Don’t say things like that to me!’ she ordered fiercely.

      ‘Why? Afraid your husband will arrive home unexpectedly? I’d have thought you thrived on the danger.’ He looked into her miserable panic-stricken eyes and then looked away, as though what he’d seen there he’d not been expecting. ‘Don’t panic. I’m not the kiss and tell type.’

      Alice tried to retrieve the shattered threads of her dignity. ‘I think you’ve lost track of why you came here.’

      ‘I think I’ve lost interest,’ he replied outrageously.

      ‘My sister’s future is not a subject I feel like joking about,’ she told him repressively.

      ‘I wasn’t joking,’ he muttered, following her into the big kitchen with its farmhouse table and obligatory Aga. ‘If it’s any comfort,’ he remarked, picking up a fluffy teddy bear Alice had missed from the floor and twitching a chewed brown ear, ‘I’ve told Greg he’s been criminally irresponsible. It’s bad enough the girl’s only a kid, but to not take precautions!’ His lips curled scornfully. ‘Have I said something funny?’ he enquired icily.

      ‘No,’ she managed, with only the faintest quiver of hysteria in her voice. Hopefully Gabriel MacAllister would never appreciate the irony of his scathing assessment.

      ‘Is she anything like you?’ he suddenly enquired.

      ‘Who?’

      ‘The sister.’

      ‘No, nothing like me at all. Sophie is very clever and sweet.’

      ‘Trusting and a bit dim if she fell for Greg,’ he announced with callous objectivity.

      Alice inhaled sharply. Even though she suspected he was baiting her she couldn’t help responding defensively.

      ‘Do they hand out Oxford scholarships to dimwits?’ she enquired acidly. How dare he criticise her sister? ‘If my sister fell for your slimy brother’s dubious charms you can put it down to lack of experience, not her IQ—she is, after all, eighteen. You know what I think of a … Heavens, he’s nearly my age, for God’s sake!’ she exclaimed in disgust.

      ‘Surely not that old?’ he returned, straight-faced. With no make-up and her simply cut hair emphasising the soft contours of her face and long, lovely neck she could have passed for a teenager herself.

      ‘I have to tell you once more I don’t find anything humorous in this situation. Also, I’ve not the faintest idea why you came here. It’s nothing to do with us what they decide to do.’

      ‘On the contrary, it’s got everything to do with me. My … our mother considers me responsible for everything Greg does.’ He was only half joking. Greg had been born with a heart defect, and despite the fact that surgery had corrected the situation years ago protective old habits died hard.

      ‘And you’re scared of your mother, I suppose?’

      ‘I’ve a healthy respect,’ he told her drily. ‘And I think you underestimate your influence. According to Greg, your sister listens to what you say, and as the lady herself is nowhere to be seen at the moment … This is a situation that needs sorting out sooner rather than later.’

      ‘What exactly do you mean by sorting out?’ she asked distrustfully.

      Gabriel’s expression made it clear he understood the nature of her suspicions. ‘Not what you think.’ His wry tone made Alice flush.

      ‘I think you misunderstand my relationship with my sister, Mr MacAllister … Granted, we’re close, but that doesn’t mean …’

      ‘Under the circumstances I think you’d better make it Gabe, don’t you …?’ A slow, intimate smile curved his beautifully cut lips. ‘Or do you prefer Gabriel? I’m easy.’

      So was I … The words sprang unbidden into Alice’s mind.

      The heat of humiliation surged once more in her cheeks. If he acted like this in front of other people he might just as well shout from the rooftops that they’d slept together. People weren’t stupid. Someone, some time was bound to put two and two together and come up with Will! She struggled to keep the panic steadily building up inside under control.

      ‘Just because your brother is happy—or maybe unhappy—to let you tell him what he thinks, don’t think it works that way in other less dysfunctional families. Sophie has a mind of her own!’ she choked.

      ‘I’m glad to hear it,’ Gabriel remarked drily. ‘It’s always useful if one person in a partnership has guts.’

      ‘Do you always pull your brother to shreds like that?’ Alice enquired critically.

      ‘Only to his face, as a rule. Generally I lie through my teeth on his behalf, but as we’re the next best thing to family I feel I can speak freely to you.’

      Alice found herself wishing passionately he wouldn’t.

      ‘Family …? How do you make that out?’ she asked, deeply alarmed at this theory.

      ‘Greg is my half-brother; the mum-to-be is your sister. We’re going to share a nephew-stroke-niece. In my book that makes us family.’

      ‘They might not decide to marry.’

      His impatient shrug suggested she was missing the obvious. ‘There’ll still be a baby. Being a father carries with it responsibilities. Greg will want to support them, both financially and practically. He’s not the one carrying the baby but no man wants to be a stranger to his own child.’

      Alice had heard of one or two who wouldn’t have minded at all. She was surprised and disturbed by the vehemence in Gabriel’s voice as he expressed these sentiments—ones he obviously meant. She found herself experiencing an inconvenient pang of guilt and ruthlessly suppressed it … The circumstances