Exquisite Revenge

Jesse was shaking her head now, her vision blurring. ‘No. Stop it. You’re making it up. You’ve gone too far, Luc. I won’t stand here and listen to you trick me into believing something like this. It’s too coincidental.’

She turned to rush from the room, but Luc caught her and whirled her around in his arms. ‘Damn it, Jesse, I’m not lying. It’s all true.’

Jesse dashed her tears aside. Suddenly she longed for the cool, emotionless austerity of her life before she’d met this man. ‘Can you prove it?’

The expression on Luc’s face was fearsome, and his hands tightened on her arms. ‘My father was foreman of a lowly construction company in southern Spain. Do you really think it made the papers?’ His mouth twisted when he added, ‘And yet despite that it managed to wreck a whole family.’

Jesse looked up at Luc. She could already feel that intensity reaching out to ensnare her. She was so susceptible to this man.

She pulled out of his arms with effort, and finally he let her go. She backed away from him and shook her head. ‘I’m sorry. I just need to be alone for a while …’

Luc battled the urge to grab Jesse back to him, clenching his fists at his sides and watching her slim back retreat. It was a lot to take in, and more than a little fantastical to discover that they’d both had the same objective all along.

When he’d woken in the bed earlier, to find Jesse gone, it had been as if his brain had been working overtime during sleep. He’d had a dream of Jesse and her father, a faceless threatening presence locking her into a room, and just like that Luc had known. The links were too many to dismiss. Why on earth would someone like her be interested in someone like O’Brien unless it was for some personal reason? He just hadn’t figured that it was for the opposite reason he’d initially suspected.

Luc had so many more questions, but Jesse’s face before she’d left the room, stark with shock and emotion, made him cautious. He’d have to give her some time. But surely now there could be no objection to their returning to England together?

When he thought of that his heart gave an involuntary kick, and for the first time in years Luc knew he was on very shaky ground.

Later that night Luc woke abruptly when he heard a sound that was familiar but unfamiliar, because he’d got so used to the peace and quiet of the island.

He hadn’t seen Jesse again that evening. She’d stayed holed up in her room and Luc had decided to give her more time, resisting his urge to batter the door down and kiss her into trusting him.

He looked at his watch and saw he’d only been asleep for a couple of hours. And then the sound registered fully: helicopter.

He jumped out of bed, pulling on his boxer shorts, and silently thanked Jesse for coming to her senses. He half expected to bump into her when he opened his bedroom door, but the villa was silent. An awful slither of foreboding went down his spine.

He went downstairs and could still hear the unmistakable thwop-thwop of the helicopter. And then he saw the note, and a phone on the hall table. He went over and picked up the piece of paper:

Dear Luc

The phone only accepts incoming calls. If your mother or sister need you they’ll call me and I’ll let you know. I can’t trust that if they call you, you won’t try to get off the island before Friday.

At one p.m. on Friday someone will arrive to take you to the landing strip, where a plane will be waiting with all your possessions. The pilot will take you wherever you want to go.

I’m so sorry.

I hope you can understand why I need to do this. Jesse.

With an inarticulate roar of pure rage Luc stormed over to the villa door and opened it just in time to see the flashing lights of the helipcopter as it rose up into the night sky, banked to the right and then disappeared into the distance.

For long seconds, as the island fell into silence again, Luc couldn’t believe what had just happened. And then it became painfully crystal-clear. Once again a woman had taken his trust and betrayed him—except this time it was far, far worse.

High above the black expanse of sea Jesse sat in the helicopter with tears running down her face. Why couldn’t she stop crying? She struggled to control herself, glad of the sound of the engine and the blades which precluded any conversation. In her lap she held the squirmy bundle which was Tigger, and she stroked him absently, trying to keep him calm.

She’d had to leave because she knew she couldn’t last two more days in that villa alone with Luc. Couldn’t trust that he wouldn’t use everything he now knew about her to wear her down and make her trust him … make her believe him … when he could still turn around and rip her world from under her feet.

Earlier she’d been so close to trusting him, believing him, but how could she? How could she trust him after only a few days spent together? No matter how intimate they’d been?

Trust. It was the one thing she’d never been able to do with anyone after her trust had been so comprehensively eroded at an early age, and then over and over again as she’d grown up.

She had to be strong and remember that Luc’s prime motivation all along had been to get off the island, whether it was for the same reasons as Jesse or not. That was why he’d seduced her in the first place.

Pain, swift and agonising, rose up to clench Jesse’s heart. She’d wanted to trust him so badly. The first time she’d wanted it in her life. And that was when she’d finally had to heed the danger of her situation. If she trusted Luc then she’d learnt nothing. All her years of struggle to prevail would have been for naught.

She simply had to shut down her mind and forget about what had happened. It was a mirage. It had never really existed. Because would someone like Luc ever have really seduced her if given a choice? She went cold. Of course not.

She knew he’d never forgive her for this.