Hold Back the Night (8 page)

'Nicole,' Sander warned, his voice low but steely, and his tone gave Domini heart.

'He might take longer,' she said, lifting her chin to the challenge. Green poison was flowing through her veins, infecting her reason. 'He told me I intrigue him.'

Sander muttered something beneath his breath, something Domini could not hear. For a moment Nicole looked as though she would like to scratch Domini's eyes out. Then her expression glazed and she laughed a light, sophisticated laugh. 'Does the child amuse you, Sander? I remember how amused you were when I told you the story about ... '

'That's enough, Nicole!' thundered Sander, truly angry now at the catty undertone of the conversation.

Domini turned cold, knowing in that moment that Sander had been kept well informed of every gaffe she had committed during these past weeks. The biting episode was not the only one; there had been other incidents that had betrayed her naivete. Domini knew that others in the boarding-house gossiped, but she hadn't imagined that Sander did, and she hated the thought of him laughing about her with Nicole behind closed doors.

Nicole didn't heed the warning note in Sander's voice. Her gaze dropped to Domini's mouth, cool and scornful. 'Such pretty little teeth,' she murmured mockingly. 'And so sharp.'

Something inside Domini snapped. 'I don't always bite when I'm kissed,' she flashed back, caution thrown to the winds. 'Ask Sander!'

Sander's face froze into instant stone, but Nicole reacted with a fiery fury that did Domini's vengeful heart good. She rounded on Sander, screaming. 'So that's what you've been doing with the little bitch! Here in the hall, practically beneath my eyes! Man of a thousand lies! So I was right, you have been fancying the child! Obsessed by her! Cheat! Pig!
Batard
!'

Domini's adrenaline was high, and Nicole's words only added fuel to the fires of her vivid imagination. 'He wasn't kissing me just now,' she said succinctly and steadily. 'He was in the middle of telling me he wanted to make love to me.'

'
Mon Dieu
,' Sander muttered.

'Oh … oh ... oh!' Nicole gasped. She directed one more aggrieved look at Sander and fled up the stairs, holding her skirts high.

'Nicole, wait!'

Domini's fleeting sense of triumph evaporated as she realized that Sander was bounding up the stairs, two at a time, in pursuit of his mistress. 'Listen, for God's sake! It isn't quite that simple ... '

The rest of the words were lost as he vanished out of view to the crash of breaking crockery. Domini stared with troubled eyes at the empty staircase, totally unsettled. She knew she had said the wrong thing; these past weeks had taught her that the truth was seldom appreciated. It occurred to her that Sander was going to be very angry with her for being so frank with Nicole, but it couldn't be helped; what was done was done. And as for Nicole . . . well, she had been unkind and deserved some payment for her innuendos.

Besides, Sander would forgive, wouldn't he? He wanted her ... even Nicole had confirmed that conclusion. Oddly, at the moment the thought gave Domini little consolation.

The noise of battle seeped down the stairwell all day long. There was no mistaking the sounds of female fury, and from her room Domini was aware that occasionally other boarders converged in the hall to listen and to whisper, but not to interfere. Too miserable to join the others for meals, she remained in her room all day, her uncertainty and anguish growing with every shrieked imprecation, every muffled curse, every explosion of shattering china. She hoped Nicole's aim was as wild as her temper.

The sounds from the third floor ceased near bedtime, to be replaced by the insistent toot of a car horn down on the dark street. Domini hurried to her window in time to see Nicole fling herself into a taxicab and slam the door behind her. The taxicab pulled away at once.

A new kind of apprehension seized Domini as her eyes turned to the ceiling above her. Would Sander come down to see her now? Ought she to go up and apologize? Exactly how angry was he going to be? He had, she knew, every right to be furious. Domini had long since repented her lack of tact; in fact, she was writhing with inward agony because of it.

There were no further sounds from upstairs, and no one appeared at her door. At length, long after midnight, with the house all in silence, Domini donned her light lawn nightgown and crawled into bed to nurse her misery in the dark. Two sleepless, remorseful hours passed before an alarming new thought occurred to her. Might Nicole have done real damage with the crockery just before her departure? Might Sander be lying unconscious upstairs, slowly bleeding to death?

Instantly she was out of bed, translating impulse into action. Fear was a powerful propellant, and at that moment she was more afraid for Sander than of him. She flew up the stairs on silent bare feet, taking the steps almost as swiftly as he had done, slowing only when she reached the third-floor landing and had to start picking her way past a broken flowerpot in order to reach the door to the living-room.

The scene was a shambles and Sander was nowhere in sight. She found him, finally, in the bedroom, sprawled face-down on the bed with an empty brandy bottle in one hand, still clad in the heavy white turtleneck and brown suede trousers he had been wearing at the Tour Eiffel. Open drawers and spilled lingerie attested to Nicole's hasty and hot-tempered departure.

Holding her breath with apprehension, Domini wrestled Sander's considerable weight over in order to assure herself that alcohol, not crockery, was responsible for his condition. There were no major contusions on his forehead, although the long scratch marks down one cheek testified to the ferocity of Nicole's fingernails. Relieved, she sat back to think.

It occurred to her that Sander's anger might be somewhat tempered if he woke to less of a madhouse. In the litter of the bedroom she found a quilted satin robe and a pair of fur-trimmed satin mules that belonged to Nicole, and put them on to keep her warm and protect her feet. Slowly, and with no great hope of appeasing Sander's righteous rage, she started to tidy up, first in the bedroom, then in the living-room. An hour had passed by the time she was ready to begin on the kitchen, where most of the breakage had occurred.

She was on her knees over a dustpan when she heard the voice behind her. 'You,' groaned a thick male voice, and she turned to see him looming in the doorway, his face rough with the beginnings of stubble.

She came to her feet and said simply, 'I'm sorry.'

'You're sorry!' He laughed harshly, without mirth, and cast his eyes heavenward. Although Domini could smell the odour of brandy hanging heavily in the air, he didn't appear to be drunk, and for that she gave silent thanks. But the raked cheekbone gave him the look of a ruffian, and there was no mistaking the intense hostility in every muscle of his tall, powerful frame.

His eyes came back to rest on her, hot with unconcealed antagonism. 'You spoiled little bitch,' he grated. 'Won't you stop at anything to get what you want?'

Domini had expected criticism, but this was unfair. She drew herself to her proudest height, still many inches short of Sander's despite the slight heels on Nicole's slippers. 'I only told the truth,' she retorted levelly.

'The truth? You little idiot!' His lips drew back into a snarl, briefly baring strong white teeth. His hands were flexing at his sides, as though he would like nothing more than to wring Domini's neck. 'Are you so damn sure the world revolves around you? One impetuous kiss and you think a man has thrown himself at your feet!'

'But that's exactly what you were doing,' Domini replied; with justice, she thought. 'When Nicole interrupted, you were telling me that ... '

'That I wish you would realize a man is not a unicorn! That he can't be seduced into bed just because you offer yourself at every turn! That when I ask you to stay clear of me, I mean it! In my book virginity is no prize ... in fact it's a damn impediment!'

'But you kissed me,' she said, eyes uncertain.

'Only because your mouth got in my way ... and because your lips were damn aggressive! I wasn't in my right mind after all those stairs, and it took a moment to collect my wits. Besides, one impulse isn't an invitation to go to bed, as you assumed on the spot. I'd never have been unfaithful to Nicole ... good God, we've been together for nearly three years.'

Insecurely Domini said, 'But you haven't married her. People marry when they want to be faithful. I thought ...'

Acidly Sander broke through her words. 'Married or not, I wasn't about to have an affair with anyone ... least of all you! There simply seems no nice way to tell you that you are not wantedV

There was real fury glittering in his eyes, and Domini's face drained. Had she misunderstood so much? She stared at him, eyes huge, sick at her own naivete, sick with realization. What she had interpreted as desire had been only impulse; what she had interpreted as a proposition had been only kindness, an easy letting-down of a young girl who had been too forward.

'I didn't understand,' she said, her face white.

'Even if you misunderstood, you had no right to do as you did,' he gritted. He had moved several paces towards Domini, and there was menace in the brandy smell of his breath. His hand closed over her shoulder, the work-roughened fingers rasping against the silky surface of the cloth. 'Did it never occur to you that I might actually love Nicole? That she might actually love me!'

Domini shook her head in denial, a little fear touching her eyes. It was her first experience of real fear and she could no longer speak. Sander's harshness had caused the words to clog in her throat. She was alarmingly aware of her utter helplessness and of his superior physical strength, of the muscles made strong by the manual demands of his calling. But through it all, like the theme of a composition, ran another refrain ... the sexual excitement evoked by his nearness and his touch. For once she wanted not to feel such sensations, wanted not to respond to Sander's powerful physique, but she had not yet learned the lesson of curbing her body's impulses.

His gaze dropped from her face and moved scornfully over the length of her, as if the contact with her shoulder had caused him, too, to become conscious of her physical vulnerability. What he saw seemed to anger him anew.

'Nicole's robe,' he uttered in a hissing whisper. 'Were you so anxious to fill her role? Let's see if you like it when you do!'

With that his mouth clamped over hers, tongue and teeth grinding mercilessly to pry her lips apart. With alarm she realized his self-control was far more impaired by alcohol than she had at first suspected; that despite the lack of slur and unsteadiness, he was still suffering the effects of the brandy he had downed not so very long ago. Uttering little strangling sounds deep in her throat, Domini clenched her teeth and fought desperately against the unwanted invasion. Her fists pounded against his broad chest but it might have been rock, immutable and unfeeling. Within moments her hands were manacled roughly in one of his and wrenched swiftly behind her back. With his other hand he gripped her jaw, trying to force her submission.

When she gasped for air, mouth already bruised and swollen by his savagery, he at last intruded deeply, ravishing the inner softness with such thoroughness and lack of mercy that she thought she would surely faint. On his tongue were the pungent tastes of alcohol and tobacco, mingling with the pervasive and powerful flavour of masculinity. Against all reason and against her will, the violent and loveless probing overpowered her senses and set them to swirling. The delirium of the earlier kiss returned, dizzying her and sending flushes of anticipation over skin that felt chilled and heated all at once. His anger notwithstanding, she began to respond and in that moment he jerked himself abruptly away.

But already Domini was past protesting or resisting. Hurting all over, and with her defences in total disorder, she could only lean her head weakly against his shoulder, drinking deep gulps of air and hating herself because she wanted him so.

She clung to him sobbing, trembling with a desire induced by too many erotic imaginings, tears streaming over cheeks raw from the stubble of his jaw. Unmoved, Sander gripped her shoulders and held her a little away so that he could look full into her face. If her anguish moved him in any way, it didn't show in the bitter hardness of his mouth.

'Have you changed your mind, now that you've had a taste of what I feel for you? If so, get out of my apartment and out of my life! Or perhaps you need a stronger lesson, and perhaps I shall enjoy teaching it after all . . . Is that what you want?'

She longed to leave but could not, and so she stood helplessly swaying in his grasp, desperation fighting a losing battle with desire. As if Sander sensed this, his mouth curled into a deeper contempt.

'What, no answer?' he mocked. 'Well, I shall find the answer for myself.'

Steadying her with one hand, he jerked away the sash of the satin robe. It parted in front, revealing the almost childlike simplicity of the cotton garment beneath. For a moment his eyes smouldered over the soft swell of Domini's breasts and the crests of them, visible as faint shadows behind the fine thin fabric.

'Aroused, I see,' he taunted.

Instructed in such things, Domini knew what bodily changes he must have detected in her breasts. She hung her head, shamed. 'No,' she murmured. 'No...'

'Yes,' contradicted Sander, lifting her chin so that she could see the cruel derision hardening his mouth. 'Yes.'