Chris stood there, elegant and very tense in a white evening jacket. His bright, hard eyes met those of Luc Ferrier. 'Mine, I think,' he said as he took her hand, and the tone, the words, meant far more than the smile he gave Luc pretended.
Luc smiled. His facial muscles moved, his lips twisted. To a casual eye it could be called a smile, but the icy glint of his eyes made it clear it was nothing of the sort.
'When are you and I going to fight it out?' he asked with a reckless excitement in his voice.
Chris glanced at Lissa briefly. 'Liss doesn't approve of gambling,' he said.
She began nervously to speak and Luc cut her dead before a word had fully escaped.
'That's tough,' he said viciously. 'I never let women get in my way, but if you're that sort of man maybe it would be as well to forget it, anyway.' He turned on his heel with a contemptuous smile and Lissa heard Chris take a deep, angry breath. His face had reddened. His eyes were murderous.
'Tonight,' he said to Luc's back, hurling the word at him like a knife.
Luc halted. He turned his black head and smiled. 'Tonight, then,' he said before he moved away.
Lissa was shaking with terror and shock. She clutched at Chris's sleeve. 'No! Don't, Chris-you promised!'
'I don't take that sort of slap around the face from anybody,' he said furiously. 'You heard what he said. You got the implication as well as I did. Nobody calls me a coward and gets away with it.'
'You promised,' she whispered.
'I know,' he muttered, his face still a dark red. 'But I can't keep my promise. After tonight I swear to you…'
'If you play with him I won't marry you,' Lissa said on a desperate note.
Chris looked at her with a narrowed surveillance. He smiled at her. 'Oh, yes, you will,' he said, and then he walked away.
CHAPTER SIX
Lissa barely knew what she was doing as she went into her act. The music beat inside her head and her lips opened and shut, emitting sounds, but she might as well have been alone on a desert island. The applause, the watching eyes, did not impinge upon her consciousness.
Fear streaked along her nerves. Chris had looked vicious as he stared alter Luc. When he told her that she would marry him he had had cold determination in his eyes.
Once she had seen weakness in him, a flaw running through his charming facade, but now she had been brought to recognise that he was weak in quite a different sense from the one she had imagined. His weakness lay in a sort of strength Lissa had never known him to display. He was coldly, cruelly determined on his own way. It was still weakness-but he had shored himself up with his murderous gang of henchmen, his power over the lives of everyone on the island. It was power which gave his weakness the icy glitter of danger. Chris had no moral scruples to make him halt in anything he did, in the pursuit of anything he wanted.
She left the club and collected Fortune from the desk clerk. The dog shot off into the night and Lissa followed slowly, biting her lip. How could she sleep tonight? She couldn't calmly go to bed while Luc was facing Chris across a table and fighting a.duel whose outcome could be disastrous whichever way it went.
She lingered to inhale the scent of honeysuckle, the creamy yellow flowers thickly clustered on their bushes. While she stood there in the shadows of the garden she heard a step and shivered, looking round.
Luc halted to stare at her. His face was unreadable, but she could sense hostility.
'Don't play with him,' she begged, pulling one of the flowers down. The petals showered on the grass at her feet and she twisted the stem restlessly, her eyes on Luc's dark features,
'It's fixed for midnight,’ he said coolly. He moved closer and she saw the sudden flare of his eyes, their brightness lighting up his face. 'Lissa, it's a perfect opportunity for you to get away. The whole place will be in the gaming rooms. All his men will be there. Nobody will see you leave the hotel. Pack a few things and slip out around one in the morning.'
'Where could I go? she asked wildly. 'Where do you think I could hide on this island?'
'I've fixed that,' Luc said.
She stared at him, her eyes enormous.
'Go down to the beach where we usually swim. One of my men will be waiting for you. He's going to bring a dinghy and row you out to the yacht. You'll be safe out there during the night.'
For a moment Lissa felt a sick relief, then she looked hard at him. Luc would be staying to play that game with Chris. He would be hostage for her. Once Chris discovered she had vanished he would immediately suspect Luc, and her heart winced at the thought of what Chris might do to Luc.
'I can't,' she whispered.
Luc's body clenched. She saw his mouth tighten, his eyes glitter. 'You stupid little fool, you can't still hanker after him! The man's a barracuda. His teeth are stripping every ounce of flesh off this island and he's hungry to strip you; too. Get away from him while you can.'
'You don't understand____________________' she began, and he broke in with a muttered curse.
'Damn you to hell, Lissa, have some sense! You're blind about him. Can't you see…'
'Luc____________________' she interrupted huskily, putting a hand on his sleeve.
He caught her shoulders painfully, flinging her head back, and his mouth burnt fiercely, angrily, on hers. She felt the violent movements of it like blows. Luc was kissing her with rage, his lips forcing hers until she felt the tender skin inside her mouth grinding against her teeth.
She struggled wildly. He was hurting her and she felt his anger so deeply she wanted to cry.
'Stay with him, then,' Luc bit out, releasing her.
Lissa felt his hands fling her away and stumbled, clutching at the honeysuckle bush. Luc walked away into the darkness and the tears began to run down her face.
She could not go back to the hotel in that state. She walked around the garden in the shadows and once or twice saw silent-footed shadows patrolling the grounds. Chris's men prowling around-in search of her? she wondered. She froze into the darkness and waited until they had gore. Fortune came softly up to push his nose into her hand and she knelt to hug him.
As she walked back to the hotel she walked into Rebecca and got a quick, hostile glance from the other girl. Rebecca's eyes narrowed on the tearstains visible on Lissa's cheeks. 'Had a row with Chris?' she asked in a wry voice.
'You'd love that, wouldn't you?' Lissa flung back.
'Does he know you're in love with him?' Rebecca's colour ran angrily. 'I'm not!' 'No?' Lissa stared at her. Rebecca knew everything that went on at the hotel. Chris might have hidden the sort of operation he was running from her, but he wouldn't have hidden much from Rebecca. How could he? Rebecca was always around his office. Carefully Lissa said: 'He must find it very useful to have a doting secretary. You'd die rather than give away a thing about what goes on here, wouldn't you, Rebecca?'
The other girl's brows flicked together. She stared at Lissa sharply. 'What are you talking about?'
Lissa didn't answer. She just smiled, her eyes mocking.
'You're not the wide-eyed innocent he thinks you are, are you?' Rebecca broke out with shrill dislike. 'I've seen the way you look at that Ferrier man and the way he looks at you. You've been pulling the wool over Chris's eyes long enough. The only reason he was going to marry you was because he didn't think he'd get you any other way, but he's wrong, isn't he? He probably got beaten to you a long time ago. I bet Ferrier wasn't even the first. Chris has been a fool about you.'