„No way. I‟ve told you, I‟m not up—‟

The sentence was unfinished as his mouth claimed hers and hell, it felt good. She was aware of her half-hearted attempt to push him away, just a formality, then with a muted groan she was returning his kiss with shocking enthusiasm.

Her hands wound upwards, around his neck, and then her fingers were in his hair, pressing him towards her as her mouth responded to his probing tongue.

Their positions altered, with Dominic shifting away from the door, his mouth never leaving hers as he propelled her against the wall by the door, captured her there with his mouth and his hands, which wanted to touch everything even though he knew the wisdom of reining in that particular instinct at this point in time.

He contented himself with just feeling her melt beneath him and hearing her soft little moans that were driving him crazy with desire.

When they finally drew apart, their expressions were equally ragged.

„Tell me that again,‟ Dominic demanded, but in a voice that could melt ice. He played with her hair, tucking some behind her ears, twirling strands around his finger.

„Tell you what?‟

„That you‟re not up for…grabs? Was that what you were going to say?‟

„You‟re no good for me,‟ Mattie murmured. „I know you say that lines between people aren‟t inviolable and maybe they‟re not. But the way I feel, I would be the waitress to your tycoon and just feeling like that would make anything we had a farce.‟

Dominic repressed the urge to thunder some sense into her. They wanted one another.

The language of their bodies said it all. Wasn‟t that enough? he wanted to demand.

„You can‟t stay here,‟ he said instead. His voice was rough with suppressed emotion.

„I can‟t leave. Not yet.‟

„And, in the meantime, I walk away from what we have…‟

„We don‟t have anything.‟

„What we could have, correction.‟

„You‟ve learned never to confide and I‟ve learned never to speculate.‟ She was finally getting herself back into some semblance of control but his proximity was still suffocating her.

She wriggled and he immediately stepped back.

His face was dark and scowling, and she couldn‟t stop herself from feeling just the slightest kick at the sight. Then the reality of her situation closed over her again. Frankie. No job.

Waitressing in skimpy clothes to make ends meet. And this man who could take her in a minute, whose eyes made her burn, who was so totally unsuitable. In every respect.

„Go.‟

„This isn‟t the end.‟

Mattie gave another of her evasive shrugs. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but never got there because they both heard the key in the door at precisely the same time, and as she turned around she could feel his eyes scan her averted face urgently.

What the heck had she been thinking? That Frankie would never reappear? Had she been so caught up with Dominic Drecos that she had managed to completely forget all about reality?

This is reality, she told herself fiercely, and don‟t you forget it.

Frankie staggered in, adopted the usual belligerent expression he assumed whenever he was drunk and confronted by her, then noticed Dominic standing to one side, very still, not in the least embarrassed. That changed his expression, Mattie noticed. From glowering to stupefied, all in the space of a couple of seconds.

„Who the hell is he?‟ His words were slurred but his brain was still operating.

Dominic moved forward, not bothering to extend his hand in any form of greeting. Nor did he bother to introduce himself by name.

„Your replacement,‟ was all he said. Mattie could barely look at him. How could he?

Then he was gone. No rush. Just one last contemptuous stare at an inebriated Frankie.

CHAPTER FIVE

„WHAT‟S going on, Mats?‟ He looked bewildered and vulnerable and a wave of pity swelled inside her. She didn‟t know who she hated more, Dominic for bringing about this situation or herself for allowing it.

„We need to talk, Frankie. Tomorrow. When you‟re…‟

„Not the worse for wear?‟ He laughed bitterly. „Might as well get it over with, I say. This little talk of ours.‟ He managed to make it to the sitting room, where he promptly collapsed into a chair with his eyes closed.

Mattie wondered whether he had fallen asleep, but then he rubbed his eyes, opened them and looked at her.

„D‟you have to stand there in the doorway like a bloody sergeant major?‟

„Look, Frankie…‟ She took a few steps into the room then sat on another chair and pulled her legs up so that she was hugging her knees, giving herself the moral strength she needed when her insides were feeling like jelly.

„How long‟s it been going on, Mats? A month? Two months? A year?‟ He covered his face with his hands, but when he next looked at her there was no expected anger or jealousy in his eyes, just a kind of sad regret.

„Nothing‟s going on, Frankie. You have to believe me. I met him just over a week ago at the club. Well, he met me, actually. Followed me. But nothing happened between us.‟ She thought of the kisses that had ravaged her and made her want to drink up all of him. They might well have slept together because the infidelity had already been committed in her head.

„Don‟t blame you, Mats.‟ This time there was an edge of self-derision to his laughter that made her blood run cold. „Look at me. Think I don‟t know what I‟ve become? Not much of the man you thought I was going to be, eh, Mats? Bit of a loser, all told.‟

„No.‟ She could feel tears prick the backs of her eyes and she went over to where he was slumped on the sofa and wrapped her arms around him, the way a parent might wrap her arms around a child who had been hurt. Except she couldn‟t kiss the hurt and make the pain go away.

„Me and you, we ain‟t going anywhere, Mats.‟

„Don‟t say that, Frankie. I… You know how much I…‟

„Loved me once? Yeah, I know all that.‟ He held her arms and ran his fingers along them.

It was the first time they had had any physical contact for a very long time, and there was no charge behind this physical contact now. Just the affection born of years of knowing one another.

„I still love you, Frankie. I‟d never hurt you, not in a million years! And Dominic is no one. We never made love.‟

„And I never meant to hurt you, pet, but we bring each other down. No good us denying it. Once I was going to be somebody, then the accident and everything got lost. Me, you, us. Two kids playing at housekeeping, that‟s all we were.‟