That she was staring at a likeness of the young Carlos Guerrero.
Trying to conceal the shaking of her hands, she turned to Mike.
“Whose boat is this?” she croaked.
Mike’s blond head was jerked in the direction of the photo, and he smiled. “His.”
“C-Carlos?” Even saying his name sent shivers down her spine – just as the memory of his harsh words lancing through her still had the power to wound. “Carlos Guerrero?”
“Sure. Who else?” Mike’s expression grew even more curious. “You didn’t know?”
Of course she didn’t know! If she had known then she would never have set foot on the damned vessel – why, she wouldn’t have gone within a million miles of it! But there was no way she was going to enlighten this smirking engineer about her misgivings, or the reason for them. She needed to assert her authority and get onto dry land again.
“I think there’s been some kind of mix-up,” she said, her smooth tone belying the fast beating of her heart and sudden sense of urgency. “And I’d like to go ashore. Please.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”
Kat’s eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, Carlos told me that a new domestic was arriving – and that her name was Kat Balfour.”
One word reverberated around the room and she repeated it, just in case she had mis-heard it. “Domestic?” she repeated incredulously.
“Sure. You’re Kat Balfour and there’s six hungry crew on board.” He smiled. “And we need someone to clean up after us and make our meals, don’t we?”
It was so outrageous a statement to make, that for a moment Kat thought he must be having some kind of – extremely unfunny – joke at her expense. As if she was some kind of lowly deck-hand who was about to wait on a load of crew members! But one look at his face told her he was deadly serious. What the hell was going on?
© Harlequin Books SA 2010.
With special thanks and acknowledgement to Sharon Kendrick
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
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First published in Great Britain 2010
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MIA’S SCANDAL © by Harlequin Books SA 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4089-2844-8
Mia’s Scandal Page 18