Lovers' Lies

‘You admitted you were tempted.’

‘The pearls—’

‘The hell with the pearls! You were sparring with me, and enjoying it, Felicia. Just as you enjoyed that kiss the other night.’

‘You don’t suffer from false modesty, do you?’

‘You did reciprocate,’ he reminded her. ‘I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t fully expected you to.’

Unfair. And arrogant. He had no right to take her response for granted. But she could hardly deny that she had given it. ‘A reflex. I was taken by surprise.’

Someone bumped against her, and Joshua took her arm and steered her away from the centre of the path to the side overlooking the beach. ‘If you hadn’t liked it your reflex would have been to pull away and slap my face.’

‘Next time—’ She stopped as a wicked grin curved his mouth. Fighting a shocking urge to laugh with him, she said, ‘I thought you were telling me earlier that you’re not a masochist.’

‘Maybe I could learn. I’ve always enjoyed new experienoes. A touch of vinegar can be quite refreshing after a diet of honey and sugar.’

‘Suzette seems a nice girl.’

His eyes gleamed. ‘Very.’

Genevieve had been nice—extraordinarily so. Had he found her cloying, become tired of her sweetness?

A shaft of pain and anger made her abruptly turn away, staring unseeingly at the tall buildings rising from the flat promontory at one end of the beach. ‘I thought you were together.’

‘No.’

‘Suzette would like you to be.’

‘Maybe. And maybe she deserves someone nicer than me,’ he said.

‘And I don’t?’ A dry note entered her voice.

‘Probably.’

She turned to regard him curiously. ‘So why should I be interested?’

‘I haven’t any idea, but I’m not imagining the signs.’

‘Signs?’ Her voice was frosty. He was so cocky, so convinced that she was attracted to him, when her feelings were much more complicated and much less complimentary than he had any idea of.

‘I swear,’ he said, ‘that you know when I come into a room—even when you’ve got your back to the door. Your chin goes up and you get a little flush on your cheeks, no matter how carefully you’re not looking at me. It has to mean something.’

It means I hate you. She wanted to shout it at him, right here in public, and walk away. Gripping the sun-heated railing, she looked away from him so that he wouldn’t see that her eyes were hot with rage. He remembered nothing of that long-ago summer. Nothing about her, anyway. He couldn’t, surely, have totally forgotten Genevieve?

‘You watch me all the time when you think I’m not looking,’ he said. ‘The same way I watch you.’ He paused. ‘If you say so I’ll walk away and not bother you again. But if you’re going to do that I wish you’d tell me what it is you’re afraid of.’

‘I’m not afraid!’ Her denial was instant and vehement.

‘Well... that’s a start.’

‘I’m not afraid,’ she reiterated, more to herself than to him.

She could tell him, get it all out in the open, watch his face when she revealed to him who she was. See him realise why she despised him.

Remember Genevieve? she’d say to him. Remember her little stepsister? The one who carried messages between you all summer? Remember me?

CHAPTER THREE

“THEN what is it?

Joshua was saying. ’Do you have some deep, dark secret in your past?

He was smiling; it was a joke. No, she could have said, but you do.

She wondered how many other Genevieves had crossed his path, how many of them he’d loved and left. Now he was bored with women who fell at his feet too easily and was after more challenging game. Trying to avoid contact with him, Felicia had unwittingly piqued his jaded interest.

At least she’d have the petty triumph of turning him down flat. A small revenge for Genevieve.

Even as she opened her mouth to do it, the thought expanded, flowered in all its poisonous beauty.

Why settle for a small revenge? Why not play Joshua Tagget at his own game? String him along for a while and then dump him.

One part of her was appalled, but the idea was seductively simple. Her heartbeat increased, adrenaline fizzing under her skin.

In the extravagance of teenage grief she’d wanted to kill Joshua Tagget. Felicia knew now she was no murderer, but a more subtle vengeance was at hand. Didn’t she owe it to Genevieve to reach out and take it?

‘Felicia?’ Joshua smiled, the same dazzling, irresistible smile she’d seen him direct at Genevieve all those years ago.

Surely she could make a pretence at liking him, at returning his interest, for a couple of weeks. For Genevieve’s sake.

She smiled back at him, slow and mysterious. ‘Of course I have secrets. Don’t you?’

‘None that matter.’

She kept the smile on her lips even as her blood simmered. None that mattered.

He deserved everything she intended to do to him. Everything. ‘No wife tucked away in New Zealand?’ she asked him.

‘No wife, no ties.’

Leading a man on was dangerous, cruel and downright despicable. Usually. But this was different. This was for Genevieve, a belated reparation...

‘What about Suzette?’ she demurred with a twinge of compunction. The other woman had not exactly hidden her penchant for Joshua’s company.

‘I’m certainly not married to Suzette,’ he said dryly. Momentarily he pursed his lips, as though searching for the right words. ‘We found each other the night before the tour began, and had a couple of drinks together. She’s very... friendly, and I try to be polite. I’ve never kissed her in the elevator—or anywhere else.’

‘I see.’ The relief she felt was absurd, and certainly inappropriate. For a moment her resolve wavered. What was she getting into here?