Sweet Surrender by Catherine George Page B

him. She secured her hair back behind her ears, hesitated, then took in a deep breath.
    ‘You really want to know what happened to me before you left Cambridge to take on the world?’
    His eyes narrowed. ‘You know damn well I do. So talk.’
    She turned her head to stare into the fire. ‘Once upon a time, as they say, you never even noticed that I was crazy about you, or if you did you never took it seriously.’
    And for the best part of two years Kate had managed to live with her unrequited passion, trying to be content with the few odd hours she spent in Alasdair’s company, firmly repelling all other male interest, and, unlike most of her peers, working too hard to leave much time for play. Then her world had fallen apart. The unthinkable had happened. Alasdair Drummond had acquired a woman in his life. And it had been obvious to Kate, and to everyone else in their vicinity, that the relationship had become sizzlingly physical from the moment Lisa Bryant moved into Alasdair’s orbit.
    ‘Lisa,’ he said blankly. ‘Good Lord, I’d forgotten about her.’
    Kate sniffed. ‘I wish I had. Her brother was on my course. She came to visit Jon one day, he took her to the pub, and you were there. With me. But you forgot I existed once the luscious Lisa arrived. Nor was yours the only tongue hanging out. But it was the only one she fancied.’
    ‘She was quite a girl,’ he said reminiscently. ‘No brain, but a shape to tempt a saint.’
    ‘And I hated her guts!’
    Alasdair frowned. ‘But it didn’t mean anything. It was just a fling, Kate, for both of us.’
    ‘Some fling. You spent most of it in bed, according to Jon.’
    ‘But surely Lisa wasn’t the reason you locked yourself away like that?’
    ‘No. But from a scientific point of view she was the catalyst.’ Kate sighed. ‘And this is where it gets really pathetic. I had a brainwave. I decided it was time you woke up to the fact that I was a woman, too. So I set out to make you jealous.’
    He stared, astonished. ‘Who with?’
    Her chin lifted. ‘Since you never even noticed, his identity hardly matters.’
    Alasdair’s eyes hardened. ‘What happened?’
    ‘Once you were distracted by the luscious Lisa one of my more persistent followers moved in on me, so I seized my chance. He was a charmer—clever to. I liked him a lot. Otherwise,’ she assured him, ‘even to make you jealous I couldn’t have done it.’
    ‘Done what?’ said Alasdair with foreboding.
    ‘For the best part of a week, hoping you would notice and burn with jealousy, I led my Romeo on shamelessly.’ Kate gave a bitter laugh. ‘And the end result was disaster.’
    Hardly able to believe his good fortune, the young man had armed himself with champagne when Kate invited him back to her room. And in sore need of Dutch courage Kate had let him fill her glass too often, so that when he’d begun to make love to her she’d been in too fuzzy a state to keep him at arm’s length.
    ‘In no time at all we were on my bed,’ she went on. ‘Odd the things one remembers. His hands were shaking, and he was sweating, and suddenly things really got out of hand.’
    ‘He raped you?’ said Alasdair through clenched teeth.
    Kate looked at him consideringly. ‘If you mean that I wasn’t willing to go that far, then I suppose technically you could say he did. And because I wasn’t—well—fired up for it in the way he was, it was a painful, humiliating experience that gave the poor lad no satisfaction at all.’
    Alasdair glared at her, incensed. ‘He raped you and you can call him a poor lad?’
    ‘I led him on, remember. He had every right to think I was willing. And, to be fair, he had no idea it was my first time. Though ultimately he was left in no doubt.’ She bit her lip, feeling her face grow hot. ‘At the time it was quite ghastly for both of us, but looking back I can see the funny side of it now.’
    ‘I fail to see the joke,’ snapped Alasdair.
    ‘It wasn’t much of a