Free Fortune in the Stars by Kate Proctor Page A

weather's been atrocious, but…' She
broke off with a hopeless shrug.
    'Come along and have some lunch—'
    'I don't want any lunch!' she hissed, on the verge of
tears with frustration and disappointment. Was nothing in her life ever
going to go smoothly again?
    There was disdain in the cold eyes that flickered over her
dejected figure.
    'If it's any consolation, I wouldn't have allowed you to
leave even had the weather been good.'
    'You wouldn't…you—' She floundered,
unable to believe her ears. 'My God, just who do you think you are?'
    'A man who has a sister he loves and about whom he happens
to be extremely worried,' he replied, and it was the hint of an
underlying tone of utter desperation in those otherwise chillingly
expressionless words that nudged aside Penny's anger and frustration to
leave her with nothing but the wretchedness of an indescribable guilt.
    'Dominic, I know you love her,' she whispered, that guilt
chastening her words. 'And knowing her fixation about turning up when
she says she will, I'd have been worried too had I not been aware that
there was something out of the ordinary happening in her life right
now. She said practically nothing, yet the way she did speak told me at
once that this man was different— no, hear me out…
Please,' she pleaded as he gave an angry exclamation. 'The few men Lexy
doesn't cold-shoulder as being after her money she treats in a most
cavalier fashion. She tells her friends
everything
about them…things the men concerned would probably want to
curl up and die if they ever got to know—'
    'I'm not in the least interested in how my sister chooses
to discuss men with her friends,' Dominic cut in dismissively, his eyes
flashing anger.
    'For heaven's sake, can't you understand what I'm saying?'
exclaimed Penny. 'I honestly suspect this man has achieved the
impossible—that he's swept Lexy off her feet! And all I can
say is good luck to them!'
    'And she's suddenly so secretive that she won't even tell
you his name?' he drawled contemptuously.
    'Yes,' muttered Penny, her eyes avoiding his.
    'I've never heard such a load of romantic drivel in my
entire life,' he spat, striding towards her. 'I know my sister well
enough to know that, whatever her feelings for him, no man could sweep
her off her feet, as you put it, to the extent of rendering her
incapable of picking up a phone and explaining her absence.' He reached
out, taking her by the shoulders and hauling her swiftly to her feet.
'I'm giving you till the morning, Penny,' he snarled, his eyes black
with rage. 'And if my London contacts haven't come up with what I need,
I'm getting it out of you!'
    'How—with the thumbscrews you carry around in
case of just such an emergency?' she yelled, struggling like one
possessed.
    'Why should I inflict pain on you when I can get what I
want out of you by other means?' he said softly, sinking the fingers of
one hand into her hair and jerking back her head. 'And with such ease?'
he taunted, crushing her body to his as he kissed her with a slow
sensuality that suspended her ability to reason for just long enough
for that mind-sapping kiss to have ended by the time the idea of
putting up a struggle was beginning to occur to her.
    There was a mocking half-smile on his mouth as he drew
away from her which deepened as his eyes moved slowly from hers to the
erect outline of her nipples against the soft material of her blouse
and then back to hers.
    'And now for lunch,' he murmured, releasing her, then
turning and leaving the room.
    Penny's eyes sank to where his had so briefly lingered, a
deep wash of scarlet painting her cheeks. Her body had become an enemy
over which she had no control. And as for her loyalty to Lexy, which
had landed her in this morass of humiliation, surely there had to be
some limit as to how far she was expected to carry it?

CHAPTER FIVE

    The
rest of that day and the night that followed were hours spent in heart,
soul and mind searching. And her searching led her