LITMIR.BIZ

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kids,’ he commented and handed her a cup.

      She sat down in her usual chair, wondered what to say but before she had a chance to wonder much, he said, ‘There are a couple of things we ought to discuss, Arizona.’ And sat down opposite her.

      ‘I’m sure there are.’ She shrugged. ‘I don’t feel much like it at the moment, though.’

      ‘Well—’ he paused and looked at her wryly ‘—perhaps that’s what we should discuss first.’

      ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ she murmured and smothered a yawn.

      ‘I mean, taking the first step towards—putting you in the mood for everything we need to sort out.’

      ‘I still don’t know what you mean,’ she said and stopped abruptly.

      ‘My dear Arizona,’ he said a little dryly, ‘we’re going to have to start somewhere and some time.’

      ‘If you’re talking about going to bed—’

      ‘By no means,’ he interrupted with an amused, mocking little look. ‘Just getting to know each other a little better. I certainly wouldn’t expect you to sleep with me without some sort of a—courtship beforehand.’

      ‘Declan, if you expect me to indulge in some petting with you,’ she said witheringly, ‘you’re wasting your time!’

      ‘Don’t you go in for that sort of thing? I don’t blame you,’ he said ruefully. ‘It sounds awful.’

      ‘Then what?’ she demanded.

      ‘We could try something a bit more sophisticated,’ he suggested.

      ‘Along the same lines but by a different name?’ she said bitterly. ‘No, thanks.’

      ‘So you object to it by any name,’ he murmured. ‘Only with me?’

      She stared at him and frowned. ‘I don’t think I get your drift.’

      ‘I was just wondering whether you’re at all awakened, Arizona..I’ve wondered it before, and then you did tell me that Pete wasn’t a grand passion, if they exist, quote unquote,’ he said gently, but it was a fairly lethal sort of gentleness.

      Arizona reacted in several ways. She mentally bit her lip at the same time as she mentally took umbrage and finally came out fighting. ‘Wouldn’t that be a disaster,’ she murmured with a faint smile. ‘To think that you, Declan Holmes, who could probably have any woman he chose, took a frigid bride—dear me!’

      ‘I didn’t say frigid,’ he replied after subjecting her to an insolently considering little scrutiny—from her head to her toes but particularly the curves in between. ‘I said unawakened, which is an entirely different thing, Arizona.’

      ‘Oh, I know!’ she conceded with some mockery and added an insolence of her own. ‘I also know how particularly prone men are to imagining they and they alone will be the one to do this... awakening.’

      He narrowed his blue eyes thoughtfully. ‘And that sounds as if you have cause to be particularly cynical on the subject, Arizona. Like to tell me why?’

      ‘No—that is,’ she amended after the first bleak negative sprang to her lips, ‘you don’t have to be a genius or particularly cynical to work it out. Men—’ she waved a hand ‘—are men.’

      ‘How entirely magnificently damning,’ he said, but this time with genuine amusement.

      ‘Not especially,’ she said with a shrug. ‘Just realistic.’

      ‘Do you really believe that?’

      ‘Why shouldn’t I?’

      ‘Was Pete like that?’

      She looked at him straightly. ‘I’ve told you before, Declan, that’s none of your business.’

      ‘And I disagreed with you, Arizona, but we won’t pursue it at the moment—’

      ‘You’re going to find it hard to pursue at any moment,’ she said impatiently and stood up. ‘I think I’ll go to bed, if you don’t mind.’

      ‘Yes, I do mind,’ he said simply.

      She looked at him incredulously. ‘You don’t imagine you can dictate what time I go to bed, surely?’

      ‘Do you usually go to bed at this time?’ he countered.

      ‘No,’ she said unwisely, ‘but—’

      ‘Then you’re only being childish,’ he said mildly. ‘Sit down and finish your coffee.’

      Sheer frustration caused her to sit down. ‘I’m not a child—how dare you treat me like one?’

      ‘All right.’ He laid his head back and regarded her with a wicked glint in his eyes. ‘Would you rather I said you were being tiresomely female?’

      ‘No, I would not,’ she replied shortly. ‘Because, if anything, you’re being tiresomely male. If you want me to stay we’ll need to talk about something else.’

      ‘Such as?’

      ‘Scawfell, the kids, the weather—we have a huge range at our disposal.’ She regarded him with a tinge of malice.

      He laughed. ‘Why don’t we try something a bit more interesting. How you grew up and where, for example.’

      ‘Wherever it was the whim of my mother to be at the time,’ Arizona said briefly.

      ‘What about your father?’

      ‘I never knew him. He...deserted my mother upon discovering she was pregnant.’

      ‘Ah,’ Declan Holmes said.

      ‘What does that mean?’ she enquired tartly.

      ‘Why you’re anti-men—’

      ‘I’m not. I would never have marrried one if that was the case.’

      ‘Perhaps you married Pete for other reasons. Such as security, all this.’ He overrode her as she opened her mouth. ‘And perhaps,’ he continued, ‘it wasn’t only the security of his supposed wealth you sought, Arizona, but protection from other men.’

      Arizona set her teeth and gazed at him angrily. ‘Such as you, Declan? You could be right.’

      ‘Am I?’ he murmured, unperturbed.

      ‘That’s something you’ll have to work out for yourself,’ she returned. ‘I’m amazed the thought occurred to you,’ she added candidly. ‘I assumed you thought I was all bad.’

      ‘Not at all. I’ve told you you’re a good stepmother, a good manager et cetera.’

      ‘You’ve also offered me, by way of marriage, the inducement of your wealth, Declan. If that’s not the ultimate insult, I don’t know what is.’

      ‘You forget that I also offered you the means to keep together a family that means a lot to you. But principally, you’re forgetting the kind of...pleasure we could bring to each other.’ He looked at her blandly.

      ‘Yes, well, I only have your word for that—it didn’t take long to get back to that subject, did it? I am really going to bed now, Declan.’ She stood up with an air of finality written all over her.

      He laughed at her softly and wickedly but stood up. ‘Very well, my dear. Good night.’

      ‘Is that all?’ Arizona said unguardedly and feeling as if she’d had the wind taken out of her sails.

      ‘What more would you like?’ he asked with a hatefully raised eyebrow. ‘I thought you were dead set against any demonstrations of... affection.’

      She turned away abruptly and with a slight flush staining her cheeks. ‘I am.’

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