'A brandy would be nice,' she accepted abruptly, having already noticed the untouched bottles of whisky and brandy on one of the side-tables. 'Thank you,' she added awkwardly.

'So far this evening you've called me "incredibly stupid" and an "idiot"-don't you think it's a little late for politeness?' He eyed her laughingly.

Sapphie felt a leap of awareness in her chest at how very attractive he was in this teasingly friendly mood. It would be so easy to forget everything else, and just enjoy being in his company...

His company was something she dared not risk enjoying! In fact, she couldn't let her guard down for even a second, had been a ma.s.s of churning emotions since the moment they'd met again this morning, feeling as if she were remaining only two steps ahead of a tsunami-and while it was increasing in force she was tiring fast!

She had to find a way of stopping it-stopping Rik-in his tracks!

'Thank you,' she murmured again as she took the gla.s.s of brandy from his hand and took a sip of the fiery liquid, hoping it would give her the courage she so badly needed.

Courage...? She was going to need more than courage if she was going to completely alienate Rik Prince. And that was exactly what she had to do-if she could stop him finding her amusing long enough to do it, that was!

Under other circ.u.mstances, meeting Rik again could have been the highlight of her trip to Paris. But as it was...

'Mr Prince-'

'You know, you really can't carry on being so formal with a man you've shared a bed with,' he cut in smoothly.

And a sofa. And the floor. Even the shower-if her memory served her correctly. And she knew that it did.

All of which would be better forgotten, let alone talked about! 'Rik,' she corrected tautly, sitting down in one of the armchairs and instantly wishing she hadn't, as Rik's gaze was drawn to the amount of silk-covered thigh revealed by her dress riding up her legs. 'The danger I was referring to has nothing to do with me-'

'Pity,' he responded, relaxing back in an armchair himself now as he looked across at her with narrowed eyes.

'-and everything to do with Dee and Jerome,' Sapphie continued determinedly.

She had given this a lot of thought when she returned to her hotel earlier-in the circ.u.mstances, how could she possibly think of anything else?-and had decided she couldn't make this personal, otherwise Rik's suspicions would be aroused anyway. So she had decided to make Dee and Jerome the issue instead.

It seemed to be working as Rik's mouth tightened, his expression grim. 'What about them?' There was a definite edge to his voice now. 'As you've already been at great pains to point out to me, they are obviously a happily married couple.'

'Yes, they are.' Sapphie nodded. 'But beneath his genial faade, Jerome is a very jealous man.'

Rik gave a slight inclination of his head. 'Dee is a lot younger than him, and a very beautiful woman.'

'She can also be a very silly one,' Sapphie told Rik with feeling. 'Not that it's her fault,' she added, remembering all too well Rik's earlier accusation that she didn't like Dee. Of course she liked Dee, but if this was going to work, then she had to exaggerate some of Dee's less admirable traits. 'Dee was very overindulged as a child. Her father adored her, always referred to her as his perfect diamond.' Sapphie shook her head. 'Is it any wonder that she grew up expecting every other man to adore her, too?'

'I don't know,' Rik said slowly. 'Is it?'

'Of course it's not,' Sapphie shot back. She wasn't getting through to him at all! 'I mentioned earlier that Dee and Jerome have had their share of hiccups...? Well, those hiccups usually occur after one of Dee's-flirtations. Jerome, understandably, resents any man who gets too close to his wife.'

'Understandably,' Rik echoed tightly. 'Although I still don't see what this has got to do with me.'

Sapphie eyed him exasperatedly; this wasn't going at all as she had planned. She had intended giving Rik a little friendly advice-such as 'stay away from Dee because of Jerome's jealousy'!-and he obviously wasn't getting it at all. She felt like boxing his ears now!

'You're in love with Dee-'

'Am I?'

She frowned frustratedly. 'Of course you are!'

'If you say so.' He shrugged.

'Look, I'm trying to help you,' she pressed on impatiently.

'So it would appear.'

She sighed at his lack of cooperation. 'The last man to get too close to Dee ended up losing his job on the New York Times newspaper and going back writing about cattle shows in his home state of Texas!' A fate that was a vast improvement on the one that had befallen Dee's admirer before that, an actor who was sacked from his role in a major film and was now working behind the counter of a fast-food chain!

Rik looked amused. 'And you think that might happen to me?' he queried. 'It's very nice of you to be so concerned on my behalf, Sapphie, but it really isn't necessary.'

She really wasn't getting through to him, was she? So much for advising him to stay away from both Dee and Jerome-and, as a consequence, away from her too; he just seemed to find her advice amusing!

'I am not concerned about you,' she stood up, deciding to try a different tack; if he didn't care about himself, then perhaps he would care on Dee's behalf. 'It's Dee I'm worried about.' She glared down at him.

Rik returned her gaze with cool blue eyes, his thoughts now unreadable behind a cold mask.

'Are you telling me,' he finally spoke carefully, 'that Jerome is likely to become violent towards Dee if-?'

'No, of course I'm not,' Sapphie denied exasperatedly; she just seemed to be making this situation worse, not better. And she had thought it couldn't get any worse! 'For all that she's emotionally immature, Dee really does love Jerome. Being older than her, he gives her the stability she felt she had lost when her father died-'

'You presume to know an awful lot about the emotions of the woman who married the man with whom you yourself were in love,' Rik rasped harshly.

Perhaps she was getting through to him after all.. he certainly didn't seem amused any more!

'I don't presume to know anything-'

'I think that you do.' Rik stood up in one fluid movement. 'And in the circ.u.mstances, I find your so-called concern for Dee a little-suspect, shall we say?'

He was very overbearing, towering over her like this, but Sapphie refused to back down now, finally feeling as if she was getting through to him. If she succeeded in getting him to back out of Dee's life-and consequently her own!-then she didn't care how intimidating he appeared!

'No, we will not say,' she replied tartly. 'As Dee's sister, of course I-'

'As her what?'

Sapphie instinctively took a step backwards at the vehemence in his tone, her eyes widening now as she took in the look of complete shock that he was too disturbed to even attempt to hide.

He hadn't known, she realised belatedly.

Incredibly, somehow, with everything else that had happened between them that night five years ago, she must have forgotten to mention that Dee was her little sister!

Sapphie was Dee's sister? The same stepsister who, along with her mother, had pressured Dee five years ago into going through with her marriage to Jerome Powers?

But wasn't that what she was doing now, too? Warning him, and every other man by the sound of it, from going anywhere near Dee's marriage to Jerome.

'Your name is Benedict, not McCall,' he finally bit out forcefully. Stupidly. Dee was an actress; McCall probably wasn't even her real name. But it seemed so impossible that these two women, so totally physically different, could possibly be related in any way, let alone be sisters!

'We're half-sisters,' Sapphie told him dismissively. 'I was two years old when my mother married Fergus McCall. Dee was born a year later.'

Rik turned away to walk over to the window, staring sightlessly out into the Parisian night.

d.a.m.n it, he had been congratulating himself earlier on the fact that he was over whatever he had felt for Dee, that, without him even being aware of it, his emotions had moved on.

And now this!

He hadn't asked Sapphie five years ago what she was doing at Dee and Jerome's wedding, whether her connection was to either the bride or groom. In fact, they hadn't talked much at all, he realised now.

But, thinking back to that time, remembering the things Dee had told him about her stepmother and stepsister, of how they were pressurising her into marrying the rich and powerful Jerome Powers, he couldn't help but wonder if his meeting with Sapphie that night had been quite as by chance as it had appeared at the time...

'Let me guess.' Sapphie spoke behind him. 'If Dee spoke of her family at all, it was to regale you with the stepmother and stepsister story?' She grimaced as he turned sharply back to face her. 'My stepfather died when Dee was thirteen.' She gave a sad shake of her head. 'His death hit her very hard, and the only way she could deal with it at the time was to think of herself as the beautiful swan left in the nest of the ugly ducklings! It seemed harmless enough at the time, if a little hurtful to our mother.'

The picture she was painting of Dee wasn't a pretty one. Rik remembered Dee as a beautiful b.u.t.terfly desperately trying to fly away from the two women who were trying to run her life for her.

This woman and her mother!

But her mother and half-sister, not stepmother and stepsister...

He gave a dismissive shake of his head; if he once started to doubt Dee's integrity five years ago, then he really was in trouble!

Sapphie gave a humourless smile. 'I can see that you don't believe me.'

It wasn't a question of believing or not believing her; he was newly coming to terms with the fact that he was no longer in love with Dee, and also with hearing Sapphie telling him that the woman he had thought himself in love with all those years ago had never really existed either-it was just too much to take in!

'Why the h.e.l.l should I?' he came back harshly. 'You and your mother got your way five years ago, let's just leave it at that, shall we?'

Sapphie looked perplexed now. 'My mother? What does she have to do with any of this?'

'Oh, please!' he grated.

And to think he had actually been starting to like Sapphie, to admire the cool way she'd dealt with what had happened between them five years ago. h.e.l.l, he was no longer even sure that it had just happened between them all those years ago; in fact, the more he thought about the way they had met, their lack of conversation, that shared pa.s.sion in his hotel suite, the more he began to wonder if it hadn't all been planned to keep him well and truly occupied while Dee married someone else.

Although this presupposed that Dee's mother and sister had been aware that there was someone else in Dee's life besides Jerome...

d.a.m.n it, he had to get out of here-before he let those thoughts take him where he didn't want to go and he actually resorted to strangling Sapphie Benedict for what he now suspected her motives might have been towards him all those years ago!

'It's time to go,' he instructed after a glance at his wrist-watch. 'Dee and Jerome will be wondering where we are.'

Sapphie looked up at him uncertainly. 'Rik, what-?'

'I said it's time to go!' he commanded, grasping hold of her arm and manoeuvring her towards the door, allowing no respite when she stumbled slightly trying to pick up her evening bag.

He was too angry at this moment, needed to be where there were other people. Because strangling was probably too good for this woman.

But kissing her, at the same time showing his contempt for her, certainly wasn't!

He came to an abrupt halt as he reached the door, turning Sapphie Benedict in his arms to lower his head and take possession of her lips with his.

It was a kiss that wasn't meant to be enjoyed, by either of them. And as Rik felt Sapphie tremble in his arms he knew that she certainly wasn't deriving any pleasure from it, that if anything she was wary of him, of where his anger might take them. Well, let her be wary. She deserved to be wary. He wanted her to be wary. He wanted to take her...

His deeper, inner, decent self took control at that moment, filling him with self-disgust for the way he was behaving. He had never treated a woman like this in his life before, but as he felt the shuddering sobs that shook Sapphie's slender body he knew that he was both hurting and humiliating her. Not that she didn't deserve that-and worse-for what she and her mother had done five years ago; he just didn't intend lowering himself to her level.

He wrenched his mouth away from hers, taking hold of her upper arms to push her away from him, emotion blazing in his eyes as he saw the wretchedness of her expression, her eyes glittering with unshed tears, her lips puffy and obviously kissed.

An act. It was all an act, he a.s.sured himself determinedly; this woman, as much as Jerome Powers, had robbed him of Dee, of the love they had once shared-and he would never forgive her for it.

He drew in a harsh breath. 'If you're expecting an apology-'

'I'm not!' She wrenched out of his grasp, stepping away from him, the colour returning to her cheeks. 'I don't expect anything from you. I never have,' she added bleakly.

Rik's eyes narrowed. 'And what the h.e.l.l is that supposed to mean?'

She made a dismissive movement with her hand. 'Nothing. Absolutely nothing.'

It wasn't nothing. It had certainly been something, a slight undertone to that comment that he couldn't quite put a name to...

But he could put a name to how he was feeling-and it wasn't pretty. He had never had cause to feel ashamed of his actions before, but he certainly wasn't proud of the way he had treated Sapphie just now. Even if she did deserve his contempt. She and her mother both.

Except...

Again he thought of the fact that Sapphie's mother was also Dee's mother, and that neither were the stepsister and stepmother Dee had claimed them to be. Why had she lied to him about those relationships? He- 'Dee and Jerome will be waiting for us downstairs,' Sapphie reminded him softly.

Rik frowned darkly at the way Sapphie avoided actually meeting his gaze, effectively making him feel more of a heel than ever.

Though he didn't see why he should, he decided as his resolve returned. Not when this woman, along with her mother, were responsible for it not being 'Dee and Rik' who were waiting downstairs.

'Then we had better go and join them, hadn't we?' he returned, his mouth twisting grimly as Sapphie stepped back to avoid the hand he would have placed beneath her elbow.

Fine. He didn't want to touch her again, anyway. Still couldn't be responsible for his actions where Sapphie Benedict was concerned!

CHAPTER THREE.

'YOU'RE very quiet this evening, Sapphie; is there anything wrong?'

Sapphie turned to look at her brother-in-law, forcing a smile to her lips as he looked at her concernedly.

Quiet? Jerome thought she was quiet? Well, maybe, but Dee and Rik had talked enough for all of them during the last couple of hours as they dined together, usually about people or things of which Sapphie had no knowledge. Rik was completely ignoring the advice she had tried to give him earlier.

Oh, well, it had only been a case of misdirection on her part, an effort to try and draw attention away from herself. And she had been insulted and treated with suspicion for her pains. Why, she still didn't understand...