Devil in Paradise Read online

  A few seconds later, she neatly lobbed the large stone in her hand through the nearest window. Then, very carefully, she slid her hand through the jagged hole in the glass, unlatched the window and tugged it open.

  'I bet most people don't start their holidays with a little breaking and entering,' she murmured to herself. 'But then, most people don't have Rafe Clarendon for a cousin!'

  She stared thoughtfully at the open window for a couple more seconds. Then she agilely climbed over the sill, and entered the Villa des Anges.

  Kate spent quite a while blundering around in the darkness and knocking herself painfully on hard objects before she finally found the light switch. She rubbed her bruised knees and shins, then she took a look around the room.

  It had pale walls, bright rugs scattered over the floor, and the furniture was functional but very comfortable. The chairs had big, fat cushions, and you could have spent an extremely restful night on the sofa. In fact, if the rest of the villa was like this, then it would be very habitable.

  She explored a couple more of the rooms on the ground floor, and found them furnished in a similar style. The kitchen had plenty of modern gadgets, and a large fridge-freezer was well-stocked with both fresh and convenience foods.

  Kate would have liked to have seen more, but by now she was yawning her head off. She unlocked and unbolted the front door, went out to the car to collect her luggage, and then headed back into the villa. After securing the front door again, she wearily climbed the stairs.

  There were several bedrooms on the first floor. She had no idea which one Rafe had taken for his own, but she soon found one which was obviously unused. She slung her luggage inside and then tumbled on to the bed with a sigh of relief. She needed a bath and a change of clothes, but she was suddenly too tired to worry about either.

  'I'll just take a short nap first,' she murmured to herself. She snuggled down a little deeper into the quilt which covered the bed, closed her eyes, and almost instantly fell into a deep sleep.

  Given half a chance, she would have slept happily on until morning. Long before that, though, she was forced back into consciousness by someone who was shaking her so hard that she woke up to find her teeth fairly rattling.

  It was quite a while before she could figure out what was going on. Still groggy with tiredness, and totally disorientated by the strange surroundings and the fact that she was still being shaken vigorously, she thought at first that she was being attacked. Instinctively, she lunged out, hitting something with a satisfying thump and causing someone to give a loud grunt of pain. Then her wrist was seized and pinned back against the pillow. Her eyes flew wide open and at last began to focus, and she found herself staring up into the fierce dark gaze of her cousin.

  'What on earth do you think you're doing?' she demanded, her voice sounding horribly shaky.

  'I'd have thought that was fairly obvious,' Rafe replied grimly. 'I'm waking you up.'

  Although her heart was still thumping away erratically, the actual panic was rapidly beginning to die down as Kate realised that she wasn't under the sort of attack that she had at first supposed.

  'It's the middle of the night!' she told him angrily. 'Whatever you've got to say, I'd have thought it could wait until morning.'

  'It isn't even midnight yet. And what I've got to say certainly won't wait.'

  Kate hauled herself up into a sitting position. She had thought she would feel less vulnerable once she was no longer lying down, but somehow it didn't work out the way she had expected. Rafe was still towering over her, and she felt uncomfortably trapped.

  'You were lucky,' he went on in the same dark tone. 'When I saw the broken window, I thought there must be a burglar inside the villa. If I'd run into you in the darkness, I'd probably have knocked you into the middle of next week.'

  'Instead, you contented yourself with nearly shaking me to bits!' she snapped back at him. 'Don't you know it's dangerous to wake someone like that? I could have died of fright!'

  His gaze swept over her thoughtfully. 'You look strong and healthy enough. Not the type to collapse or get hysterical because of a little shock.

  'Little shock?' Kate repeated furiously. 'My legs are still shaking!'

  'Not too much, I hope,' remarked Rafe. 'Because you're going to have to use them in a minute.'

  'For what?'

  'For getting off that bed and walking out of here,' he told her succinctly.

  If anyone else had told Kate that they were kicking her out in the middle of the night, she wouldn't have believed them. She was rapidly learning that Rafe always meant exactly what he said, though. All the same, it was still hard to take it in.

  'You'd really throw me out?' she said incredulously. 'At this time of night?'

  'It isn't that late,' Rafe pointed out calmly. 'You won't have any problem finding a hotel.'

  But Kate had had just about enough of this. Being woken up in such a savage way, then manhandled and dictated to—she wasn't about to take any more.

  'You might not have wanted me here, but now I'm actually in the villa you can't do much about it,' she told him through gritted teeth. 'Now get out of here, Rafe, and let me get back to sleep.' She flopped back on to the pillows. 'You're lucky I don't throw something at you,' she added darkly. 'You certainly deserve it, considering the way you've behaved.'

  Rafe wasn't paying the slightest attention, though. Then she realised that he wasn't just ignoring her. He was deftly collecting together her luggage, lifting the heavy cases as easily as if they had been empty.

  'What are you doing now?' she demanded. 'Rafe, put those down!'

  Rafe picked up the last case, and headed towards the door. As he reached it, he turned his head and shot a dismissive glance at her. 'I'm taking these down to your car. Then I'll be back for you.'

  Before she had a chance to object—or, in fact, say anything at all—he had gone. Kate sat huddled on the bed, with a fresh surge of trepidation running through her. What exactly had he meant by that?

  She soon found out. In just minutes, Rafe strode back into the bedroom. This time, he didn't say a single word. Instead, he scooped Kate off the bed, slung her over his shoulder in a fireman's lift, and then headed out of the door.

  Kate was so stunned that it was several seconds before she even reacted. Although he had threatened once before to physically throw her out, she had never seriously believed that he would go through with it. People just didn't do things like that—at least, normal people didn't.

  By the time she had got round to thinking that she really ought to do something about this situation, it was rather too late for positive action. In fact, she couldn't even think straight, with her head and arms hanging half-way down Rafe's back. She tried a couple of ineffectual kicks, but they certainly didn't persuade Rafe to put her down. If anything, his grip on her tightened, and she knew by now that he didn't intend to let go of her until he had dumped her outside the front door.

  Going down the stairs was pretty uncomfortable. Despite her weight, Rafe took them at some speed, apparently not caring that she was being jolted around all over the place. When they reached the hall below the jolting eased off a bit, and Kate gave a brief sigh of relief. Then she made a more determined effort to wriggle free.

  Rafe immediately responded with a brisk slap on her backside. 'Keep still,' he ordered.

  Kate was so outraged that she could hardly speak. No one—no one—had ever treated her like this before. To be slapped on the backside like some child who was misbehaving—it was humiliating and degrading!

  Then the black fury inside her head cleared a little, and she began to remember something she had learnt at the self-defence classes she had attended some time ago. 'When someone grabs hold of you,' the instructor had told them, 'the first thing you need to do is to make them let go. And the best way to do that is to find some way of hurting them. A sharp jolt of pain will make most people let go for just a few seconds, and that'll give you time to either scream for help or ru
n like hell.'

  Kate's eyes gleamed. Perhaps it was time to put all that theory into practice!

  Since Rafe was wearing a thin shirt, it was quite easy for her to pinch a small piece of his skin between her thumb and finger. Then, with a small prayer that this would actually work, she suddenly squeezed much harder and, at the same time, gave the pinched piece of skin a sharp twist.

  Although Rafe didn't actually yell out loud, she felt his body jerk with the shock. At the same time, he involuntarily let go of her, and Kate slithered to the floor, landing in an untidy tangle of arms and legs.

  She quickly gathered herself together, and glared up at Rafe.

  'I hope that really hurt!' she snapped at him.

  'It did,' he agreed in a tight voice. 'Where did you learn that particular little trick?'

  'Never mind that. Just remember that I know half a dozen more just like it, and I'll try every one of them out on you if you start mauling me around again,' she threatened him.

  She was astonished to find that he had begun to look almost amused.

  'You're turning out to be far more diverting than I had expected,' Rafe commented, ruefully rubbing the sore patch on his back where she had pinched him.

  'I didn't come here to provide you with free entertainment,' Kate retorted. 'I came for a holiday, and that's what I intend to have.'

  'Maybe you do,' he agreed. 'But not at the Villa des Anges. I might end up black and blue all over, but I still intend to throw you out of here, Kate.'

  She wasn't sure that she liked the familiar way in which he used her name. They might be cousins, but the fact remained that they had only met a couple of times in their lives. Yet there was something about the way he said 'Kate' which conjured up impressions of a close and intimate relationship. That definitely made her feel uneasy.

  Kate scrambled to her feet; then she glared at Rafe. Not only was he manhandling her, but now he was also starting to unsettle her. She didn't like that one little bit, and she drew herself up to her full height— which, unfortunately, still left her several inches shorter than he was—and then poked her finger in his chest.

  'I've just about had all I can take,' she informed him hotly. 'You've been rude and brutal, you've dragged me out of bed, and now you're going to throw me out of this villa, even though I've got a perfect right to be here. Well, enough is enough, Rafe Clarendon! Try chucking me out of here tonight, and I'll go straight to the police. Since I'm legally entitled to be here, let's see if the law can sort out this mess for me!'

  Rafe didn't seem particularly perturbed by her threat. 'This is a domestic matter. I doubt if the police will be interested in getting involved.'

  'Well, I'm willing to give it a try. And if that doesn't work, you're still not going to get rid of me. I'll camp out on the front lawn, if I have to.' Her eyes took on an even brighter sparkle. 'Perhaps the local Press would be interested. "Heiress Locked out of Villa". That would make a good story, don't you reckon?'

  And that did finally provoke a response from him. His eyes suddenly took on a dangerous glitter, and his mouth set into a straight line.

  'Try anything like that, and you definitely won't like the consequences,' he warned softly.

  'Is that a threat?' Kate taunted him. Her knees felt distinctly shaky by this time, but she refused to let her nervousness show on her face or in her voice.

  To her surprise, Rafe didn't answer. Instead, he growled something under his breath, and then shot a black look at her.

  Kate looked at him with new interest. She sensed a tension in him which hadn't been there before, and she wondered what had caused it. Her threat of publicity? Didn't he want anyone to know that he was here, at the villa?

  For the first time, she began to wonder exactly what Rafe was doing here. Her original assumption—that he was here with a girlfriend—was obviously wrong. There was no sign of any girl at the villa. As far as she could tell, he was here on his own. Why, though? And why was he so determined to get rid of her?

  She frowned heavily. There wasn't much point in asking Rafe any of those questions, because she was quite certain that he wouldn't answer them. She did seem to have a slight advantage at the moment, though, and she decided that she ought to make the most of it.

  'Are you still going to throw me out?' she pressed him.

  'I certainly ought to,' he muttered. 'Especially after that little stunt you pulled tonight, smashing your way into the villa.'

  'Don't exaggerate. I broke one small window, that's all.' She eyed him thoughtfully. His attitude had definitely changed since she had threatened to involve the Press. Was Cousin Rafe up to something shady? Was that why he didn't want her hanging around, and perhaps discovering what he was up to?

  Rafe prowled away from her, turned round to fling another black glare in her direction, and then muttered one short and extremely rude comment on the situation.

  Kate raised one eyebrow. 'Does that mean I can stay?'

  'I suppose so,' he conceded, with grudging reluctance. 'For tonight, at least, since it's getting late.'

  'It's nice to be made so welcome!' Then she glanced at her suitcases, which were standing by the front door. 'Since you brought those down, you can carry them back up again. See you in the morning, Rafe.'

  With that, she climbed the stairs, and then made her way to the room she had claimed for herself.

  She flung herself back on to the bed and closed her eyes, but this time she didn't find it so easy to get to sleep. To put it mildly, it had been a disturbing day— and night! It was the first time in her life that she had been dragged out of bed and slung over someone's shoulder like that. And it was an experience that she wasn't in a hurry to repeat. Dangling half-way down someone's back was definitely very humiliating!

  She had no idea what was going to happen in the morning. Another tussle with Rafe, as he tried to throw her out and she dug in her heels, absolutely determined to stay?

  Kate gave a grimace. Wouldn't it be easier just to book into a luxury hotel for a couple of weeks, and let Rafe have the villa to himself? Then, when he had finally cleared out, she could move in without any hassle.

  She didn't entertain that idea for long, though. Her dark brows drew together in a determined line, and she gave the pillow a hard thump, pretending that it was Rafe Clarendon's handsome but perverse head.

  Handsome? she repeated to herself a moment later, a little edgily. Then her mouth relaxed into a grin. Too darned right he was. And there was not much point in trying to pretend she hadn't noticed, because she definitely had. She didn't think it was going to cause any problems, though. After all, she wasn't about to start swooning at his feet every time he made an appearance, absolutely bowled over by those dark eyes and that gorgeous mouth.

  She closed her eyes, reminded herself that it would be as well to go on remembering that Rafe Clarendon was an arrogant rat of the first order, and then drifted into a dreamless sleep.

  CHAPTER TWO

  In the morning, Kate woke up to find her room filled with glorious sunshine. She yawned and stretched her limbs; then she got out of bed and pattered over to the window, to take a look outside.

  Although it was still early, the sky was a clear, bright blue, and the sea glittered enticingly. Kate decided that breakfast could wait. Before she did anything else, she was going to take a swim.

  It took her only minutes to wriggle into a swimsuit, and fish a large towel out of her luggage. Her suitcases were standing just inside the door, and she guessed that Rafe had brought them back up while she had been asleep. Her eyes gleamed brightly. She would lay a pound to a penny that he hadn't liked doing that! It would have been too much like admitting defeat, and she was absolutely certain that that was something Rafe wasn't used to.

  As she made her way downstairs, she wondered where Rafe was right now. Still in bed, she decided, since the villa was so quiet. Unless, of course, he made a habit of spending his nights in someone else's bed, instead of his own. Considering all the stories she
had heard about him, that seemed a distinct possibility!

  Kate let herself out through a door at the rear of the villa. There was a wide terrace here, already drenched in warm sunshine, and a small swimming-pool, but she walked straight past it. She didn't want to be confined to a pool. She was a strong swimmer, and she enjoyed the freedom of the sea.

  Once she had crossed the terrace, there was a narrow path that wound through the overgrown garden and led down to the sea. Kate followed it, her view temporarily obscured by the tall bushes that lined the path. Then the bushes fell away again, and she found that the path ended at a small patch of private beach.

  Kate dumped her towel on the sand, and then headed straight for the water. Seconds later, she was ploughing her way through its delicious coolness, swimming steadily and strongly, until she finally decided it was time to take a breather. She flipped over on to her back and floated for a while, taking time now to look back towards the shore.

  She could see the red roof and white walls of the Villa des Anges, half hidden by palm and olive trees, and tall, thin, dark cypresses. Although there were other villas tucked discreetly away on the hillside, they were some distance away, so there was no possibility of being bothered by intrusive neighbours. That probably suited Rafe right down to the ground, Kate decided. He didn't seem in a very sociable mood right now.

  Since she was starting to get hungry, she headed back towards the shore. After leaving the water, she towelled herself dry; then she decided to sit in the sun for a few minutes, to dry her hair before going back to the villa for breakfast. Her hair was thick and dark, and thick black lashes fringed her deep brown eyes. Rafe had the same distinctive colourings, and Kate was aware that people seeing them together might mistake them for brother and sister, instead of cousins.

  She sat on the warm sand, and ran her fingers through her tangled curls to help them dry more quickly. Absorbed in what she was doing, she didn't hear the man approaching from behind. It wasn't until a dark shadow fell over her that she turned her head and found herself looking up at Rafe.