Free Scarlet Lady by Sara Wood Page B

part of island society! Very contrary, Ginny! Don't you see how unlikely it is that you're Vincente's daughter? I don't know why you don't admit that and forget him.'
    Absently, she picked up her undies, sifting the silk through her fingers. His comments had worried her. All she wanted was a house somewhere quiet and private, with Leo, children and good friends. Close friends, not hordes of hangers-on or people she couldn't relate to. The thought of joining a society family was filling her with horror.
    'I need to be sure,' she sighed. She looked up. 'We'll find Vincente fast,' she said anxiously, eager to get it over and done with. And, since she wasn't going to be playing happy homes with Leo, it would help if he was off the scene fast too. 'Then we can be shot of each other,' she added shakily.
    'Suits me,' he muttered, and she gritted her teeth to stop herself wincing at his eagerness to leave.
    'Whatever happens here, I'll start searching for my mother soon,' she said, her face wistful.
    'Do you really think that's a good idea? I'd go with your earlier gut feelings to leave her strictly alone if I were you,' he said quickly, beetling his thick brows together.
    'No,' she retorted firmly. 'I'm sorting everything out. I need to know things.'
    Leo seemed about to tell her something and then thought better of it, drawing up a chair and sitting in front of her. 'I know you're not in the mood to listen to a lecture so I'll say this,' he began gravely. She made to move away and he took her hands in his to stay her. 'Please. Pay attention for your mother's sake,' he ordered. His eyes bored into hers, mesmerising her. 'If you ever do find her, I want you to promise me that you'll spend more time with her than you did with me.'
    Ginny lowered her eyes guiltily. There had always been reasons for her hectic life. 'I know what you're implying,' she muttered. 'In your eyes I was a bad wife and I'd have been an even worse daughter. But I had something to prove to myself —'
    'You wanted people to like you,' he said bluntly.
    She thought about that. 'I think you're right. It was a novelty,' she admitted slowly, and heaved a heavy sigh. At first the adulation had done wonders for her self- esteem. Lately... Her head lifted. It meant nothing any more. She'd lost what she'd wanted: Leo. 'We all like to be special,' she said in a low voice. 'It was evident that my mother and my adoptive parents didn't like me much—'
    'I did. I liked you,' he said quietly, his thumb massaging the pronounced ball of her thumb. 'Wasn't that enough?'
    Ginny tried to focus on something other than the effect of his rhythmical caress which was causing such havoc in her body. Deliberately she concentrated on a cooing Zenaida dove picking up crumbs from the deck where she'd had breakfast. The tantalising sensation trickling through her veins mercifully receded a little.
    He'd said 'liked'. Not love. And he'd used the past tense.
    'You met me when I was already on my way to being really famous,' she said stiffly. 'I never knew what I was to you because of that. I'd worked for years to be regarded as a beautiful woman instead of a gangling beanpole,' she went on, her mouth wry. 'And when I finally made it I didn't know if men wanted me for myself or because I was good to look at and having me on their arm did things for their ego. It was like being at school again, frying to avoid the bullying by handing out sweets and never feeling too sure why the crowd formed around me.'
    'You thought you'd found paradise in your job, didn't you?' hie murmured, taking her chin in his hand, turning her face towards him and looking deep into her eyes again.
    Nothing would stop her body trembling. Mute and miserable, she remained a prisoner of his gaze, a captive of the love she felt for him, drowning in his smouldering eyes and wishing, wishing that they could live together somehow, anyhow. She didn't care.
    'Paradise...' she whispered hoarsely. It was in his eyes, his hands, the