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again? How ruthless was Gareth in going after what he wanted? How much did he want her? He had once been contemptuous of her supposedly loose standards of morality. What were his standards?
    “If you don’t care about desire, Alida, why am I with you?” he asked, a hard note of suspicion in his voice.
    Had he leapt to the thought that she might have played him along to wreak the kind of revenge she had initially had in mind? “Perhaps I didn’t want to be by myself,” she answered.
    He probed her eyes for long tense moments before relaxing with a rueful sigh. “In the loneliness of the night,” he half mused. “I guess we all know how that feels. The problem is in how much lonelier you feel afterwards.”
    The comment gave Alida the opportunity to ascertain where she stood with him. “Was I one of many that you had because of…”
    “No.” He gave a harsh derisive laugh. “Believe it or not, I found celibacy easier to live with than guilt. There was only you, Alida.”
    The jolt to her heart was instant. She shook her head in stunned disbelief. “Are you saying that except for me you stayed faithful to your wife all through your marriage?”
    “Is that so surprising?” he mocked, then cynically added, “Yes, I suppose it is in the fast lane where you live.”
    “Fidelity is not exclusive to your set of people, Gareth,” she retorted sharply, hating his false assumption about her but knowing she had no means of correcting it. “You must have loved Kate very much.”
    A strange conflict played across his face as though he was no longer sure of what he felt for the woman he had married. “Kate was my wife,” he said. To him that was obviously explanation enough for the way he had stood by her.
    Alida felt painfully confused. All her preconceptions about Gareth were crashing around her. “Why me?” she asked huskily. “Why choose me?”
    “Does one choose mutual attraction? Did you choose me, Alida?”
    He was right. Choice hadn’t come into it. It was like a fever in the blood that had caught both of them unprepared for what would follow.
    But she had been the only one, Alida thought on a rising wave of hope. No other woman had stirred him as she had. Surely that meant there was a chance for this strong attraction to grow into something deeper now there was no reason to stunt it or cut it dead.
    On the other hand, Gareth hadn’t come looking for her. He still didn’t choose her. None of his prejudices about the sort of woman she was had been wiped out, and Alida knew that words wouldn’t achieve that end. He had to see, to learn for himself. Could that be done in four nights and three days?
    The challenge of desire burned in his eyes, forcing an acknowledgment that she shared it with him, inciting the response that only he had ever drawn from her. It was impossible to control the instinctive chemistry stirring into urgent life inside her, suffusing her limbs with a sweet heavy ache, exciting fluttery little tremors through her stomach, bringing a tingle of sensitivity to her breasts. She wasn’t even aware of the taxi slowing to a halt outside her house.
    “This is it, isn’t it?” the driver enquired when neither Gareth nor Alida moved.
    Alida confirmed that they had arrived at the right destination. Gareth paid the fare, then helped her out of the car.
    “Your house?” Gareth asked, a note of surprise in his voice as he scanned its conventional facade. It was not a luxurious house, by any means, more a good solid brick home with no outstanding features except for the artistic landscaping of the garden.
    “Yes,” Alida answered briefly. Gareth’s arm was around her waist, his hand resting on her hip. The warmth of his palm seemed to burn through her silk culotte. She was vibrantly aware of his body brushing against hers as they walked up the front path.
    “Wouldn’t an apartment suit you better?” he asked curiously.
    ”I prefer my own space.”
    And space for Andy to play outdoors,