The man beside her said, ‘I have never been to New Zealand, but I believe it’s very beautiful.’
Was he a mind reader? ‘It is,’ she said woodenly, and let the conversation lie there, dead on the floor.
His smile was wry. ‘So what particular part of the country do you come from?’
‘I grew up in Northland.’
‘It’s a long way from there to Moraze.’
Dampening down her impulse to use the manners her mother had drilled into her, she confined her answer to a few noncommittal words. ‘Indeed it is.’
If he had the nerve to mention that kiss, she’d—she’d tell him straight it was a one-off, an indiscretion she had no intention of repeating.
He didn’t. Instead he asked, ‘Do you specialise in a certain sort of animal in your veterinary practice?’
‘Domestic animals,’ she said, adding reluctantly, ‘But it’s a country practice, so I also deal with a lot of farm animals.’
‘Horses?’
‘Sometimes,’ she admitted.
How did he know she was a vet?
She tried to remember where her profession was given in her passport, then recalled writing it in the arrival form she’d filled in as they came towards Moraze.
So he’d checked her travel documents—or more likely had ordered someone else to check them.
All right; security was a concern to those who were rich and famous enough to attract obsessive or downright dangerous people. Nevertheless, the thought of anyone poking around in her life gave Lexie an uneasy feeling.
Keeping her gaze defiantly on the view outside, she was about to observe tartly that as he knew all about her there was no need for further conversation, when she realised she couldn’t be rude to a man who’d gone out of his way to be kind to her after the accident. Also, he was going to be her host for a few days.
She searched for something innocuous to say and finally came up with a subject. ‘I went diving the day I arrived. The reef fishes are absolutely gorgeous—like living jewels.’
‘You are interested in jewels?’ he commented dispassionately.
Perhaps that was the way everyone referred to the fish here and he found it trite. Well, she didn’t care.
Of course, Moraze was famous for the rare and exquisite—and extremely valuable—fire-diamonds found in gravel beds washed down from the mountains. Perhaps he thought she was hinting; no, how could he?
‘Most people are. Off Northland’s east coast we have a very interesting mix of sea life. A warm current sweeps south from the tropics, and we get a mixture of tropical and temperate fauna.’
OK, so she sounded like something out of a textbook, and was probably boring him to bits. It served him right. If he’d taken her to the hotel, instead of conspiring with the doctor behind her back, he’d have been rid of her by now.
‘It sounds most intriguing,’ he said smoothly, returning the waves of a small group of children walking down the road.
A few metres further on he turned into a drive and the big car passed between gates that had slid back silently at the press of an unknown button. Lexie looked around for a sentry box, but clearly security nowadays was much more technical and far less conspicuous. Ahead, the drive began to climb steeply through a tangle of greenery.
‘We’re almost there,’ Rafiq told her.
He lived in a castle. Perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the lagoon, it frowned down over a scene as beautiful as it was deserted.
Lexie drew a sharp breath. ‘I don’t know much about the architecture of castles, but that looks like something out of the Middle East.’
‘It’s a mixture of Oriental and European styles.’
The car eased to a halt outside a huge set of what appeared to be bronze doors, sculpted and ornate, with a grid of iron spikes poised above to grind down in case of an attack. Rafiq switched off the engine.
In the silence the sound of the waves on the reef echoed in Lexie’s ears. A manservant came swiftly out through a side door and went to the boot of the car, and one of the big bronze doors swung slowly open.
Rafiq looked at her, heavy-lidded eyes narrowing as he scanned her face. ‘Moraze was known to Arab sailors, but because it wasn’t on their trade routes and had nothing they wanted they rarely came this way. The first settlers were led by a distant ancestor of mine, a French nobleman who had the temerity to conduct an affair with his monarch’s much-prized mistress. Nowhere in Europe was safe, so he travelled farther afield, and eventually found refuge here with a somewhat motley crew of adventurers and sailors and their women.’
Fascinated, Lexie said, ‘I wouldn’t have thought the King of France’s mandate stretched this far.’
He smiled, and the skin at the back of her neck tightened, lifting the tiny hairs there. For a second she thought she saw his ancestor, proud and gallant and tough as he shepherded that motley crew to Moraze.
Rafiq told her, ‘By then it wasn’t the French king he was concerned about. On his travels my forebear stole an Arabian sheikh’s most precious jewel—his daughter—and as she was more than happy to be stolen they needed a refuge they could defend.’
‘When did all this happen?’
‘Several hundred years ago.’
Fascinated, she asked, ‘What happened to the French king’s mistress?’
He looked surprised. ‘I believe she was married off to some elderly duke. Why?’
‘I just wondered,’ she said. ‘I hope she liked that elderly duke.’
‘I don’t think anyone ever enquired,’ he told her dryly.
As though bored by the discussion, he got out and came around to open her door. With the same automatic courtesy he took her arm as they went up the steps and through the door into a vast, tiled hall. She’d expected grim stone inside, but the far end of the hall was high glass doors that opened out onto a terrace bordered by shrubs and trees.
‘Oh, how lovely!’ Lexie stopped without thinking.
Rafiq said smoothly, ‘I’m glad you like it. Let me show you up to your room.’
The staircase was wide and shallow, but by the time she reached the top her ribs were letting Lexie know they’d had a difficult time recently, and the tide of anticipation had receded, leaving her flat and exhausted. Exasperated by her weakness, she had to force her legs to take the final few steps.
He left her with a maid at the door. ‘Your clothes have been brought here from the hotel. Cari will show you where everything is,’ he said, and that hard green gaze rested for several charged seconds on her face. ‘You look a little pale; I suggest a rest, perhaps even a nap, then some refreshments when you are ready for them.’
Her room turned out to be more like a suite—something from an Arabian Nights tale of love lost and won, she thought, gazing at the huge bed covered in sleek silk, its sensuously curved headboard picked out in gilding. Translucent curtains softened the light from the sea, and the silk Chinese rug was in restful shades of blue, green and cream that echoed the colours of the ocean without competing with them.
And everywhere—in the window recesses, on the exquisitely carved desk, in a massive urn on the floor—were flowers, mainly white and cream, their scent sweet and seductive on the warm air.
Lexie felt totally out of place in her white jeans and simple tee-shirt. This room looked as though it had been built for a languorous concubine in flowing, transparent robes, a woman with only one aim in life—to please her