Serpent in Paradise

by Rosemary Carter

  'You took off my bikini,' she said suddenly.

  'What the hell has that got to do with anything?'

  'You said you'd rescued it.' Tears stung her eyes, and she was determined that he would not see them. 'You took it off, deliberately, to keep me hostage.'

  'And got a lot more than I bargained for.' The skin was stretched taut over the bronzed and rugged cheekbones, and the eyes were blue steel as they stared down at her—almost as if he could make out the contours of her body through the water. 'You're incredibly beautiful.' He sounded suddenly husky.

  As he pulled her closer, she could feel his heart beating against her chest, thudding in unison with her own. In other circumstances these moments would have been special, a precious scene that would remain in her memory as something lovely and exciting. But Sloan, for purposes of his own, had tricked her into this situation. And that was not to be borne.

  She managed to push herself a little away from him. 'We were talking about Bruce.'

  His lips tightened. 'I want you to keep away from him.'

  How dare you order me around! Sloan Garfield. You are the most dynamic man I've ever met, and my heart does strange things when I'm near you, but none of that gives you the right to tell me how to live my life.

  'I'll see Bruce whenever I want to,' she told him, lifting her chin.

  He was so close to her that she could feel his chest move as he drew breath. 'What is it you want from him? Sex?'

  'Why not?' she responded saucily.

  'I'll show you why not.' His tone lost its harshness and became a lazy drawl. 'I can give you all the sex you want, sea-nymph.'

  She knew what was coming, and she grew very still. There was fear within her, but there was also an enormous excitement, so that even if she had wanted to get away from him her treacherous body would have stopped her.

  His kisses were soft and tantalising, draining her of the will to resist. A shiver of delight ran through her as he began to plant a trail of kisses, finding all the most sensitive areas—throat and eyelids and the corners of her lips. He was still holding her to him with one arm, for her feet did not touch bottom, and he seemed to know that she was in no state to tread water. With the other hand he began an exploration of her body, moulding the shape of her wet hips and waist beneath his fingers. Teri fought hard to remain detached, but it was a fast-losing battle. She had been kissed before, but never like this, so erotically, and never by such a man.

  At this moment she did not remember that he had tricked her, that he did not even seem to like her very much. There were only the dictates of a fevered mind and a body that throbbed with a mixture of anguish and delight. Like a starving person craving bread, she craved for his kisses; she felt she could never get enough of them.

  His hand moved upwards to her breasts, exploring them with a sensuousness that pushed her over the edge of control. With her feet holding on to one of his calves, she arched herself towards him, putting her arms around his neck and burying her hands in the thick wet hair.

  'Kiss me!' It was a plea, and it came out without shame or conscious thought on her part.

  Incredibly, Sloan loosened the arms that were around his neck and pushed her a little away from him. Dazed, she stared up at him, and saw that his own eyes were hooded.

  'Sloan…'

  'The others must be wondering where we are. Any moment now and your greedy knight will be here looking for you.'

  He didn't want to kiss her. She felt suddenly ill. All he had done was make a point, had shown her that if she wanted sexual enjoyment she could get it as easily from him as from Bruce. Sloan had shown her that he could arouse her—but he himself was not aroused at all.

  Something of her feelings must have revealed themselves to him. Roughly he said, 'We both know what the next step had to be, and the ocean is not the place for it.'

  That made sense, but Teri was in no mood for sense. All she knew was that he had rejected her. It was a rejection that hurt. 'Thank God for the ocean,' she managed in a tight voice.

  'You don't mean that, and you know it. You were asking for more love, Teri, but there's a point beyond which a man can't go without losing control.'

  'Give me my bikini!' she hissed through her teeth.

  'We'll reach that point another time, Teri, in my bed or yours.'

  'Never!' she exclaimed passionately. 'Are you going to give me that bikini, or do I go back to the beach without it?'

  'To inflame the wretched Bruce to some genuine emotion?' His voice was harsh. 'Keep still, I'll put it on for you.'

  'I can manage.'

  'That would be some feat. You still can't touch bottom,' he reminded her dryly.

  And that was true, humiliating though it was to acknowledge the fact. Supporting herself with her feet on his legs, Teri kept her face averted as Sloan slipped the bikini over her shoulders and fastened the clasp at her back. She tried to ignore the excitement she felt, even now, when she knew that Sloan had had his motives for arousing her. 'I'm crazy,' she thought, 'quite crazy. And I didn't know it was in me to feel this way.'

  'Honey!' Bruce came to meet her as she made her way out of the water. 'You were out there a long time.'

  'Not all that long,' she defended herself lightly, disliking the note of accusation she detected in his tone.

  'Bruce was getting jealous.' Virginia's smile was somewhat malicious. 'He noticed two heads bobbing about close together on the water. I think he imagined Sloan making love to you.'

  'If he was worried, he should have investigated.' Teri's tone was still light. She was learning their language, but she didn't enjoy using it.

  'Bruce doesn't like cold water.' said Virginia, and Miranda put in on a brittle laugh, 'Sloan doesn't make love in the ocean—he prefers the comfort of a warm bed!'

  Spoken with the complacent smugness of one who knew. Pain throbbed in Teri's temples, and she was swept with a sudden wave of nausea. She turned abruptly, shutting from her vision three faces that studied her with expressions that varied from malice to smiling calculation. She saw Jill, engrossed in her sand-castle, and she also saw Sloan, swimming the waves now with long easy strokes.

  Turning back, she said to Bruce, 'I think I'll go.'

  'The day's just begun,' he protested.

  'I'm a little tired. And Jill could do with a nap.'

  'She's having the time of her life.'

  Which was true. Teri felt guilty at depriving the little girl of an extra hour or two on the beach, but she herself could take just so much. There would be other sunny days on the beach. She would bring Jill again, but alone.

  'I'd like to go all the same,' she persisted with a calmness that hid her pain. 'May I take your car, Bruce? You could go back with the others.'

  His face was just the slightest bit sullen as he assented. 'Oh, all right, then. But I won't let you cut short our future dates, Teri honey.'

  Teri got back to Vins Doux to find Emma concluding a conversation with Esther, the housekeeper, a look of frustration on her normally placid face. A problem in the kitchen perhaps, Teri surmised, though without too much interest—her own problems were sufficiently overwhelming just then.

  'You're back early, dear,' Emma remarked as Esther, looking worried herself, walked away.

  'I'd had enough sun, and Jill can do with a nap. I've found a wonderful book, Emma, I think I'll do some reading.'

  'As long as you keep an eye on Jill at the same time. Jessie's not around to help with her today.'

  'That's all right. It's Sunday and I didn't expect any help.'

  'I don't even know where she is. Neither does Esther.' The look of frustration was back.

  'Something's wrong?' Teri asked in quick concern.

  'It could be nothing, of course. On the other hand…' Emma hesitated a moment. 'Teri dear, I know Jessie talks to you sometimes. Does the name Lucas mean anything to you?'

  'Lucas? No Should it?'

  'By rights it should not,' Emma said grimly. 'Lucas is a young man who has
spent some time behind prison bars.'

  'Why?'

  'For stealing a car.'

  'And he's Jessie's boy-friend?' Teri asked intuitively.

  'He was. I think she fancied herself in love with him at one time.' Emma took a breath. 'He was released recently.'

  'Do you think Jessie is with him?'

  'I've forbidden her to see him.'

  Forbidden? A strong word to apply to a girl in love. A word Teri had not thought would be used by the kindly, easy-going Emma—who at this moment looked anything but easy-going.

  'For her own good,' Emma added. 'That young man would give her nothing but grief.'

  'Jessie may have gone out somewhere on her own,' Teri suggested lightly.

  'Maybe.' But Emma did not look convinced.

  As she herself was not convinced, Teri thought a little later. Having settled Jill for her nap, she had taken her book out into the garden. But her mind was not on the history of wine-making. It was on the sweet-faced housemaid who had endeared herself to Teri with her kindness to Jill. It came to Teri that Jessie had not been quite herself yesterday. Her manner had been more reserved than usual, her eyes over-bright.

  I should have asked her if something was wrong, Teri thought, on a pang of regret. Perhaps if I hadn't been so wrapped up in my own problems I'd have done so.

  Her heart went out to the girl who was in love with a man who was inaccessible. We have something in common, she thought. The man I love is inaccessible too.

  Her breath jerked. For the first time she had admitted to herself that she was in love with Sloan. Was it true? Surely not! Oh God, please don't let me love Sloan. Please! I don't want to love him. There's no future for me if I do.

  Forcing her eyes back to the pages in front of her, she tried to read. But she did not see the words. What she saw was the ocean, and the laughing eyes of a tanned and handsome pirate as he held an emerald bikini out of her reach. And what she felt was not the hot sun on her face but the texture of a rough chest against her bare damp breasts.

  Oh God! she whispered again, more despairingly this time. Closing the book and tucking it under her arm, she began to walk. A wind had risen, and it stung her cheeks and blew her hair backwards from her face, and she rejoiced in the feel of it. Perhaps, miraculously, it could blow this unwanted craziness from her mind and her heart.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Life at Vins Doux began to settle into a routine. Virginia took leave from her modelling job and started to organise a day-care centre for the farm-workers. In her aunt's presence her eagerness was boundless. 'All those darling children,' she exclaimed. 'I have such plans for them!'

  'You'll go on taking an interest in the project after you go back to Cape Town?'

  'Try and stop me! I've never worked with children before, Aunt Emma, I didn't know what fun it could be. Oh yes, I'll be here regularly and see that things go the way they should.'

  'I'm so glad, Virginia, I really am.' Emma was moved.

  Later in the day Teri spent some time with Jill in the garden. While the little girl played with the rubber doll, still her favourite toy, Teri relaxed in the shade of a gnarled and ancient oak tree. She was half asleep when she heard Virginia talking, her voice carrying across the still air.

  'It's just the limit, Bruce!'

  'True. But I suppose you've no option but to make the best of it.'

  'As you're doing, brother dear!'

  'I'm beginning to like the wine business.'

  'And the girl that goes with it. Hell, Bruce, I don't give a damn what you do—but this day-care really is the bloody limit! If the girls at the agency could see me pandering to a bunch of snotty-nosed toddlers they'd die laughing!'

  'I doubt you pander to them,' Bruce laughed. They changed direction as they walked further and with the wind now behind them the rest of their words were lost.

  Teri was not sorry. She had an aversion to eavesdropping. Not that she had learned something new. She had suspected that Virginia's sweetness was a way of covering her true feelings. And that was sad, for it seemed to mean a great deal to Emma that her relatives should take an interest in the bequest that was to be theirs.

  For his part, Bruce really did seem to be interested. He talked enthusiastically of all he was learning, and the enthusiasm did not seem in the least feigned. Teri chided herself for thinking, even for one moment, that it might be. Suspicion was a dreadful thing, she decided, and wished Sloan had not implanted it in her mind. Bruce continued to show her affection, there were even times when he intimated that he had more than mere friendship on his mind. Though Teri did not rise to such overtures, she could not help wondering about them. Quite likely her appeal for Bruce was in fact enhanced because of the benefits that he supposed would accompany her. That did not mean that his affection was feigned, just as there was no reason to suppose that his interest in Vins Doux was anything but genuine.

  Teri spent most of her days in the library. The pile of notes grew as her research took shape. There were so many wonderful books in the wood-panelled room at Vins Doux. She read not only about wine-making, but about the history of the Cape, about the men and women who had made that history. For a librarian who loved to explore the past, the days she spent researching were idyllic.

  Almost idyllic. Absorbed in a book, she would suddenly find herself thinking of Sloan. He seemed to come to mind with amazing ease. She had only to read of some strong-minded historical figure, and Sloan's face would fill the page. She tried hard to stop thinking about him. Sometimes she was successful, more often not.

  There were days when she hardly saw him. It was not often that he joined the others for meals. Teri wondered where he ate, where he lived. He did not live in the main house, that much she knew. On that first evening at Vins Doux, Emma had referred to his quarters. Teri would have given much to know where they were—sheer curiosity, nothing more, she told herself—but in her wanderings around the estate she never saw them. Emma would have been able to tell her, but Teri did not want to ask—Emma was already too conscious of the tense relationship between Sloan and herself, and the girl had the uneasy feeling that she was amused by it.

  There were other people she could have asked. Jessie or Esther. Even Virginia and Bruce would have been able to answer the question. But Teri found herself oddly reluctant to bring up Sloan's name. She did not know if she could trust herself to do so casually. There was also the knowledge that she did not want to discuss him with others.

  She was not so naive that she did not know how she felt about him. She loved him. She had fallen in love with the tall rugged-faced man. There was a time when she had tried to tell herself that she was merely affected by his dynamic looks; that his sole appeal was sexual and physical. Now she knew that she had been fooling herself. She loved him, probably she would always love him. And all she would get in return was a broken heart.

  If I was sensible I'd leave Vins Doux tomorrow, she told herself when the words on the page before her took on their customary blur. I'd put as much distance as possible between Sloan and myself and make quite sure that I never set eyes on him again. I might meet another man, learn to love him instead.

  And that would take a miracle, Teri knew. She had been in Sloan's arms, had been kissed by him. It would be impossible to feel stirred by anyone else. A miracle? It would take more than that.

  Besides, there was no way she could leave Vins Doux. She had given her word to Emma. There was also Jill to consider. Every day the little girl's cheeks had more colour. The small body was filling out, and the cough had virtually disappeared. Teri wished that Louise could see her—her friend would be amazed at the transformation.

  'Sloan coming for supper tonight?' Virginia asked one day at lunch.

  'Not that I know of,' said her aunt.

  'Mind if I ask him?'

  Without waiting for an answer the girl went to the phone. The conversation was short, and when Virginia rejoined the others she looked disgruntled. 'He's going out. What does he se
e in Miranda, I wonder?'

  'She's very attractive.' There was a slight edge to Bruce's voice, but Teri did not question it. The fact that Sloan was dating Miranda was not news. There was not a night when she did not torture herself with visions of them together. When she did not see them talking, laughing, making love… Nevertheless, when the fact was put into words she felt a pain that was almost physical.

  'What do you think of her, Teri?' Virginia asked.

  It was hard to speak over the dryness of her throat. 'I agree with Bruce,' Teri managed. 'She's attractive.'

  'Fancy her chances with Sloan? My God, Teri, you look awful. Don't say you like him too!'

  'Of course not,' Teri managed lightly. 'Just feeling a bit under the weather. If you'll excuse me, I still want to get some reading done this afternoon.'

  She saw their faces as she rose from her chair. Virginia's momentary curiosity had left her—her interest in others never lasted long—and the restlessness was back. Bruce was oddly tight-lipped. Emma, who had remained silent during the brief interchange, was regarding her thoughtfully.

  Teri spent the remainder of the day in the library, as well as most of the next morning. For once the books held no appeal for her. Visions of Sloan and Miranda had made for fitful sleep, and now her head ached. When Bruce asked her to go out for lunch with him she agreed, not out of a desire to spend time with him, but because she thought the outing would be a welcome diversion from thoughts she seemed unable to shut out.

  A scenic ocean drive led to the restaurant which was set among silver trees and purple proteas on a sunny mountain slope. The exterior was cheerful and inviting, and as Teri got out of the car her spirits lifted. A change of scene had been even more necessary than she had realised.

  'This is lovely.' She turned a smiling face to Bruce as they followed the waitress in. 'It's so…'

  The words died on her lips. Sloan was at a table, and Miranda was with him.