COUNTERPOINT
An original romantic serialFrom Alina Adams the author of "When a Man Loves a Woman" (DELL 4/00), "Annie's Wild Ride" (AVON 8/98), "Inside Figure Skating" (METROBOOKS 11/00 & 9/99), "Thieves at Heart" (AVON 12/95) and "The Fictitious Marquis" (AVON 6/95)
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CHAPTER 32
Robin, of course, had no way of knowing that, and so he pulled away from their embrace still wearing the same smile he'd come in with. It faded a touch when he noted the less joyful expression on her face, and, stroking Victoria's cheek with the back of his hand, asked, "What's wrong, love?"
She ducked under his arm, turning her back on him and walking down the sole step into her living room. "We need to talk, Robin."
"Okay." His tone was conciliatory, amiable, eager to please.
She crossed her arms along her chest, her right hand squeezing her left elbow so tightly, she cut off her circulation and felt her fingers grow first hot, then frigid. She said, "We made a mistake. Rather, I made the mistake."
"Meaning?" Victoria imagined she heard a touch of frost coat Robin's question. He came up to stand behind her, resting his palm on Victoria's shoulder, exerting a touch of pressure in an attempt to make her turn around and face him.
She resisted, digging in her heels, and pivoting her torso to get away from him. But, Robin refused to loosen his grip.
"Meaning?" he repeated.
"Meaning," Victoria spun around, grateful for the irritation that flared at his refusal to obey her unspoken plea for distance. Because, as long as she felt angry with him, Victoria didn't have to acknowledge feeling any other way. "We went too far last night. Now, I'm not blaming you. I take the responsibility totally upon myself. But, the fact remains, we went too far."
Robin slowly lowered his arm to his side. Puzzlement tussled vexation for control of his features, with neither emerging a clear winner, and both choosing to camouflage behind sarcasm as he coolly observed, "That's very gallant of you to accept all responsibility, but, I'd like to presume I had a little something to do with where matters led last night. I was also in the room, after all."
She blushed, as much from the memory as from embarrassment. "Yes, of course. I didn't mean to imply that you weren't."
"What did you mean to imply, then?"
Damn it, how did he do that? She'd had the words in her head, she'd had everything she resolved to say planned out, and now he'd gone and rendered her speechless.
"I -- I meant what I said. We went too far. We never should have made love. You're still married. That didn't change between yesterday and the day before."
"I see." Robin's tone suggested that he didn't in the least, but was making a valiant effort to, for her sake. "I'm sorry that you feel that way, Victoria. But, we can't very well undo what has already been done."
"We can make sure it doesn't happen again."
His eyes narrowed. "Until after I'm divorced?"
"No," Victoria took a deep breath. "Ever."
Robin's pretense at comprehension evaporated. "What the hell is going on here, love? Eighteen hours ago, you and I were getting along swimmingly, if I do say so myself, and now you're acting like I'm your friendly neighborhood Lothario come to pillage the village nun for sport. Now, listen here. If you want to cool things down a touch between us until after my marriage is dissolved, that's one thing. I'm not saying I'm thrilled about it, but, I do understand, and I respect your ethics, or scruples, or whatever they are. But, to tell me that this is it, I'm locked out for good, well, I think I deserve a somewhat more precise explanation that the ever-popular We Made a Mistake record which seems eternally stuck on your turntable tonight."
"I don't know what else to say to you, Robin." She would not cry. No matter what, she would not cry. Not in front of him.
"Try starting with a cause. How did I go from 'Last night was magic,' to persona non grata in the space of eighteen hours, six of which I spent asleep, so I couldn't have done anything too horrible then, unless snoring has suddenly become a capital offense."
"It wasn't you. It was me. Now that I've had time to think, I realized that ... that -- "
"What? Tell me. What did you realize?"
"I realized that," Victoria was grabbing at straws. She only prayed Robin wouldn't be able to notice. "I realized that I didn't believe you would ever really leave Nicole."
She heard the words for the first time as they were vacating her mouth. They made about as much sense as everything else that had happened to her in the past twenty-four hours.
Robin took a step backward, momentarily too stunned to do more than blink. "What did you say?"
"I said that," now that she'd blurted this nonsense, Victoria supposed she should stick to her story. A shame she had to make it up as she went along. "I said that I gave it some thought and, uh, I came to the conclusion that you were never going to divorce your wife. I mean, if you really wanted to, you'd have done it by now, right? You do this all the time. Douglas told me. You get bored with Nicole, and you go looking for another woman to spice things up. You pursue her, you set up this grand seduction, and you get her into bed. Only, eventually, you get as bored with her as you were earlier with Nicole, and, zow, poof, that's it, you're out of there. Well, I don't want to play that game."
"Zow?" Robin managed to magnify the exclamation into a pair of syllables. "Poof?"
"You know what I mean."
"Poof." He repeated, this time with appropriate, Sorcerer's Apprentice hand gestures. "Where are you getting this stuff?"
"Am I wrong? Hasn't that been your common pattern since you were, what, eighteen years old?"
"Well, I can't swear about the 'poof' part."
"I'm being serious."
"No. You're being ludicrous."
He was doing it again. Using that smile of his to derail her, along with the point of their conversation. "I told you weeks ago. One night stands with married men are not my style."
"And I told you that you were more than just a one night stand to me, Victoria."
She had to bite her lip to force herself to ask, "Is that what you told the girl before me? And the one before her?"
Robin fought to keep his temper in check, licking his lips and taking a deep breath before reasoning, "Look, love, I guess I don't blame you for having your doubts about me. I haven't exactly lived an exemplary life. I'm a bastard, I'll be the first to admit that. In fact, I believe I already was the first to admit that." He went for a smile. When Victoria didn't return it, it committed suicide. He cleared his throat and, spreading his hands out wide, asked, in as stately a manner as possible, "But, do you think maybe you might find it in your heart to give me the chance to prove that, whatever it is that's bloomed so wonderfully between us, the one thing it is not, the one thing it could never be, is common."
He wasn't fighting fair. Didn't Robin know this was the part of the script where he was supposed to get fed up, call Victoria a frigid bitch or worse, and storm out the door -- back into Nicole's arms? She'd planned on making him so furious with her accusations, that Robin would be the one to gratefully halt their relationship.
Only she forgot to tell him how the story was supposed to play out. He wasn't taking offense to her aspersions on his character. He was agreeing with her! Now, what could Victoria do?