Two's Company

CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_e98ec264-5ade-54f5-9025-9a377d0de1ec)

IF JULIET had been in the right frame of mind to enjoy it, the drive down the west coast of the island to Liam’s villa would have been very pleasant; the views were magnificent. But she needed extreme concentration to make the drive at all, unaccustomed as she was to driving on the right-hand side of the road, and her thoughts were far from troublefree too.

She felt like a puppet having its strings pulled— by Liam Carlyle. What could have been so important that he’d had to leave the hotel this morning before their meeting? Diana Gilbraith hadn’t seemed to have the answer to that one—or if she had she wasn’t telling. And the other woman had left too now, to go south and take a plane home to her family in England.

It was all very unexpected, and Juliet couldn’t say she was exactly pleased at the thought of going to Liam’s villa. She hadn’t even realised, during all her effort to see him, that he had a villa on the island.

The man was as elusive as a chameleon!

And she had to try and do business with him. Try being the operative word; Juliet had a feeling that it was going to be more difficult than she had ever imagined. And she didn’t at all like the feeling that she was being played with.

It seemed a long drive to Liam’s villa, although in actual miles it probably wasn’t that far. But she had no real idea of where she was going, and continually referred to the map Diana Gilbraith had given her, keeping a keen eye on the X that indicated where the actual villa was. It appeared to be just outside a village on the west coast of the island, and as she approached the village after lunch she kept an eye out for a sign that would indicate the villa, the name of which she couldn’t have pronounced if she had tried to ask anyone.

Damn Liam Carlyle! She felt totally out of her depth—in a place she didn’t know, a country whose language she couldn’t understand, let alone speak!

She had actually driven through the village before she realised that she must have missed the villa completely. She had been so fascinated by the terraced village perched on the side of the hill, and the orange and lemon trees growing beside the houses on those terraces, that she had driven out the other side of the village before she knew what she was doing.

She was hot, tired and extremely irritable by the time she had reversed and driven back, finding the villa with no problem this time, although she was slightly put off by the rough track that seemed to lead down to it. Surely this couldn’t be the right place? After the luxury she had just come from, this villa appeared to be rustic to say the least.

But the name appeared to be right, and even if it was the wrong villa perhaps the owner would be able to direct her to the right place.

If the owner had been at home! Several rings on the doorbell elicited no response, further increasing Juliet’s irritability. Despite appearances this had to be the right place, she decided, and she had no intention of running all over the island looking for Liam. The damned man had booked her out of her hotel—OK, he had paid her bill in the process, but it was still a damned cheek!—and so she intended just camping out on his doorstep until he turned up!

If he turned up…There was always the possibility that he hadn’t come here at all, that he literally had got her running all over the island for nothing. He