Guilty Passion by Laurey Bright Read Free Book Online

took it from his hand and said, “No, I’m fine.”
    â€œDrink up,” he said. “It’ll do you good.”
    â€œAlcohol?”
    â€œDrink it.”
    Once she would have challenged an order as peremptory as that. She tried to muster a spark of annoyance, but it was too much trouble to argue. Instead, she simply obeyed, and when a warm, fuzzy sensation spread through her, she handed the glass back and closed her eyes with a sigh.
    Minutes later, it seemed, he was urging her to eat the light meal provided by the airline, and then coffee with a sweet biscuit. He was, she told herself, being nothing but kind and thoughtful, and the flutter of panic she felt as they circled the island, lying like a tear-shaped emerald in a darkening sea, was nothing to do with the fact that she was probably going to be virtually alone with him for an indefinite length of time.
    With a feeling of unreality, she sat beside him in the car he had collected at the airport. They passed through Conneston, a pretty town with unpretentious buildings softened by palms and rubber trees and hibiscus. Then the lights that were beginning to wink on were left behind and the car took a narrow road uphill, later descending to skim by the sea, before climbing again.
    â€œHow far is it?” Celeste asked when Ethan had been driving for twenty minutes.
    â€œNearly there,” he replied. A few minutes later he turned into a steep driveway winding downhill among the trees, to draw up before a house that seemed built into the hillside.
    â€œI’ll let you in, and then fetch the bags,” Ethan said.
    He opened the door with a key, fumbling inside for the light switch. She blinked as the light met her eyes, and he said, “Go straight ahead, there’s another switch on your left inside the room at the end of the passage.”
    She went down the passageway and stopped in the doorway. Facing her was a wall of glass, giving a breathtaking view of a starry sky and moonlit ocean. She turned on the light and walked across the room on thick natural wool rugs to the spectacular windows, gazing out. She saw Ethan’s reflection as he paused in the doorway behind her.
    â€œIt’s beautiful,” she said, turning to face him.
    â€œGreat in daylight, too,” he said. “Follow me and I’ll show you your room.”
    The main room occupied the whole side of the house facing the sea. At one end was a staircase of natural timber, and he led her up it, turning at the top to shoulder open the door to a bedroom that, like the big room downstairs, looked out on the sea. There was a double bed covered with an apricot-coloured spread, matched by the cushion on a peacock chair standing in one corner. The rest of the furniture and a pair of louvred wardrobe doors were painted white. On the polished wood floor lay an Indian rug, and the whole effect was one of lightness, coolness and comfort.
    â€œI’m next door.” Ethan deposited her bags on the floor. “And the bathroom is just across the way. Do you want one of these cases lifted onto the bed?”
    Celeste shook her head. “No, thank you. It’s very nice. Do you. . . live alone?”
    He looked at her with a faint quirk of his lips. “Is that a problem?”
    â€œI just wondered if there was a housekeeper or. . .”
    â€œOr a live-in lover?” he queried. “No, to both. There is a lady who comes twice a week to clean the house and do the laundry and ironing. She lives not far from here, and the arrangement suits us both. I can cook—and do the rest, for that matter, but I prefer to pay someone else to do the boring bits.” He paused. “Are you concerned about the proprieties? I can assure you no one on the island will be bothered.”
    She said, “Neither am I. It isn’t important.”
    â€œBut then you’re not bothered by much these days, are you?” he said. “I wonder what it would take to