sly, knowing look from under her eyelashes that reminded Kate how similar physically Susie and their mother were. â Friend of Javier Montero. Why, I didnât even know you knew him!â she exclaimed with another girlish giggle that grated on Kateâs frayed nerve-endings. âI suppose thatâs why you left dinner early, to meet himâ¦â She clicked her tongue in annoyance. âThough why you should think all the subterfuge was necessary is beyond me⦠Itâs not as if weâd object, is it?â She laughed heartily at the notion. âNot that youâve ever worried about my feelings before.â A note of misuse entered in her voice.
âYouâre pleased I know him?â Kate echoed in a strangled voice.
âKatherine Mary Anderson, I wonder about you sometimes, child. The Monteros must be one of the wealthiest families in Europe!â she exclaimed in a scandalised tone.
âOh, my God!â Kate breathed faintly as enlightenment dawned in blinding splendour. The mental leap required to transfer Javier from her mental file marked âmember of theshady underworldâ to one marked âmember of a rich and powerful dynasty that could trace its origins back centuriesâ left her reeling.
âYou always were a sly, secretive child.â She heard Elizabeth reflect in a long-suffering manner. âYou and your father, always so serious about something or other, but he swears he didnât know either⦠Is it true? Havenât you told him?â
âTold him what?â
Ignoring her daughterâs shaky query, Elizabeth looked admiringly around the room. âThe honeymoon suite, â her mother exclaimed, in a voice loaded with significance.
Honeymoon suite âoh, God! Being familiar with the way her motherâs mind worked, Kate could see where she was going. Marriage was the only career any woman needed, in her motherâs eyes, and a woman who hadnât snagged her man by thirty was a failure. Much to Kateâs relief, her frustrated parent had written her off before sheâd reached that milestone and concentrated her efforts instead on her more malleable sibling.
âMum, please donât read anything into that!â Kate pleaded. âI had an accident; this was the most convenient placeâ¦â
With a display of selective deafness that was her forte, Elizabeth continued to examine the décor. âVery impressive and extremely tasteful,â came her final verdict. âAnd that Jacuzzi in the deck overlooking the sea, itâs just like the one your father and I had when we were in Jamaica last year. Isnât it marvellous to lie there and listen to the waves?â
At that moment Kate could think of worse things than her hot, sticky body being immersed in cool water. She dwelt dreamily for a moment on an image of her naked body being caressed by the soft water, no soundsâespecially not her motherâs voiceâbut that of the sea. It wasvery soothing, until her fertile and wayward imagination added a disruptive element to the picture in the shape of⦠Perhaps it wasnât such a good idea to think about shapes, she decided, as images of long, glistening, lean limbs and taut masculine muscles floated around suggestively in her head. Suffice it to say, she wasnât alone in the tub! Her heart began to thud frantically against her ribcage as she shook her head to blank out the depraved activities her illusionary couple were indulging in.
Elizabeth turned, with a charming smile that could still dazzle, to the doctor. âHow is she, doctor?â she asked casting a critical eye over her glassy-eyed eldest born. âShe looks a bit strange to meâ¦â
Strange! If this indeed wasnât some strange and bizarre nightmare from which she would awaken any moment, then the man sheâd taken for a sinister crime lord was actually a prominent member of the legendary family
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