Borrowed plumes Elizabeth Ashton

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.Here where the partially restored Temple of Hadrian lifted a magnificent arch into the blue sky, Renata came to a halt.'How much farther do you expect me to go?' she demanded, for her high-heeled sandals were quite unequal to the terrain.'My feet are killing me!'Alex silently pointed upwards where above a flight of steps, to the side of the temple, was a view of the hillside and a stretch of the Byzantine wall that had once enclosed the city.Leaning against it, binoculars in hand, was a white-clad figure crowned by a panama hat—Jeremy Reynolds.'I'm not going up there,' Renata said firmly.She sat down on a marble block, spreading her skirts around her.'Perhaps he'll come down if you shout.''I'll fetch him.' Jan shot away like an arrow up the steps and threading her way between blocks of stone and pillars, out on to the hillside.It was very steep and rough going, but she had the sure-footed agility of a goat.Suddenly she became aware that Alex was beside her.She stopped, troubled by his presence; he was a disruptive element in a place which always stimulated her imagination, and she wanted to be alone with her fancies.From the hilltop she could reconstruct the once prosperous city in her mind's eye and dream herself back into the past, as she had hoped to do, once she had delivered her message to her uncle.'I wonder you dare leave Rena,' she told him.They both looked down at the seated figure.A party of young Americans was straggling past her, the masculine half of it finding her more interesting than the ruins.Even from a distance her complacent attitude was discernible; she was enjoying their admiring glances.Alex's expression was indifferent.'She won't run away, and a man likes his property to be appreciated.'Jan threw him a questioning glance.'So you consider she's your property? Are you engaged?''We're not, but she's mine for the asking.''Then you ought to be,' Jan said severely.'You've no right to play fast and loose with her affections, Mr.Leandris.'He held up his hand to check her.'Spare me your recriminations, miss.We had words upon this subject before and it bores me.You're not your cousin's keeper, and it's her father's place to ask me my intentions, not yours.'He was quite insufferable, Jan decided.Only her acute anxiety on Renata's behalf had" prompted her words, words which would have been better unspoken.Her uncle would never question Alex's motives.He had convinced himself they were all they should be, and he had not seen the diamond pendant.With her cheeks burning from his rebuff, Jan sped away from him up the hillside, but Alex soon overtook her and with ease.'No reason to give yourself a coronary because you don't like home truths,' he said derisively.'That won't do anyone any good.'She came to a halt, noting with annoyance that while her exertions had left her breathless, Alex showed no sign of strain.He must be in excellent physical condition, she admitted grudgingly.Indulgence had not impaired it—but was he self-indulgent? She was judging by his fine yacht and big car; he might work very hard to earn them for all she knew, though he seemed to have had plenty of leisure since they had come to Kusadasi.'You're wondering how a man in my position manages to keep fit,' he stated.Tm an abstemious eater and I take a lot of exercise.'She was disconcerted that he seemed able to guess her thoughts, and she said coldly:'I'm not really very interested in your way of life, Mr.Leandris.''Then you ought to be, as I'm a prospective suitor for Renata's hand, but you'll never get a husband if you don't control that tongue of yours.''Nor am I particularly interested in getting a husband,' she retorted, 'but do you mean you are serious about Renata?''Definitely so, but there are other relationships between men and women besides matrimony.'Jan turned away and began to plod steadily upward.His last sentence was ominous, and she knew she could not influence her cousin.Renata would go her willful way regardless of consequences, and even her father couldn't control her.Was it any use trying to warn him?'And don't you go telling tales to Daddy,' Alex told her, catching her thought with an almost uncanny rapport.Rapport with this forbidding stranger? Absurd idea.'He won't be sympathetic.''No, you've taken care of that,' she said bitterly, and stumbled over a stone.He caught her arm to steady her, and a quiver ran through her at the contact of his lean brown fingers with her bare arm.It was not distaste, but an electric tingling of her nerves.Damn the man! —she could feel his magnetic attraction much as she disliked and distrusted him.'Thank you,' she muttered, and rubbed her arm where he had held it.He said: 'You have a soft skin, smooth as satin.'That was so unexpected that she gaped at him.'Did you expect it to be prickly?''Outside as well as in?' His smile was devastating, lighting up the hard planes of his face, and displaying even white teeth.'You're not a hedgehog.''I'm afraid I am a bit thorny at times,' she admitted.'But Rena's a sore subject.''Then suppose you leave it alone.'She sighed.'I haven't much option, but oh, I wish we'd never met you.''Another prick?' He grinned.'But if you hadn't, you wouldn't have come to Kusadasi.Aren't you enjoying your visit?'It was on the tip of her tongue to retort, 'Very much, if it weren't for you,' but she bit the words back; he was impervious to her rudeness, and she had done Renata no good.Again he guessed her thought.'I'm afraid I'm the serpent in your Eden,' he observed.'Since you say so, you are, but it's not me you're tempting.'He gave her a sly look.'It might come to that.You're quite fetching in your boy's clothes.'Incorrigible flirt, she thought, he had to try to charm even her unprepossessing self when no other woman was present.She said coolly:'I'm impervious to flattery, Mr [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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