‘Gigolo?’ he exclaimed.
His shock was echoed by her own. Whatever had possessed her to say such a stupid thing! As true as it might be, it had been a tactless and very rude accusation. Still, having voiced her private beliefs, Jessica was not about to back down. Why should she when he’d virtually accused her of being a mercenary money-grabbing bitch?
‘Are you saying you weren’t my aunt’s lover?’ she asked scornfully. ‘That you haven’t been hanging around here for what you could get?’
‘Good God. What a nasty piece of work you are!’
‘Don’t try to turn the tables on me, Mr. Slade,’ she bit out. ‘You’re the one described in my aunt’s will as her loyal and loving companion, yet you must be twenty years younger than she was. You’re the one who’s wangled it so that you’re still living here free of charge. I’ve no doubt you always did! And you’re the one who inherits everything if I don’t comply with my aunt’s peculiar wishes. Are you saying you never made love to her? That you didn’t worm your way into her affections with sex? That she didn’t give you her car, and God knows what else, for services rendered?’
Jessica reeled under the chilling contempt in his arctic blue eyes. ‘I’m going to forget you said that, because if I don’t, I might be tempted to break my word to the nicest woman I’ve ever known. You might be her niece, but I can see you don’t have a single gene of hers. No doubt you take after your pathetic parents!’
Jessica’s face went bright red. ‘You didn’t even know my parents! And you certainly don’t know me!’
His mouth opened to say something, then closed again. He looked away from her, his hands lifting to rake through his hair before looking back, a shuddering sigh emptying his lungs.
‘Let’s stop this right now,’ he said with cool firmness. ‘I have no intention of spending the next month exchanging verbal darts with you. Neither will I defend the relationship I had with your aunt, other than to say I never sought anything from her but her friendship, which I hope I gave back in kind.’
‘Are you saying that you weren’t her lover?’ Jessica challenged.
His top lip curled with more contempt as his gaze swept over her. ‘Would you believe me if I said no?’
‘Try me.’
His cold gaze swept over her quite insultingly.
‘No, I don’t think I will,’ he said at last with a derisive glitter in his eyes.
Jessica stiffened. ‘Very funny. If you won’t deny it, then I will have to presume that you were.’
‘Believe what you like,’ he replied with cold indifference.
‘Oh, I will, Mr. Slade,’ she said tartly. ‘I will. As to your accusation that I’m only here for the money… I won’t be holier than thou and say money isn’t important to me. It is. But not to the extent you’ve implied. Still, I, too, see no need to defend myself. I’m not sure if you know this, but I had no idea I even had an aunt till recently, when she showed up at the hotel where I work.’
‘Yes, I do know about that,’ he said, surprising her.
‘But…but I thought you didn’t know of my existence till the will showed up.’
‘I didn’t know your full name and address till the will showed up. But I did know Lucy had found she had a niece named Jessica working in a hotel in Sydney, and that she’d left everything to you in her will. Lucy only spoke of you by your first name. I naturally assumed I would know all the necessary details once the will was read, but when Lucy died, I couldn’t find the damned thing. It had slipped behind a drawer, you see.’
‘Yes, the solicitor told me.’
‘Frankly, Lucy told me only the barest of details about you. She didn’t seem to want to talk about your one meeting. I was about to ring every hotel in Sydney when I came across the will.’
‘Are you saying you can’t tell me why Aunt Lucy left the hotel that day without really speaking to me?’ Jessica asked painfully. ‘You know, she stared at me like I was a ghost at first. I was called away for a few minutes, and when I returned she was gone. She hadn’t even told me her last name, either, which was why I wasn’t able to trace her.’
‘I see. That explains a few questions I had myself, but no… I’m afraid I can’t tell you why Lucy ran away from you. God only knows. Perhaps she was having trouble coming to terms with the guilt of never having looked up her sister before and seeing if she was all right. I think the news that Joanne was dead came as a dreadful shock to her.’
Jessica was shaking her head, her eyes dropping wearily to the ground. ‘I don’t understand any of it.’
A surprisingly gentle hand on her arm jerked her head upright. She was stunned by the momentary compassion in those beautiful blue eyes of his, and the confusion it stirred in her heart. Compassion was not something she was familiar—or comfortable—with. On top of that, it was not at all what she was expecting from this man.
‘Of course you can’t understand any of it,’ he said with surprising sympathy. ‘It’s hard enough to understand what goes on in our own lives. Much more difficult to work out the lives of others. But you have a month to find some answers for your questions. I’ll help as much as I can. Not that I have all the answers. But for now, why don’t you come inside? It’s hot out here, and Evie will be wondering where we are.’
Jessica automatically pulled back when he went to take her arm, feeling flustered by his suddenly solicitous attitude towards her. Such an about-face had to be viewed with some suspicion.
His frown carried frustration. ‘There’s no need to act like that. I was only trying to be friendly.’
‘Why?’ she demanded. ‘A few minutes ago, you were calling me a nasty bit of work.’
‘That was a few minutes ago. Maybe I’ve changed my mind about you since then.’
And maybe pigs might fly, she thought cynically, one of her eyebrows lifting in a sceptical arch.
A wry smile curved his mouth to one side, bringing her attention to those sensually carved lips, and where they might have been. The thought that he might have changed his mind about seducing her held an insidiously exciting aspect, one she would find hard to ignore.
But ignore it she would. She hadn’t come here to fall victim to the slick, shallow charms of a man like Sebastian Slade, no matter how sexy he was.
‘I see you still don’t trust me,’ he said dryly. ‘Funnily enough, I can see your point of view. I dare say there are others on this island who think the same as you. I’ve just never cared what they thought. I stopped caring about what people thought of me some years ago.’
‘Lucky ol’ you,’ she retorted tartly. ‘Would we could all have the same privilege. Unfortunately, most of us have to live in the real world and work at a real job, which means we do have to worry what others think.’
‘But you don’t have to, Jessica,’ he pointed out in a silky soft voice, which rippled down her spine like a mink glove. ‘You don’t have to live in the real world any more, or work at a real job, if you don’t want to. Neither do you have to give a damn what people think. You can do what you like from this day forward.’
It was a wickedly seductive thought, provocatively delivered by a wickedly seductive man. She looked at him, her face a bland mask, while she battled to stop her mind from its appalling flights of fancy.
He was technically right, of course. If she invested her inheritance wisely she would never have to work again for the rest of her life, or kowtow to a boss. He was also right about her not having to worry about what other people thought, especially during the next month. Out here on this island, in this isolated house, she could do exactly as she pleased, and there was no one to judge or condemn.