‘Remove your hand.’ She heard the venom in her voice. ‘And if you ever, ever come near me again, I’ll go straight to the police.’

He gaped at her. ‘Police? God … don’t say that.’ But his tone was quietly rational as he continued. ‘I thought, now Devan is off the scene …’ When she didn’t respond, he frowned as if baffled. But his next words were sharp, intense, his voice ratcheting up to something close to desperation. ‘He doesn’t love you, Connie. Can’t you see that? Where is he now, for instance? I mean, who leaves the person they love all alone at Christmas?’

‘I said, remove your hand. NOW,’ she repeated.

Jared was blinking fast, his cheeks flushed as if she’d smacked him. ‘Connie, please …’

For a split second she almost felt sorry for him. He looked so pathetic, standing there in the glow of the street lamps, his face pink with cold, clinging to a ludicrous delusion as forcefully as he held onto the door jamb. And to think she’d once thought him Mr Cool: the handsome, seasoned traveller, the one in charge, who turned up and melted away again when it suited him, who’d been so confident in his way around her body that she’d lost her reason. It made her feel sick.

The night air seemed suspended between them as their eyes met. She held his gaze, hoping he would finally see her steely rejection writ large and glowing neon. He didn’t flinch. Then, to her unutterable relief, she watched the fight slowly drain out of him. Stiffly, he released his grip and stood back.

‘OK,’ he said quietly. He held up the bag he’d been carrying in his other hand. ‘This is for you.’ Before she had time to stop him, he dropped it through the doorway, where it fell sideways on the mat.

Connie didn’t wait a second longer, just slammed the door in his face, hastily twisting the key in the double lock and shooting the stiff bolts. She heard her short, rasping breaths as she leaned her palms against the door, eye to the peephole, terrified he would still be standing there, looming inches from her face. But the top step was empty.

Not believing he’d really gone, she moved quickly to the window, peering warily between the heavy curtains. He was nowhere to be seen, the street empty except for a couple holding hands as they ran across the road, their breath trailing smoke in the cold night air. But she still felt haunted and unsafe.