Chris gave a little groan, half of laughter, half of passion, 'Darling Liss,' he said, looking at her with what she recognised now as a blatant, hungry desire for her. 'You certainly didn't sing like a baby. You turned me on so hard I've got to have you, darling. Liss…,'

She slapped his hands away. 'Don't touch me, you… you Lothario!' she shouted and ran.

Chris came after her, but she managed to reach the hotel first and bolted out of sight. She heard some guests halt him with eager, excited words. Chris hovered, trying to get away, and Lissa had time to get to her room. She locked the door and stood there, shaking.

'Liss,' he whispered a few moments later. 'Darling, let me in-I must talk to you. You're wrong-I've never laid a finger on Rebecca. She doesn't do a thing to me. God, Liss, don't you know I'm mad about you? Darling, open the door. Let me talk to you.'

'Go away!' she said in a high, cross voice.

'Liss!'

'Go away or I'll scream,' she promised.

Chris stood there. She could hear him breathing fast and hard. Waves of emotion, came through the door and Lissa was frightened.

'You're frightening me,' she whispered unsteadily, and it was so true, the irony of it almost made her laugh.

Chris sighed. 'Okay, baby.'

'Don't call me that!'

'Oh, Liss.' he said wryly. 'Prove you're not. Open the door and let me love you.'

She didn't answer.

She beard other steps, a voice muttering. 'I've got to go, darling,' Chris said huskily. 'We'll talk tomorrow.

Tomorrow we'll fix our wedding day, Liss, and I won't take no for an answer.'

She heard him move away and slowly sank down on to a chair, her body huddled in fear and misery.

What was she going to do?

She did not sleep for hours. Luc's accusations about Chris went on sounding inside her head and she swung between angrily dismissing them and being forced to believe part of what he had said. She should have used her brain before. She should have looked more closely at the life around her. Now that she was looking she was finding disturbing hints of a truth she had bitterly ignored until now.

Chris had hidden too many things from her. She had seen the unveiled nature to which she had been blind for so long and, seeing him in that light, had felt the pattern of her vision shift into a new perspective.

Next morning, Luc was on the beach when she arrived. He turned and the first ray of sunlight struck across his broad, smooth shoulders and gave his skin a liquid, golden sheen that took her breath away.

'All right?' he asked tersely, moving to meet her, and she sensed anxiety in him.

She nodded, softened by the intent look of the blue eyes. 'Luc, I told Chris last night that you were on the beach with someone,' she said hurriedly.

'I know,' he nodded. 'I was listening.'

Lissa stared in disbelief. 'Listening? You didn't go?'

'I wasn't leaving you alone with him. I hung around in- the palms and caught most of what was said.'

Lissa felt a pink colour creeping up her face. Luc had waited in the palm trees to make sure she was safe.

As soon as I was sure Brandon wouldn't harm you, I shot off to see Joanne,' he said.

'Joanne?' Lissa stiffened, her glance shooting to his face.

His eyes mocked. 'The lady in the red dress, remember?'

'Oh,' Lissa said coldly.

He grinned. 'I suspected Brandon would check on your story, and I was right.'

Lissa felt a shock of alarm. 'What?'

'The charming and murderous Max knocked on Joanne's door with a cock-and-bull story about a phone call for her husband. Lucas was in the gaming rooms. He rarely leaves them when they're open. Max knew that. Joanne viciously told him where he could find her husband and Max left.'

She should have suspected that Chris would go to some lengths to find out if she was telling the truth, but she wasn't yet accustomed to telling lies. She felt very sick. Chris wasn't the man she had thought she knew- all night she had been facing that and feeling like someone who has woken up to find themselves in a beautiful, but treacherous jungle. The air was heavy with sweet scents, but death lurked in every shadow.

Luc's veiled eyes were slipping down her slender body. The tiny white bikini seemed suddenly even more inadequate, and she had pulses beating at neck and wrist.

She thought of last night again and wondered what had happened between him and that woman. Lissa's feminine instincts did not need evidence to pick up the tingle of attraction which had been passing between them in the club last night. How long had Luc stayed in her room? And what had gone on?

She turned to walk down to the water and Luc followed, his feet sinking into the sharp gritty sand. They swam out into the blue water with the sun burning down on their heads. Halting to drift on her back, she heard the splash of his movement nearby and glanced sidelong at him. 'You ought to go back,' she said. 'I don't- want Chris to see me with you.'

He nodded, accepting it. 'My yacht is ready to leave at a moment's notice,' he told her. 'The crew have been sleeping on board and going ashore by day. I can contact them down in the town and tell them to start off tonight.'

'When you leave is your business,' said Lissa.

Luc made a rough sound of impatience. 'You know what I'm saying. Will you come with me?'

She shook her head, the wet blonde hair plastered down the side of her face.

'Lisa,' he said through his teeth, 'you can't stay here. You can't marry him.'

'It's my decision,' Lissa said flatly. 'Nothing to do with you.'

He stared at her, his face set, 'You don't fit into this set-up. If you stay you're going to regret it.'

A movement back on the beach drew their attention. Lissa flicked a look across the blue water and her whole body jerked with alarm. Chris stood there, in a tight-fitting blue T-shirt and skimp blue jeans, his slim body tense as he stared across the ocean at them.

'I told you to go away,' she moaned at him.

Turning, she swam back towards the beach and Luc followed. Lissa waded up out of the waves, feeling her limbs heavy with salt water and fear.

Chris did not move. He stood there, the hot steel of his eyes riveting her. Danger came out of him in waves.

Luc ran his hand through his stiff wet hair. His skin-was gleaming with salt and his dark blue eyes were lazy, betraying none of the alarm making Lissa move so stiffly.

'Hallo, Brandon. Your fiancé swims like a fish,' he drawled. 'She tells me she disapproves of gambling. I hope that doesn't mean you're going to duck out on our arranged game.'

Lissa looked at him in sharp anger and disbelief. Although his tone was slow and cool he was challenging Chris directly.

She looked back at Chris, but he wasn't looking at her. He was staring at Luc with rigid features.

'Women and poker don't mix,' Luc murmured mockingly. 'Take my advice, Brandon, decide on one or the other. You can't run both. Women take you over and ruin you as a gambler.'

Chris still studied him as though trying to see right through his head. Lissa moved and Chris turned his head slowly to meet her eyes.

'You promised me,' she whispered, touching his bare brown arm. 'Chris, don't play poker with him.'

For another second Chris bored into her lifted green eyes, his face sharply angled. Then he smiled and she felt the tension seeping out of him. 'Run on back to the hotel, honey,' he said softly, patting her on the hip. His hand smoothed down her thigh intimately, possessively, and although she did not look at Luc she could feel his eyes on the little movement.

Lissa stared into Chris's eyes pleadingly. She was no longer afraid that Chris would lose heavily to Luc, yet she still feared that clash between them for a reason she could not quite put her finger on-her instincts warned her against the idea.