Now, even after the strenuous workout, he was issuing instructions in a clear voice that didn’t betray even a quickening of breath.

‘You’re stiff, Pansy, and it shows. Go through the basic programmes on your own every day.’

‘Oh God, all this bend-stretch is so boring.’ Chloe smiled at Pansy’s clear voice.

Tom didn’t even look at her. ‘Too bad. Now let’s get on.’ Cocky bastard, Chloe thought, not for the first time. But she saw the dark hair at the throat of his unzipped tracksuit top and the cool authority in his face and thought, yes, he’s attractive. But there was something detached in Tom’s response to her that told Chloe that he did not find her as interesting as she would have expected. Her gaze shifted to Oliver’s windblown hair and Plantagenet features.

Yes, Chloe thought, and then No. There was something wrong about beautiful Oliver, something minutely off-key that warned her away. And anyway, just now he belonged to Pansy.

There was a slight movement behind her and she looked round. Stephen was sliding into the seat next to hers.

‘Sorry,’ he murmured with his mouth close to her hair. Then, safe in the darkness against the blaze of lights on stage, he kissed her. Chloe’s eyes closed and warmth flooded through her as it always did when she was with him.

‘What’s going on?’ Stephen drew back and nodded towards the stage. Oliver’s and Tom’s heads were close together, light and dark, opposites in the spotlight.

‘Not much. Look at those two together. Almost good enough to eat.’

As soon as she had said it, Chloe realised that Stephen was not going to be jealous. He shrugged. ‘Depends on your particular appetite.’ Then his fingers touched her thigh. ‘Come back with me afterwards.’

Chloe knew that he meant to his College rooms where they would bolt the door and reach avidly for each other. She nodded, all thought of making herself unavailable chased out of her head.

But when at last Tom left his seat in the front row and shouted, ‘Okay everyone, that’s it for today,’ Pansy jumped down from the stage and came towards them.

‘It all sounds too exciting,’ Pansy had said when Chloe, needing to talk about her new love, had described her snatched hours with Stephen. ‘But why does he lurk in the shadows so much at rehearsals? Is he afraid that we won’t be discreet about you two? Bring him to Follies so that the rest of us can get to know him too.’

But Chloe had hugged her times with Stephen closer to herself, and she was glad that they spent the hours he could spare for her alone together.