Escape Me Never by Sara Craven Read Free Book Online Page A

hard line. It was clear she would have preferred to go with him.
    Cass toyed with the idea of saying brightly, 'I'm sorry we're such dull company,' but decided against it. After all, she was going to have to work with the woman, and she'd already heard along the grapevine that Serena's temperament when she was filming in no way matched her name.
    Lloyd said eagerly, 'There's a vacant table just behind us. Would you like to sit down, Miss Vance.'
    Miss Vance gave it a quick look, deciding immediately that it would put her at a disadvantage by removing her from the centre of attention. 'I'd prefer to stand,' she declared sweetly. 'Theatre seats seem so cramped these days.'
    A woman came up at that moment and asked her to sign her programme, and Serena complied graciously, murmuring that it was so long since she'd been in dear, beautiful London, that she really hadn't expected to be recognised.
    Cass sipped her white wine, and reflected that appearing on breakfast television on both channels was hardly the way to guarantee anonymity.
    When Rohan returned, Serena was almost surrounded by autograph hunters and well-wishers, and obviously loving every minute of it, her face more animated than Cass had seen it.
    'Enjoying the play?' Cass looked up to find Rohan beside her, Lloyd having joined the crowd of excited fans around Serena.
    'Not particularly,' she said coldly. 'It's not a subject I find very appealing.'
    'Trying to make me believe you're a prude, Cassie?' The hazel eyes glinted down at her. 'You won't succeed. Your mouth—the lower lip in particular—tells a very different story.'
    She stared down impotently into her glass, feeling a helpless tide of colour rising in her face.
    'The pursuit of the human female by the male may not fit in with your own philosophy,' he went on. 'But without it the species would have died out a long time ago.'
    'In some cases, I can see where that would have been an advantage,' Cass said bitingly. 'Now will you please leave me alone?'
    'I don't know whether that's possible,' Rohan said almost reflectively. The hazel eyes looked coolly, disturbingly into hers. ' "While I am I and you are you", ' he quoted softly. ' "So long as the world contains us both…" .' He paused. 'I'm sure I don't need to go on.'
    'You had no need to begin.' Cass put down her glass, her hands shaking. 'And can I point out that you are not Robert Browning, and in no way am I Elizabeth Barrett.'
    He laughed. 'I think, on the whole, she may have given him the easier time.'
    Cass shrugged, listening avidly for the bell which would signal the commencement of the second act. Would it never ring? she wondered miserably. 'If it's an easy time you want,' she said, 'I suggest you transfer your attentions to your companion. I'm sure you'd find her more than receptive.'
    His brows lifted. 'Showing your claws, Cass?' he asked with dry appreciation. 'A disinterested bystander listening to you might wonder if you could possibly be jealous.'
    'Then he would not only be disinterested, but misinformed,' she said sharply, hearing with a rush of relief the sound of the bell above the hum of laughter and chat around them. 'I don't care what women you favour, Mr Grant, as long as I'm not one of them. I just want to be left in peace.
    'Those bruised eyes I saw when we first met don't indicate a particularly peaceful existence, Cass. What are you frightened of?'
    'I'm not frightened at all,' she denied hurriedly, aware that the group round Serena Vance was breaking up reluctantly, that the actress was rising and Lloyd was coming towards them. 'Just—bored, and rather irritated with all this hassle. I don't need it.'
    Rohan shrugged, his gaze taking one last relentless look. 'Very well,' he said. 'Then I'll do as you wish. I'll—er transfer my attentions to where they'll be appreciated from now on. Does that reassure you?'
    She didn't answer. She moved to Lloyd's side, slipping a hand through his arm with a deliberately possessive gesture.