“They are not at home.”
“I knew that, or I should not have come. I don't want to make trouble for you, child.” His voice was infinitely caressing. “As it happens, I know your grandfather's Sunday habits, and I met your father and mother on the road going out of town at noon. I knew they had not come back.”
“How do you know that?”
He smiled down at her. “I have ways of knowing quite a lot of things. Especially when they are as vital to me as this few minutes alone with you.”
He bent toward her, as he sat behind the tea table.
“You know how vital this is to me, don't you?” he said. “You're not going to cut me off, are you?”
He stood over her, big, compelling, dominant, and put his hand under her chin.
“I am insane about you,” he whispered, and waited.
Slowly, irresistibly, she lifted her face to his kiss.