With merciful speed the nauseating weight of David's body was removed from her own. She closed her eyes, dreading discovering that she had simply imagined Joss's arrival that in her despair she was merely hallucinating and then opened them again as she heard the unmistakable crunching sound of bone against bone, just in time to see David sag to the floor, clutching his jaw, his eyes wild with fury.

"She was only getting what she deserved," he swore at Joss.

"The little b.i.t.c.h has been leading me on for months." Spittle foamed against his mouth now and although it made her sick to look at him Sarah could not drag her gaze away. "She wanted it. She was enjoying it." David was like a man possessed by a fever, his colour high, sweat pouring off his skin as he staggered to his feet.

"She wanted me, I tell you..."

Sarah saw the sick distaste in Joss's eyes.

"I'd like to kill you for what you've just said and done," he said quietly, 'but the law doesn't give me that right . it does, however, give Sarah the right to prosecute you for attempted rape.

Where's your 'phone? " he asked Sarah without removing his eyes from David.

"No." The denial was out before she could stop it. Sarah had heard what happened to women who brought rape cases to court. Often they were more mercilessly pilloried than their attackers. She couldn't endure to go through anything like that.

"See, I told you she wanted it..."

"No!" She shuddered in unmistakable revulsion, and then said huskily, "Please make him go away. Joss...1 think I'm going to be sick if you don't..."

"Don't worry. I'm already on my way. Leichner & Holland aren't the only publishers in the world," he spat at them both.

"You wait and see, my book will make sales that'll make fools of both of you.. I'll see you pay for what you've done to me both of you... As for that cold little b.i.t.c.h..." he sneered at Sarah as he moved towards her front door.

"You're welcome to her."

"You shouldn't have let him walk away like that," Joss told her quietly as he closed the door after him.

She tried to move away and make for the security of her sitting room, but she found she was too weak to move.

"I couldn't have gone through the trauma of a court case," she told him huskily, shivering at the very thought.

"n.o.but it might have prevented him from succeeding in doing to someone else what he tried to do to you. You realise he would have b.l.o.o.d.y well raped you if I hadn't arrived when I did."

Realised it! Sarah closed her eyes sickly. Even now she was powerless to stop her mind from relaying to her imagination tormenting mental images of his hands against her body . his body, engorged with l.u.s.t, pressed hard against her own.

She swayed and heard Joss curse. From somewhere she found the strength to mutter weakly.

"I don't think he'd do it to anyone else ... it was just me...1 never realised..." She shuddered again and clung to the security of Joss's arms as they closed round her.

"Perhaps you're right." His voice came from close to her ear.

"Where's your bedroom?"

She forced her eyes to open.

"No..;' Her mouth felt swollen and sore ... and she raised her hand to touch it, remembering how David had hit her. She wanted to tell Joss that she didn't want to lie on her bed before she had cleansed herself of the contamination of David's touch ... if she did she would never be able to sleep there again.

"The settee..." she said groggily.

"I...".

She saw his mouth tighten.

"Don't worry, Sarah, I wasn't about to finish what he started."

It shocked her that he should think that had even occurred to her and she shook her head.

"Not that...1 want a bath," she told him shudderingly.

"I...1 want to be clean..."

She heard him curse, but it was too much of an effort to open her eyes to look into his face.

She felt him lowering her on to the settee, and shivered as his arms were withdrawn from her. All she wanted to do was to go to sleep, to blot out everything that had happened, but he wasn't going to let her.

"Where do you keep your booze?"

"I don't want a drink..." Her lip throbbed with pain and she raised her fingers to touch it, her eyes opening wide, when she felt Joss's fingers there instead.

"You may not, but I certainly do," he told her unsteadily, holding her eyes with his own.

"You may not realise it but that's the first time I've hit another human being in anger since I left my teens behind. Dear G.o.d, that he should ... I should have killed him."

He said it so emotionlessly that Sarah blinked, conscious of the way the flat words hung on the air.

"What did he do to your mouth?"

"He hit me." She saw the look in his eyes and shook her head.

"He's sick. Joss. He was enjoying it.. enjoying hurting me. It was as though he was acting out one of his private fantasies ... I know now why I've always disliked his books so much...1 suppose instinctively I must have known that was the sort of man who enjoys hurting women ...

degrading them."

"He ought to be locked up," Joss said flatly, 'and if I had my way he would be. What was be doing here in the first pake? "

"He'd got your letter of rejection. He thought you'd done it because of me he'd been to the office I suppose and discovered I wasn't there... it wouldn't have been hard for him to get hold of my address."

"Not hard at all," Joss agreed.

"It took me about five seconds."

His comment made her frown. She had been so overjoyed by his timely arrival that it had not occurred to her to question what he was doing at her front door.

"Steven told me you'd gone home with a headache. It occurred to me that I might have been responsible for it. I thought I'd come and have a talk with you."

"Try and persuade me to give up my job you mean," Sarah said bitterly.

Now that the shock of David's attack was receding she was remembering her earlier fears that Joss was determined to force her into giving up her job.

"Why should I want to do that?" Joss asked levelly.