Unknown

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Book: Unknown Read Free
Author: Unknown
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minibus was parked.
    Here, on this island, she was sure was everything she was going to need to be luxuriously content ... golden sunshine, coral reefs—and where every look, every smile was like a melodious note, bringing about that symphony which could only be Mauritius and where France, Africa and India met in a tropical island paradise of creamy beaches, lush gorges and those dramatic mountain peaks.
    When she turned she caught her breath when she saw her flight companion who was exchanging greetings with the girl from American Express, and when his eyes met hers, she was aware of a feeling of exhilaration. Coming towards her, he said, ‘When I turned round back there, you were gone. Where did you get to?’
    ‘The same place as you did,’ she replied lightly. ‘I was completely swallowed up.’
    ‘Well, now that I have found you again I will drive you to the Hotel Chalain. My car has been delivered to the airport and is waiting.’
    ‘But...’ she lifted her shoulders and laughed a little, ‘how do you know I’m going to the Hotel Chalain?’
    ‘Obviously you are going there, if you were about to board this mini-bus. Besides, that is where Nicole de Speville has her health clinic, no? Or are you going to her house, which is quite close to the hotel?’
    ‘I’m going to the hotel, but....’
    ‘No buts,' he told her. ‘I will arrange for your luggage to be taken to my car. I have already spoken to the young lady, as a matter of fact.’
    ‘You have?’ Jade widened her eyes. ‘Well!’ She tried to sound annoyed. He was, she was thinking, a man who was capable of sincerity and who would be tender and gentle, on the one hand—but tough and hard, on the other. Although she felt she could trust him, it was just that things were moving too fast for her. ‘I am expected to arrive on the mini bus,' she went on, and then noticed that the girl from American Express had disappeared into the building which they had just recently left. The Indian driver, who looked cool in a white safari suit, was supervising the luggage.
    ‘Allow me to remind you that I am a friend of Nicole de Speville,' he said, and put out a hand to stop Jade’s luggage from going into the vehicle.
    ‘And you think that makes everything all right?' Jade’s smile was mocking. ‘I don’t even know your name and I am, after all, in a strange country.'
    'I was coming to that,’ he said easily. ‘My name is Laurent Sevigny.' She liked the cutting precision of his voice and the air of male authority about him. Her blue eyes flickered over him and she knew that he would be a man who would have an instinctive feeling for human weaknesses in other people.
    After a moment, because she knew it was expected of her, she said, ‘I’m Jade Lawford.’
    ‘I see.’ He gave her a leisurely look. ‘Since the days of the velvet hatbox and the use of surnames, even here in Mauritius, I believe, are gone, I will begin by calling you Jade. And now ....’ There was confusion about her luggage. ‘Leave it here.’ He sounded frankly irritable. ‘Miss Lawford’s luggage is going in my car.’
    For a moment Jade went on looking at him. wide-eyed and considering, and then lifting one slim shoulder she allowed him to steer her and the porter who had come to light in the direction of his car which had been left at the airport for him to collect on his arrival.
    After their luggage was stacked into his car, Laurent Sevigny, who believed that the days of the velvet hatbox and the use of surnames were gone, nevertheless opened the door, in the good old-fashioned tradition, for her. As she slipped into the seat and drew her long, elegant legs in after her, she gave him a mocking glance, but her thoughts in this connection were obviously lost on him.
    As he got in beside her she turned to look at him. 'And yet ... Laurent ... you appear very much the velvet hatbox type.’ She laughed softly.
    ‘So?’ He inserted the key and then glanced up, and because she

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