to believe that this beautiful woman was in her forties. She did not look that old. That old? A small shiver ran down her spine. She was going to marry a man that old ... in his forties, she thought confusedly. In the next moment she comforted herself by thinking that forty-this and forty-that was not so old, especially when the persons concerned looked like Nicole and Marlow ... as she remembered him.
‘And so you are not yet settled in, obviously?’ Nicole kept on looking at Jade, her eyes going over the dusky-pink Italian cashmere suit and bronze-coloured handbag.
‘We came straight to your office,’ Laurent explained.
‘Well, in that case settle in,’ Nicole went on. ‘In about—oh, let’s see, an hour ...’ she shrugged her shoulders, ‘an hour and a half, I’ll take you along to the clinic and introduce you around.'
‘Where shall I meet you?' Jade asked. ‘Here?'
‘Yes, make it here. Tomorrow we can begin to show you what it is we are doing here. And you, Laurent?’ Nicole turned to look at him. ‘What are you going to do?'
‘I will see Miss Lawford to reception, arrange for her luggage to be brought in and be on my way.’
It should have all been so exciting, Jade thought, but something kept hammering at her mind. She found herself wondering whether she was going to be able to go through with marrying Marlow after all. Laurent Sevigny had made certain of that. And yet—she stole a glance at him, as they made their way back to reception—was he as attracted to her as she was to him? At that moment their eyes met and there was a marked intensity in the expression of those strange green eyes. ‘Nicole is very beautiful, don’t you think?’ he said.
‘Yes.’ She was aware again of a feeling of jealousy.
They stood waiting together while her luggage was being brought into the foyer. ‘Thank you,' Jade looked at Laurent uncertainly. ‘I’m going to enjoy that island cocktail you were telling me about. I’ll sip it while I’m unpacking.’
‘After business hours,' he said, ‘I like to sit and overlook the coral reef. I have a sunset drink and my mind seems free. Sometimes I listen to music. A tranquillity washes away the tensions of the day, which really are of no great importance. You will do this, with me, before Marlow Lewis gets back. Both my chalet and my house, on another part of the island, are places where I can be alone, or have twenty people. Sometimes ....' his eyes held hers, ‘only two.'
At first she felt an odd little thrill, but this soon gave way to anger.
'Well, you did mention back at the airport that you dislike crowds, that a crowd affronts you, after all—so I can imagine that, and I’m sure you don’t have to rely on me to form one of those intimate little twosomes.’
He seemed, she noticed, to be looking at her with a faraway kind of amusement. ‘I know I don’t have to rely on you for this,’ he told her. ‘I only know that, now that I have met you, I have got to go as far as I can go with you.’ Suddenly he smiled. ‘Enjoy your cocktail.’
She watched him go ... dark and handsome, with eyes an odd shade of dark-green when perhaps they should have been a very dark brown, almost black ... or tawny, at the very least, and dark hair which had been allowed to elegantly overgrow his collar. Laurent Sevigny was rich and handsome and would never be at a loss for beautiful women. She should have appreciated the logic, of course, but she couldn’t. You little fool, she said to herself, what have you let this man do to you?
In her room, which had a small entrance foyer, with walk-in cupboard with louvred doors to one side of It, well-appointed bathroom and balcony, she lifted the phone and ordered a cocktail which she had chosen from a list which was on the long bamboo dressing table, and which was ‘on the house’. Then she walked about the delightfully chilled room while she unpacked and thought about Laurent Sevigny when she should have been
Laurice Elehwany Molinari