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A densely forested mountain rose majestically in the centre of the tiny island, framed by a curve of smooth, white sand, the clear azure sea stretching to an endless horizon.
A few buildings nestled against the mountain—cottages in pastel colours with shutters open to the tropical breeze.
‘It’s beautiful,’ she murmured.
‘Sint Rimbert is the jewel of the Caribbean,’ the pilot stated. ‘Untouched by crass tourism…and it will remain that way.’There was a warning in his voice and Cormac smiled easily.
‘Absolutely. And the Hassells are more than generous to even consider sharing this piece of paradise with anyone.’
The pilot nodded in agreement and said no more as he began his descent to the island.
The landing strip was a bare brown line of dirt, barely noticeable in its stunning surroundings.
As they stepped off the plane, the air enfolded her in a balmy caress, heavy with the sweet scent of frangipani. The sky above them was a soft, hazy blue, fleecy clouds scudding across its surface.
Lizzie breathed in the warm tropical air, felt it fill her lungs with a fizz of excitement and hope. As long as she could keep her cool—with Cormac as much as with everyone else—she’d be okay.
She could even enjoy this. Maybe.
She wanted to. She wanted to have a weekend to remember.
She might never get the chance again.
A man—short, balding and in his sixties—strode forward. ‘Mr Douglas! We are so pleased! So pleased!’ He stuck out his hand for Cormac to shake and Lizzie’s heart constricted. This had to be Jan Hassell, the man they were deceiving.
Stop it, she commanded herself. She was in too deep now; it was too late to feel guilty.
Hassell turned to her, beaming as he pumped her hand. ‘And this must be your wife…’ He paused, forehead wrinkling, and Cormac interjected smoothly.
‘Elizabeth. But I call her Lizzie.’ He spoke the name as if it were an endearment, smiling at her, his gaze a teasing caress.
Refusing to be baited or belittled, Lizzie smiled back, laced her slick fingers with Cormac’s. ‘Please call me Lizzie, as well,’ she murmured, shooting Cormac a coy smile. ‘Everyone does, although Cormac likes to think it’s his pet name for me.’
Jan clapped his hand in delight. ‘But you are so in love! You will have to tell me all about it. My wife, Hilda, will want to know how it all came about.’
More people to deceive. Lizzie hushed the whisper of her conscience. ‘Oh, that’s girl talk,’ she said with a little laugh. ‘Hilda and I will have to chat…I’ll tell her all of Cormac’s secrets.’ She smiled and Jan beamed. ‘I’m sure you two have a story, as well!’
‘Oh, we do,’ Jan assured her with a wink. ‘Now, you must be tired. Your things have been brought to my car…Come, follow me.’
He turned and headed towards a four-by-four parked near some scrub.
Cormac put his arm around her shoulders—heavy, warm, a warning. ‘Come on, sweetheart,’ he said easily, but his hand squeezed her shoulder. He murmured in a low voice, ‘Don’t lay it on with a trowel, Chandler. It’s a bit nauseating.’
‘I can believe that,’ she replied in an angry undertone. ‘Acting like you’re in love has to be completely foreign to you! Do you love anything but your precious designs?’ Smiling again, she laid her head against his shoulder, felt the tension in his muscles, in her own.
Every petty victory cost her something, as well.
Their luggage stowed in the back, Jan opened the rear door for them to enter.
Lizzie clambered in, hoping that Cormac would sit in the front with Jan.
He did not. He climbed in next to her, his large, muscular thigh pressed against hers, his arm around her shoulders once more, drawing her tightly to his side. She could smell his scent—the tang of soap and cedar and something indefinitely masculine, as well.
Jan beamed at them approvingly before taking the driver’s seat. As the Jeep left the airstrip, he told them a bit about the island.
‘As you know, Cormac, from our discussion, Sint Rimbert is a small island. There is only one village and a population of less than six hundred. We have a flying doctor, two shops and a post office. That is all.’ Jan spoke proudly and Lizzie guessed he was glad he’d held out against tawdry tourism for so long.
‘Taking the decision to build a resort was difficult,’ he continued as he drove the Jeep along a tarmac road, the thick foliage so close to the car that Lizzie could have reached out and grasped a fern or palm. She saw coconut and banana trees and even the curious, wizened face of a green monkey perched among the branches.
‘It is very important to us that the resort won’t disturb the local population,’ Jan said, ‘or the environment any more than necessary. This is not simply a money-making operation for us.’
‘Of course not,’ Cormac agreed. ‘And I am grateful that you have preserved this paradise for us. It would be my pleasure—as well as my duty—to continue to preserve it for those fortunate enough to visit.’ His voice was smooth and assured without being sycophantic.
He knew how to deal with someone like Jan, Lizzie thought with a tinge of reluctant admiration. How to manipulate him—just as he was manipulating her.
The thought was unwelcome for it held the bitter gall of truth. Her emotions and senses might be quivering with awakened awareness, but Cormac Douglas felt nothing for her. She was a prop, simply to be used. Only to be used.
And she’d better not forget it.
Jan turned the Jeep into a private drive, large wooden gates open to the road.
Lizzie’s eyes widened at the luxurious surroundings. The road wound through the thick tropical forest before it gave way to landscaped gardens bursting with colour and scent.
Jan drove the Jeep over a little wooden bridge, a still, glassy pond covered in lily pads below.
The road curved close to the sea before revealing a large circular drive and a low rambling villa that seemed to stretch endlessly into the distance, a maze of white stucco and terracotta roof tiles.
‘Onze Parel,’ he said fondly as he stopped the Jeep and gazed fondly at his home. ‘Our Pearl. My great-grandfather named it, and truly it has been a pearl beyond price.’
‘Your family has been on this island for a hundred years?’ Lizzie queried, feeling both curious and a need to say something.
‘Yes. It was sparsely populated before that, mostly with convicts and pirates. Then my great-grandfather received part of the island from Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, as payment for services in the Boer War. He improved the harbour so that ships could land safely—part of the reason Sint Rimbert has been so scarcely populated—and built a plantation.’ He smiled sadly. ‘It was a sugar plantation, built inland, but the house burned down in the nineteen seventies and the plantation dwindled. We built this villa soon after.’
Lizzie nodded. She was fascinated by the history, yet she also wondered if the building of the resort had more financial motivation than Jan Hassell had let on.
‘Come,’ he said, ‘and Hilda will show you to your rooms. You will want to rest before dinner.’
Cormac climbed out of the Jeep, holding his hand out for Lizzie to grasp as she stepped down. She took it as a matter of course and wasn’t prepared for the jolt of sensation that shot up her arm and down to her toes when Cormac’s cool, dry fingers encased her own.
He glanced at her, eyes dark, sardonic. Knowing.
He knew too damn much.
She dropped his hand and strode towards the villa.
Wide wooden doors opened to a tiled foyer and lounge, decorated more for comfort and practicality than to impress. Still, it impressed Lizzie. The windows were open, the wooden shutters thrown wide to an open-air corridor that led to the bedrooms. Only metres away Lizzie could see a strip of white sand and the jewel-toned sea.
‘Welcome, welcome.’ Jan’s wife, Hilda, entered the room. Like Jan, she was short and plump, her white hair elegantly coiffed. She wore loose, flowing trousers and a white silk blouse and she looked cool and comfortable and happy for them to be in her home.
Lizzie’s sense of discomfort and guilt at deceiving these people returned with a sharp pang. As if he knew, Cormac reached out and clasped her hand, twining her fingers with his as she had done earlier. It was an intimate, proprietary gesture and Hilda saw it and smiled.
As Cormac had known she would.
‘You must be tired,’ she said, still smiling. ‘Let me show you your room.’
Room. Not rooms. And no doubt with one bed. Of course they would be sharing a room; they would most likely be sharing a bed. Lizzie had been dimly aware of this earlier, but now it came to her with nauseating force as Hilda led them down the corridor, hibiscus and orchids spilling from pots, their sweet fragrance heavy on the air, making Lizzie’s stomach roil all the more.
Hilda opened a mahogany door and Lizzie took in the room—a wide wooden bed with linen sheets the centrepiece. The tiled floor was scattered with colourful woven rugs and the windows had only shutters, like the rest of the house, now thrown open to the sea.
‘I hope you will be comfortable,’ Hilda murmured. ‘Your bags will be here shortly. Dinner is at eight; we like to gather in the lounge at seven. But please, rest. Enjoy.’ She left them quietly, amidst their murmured thanks, and the door closed with a soft click.
‘Not bad.’ Cormac strode to the window, loosening his tie. Lizzie sank on to the bed. She felt exhausted, strung out. She trembled with tension.
‘I can’t do this.’
‘You just did.’
‘I’ll never be able to keep it up all weekend,’ she protested vainly, for Cormac simply raised his eyebrows.
‘You don’t really have any choice,’ he stated coolly, ‘do you?’
He’d loosened his tie and now he tossed it on to a chair. ‘Just enjoy yourself,’ he continued. ‘I plan to.’ His fingers went to his shirt, but Lizzie’s mind was buzzing too much to notice.
Had he meant that he would enjoy himself or enjoy her? Somehow she had the feeling he wanted her to wonder.
‘There must be a hundred women in Edinburgh who you could have asked to do this,’ she said. ‘They would have been glad to. Why me?’
He paused, eyeing her thoughtfully. ‘I thought it would be simpler.’
‘Simpler!’ Lizzie gave a bark of laughter. Nothing about this weekend felt simple. ‘How?’
‘Because we haven’t slept together,’ Cormac explained with a little smile. ‘Yet.’
Lizzie was left staring, gaping at him, the breath robbed from her lungs, her brain…
‘Close your mouth, Chandler,’ Cormac said, laughter lacing his voice. ‘There are flies in the Caribbean. Big ones.’
‘We’re not…’
‘No,’ he agreed, the laughter replaced with a thoughtful smile, ‘we’re not.’
Yet. Did Cormac actually want to sleep with her? Have an affair…Flirting was one thing, but this…
This was dangerous. This was scary.
Lizzie knew she was innocent—more innocent than Cormac even realised. What she didn’t know was how to handle this situation. How to handle Cormac. She laughed tonelessly. Cormac wasn’t the kind of man to be handled.
If anyone was going to be handled, it was her. She was so out of her depth, she was drowning.
And Cormac was the only one who could save her.
He watched her now, smiling faintly, and Lizzie hated the way he seemed to know what she was thinking, as if her thoughts and fears—not to mention her desires—flashed across her face in neon lights.
Maybe they did.
She rose from the bed, unzipped her suitcase and began to hang up the clothes Cormac had bought her. She needed to be busy. She needed to stop thinking so much. Imagining so much. Cormac. Her and Cormac.
Stop.
‘You can always do that later,’ Cormac said mildly, and Lizzie shook her head.
‘The clothes will get wrinkled.’
‘There are servants here, you know.’ His voice was lazy, low and rumbling. Lizzie shook her head again; she felt like a marionette.
‘I don’t want to make a fuss.’
‘No,’ he murmured, ‘you never do.’
A flash of agonised awareness jolted her, made her realise afresh just how expertly Cormac had judged her. Played her.
‘Do you use everybody?’ she asked, trying to keep her voice conversational. ‘Or just me?’
Cormac was silent for a moment; she concentrated on the clothes. ‘Everybody,’ he said after a moment. ‘So don’t take it personally.’
She gritted her teeth, guarded herself against the little stab of hurt. ‘Oh, I won’t.’
Cormac strode towards her, plucked the garment she’d balled uselessly in her hand. ‘Talk about wrinkles.’ He smoothed it out; it was a filmy silk negligee.
Lizzie snatched it back. ‘I’m not wearing that,’ she warned him. ‘I only brought it because you told me to.’
‘Good girl.’ His smile was so mocking it made her want to scream. To slap his face.
Then she noticed he had no shirt on. His chest was smooth and brown, taut with muscle. Just a glimpse of the flat plane of his stomach had Lizzie swallowing and gulping and desperate for air.
‘Where is your shirt?’ she demanded shrilly.
‘On the floor.’ He raised one eyebrow. ‘We’ve been flying all night and I’m tired. I’m going to sleep. You should, too.’
She shook her head. ‘Cormac, don’t…don’t try to intimidate me.’
‘I thought I was trying to undress.’
They amounted to the same thing, but she wasn’t going to say it. He knew, anyway. Somehow she found the strength to drag her gaze to his face which, even though it was sardonic and knowing, was safer. ‘We need to lay some ground rules.’
‘Such as?’
‘You wear clothes in my presence,’ Lizzie snapped, ‘for starters.’
