Lovers' Lies
The laughter was still in his eyes as he looked at her, shaking his head. ‘You never miss a chance, do you? Why do I keep asking for it?’
‘I’ve no idea.’ Felicia straightened away from the railing and turned to resume her stroll.
‘I don’t believe that.’ He was walking beside her. ‘You strike me as a fairly intelligent woman.’
“Thank you. What does that have to do with anything?
‘Do I seem to you like the sort of man who enjoys hitting his head against a brick wall for the fun of it?’
‘Since you ask...’ Felicia allowed her voice to trail off delicately as she stopped to look at a display of freshwater pearls. Joshua shifted to stand half facing her.
The stall-holder smiled eagerly at Felicia. ‘Hello, hello! Real pearl, very nice.’
‘Very nice,’ she assented, lifting a strand of the small, oddly shaped beads.
Joshua remained at her side. ‘You want me to spell it out?’ he asked.
‘Are you a good speller?’ Felicia asked coolly.
‘Cheap,’ the stall-holder said anxiously as Felicia let the strand of pearls drop from her fingers.
‘Agreed,’ Joshua commented, shooting him a brief glance. To Felicia he said quietly, ‘I find you madly attractive, and I want to spend time with you. Now I’m wide open for the coup de grâce.’
‘Only t’ree hun‘red yuan!’ the stall-holder offered, adding with hardly a pause, ‘Two hun’red seven-five OK?
Felicia said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m not interested.’
‘Two hun’red fifty!
‘Not interested?’ Joshua repeated softly. ‘You were tempted, though.’
‘Yes. I may change my mind later.’
‘I live in hope.’ There was laughter in his voice.
‘I was talking about the pearls.’
‘I wasn’t, and you know it.’
She looked up, ready to deliver a stinging retort, let him know once and for all that she wanted nothing from him but to be left alone. With any other man it would have been easy. She’d have been polite, firm, unequivocal, trying to leave his ego intact while giving him a clear message that his advances were unwelcome.
But then she met Joshua’s eyes and the words died on her tongue. He looked quite serious now, intense and determined, and she couldn’t look away from the glowing amber depths. Her own eyes dilated, she could feel it.
He halted, moving half in front of her, oblivious of the people walking around them. ‘What is it?’ he asked her. ‘You’re not married, are you? Is there a man back home? Or has someone hurt you, made you afraid to step into the dark again?’
‘None of the above.’ With an effort she pulled herself together, forced herself to detachment. Perhaps she ought to claim a lover, a commitment. But instinct told her it wouldn’t make any difference. ‘I’m deeply flattered, of course, but—’ She shrugged, not quite apologetically.
‘You admitted you were tempted.’
‘The pearls—’
‘The hell with the pearls! You were sparring with me, and enjoying it, Felicia. Just as you enjoyed that kiss the other night.’
‘You don’t suffer from false modesty, do you?’
‘You did reciprocate,’ he reminded her. ‘I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t fully expected you to.’
Unfair. And arrogant. He had no right to take her response for granted. But she could hardly deny that she had given it. ‘A reflex. I was taken by surprise.’
Someone bumped against her, and Joshua took her arm and steered her away from the centre of the path to the side overlooking the beach. ‘If you hadn’t liked it your reflex would have been to pull away and slap my face.’
‘Next time—’ She stopped as a wicked grin curved his mouth. Fighting a shocking urge to laugh with him, she said, ‘I thought you were telling me earlier that you’re not a masochist.’
‘Maybe I could learn. I’ve always enjoyed new experienoes. A touch of vinegar can be quite refreshing after a diet of honey and sugar.’
‘Suzette seems a nice girl.’
His eyes gleamed. ‘Very.’
Genevieve had been nice—extraordinarily so. Had he found her cloying, become tired of her sweetness?
A shaft of pain and anger made her abruptly turn away, staring unseeingly at the tall buildings rising from the flat promontory at one end of the beach. ‘I thought you were together.’
‘No.’
‘Suzette would like you to be.’
‘Maybe. And maybe she deserves someone nicer than me,’ he said.
‘And I don’t?’ A dry note entered her voice.
‘Probably.’
She turned to regard him curiously. ‘So why should I be interested?’
‘I haven’t any idea, but I’m not imagining the signs.’
‘Signs?’ Her voice was frosty. He was so cocky, so convinced that she was attracted to him, when her feelings were much more complicated and much less complimentary than he had any idea of.
‘I swear,’ he said, ‘that you know when I come into a room—even when you’ve got your back to the door. Your chin goes up and you get a little flush on your cheeks, no matter how carefully you’re not looking at me. It has to mean something.’
It means I hate you. She wanted to shout it at him, right here in public, and walk away. Gripping the sun-heated railing, she looked away from him so that he wouldn’t see that her eyes were hot with rage. He remembered nothing of that long-ago summer. Nothing about her, anyway. He couldn’t, surely, have totally forgotten Genevieve?
‘You watch me all the time when you think I’m not looking,’ he said. ‘The same way I watch you.’ He paused. ‘If you say so I’ll walk away and not bother you again. But if you’re going to do that I wish you’d tell me what it is you’re afraid of.’
‘I’m not afraid!’ Her denial was instant and vehement.
‘Well... that’s a start.’
‘I’m not afraid,’ she reiterated, more to herself than to him.
She could tell him, get it all out in the open, watch his face when she revealed to him who she was. See him realise why she despised him.
Remember Genevieve? she’d say to him. Remember her little stepsister? The one who carried messages between you all summer? Remember me?
CHAPTER THREE
“THEN what is it?
He was smiling; it was a joke. No, she could have said, but you do.
She wondered how many other Genevieves had crossed his path, how many of them he’d loved and left. Now he was bored with women who fell at his feet too easily and was after more challenging game. Trying to avoid contact with him, Felicia had unwittingly piqued his jaded interest.
At least she’d have the petty triumph of turning him down flat. A small revenge for Genevieve.
Even as she opened her mouth to do it, the thought expanded, flowered in all its poisonous beauty.
Why settle for a small revenge? Why not play Joshua Tagget at his own game? String him along for a while and then dump him.
One part of her was appalled, but the idea was seductively simple. Her heartbeat increased, adrenaline fizzing under her skin.
In the extravagance of teenage grief she’d wanted to kill Joshua Tagget. Felicia knew now she was no murderer, but a more subtle vengeance was at hand. Didn’t she owe it to Genevieve to reach out and take it?
‘Felicia?’ Joshua smiled, the same dazzling, irresistible smile she’d seen him direct at Genevieve all those years ago.
Surely she could make a pretence at liking him, at returning his interest, for a couple of weeks. For Genevieve’s sake.
She smiled back at him, slow and mysterious. ‘Of course I have secrets. Don’t you?’
‘None that matter.’
She kept the smile on her lips even as her blood simmered. None that mattered.
He deserved everything she intended to do to him. Everything. ‘No wife tucked away in New Zealand?’ she asked him.
‘No wife, no ties.’
Leading a man on was dangerous, cruel and downright despicable. Usually. But this was different. This was for Genevieve, a belated reparation...
‘What about Suzette?’ she demurred with a twinge of compunction. The other woman had not exactly hidden her penchant for Joshua’s company.
‘I’m certainly not married to Suzette,’ he said dryly. Momentarily he pursed his lips, as though searching for the right words. ‘We found each other the night before the tour began, and had a couple of drinks together. She’s very... friendly, and I try to be polite. I’ve never kissed her in the elevator—or anywhere else.’
‘I see.’ The relief she felt was absurd, and certainly inappropriate. For a moment her resolve wavered. What was she getting into here?
But she could handle it. She knew enough about him and was mature enough not to be misled again by shallow, facile charm and surface good looks. Deliberately, she flashed him a smile, and turned to walk on, tacitly inviting him to accompany her.
They strolled to the end of the promenade, and through a small park to a covered pavilion where they sat for a while enjoying the sea breeze, then retraced their steps back into the city.
Taking a different route to the hotel, they found themselves in the fish market near the old abandoned Catholic church. The smell was overpowering, but there was no doubt about the freshness of the produce. A good deal of it was still alive, including tanks full of hand-sized turtles or dark green frogs, and even a basin piled with soya bean worms.
‘I expect they’re delicious.’ Felicia pulled out her camera and bent over to snap the fat, wriggling things.
‘I’ll buy you some if you like,’ Joshua offered, digging a hand into his pocket.
‘Thanks so much, but I wouldn’t be able to cook them,’ Felicia said regretfully. ‘There are rules about that sort of thing in the hotel. Didn’t you read the list of instructions from the Public Security Bureau?’
‘Yes, I did. All guests should come back to the hotel by 11 p.m.’
‘Be courteous and civilised and keep the room c/ean,’ Felicia quoted, stopping to peer into a tank containing an enormous spotted sea snake. ‘I think it’s charming.’
‘What, that fellow?’ Joshua bent to examine the sluggish, sinuously coiled beast.
‘The rules for guests.’
‘Mmm, I’ve been in a few hotels around the world where I’d have liked someone to remind the guests about being courteous and civilised,’ Joshua agreed. ‘I was particularly taken with the one that says, Hotel guests should live in the designated rooms and beds.’ Straightening, he walked on a little further. ‘What on earth are those?’
‘Crabs,’ Felicia decided as she moved closer to the deep containers. Each crab was tied with something that looked like twists of flax or rough twine, she supposed to stop them crawling away. ‘Poor things.’
‘You could say that about any creature destined for the pot. Do you like prawns?’ Joshua gestured to a basket full of large pink crustaceans.
‘I love them,’ Felicia admitted. ‘You’re more of a white fish man, aren’t you?’
‘How do you know that?’
Her mind went blank, totally. She couldn’t even recall how she knew, but the knowledge went back to the time when everything about him had seemed fascinating to her. She said, ‘I... I remember you tucking into the fish at dinner the other night.’
‘You do?’ He looked surprised, then a smile tugged at his mouth. He thought she’d been watching him that closely.
‘Yes. Oh, look—there’s a shark. A small one.’
‘It might be small, but I wouldn’t care to encounter it in the water. Those are pretty impressive teeth!’
She’d been saved by his own conviction that she was attracted to him, Felicia thought. But she would have to be more careful.
Eventually they found their way back to the hotel, to find most of their party in the bar. Joshua got chairs for Felicia and himself and ordered drinks, casually throwing an arm over the back of her chair as they talked with the Australian couple and some other people. Suzette was at another table where some of the younger contingent had gathered. Felicia saw her direct a searching glance towards Joshua and note the position of his arm before turning away to talk to someone else.
You’re better off without him, believe me, she mentally told the other girl. You don’t know what bad news Joshua Tagget is.
Perhaps she should remind herself of that. At the fish market it had been fun bantering with him, and she’d almost forgotten that she was playing a part. Still, as long as she didn’t lose sight of the main objective, that might not be a bad thing. She’d seem more natural and find the charade less of a strain.
As people began to drift off Joshua said quietly to Felicia, ‘One of the contacts I met at the trade fair lives here. I’m having dinner with him and some other people, and he suggested I might bring a friend. Will you come?’
She would like to meet some Chinese people. And she ought to act eager to accompany him anywhere he wanted her to. ‘Are you sure it will be all right?’
‘Mr Lin was quite insistent that I was welcome to bring someone along. He’s sending a car for me at six. Can you be ready then? I’ll phone him and tell him there’ll be two of us.’
She gave him her room number and he knocked on her door just before six, casting an approving glance over her short-sleeved blue dress. He was wearing a shirt and tie with dark trousers, and had a matching jacket slung over his shoulder.
‘Is it formal?’ she asked, wondering if the dress and the high-heeled sandals were too casual.
‘I figured I’d best be on the safe side. If everyone is wearing suits I’ll put on the jacket. You look fine,’ he added, divining her concern. ‘Cool and elegant.’
Their host arrived, dressed in a short-sleeved shirt worn loose over trousers. Joshua introduced them, and Mr Lin said, ‘My wife is waiting for us at the restaurant. She will like to meet you, Miss Stevens. She is a teacher of English language at the university. She likes very much to practise her English.’
‘Yours is very good,’ she complimented him as he ushered them into his car, seating himself beside the informally dressed chauffeur. ‘Did your wife teach you?’
‘Some I already learn,’ he said. ‘But she...corrects my mistakes. So I get better.’
Mr Lin was a district inspector of agriculture, she learned. At the restaurant they were greeted by his wife, a pretty, round-faced woman, and introduced to three other men—two district officials and the manager of a peanut-packing plant.
The meal was served in a private room, and Felicia lost count of the dishes that were placed one after the other in the centre of the table. Mr Lin’s wife occasionally dropped a special morsel onto Felicia’s plate. Joshua slanted her an understanding grin as she concealed a fried insect of some kind beneath a little heap of leftover rice, unable to overcome her cultural bias even in the cause of good manners.
Their host got up to switch on the video player in one corner of the room, and the screen soon showed a man and woman wandering along a beach hand in hand, while Chinese words danced across the lower part of the picture.
‘Do you like Karaoke?’ their hostess asked Felicia as her husband picked up a microphone and began to sing in a tuneful baritone, soon joined by his wife’s pretty soprano.
Hosts and guests took turns between courses to sing along to the video music. The factory manager performed a graceful regional dance, and before the end of the evening Joshua and Felicia were persuaded to perform, choosing a couple of pop songs and the New Zealand classics ‘Pokarekare Ana’ and ‘Now is the Hour’.
The chauffeur dropped them back at the hotel before ten-thirty, and as the car drove away Joshua said, ‘I don’t know about you, but I need to shake that meal down. How about a walk?’
Gratefully, Felicia agreed. She was not only overfull, she also felt slightly muzzy from the pale local beer that had been liberally dispensed. Joshua had stood up well to the number of toasts that had been drunk, even though he had been expected to down an entire glass at each one, and there had been some hilarity and teasing among the men that easily breached the barrier of language.
People sat in lighted doorways playing card games or preparing food for the next day. On the corner a melon seller slept on a cot behind his piled wares, protected by a canvas awning.
‘I hope you enjoyed your evening,’ Joshua said.
‘Very much.’ Being with other people had made it easier, dissipating a little her consciousness of him sitting next to her. ‘I liked Mrs Lin. She sings beautifully too.’
Joshua gave a small laugh. ‘We didn’t do too badly, ourselves, for an impromptu performance.’
‘You carried me along. Experience counts.’
‘Experience?’
She’d spoken without thinking again. She wasn’t very good at this. ‘Someone said you used to be in a pop group. Isn’t it true?’
‘In my misspent youth I played guitar in a band and did a bit of singing. The group only lasted for about a year before we broke up. We all had other interests to pursue.’ He looked at her curiously. ‘I don’t recall mentioning it to anyone on the tour.’
‘Not to Suzette?’ Surely the woman had fished for some information about his past.
‘Definitely not to Suzette. Who told you?’
Felicia shrugged. ‘I can’t remember. Did you make any recordings?’ As if she didn’t know.
‘Only one. The uncle of one of the boys in the group arranged for us to record a few of our songs. The tape had a few airings on radio and then died.’
Genevieve had bought it though, and played it all summer, and she and Felicia had sung along to it. Felicia still knew all the words by heart. ‘You weren’t really famous?’ she asked innocently.
Joshua shook his head and grinned. ‘Yellow Fever was hardly a cultural icon.’
Felicia laughed. ‘With a name like that, I’m not surprised.’
Joshua grinned. ‘It’s no worse than Pink Floyd. We thought it was pretty damn good, let me tell you.’
‘You can tell me all you like. I don’t have to believe you.’
‘You think I’d lie to you?’
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