Piers sighed heavily. ‘It’s quite simple really. If we have to wait here we may as well be warm.’ He opened the car door and the blast of icy air that gushed in made her shiver with cold. ‘I won’t be a moment.’

  Leigh turned in her seat to watch him as he struggled through the drifting snow, returning a few moments later with her small case and a thick jumper of his own from the boot of the car. ‘You’ll have to get in the back and change, there isn’t room in the front here.’

  ‘Change? But I—I can’t—’ she broke off in confusion. What was he asking of her now?

  ‘This isn’t the time for modesty, false or otherwise,’ he snapped. ‘Now get in the back!’

  Leigh needed no second bidding, and scrambling over the seat she took her case with her. Pulling out a purple sweater and black corduroys, she undid the halter top of her dress and slipped her jumper over her head. Putting the trousers on wasn’t so easy, and she was struggling for five minutes or so before Piers finally sighed with frustration.

  ‘For God’s sake! Take the damned dress off and put them on properly. I’m not going to suddenly pounce on you, you know.’

  ‘I know that. It’s just that—well, this is so very strange.’ She buttoned the top of her trousers and thrust her dress back into the case. ‘Anyway, why can’t you put the heater on?’

  ‘Because if I do that I have to turn on the engine and that will use the petrol up, which isn’t going to be much help to us when this snow finally stops. Finished?’ he turned to look at her. ‘Good girl. Now move over.’

  ‘M-move over?’

  ‘Yes, move over,’ he said patiently. ‘You’re being rather dense this evening, Leigh. If we can’t have the heater on there’s only one way we can keep warm. Right?’

  ‘Right,’ she agreed without thinking. ‘How?’ she asked in a puzzled voice.

  ‘The body produces its own heat, okay?’ He saw her nod. ‘Well, with our two body heats combined we should be able to keep each other warm.’ He got out of the car and pushing his seat forward he climbed into the back next to her. ‘Don’t look so worried, it’s the only way, you know.’

  Leigh flicked back her long hair. ‘I suppose so.’ She looked at him more closely and saw he was still in his black shirt and white evening jacket. ‘Aren’t you going to change?’

  ‘After that modest display I’m not sure you’re up to it,’ he taunted.

  ‘Don’t be silly. It’s just that this sort of thing has never happened to me before.’

  ‘Me neither.’ He leant forward and pulled his jumper into the back. ‘Help me off with my jacket, will you?’ She did as he asked, turning her head away as he unbuttoned his shirt before putting on the thick cream sweater. ‘That’s better. Now come here.’ He put one arm about her shoulders to bring her close against him and placed the other across her flat stomach.

  She shifted nervously in his embrace until she felt reasonably comfortable. It was very unnerving to be held this close against him and she felt as if her heartbeat sounded as loud as a drum. This close against him she could smell his aftershave and the clean male smell of him.

  ‘If you don’t stop fidgeting like that I won’t be held responsible for the consequences,’ Piers said huskily.

  ‘Sorry,’ she mumbled.

  ‘Comfortable now?’ he asked her softly, resting his head lightly on the top of hers. ‘A bonus I never expected.’

  ‘Do you think we’ll be here long?’

  ‘Bored already? You aren’t very good for my ego,’ he chuckled, lifting her chin to look into her eyes. ‘And no falling asleep.’

  ‘No falling—? Why ever not?’ she demanded. ‘What else can we do?’

  ‘I won’t answer that last question,’ Piers taunted. ‘As for the first one—we can’t fall asleep because if we do our body temperatures will drop, and who knows how long we’ll have to wait here. We could die of the cold. So—we keep awake. Still think I’m bossy?’ he laughed.

  ‘I don’t think it at all—I know it. But I don’t resent it as much as I did.’ Leigh knew he was only trying to keep her awake by talking, but she didn’t know how long it would last. She didn’t usually drink alcohol and so the small amount she had drunk had made her feel sleepy. She was having great difficulty keeping her eyes open.

  Piers talked on and the smooth even tone and the warmth of his body soon began to make her feel drowsy and her head dropped down tiredly on to his shoulder. ‘Hey,’ he nudged her gently, ‘no falling asleep, remember.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she yawned. ‘But I’m—I’m so tired.’

  He shook her gently. ‘Wake yourself up, Leigh! If you don’t,’ he warned, ‘I may have to resort to shock tactics.’

  That roused her a little. ‘Shock tactics? Wh-what shock tactics?’

  ‘Like this,’ Piers muttered close against her lips before his own firm mouth descended and claimed hers in a kiss that wiped all thought of sleep from her mind. His lips moved roughly against her own. ‘Relax, Leigh,’ he murmured huskily. ‘Just relax.’

  ‘But I am. I—’

  ‘No, you’re not,’ he groaned, his hand coming up to gently part her lips. ‘I need this, Leigh! Just let me kiss you.’ His voice was deep and husky and his mouth was firm and wide as it claimed her own, and Leigh felt all her senses flame with desire, desire for the full submission his mouth was demanding of her.

  Her arms moved up of their own volition to encircle his neck and she threaded her fingers in his thick vibrant hair, increasing the pressure of his mouth. Piers’ arms held her tightly against him and she shivered slightly as he parted her jumper from her trousers, exposing her bare midriff to the cold night air. She had no thoughts of denial as his hand travelled slowly up her bare back, bringing the flat palm of his hand round to explore her firm uptilted breasts.

  She gasped with pleasure at his intimate touch, pressing herself closer against him. Piers pushed her gently back so that they were half lying, half sitting on the seat, their bodies fused together in an effort for further contact. Leigh had never experienced anything like this before and she trembled in his arms.

  ‘Leigh!’ he whispered with a groan, his mouth burning a trail of desire down her slender neck. ‘Oh, Leigh! You’re beautiful!’

  She put her hands beneath his thick woollen sweater, feeling the hardening of his muscles as her hands caressed his back. Her actions were ones of submission even while she knew what she was doing was wrong. But was it? Was it wrong to be like this with the person one loved? Loved! Did she really love Piers Sinclair? Oh God, yes, if this burning hunger for his possession was anything to go by. She loved him so much that nothing else seemed to matter.

  Piers raised his dark head to look at her flushed features, her young breasts clearly visible to him in the moonlight. His breath was ragged and tortured in his throat as he looked at her. ‘Stop it, Leigh! Don’t you realise what you’re doing to me? Do you think I can take much more of this!’

  ‘What, Piers?’ her violet eyes provoked him to further action. ‘What am I doing to you?’

  ‘You know damn well what you’re doing to me,’ he groaned. ‘But I don’t care any more. I just don’t care!’ Her flesh felt smooth beneath his touch, his own sweater pushed up so that their skins met in searing pleasure. All sound other than their heated murmurings was blotted out of his mind, all his senses alive to this young and lovely girl beneath him, until one persistent sound penetrated the world they had lost themselves in. Raising his head, Piers heard the distant sound of another vehicle, a vehicle moreover that was moving slowly along the snowbound roads towards them. Piers pushed back his tousled hair, pulling down his sweater, and wiping the now steamy windows he saw another car driving along the road. The snow appeared to have stopped, unnoticed by either of them, and the traffic was now moving again.

  Leigh looked at him in a daze, her eyes still glazed with passion. She didn’t understand his sudden withdrawal. ‘What’s wrong?’ She found herself whispering, although for the life of her she didn’t know why. ‘Piers?’

  Without answering her he pushed the seat forward and opening the door climbed out of the car. Leigh was left in an undignified heap on the back seat feeling decidedly cheap and nasty. She could only assume Piers was ashamed of what had just happened between them, and pulling her clothes back around her now chilled body she sat up, running a hand through her hair tangled from his feverish caresses.

  Piers couldn’t have chosen a more hurtful way of bringing an end to their lovemaking, and Leigh glared resentfully out of the window at the man who until a few moments ago had been making passionate love to her. Not that it was at all visible in his demeanour as he spoke to the man outside. Oh no, she thought bitterly, he was a man completely in charge again—if he had ever lost control, which she somehow doubted.

  She sat in stony silence as Piers climbed back into the car, all evidence of their previous closeness completely erased. She sat stiffly in the passenger seat while Piers started the engine in preparation for following the two men in the other vehicle. His expression was grim and forbidding, warning Leigh not to speak even if she had wanted to. Which she certainly didn’t! Her arm was beginning to ache again where she had knocked it and all she wanted was to get home and away from this man’s disturbing personality.

  The going was much easier now as the visibility had increased, although still quite slow as they were following the other car. Piers took one look at her set face and slowed the car down even more. The snow had stopped now so there was no chance of them having to stop again. ‘What’s the matter now?’ he asked her harshly.

  Leigh didn’t look at him, knowing that if she did her recent tears would be evident to his sharp gaze, and the last thing she needed was his pity. ‘Nothing,’ she replied flatly.

  Piers stopped the car completely, leaving the engine running and turning in his seat to look at her pale face. ‘What do you want me to do, Leigh?’ he asked savagely. ‘Apologise?’ Leigh didn’t bother to answer him and she felt her face wrenched around so that she was staring straight into his angry blue eyes. ‘I have nothing to apologise for,’ he stated firmly.

  ‘I didn’t say you had,’ she replied huskily, wishing he would leave her alone with her misery.

  ‘Then why the martyred act? Hell, Leigh!’ he ran an agitated hand through his hair. ‘You know what you were inviting back there as well as I do. You can hardly blame me for something that was purely a mutual feeling.’

  ‘I’m not,’ her eyes flashed angrily at him. ‘But did you have to leave me like that, making me feel—making me feel dirty? I could have died of shame!’

  Piers held her shoulders and shook her until her teeth rattled. ‘Shame, was it! Now you listen to me, young lady. What happened back there was inevitable, I see that now. If it hadn’t have happened then it would have done sometime in the near future, and if those guys hadn’t come along things might have gone further. But they did come along! And before the one in the passenger seat could reach the car I had to stop him—you weren’t exactly dressed for receiving guests, now were you?’

  ‘You mean he …?’ She felt fresh tears well up in her eyes. ‘You did that for me?’

  He gave a strained smile. ‘Not exactly. I needed the fresh air too—nothing quicker to dampen passion than freezing cold wind. Now cheer up, will you. It isn’t the end of the world.’ Slowly he moved the car off again, and it wasn’t long before they caught up with the other vehicle. ‘You’ll have to tell me where to go from here.’

  ‘Okay. What time is it anyway?’

  Piers glanced at his wrist-watch. ‘Two o’clock. Will your parents still be up?’

  Leigh nodded her head. ‘Probably. Especially as they haven’t heard from me. They’re probably worried sick about me. I usually phone if I’m going to be late.’

  ‘You can blame it all on me. I have broad shoulders.’

  ‘I know,’ she replied shyly.

  Piers refrained from making any comment and Leigh retreated back into her shell of self-recrimination. She had never allowed anyone to touch her as Piers had done, abandoning herself to him in a way she had never imagined possible. She had been kissed before, she wasn’t that innocent, but never anything like the brutally sensual caresses Piers had given her, breaking down all her defences and making her a willing recipient to his demands. She had even touched his body intimately, something else she had never done to a man before. And all this with a man she didn’t know very well!

  ‘Stop torturing yourself,’ he commanded her abruptly. ‘All this soul-searching will get you nowhere. And you have nothing to reproach yourself for. What happened, after all? Just a few kisses between two people attracted to each other.’

  Leigh felt herself stiffen at his casual dismissal of such a passionate exchange of emotions. ‘That might be all they were to you,’ she told him tartly, ‘but I’ve never acted like that before.’

  ‘Do you think I don’t know that!’ he bit out angrily. ‘I’m not stupid, Leigh. But you have to realise that far from stopping me you actually seemed to welcome my touch. I’m only human, you know, with all the human weaknesses.’

  ‘And if someone offers themself to you you can hardly refuse,’ Leigh almost spat out. ‘I’ve never felt so ashamed.’

  ‘Don’t try to make more out of the incident than there actually was,’ Piers said cruelly. ‘Okay, so we might have gone further than a few kisses if those men hadn’t arrived. But they did arrive, so just leave it, will you. I’m doing my best to forget it ever happened.’

  Somehow his words only made her feel worse. He might take interludes like that in his stride, but she certainly couldn’t. She put up a hand to her flushed cheeks, willing the miles away so that she could escape to her bedroom and her own thoughts. Anywhere away from this man would do really. She hated to think what her parents would say when she arrived home in the early hours of the morning with a man obviously quite a bit older than her and experienced in the ways of the world.

  The house was flooded with light as Piers turned off the powerful engine of the car and climbed out of its now warm interior. He pulled her small suitcase out of the back before coming round to open her door for her. ‘It looks as if you’re expected,’ he commented dryly.

  Leigh made no reply but led the way up the icy pathway before letting them into the house with her latchkey. Her mother and father must have been watching out for her, because they both came rushing out of the lounge, taking it in turns to hug her.

  ‘Goodness, Leigh,’ breathed her mother happily, ‘you certainly gave us a scare! We’ve been so worried about you.’

  ‘Sorry, Mum,’ Leigh replied rather tearfully. ‘It was snowing so hard we just had to wait until it stopped.’

  ‘We? Oh!’ Her father finally spotted Piers standing unobtrusively in the background, allowing a private greeting between the family. ‘Come in, come in,’ he gestured to this tall powerful man to enter the house, closing the door firmly behind him and effectively shutting out the icy wind. ‘Let’s all go into the lounge, it’s warmer in there.’

  Leigh sat down next to the glowing fire, stretching her hands towards its warmth. She looked up nervously, straight into Piers’ quizzical eyes. ‘Piers, I would like you to meet my mother and father,’ she said politely. ‘Mum, Dad, this is Piers Sinclair.’

  ‘Oh yes,’ beamed her father. ‘Chris told us this morning that he’d met you. You design racing cars, don’t you?’

  Piers smiled with all the warmth and charm Leigh knew he was capable of, making her own heart skip a beat at his attractiveness. ‘That’s right. It’s very nice to meet you at last, Leigh talks about you often,’ and he shook hands with her father.

  Leigh’s mouth dropped open at his implied familiarity, making it seem to her parents that the two of them had known each other for a long time. She saw her mother and father’s looks of puzzlement and hastened to explain. Bother the man! ‘I’m afraid I haven’t been quite as voluble about you, Piers.’ Her eyes flashed an angry warning at him.

  ‘Sinclair?’ questioned her mother, effectively diverting the conversation, although she didn’t know it. ‘Don’t you know someone else called Sinclair, Leigh?’

  ‘My son,’ put in Piers smoothly, sitting opposite Leigh at her father’s invitation. ‘I have a son of Leigh’s age. His name is Gavin,’ he supplied.

  ‘Oh yes, of course,’ smiled Mrs Stanton. ‘Would you car for some coffee, Mr Sinclair?’

  He grinned gratefully, a heart-stopping gesture that caught Leigh’s breath in her throat. ‘I’d love some, thank you. And please call me Piers.’

  ‘I’ll help you, Mum,’ Leigh said quickly, glad of an excuse to escape. She was aware of Piers’ amused eyes following her as she stood up and followed her mother out into the kitchen. She got the cups and saucers out of the cupboard while her mother put the milk on to warm. ‘Where are the boys?’

  ‘In bed,’ replied her mother. ‘Your father and I were just going up when you arrived, we felt sure you must have decided to stay in town after all. The weather has been so bad this evening,’ she explained.

  Leigh could hear the reassuring sound of voices from the other room. At least Piers and her father were finding something to talk about, although what they could possibly have in common she couldn’t imagine.

  ‘I would have telephoned if I’d been going to do that.’

  ‘That’s what we thought. We did wonder if perhaps the telephone lines were down, but when we tried your’ flat the line seemed all right.’

  ‘The snow was really bad, but luckily Piers is a good driver. I would never have risked the drive myself.’

  ‘Does he take sugar in his coffee?’

  ‘Mmm, two.’ She blushed at her mother’s knowing look.

  ‘Will his son be worrying about him?’

  ‘I doubt it. He’s gone away with some of his friends for Christmas—skiing, I think. Piers was going to his house in the country for the holiday period.’

  ‘Well, surely there’s someone there who’ll be worrying about him. He ought to telephone and let them know he’s safe.’