Dominic said nothing. He continued to nurse his mug and look at her.

„A lot of people face a life of struggle. Most people aren‟t born into privilege. But most of them don‟t become alcoholics in the process.‟

„Frankie‟s not an alcoholic!‟

„Why are you defending him? You work in a nightclub because, you tell me, the money‟s good and you need the money. From which,‟ he carried on inexorably, „I take it to mean that you need to pay the bills because he doesn‟t have a job.‟

Mattie‟s green eyes were stormy with helpless anger but she couldn‟t reply. He was right, after all.

„He…he‟s going to get one.‟

„In between his visits to the pub with his mates?‟ Dominic laughed harshly and saw her wince. „Are you sure he‟s with his mates?‟

„What do you mean?‟

„You know exactly what I mean.‟

They stared at one another in silence for a few tense seconds, and Mattie was the first to break it by rising to her feet and swinging around so that she wasn‟t looking at him. There was a stack of filthy dishes in the sink. She added her mug to them and began washing up, hoping that her hands weren‟t shaking so much that she would drop something.

„There‟s no one else.‟

„You sure about that?‟

„Why have you come here? To drag an apology out of me? You don‟t have to do that.

I‟ve already apologised.‟

„It occurred to me that maybe you and your boyfriend had plotted behind my back. The man who shares a pillow with a woman is a man who is inclined to be generous with his lover.

Maybe you figured between yourselves that if you managed to get me into the sack then it would just be a question of time before you could begin the process of bleeding me for money.‟ He hadn‟t considered anything of the sort, but he had to fire her up to anger, had to get her to spill her fury onto him and, in the process, her feelings, because she had been eating away at him for the past week.

Mattie spun around as though she had been struck.

„That is the most…most… horrendous thing you‟ve said to me yet! How dare you?‟

She walked towards him with the tea cloth in one hand, glaring. And Dominic just wanted to yank her down onto his lap and kiss the expression off her face.

„I‟m an extremely rich man. Wealth breeds suspicion.‟

„Then I feel very sorry for you indeed!‟

„It wouldn‟t be the first time that I‟ve been pursued by a gold-digger.‟

„If I recall, you were the one doing the pursuing!‟ She was standing directly in front of him now and leaning towards him in outrage at his suggestion.

„True. But maybe you‟re the clever opportunist who seized the chance when it presented itself…‟

„You‟re…you‟re…‟

„Someone accustomed to reading motives behind every action…‟

„I‟m not interested in your stupid money! And I would never hatch a plot like that with anyone!‟

„Not even with the man you defend so eloquently, not even the man you live with and love?‟

Dominic stared into the furious face that was pushed towards him.

„I don‟t love Frankie! I might live with him but I don‟t love him!‟

He heard her swift intake of breath as her brain caught up with her admission and he couldn‟t help himself. He half smiled and then raised both his hands to tangle into her hair and frame her face.

„And I never believed for one moment that you were a gold-digger…‟

„You tricked me.‟ Mattie pulled herself out of his grasp and realised that, rather than feeling angry at his verbal cleverness, she felt a certain reluctant admiration. The man had technique, that much had to be conceded. No wonder he was top of his tree.

She sat back down to look at him.

„So tell me why you‟re here.‟

„Because…because I can‟t afford to be anywhere else. No. That‟s not why. At least, that‟s not the whole reason.‟ She threw him that wary, narrowed glance that he was getting used to, the one that crawled under his skin and made him have unholy thoughts of possessing her, peeling away that defensiveness like the outer skin of an onion to reveal all the complex layers underneath.

„Then what is? Tell me.‟

Mattie looked down at her fingers resting lightly on the top of the table and then stole a glance at him.

„We sort of grew up together, then when we were teenagers we went out. Frankie was always the one the girls fancied. Good-looking, athletic…‟ She smiled to herself and Dominic felt a tight sensation of rage that even in retrospect this man could command a smile like that.

„He was going to be a footballer. That was all he‟d ever wanted. He‟d play for a team in the premier league, earn a fortune, fulfil his dream. Then when he was nineteen his mum died and he sort of collapsed.‟ She was still staring at her fingers and half talking to herself, but she could feel those dark, shrewd eyes on her face, watching her.

„By then, I was thinking of leaving him. I think I‟d outgrown him. I still liked him but…‟

Now, that was something she had never really admitted, not even to herself, but talking was putting everything into perspective.

„But you wanted to get on with your own dreams?‟ Dominic inserted the question without disturbing the atmosphere, and he saw her nod slowly.

„‟Course, I couldn‟t then. Couldn‟t walk away from him when he needed my support, so I kind of postponed the course I‟d applied for and carried on in my job. His mum and dad had bought this house from the council, oh, years ago. We moved in.‟ Mattie released one long, expressive sigh. „I think I could do with a drink,‟ she said abruptly. „Want one?‟

Dominic shook his head and watched her open the fridge door, frown, pull out a can of lager.

„I don‟t normally drink this stuff,‟ she said, sitting back down and tugging the tab open.

„But…‟ She shrugged and swallowed a mouthful of lager straight from the can, watching him over the rim so that he wondered whether she was doing that just for his benefit. Another little ruse to elucidate that she was not the kind of woman who daintily sipped her lager from a chilled glass or, rather, that she was the kind of woman who drank lager at all.

He had to take his hat off to her. This woman was like none other he had ever met.

„You moved in…?‟ he prompted delicately.

„We moved in. For a while it worked. Then he went out drinking one night and was involved in an accident. He was the passenger. Nothing serious, no one else involved…‟