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He looked as though he’d been out caulking a hull or something. Cream trousers with what looked like a tar stain across one knee, dark blue workshirt, cuffs rolled back to reveal powerful forearms, long-fingered hands, broad shoulders and a well-muscled back, as though he were no stranger to manual labour. A strong neck, an even stronger chin. Stubborn and forthright uncompromising. But then you would have to be uncompromising to amass the fortune that Nerina said he’d amassed.
Well, Gillan hadn’t amassed a fortune, but she could be pretty uncompromising when she chose, especially where her own identity was concerned, and that was what she must think of. Her own identity. All else was folly.
‘Shall we clear the decks?’ she asked, with a brightness that rang false even to herself.
He made a small movement, then turned. Folding his arms across his chest, he stared at her, his blue eyes direct. ‘By all means. I’m certainly an advocate of plain speaking.’
‘Very well. Nerina lives with you?’
He gave a small nod.
‘And she invited me without your consent?’
‘Without my knowledge,’ he corrected her.
‘So I gathered, and yet she said. . .’
‘Yes?’ he invited, that small, cynical smile playing about his mouth. ‘She said. . .?’
Ignoring his query, a speculative frown in her eyes, she murmured, ‘And she only told you minutes before disappearing off to Sicily?’
He nodded.
‘Why?’ she wondered musingly. ‘She didn’t say it would be your house I would be staying in—didn’t say very much about you at all, except that you valued your privacy, went. . .’ Went your own way, she mentally completed as she remembered what else Nerina had said. And she could believe that; he looked the sort of man who thought his way was the only way.
With a bewildered little shake of her head, she continued, ‘She certainly didn’t say you wouldn’t want me here. In fact, she intimated that you would welcome me with open arms!’ With a small, very unamused smile, she added, ‘But the arms weren’t open, were they?’
‘No.’
‘So why, knowing what your reaction would be, did she invite me?’
‘You really don’t know?’
Puzzled, searching a face that gave nothing away, she shook her head.
‘Then you had best ask her, hadn’t you?’ he suggested smoothly. ‘When she rings you, as no doubt she will.’
‘But I won’t be here, will I?’ she argued, in tones that were creepingly derisive.
‘Won’t you?’
‘No, I’ll be on the next flight out. Going home.’
‘And who will tell Nerina?’ he asked somewhat drily.
‘You will.’
‘No,’ he denied, and his voice was soft, magnetic.
‘But you don’t want me here—have made it abundantly clear how you feel.’
‘Yes,’ he agreed bluntly. No hesitation, no concern for offended sensibilities, and she gave a twisted smile, hastily moved her eyes away from a mouth that was—seductive.
‘And I certainly don’t wish to stay in a house where I’m not wanted.’ With another brief laugh, she murmured, ‘She invited me for a little holiday, said—’
‘Then you must certainly have a little holiday,’ he said in tones that dripped honey. ‘On Gozo.’
‘What?’
‘Gozo. Malta’s sister island.’
‘I know what Gozo is! I just meant—’
‘That you didn’t want to go?’ So at ease, so in control, he walked across to the roll-top desk in the comer. ‘I’ll write down the address for you. We have a small villa in Xlendi.’
Following him, being careful not to stand too close, accidentally touch him, feeling helpless and frustrated, she watched him write. “‘Shlendi”?’ she queried. ‘That’s how you pronounce it?’
‘Mmm. Many of the names are of Semitic origin. Pronunciation could be a problem for you—’
‘If I was here long enough,’ she interrupted sweetly. ‘Which, of course, I won’t be.’
‘No.’
With a little glance of dislike—never mind the impact he had on her, he certainly wasn’t a man she could like—she stared at a stack of photographs to one side, idly reached for the top one. ‘What are these?’
‘Photographs for the promotional brochure—and do you normally examine other people’s belongings uninvited?’
‘No,’ she denied, ‘but I’m a photographer, and—’
‘Nerina invited you to take some for the brochure.’
‘Yes. She said you needed a photographer—which you obviously do,’ she added as she looked at them more closely, gave a disparaging grimace. ‘Who took these?’
‘Unimportant.’
Ignoring his dismissive tone, she fanned the photographs out with one quick sweep of her hand. ‘They look like someone’s holiday snaps. Boring. Predictable. You want to be different, innovative.’
‘Do I?’
‘Yes.’
Conscious of his nearness, the steady rise and fall of his chest, she focused desperately on the snaps. ‘You don’t just want to attract tourists, you want to live up to their expactations when they do come; you want—’
‘A promotional brochure,’ he completed for her.
Borrowing a shrug; she continued to separate the photographs and criticised, ‘A schooner, a submarine.’
‘It’s what we do, Miss Hart.’
‘I know, but you need to make it different, enticing, exciting—’
‘Submarines aren’t exciting,’ he contradicted her coolly. ‘They submerge. And we aren’t candidates for the Pulitzer Prize. We aren’t entering them in National Geographic. . .’
‘I didn’t say you were. All I’m saying is that these are—’
‘Boring. Yes, you said.’
‘And that you should get yourself a decent photographer,’ she concluded through her teeth.
‘You?’ he asked softly.
‘Me? After your comments, your behaviour? No.’
And the cynical smile was back. Handing her the piece of paper with the address of the villa on Gozo, he edged her to one side, began to gather up the snaps.
‘Why did you have them taken? To obviate the need for me to stay?’
He glanced at her, straightened, continued to square the photographs off in his strong hands. ‘I didn’t know you were coming, remember? And even if I had, as an attempt to make you leave it would have been a signal failure, wouldn’t it?’ he asked with a touch of dryness. ‘Because you seem to be staying. And so you get your wish. You may take the photographs. Of Gozo.’
‘Quickly?’ she put in, with a dryness to match his own.
He gave a slow nod, a glint of amusement in his eyes. A very appealing glint. ‘If I like them, I will use them. If I don’t. . .’
She shook her head. ‘Any snaps I take will be purely for the family album.’
‘Sour grapes, Miss Hart? Not very professional.’
Eyes narrowed, she observed softly, ‘You’re a man very easy to dislike, Mr Micallef.’
‘Refalo,’ he substituted mockingly.
‘Mr Micallef,’ she argued. ‘Friends use first names, and we aren’t going to be friends, are we? But I did not know that Nerina had hired me without your knowledge.’
‘Didn’t you?’ he derided. ‘Didn’t know that Nerina wasn’t in a position to hire anyone?’
‘No. I assumed you must have asked her to ask me.’ She might be attracted to him, affected by him, but it was getting a little tiring, always being on the receiving end. Her feelings were purely sensual, not at all based on knowledge of what he was like as a person. To date, that person had been thoroughly dislikable. ‘And, all things considered,’ she murmured, managing at least to hold his diamond-bright gaze, ‘which, of course, include your distrust and dislike, I think it would be best if I went home. Thank you for your—hospitality.’
He gave her a considering look. ‘Go to Gozo,’ he ordered softly.
‘Because your sister will give you grief if I don’t?’
‘Perhaps.’
‘Being as paranoid about your privacy as you are, aren’t you afraid that I will discuss your affairs, talk about you?’
‘Afraid? No, I’m not afraid, because I doubt you will find anyone on Gozo to talk to me about,’ he said drily. ‘And I’m not in the least paranoid. However, if it bothers you, you could always sign an affidavit swearing confidentiality.’
‘I could,’ she agreed. ‘Being Nerina’s friend doesn’t make me honest, does it?’
‘No, and if you weren’t, would signing a piece of paper deter you? And even if it did, do you think Nerina would forgive such arrogance? Your word will be sufficient, Miss Hart.’
“Then you have it. I swear on pain of death not to talk about the Micallef Corporation,’ she murmured with marginal sarcasm, ‘either now or in the future. I swear not to discuss your private concerns in public. I swear. . .’
A slow, bland smile stretched his mouth, and she cursed the warmth she knew flooded her cheeks.
‘Go take your photographs, Miss Hart.’
Feeling impotent—a feeling she wasn’t in the least used to—she continued to stare at him. ‘And if I do? You don’t intend to interfere?’
‘The word is “collaborate”,’ he argued smoothly. ‘And no, I’m sure you work better alone—don’t you?’
‘Yes.’
He hesitated for a moment, watching her carefully, then finally asked, How fond of my sister are you?’
Surprised, she exclaimed, ‘Very fond!’
‘Then when she comes back you will confirm that you like to work alone.’
‘In case she tries to make you go with me?’ she guessed.
‘No, in case she wishes to accompany you herself.’
Puzzled, she queried, ‘But you said she was fine now.’
‘She is. This has nothing to do with her health, only her—emotions.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Then I will explain.’
‘Briefly? Or brutally?’ she queried nicely. ‘You really do dislike me, don’t you? And on such short acquaintance too.’
‘I dislike being manipulated, and I don’t like what you are doing to my sister.’ With no hint of emotion, either in voice or stance, he continued, ‘Ever since she met you, it’s been Gillan this, Gillan that. You have a lifestyle she envies, wants to emulate. And, frankly, I think you’re too old for her.’
‘Too old?’ she exclaimed, scandalised. ‘I’m twentynine!’
‘Nearly thirty.’
‘All right, nearly thirty,’ she agreed miffily. Thirty was all right; she could cope with being thirty. ‘I’m not in my dotage!’
He gave an odd smile. ‘I didn’t say you were, merely that you were too old for Nerina. She’s nineteen—a very impressionable nineteen. Because of her illness, she’s had very little childhood, very few teenage years to experiment, play games.’
‘Games?’ she asked in astonishment. ‘What sort of games?’
‘Games that the young play. Flirting, being silly, having fun. I love my sister and I want her to enjoy all the things she should have enjoyed if she hadn’t been so ill. And I want her to enjoy all those things with someone her own age, not someone who’s already played them. She thinks she wants to be like you—sophisticated—’
‘I’m not sophisticated,’ she protested. ‘I’m ordinary.’
