Forbidden Surrender

She went willingly enough, just relieved to have him back with her, before any more of Marie’s men accosted her. Pete proved to be an extrovert, even the sober suit and tie did not diminish his exuberant nature.

‘Wow!’ he exclaimed when he saw her, pulling her on to the bar stool next to him. ‘I bet you’re a natural,’ he enthused, studying her with the practised eye of a photographer. ‘Boy, would I like to get you the other side of my camera,’ he spoke softly to himself. ‘No chance of that?’ He quirked a hopeful eyebrow.

Sara grinned at him; this enthusiasm was doing wonders for her ego. ‘Not this trip,’ she refused him. ‘I’ve already explained to Eddie that I don’t have a permit—’

‘I could get you one,’ Pete cut in eagerly.

She shook her head. ‘I’m still convalescing.’

‘Mm, Eddie explained.’ Pete was studying her closely. ‘Have you ever worked in this country?’

‘I’ve never even been here before, except as a baby, so I certainly haven’t worked here before.’

‘I have this feeling I’ve seen you before.’ He frowned his puzzlement.

‘Not you too!’ Sara sighed. ‘You’re the third one since I’ve been here.’

‘At the club?’ Eddie enquired, sitting the other side of her.

‘No, in England. People keep thinking I’m someone else.’

‘A pick-up!’ he dismissed.

‘No,’ she shook her head. ‘The first time it happened I thought that, but it happened again tonight, here, and both men thought I was the same person.’ She shrugged her puzzlement.

Eddie put his arm about her shoulders. ‘I refuse to believe there are two like you,’ he smiled at her warmly. ‘Nature couldn’t have been that generous!’

Sara ignored the pointed show of possession, realising that Eddie was warning his friend off her. Not that she particularly minded, one man was complication enough for her stay here. ‘It was all very odd, though. Still,’ she dismissed it from her mind, ‘it doesn’t matter. Could we possibly leave now, Eddie? It’s getting late, and Aunt Susan and Uncle Arthur seem to have taken to waiting up for me.’

They made their goodbyes to Pete, and Sara promised to get in touch with him if she ever decided to work in England.

‘Lucky we ran into him,’ Eddie remarked on the drive home. ‘He can be an elusive man, impossible to find at times.’

Sara was preoccupied, unable to put the thought of the man at the casino out of her mind. He hadn’t been the sort of individual you forgot in a hurry; his manner was forceful, his attractiveness mesmerising, animally sensual. Whoever Marie was she was a lucky girl to have had him for a lover.

‘Eddie,’ she bit her lip thoughtfully, ‘tonight, at the club, there was a man called Dominic Thorne. Do you know him?’

He spluttered with laughter. ‘You have to be joking! He’s out of my league, love,’ he added less scornfully.

‘But you have heard of him?’

‘Who hasn’t?’ he shrugged, halting the car outside the house. ‘He has his finger in every business pie going, every one that’s legal, that is. He and his partner—well, his father’s partner, actually, but the old man’s dead now—they’re in the millionaire class.’

‘Is he married?’ Sara made the query as casually as she could, not wanting to show her extreme interest in Eddie’s answer.

‘No,’ he grinned. ‘But he’s going to be. He’s done the sensible thing, he’s got himself engaged to his partner’s daughter, Marie Lindlay.’

Sara swallowed hard. ‘Marie …?’

‘Mm. One day Dominic Thorne will have it all, all the business interests plus the lovely Marie.’

Sara was no longer listening to him. This Marie everyone kept confusing her with was actually going to marry Dominic Thorne. Surely he couldn’t mistake another woman for the girl he was going to marry?

CHAPTER TWO

IT was all a puzzle to Sara, one there seemed no answer to. She mentioned it to her aunt, but she dismissed it as a coincidence.

‘But even her fiancée thought I was this other girl,’ Sara frowned.