He had been betrayed once before by a woman who had been his lover.
But he had loved her. Perhaps he would be more lenient on a woman he could only have intended having a brief affair with...
She touched her throat, as if the precious metal there was a talisman against the wrath of its owner. 'Jack—'
'You're not on the contraceptive pill for medical reasons, are you, chérie?'
She stared across the table at him, wide-eyed with shock, her coffee-cup clattering in its saucer.
‘I merely ask because lovers should be frank about such things,' he said calmly, biting into a piece of juicy gold pineapple. 'You have been celibate for some years, therefore I presume you haven’t needed to take any precautions about having your "some day" family arrive unexpectedly soon.'
Elizabeth sucked in a ragged breath as the true recklessness of her behaviour the previous night hit her between the eyes. Everything blurred but the dark face with its unexpectedly gentle expression.
‘I don’t—I wouldn’t—I didn’t—'
'Fortunately I did,' he interrupted kindly, selecting another segment of fruit. 'What?'
'You don’t remember?'
'N—no...' The whole experience had melted together in her mind into one glorious white-hot mass of exquisite sensation. Even to think about it sent tiny thrills of delight darting up and down the most sensitive parts of her body.
He leaned back in the dainty wrought-iron chair. 'Never mind, chérie,' he said caressingly. ‘I am glad that I obviously didn’t break the mood for you. Suffice it to say that I protected you last night as I will tonight and all the nights to come if you wish me to...'
If she wished? 'Tonight?' she questioned huskily.
'Yes. I think you will be far more comfortable here than at the hotel. And we shall be more private, too.'
It took a moment before she realised what he meant. 'You want me to stay here?'
'Not want,' he corrected her punctiliously, 'we are staying here. I have already asked Grandpère if he would not object, and delegated my responsibilities at the hotel for this evening...'
'But—I have nothing to wear,' was the most coherent, and prosaic, of the objections screaming in her brain.
His reaction was a piratical smile and a drawl that turned her to fire. 'What a delicious thought, chérie, but as it happens I have asked for all your things to be brought to us here.'
'All my things? How long are we going to stay?'
He didn’t comment on her tacit capitulation and resumed enjoying his fruit salad. 'As long as it takes, Eliza-Beth.'
'As long as what takes?'
'Why, for you to realise that I am a man who can be trusted.'
With what? Her body? Her heart? 'You hold my passport, I have to trust you,' she pointed out truculently.
With the air of a magician producing a rabbit, Jack reached into the inner pocket of his jacket and withdrew a slim dark blue folder and placed it on the table between them. The effect was all he could have wished for. Elizabeth stared at it, round-eyed, and then at him. She made no move to touch it.
'Do you want to leave, Beth?'
'You mean here?'
‘I mean me. This place, this island,' he added carelessly as if the latter two were the less important.
She paled, emphasising the conflict in her dark eyes. ‘I—I don’t know.'
He was quick to prey on her weakness. 'As usual you evade an answer, so I will give it for you. You don’t want to leave. You cannot because you are here for a reason... and not the one you so prettily confessed last night to soften me up for your clumsy attempt at seduction. It is something to do with this house and your book-buying uncles and my grandfather. I got sidetracked for a while by your ridiculous detective mission for your other uncle—who I might comment is a little casual about his security. But I was always aware of some deeper game in play, for stakes I suspect are far more serious. You obviously wanted to come here, so I decided to bring you. We will stay.'
‘If I was so "clumsy" I'm surprised you could bring yourself to succumb to my seduction!' Elizabeth flared, stricken by his unexpectedly brutal volte-face, just when she had been on the verge of being truly honest with him.