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‘More or less.’
‘You’d find plenty down around Magaluf, and up the east coast, but this side is too rugged for majority tastes.’
Jessica cast a glance out over the spreading scene. ‘It’s beautiful! I can understand now why Leonie chose to buy a place here. Not that she gets to use it as often as she’d like these days.’
‘The price of success,’ Zac observed. ‘How long are you here for?’
‘A week,’ she said. ‘With two days to go.’
‘You think it’s going to be long enough to sort yourself out?’
She looked at him sharply, meeting eyes too perceptive by half. ‘Sort myself out from what?’
‘Whatever it is you’re running away from. Could it be the man you mistook me for last night?’
Jessica made every effort to stay cool and collected, if only on the surface. ‘Would it really be any of your business?’
‘No,’ he returned imperturbably, ‘but I seem to have struck a chord. Turn out to be a bad lot, did he?’
‘Is there any other kind?’
Broad shoulders lifted. ‘Don’t judge the whole barrel by one rotten apple. Try another.’
‘Anyone in mind?’ she asked sweetly, and saw his mouth slowly widen.
‘I wouldn’t say no.’
The sudden flaring temptation was undeniable. Jessica took a forcible hold on herself. Even if the man wasn’t her cousin’s lover, indulging a purely sexual need was certainly no way to go.
‘How long have you known Leonie?’ she asked with deliberation.
The question in no way threw him. ‘It’s a couple of years since we first met, though we only see one another on rare occasions, and never by arrangement. I took the long way up from Palma last night on the off-chance. I planned on surprising her.’
Jessica kept her tone level. ‘Sorry to disappoint you.’
‘Not so much a disappointment as a deprivation,’ he said. ‘You were so—’
‘I don’t want to know!’ she cut in hurriedly. ‘Just forget about it!’
Zac gave a mock sigh. ‘Difficult, but I’ll do my best.’
The arrival of the food curtailed conversation for a few minutes. Jessica found the seafood selection delicious—but then for the prices she had seen displayed on the menu, it darn well should be! she reflected. A definite one-off treat.
‘So what do you do for a living?’ she asked lightly.
‘I’m with the company contemplating adding this place to their Balearic brochure,’ he said.
‘The decision dependent on your appraisal?’
‘It’s certainly a factor.’
Jessica glanced around the wide, tree-shaded terrace. ‘It’s a lovely place in a wonderful location, though I’d have thought it a bit up-market for the general package deal.’
‘It is.’ Zac regarded her with new interest. ‘Have you worked in the business?’
‘Not in the same sense. My parents used to run a hotel in the Cotswolds.’
‘Used to?’
‘They divorced three years ago.’
‘And you joined cousin Leonie in the big city?’
‘Not then. I only moved there after…’ She caught herself up, aware of having said a great deal more than she had intended. ‘Are you considering a recommendation?’
‘Maybe.’ There was a pause, a change of tone. ‘At the risk of being told to mind my own business again, do you still have a job at present?’
Jessica eyed him curiously. ‘Why would you want to know?’
‘I might be able to put you in the way of something.’
‘Are you in the habit of offering jobs to people you only just met?’ she asked after a moment.
‘No,’ he acknowledged.
‘Then why me?’
‘You’re Leonie’s cousin, which vouches for your background, and I’m in urgent need of someone available at short notice.’ He glanced at his watch again, and pulled a face. ‘I’m afraid I have to go. We’ll discuss the detail over dinner tonight.’
Pushing back his chair, he stood up, six feet of virile manhood calculated to stir any woman’s blood. ‘I’ll pick you up at eight.’
He strode away before Jessica could draw breath to respond. Not that she was at all sure what she would have said. The offer had come right out of the blue.
An intriguing one, she had to admit. What would prompt a man of his kind to offer any kind of job to someone on the strength of what appeared to be a fairly casual relationship at best?
Listening to what he had to say over dinner in no way committed her, she reasoned. At the very least, she would be spared another long evening on her own. She turned a deaf ear to the voice cautioning against any further as sociation at all with a man who not only sent her pulse rate into overdrive, but made it quite obvious that he found her something of a draw too.
The waiter shook his head when she asked for the bill. Señor Prescott, he said, had already attended to the matter. Jessica wondered if the man knew why Zac was here.
She spent the rest of the afternoon following the lesser frequented route back to her starting point, gaining a glimpse of the real Majorca, almost totally untouched by the tourist trade.
Back at the apartment by five, she made herself coffee, and spent the next hour or so vacillating over whether to ring Leonie or not. The latter was still at the office when she finally made the call.
‘You only just caught me,’ declared her cousin. ‘Another five minutes and I’d have been on my way out for the evening. So, how’s it going?’
‘Fine,’ Jessica assured her. ‘I really like the island. What I’ve seen of it so far, at any rate. I’ve met a friend of yours,’ she went on. ‘Name of Zac Prescott?’
There was a pause before Leonie responded. ‘Met where exactly?’
Not for anything, Jessica had already decided, was she going to let on about last night, although she doubted if Leonie would find it anything but amusing. ‘Valldemosa. The Mirador Hotel. Apparently he works for the company proposing to use the place.’
‘Works for?’ Leonie gave a laugh. ‘Sweetie, he is the company. Leastways, a major shareholder. You’ve heard of Orbis?’
‘Vaguely.’ Jessica was nonplussed. ‘I’d have thought he’d be way above sussing out new prospects?’
‘Zac’s what you’d call a hands-on man. He hates sitting around in offices. Orbis is one of Prescott Incorporated’s subsidiary interests. Caters for the upper end of the travel market. Even more successfully since Zac took it on board.’
Jessica hesitated. ‘He’s offered me a job.’
‘He has?’ Leonie sounded taken aback. ‘Doing what exactly?’
‘I’m not sure yet. I’m having dinner with him tonight to discuss it.’
The response was a moment or two coming. ‘I hate to prick any bubbles, but it all sounds a bit pie in the sky.’
‘I know.’ Jessica kept her tone light. ‘No reason why I shouldn’t take advantage of an evening out though, is there?’
‘Don’t go losing your head, that’s all. Zac’s seduction technique is second to none.’
‘I’ve no intention of losing my head,’ Jessica assured her. ‘Especially,’ she added with purpose, ‘over a man you’ve been having an affair with yourself for two years.’
‘No woman lays a claim on Zac Prescott,’ came the dry reply. ‘He’s a totally free spirit. Just take care. You’ve been through enough over Paul.’
Jessica replaced the receiver, allowing herself no backsliding in her determination to oust Paul from both heart and mind. Zac’s offer of a job might be spurious, but then again it might not. There was only one way she was going to find out.
He arrived at eight on the dot. Wearing off-white trousers and dark tan shirt, he set her pulses hammering the moment he walked through the door. She had a sudden premonition that she was getting into something she would come to regret.
They drove down into Palma for drinks at one of the seafront bars near the cathedral, moving on afterwards to a restaurant overlooking a tree-shaded plaza.
The clientele were clearly of the monied variety, with a fair scattering of English among them judging from snatches of conversation drifting Jessica’s way. Good quality though the natural linen suit she was wearing might be, in her estimation it stood out like a sore thumb among the designer outfits sported by others in the place.
If Zac held the same view, he certainly didn’t show it. He’d made no secret of his attraction earlier in the day, and was making no attempt to do so now. As the evening progressed, with no mention of the job he was supposed to be assessing her for, she began to share Leonie’s opinion that it might simply have been a means to an end.
There was a part of her, Jessica had to admit, that yearned to just go with the flow and enjoy what her every sense told her would be an experience to remember. Most people her age regarded sexual freedom as a way of life. Why fight the trend?
Because she wasn’t most people, came the answer. If Zac really did have designs in that direction, he was going to be very disappointed.
Even more so if she played him along a little, she thought vengefully. He deserved a kick in the teeth.
‘I rang Leonie this afternoon,’ she said over dessert. ‘She tells me you’re a company VIP.’
Zac gave her a quizzical look. ‘Does it make a difference?’
Her smile was slow. ‘Who was it called power an aphrodisiac?’
‘Kissinger, I believe.’ The grey eyes had acquired a definite glint. ‘You reckon he was right?’
‘It depends, I suppose, on the way it’s handled,’ she said. ‘Some men are born to it.’
‘While others have it thrust upon them. Or is that greatness?’ The glint had crystallised into amusement. ‘Are you aiming to seduce me?’
‘Am I hell!’ she exclaimed, abandoning the act. ‘You got me here under false pretences!’
Amusement gave way to some other, less discernible expression. ‘If you mean the job, you’re partially right,’ he admitted. ‘What I want from you is—’
‘Whatever it is, I’ve no interest,’ Jessica cut in. ‘Leonie’s welcome to you!’
‘Leonie isn’t here,’ he returned. ‘Neither would she be right for the part if she were.’
Jessica’s brows drew together. ‘The part?’
‘That’s right.’ The pause was brief, the grey eyes steady. ‘I need a fiancée.’
Chapter Two
JESSICA gave a derisive laugh. ‘If that’s meant to be a joke of some kind, it’s a pretty poor effort!’
‘I’m not joking.’ Zac spoke quite calmly. ‘I’ll pay you a thousand to pretend to be my fiancée.’
He really was serious, she realised, studying him. Her first inclination was to tell him where he could go with his preposterous proposal, but curiosity held a stronger hand.
‘Just what kind of game are you playing?’ she demanded.
‘No game,’ he assured her. ‘I let my grandfather believe I’d found the girl of my dreams at last. Now he wants to meet her.’
‘Why?’ she asked in some confusion. ‘I mean, why tell him something that obviously isn’t true?’
‘Because it stopped him pressuring me to get married and start a family for a while.’
‘A state you’d naturally abhor.’ Jessica made no attempt to eradicate the sarcasm from her voice. ‘Hardly likely to be a very long-lasting deception, was it?’
Broad shoulders lifted. ‘So I didn’t think too far ahead at the time.’
‘Then why not just tell him the truth and have done with it?’
‘Because he only has a short time to live.’ Zac’s tone was flat. ‘And before you ask, I only found out this morning. I can’t spring it on him now. Hence the desperate straits.’
‘I doubt if you’d find any shortage of takers if you rang around.’
‘Not in the time. You’re my only hope.’
Jessica regarded him in silence for several seconds, grappling with the implications. To do what he was asking her to do would be shameful, but if the alternative meant robbing a dying man of his dearest wish…
‘It’s emotional blackmail!’ she accused.
‘I’m aware of it.’ He studied her set features. ‘If a thousand isn’t enough…’
Green eyes flared. ‘If I do it at all, it certainly won’t be for money!’ She looked at him with distaste. ‘I hope you’re proud of yourself!’
