Nadine knelt anxiously on the side of the raft for a second, watching until she saw his body rising up again through the sunlit blue water. He was thrashing his arms, coughing, his black hail slicked down, seal-like, on his head.
Once she kne
w he wasn't in trouble, she dived in too, from the side of the raft closest to shore, and began to swim strongly towards the silvery sands, her chestnut hair streaming behind her on the surface.
Sean would have heard the splash as she dived in but he was on the far side of the raft and it took him a moment or two to swim round the raft before he could follow her. He was a stronger swimmer than her, though; she soon heard him cleaving the water far too close behind her. She used up her last remaining energy in a burst of speed to make sure she reached the beach before he caught up with her.
As she waded up the sands, wringing out her hair, which was so wet its colour had darkened almost to black, Luc Haines waved to her from the beach bar which had now opened at the edge of the beach closest to the hotel gardens.
'Nadine! So there you are! We've been looking everywhere for you. You've had an urgent phone call from London.' There was something odd in his voice, in the way he was looking at her. 'He said he would ring back in fifteen minutes, so you'll have time to get out of that wet suit and take the call in your room.'
Nadine frowned, taken aback. 'Oh. OK. Thanks.' Why was he looking at her in that quizzical fashion, though? And who on earth could be calling her here? Very few people knew where she was. Her agent, Jamie, Greg Erroll. Nobody else.
'Did you take the name?' she hesitantly asked, half hoping he hadn't because she didn't want anyone here to know too much about her.
'I asked,' Luc said drily. 'He said just to tell you it was Greg.'
'Thank you.' Nadine's flush deepened as she heard Sean coming up out of the water, watching them intently as he shook the water off his hair. She wondered if Greg Erroll had said anything else, had somehow aroused Luc's curiosity. Or wasn't it the phone call that had altered Luc's manner towards her?
'I'd better collect my things, then, and go back to the hotel,' she said, as Sean began to lope across the sand towards them, every movement he made observed eagerly by a group of girls in tiny bikinis sitting at the beach bar counter sipping iced drinks and whispering together. No doubt they had just heard that Sean was a film producer but that didn't entirely explain their fascination with him. It was
Sean's sexual magnetism working again, and Nadine angrily turned away and began stuffing things back into her beach-bag.
Sean strolled over to join her, his silky black briefs clinging wetly to his body, his lean, bronzed body gleaming in the sunlight, drops of salt water caught in the wiry black curls of hair on his chest. Nadine gave him one brief glance then looked away angrily.
'What was Haines saying to you?' he demanded, picking up his towel and beginning to dry himself.
'Greg Erroll has rung and is ringing again in a quarter of an hour,' she informed him, her voice clipped.
'What does he want?' Sean began to frown blackly.
'How do I know? No doubt he'll tell me when he rings back.' Nadine slung her beach-bag over her shoulder and turned away. As she walked past the beach-bar the girls sitting there stared at her, whispering together. She tried not to hear but scraps of words came to her through the hot, still air.
'Nadine Carmichael... she was his wife... no, they're divorced...' Giggle, giggle. 'They're here together...no, really. I heard from my room-maid, they're sleeping together...' A wave of excited giggles followed that and Nadine's hps clamped together; she averted her flushed face angrily. She would have liked to run, to get out of hearing range, but that would have been undignified, would have been some sort of victory for the younger girls, who were enjoying talking about her while she was in earshot. 'No, she's not a film star, silly. She's just a model,' one of them said, raising her voice.
Nadine quickened her step, she was almost out of range. A few scraps of words floated after her. 'Yes, you know her; that TV ad... TV... model... that girl...'
Footsteps grated on the sandy path and she started, looking round. Luc Haines fell into step beside her and gave her a dry sideways look.
'I knew there was something else you weren't telling us. So you're a famous model and appear on TV advertisements!'
She grimly asked, 'How did you find out?'
'A guest recognised you. It was bound to happen sooner or later, obviously, if you're that famous. You must have known that!'
'It seemed so far from here to London, I thought...I hoped...nobody would recognise me.'
He gave her a sudden, sweet smile. 'I'm sorry you were. Is it hell being recognised everywhere you go?'
'I'm used to it in London, but it is tiring, always being on display; it's like living in a shop window. You can never relax or forget people are watching you.'
He nodded. 'And so you wanted to get away from it all, just for a couple of weeks! I can understand that. I'm sorry you've been spotted!'
They had reached the hotel lobby. Nadine gave him a rueful little smile. 'Oh, well, I'm used to it.'
Abruptly Luc asked, 'Will you let me paint you?'
She looked back at him steadily. 'I'm a very expensive model.'