A Dangerous Taste of Passion

by Anne Mather

  Which made her apprehensive. She’d have thought she’d recognise any automobile that might turn up at her father’s door. After the feelings she’d had while she was taking her swim, it was worrying. If they had visitors, then Reverend Fielding was unlikely to be holed up in his study as she’d anticipated.

  Before she could formulate any plan as to how she was going to get into the house without being seen, a man stepped out of the shadows to confront her.

  ‘Buenas noches, Ms Fielding,’ he said with suave politeness. ‘Are you well?’

  Rafe Oliveira!

  Lily was instantly conscious of the amber lace clinging to her breasts like a second skin and the embarrassing knowledge that, whether he knew it or not, she was naked under her skirt. The pleasant draught of cool air that had fanned her thighs as she walked up the beach was now banished by the rush of heat that spread down from her stomach. And an insistent pulse made itself felt between her legs.

  Because of this, because she felt so damnably vulnerable, her response was uncharacteristically sharp.

  ‘Have you been spying on me again, Señor Oliveira?’ she demanded, not caring right then whether the accusation was justified or not.

  The veranda behind them was lit by hanging lanterns and in their muted light she saw the way his eyebrows rose. His dark eyes registered first surprise, then amusement.

  ‘I have not been spying on you, Ms Fielding,’ he said mildly. ‘Though I have to admit I think it is most unwise to swim alone at this time of the evening.’

  ‘So you were watching me!’

  ‘No! Por el amor de Dios.’ He was impatient. ‘Your father was worried about you. He said you’d gone for a walk. As he was worried, I offered to look for you. I have just stepped out of the house. And here you are.’

  Lily chewed on her lower lip. ‘I suppose you guessed I hadn’t gone for a walk?’

  ‘I did not give it a great deal of thought,’ retorted Rafe not altogether truthfully. But he knew exactly what she meant.

  Watching him out of the corner of her eye, Lily didn’t know whether to believe him or not. He was wearing black this evening, or some dark colour anyway. It accentuated his disturbing appeal and, despite her irritation, Lily was not immune to it.

  ‘Are you going to tell my father I was lying to him?’ she persisted, and Rafe made a careless gesture with his hands.

  ‘Why should I?’ he asked indifferently. ‘You are not a child, Ms Fielding. If you choose to behave recklessly, that is your...um...funeral, no?’

  Lily’s expression was mutinous. ‘So why did you offer to look for me?’

  Rafe shook his head. ‘I could say I was concerned about you, but in all honesty I was more concerned about the poor bastardo who might be arrested as a—what do you say?—a Peeping Tom, no?’

  Lily held up her head. ‘There was no one else around,’ she insisted.

  ‘You are sure?’

  She wasn’t. Remembering her nerves when she’d heard the drums earlier, and her belief that there had been someone hiding in the trees, Lily had no answer to that.

  ‘Well, as you can see, I am safely home,’ she said stiffly. ‘Don’t let us keep you.’

  Rafe’s teeth ground together in frustration. ‘Do you think it is wise to alert your father to your return until you have had time to change?’

  ‘I’m sure Daddy is working in his study. He’s probably forgotten all about my absence by now.’

  ‘You think?’ Rafe’s dark eyes swept down her body. ‘Having met Father Fielding—’

  ‘It’s the Reverend Fielding, actually.’

  ‘Bien.’ Rafe allowed himself to be corrected. ‘No obstante, having met Reverend Fielding, I would not put my faith in that belief.’ He gestured to the house behind him. ‘I am of the opinion that he is waiting for us both to return.’

  Lily’s face flamed. ‘Well, so what? He’s unlikely to ask what I’ve been doing while you’re here.’

  ‘Possibly not.’ Rafe thought he was being extremely patient in the circumstances. ‘But, perdón, is that not part of your bikini dangling from your fingers? It is, as they say, a dead giveaway, no?’

  Lily caught her breath. She’d forgotten she was carrying the briefs. And how revealing was that?

  Rafe sucked in a breath. ‘I assume you are aware there are certain—illegal—activities taking place at this moment in the old slave cabins at the end of the beach.’

  Lily suppressed the urge to cross her legs. How did he know what was going on in the old cabins? It increased the possibility that someone else might have been watching her? she thought uneasily.

  She shivered. There was something disturbingly intimate about this conversation.

  ‘I... I’d better go and change, señor,’ she said, deciding she might have misjudged him. But when she attempted to go past him, Rafe stepped into her path.

  ‘You should not take your safety for granted, you know,’ he said softly, and Lily suddenly found it difficult to take a breath. He put out his hand and lifted a strand of her wet hair, rubbing its silky texture between his thumb and forefinger. ‘It would be very easy for...someone...to take advantage of you.’

  Lily swallowed a little convulsively and Rafe’s hand fell to his side. Whatever vibes she’d been giving off, he’d evidently thought better of the impulse to touch her.

  Which was a shame because, for a heart-stopping moment, she’d wanted him to pull her into his arms.

  And how crazy was that?

  He stepped back, spreading his hands again in a gesture of acceptance. But when Lily moved to leave, he said softly, ‘Please, when next we meet do not address me as señor. My name is Rafe.’ His lips twisted. ‘I wish you would use it.’

  The air left Lily’s lungs on an uneven breath. Had he sensed what she’d been thinking? It was difficult to know. But one thing was certain—on an island as small as Orchid Cay, the chances of them meeting again were almost unavoidable. And she should remember that.

  ‘I must go,’ she said and hurried past him, her flesh tingling uncontrollably at the brush of his taut muscular frame against hers.

  He followed her inside, intercepting her father, enabling her to make her escape upstairs. And for that she was grateful. But if he hadn’t turned up as he had, her father would probably have been none the wiser.

  He was gone by the time she came downstairs again. She’d taken a quick shower and changed into clean shorts and a tee shirt. But her father was standing in the doorway to his study, and one look at his face as he bid her to join him warned her that he expected an explanation.

  ‘Where have you been?’ he demanded at once and, although Lily knew he must have been worried about her, she resented his domineering tone. ‘You didn’t say you were going for a walk on the beach. You’ve been gone more than an hour!’

  Lily pressed her lips together, silencing her indignation. ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘That’s not good enough, Lilian.’ William Fielding frowned. ‘You know how I worry about you.’

  ‘I am sorry.’

  Lily didn’t know what else to say, but fortunately William Fielding had other things on his mind.

  ‘We’ve had a visitor,’ he said abruptly. ‘A Señor Oliveira. From Orchid Point. I would have liked you to meet him.’

  ‘I did meet him,’ began Lily, not knowing what Oliveira might have said and determined not to prove herself any more of a liar than she felt already.

  But her father wouldn’t let her finish. ‘I know that,’ he interrupted her shortly. ‘He offered to go and find you. I don’t know what you were thinking, Lily. You must know what goes on at the other end of the beach after dark.’

  She was contemplating her response when her father spoke again. ‘You’ve changed your clothes,’ he said, having just noticed her damp hair. ‘Wasn’t it a little late to have a shower?’

  ‘I was hot,’ declared Lily, refusing to be provoked. She paused. ‘What did Señor Oliveira want? I didn’t know you knew him.’
<
br />   ‘I didn’t until this evening.’ William Fielding’s brows remained creased. ‘I assume he introduced himself to you when he found you.’

  Lily sighed. ‘Actually, I’d already met him. He came into the agency a few days ago looking for Ray.’

  Reverend Fielding frowned. ‘I wonder what he wanted with Myers.’

  Lily shrugged. ‘To hire a boat, maybe.’

  ‘Oh, I think not.’ Her father shook his head. ‘I’m sure a man like him will have his own yacht.’

  Now it was Lily’s turn to frown. ‘A man like him?’ She echoed his words. ‘Who is he? What do you know about him?’

  ‘Only what I’ve read in the newspapers,’ replied her father defensively, retiring behind his desk. ‘You must have heard he used to run a successful group of companies in New York.’ He stared at her, his eyes intent suddenly. ‘I can’t believe that piece of gossip slipped either yours or Dee-Dee’s notice.’

  Lily tried to control the warmth that flooded into her throat as he spoke.

  ‘Well, yes,’ she admitted. ‘But that doesn’t explain what he was doing here.’

  Her father sank into his leather recliner now, lifting his shoulders dismissively. ‘I imagine he wanted to meet me.’

  ‘But why?’

  ‘Does there have to be a reason?’ Reverend Fielding looked impatient. ‘The man’s living on the island, Lily. Perhaps he felt in need of spiritual guidance.’

  ‘And did you give him spiritual guidance?’ Lily couldn’t hide her scepticism.

  ‘As most of my energies were taken up with finding you, then no, our conversation was correspondingly brief.’

  And, as if reminded of her transgressions, her father’s scowl deepened. ‘But I will not be made to feel guilty when we both know you were in the wrong.’

  Lily caught her breath. ‘I’m not trying to make you feel guilty, Dad.’

  ‘It sounds like it to me. Trying to shift the blame, at the very least.’

  Lily shook her head. ‘I just don’t understand why that man would come to see you. You’re an Anglican minister. He’s Spanish. He must be a Catholic.’

  ‘Dee-Dee supports another religion entirely, but she comes to my church on Sundays,’ declared her father, showing he wasn’t half as ignorant of what was going on as she’d imagined. ‘Has it occurred to you that his own church may have let him down?’

  Lily blinked. ‘Let him down, how?’

  ‘Well...’ Her father looked a little reluctant to continue. ‘We don’t know how it happened, do we?’

  ‘How what happened?’ Lily was impatient. ‘There is something you’re not telling me, isn’t there?’

  ‘Only that we shouldn’t judge anyone lest we ourselves be judged in return,’ replied her father pedantically, resorting to one of his texts instead of giving her a straight answer.

  He shuffled the papers on his desk and gave her a nod of approval. ‘At least you’re home safely, my dear.’ He rescued his prayer book from beneath the pile of notes. ‘Shall we offer a little prayer of thanks?’

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ‘THAT FEMALE IS here again,’ said Steve Bellamy, putting his head round the door of Rafe’s study after the most perfunctory of knocks. ‘Do you want me to deal with her?’

  Rafe, who had been examining a nautical map showing all the shoals and reefs present in the waters surrounding the island, looked up with a blank expression. ‘Qué?’

  ‘Laura Mathews,’ Steve prompted, coming further into the room. ‘Grant Mathews’s daughter.’ Steve regarded him enquiringly. ‘But I see you’re busy.’

  Rafe met the man’s challenging gaze with a slight smile playing about his lips. ‘She is very persistent.’

  ‘She is.’ Steve shrugged. ‘What would you like me to tell her?’

  Rafe shook his head. He didn’t feel like dealing with a possibly hysterical woman. ‘Tell her I’ve gone sailing,’ he said, throwing his pen down on the desk and getting to his feet.

  Steve’s eyebrows rose. ‘But you don’t have a sailing vessel at present, Mr Oliveira. Your boat is still moored in Newport.’

  ‘She doesn’t know that,’ retorted Rafe, refusing to acknowledge why the prospect of looking at sailing craft suddenly filled him with such a feeling of anticipation. ‘As far as Ms Mathews is concerned, I will be away for the rest of the day.’

  * * *

  Lily was sitting at her desk, sorting through a pile of invoices to see which needed paying first, when she heard the outer door open. Ray was manning the agency this morning so she didn’t bother to leave her seat.

  But, hearing Ray’s gruff voice interacting with one that was all too familiar, she felt a film of perspiration dampen her upper lip. A thread of moisture trickled down between her breasts and she sucked in a nervous breath. She had hoped it might be some time before Rafe Oliveira came into the agency again.

  Shifting a little uncomfortably on her chair, she tried not to listen to their low-voiced exchange. She wasn’t interested, she told herself. The reasons for Oliveira being here had nothing to do with her.

  Her thighs were sticking to the plastic seat, however, thanks to the cotton shorts she was wearing. She wanted to move, to conceal herself in the restroom but, when she tried getting up, the legs of her chair scraped noisily over the wooden floor.

  She almost groaned aloud. Now Oliveira would know she was there, eavesdropping on their conversation. Spying on him! Gritting her teeth, she got up and switched on the radio, tuning in to a Southern States reggae station that successfully drowned out any other sound.

  She wondered if Oliveira knew Cartagena Charters was in trouble. Obviously Ray had contacted him. That was why he’d come into the agency a week ago. But the notion that he might decide to invest or even become a partner in the firm was something else. It was looking more and more likely that the man did have some interest in the company.

  ‘Lily, have you got a minute?’

  Before she could continue with that thought, Ray interrupted her. She had no choice now. She had to show herself.

  She paused a moment, examining the open neckline of her shirt, checking that the hem wasn’t displaying any revealing wedges of skin. Then, resigning herself in anticipation of Rafe’s dark-eyed appraisal, she came round the screen to the front of the agency.

  Rafe sensed her reluctance to speak to him again as soon as he saw her. She had her glorious mane of sun-streaked brown hair skewered in a precarious knot this morning and she was wearing a simple white shirt and coffee-coloured shorts.

  Nothing glamorous, but she looked stunning even so. And probably didn’t realise it.

  ‘Yes?’ she said, deliberately not looking in Rafe’s direction. ‘Did you want something, Ray?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Myers glanced at his companion before continuing amiably. ‘You’ve met my assistant, Lily, haven’t you, Mr Oliveira?’

  Rafe inclined his head as Lily was obliged to acknowledge him. ‘Por supuesto,’ he said smoothly. ‘It’s good to see you again...um... Lily.’ The hesitation over her name was deliberate, she was sure.

  His slight yet unmistakable accent scraped across her nerves, like sandpaper over raw skin. His dark eyes were surveying her with their usual intentness, making her aware of her shortcomings, making her aware of herself.

  She managed a polite smile and then, turning to her employer again, she arched an enquiring brow. ‘Is something wrong?’

  ‘Hell, no!’ Ray was far too eager to dismiss that idea, in her opinion. ‘I want to show Mr Oliveira the layout of the marina, that’s all. To show him what a successful business we’ve got here. Could you delay your lunch break for another—oh, say an hour?’

  ‘Of course.’

  Rafe thought there was a trace of doubt in her agreement. But an element of relief, too. What was troubling her? Had she been afraid her employer would ask her to show him around?

  But no. It was obvious Myers was intent on trying to usher Rafe out of the door before Lily could say another word.<
br />
  For his part, Rafe was less inclined to accommodate him. He would have much preferred to talk to Lily. She must know what was really going on with the agency. But she’d evidently not been eager to see him again and he could guess why.

  That whole incident about her swimming after dark was obviously still niggling her. Yet all he had been concerned about was her safety.

  But did she believe that?

  Did he?

  ‘Okay.’ Ray grinned at Lily and she concluded he was optimistic about this development. ‘After you, Mr Oliveira. If we hustle, we may have time for a beer at Mac’s Bar.’

  Rafe said nothing. He had no intention of making this a social occasion. But if it pleased Myers to pretend otherwise, then so be it. The guy would find out soon enough.

  ‘Adios, Lily,’ he said, resisting Myers’s attempt to hurry him. ‘Hasta luego!’ See you later!

  Lily only nodded, but Rafe could see the uncertainty in her eyes. She had cat’s eyes, he thought, green and wary. Was part of the struggle she was having an effort not to let Myers down? He suspected she knew more about the business than she was saying.

  When the door closed behind them, Lily breathed a sigh of relief. She’d been half afraid that Ray might ask her to accompany them. And how could she remain silent if he started boasting about the agency’s success again?

  * * *

  They were back in less than half an hour.

  Lily, who had been expecting them to be at least an hour, felt a surge of curiosity as Rafe Oliveira followed Ray into the agency. Why had they come back? Why hadn’t they done as Ray had suggested and continued their conversation in Mac’s Bar?

  Did Oliveira want to look at the agency’s financial statements? It seemed likely. Ray was a fool if he thought he could pull the proverbial wool over the other man’s eyes.

  But, ‘Hey,’ Ray greeted her cheerfully enough, though she could tell from his expression that things hadn’t gone exactly as he’d planned. ‘You can get off now,’ he added as Lily got to her feet, and she realised he wanted to discuss his business without a critical audience.