Once in Paris Read Online Free PDF Page B

limit in his search for material wealth. And there was still something very shady about his income. He seemed to do no real work of any sort, although he was connected in some way to oil exploration. But the men who visited him didn’t look like oilmen to Brianne. They looked like…well, like killers.
    Philippe Sabon’s continued presence at the villa, and his unwavering scrutiny, made Brianne very nervous. She spent as much time away from the villa as possible. Her mother thought she was overreacting to an older man’s interest in her, and Kurt didn’t care what his friend and associate was up to as long as he benefited from it financially. Brianne had no allies in that elegant house on the bay, not one.
    Pierce Hutton had come back to the island three months earlier, but Brianne had only seen him once, last night, at a fancy social gathering that Kurt and her mother had taken her to. He was conducting business with a vengeance. He looked much better, but there was still a haunted darkness in his eyes. And he seemed ill at ease when he saw Brianne.
    She remembered walking up to him with a smile, only to have him give her a strangelyhostile glare and turn his back on her. It had hurt more than anything in recent years. Presumably he only wanted to be friends with her when he was drunk. She’d taken the hint and she’d avoided him all evening. Not one word had passed between them. That had probably been the best thing that could have happened, because Sabon disliked Pierce and Kurt wouldn’t do anything to irritate him. Certainly it wasn’t likely that Pierce would receive any invitations to the Brauer home while Sabon was in residence.
    As she gazed at the crowds at Prince George Wharf, she realized that thoughts of Pierce’s hostility had kept her awake most of last night. Silly, she thought, to imagine that he’d meant anything he said while he had half a bottle of Scotch whiskey inside him. She really was naive for someone who’d just turned twenty years old. She remembered her last birthday vividly. She’d spent it with Pierce. This year had no such pleasant associations. Her mother and stepfather had given her a pearl necklace, and her friend Cara Harvey had mailed her a scarf from Portugal, where she was spending the summer with her parents and having a rough time with a Portuguese nobleman who thoughtshe was trying to seduce his younger brother. Except for Cara’s gift, it had been a singularly uneventful birthday.
    Sabon had wanted to throw her a party on his yacht, but she’d quickly found a reason to go into town. She had visions of being kidnapped and carried off into sexual slavery by that libertine. She’d heard rumors about him that didn’t exclude kidnapping.
    The wind blew her loosened blond hair around the shoulders of the pink silk tank top she was wearing with white Bermuda shorts and sandals. She wore a fanny pack so she wouldn’t have to lug a purse, and she felt young and full of ginger. If it hadn’t been for her situation at home, Nassau would have been all she wanted from life. It was so fascinating.
    As she watched the big white ocean liner being turned by two tiny tugboats in a bay that seemed far too small for such an operation, she became aware of someone standing just behind her, watching. She turned, and there was Pierce, neat as a pin in white slacks and a yellow knit shirt.
    He had his hands in his pockets. His black eyes were still full of storms, but they were oddly intent on her face.
    â€œHello, Mr. Hutton,” she said politely, and with a smile. It was the sort of smile she’d have given the most distant acquaintance. He knew it, too.
    His broad shoulders shifted as he glanced past her to the ship. “I’ve been entertaining a businessman from the States.” He nodded toward the ocean liner. “He just left, on that.”
    She didn’t know what to say. She only nodded awkwardly, turned