скачать книгу бесплатно
‘Of course,’ she retorted, before closing her mouth on any more impetuous words. Silence filled the cab until she elaborated reluctantly, ‘It was my money.’
Let him take that how he wanted. If Luc MacAllister had any right to know, he’d find out about Tom’s subsequent loan to her from the solicitor—the man arriving tomorrow.
Was that why Luc had come to Rotumea? To be told the contents of Tom’s will?
Immediately she dismissed the idea. Luc was Tom’s heir, his chosen successor as well as his stepson, so he’d already know.
Possibly Tom had mentioned her in his will; he might even have cancelled her debt to him. That would have been a kind gesture. And if he hadn’t—if Luc MacAllister inherited the debt—she’d pay it off as quickly as she could.
A coolly decisive voice broke into her thoughts. ‘And are you making money on this project?’
For brief moments her fingers clenched around the steering wheel. For a second she toyed with the idea of telling him again to mind his own business, but it was a logical question, and if he did inherit the debt he had a right to know.
However, he might not have.
‘Yes,’ she said, and turned off the tarseal onto a narrow rutted road that led up into the jungle-clad mountains in the centre of the island.
A quick glance revealed Luc was examining a pawpaw plantation on his side. He didn’t seem fazed by the state of the road, the precipice to one side or the large pig that only slowly got up and made room for them.
‘This is the area we’re taking the material from now,’ she said. ‘Each sub-tribe sells me the rights to harvest from the plants on their land for three months every year. It works well; the plants have time to recover and even seem to flourish under the pruning.’
‘How many people do you employ to do the harvesting?’
‘It depends. The chiefs organise that.’
She stopped on the level patch of land where the road ended. ‘There’s a great view of this side of the island from here,’ she said, and got out.
Luc followed suit, and again she was acutely aware of his height, and that intangible, potent authority that seemed to come from some power inside him. The sun-streaks in his hair gleamed a dusky gold; his colouring must have come from that Scottish father. The only inheritance from his French mother was the olive sheen to his skin.
Did that cold grey gaze ever warm and soften? It didn’t seem likely, although she could imagine his eyes kindling in passion …
Firmly squelching an odd sensation in the pit of her stomach, she decided that from what she knew of him and the very little she’d seen of him, softness wasn’t—and never would be—part of his emotional repertoire. It was difficult to imagine him showing tenderness, and any compassion would probably be intellectual, not from the heart.
So, after an hour or so you’re an expert on him? she jeered mentally, aware of another embarrassing internal flutter. Remember you’re totally off good-looking men!
Although good-looking was far too weak a word for Luc MacAllister’s strong features and formidable air of authority. Composing herself, she began to point out the sights, showing him the breach in the reef that sheltered the lagoon from the ever-present pounding of the ocean waves.
‘The only river on the island reaches the coast below us, and the fresh water stops the coral from forming across its exit,’ she said in her best guidebook manner. ‘The gap in the reef and the lagoon make a sort of harbour, the first landing place of the original settlers.’
Luc’s downward glance set her heart racing, yet his voice was almost casual. ‘Where did they come from, and when was that?’
Doggedly, she switched her attention back to the view below. ‘Almost certainly they arrived from what’s now French Polynesia, and the general opinion seems to be it was about fifteen hundred years ago.’
‘They were magnificent seamen,’ he observed, looking out to sea. ‘They had to be, to set off into the unknown with only the stars and the clouds to guide them.’
The comment surprised her. Like all New Zealanders, she’d grown up with tales of those ancient sailors and their remarkable feats, but she remembered that Luc had been educated in England and France. She wouldn’t have thought he had a romantic bone in his big, lithe body, and it was unlikely he’d been taught about the great outrigger canoes that had island-hopped across the Pacific, even travelling the vast distance to South America to return with the sweet potato the Maori from her homeland called kumara.
‘Tough too,’ he said, his eyes still fixed on the lagoon beneath them—a symphony of turquoise and intense blue bordered by glittering white beaches and the robust barrier of the reef. Immense and dangerous, the Pacific Ocean stretched far beyond the horizon.
‘Very tough,’ she agreed. ‘And probably with a good reason for moving on each time.’
‘They must have had guts and stamina and tenacious determination, as well as the skill and knowledge to know where they were going.’
Yes, that sounded uncompromising and forceful—attributes as useful in the modern, high-powered world Luc moved in as they would have been for those ancient Polynesian voyagers.
‘I’m sure they did,’ she said. ‘Over a period of about four thousand years they discovered almost every inhabitable island in the Pacific from Hawaii to New Zealand.’
She pointed out the coral motu—small white-ringed islets covered in coconut palms, green beads in the lacy fichu of foam that the breaking combers formed along the reef.
‘When the first settlers landed there,’ she told him, hoping her voice was more steady than her pulse, ‘they didn’t know whether there were any other people on Rotumea so they anchored the canoe in the lagoon, ready to take off if a hostile group approached.’
‘But no one did.’
‘No. It was uninhabited. Virgin territory.’
And for some humiliating reason her cheeks pinked. Hastily she kept her gaze out to sea and added, ‘It must have been a huge relief. They’d have carried coconuts with them to plant, and kumara and taro, and the paper mulberry tree to make cloth. And of course they brought dogs and rats too.’
‘You’ve obviously studied the history,’ Luc said sardonically.
I don’t like you, Jo thought sturdily. Not one tiny bit. Not ever.
Buoyed up by the thought, she turned and gave him a swift challenging smile. ‘Of course,’ she said in her sweetest tone. ‘I find them fascinating, and it’s only polite to know something of the history of the place, after all. And of the people. Don’t you think so?’
‘Oh, I agree entirely. Information is the lifeblood of modern business.’
Her heightened senses warned her that his words and the hard smile that accompanied them held something close to a threat.
Stop dramatising, she told herself decisively. He was just being sarcastic again.
Yet it was dangerously exhilarating to fence with him like this. Anyway, he’d soon leave Rotumea. After all, she thought irritably, there must be rulers all over the world desperate to speak to him about matters of national interest, earth-shattering decisions to be pondered, vast amounts of money to be made. Once he’d shaken the white sand and red volcanic soil of Rotumea from his elegantly shod feet, he’d never come back and she wouldn’t have to deal with him again.
Cheered by this thought, she said, ‘We’d better be going. I want to call in at the shop before it closes.’
And she hoped it bored the life out of him. She knew most men would rather chance their luck in shark-infested waters than walk into the softly scented, flower-filled shop that sold her products.
She turned to go back to the car, only to realise he’d done the same. Startled, she pulled away at the touch of his arm on hers, and to her chagrin her foot twisted on a stone, jerking her off balance.
Before she could draw breath strong hands clamped onto her shoulders and steadied her. Jo froze, meeting glinting eyes that narrowed. Her heart somersaulted under the impact of his touch, his closeness. Every cell in her body was suddenly charged with a fierce awareness of his potent male charisma.
His grip tightened for a painful moment, then relaxed.
But, instead of letting her go, he drew her towards him. His face was set and intent, his eyes molten silver.
Something feverish and demanding stopped her from jerking backwards, from saying anything. Helpless in a kind of reckless, fascinated thraldom, she forced herself to meet that fiercely intent gaze. In it she read passion, and a desire that matched the desperate impulse she had no way of fighting.
No, something in her brain insisted desperately, but a more primal urge burnt away common sense, any innate protectiveness, and when his mouth came down on hers she went up in flames, the blood surging through her in response to the carnal craving summoned by his kiss. Her lashes fluttered down, giving every other sense free rein to savour the moment his mouth took hers.
He tasted purely male, clean and slightly salty, with a flavour that stimulated far more than her taste buds. The arms that held her against his powerful body were iron-hard, yet somehow made her feel infinitely secure. And mingling with the tropical fecundity of the rainforest around them was his scent. It breathed of arousal and a need that equalled the heat inside her. She wanted to accept and unleash that need, allow it to overcome the faint intimations of common sense, surrender completely …
And could not—must not …
Before she could pull away, he lifted his head. Her lashes fluttered drowsily up, but when she saw his icily intimidating expression, all desire fled, overtaken by humiliation.
He dropped his hands and took a step backwards.
‘A bit too soon—and very crass—to be making a move like that, surely?’ he said in a voice so level it took her a second or two to register the meaning of his words. ‘After all, Tom’s barely cold in his grave. You could make some pretence of missing him.’
The flick of scorn in his last sentence lashed her like a whip.
Damn Sean’s sleazy mind and foul mouth, she thought savagely.
But the brutal sarcasm effectively banished the desire that had roared up out of nowhere. Defiantly she angled her chin and forced herself to hold Luc’s unsparing arctic gaze.
In a voice she struggled to hold steady, she said, ‘Tom and I didn’t have that sort of relationship.’
He shrugged. ‘Spare me the details.’
‘If you spare me your crass assumptions,’ she flashed, green eyes glittering with some emotion.
After a charged pause, he nodded. ‘I’m not interested in your relationship with Tom.’
He registered the slight easing of her tension. It seemed she was prepared to believe that.
Not that it was exactly the truth. For some reason the thought of her in Tom’s bed sickened him.
But with a mother who’d made no secret of her affairs, Joanna Forman undoubtedly had an elastic attitude to morality.
As she’d just shown. Hell, she’d been more than willing. He could have laid her down on the grass and taken her.
Mentally cursing his unruly mind as it produced an image of her golden body beneath him, of losing herself in her carnal heat, he quenched his fierce hunger with the sardonic observation that possibly her response was faked.
Had she realised that giving away her lovely body might not be sensible at this time? Sex would mean she’d lose any bargaining power …
‘For your information,’ she said now, her tone crisp and clear, her eyes coldly green and very direct, ‘when I was a child I spent quite a few of my holidays here, staying with Aunt Luisa. My mother travelled a lot, and Tom didn’t mind me coming even when he was in residence.’
His brows lifted and she waited for some comment. None came, so she resumed, ‘We always got on well.’
She stopped, then in an entirely different tone, the words a little thick as though fighting back a surge of grief, she finished, ‘That’s all there was to it.’
Cynically Luc applauded that final touch. She also made the whole scenario sound quite plausible; Tom had a history of mentoring promising talent.
However, he’d mentioned none of his other protеgеes in his will.
But her statement certainly fitted in with the information he had about her. She’d attended excellent private schools—paid for probably by the succession of rich lovers her mother had taken. However, she hadn’t followed her mother’s choice of career. At university, she’d taken a science degree and a lover, graduating from both just before Ilona Forman had developed the illness that eventually killed her.
Joanna had left a fairly menial job at a well-connected firm to care for her mother, and then found herself with an ill aunt who’d refused to leave Rotumea. Either she had a sense of responsibility for her family, such as it was, or she’d seen an opportunity to get closer to Tom and grabbed it.
No doubt it had seemed a good career move.
And it had paid off.
Luc let his gaze roam her face, unwillingly intrigued by the colour that tinged her beautiful skin. Perfect skin for a woman who made skincare products. Yet, in spite of that betraying blush, her black-lashed eyes were steady and completely unreadable.
Was she wondering if he accepted that her relationship with Tom involved nothing more than innocent pleasure in each other’s company?
Tamping down a deep, unusual anger, he reminded himself that he had to live with her for the next six months. And that he needed her approval before he could assume full control of the Henderson organization.
You cunning old goat, Tom, he thought coldly, and held out his hand. ‘Very well, we’ll leave it at that.’
Surprised, Jo reluctantly put her hand in his. A rush of adrenalin coursed through her when long fingers closed around hers, a thrill that coalesced into a hot tug of sensation in the pit of her stomach. Her breath came faster through her lips, and she had to force herself not to jerk free of his touch.
OK, so he hadn’t said he believed her. Why should she care?
Yet she did.
However, she wasn’t going to waste time wondering about the reason.
But at the shop she was surprised. Tall and darkly dominant, Luc examined the fittings, and even took down and read the blurb on a package of her most expensive rehydrating cream.
She had to conquer a spasm of irritation at her manager’s admiring glances. This was her domain, and he had no right to look so much in charge, she thought crossly, and immediately felt foolish for responding so unreasonably.
But something about Luc MacAllister made her unreasonable. Something more than his assumption about her and Tom. Something she didn’t recognise, primal and dangerous and … and idiotic, she told herself bracingly.
Face it and get over it. He has a bewildering effect on you, but you can cope. He’s not really interested in either you or your product, and you don’t want him to be.
Back in the Land Rover, he commented, ‘You need better packaging.’
She knew that. Though what made him an expert on packaging skincare products? ‘That’s all I can afford right now,’ she said evenly, turning to take the track that led to Tom’s house.
‘You haven’t considered getting a partner?’
‘No.’
He said nothing, but she sensed his examination of her set profile as she negotiated the ruts. When she pulled up at the house he asked, ‘And your reason?’
‘I want to retain control,’ she told him, switching off the engine and turning to meet his gaze with more than a hint of defiance.
His dark brows lifted, but he said, ‘Fair enough. However, unless you’re happy with your present turnover—’ his tone indicated he considered that likely to be peanuts ‘—you’re going to have to bite that bullet eventually.’
‘Right now, I’m happy with the way things are going,’ she told him, a steely note beneath her words.
When Tom had suggested exactly the same thing she’d refused his offer of a further loan without any of the odd sensation of dread that assailed her now.
Luc’s kiss had changed things in a fundamental way she didn’t want to face. His hooded eyes, the autocratic features that revealed no emotion and the taut line of his sensuous mouth—all combined to lift the hairs on her skin in a primitive display of awareness. He looked at her as though she was prey.
And that was ridiculous! He’d taken over Tom’s huge empire, and had built it up even further. He was accustomed to organising and managing world-spanning enterprises. He wasn’t interested in her piddling little business.
Or her, she thought, feeling slightly sick. There had been something about that kiss—something assessing, as though he’d been testing her reactions …
