by Sara Wood
'Not surprising the man's sick,' muttered Leo viciously.
Ginny winced, praying fervently that Vincente wasn't her father. She was getting cold feet. Maybe she wouldn't go to Rivage.
Mandy sighed. 'Pascal thinks it's a kind of macho thing with him. Every now and then women float in— usually from England—and Vincente gives them the once-over. Sometimes he employs them, though they never stay long. It's no wonder that the hotel is suspicious of any beautiful woman asking for Vincente St Honore.'
'They...' Ginny gulped. 'They thought I was a candidate too? Leo,' she said faintly, 'that's why no one would tell me where he lived!'
'Or maybe Pascal asked them not to.' Leo's dark eyes bored into Mandy and she dropped guilty eyes. 'I thought so.'
'None of us have wanted to be associated with what Vincente does,' said Mandy quietly. 'People would rather he didn't live on the island. Everyone shuns him, other than the few who work for him. Please, Ginny, forgive us for misunderstanding, but you can see why Pascal was so angry. He was fed up with Vincente's companions being dumped when he was bored with them and fed up with them demanding their air fare home and weeping on his shoulder.'
'Is Pascal here?' asked Leo curtly. 'I want to talk to him.'
'Of course.' Mandy led them back along the jetty. 'What-a shock you must have had when Pascal burst in on you and then I did a dying-swan act on your quarry tiles!' Mandy giggled and Ginny found herself smiling back. 'We'll find Pascal and he can apologise and explain. f m so glad you came, Ginny. Pascal tried to reach you this morning to invite you to lunch.' She grinned. 'He wanted to stop you meeting his father.'
Ginny shuddered delicately. 'He would have been doing me a favour,' she muttered.
'So...' Mandy's big hazel eyes slanted up to Ginny's '.. .why ever would you want to see such a horrible man?' she asked frankly.
'I think we'd like to discuss that with Pascal,' said Leo coolly, pressing warning fingers into Ginny's shoulder.
'AH right.' Mandy didn't seem offended at all. 'Well,' she said cheerfully, 'I hope you'll stay here for a while. We're having such fun. Lunch is over, but it looks like the party's going on till midnight, because we'll be dancing on the beach. Oh, and we're serving tea soon. Chocolate cake with chocolate butter-cream included, by my request!' Her delighted laughter tinkled out. 'I can ask for almost anything now I'm pregnant,' she grinned.
'Oh! Congratulations,' said Ginny warmly.
Mandy flung an arm out to embrace the beach, the dense foliage in the valley and the house on the cliff. 'It's wonderful, isn't it? Welcome to Beau Jardin. Welcome to our home,' she said softly.
'Thank you,' Ginny said, responding to Mandy's frank, open nature.
'Pascal's making sandcastles,' chattered Mandy, leading them from the jetty along the beach, and Ginny tried to imagine the flaxen-haired dynamo doing anything that ordinary. 'Practising to be a father,' she said gently, her expression like that of a Madonna.
And Ginny felt a twist of envy. This woman was deeply happy, with a loving husband and a child growing in her body. She felt herself trembling, and acknowledged with a grateful look the pressure of Leo's hand on her waist.
When Mandy turned to speak to a small child and exclaim over a collection of hibiscus petals, Leo whispered, 'Whatever you do, don't tell Pascal or Mandy why we're here. Or that you might be Vincente's daughter. Accept Pascal's apologies and any invitation to stay for the afternoon. I can see some four-wheel drives up at the house. I'll find someone on his staff who'll run us over.'
Ginny nodded and then smiled as Mandy turned back to them and they continued on across the beach, smiling and waving at people as they went.
'You're not the only one Pascal accused of applying for the job of Vincente's mistress,' Mandy confided to Ginny. 'I'd answered an advert, you see, and Pascal thought it was one of Vincente's—you know the kind. Housekeeper/companion required for rich man of property, fiftyish, quiet location, send photograph and measurements. View to marriage.' Mandy smiled ruefully. 'The marriage bit was just the bait. Vincente's been catching women with it for years.'
'An... advert?' said Ginny faintly. She and Leo exchanged puzzled looks.
'Yes.' She gave Ginny a curious look—one that Ginny knew only too well. 'Don't I know you from somewhere—other than your hotel room? I didn't get much of a look at you last time—my mind was on other things,' she said ruefully. 'But I have seen you before, haven't I?'
Ginny consciously stopped walking from the hips and leading with her shoulders. 'I've no idea,' she said evasively. 'Is that your husband there?' she asked.
'Hi, darling!' yelled Mandy. 'Look who I've found!'
Leo's hand tightened around Ginny's when the tanned, muscular figure rose and dusted the sand from his shins and hands, his searing blue eyes fixed on the pale-faced Ginny. Mandy made the introductions, related their conversation to Pascal and tactfully excused herself.
'I was going to apologise to you even if you were applying for the job as Vincente's companion,' Pascal said quietly. 'Mind you, I would have warned you off. Now it's obvious you're not, I can only say I hope you'll forgive me for my behaviour. I was way out of line and I hope you'll accept our hospitality and spend the rest of the day here. Perhaps you would stay the night?'
'Oh, we couldn't—' began Ginny uncomfortably.
'That's very generous,' broke in Leo with unusual geniality. 'We'd be delighted. Thanks. And we'd very much like to join in your party. Is it for any special celebration?'
Pascal smiled. 'Just a get-together of our friends. I like to see my wife enjoying herself, Mr McKenzie. I'll arrange for a room to be prepared for you. We can lend you whatever you need. In the meantime, feel free to wander around. Mandy and I will catch up with you later. Excuse me.'
Ginny waited till he'd gone before she rounded on Leo. 'Why did you do that?' she asked angrily. 'We'll be put in a room together! I don't want that; you don't either! And what about Beau Rivage?'
'Look at the time, Ginny,' he said softly. 'It's getting late. I'd already been worrying that by the time we got ourselves to Rivage it would be dusk. We'd have to spend the night there. I don't think that's a good idea. If we stay here tonight, we can leave early in the morning. We'll be more likely to catch Vincente at home.'
It made sense. But Ginny couldn't help wondering if Leo was pulling her strings again. Her eyes chilled. She wouldn't dance like an obedient puppet for him! 'I hope you're good at sleeping on floors,' she said crossly, and walked off.
By the evening, however, her irritability and suspicions had faded into the background. Everyone was so friendly, and she'd found herself chatting away to people with more ease than she'd ever known. It was the first party she'd ever been to whilst wearing casual clothes and comfortable loafers—and the first where she hadn't needed to remember that she was on show.
She met Pascal's aunt Susannah, who looked young enough to be his older sister with her curly blonde hair and youthful face. Ginny smiled to see the obvious deep love between them as they teased one another unmercifully.
And then Ginny stripped off her shirt and helped the delightful Mandy to build sand boats for the children, occasionally glancing up to watch Leo obligingly curling up to provide a vaulting horse for them. She ached to her very bones as their eyes met in a paralysing moment when they were both surrounded by laughing children.
The soft affection on Leo's face drew a low groan from her lips. And she knew she must look as wistful as he did. They could have been playing with their own children by now. They'd both wasted an opportunity. Wasted love. What fools, she thought bitterly.
Darkness fell early, as it always did in the Tropics. Many people stayed for the barbecue on the beach. Ginny sat on the sand waiting for the food to be cooked, staring at the glinting silver path made by the bright moonlight on the black sea.
'Crayfish gumbo, snapper and buttered salmon. OK?' Leo dropped down beside her and handed her one of the two plates he'd brought. He looked at her as she sil
ently picked at the food. 'Don't you like it?' he asked quietly.
'Yes.' Her fork speared a plump piece of salmon and she lifted it to her mouth where it virtually melted. 'It's wonderful. Everything's wonderful,' she sighed. Her head tipped back and she scanned the hugeness of the midnight darkness above where the stars seemed to twinkle with a sharper brilliance than she'd ever known. Palm-fronds waved overhead in the faint evening breeze, silhouetted black against the sequinned backdrop of the sky.
'I know I'm on edge, and there are various aspects of this situation I don't care for,' she said thoughtfully, 'but I've enjoyed myself more this afternoon than I have for... oh, as long as I can remember. And I find that vaguely confusing,' she admitted.
Leo rested a hand on the nape of her neck, his fingers lightly massaging her sensitive skin there. 'I've enjoyed it too,' he said huskily. 'Mandy is one of the nicest women I've ever met. Pascal, for all his natural suspicions about us, is the kind of man I'd like as a friend. This is the kind of place I could make my home,' he said surprisingly. 'How about you?'
'Yes,' she found herself saying, so surprised was she by his admission. He loved Castlestowe. He was its heir. It was the holiday mood talking. But she really felt a kinship with this particular part of St Lucia—something deeper than a romantic sentimentality. 'I'd like that,' she whispered, her eyes dreamy.
Dreams, she thought sadly. Nothing but dreams. Of sitting on a beach of their own, with Leo, listening to the sounds of the jungle, wandering up to their house...
'I envy Pascal and Mandy,' murmured Leo. His voice sounded thicker. 'They've left the rat race. No pretending. No duty. No relentless drive to achieve. They're working with nature and yet they have glamour and romance in their lives too. And friends—good friends— who'll be there when they're needed.'
'You couldn't give up Castlestowe,' she said flatly.
The caressing fingers stilled. 'Let's forget everything we should be doing and carry on dreaming, shall we?' he said lightly.
And because she wanted to be in his arms on this beautiful night she put down her plate and took his hand. They walked through the densely planted palms along a path lit by low flares stuck in the sand. Her heart felt as if it would burst with the romance of the night. Ahead, in a small clearing beyond the pretty gazebo—where she was sure she'd seen Pascal and Mandy wrapped in a clinch—she could see softly coloured lights strung from the branches of almond trees.
And musicians sat on upturned oil-drums, their faces smiling above their violins and shakers as they played a haunting, lilting tune that stole behind Ginny's defences and fatally weakened her limbs.
Without a word, Leo held out his arms and she drifted into them. They were so good together, moving as if they needed no conscious thought to follow each other's steps.
Ginny sighed and rested her cheek against Leo's. His mouth touched her ear. Nibbled. Sent delicious tremors through her body. Of course she couldn't allow that. She'd stop him. Soon.
But it felt like a dream and she was unwilling to wake up. He began to cradle her body closer, his hand sliding up her spine under the brief cropped top. The touch of his lips on her ear, his warm breath, the exciting male power in every tense muscle—all combined to drive her deeper into a state of suspense.
Why should she deny herself pleasure? she argued. Soon he'd be gone. Married to his suitable woman. Pride struggled with desire. If he genuinely wanted her, and wasn't going to treat her with contempt afterwards, she wouldn't be able to refuse him. Maybe that was stupid. But it was honest. The only problem was being sure that he was sincere. Her instincts weren't too good where he was concerned.
'Ginny?'
'Mmm?'
'Ginny!' he sighed in her ear. 'Oh, God! Ginny!'
His mouth crushed hers, fierce and demanding. And she responded without hesitation, groaning as he coaxed her lips apart in the quiet privacy of the darkness where he had taken her. 'Leo!' she whispered helplessly.
'I want you. I've wanted you all afternoon. All morning. I'm going crazy, Ginny!' he growled, savagely kissing her long, slender throat. 'You're so beautiful! Your skin is so smooth and it smells so good. I want to kiss every part of your body. I want to hold you and make love to you and I want us to pretend that nothing else exists, that we're on a desert island and there are no problems, no difficulties between us, only the night, a bed, and you and me. Can we do that, Ginny?' he asked passionately, his eyes glittering with a smouldering sensuality.
'No reproaches, no recriminations?' she husked shakily.
He shook his head, his hand on his heart. And then he drew her hand there so that she could feel the violence of the heavy beat beneath his ribs. In a gesture that made her own heart turn over, he kissed her hand intently, his eyes never leaving hers. And silently they walked up to the house, to their room with the breathtaking view of the sea far below.
Leo flung open all the floor-to-ceiling jalousies and lit candles in the room. 'Take your clothes off for me,' he said softly. 'I want to watch you.'
Without any shame, she undressed for him, knowing that he found her body beautiful tonight. The light played on her skin, flattering it by casting a soft golden light that emphasised the curves of her breasts and buttocks and the glint of white-blonde hair in the inviting triangle above her gleaming thighs.
'And you,' she whispered, her voice almost robbed of its power.
'You undress me,' he said huskily.
Ginny found herself undulating towards him, every inch of her body engaged in his seduction. 'It could take some time,' she said teasingly.
He licked his lips. 'Take however long you need,' he growled.
But she saw that he had clenched his teeth together as if he needed to control himself. And she smiled, slowly easing out each button of his shirt, her fingers drifting wonderingly over the hot wall of his chest as she did so.
Then she bent to unlace his casual shoes. Leo groaned and drew her up again, lifting her in his arms and carrying her to the bed. Joy filled her heart. She loved him so much that it hurt her with a deep, piercing pain. She almost blurted out her feelings. Almost. Something stopped her, even in the wildness of their lovemaking. Because she had to survive afterwards, when she was alone. And if she gave her heart to Leo again she'd never be able to get it back.
So in the explosions of emotion in her mind, the passionate climaxes of her body she knew a bitterness so tangible that she could feel it building up inside her, till it overflowed in a torrent of sobbing that not even all her self-discipline could control.
'No tears,' he murmured. 'No tears, sweetheart.'
She winced at the endearment and wept into the pillow while he stroked her hair and removed wet strands from her hot face.
'We've made a mess of things,' she sniffed.
'We're both strong, independent people. Neither of us is used to making compromises. I think we're ready to make concessions to one another now, aren't we?'
'What kind of concessions?' she asked cautiously. Her heart thudded like a wild thing and she tried not to read too much into Leo's words.
'In our lifestyles,' he answered quietly. 'We have to find some way of living together. I don't want to be apart from you any longer.'
She studied his face, holding back her overwhelming delight. There was no future in living with Leo as his mistress. 'I could never trust you,' she said flatly, wishing that it were not so painfully true.
'Because of Arabella?' He kissed her sulky mouth and turned her face so that she was forced to look into his eyes. 'I didn't make love to her.'
'I heard you both. I saw you in bed with her,' she reminded him jerkily.
'You were meant to.' He smiled wryly at her gasp. 'It was the only thing I could think of to get you out of my hair.'
'Why should you want to?' she asked indignantly.
'I couldn't bear to have you near me, knowing that other men had touched you,' he told her gently. 'I believed you'd been unfaithful and it was tearing me apart, destroying me, inch by
inch.'
'You're the only man who's ever made love to me,' she said quietly. 'I couldn't... I could never have given myself to anyone else. Sex is such a private, intimate part of my life.' She blushed. 'You know how long it took you to make any headway with me. You remember how difficult it was for me to let you touch me on our wedding night. Whatever my public face suggests about my sophistication, you and I know that I find it hard to reveal myself to anyone—let alone a chance male for a one-night stand.'
Leo let out a long sigh. 'I know that now,' he admitted. 'But we'd become so distant that I felt I didn't know you any more. In my fevered mind anything was possible.'
'So...what happened with Arabella?' she asked hesitantly.
'I asked her to pretend to fool around in bed with me because I thought that was the only way I could persuade you to walk out on me. And she was more than willing. It went no further than what you saw. I swear it. I just want to put the record straight. Do you believe me?' he finished anxiously.
Ginny closed her eyes in despair. The accusations about her in the press had destroyed her marriage—and if they'd stopped to talk things through instead of reacting in anger she and Leo could have saved it.
'I believe you,' she said, her voice full of regret.
He gave her one of his slow, warming smiles. 'That's all I want to hear. We'll see Vincente in the morning. One of the banana-packers seemed sure that he was at home. And after that..
Ginny froze, all tears suspended. 'After that, what?'
'You owe me, remember?' he said softly, kissing a tear that was trickling perilously towards the end of her nose.
'I—owe—you!' she repeated. 'What...what do you want from me?' She wanted to add that he had everything already, that she had nothing more to give.
'Marriage,' he replied, suddenly serious. 'I want us to get married again.'
CHAPTER EIGHT
IT WAS everything Ginny had longed for. She was more than ready to make changes in her life and approach marriage with different values—but what about Leo? Would he really be prepared to make concessions and sacrifices?
