mouth wouldn’t admit. We’re not so different, Cory.’
‘You’re talking about sex.’
‘Yes, I am,’ he said with no apology in his tone, ‘and it’s a damn good place to start. But there’s more than that between us and you know it.’
‘Whatever is between us I don’t want it to continue.’ She stared at him, desperate, her heart breaking. She had to go through with this now; it was the only way, so why did it feel so wrong, so cruel? She hadn’t expected him to look at her the way he was looking now. It made her feel so horribly guilty.
‘What was all that about earlier in the walled garden then?’ he said furiously, anger coming to the fore for the first time. ‘When you said you were wrong about your career being your life?’
‘I didn’t say that exactly.’
‘The hell you didn’t.’
‘I said perhaps I’d been wrong about it, but on reflection I don’t think so. I’ve been thinking about everything this afternoon and now I know what I want.’ And it’s you. For ever and ever. Impossible.
‘Well, bully for you.’ There was a look on his face which made her want to cringe. He despised her. Hated her even.
‘I…I thought you’d at least try and see it my way.’
‘Sorry to disappoint you,’ he said bitterly.
‘Nick, I didn’t want it to end like this.’
Her lip trembled but then he almost made her jump out of her skin when he barked. ‘Enough. No tears. Damn it, it’d be the last straw. Drink your coffee.’
He walked out of the room without looking at her again and she heard him go up the stairs, presumably to his room. A minute later he came back with a jacket slung over his arm and, his face set, he said, ‘Are you ready to leave?’
She nodded, walking past him and then out of the house to the car. He opened the door for her and shut it once she was in her seat, striding round the bonnet with a face like thunder.
She felt herself shrinking when he joined her, the only thought in her head being, how was she going to get through the next three hours until she was home?
CHAPTER NINE
THE journey back to London was the sort of unmitigated nightmare Cory wouldn’t have wished on her worst enemy—not even Margaret. At least the mood Nick was in meant that it didn’t take as long as on the way down. In fact he cut a good half an hour off the time, and he hadn’t driven slowly before. Cory was sure she saw at least two or three cameras flash, but she didn’t mention it.
When they reached her flat he got out of the car and fetched her case from the boot, walking with her to the front door. ‘I’ll stand in the hall until you’ve gone upstairs and opened your door.’
‘You don’t have to.’ She had been fighting the tears all the way home and her voice was a husky whisper.
‘Just open the damn door.’
Cory was all fingers and thumbs with the key hindered as she was by the mist in her eyes, but eventually the door was open and she walked into the hall, Nick behind her.
‘Here.’ He handed her the case, his face cold.
She walked over to the stairs and then turned on the bottom step to face him. She couldn’t let him go like this, she just couldn’t. Her face tragic, she said, ‘I’m sorry. I mean it, I’m sorry.’
‘Go on up, Cory,’ he said flatly.
‘Nick, please—’
‘What the hell do you want from me, woman?’ he growled before an answering growl came from the direction of the downstairs flat.
Oh, no, please, not now. Cory cast agonised eyes towards the Wards’ flat just as Arnie went into full action, the sound of the big do’s savage barking horribly loud in the dead of the night, She could hear Nick swearing even above the din the German Shepherd was making, but before she could say anything the door to the flat opened and there stood Mr Ward holding on to Arnie’s collar, Mrs Ward standing behind him clutching what looked like a rolling pin.
Cory saw Nick shut his eyes briefly.
‘Cory, is that you?’ Mr Ward peered into the hall, his eyes enormous behind the strong glasses he wore. ‘Is everything all right?’ he shouted.
‘Everything’s fine, Mr Ward.’ She found she was yelling at the top of her voice to make herself heard.