by Susan Napier;Kathryn Ross;Kelly Hunter;Sandra Marton;Katherine Garbera;Margaret Mayo
‘What is it, Ray?’ she asked again, fixing him with a rigid stare.
He bent and retrieved the papers to put them back on the desk. ‘Apparently the only way around the six-months stipulation for selling is if you and I marry.’ He watched as her skin blanched, then went on tersely. ‘Apparently Murdo specified that if we marry the house will be mine and, what is more, he has placed a large amount of money in a trust fund somewhere as a wedding present for us.’
‘So what were you planning, Ray—a whirlwind romance and wedding followed by a lightning divorce?’ Her heart was thundering so hard against her chest that it felt tight with pain. ‘I hope you were planning to get down on one knee when you ask me,’ she added darkly. ‘That way it will feel so much more satisfying when I say no.’
His lips twisted in a mirthless smile. ‘I think you are getting a little ahead of the game, Caitlin,’ he said coolly. ‘Because I haven’t asked you to marry me.’
‘Saving that for a cosy night in with me on Wednesday?’ She tossed her hair back from her face as she marched past him. ‘Well, you can go to hell, Ray. I’d rather marry the devil incarnate than take any vow with you.’
She had almost reached the door when he caught hold of her arm. ‘Just hold it right there,’ he said angrily and swung her around to face him. ‘Just for the record, it was Philippe who came up with the marriage suggestion and I told him to go to hell. And I didn’t tell you about the land development because I didn’t want to put that much pressure on you to leave. And thirdly I invited you here for purely personal reasons.’
Caitlin swallowed hard. She wanted so much to believe him…but she just couldn’t.
The sound of the doorbell cut through the silence.
‘That will be my taxi.’ With a supreme effort of will she pulled away from him.
Ray followed her out into the lounge and watched as she picked up her bag from behind the door.
‘Caitlin, you are making a big mistake,’ he said quietly.
‘I don’t think so.’
‘The fact is that I could have had you out of that house quicker than you think.’
The arrogant confidence of his tone made her pause with her hand on the door handle. ‘The house is mine, Ray—’ she glanced around at him angrily ‘—and there is nothing you can do about that.’
‘I think there is. Go back to your house and find out where your water supply comes from.’
‘What the hell are you talking about?’ Caitlin frowned. ‘I know I’m not connected to the mains, if that’s what you mean, but I’ve got my own well.’
He shook his head. ‘Correction, you’ve got my well. You see, I could have cut you off from your only supply of water ages ago. I just chose not to because it seemed like a very unpleasant thing to do. I preferred the gentle approach. But…’ he shrugged ‘…if you want to take the gloves off and play rough, then fair enough. It’s your choice.’
Caitlin stared at him. ‘Are you threatening me?’
‘No. I’m telling you a point of fact. Any water you have comes courtesy of me. Go back and check it out.’ He shrugged. ‘Then when you’ve come to your senses and you realise that I am trying to play fair with you, we’ll talk.’
‘I don’t want to talk to you ever again,’ Caitlin said furiously. She turned and opened the door. ‘Cut the water off if it makes you feel better.’ She tossed the words back at him over her shoulder. ‘It won’t get you anywhere.’
Then she closed the door behind her, gently but very firmly.
All the way to the airport Caitlin’s blood boiled with anger. She was seething with Ray and she was furious with herself for having ever gone to bed with him. How could she have been so stupid? Why hadn’t she realised what he was up to?
She reran conversations in her head, searching through for the signs that she had missed. And she remembered especially how he had hesitated when she had asked him directly if there were any hard feelings about her not selling to him. How he had looked amused by her passion for Murdo’s house. What was it he had said? ‘Some advice, Caitlin…Never fall in love with a business project. You should be objective and unemotional at all times.’
Those words burnt through her mind now and she felt stupid and used and cheap. She had obviously been the business project and he had wined and dined her and probably taken her to bed with only one purpose in mind.
The pain that knowledge caused her was unbelievable. She kept telling herself that she didn’t care, that she had no feelings for him anyway. That it had just been a light-hearted fling on her part. But the words were hollow inside her. And the pain just wouldn’t subside.
Chapter Ten
THE sun rose over the mountains and slanted through the olive grove in a yellow misty haze. Somewhere a cockerel crowed its distinctive notes clear on the silent early morning air. But Caitlin was already awake. She hadn’t been sleeping well since her return from Paris and that was a week ago now. Despite the fact that she felt lethargic, she threw the covers of the bed back and went into the kitchen to turn on the tap.
It had become a daily routine. The first thing she did every morning was check the water and she did the same again at regular intervals throughout the day, and sometimes she even got up in the middle of the night just to turn on the tap to check it again. Each time after a few seconds’ delay cool water gushed freely and it was the same this morning, a few tense seconds waiting, then water flowed with forceful pressure into the sink. Hastily Caitlin put the kettle under the tap so as not to waste a precious drop. Then she set the kettle on the stove and opened the back door.
It was a glorious morning; the sun was milky warm against her skin and a little bird sat in one of the branches of an almond tree and sang joyously as if life was full of promise. But life wouldn’t be full of promise around here if Ray got his way, Caitlin thought darkly. The olive grove would be demolished along with the house and there would be no almond tree for the little bird to sing in. She bit down on her lip and tried not to think about it. Ray was a monster, she told herself sharply, an absolute monster.
So why hadn’t he cut the water off? That was the question that plagued her most these days. As soon as she had returned to the house she had lost no time investigating his claims that the well was on his land, and she had found that he was telling the truth. The well lay half a mile inside his boundary. This meant he could have cut her off ages ago. And yet he had chosen not to.
Obviously he had decided that it wouldn’t do him any good, she told herself firmly. And he was right, it wouldn’t, because no matter what he did she wasn’t going to give in and sell. She had already made provisions for the water crisis. All the buckets and the bath had been filled and she had ordered a water tank that should arrive some time next week. As soon as that was installed and filled it would give her some breathing space. She wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
But the fact that she should have to fight Ray still astonished and hurt her. She couldn’t believe how calculating he had been. Especially when she remembered how passionately he had kissed her and held her. When she lay in bed at night she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to forget how good it had felt to be in his arms. But the memories were hard to erase.
The really strange thing was that she had thought her breakup from David had hurt, but it was nothing to the torment inside her now.
‘You are really very bad when it comes to choosing men, Caitlin,’ she told herself angrily. ‘You’d be better advised to give them up totally. Join a nunnery.’
The shrill whistle of the kettle made her return to the kitchen. As she made herself some ground coffee she tried to switch her mind away from Ray and think instead about the day ahead. There was a local market on in the village today and she wanted to go down and buy some fresh vegetables and provisions.
She turned the immersion on so that she could have a shower. Then she sat at the kitchen table and sipped her coffee as she made a shopping list. She had just finished when the phone rang
and she picked it up expecting it to be her mother or Heidi.
Instead it was Ray’s lazily relaxed tone that echoed down the line. ‘Hi. Are you ready to talk yet?’ he inquired, and instantly every nerve inside her seemed to tense.
‘I’m surprised you’ve got the nerve to phone me.’ She felt strangely breathless as she spoke, her emotions twisting inside her as if she were pulling them through a wringer. But the really dreadful part was the weakness inside her that was glad to hear his voice; she fought against that furiously. ‘And, no, I am not ready to talk to you and I never will be.’
‘Come on, Caitlin, this is silly,’ he said impatiently. ‘I’ve given you a whole week to cool off and think about things and that’s long enough. Now I think we should meet up and talk about this like civilised adults.’
His tone grated on her. How dared he talk to her as if she were some recalcitrant child? ‘Just go to hell.’
‘What are you doing today?’ he asked as if she hadn’t spoken.
‘I’m going down to the market to do some shopping, not that it is any of your damn business.’ She frowned and wondered what on earth had possessed her to even tell him that. ‘Look, I never want to see you again, Ray,’ she continued swiftly. ‘And I’m going to hang up now. So goodbye.’ She disconnected him and sat drumming her fingers against the table, trying to gather her senses. How did he manage to churn her up so easily? Just the sound of his voice made her literally go weak at the knees and it really irritated her.
Hastily she got to her feet and went to have her shower. She wasn’t going to give Ray one more thought. Not one.
Why was it, she wondered a few minutes later as she stood under the forceful jet of water from the shower, that every man in her life had let her down? It had started with her father, he had walked out of her life when she was twelve and she hadn’t seen him for five years. Then there had been Julian, who had said all the right things but been as insincere as hell—then David—and now there was Ray to add to the list. And it was strange because, of all the betrayals, Ray was the one that hurt the most. She felt kind of numb inside. It was inexplicable because she hadn’t known him that long. But the memory of his kisses, his caresses, his whispered words of passion were emblazed on her mind along with the way he sometimes looked at her, with that quizzical intensity, that tender gleam of humour…just thinking about it now made her insides wrench with longing.
She raised her head to the jet of water and fiercely tried not to think about him. And that was when the water flicked off.
At first she thought that she had leant back against the switch and then it dawned on her: she hadn’t switched it off, she had been cut off.
With shaking hands she reached for a towel and wrapped it around her. And just to check that it wasn’t the shower that was faulty, she walked over to the sink and turned the tap on. Nothing happened.
Caitlin was furious; she could hardly believe that Ray had actually stooped so low. Then she reminded herself that this was the man who had cold-bloodedly set out to seduce her to win her around to his way of thinking. Of course he would stoop that low.
Her mobile phone rang and she snatched it up.
‘Have I got your attention now?’ Ray asked coolly.
‘I won’t be bullied into submission, Ray.’ To her dismay her voice shook slightly.
‘All I’m asking is that you meet me down in the village for lunch,’ he continued as if she hadn’t spoken. ‘You told me you were going down there anyway, so it’s hardly out of your way.’
‘I don’t want to meet you for lunch,’ she said stonily.
‘Do you want your water back on?’
‘You know I do.’ Her voice was tightly controlled now.
‘Okay, so repeat after me. Yes, I will meet you for lunch at one-thirty at the restaurant in the main village square.’
Go to hell, were the words Caitlin wanted to say. She was silent for a long moment as she tried to think rationally. Cold water dripped down her face and her back from her wet hair and the hand that held her mobile was tight. She wanted to hang up or tell him she had made contingency plans and she would get through this. But then she found herself backing down. ‘All right, I’ll meet you.’ Maybe she should talk to him, she told herself firmly. If only to tell him to his face what she thought of him. ‘But just for a coffee,’ she added hastily. ‘I couldn’t eat lunch—it would choke me.’
‘Always so dramatic,’ he said, a hint of amusement in his tone now. ‘I’ll see you later, Caitlin.’
A few minutes later the water started to run in the shower again.
An hour later Caitlin was driving down the narrow country roads towards the village.
She was going to tell Ray exactly what she thought of him, she told herself all the way down and around the hairpin bends. There was no way she would ever back down now.
Caitlin parked her car on the outskirts of the village under the shade of some trees and glanced at her watch. She had an hour to kill before their meeting. Trying to ignore the little prickles of apprehension that burst inside her, she found her shopping list, and taking her bag, stepped out of the car.
The village of Ezure was perched on the side of the mountain and was picture-postcard perfect. Shady lanes with cobbled surfaces wound steeply down past quaint old houses before finally opening out into a wide tree-lined square.
Although the community was only thirty miles from the tourism of the coast it was completely unspoilt; there was an air almost of stepping back in time about it. There were only a few shops, a couple of restaurants and one bar. And when Caitlin had ventured down during the week the place had been virtually deserted; the only sound had been the gurgle of water from the fountains and the soft thud of boules as some elderly men had played the traditional game under the shade of the giant eucalyptus trees.
Today, however, the village seemed to have awoken from its dreamlike trance and it rang with the sound of children laughing, and people talking. As she rounded the corner into the square she found it was alive with the colourful, vibrant buzz of the local market. The stalls were covered in wide awnings that created a shady place to shop, but even so the heat was intense and Caitlin was glad she had put on a lightweight summer dress as she pressed through the crowd to wander along the stalls.
There were mountains of juicy black and green olives and a range of fresh vegetables that looked as if they had just been pulled fresh from local gardens, goats’ cheese and fresh preserves and a mouth-watering array of freshly baked bread. The smell of cooked chickens mingled with the scent of fresh herbs and ground coffee in a way that was somehow uniquely French. Caitlin enjoyed browsing along the lines of wares. She bought some ingredients for a salad and was queuing up to buy some crusty bread when suddenly she didn’t feel very well.
The wave of dizziness and nausea hit her from nowhere and hastily she turned and left the stall, her one thought to get to somewhere cool and sit down quickly before she fell down.
It was a relief when she emerged into the open space at the other side of the square. There were views across the rolling countryside towards the sea from here and a soft breeze blew in that helped quell the sick feeling. She sat down on the wall under the shade of one of the eucalyptus trees and closed her eyes for a moment.
‘Caitlin.’ Ray’s voice instantly made her alert and she looked up quickly.
‘I thought it was you,’ he said as he strolled across towards her. ‘I saw you hurrying out of the market…’ He trailed off suddenly and his eyes raked over the pallor of her skin with a look of concern. ‘Are you okay? You look terrible.’
‘Thanks.’ Her voice was dry.
‘No, I mean it. You really don’t look well.’ He sat down beside her on the wall and reached to put a hand on her forehead.
The touch of his skin so cool against the heat of hers sent a million different reactions spinning through her, and amidst the confusion the one overriding emotion was the weakness of longing. She flinched away from him ap
palled by such a pathetic reaction. This was the man who had used her for purely mercenary reasons, she reminded herself fiercely. And maybe he did sound concerned but all he really cared about was his land and his business. ‘I’m fine, Ray, don’t fuss. The heat just got to me for a moment, that’s all.’
He dropped his hand back down to his side. ‘Are you drinking enough water?’ he asked. ‘Because in these temperatures it’s very easy to dehydrate.’
‘Coming from the man who cut my supply this morning, that is a bit of a joke, isn’t it?’ She glared up at him.
‘You should be drinking bottled water, not the stuff that comes from your tap,’ he reminded her quickly. ‘And I cut the supply for five minutes, Caitlin, so let’s not exaggerate this.’
‘It was still a lousy thing to do,’ she said furiously. ‘How did you manage to do that anyhow?’
‘The connections have been set up like that for easy maintenance and I have control over them.’
‘Well, I won’t forgive you for it.’
For a moment his eyes moved over her face contemplatively. The colour had returned to her cheeks and her eyes glistened with vivid green fires of passion.
‘It got your attention, though, didn’t it?’ he said softly. ‘And I wanted to see you.’
The words and the way he looked at her made her emotions dip dizzily. Confused, she looked away.
‘I’ve missed you this week,’ he continued softly.
She looked up at him then and her heart lurched crazily. The truth was that she had missed him as well, missed him more than she could ever have believed possible.
There was no doubt about it; there was a powerful chemistry between them. It was uncurling now in waves that seemed even more forceful than the sun. But it didn’t mean anything, she told herself furiously. And his words were insincere. All he cared about was her land.
The strong reminder gave her the courage to shake her head. ‘Well, I haven’t missed you,’ she said huskily. As she made to look away again he reached out and caught hold of her face, forcing her to hold his gaze.