He shrugged, pulling the tie from under his collar. ‘Well, that should please you at least.’

‘You could get arrested! Why won’t you defend yourself?’ she cried, stepping towards him.

‘Why are you assuming she’s lying?’ He threw the tie onto the floor and began unbuttoning his cuffs.

‘I . . . I’m not assuming anything. I just don’t know what to believe.’

He stared at her as he shook his head slowly. ‘Clover, whether you believe it or don’t believe it – it really makes no difference.’ He shrugged off his shirt and let it fall too. He jerked his chin in the direction of the door. ‘Shut the door on your way out.’

She watched as he walked into the bathroom, kicking the door closed behind him. She stared at it, her heart pounding against her ribs as she heard the sound of the shower starting up. There could be only one reason why he was being like this, why he wasn’t fighting back – because he couldn’t. It had to be true.

He was everything she’d ever said he was. She’d known it from the start.

He was the man who’d forced Cory Allbright into those waves. He was a man who used his fists.

He was a monster.

Wasn’t he?

The door opened.

Kit stopped, silhouetted briefly, his hand already on the light switch before he saw her, lying there.

‘. . . What the fuck are you doing?’ His voice was a croak; it was a shock too far for his body tonight.

‘What does it look like?’ she asked calmly, even though she had no idea what she was doing. She was a stranger to herself tonight. ‘I’m having a bath.’

The moonlight glinted on the copper as it fell through the glass walls.

‘. . . I told you to get out.’

‘No, you told me to shut the door on my way out. I haven’t gone yet.’

‘Clover . . .’ There was a warning note in his voice. ‘I can’t deal with your games right now.’

‘There’s no games. You told me I was welcome to have a bath here, any time I wanted. Day or night.’ They both remembered the sarcasm that had dripped from those same words the night he’d said them at the restaurant, all those weeks ago now.

He stared back at her, then closed his eyes. He looked done in. ‘Fine. Have the damn bath then.’ He switched off the bathroom light and let his towel fall, climbing into his bed. He turned off the bedside light and turned away from her.

Silence settled over the room.