But that’s what he’d been, hadn’t he? Long before everything spiralled so out of control, he’d been so much more than he became, and then again, he’d become so much more than she’d ever let herself fear. Her breath grew shallow at the thoughts she’d held at bay for so very long. Had the talk about her history, her future, her position brought them too close to the surface, or had Sophia broken down the defences with her refusal to keep a respectful distance the way all the others did?

“Come on,” Sophia whispered, much closer now.

She shook her head and swallowed the bile rising in her throat.

Sophia picked up a glass and took a sip before extending it to Vic.

“I haven’t added the tonic yet.”

“Oh, you’re not going to find the tonic you need in a bottle tonight.” Sophia wrapped an arm around her waist. “Come back and sit with me.”

It took everything Vic had not to melt into her. Only her fear of never being able to let go kept her from clinging to Sophia. Instead she lifted her chin and blew out a stiff breath. “I’m fine.”

“Of course you are, darling,” Sophia practically purred in her ear. “Come on.”

She allowed herself to be led back to the settee, and Sophia pressed the glass into her hand. She stared down at the faint imprint of Sophia’s lipstick on the rim and her heart beat a little faster. She snorted softly at the immaturity of finding a thrill in such a thing. She wasn’t some silly schoolgirl with her first crush. She was a grown woman with a past and a near crushing sense of decorum. As if to prove her point she said, “Robert is my ex-husband.”

Sophia nodded thoughtfully. “And here I was, assuming that the way you undressed me with your eyes the first time we met was a solid indicator of your lesbianism.”

She shook her head at the perfectly disarming response to the hardest thing she’d had to say in ages. How did this woman keep managing to shake her equilibrium enough to make her feel off balance without quite letting her fall?

“So, are you bisexual? Pansexual? A generalised sort of queer?”

“I wish. Things would be so much easier in so many ways.”

“How so?”

“If men were an option for me, physically I would have taken hold of it by now, but it’s not in my nature, no matter how hard I’ve tried.”

“And Robert is the evidence of how hard you tried?”

She shook her head. “No, I knew before I married him that I’d never share a physical attraction with him. We both did.”

“Hmm.” Sophia reached for the glass and took another sip, while making a rolling motion with her hand. “Keep going.”