Unable to say the same of her, that he could never recall her being so weighed down with sadness, he passed the bottle back to her. It was like a game of pass the parcel.

When she’d taken another swig, bubbles frothing down her chin, she said, ‘Have you ever cheated on a girlfriend?’

‘No,’ he answered, his hands twitching to wipe her chin.

‘Me neither. But … ‘

‘But what?’

‘I don’t think I’d better say.’

He swallowed and watched her wipe her chin with her hand. ‘Perhaps not.’

The silence between them lengthened. ‘We never once kissed when we were students, did we?’ she said.

‘Not that I remember,’ he said lightly, his gaze on the glowing lantern. ‘I’m sure I would recall it if we had.’

‘I always wanted to know what it would be like,’ she murmured.

He turned to look at her. ‘You did? Why didn’t you ever say?’

‘Because as you said earlier, the time was never right for us.’ His every instinct told him that he should call a halt to their conversation, that the words they were exchanging were too loaded with want and need to lead them anywhere but regret.

But a far greater instinct made him take the bottle from her and put it on the table next to the lantern. Then tracing a hand across her cheek, he kissed her. Just as he had wanted to when they’d been students. And today when he’d spotted her hiding beneath that large brimmed hat. Funny that his desire for her had never quite left him.

They should have stopped after the first kiss, and after the second and third. But by then an unstoppable force had taken hold of them and throwing the woollen blankets on the floor, he unzipped his trousers while she removed her tights and silk underwear. The lower part of her dress fitted her so tightly he joked it was like trying to remove a surgical glove from her as he hitched it up over her thighs. He made love to her in a glorious explosion of breathless passion, not caring what the consequences would be. He didn’t give a damn what Naomi’s motives were for wanting to cheat on her husband with him. So what if this was her way of exacting revenge? He didn’t care.

If there was a price to pay, and there usually was, so be it.

At the sound of a care assistant asking him if she could help him, Ellis was catapulted back to the here and now. He made his request and a vase duly found for the flowers and filled with water, he returned with it to his mother’s room.

‘There you are,’ Rose said as he put the vase on the sideboard next to the television she seldom watched. ‘We were beginning to think you’d found somebody better to chat with.’

‘I was giving you time to gossip about me,’ he replied.