Bride in Barbados Read Online Free PDF Page A

calmly challenging look and superior size evidently made him
think better of it. He excused himself curtly and walked stiffly away.
    Susan found herself looking up into dark eyes that, as she
had already discovered, seemed to be able to probe through her skin and
lay her thoughts bare. She felt her face grow warm. "Thank you, Mr.
Sennett."
    He shrugged. "I heard enough to realize that you needed
rescuing."
    "I wasn't in any danger," Susan informed him, "but your
arrival interrupted what, I'm afraid, might have become
quite… unpleasant. I have no idea what you're doing here,
though. We haven't met before, have we?"
    His crooked smile told her he knew that
she
knew they hadn't. "I heard you tell your unwanted Romeo that you had a
previous engagement. Do you?"
    "No," she admitted. "It seemed the easiest way out of the
situation. Actually, I'm dead tired and plan to go straight home."
    "I also gathered from what I heard that you haven't had
dinner. I would like it very much if you'd have it with me. There's an
all-night restaurant not far from here. It's not quite as elegant as
the Top Hat, but the food's very good. You have to eat somewhere, and I
promise to see you home promptly after the meal."
    "I have my car outside." It was the only objection she
could think of. To her surprise, the thought of having dinner with this
handsome stranger was not unappealing. She did have to eat somewhere,
and a meal of scrambled eggs and toast in her tiny apartment didn't
seem as appetizing as it had a few minutes earlier.
    "No problem," he told her. "I'm from out of town and don't
have a car here. We can take yours to the restaurant, after which I'll
get a taxi back to the hotel."
    "You're staying in
this
hotel?"
    He nodded. "Fortunately. Otherwise I might never have
heard you sing and come back here to meet you. And we wouldn't be going
to dinner together." He smiled disarmingly, strong white teeth flashing
in the deep tan of his face. "You are going to say yes, aren't you?"
    Susan contemplated the rugged planes of his face with a
feeling of wariness. For a moment she just stood there, wondering if
she was crazy to be considering going out with Travis Sennett. She
suspected that she found him too attractive for her own good. And it
wasn't just his admittedly striking physical attributes either; she
sensed a strength in him that she had rarely seen in the men who had
been, for whatever reason, drawn to her—men like Frank and
Dirk.
    She knew that she possessed a strength of her own,
developed in the five years since she had left college and chosen the
difficult, demanding route to becoming a professional singer. Perhaps
men like Frank and Dirk had been unconsciously attracted by that
strength. But somehow she knew that Travis Sennett wasn't a man who
needed to rely on anyone. Rather, he had a confident self-assurance
that others would find reassuring, and maybe that was what she found so
appealing in him. What would it be like, she wondered fleetingly, to
have someone to lean on occasionally?
    In the same instant, she told herself that such questions
were academic. Travis Sennett would undoubtedly be returning to his
home, wherever that was, in a few days. She wouldn't be likely to see
him again, so what harm could come of having dinner with him?
    "All right," she agreed finally. "I'd like to have dinner
with you, Mr. Sennett."
    Strong fingers cupped her elbow as they walked toward the
back parking lot entrance. "The name's Travis, Susan."
    She flicked a brief glance in his direction as they
walked. He was well over six feet; his black hair formed itself
attractively to his well-shaped head without aid of dressing or spray.
The hair had the mere suggestion of a wave to it as it fell to his
collar, thick and gleaming with blue-black highlights under the
electric lights in the hall. His cream linen jacket and tan trousers
were expensively tailored to a perfect fit. The jacket was open,
showing a cream silk shirt tucked into a neat waistband,