Fortune sat down in the water, his head just above it, and scratched himself energetically.
Luc laughed. 'He's an adventurous little beast, isn't he?' His blue eyes lifted and Lissa met them. 'Unlike his owner,' he added softly.
She pretended she had not heard that. Moving away, the water gently flowing round her bare legs, she told Fortune to come along. Luc walked after her and watched her step into her straw sandals.
He moved away to get his own. Lissa hurried away, the dog running before her, hoping to get back to the hotel before Luc Ferrier had caught up with her, but he was behind her a moment later, the long strides of his brown legs covering the ground at an enormous pace.
'I haven't had a chance to see the island yet,' he told her. 'What is there to do here?'
'Very little,' she hedged.
'Where do you, go apart from the hotel?' he pressed.
'Into town,' she said.
'To do what?'
'Shop. Have you seen the old fort yet? If you're interested in that sort of thing it's worth seeing.'
'Show it to me this afternoon,' he came back at once.
Lissa stiffened, 'I'm afraid…'
'No?' He stopped her before her stammered excuse came out, shrugging with casual indifference. 'Never mind, I'll find someone else to show it to me. I thought you could fill me in on the history of the island.'
'I have to work,' Lissa said nervously, not wishing to sound rude yet wanting to make it clear to him that she was not spending any time with him. 'I'm sorry,' she added, to pretend he was merely another visitor, trying to cover from him her instinctive wariness of him.
'You don't come into the gaming rooms,' he commented, watching her. 'Don't you like gambling?'
'No.' Lissa did not enlarge on that, her small face stiff.
'Your fiancé likes it.' He said that coolly, eyes sharp.
She knew he would not miss the faint tremor that ran over her, but she could do nothing to control it. She gave him no answer, walking faster.
'He's got the bug badly,' Luc Ferrier drawled, still watchful. 'You shouldn't let him play. He hasn't got the face for it.'
'You don't: have to play with him,’ she accused in an uneven voice.
I don't have to play with anyone,’ he agreed. I choose who I play against.' He paused and added very softly, 'And why.'
She stopped in her tracks and looked round, shaken and disturbed by that voice, those words.
He met her eyes directly. He wasn't smiling and his eyes were a cool, glinting blue.
'Why do you play with Chris?' she asked huskily, hoping he couldn't see the faint dew which had sprung out on her upper lip and forehead.
'He has something I want,' Luc Ferrier said, and her stomach cramped as though clenched in agony.
Trying to breathe evenly, she asked in a shaky voice, 'What?'
She saw the slow derisive lift of his dark brows, the sardonic twist of his mouth. 'I don't have to tell you that, do I, Lissa?'
She swallowed. 'Money?' she whispered, and he laughed under his breath.
'Money? I never gamble for money.'
The answer took her breath away. She stared in total disbelief. He grinned, amused by her amazement.
'Gamblers never do-real gamblers, that is-oh, the amateurs may do it for that, but then it's the money they're interested in, not the gambling.' He had a, reckless, vital amusement in his face. 'A real gambler does it for the sheer hell of it. The kick he gets when he has a big win. The danger, the uncertainty, Acknowledge that he's walking a tightrope over an abyss without a safety net.' He paused and smiled oddly at her. 'Ask your fiancé. He doesn't gamble for money, either. He gambles for the same reason as myself-he has an urge to prove himself against other men.' His eyes glittered like strange blue stones and his skin was taut. 'He wants to flatten me'
She remembered Chris saying excitedly: 'I can take him,' and the feverish brightness of his eyes. 'Why does he want to beat you so much?' she asked Luc Ferrier with unhidden anxiety.
He shrugged wryly. 'I've got a reputation, I suppose. It gets around, and men hanker for the thrill of being able to say they beat me. It can be irritating. Every place I go to there's going to be someone itching to take me and wring me dry. Not for the money-just for the boosted ego of doing it.'
Lissa was worried and angry and she burst out furiously: 'Why do you go on living like that? Drifting around from casino to casino, winning and losing money day after day. It's degrading!'
'I only gamble in the summer,' he said with wicked amusement. 'The rest of the year I risk my life in London traffic.'
She frowned. 'What?'
He was mocking her. 'I suppose it's another form of gambling, really.'
'What are you talking about?'
'My job,' he said, and Lissa's mouth opened on a surprised intake of air.
Luc laughed again. 'Close your mouth. Are you catching flies? Out here you might catch something much nastier.'
'Job?' she repeated huskily.
'Nasty word, isn't it?' he said. 'I try to keep it quiet It only confuses people.'
'You work?'
His laughter deepened and he bent a wicked eye on her. 'Alas, yes.'
'What at?' she asked, unable to believe he meant it.
'What a narrow-minded girl you are!' he drawled. 'I work in a London office for nine months of the year, actually.'
'Doing what?' Lissa regarded him incredulously.
'Gambling,' he mocked, grinning.
Lissa's teeth set. 'I don't believe you!' He was making fun of her. She turned to go and he caught her arm, his fingers folding softly round her elbow, not hurting yet making it impossible for her to move away.
'I work with the Stock Exchange,' he explained.
'The London Stock Exchange?'
'That's right, I gamble on market fluctuations, I'm good at it, I make a lot of money. It calls for the same skills as poker. You have to have intuition, a gut feeling that some stock is about to move up or down, and the nerve to back your judgment with hard cash. In the last resort, that's what all gambling comes to-nerve and a clear head.' He paused, eyeing her. 'That's why your fiancé should stay away from it. He has the nerve and the desire to win, but he doesn't have the head for it.'
. Lissa looked at the hard, assertive face and swallowed. 'Don't play with him again!' The fear she was feeling was inexplicable. All her instincts cried out that for Chris to play against Luc Ferrier was dangerous. She couldn't say why she should feel that. It was an unconscious reaction deep inside her and her conscious mind couldn't pin down the hidden reasoning which had caused it.
Luc Ferrier's blue eyes narrowed and he watched her closely. 'We'll make a bargain,' he told her.
'What?' She looked anxiously into the blue eyes, her face shifting in uncertainty.
'Spend the afternoon with me and I promise I won't play poker with your fiancé tonight,' he drawled.
Lissa sensed at once that lie had led her into that trap deliberately. He had known she was nervous about Chris playing with him and he had played on her fears.
'Well?' he demanded.
She looked down, biting her lower lip, trying to think. It was blatant blackmail and she would need her head examined if she gave in to it. Chris had promised he wouldn't play with Luc Ferrier, hadn't he? But Chris was a gambler and Lissa knew gamblers. Chris would forget his promise to her if his passion for poker beckoned.
Luc Ferrier turned away, shrugging those wide shoulders. 'Okay, forget it. Obviously you have no objections to Brandon playing with me, after all.'
'I'll come,' she said huskily as he moved away.
He stopped and turned. The blue eyes smiled and she caught her breath at the beauty of them, set in their thick black lashes, the compelling nature of that smile irresistible.