Lethal Affair. Jean Pichon Thomas
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Название: Lethal Affair
Автор: Jean Pichon Thomas
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Короткие любовные романы
Серия: Mills & Boon Romantic Suspense
isbn: 9781472074195
isbn:
“Rough day?” she wondered, dipping her spoon into the savory turtle soup Gilda had served them.
“It was a bit,” he admitted.
“Oh? Trouble at the site?”
“I’m afraid so. We have a problem with missing building materials. It’s not uncommon for theft to occur whenever construction is underway on the island, but this time it’s also tools. The poverty, you know, makes things that can be sold or traded attractive. I’m sorry to have to do it, but I’m afraid we’ll have to post nighttime guards at the site.”
“That’s too bad.”
Gilda brought in a platter of steaming pork roast, island vegetables and two plates and placed them in front of Marcus, knowing he liked to serve the entrée himself to his guests. Removing the soup bowls, she retreated to the kitchen.
He was silent while he helped Brenna to a generous portion of the pork and passed her plate to her. It was only after he served himself that he spoke again.
“What did you do today?”
“I spent a portion of it in town hunting for other subjects to paint.” It wasn’t totally a lie. She had gone down to the city to catch a taxi to the airport.
“And the other part of it?”
“In the guesthouse. I finished the seascape there. When it’s dry, I’ll show it to you.” She was glad this was the truth. She hated lying to Marcus.
“I’ll look forward to that.”
“I think you’ll like it. It turned out well.”
He was quiet again, his cool blue eyes searching her face in the gleam of the candlelight. His possible suspicion made her uneasy.
“I understand,” he said softly, “that you also spent some time with your friend from the beach.”
Not just possible suspicion, she thought, but a certainty. She should have known better than to try to hide anything from him. Marcus Bradley had the kind of power and connections to uncover whatever secrets he wanted.
“He gave me a lift back to the villa.”
“Did he? I heard it was a bit more than that. Do you think it’s wise, Brenna, being with him? He is, after all, under investigation.”
So Marcus knew that, too. And if he knew that much, then he also had to know her “friend from the beach” was her ex-fiancé. “And just how did you manage to find out Casey McBride turned up here?” she challenged him.
Marcus was disturbingly casual about it as he cut into his pork. “Most of the island’s resort keepers are very good about letting me know who’s staying with them.”
“Marcus, I don’t appreciate all this surveillance. I think it’s my business where I go and who I see.”
“You musn’t mind if I’m concerned about you, Brenna,” he said, his voice low and soothing. “After all, you’re my guest. I feel responsible for you while you’re here on the island. Why don’t we forget all about it? You haven’t touched your pork. It’s one of Gilda’s specialties.”
Brenna resisted the urge to scrape her chair back from the table and march back to the guesthouse. She couldn’t afford to alienate Marcus. He had paid her a generous advance on the paintings he expected her to produce, money she had loaned to a friend back in Chicago who had a baby on the way and whose husband had lost his job. A sum that Brenna didn’t have to repay Marcus. She had no choice but to fulfill her commission and that meant keeping her anger in check.
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