Kissed by Moonlight, page 5
“I can’t. You’re asking too much.”
“I’m not, considering.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” His mouth snapped shut, as if he’d gone too deep into the subject, saying more than he’d intended. “I’m hungry;”
She found herself being roughly propelled in front of him and marched out of the suite.
Before they got to the elevator he had regained his composure, and with it his mocking tongue. “You could put on a smile. I wouldn’t like it to be thought that I was losing my touch;”
She cast a warning glance in the direction of the elevator attendant. It wasn’t Ignacio this morning, but a boy of similar height and age.
“It’s all right – he doesn’t understand a word of English. He’d be very dim not to understand your face though. The frostiness of a frown is the same in any language.”
“Is that better?” she said, lifting her mouth in a hard, brittle little grimace.
“If it’s the best you can do. If we weren’t in a public place I’d have a stab at improving it,” he said, mocking her scruples.
She wasn’t meant to reply; she wasn’t given time. His hand smoothed down her back and curved in to fit around her waist. Her chin lifted in an automatic gesture of surprise, to find his eyes were waiting to ambush hers. Cold, cruel, tormenting. She wrenched free of his hold. The elevator doors opened and she stepped out, not caring if they did look like a couple in the throes of a raging argument. Why should she care about appearances when he so obviously didn’t?
He guided her across the dining room to a table with a reserved sign on it. It was already occupied by two people whose heads were close together in conversation – a girl in her mid-twenties and a man a year or two older. It would appear that these two were going to be their table companions and she was glad to leave the tangled torment of her thoughts for the moment.
Even sitting, it was apparent that the girl was above average height and as thin as a whip. She was a brown-eyed blond with a clever, fine-boned face that looked good at the angle it was presented to Petrina, and even better when her chin swiveled around and her mouth warmed in a smile of greeting.
David had started the introductions and so she delayed looking at the man.
“Pet,” he said, “this is my secretary, the cool and efficient Miss Virginia Lewis, who keeps me on my toes.”
“Good to know you, Mrs. Palmer. And it’s actually the other way around; your husband keeps me on my toes.”
The man intervened. “For once she’s right. You can see by the length of her that she’s stretched to the limit.”
“The joker is Robert Dawson, my chief assistant,” David put in.
“Happy to meet you, Mrs. Palmer.” He had already stood up and now he extended his hand. He had a big warm handshake that matched his round, genial face and his huge physique.
“How do you do, Mr. Dawson?” Petrina acknowledged as her smile found itself without difficulty.
“Please call me Bob,” he said.
“And I’m Ginny,” the tall woman threw in.
All through the meal, Bob and Ginny sniped back and forth at each other, and Petrina wondered how on earth they ever managed to work together. At first she was totally bewildered by their behavior; she’d never met their likes before. But then a curious notion filtered into her mind. They were doing it on purpose to alleviate the tension they expected to exist between her and David. They knew about the disharmony.
Could they have been quick enough to tune in to the mood from the other side of the dining room? No, they’d been too absorbed in their own conversation to observe anything, and had even seemed surprised when they realized they were about to have company. And they’d gone into their double act straight away, before they’d had time to sniff out the strained atmosphere. It pointed to prior knowledge.
How much they knew was the teaser. Did they know that David hadn’t spent the night with her? There was a shrewd suspicion in her mind that the answer to that was yes. Did they both know? Or was one of them taking the cue from the other? Could the news have traveled so fast or ...?
The natural conclusion to that thought raised an intriguing possibility. Perhaps David hadn’t gone tearing into Justine’s arms. Perhaps he hadn’t alerted someone to find another room for him. Perhaps he’d doubled up with an old friend. But which old friend? Whose door had he knocked on – Bob’s or Ginny’s?
Her emotions were playing tug-of-war over this new concept. A short while ago she would have staked her life on the fact that if someone had provided her with a new theory to supplant the one that David had spent the night with Justine she would never have believed it. But that was before she met Ginny.
Ginny wasn’t beautiful, but she was certainly attractive – even with her hair tied back with that piece of brown ribbon, though Petrina thought a softer frame would have suited her face better. She was very tall and very thin, but not unattractive at all. How could someone with such a sexless shape manage to look like such a very sexy lady?
The penetration of her glance drew Ginny’s eyes, and the other woman grinned across at her. Oh, help, Petrina thought, she’s nice. I like her.
After breakfast, David, Ginny, and Bob disappeared into the downstairs office that was tucked behind the reception desk. Left to her own devices, Petrina decided to take her thoughts for a walk.
The hotel guests were already claiming loungers by the pool for a day-long vigil of sun worship. As she threaded her way through the hotel grounds she felt conspicuously pale among so many mahogany-colored bodies.
When she reached the beach she took off her sandals, wishing she’d thought to put her swimsuit on beneath her sun dress. Following her natural inclination and the curve of the coastline, she left the hotel complex and the shops behind.
The sea was a dazzle of diamonds. The heat of the sun on the back of her head was overpowering. She would have to change her English money into the local currency and set about buying some necessities. Besides the already longed-for sun hat, she needed sunglasses and some screening cream for her very fair skin.
She walked beyond the lion’s head and was halfway down the goat’s body when she decided that, much as the serpent’s tail beckoned her – the coastline swished sharply away in its serpent’s tail shape and she couldn’t see what was beyond – until she was better equipped and more acclimatized to the hot sun, it was foolish to go any further.
The sea looked very tempting. She didn’t know about currents and things, but there were no red flags up, so presumably it was safe to bathe. The strapless bra she was wearing under her sun dress was the same color as her panties; no one would know she wasn’t wearing a bikini. In any case, no one was close enough to see. The crowds apparently chose to stay within a tight radius of the hotel complex and she had this part of the beach to herself.
She flung off her sun dress, dropped it delicately onto the white sand, and plunged into the sea. It was heavenly. She floated and flipped and curved and played, a cross between a mermaid, with her hair streaming out around her face, and a porpoise, with her sense of fun.
She half expected to run into trouble of some sort. It would be just her luck for a stray dog to pop up from nowhere and run off with her dress. Her undies were more modest than the average bikini, but she didn’t fancy returning to the hotel clad just in them. But no, in this the fates were on her side, and nothing unforeseen happened.
She waded out of the sea, feeling gloriously tingly and alive, dried off in the sun, put on her sun dress, and made her way back to the hotel. She felt slightly light-headed. She hoped she hadn’t stayed out too long in the sun on her first day.
There was no sign of David when she got back so presumably he was still working. She washed the salt water out of her hair and unpacked her suitcase while it dried. She put on a fresh dress and went down to the dining room in search of lunch. She realized that she had hardly thought of her problems all morning – and that it had been wonderful.
Only Bob occupied the reserved corner table. He waved her over.
“David and Ginny still have their noses to the grindstone. There’s a heck of a lot of work to be done. What do you think of Chimera? Does it live up to expectations?”
He was grinning like a self-satisfied little boy; it was so obvious he expected her to go into raptures over what they had achieved. She didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t that she didn’t have the courage to stand up for her own beliefs, it was a case of not wanting to dampen his enthusiasm.
“It’s ... very ... She gulped and started again. “Actually, I’m lost for words.”
He nodded in delight. “I know just what you mean, Mrs. Palmer,” he said, knowing no such thing. “You wouldn’t believe the plans that are in the works to keep the guests happily entertained and the bookings rolling in all year round.”
“It sounds interesting,” she said.
She knew that David was standing behind her chair even before he spoke. She felt him the moment he entered the dining room; now she felt his breath on her cheek as he drawled silkily, “Interesting, did you say? That doesn’t sound like you at all, Pet.” Over the top of her stiffly held head he informed Bob, “My wife thinks it’s very lazy of people to rely on someone else to provide their entertainment. She is a very primitive lady. She prefers the natural pleasures, don’t you, Pet?” The rubbing motion of the hand on the back of her neck was as sensuous as the voice in her ear.
The color ran up her skin. He must know he was embarrassing both her and Bob.
Bob said, affably enough despite his obvious discomfort, “There are lots of unspoiled places on the island, Mrs. Palmer. And I know you’ll just love –”
David’s amused voice cut in, “ ‘Mrs. Palmer’ sounds much too formal. I’m sure my wife won’t mind your using her given name or its diminutive.”
“I’d prefer it,” she said gratefully.
“Thanks, so would I,” Bob admitted. “So, as I was saying, Pet –”
Once again David cut him off. This time the rebuke was not gentle – it was sharp, with a skimming of unkind amusement. “Not Pet. You can take your choice between Petrina or Trina. She’s nobody’s Pet but mine.”
Petrina’s fingers curled furiously into the palms of her hands. His meaning couldn’t have been clearer or more insulting if he’d come right out and said “nobody’s plaything but mine.” It would have been more honest to say that because that’s what he had meant to imply.
“I’m sorry,” Bob said, a gentle frown on his face. “I meant no offense; I thought Pet was a general nickname. Which alternative are you happiest with?” he asked directly of Petrina.
“Trina,” she replied quite definitely.
That lunch was not an easy meal. Petrina was smoldering. She wondered how long David was going to punish her for last night, and how long she could stand it before she rounded back on him. Ginny came to join them, but even her talkative presence couldn’t totally iron out the taut silences. Ginny didn’t make any gauche inquiries, and beyond throwing Bob a confused look, which he answered with a slight shrug of his huge shoulders, she rattled on gamely as if nothing was amiss. The only reassuring thing, thought Petrina, was that David seemed no more interested in Ginny than he was in Bob. Perhaps, she hoped, she had been mistaken in that after all.
Later in the day, Petrina was just leaving the reception counter, having changed her English money into the local currency, when Bob ambled up. It was just a thought, but it seemed to her that he’d been waiting for the opportunity to have a word, although he made it seem as if he’d stumbled upon her by chance.
“You want to watch the sun. I’m sure your nose has caught it.”
She didn’t say that she feared it was more than her nose that had caught it. Instead she nodded sagely. “I’m on my way to the shops now. I’m going to buy myself the largest sun hat I can find.”
“Sensible girl. The hotel shopping facilities are quite good, although you’ll probably get a larger selection if you wander farther afield to the shopping precinct.” He bit on his lip. “Trina?”
“Yes, Bob?” she said, meeting his eyes.
“I’m probably out of line saying this, but that husband of yours isn’t the bear he made himself out to be at lunchtime.”
“No?”
“No. All this –” he gestured at the hotel around them – “hasn’t just come about. It’s been hard work, and he’s the only one of us who hasn’t taken a holiday for the full three-year stint. Apart from sneaking a couple of days off to fetch you, that is. And then he had to make the time up, although I’m not sure whether that wasn’t dedication to idiocy rather than to duty. I’m not just speaking like this about him behind his back; I told him to his face last night. I said I couldn’t see the sense of us working ourselves bleary-eyed into the small hours, no matter how snowed under we were. I don’t think either of us quite realized what the time was or we’d have quit. And then it was so late that he didn’t want to disturb you, so he sacked out on the spare bed in my room.”
“Thank you, Bob. Thank you for putting me in the picture.”
“Don’t mention it.”
She had no intention of mentioning it. The last thing she intended to do was let David know that she knew where he’d spent last night.
Chapter Four
It was always good to have a friend. No matter how many friends a person has, there’s always room for one more, Petrina thought. In her position, uprooted from all the links of childhood, vulnerable in her new surroundings, it was especially comforting to have found a friend in Bob.
She hadn’t known, until Bob let it out, that the three of them – David, Ginny, and Bob – had been locked together in this project for the full three years since it was taken over from her father. That was a lot of testing-out-theories, sharing-ideas, and getting-to-know-each-other time.
Even though she could go them one better than that – she had known David all her life – somehow it wasn’t the same. She had been the little girl he tolerated because of a long-standing family friendship.
When things had gone wrong, David’s father had been her staunch and loving ally, and somehow David had inherited from his father the feeling of responsibility toward her.
She didn’t want to be a burden or a responsibility to anyone. Had she been wrong in accepting David’s proposal? Despite what he thought, she hadn’t married him to get out of a tight corner. She would have made out. She was too much her father’s daughter to be out of the running forever. She had married him for that most corny and wonderful of reasons: she loved him. She always would. If only she knew for sure why he had married her. Had it been only to satisfy the attraction he felt, or was there something more ...?
All the time she’d been thinking, she’d been walking. The temporary cessation of her thoughts was marked by an unhappy sigh and the knowledge that she had arrived at the hotel shopping area. It was not just one shop, but a mini-precinct of its own that catered to just about every need. There was a shop that sold film and sunglasses and lipsticks and lotions and a shop that sold trinkets and souvenirs, from baubles for the ears to child-high donkeys. There was a hairdressing shop and a newsstand, and at the very end of the arcade was a ladies’ fashion boutique displaying a pile of sun hats.
She went in. After trying on several, she settled for a pale parchment-colored wide-brimmed hat in squashy straw that could be pushed into a beach bag and still come up smiling. Her eyes had been straying toward a charming and artistically arranged collection of lingerie, but they- quickly came back to base when she realized that Justine Hyland had entered the shop. Petrina had been toying with the thought of buying a more attractive nightgown to replace the two functional cotton ones she’d brought with her, but she was certainly not going to choose anything so intimate while that woman was watching.
She managed to make it known to the assistant, a pretty little Spanish girl with laughing, liquid eyes and the sweetest manner, that she was going to wear the sun hat and didn’t want it wrapped, but when she opened her purse and tried to pay for it the girl became quite excited in her refusal. Petrina was at a complete loss to know what she was doing wrong. Was she offering insufficient money? She wasn’t used to the currency yet. If she’d erred on the generous side, surely the girl could give her the correct change. Unless she was out of change. Was that it?
“I think you need help,” Justine Hyland finally came forward to say.
Petrina nodded helplessly, although she wished the offer to act as interpreter had come from someone else. “I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.”
“The assistant has recognized you as David’s wife. She doesn’t dare take your money because David has instructed her that anything you want must be charged to his account.”
“Oh, I see. Thank you. I didn’t know.”
“Didn’t you?” Justine’s elegant black eyebrows rose in eloquent meaning. “Something else David has been remiss in telling you.”
Petrina chin lifted. “As he was remiss about telling me of your existence? Is that what you mean?”
Justine’s smile was sweetly gloating, but she said nothing.
Petrina’s eyes glanced across to where the little Spanish assistant stood. “Am I right in thinking she doesn’t understand a word of English.”
“Not a word,” Justine confirmed.
“In that case, Miss Hyland, I think you are filthy-minded and despicable.”
