Devil in Paradise

by Joanna Mansell

  This time, Kate didn't bother to answer. She was already feeling very much on edge—she didn't need a conversation like this to make things even worse!

  They sat in silence for several minutes. The sun was gradually growing hotter, and the beach remained deserted.

  'How long have we got to stay here?' asked Kate at last.

  Rafe shrugged. 'All day, if necessary.'

  Her eyes shot wide open. 'All day? But what are we going to do to pass the time?' Then, as she saw the wicked grin that spread over his face, she gave a black scowl. 'Don't bother to answer that!'

  Rafe sprawled out more comfortably on the rock. 'I suppose I should have warned you. A lot of the time, this sort of work is plain boring. Watching someone, or waiting for something to happen—and quite often it never does.'

  'You mean we could sit here all day and not catch even a glimpse of the boy?'

  'It's quite likely.'

  'But what would we do then?'

  'Come back tomorrow,' Rafe replied in an unruffled tone.

  Kate groaned. 'In that case, I'm definitely going to bring a cushion. This rock already feels hard!' She shifted her position, rubbed herself ruefully and added, 'I think I need a little more natural padding.' Then, when she saw the look in Rafe's eyes, she decided it was definitely time to change the subject. She was beginning to recognise that gleam as dangerous. 'How did you get involved in this case in the first place?' she asked. 'I mean, did the boy's mother just pick you out of the phone book with a pin?'

  'Not exactly.' She had the impression that Rafe was a little reluctant to add more, but eventually he went on, 'We—knew each other a few years back.'

  Kate's ears instantly pricked up. 'Knew each other?' she repeated. 'How well?'

  'Pretty well,' he admitted. 'For a while, we thought it might turn into something serious. Eventually, though, we found out that we were much better at being friends than lovers. Anyway, Jillie—that's the boy's mother—moved on, and eventually she met up with Martin Foster. He had money, good looks, and a whole lot of other things going for him. Jillie must have thought she'd really struck it lucky.'

  'She must have been rather special herself,' Kate said slowly, as she tried to take in this unexpected revelation. Never for one moment had she suspected that Rafe had known the boy's mother. And apparently known her well. 'I mean, if Martin Foster's got all this money and power, he must have had his pick of dozens of women.'

  'Jillie's very beautiful,' Rafe said simply, and Kate's stomach curdled with pure jealousy. She was horrified at her reaction, but she just couldn't help it. 'Just about every male who meets her falls in love with her. Martin Foster was no exception.'

  'Then what went wrong?'

  A darker look came over Rafe's face. 'Apparently, he just grew tired of her. Despite her looks, Jillie isn't a very sophisticated girl. She has very straightforward and simple tastes in just about everything. I suppose it was her air of innocence that first attracted Martin Foster—and which finally bored him. He's a man who apparently likes a lot of variety in his life—and in his bed.'

  'So Jillie got the boot?' Despite herself, Kate couldn't help feeling a twinge of sympathy for the unknown girl.

  'That's about it,' Rafe agreed tersely. 'Foster thought he wouldn't have any problems getting rid of her—and he didn't. Jillie had had more than enough by then. But he didn't count on the fact that she would take their son with her. He'd expected her to give in over that, the way she had always given in to him over everything else. But it turned out that Jillie had a tough streak that no one knew about. She was determined to keep her son, and she fought Foster every inch of the way. And in the end she won—at least, legally. So Martin Foster simply stepped outside the law, and snatched the boy away from her.'

  Kate gave a small shiver. 'That must be an awful thing to happen.'

  'Unless you're a mother, I don't think you can appreciate just how awful it is,' he said in a grim tone.

  'And that's when Jillie turned to you?'

  'She knew what line of work I was in, and so she came to see me. She was at her wits' end, almost on the verge of a complete breakdown. She kept begging me to get her child back for her.' He gave a resigned shrug. 'How could I refuse to help her?'

  A beautiful girl, who was an ex-lover? Jealousy gnawed at Kate's nerve-ends again, and she forced herself to ignore it.

  'Of course you had to help,' she said in a subdued tone. 'What will happen if you can't get the boy back?'

  'I think it'll kill Jillie,' he said simply.

  Kate chewed her bottom lip. 'We keep calling him "the boy",' she said at last, in a low voice. 'He must have a name.'

  'Harry,' said Rafe, after a short pause. 'His name is Harry.' He looked at Kate. 'I saw him once. He was about—oh, ten months old. I met Jillie quite by chance, and we sat and talked for a while about old times. Harry was in his pushchair, and he kept throwing this stuffed toy out on to the grass. He thought it was a great game. Then I didn't see Jillie any more after that until she got in touch with me and pleaded with me to help her.'

  Kate wondered if Rafe was still carrying a torch for the beautiful Jillie, but just didn't have the nerve to ask him.

  'You don't think you might be biased in this case?' she said at last, rather hesitantly. 'I mean, you've only heard Jillie's side of the story. Martin Foster might tell a very different tale.'

  'Jillie never lies about anything,' Rafe said bluntly. 'And after I'd spoken to her, I did quite a lot of research into Martin Foster's background and character. All I can say is that I wouldn't want him to bring up any child of mine. And even if he was the best father in the world—and, from all accounts, he certainly isn't—I still think Harry should be with Jillie. A child of that age needs his mother.'

  'Ideally, a child should have both parents. But I suppose you're right,' agreed Kate. 'If the parents have to split up, then most kids want to stay with their mother.'

  Rafe stared ahead of him. 'I was eleven years old when my parents died,' he said unexpectedly. 'I missed both of them like hell, but it was the death of my mother that really got to me. I still miss her.' He gave a lop-sided smile. 'Does that sound crazy, at my age?'

  Kate swallowed hard. 'No, it doesn't.' Then she added hesitantly, 'But they were only your adoptive parents. Didn't that make any difference?'

  'None at all,' he replied without hesitation. 'They were the people who had brought me up and loved me. As far as I was concerned, they were the only family I had.'

  Kate was silent for quite a long while. Then she eventually said in a rather tentative voice, 'Have you ever tried to trace your real parents?'

  'No,' said Rafe. 'I know that some adopted kids need to do that, and even get quite obsessive about it, but it's never been like that for me. As far as I'm concerned, my family were the people who raised me. Thanks to them, I know who I am and where I'm going. I don't want to dig up the past, and disturb a lot of other people's lives as well as my own. In my book, it's the present and the future that are important. The past is over and finished with. You can't change it, so it's best to let it be. If you start getting obsessed by it, then it can ruin your life.'

  'You're a very well-balanced man, aren't you?' commented Kate, and she couldn't keep a faint note of admiration out of her voice.

  Rafe raised one eyebrow gently. 'Is that a compliment?'

  'I suppose so.' She looked at him curiously. 'What was it like, living with Great-Uncle Henry?' she asked. 'I mean, he was a bit odd, wasn't he?'

  'Let's just say that, from the age of eleven, I didn't have a very conventional sort of upbringing,' remarked Rafe, with a wry twist of his mouth.

  'I'd already gathered that. You haven't grown up to be a very conventional sort of man!' Then she looked at him reflectively. 'My mother said you didn't even go to school. Is that true?'

  He shrugged. 'Not exactly. I went now and then. And Great-Uncle Henry filled in any gaps in my education. He took me round dozens of different museums and art galleries
, and made me look at just about every exhibit. He knew some fascinating people, and he would invite them to the house and then let me stay up and listen while they talked about every subject under the sun. He followed politics and world affairs very closely, and made sure I understood what was going on. He had contacts in the House of Commons, the City, the Stock Exchange, and he would take me round all the different institutions, explaining exactly how they worked.' He gave a brief smile. 'I often think I had a better all-round education than anyone who regularly attended school.'

  Kate was fascinated. 'I didn't know Great-Uncle Henry was like that. I thought he was just—'

  'Just an eccentric?' Rafe finished for her. 'Yes, he was. But he was a very clever eccentric.'

  Kate remembered some family gossip that she had accidentally overheard some time back. 'Did you know that my parents considered taking you in, after your parents were killed?' she asked him.

  Rafe looked faintly surprised. 'No, I didn't know that.' Then his mouth curled into a slow smile. 'My guess is that it was your father's idea—and that your mother soon put a stop to it.'

  'Yes, she did,' admitted Kate. 'Do you wish my father had put his foot down? That he had insisted on taking you in?'

  'I fitted in very well with Great-Uncle Henry,' replied Rafe, in an unperturbed tone. Then he added drily, 'I don't think I'd have got along quite so well with your mother.'

  Kate grinned. 'She always swore that when you were younger you were half child and half devil.'

  'Some people might agree with her about that,' commented Rafe, with a flash of amusement. 'I did run pretty wild for quite a long while.'

  'But you've grown out of it now—haven't you?' she queried, her eyebrows lifting slightly anxiously.

  'Most people think that I have,' he agreed silkily.

  Kate looked straight at him. 'Are you trying to make me nervous?'

  'No,' he said equably. 'I'm just teasing. Can't you tell by now when I'm doing that?'

  'Not always,' she admitted.

  'Then in future, perhaps I'd better warn you. I don't want you to be scared of me, Kate.' There was a subtle change in his voice, and she was suddenly very aware of it. She could already feel her skin responding with a faint prickling sensation.

  'How did you get to be a private investigator?' she asked rather hastily, thinking that it might be a lot safer if she kept him talking.

  Rafe's eyes briefly gleamed, as if he knew perfectly well why she wanted to keep the conversation going. To her relief, though, he then began to answer her question.

  'I tried various jobs, but I couldn't seem to find anything that really interested me. I suppose the upbringing I got at Great-Uncle Henry's didn't really fit me for ordinary employment. Then I saw an advertisement placed by a private investigator, who was looking for an assistant. I thought, why not try it? I'd already tried just about everything else, and not found anything I enjoyed doing. I didn't really expect to like this any better, but I was wrong. I enjoyed the lack of routine, the odd hours, the even odder people I ran into. I stayed on until I'd learnt just about everything there was to learn about the business, and then I branched out on my own.'

  'It's a weird job for a grown man,' Kate remarked.

  'Yes, it is,' he agreed, quite unruffled by her criticism. 'But I like it, and most of the time I do it well. I've no plans for giving it up.'

  As he finished speaking, he slid one finger very lightly down the line of her spine. Kate jumped at his touch, and then shivered as his finger kept moving.

  'You're very nervy today,' he observed.

  'I am not nervy,' she denied indignantly. 'I'm never nervy!' Except when I'm around you, she added silently to herself. 'I'm just—just a bit on edge,' she hedged, frantically fishing around for a plausible explanation. 'That's hardly surprising, considering why we're here.'

  'You seemed quite all right until I touched you,' Rafe pointed out.

  'Well, I wasn't,' Kate insisted. At the same time, she could feel an annoying flush of colour seeping into her cheeks.

  'Mmm,' mused Rafe thoughtfully. 'Did you know that you look even more gorgeous than usual when you get hot and flustered?'

  'Oh, stop it!' Kate retorted crossly.

  He didn't answer her. Instead, to her consternation, he bent his head and kissed the side of her throat.

  'Will you cut that out?' she squeaked.

  'No, I don't think so,' he said, after a moment's consideration. 'I like you, Kate.' Another kiss landed at the base of her throat. 'I like you a great deal.'

  The colour blazed even more brightly in her face. 'I don't know how you can even think about such things at a time like this,' she said, in a voice that was suddenly very shaky.

  He gave a totally wicked grin. 'I think you should always make the most of every opportunity that presents itself.'

  She opened her mouth, ready to tell him that she definitely didn't agree with him. Before she could get any words out, though, he deftly covered it with his own, so that all that came out was a muffled gurgle.

  One of his hands was at her breast now, and she should have been outraged, but she wasn't. That was a little scary. She tried to free her mouth, but every time she moved her head he simply moved with her, so that the kiss just went on and on.

  Rafe finally brought it to an end in his own good time. Then he raised his head and looked down at her with some satisfaction.

  'I enjoyed that,' he told her. 'I didn't realise there could be such advantages, working with a female partner.'

  'Well, I'm glad that you had a good time,' she said pointedly.

  He remained infuriatingly unruffled. 'No use pretending that you hated every moment of it. I'm not exactly inexperienced in these matters.'

  'I'm sure you're not,' she retaliated. 'But practice doesn't always make perfect!'

  His dark gaze fixed on her gleefully. 'Want to tell me which bits weren't so good?' he invited. 'Then perhaps we could work at them, to get them right.'

  'Oh, you're impossible!' she muttered. She glared back at him. 'Have you forgotten why we're here?'

  'Not for a single moment. But since we've probably got to be here for a long time, don't you think this is a very nice way to pass the time?' he purred.

  And the awful thing was that Kate felt an extraordinary compulsion to agree with him. It was nice. It was more than nice, and that was precisely why it scared her so much. This was no time for getting involved with anyone—and especially Rafe. She was quite sure that he could turn her head—and her heart—upside-down if he tried hard enough. The trouble was, would it mean anything more to him than a pleasant diversion? She doubted it. It would be far better not to get involved at all—or, at least, no more than she was right now.

  And how far was that? questioned a little voice inside her head.

  No more than a few kisses and a couple of caresses, she argued with herself. It definitely didn't go any deeper than that!

  Rafe's hand touched her arm again. This time, though, his fingers gripped her quite hard and she realised that his mood had suddenly changed.

  'Look,' he directed her attention, in a low voice. 'Someone's coming down to the beach.'

  Kate found it quite an effort to remember exactly why they were here. Rafe had managed to confuse her so completely that it had driven just about everything else out of her mind. She gave a quick shake of her head, to try and clear it, and then tried to concentrate on what was happening.

  As her gaze swung towards the beach, she saw two people walking across the sand. A small boy, and a very large and muscular man.

  Her gaze fixed first on the smaller figure. She was too far away to see very many details, but she could make out a mop of bright blond hair, a too pale face, and rather thin arms and legs.

  'Is that Harry?' she whispered.

  Rafe nodded.

  'Who's the gorilla with him?' Kate asked, in the same low voice. 'Is that Martin Foster?' she went on disbelievingly.

  'No. My guess is that he's the
bodyguard.'

  Kate's eyes slid over the man's huge chest, his thick arms, massive thighs, and watchful expression. 'If he's a bodyguard, he looks as if he's very good at his job,' she remarked gloomily. 'He could probably flatten both of us with one hand before we got anywhere near the boy.'

  Rafe looked along the beach in both directions, and then back towards the villa. 'Just the one bodyguard,' he remarked thoughtfully.

  Kate looked at him a little incredulously. 'With a gorilla like that, one is all you need!' Then she gave a resigned shrug. 'What do we do now? Give up and go home?'

  'No,' Rafe said decisively. 'We'll take a swim towards the beach.'

  'Fine,' she said immediately. 'You do that. I'll just stay here and watch.'

  'I thought you wanted to help?'

  'I do. But I forgot to tell you that I'm also a coward. That man gives me the creeps!'

  'You'll be perfectly safe,' Rafe assured her. 'Nothing will happen to you. Do you think I'd let you take any risks?'

  'I've no idea. The more time I spend with you, the less I think I know you!'

  Unexpectedly, he smiled. 'But I know you, Kate. Since you've come this far, you won't back out now.' He lowered himself into the water. 'Let's start swimming,' he instructed. 'I'll tell you what to do as we go along.'

  You're going to regret this, Kate warned herself as she flopped into the water alongside him. Then she gave a small sigh, and began swimming.

  Rafe issued instructions at some length as they swam along parallel to the shore. 'Have you got it?' he said at last.

  'Of course,' she said, a little indignantly. 'I'm not an idiot!'

  They were quite a way out from the shore, and drawing level now with the boy and the bodyguard. Rafe and Kate both turned their heads, and then waved cheerfully at the couple on the beach. The bodyguard glared at them, and then ignored them. Harry gave a rather half-hearted wave, but then lowered his arm again as the bodyguard said something to him.

  Kate kept on swimming. Anyone watching from the shore could see that she and Rafe meant to swim right round to the next bay. After she had gone about twenty yards, though, Kate gave a sudden yell and disappeared briefly under the waves. Rafe, who had been swimming a short distance ahead, immediately stopped. Kate shouted again, sounding rather panicky now, and then sank under the water for rather longer this time.