Scarlet Lady (12 page)

Leo studied her for a moment or two, maddening her with his inscrutable poker-face. 'I thought you wanted a little time to yourself?'

'It's too long!' she muttered. 'And you're driving me nuts with your slurpy husband stuff—'

'All right!' he interrupted sharply. 'Perhaps we've waited long enough for something to happen.'

Ginny looked up, puzzled. He sounded regretful. 'Don't you want me to clear this matter up?' she asked slowly.

Leo started, his eyes guarded. 'You mean with Vincente? Of course,' he said quickly. 'I'm not keen on you meeting him, but I see the necessity. I had no idea you hated having to be in my company so much. I thought...

'Well,' he said with a shrug of his shoulders, drawing further away from the white-faced Ginny, 'in that case we'd better flush Vincente out and to hell with the courtesy of waiting to be contacted by him when he feels up to it.'

'Oh!' The suddenness of the proposed action stopped her in her tracks. 'I was thinking of looking up the addresses and telephone numbers of the hospitals in the hotel phone book,' she said hesitantly, not knowing whether to be glad or sorry that they were taking action at last.

'We'll do that. We'll ring and find out which one he's in and if he's still too ill to see us.'

'What if he isn't up to coping with visitors?' she asked anxiously.

'I suggest we find Pascal, talk to him and see what we can learn.'

'He's hostile!' she protested. 'He rushed in here, demanding to know why I'd been asking for his father and insisting that I left at once! I don't think we'll get much out of him.'

'Don't you realise
why
he's hostile?' asked Leo quietly. She shook her head. 'You're a threat, Ginny. Vincente is a very wealthy man and at the moment Pascal presumably stands to inherit his whole fortune. A newly discovered sister would mean his inheritance is halved overnight. That's one of the reasons I've wanted to stay close to you. Pascal isn't to be trusted where you're concerned.'

Ginny was stunned. 'Surely you're not implying...?'

'I take no chances. We're talking really big money here, Ginny. And greed is one of the most dangerous of human sins.'

The thought of violence silenced her. Pascal had good reason to harm her. 'You'll stay with me, won't you?' she begged, her eyes wide with worry. 'Don't... I'd rather you didn't leave me alone again,' she mumbled, feeling horrified at her feebleness.

Something dark cut out the light in his eyes. 'If that's what you want. Till this is cleared up,' he said shortly.

Her mouth crimped at his reluctance. 'Yes, yes, of course,' Ginny agreed hastily. 'What if Vincente isn't in hospital at all? No one here seems to know where he lives—'

'Or, more likely, they're not prepared to tell us.'

She frowned. 'Why would that be?'

He shrugged. 'Something to do with his reputation ... or Pascal—he might have told them you're intending to claim a relationship with his father...' Leo scowled. 'It seems so unlikely. He can't have primed
everyone
here. Every time I've made an enquiry, I've been met with stonewalling.'

'I know,' she said slowly. 'Me too. I get the impression that people are clamming up. Why? It worries me, Leo. Are people protecting him or themselves? Are they scared or merely hostile—to him or me?'

'I don't know,' admitted Leo. 'Beats me.' He smiled reassuringly at her. 'If we get no joy from the hospitals, I suggest a trip to Castries in the morning. We could have lunch and a look around, check out the library and pump anyone we can for information.'

'Sounds—' Just in time, Ginny stopped herself from saying that it sounded lovely. 'Sounds sensible,' she amended huskily.

His hand lay warm and comforting on her neck. 'I think you've waited long enough,' he drawled, his fingers idly lifting the soft, downy hairs at her nape and making her shiver with the delicious sensation.

Her ^tarry eyes met his. 'I have,' she said, her voice shaking. He smiled faintly and her gaze drifted down to his beautifully chiselled mouth. 'Leo...' she began.

'Get some sleep,' he told her drily. 'It could be an emotional day for you.'

'What?' Her mind, her eyes, her body were all concentrated on his mouth. She remembered so well that arching of his upper lip. It had always meant that he was about to kiss her. Anticipation scurried through her veins.

'Vincente might turn out to be your father,' he said gravely. 'That could change your life.'

'Uh-huh.'

It didn't interest her as much as it should have done. Leo occupied her mind and everything else seemed far away and relatively unimportant. Imperceptibly, she moved closer to him and the sheet fell away. Incredibly, she didn't care. For a brief second or two he looked down at the softly lifting globes of her breasts. His lips parted to show his even white teeth and every sinew in her body tautened like whipcord with the expectation of feeling the softness of his mouth encircling each hard, plum-dark nipple.

'Ginny...' His voice thrilled her. It was thick with desire.

'Yes. Please,' she whispered, trailing her fingers through his hair, affectionately pushing back the dark wave that had dipped on his forehead.

'You know I can't. Nice of you to offer. But I'm waiting for the woman who won't fit me into her busy schedule only when it suits her.'

The rebuke in the words whipped her like a lash. Tempting though she was to a red-blooded man like Leo, however available and willing she might be, he was choosing to wait for Miss Suitable back home. 'Leo!' she croaked in reproach.

He wilted her with an icy glare. 'Forget the studied allure of limpid eyes and pouting lips! I don't come running when women snap their fingers because they're hungry for a night's entertainment,' he growled. 'Try getting your thrills from one of your magazine covers,' he added scathingly.

Ginny was stunned by his vicious tone and his uncharacteristic spitefulness. 'That's petty of you, Leo!' she said bitterly.

'No. That's wisdom,' he said tightly. 'I'm not leaping into bed with you in the heat of the moment. Sex on its own has never been enough for me. I want the emotions that go hand in hand with commitment—'

'Like with Arabella?' she flung defiantly at him.

'You fool,' he said quietly, his eyes dark and glittering. 'You stupid
fool!
Arabella is beautiful, empty and shallow. Money is her god. Money and fame. She's no more capable of real commitment than you were!'

'Then why—?'

'Whey did you find us in bed together?' he asked harshly.

Ginny winced. 'Yes!'

'When you've worked that out,' he gritted, 'you might be halfway to understanding me. Goodnight.'

Confused, and humiliated by his contempt for her, she clamped her mouth shut and sullenly watched him walking away. His words had hurt her. But then truth often did.

Rigid with misery, she waited till his door had shut, rolled over mournfully and let the air collapse out of her lungs. Limp and listless, she stared into space, waiting for the dawn. And this time she wished that Leo would leave her to the mercies of Vincente and Pascal St Honore. They might be dangerous men, but Leo was lethal. Everything she did must be aimed at finding Vincente, establishing whether there was any relationship between them, and getting Leo out of her life for good.

And no crying! she told herself, gritting her teeth against the seeping tears. Now was the time to stand on her own feet and dismiss all hope of finding a solution to her heartfelt desire—that she and Leo could somehow, anyhow, live together in love and harmony.

His opinion of her was too low. And the eventual heir to the earldom would never remarry a woman he thought to be a fool and promiscuous. She had to retreat again into cool indifference, and perhaps, if he hated her even more, he'd feel less inclined to be civil. Castries tomorrow. Maybe two, three days at the most before she could be free of Leo.

Horror filled her with its cold claws and she hugged herself tightly for comfort, rocking like a child in the big double bed. Then some pride, some strength returned to her and she tossed back her hair in a grim gesture. She'd managed before. Why not again?
Because she didn't want to,
came the reply. And it was a while before she pushed that aside and found her composure again.

A
MAZINGLY
, Leo behaved the next morning as if nothing had happened. Perhaps he looked a little tired, his carved mouth a little less firm, the smoky eyes half-hidden by thick, silky lashes, as though he'd slept as little as she. And perhaps his bearing was a little stiff, instead of full of that elegant looseness that came from striding around his own land.

Still, she had to admit that he was courtesy itself. Whereas Ginny felt exhausted and subdued, dreading the day in Castries, and clawing back her old barriers against the world to hide behind during the long hours she would be spending with Leo and his fatal charm.

Wearing a divided skirt that swirled around her long, slender legs, and with a big Bagshaw shirt over a white cropped top—the first concealing, the second revealing her body—she stepped nervously into the hotel launch.

'Take my hand, darling,' murmured Leo. The voice was warm, the hand cold, with a stranger's politeness.

She did so, with a brief, cool acknowledgement so that he got, the message. Go too far in the darling mode and you'll end up overboard, the message said. Her heart sighed for the days when he would have caught her in his arms and whirled her around, laughing. Taken any excuse-to touch her. Their hands had entwined, their eyes had constantly met and lingered...

'Hey, welcome again!' The man standing behind the wheel grinned at Leo. 'You like Castries so much last time, you bring your wife?'

Leo stiffened imperceptibly at her side but it was enough for her to notice. 'You're mistaking me for someone else...er...Joseph,' he said, checking the man's name-tag. 'Some other guy.'

'Oh, sure.' Joseph grinned with a knowing wink. 'I get you! First trip, eh? Enjoy!'

A mistake. Ginny relaxed. And she was so occupied with her image of cool detachment that she thought no more of Leo's reaction. With so many hotel guests taking advantage of the taxi service to Castries, it must be easy to be confused.

The launch eased out of the bay, careful not to damage the fragile coral. Once they were out to sea, Joseph opened the throttle and she lifted her face to the rush of air and spray, revelling in the speed and sense of freedom. A sudden shower of tropical rain was driven by a head wind onto their unprotected bodies, but nobody minded, least of all Ginny, who crammed her hair under a baseball cap and watched with pleasure as the double rainbows split the skies with breathtaking arcs of colour.

To the north of the hotel bay lay enticing coves, the small crescents of deserted beaches backed by coconut palms and with the occasional flame-tree standing like a tall orange beacon in a sea of green rainforest.

'That's so romantic!' Ginny yelled to Joseph. She pointed to a sweep of sand between two headlands, the palms so dense that the mysterious darkness beneath them seemed almost sinister.

Joseph nodded. 'Beau Rivage. It's—'

'Look! Is that a dolphin?' cried Leo suddenly.

Ginny and the other two couples on the boat rushed to the seaward side, all interest in the coastline forgotten till they decided that Leo had been mistaken, though Ginny was the last to accept that he could have made an error of judgement; it was just so out of character. Still, she thought, shrugging off the incident, who was she to think she knew him well?

She liked Castries. Before, in the madness of a photographic shoot, it had seemed hot and shabby. Now it appealed to her desire for things that weren't glossy on the surface but which had more substance.

Castries certainly had a soul and a heartbeat. Far from being a tourist centre with touristy shops and rip-off merchants, it had an independent life of its own, a vibrancy that made it almost hum with activity.

The small harbour was busy with ships being loaded with bananas and citrus fruit. Glamour was provided by several schooners with furled sails being provisioned for romantic journeys on the high seas. Terribly exciting! She felt fizzy with anticipation, as if she'd drunk a bottle of champagne and was floating on the bubbles, and it was hard to remain cool when she wanted to chatter away about everything she saw.

Declining Leo's imperiously offered arm, she walked with him from the dock. The streets were packed with people, the roads full of slow-moving cars and trucks and minibuses, all virtually bouncing with the beat of music from within.

'This way,' said Leo confidently, after a cursory look at the street map.

'Jeremie Street. I remember it,' she said with pleasure. 'I did a shoot here.' They paused among the brightly dressed traders who sat cross-legged on both pavements of the street for as far as the eye could see. Ginny's eyes widened at the heaps of exotic fruits and vegetables piled in front of them in a kaleidoscope of colour. Chaos reigned. A lovely, jolly chaos.

'It wasn't easy getting the shots we wanted,' she said wryly, remembering the arguments and the bad temper when the St Lucians had refused to move their pitches and the traffic had refused to stop. 'We were rather a nuisance.'

'I can imagine.' Leo made a face. 'You must have behaved like aliens. Nicer to be a normal sightseer, isn't it?' he said slyly.

It was—but she'd never admit that. Nicer to be unknown, free to wander around without people staring in that blank, slightly hostile way. Finding herself smiling sentimentally, she said briskly, 'That's neither here nor there. Where's the library?'

'Not far. We're going in the right direction. Let me soak up a little of the atmosphere for a moment longer,' said Leo persuasively. 'It's fascinating.'

The noise, the bustle and sheer exuberance that lifted from the jam-packed pavements drew Ginny like a magnet. It would have been lovely to stay longer, to ask what some of the strange fruits were, to play the carefree tourist. But she'd be a fool if she fell into the trap of enjoying herself with Leo again—or wasting time, as he seemed determined to do.