The wind snatched her breath away. ‘You only said that to frighten me,’ she choked. ‘I know you weren’t really serious—’
‘Do you? Just because I haven’t mentioned it again?’ He captured her gaze with the bold assurance of his glittering brown eye. ‘I knew I didn’t have to. I knew you were thinking what it would be like to accept me as your lover. Wondering if I would make love with the same passionate intensity with which I seem able to hate. I was giving you time to get used to the idea. After all, there’s no real urgency now that you’re here, living, eating, sleeping with me. I’ve waited this long for you…I can wait a little longer…’
A little longer? Heat suffused her body at his arrogant sexual confidence. She fought to cool her instinctive response. How could she feel anything but revulsion at his depraved suggestion?
She shivered. ‘Surely you wouldn’t use force to—to—’
‘Not force—seduction,’ he said smouldering. ‘We both know that there’s been some very volatile physical chemistry brewing between us since the moment we met. Why don’t you just accept that we were always fated to become lovers?’
Fate again. Wasn’t that the very thing she had come here to defy boldly? Vivian shivered once more.
‘You’re cold—why didn’t you say so?’ Nicholas scolded her, shrugging impatiently out of his jacket and wrapping her in the heavy oilskin, tucking her chilled hand firmly through his elbow as he escorted her back along the stony path towards the cottage. ‘You should have worn the parka I offered you. No sense in cutting off your nose to spite your face. And if you’re going to go storming around in a temper, watch out for the wildlife—they have first priority. Nowhere Island is a wildlife sanctuary and part of a maritime park. All these outlying islands are really the tops of drowned hills, and the eroded volcanic tubes that riddle the shore and sea-floor make very rich habitats for marine life.’
‘You sound like an environmental tour-guide,’ she said grumpily, trying not to respond to the enthusiasm in his voice.
‘I should hope my learning is a little more useful than that,’ he said drily as he opened the back door. ‘As a marine biologist, I don’t approve of environmental tourism.’
‘What!’
He pushed her stunned figure over the threshold of the kitchen, where Frank was cursing over a sizzling pan.
‘You’re a property developer!’ she accused, as he whipped his jacket from around her shoulders and hung it on the back of the door.
‘I’m also a marine biologist. It is possible to do more than one thing with your life, Vivian. One doesn’t have to limit oneself to living down to other people’s expectations,’ he said softly. Was that a dig at her?
He pressed a finger against her jaw, pushing it closed with a slight snap. ‘What’s the matter, Ginger? Aren’t I fitting into your stereotype of a grief-crazed vengeance-seeker?’ He stepped away. ‘I’m going to have a quick shower before dinner.’ The dark gleam of light reflecting off his eye-patch managed to give the startling impression of a wink. ‘Feel free to join me if you want to help conserve the tank-water.’
As soon as he was out of the room, Vivian turned to Frank.
‘Does he really have a degree in marine biology?’
‘Yep. An athletic scholarship in the States.’
She waited but, as usual, further information was not forthcoming.
‘You don’t talk much, do you?’
‘Don’t have much to say.’
She would have been offended if she hadn’t discovered that he was almost as taciturn in his communications with Nicholas. She hadn’t quite worked out Frank’s job description yet; he seemed to be a combination of assistant, valet, bodyguard, mechanic—he had already fixed the faulty back-up generator—and chief cook and bottle-washer.
‘Where’s Nicholas’s son?’
He shrugged. ‘Ask Nick.’
‘He won’t tell me. He won’t talk about his son at all. Or his wife.’ She gave a little huff of frustration. ‘How long have you worked for Nicholas? Did you ever meet his wife? Do you know what she was like?’
That brought the hawkish face around, bearing a hard stare.
‘Six years. No. Beautiful.’
It took her a moment to realise he had actually replied to all her questions. She sighed. ‘I thought she must have been.’
Astonishingly Frank’s dour expression broke up in a grin.
‘Nothing like you.’
She scowled. ‘OK, OK, you don’t have to rub it in. She was so perfect he’s never met another woman to match up to her.’