His blue eyes were puzzled and for a few seconds Kate felt sorry for him. Dan honestly didn’t know what was going on. To him, if you wanted something you took it. He never realised how much he had hurt her in the past. How many times had she taken him back over the years, only to come home from work to find he had gone again? No note, nothing. Just her mother’s pitying face. Too many times having to tell Lizzy that Daddy had gone again. That he worked away, a long, long way away, that’s why he didn’t write very often or call.

As he traced his fingers along her arm, she felt a response inside her. She still wanted Dan sexually, she admitted that, but she’d deny herself that satisfaction before she let him scramble her brains all over again.

‘You’re the only woman I ever really loved, you know, Kate. Whatever you might think of me, that at least is the truth.’

She stood up and pulled a towel from the rail, wrapping it around herself. The funny thing was, she knew it was true. Dan chased excitement. A new woman to him was as necessary as water to everyone else. If she had been able to accept that, then they would never have parted. But Kate wanted someone one hundred percent. And that sort of commitment was beyond Danny Burrows.

‘Leave me alone, Dan. I mean it. You had your chance and you blew it. I have no intention of going through all that rigmarole again. I stopped wanting you a long time ago. Now, if you don’t mind, I want to get myself sorted out.’

He gave her one of his winning smiles.

‘Well, you can’t blame me for trying, Katie, you’re still a very attractive woman.’

You should know about attractive women, Dan. Christ himself knows you’ve had enough of them.

After he’d left she felt flat and cheated, because she hadn’t been with a man since Dan had left her for the last time, five years earlier.

Though he didn’t know it, he was the only man she had ever slept with in her whole life.

She picked up the wine from the window sill where he had placed it, and drained the glass. Her hands were shaking, and it wasn’t with fright.