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As she stepped out she caught sight of her naked body in the mirror, her breasts warainst the pale flesh She tried to visualise Malcol the intiination refused to conjure up the ie Cross with herself, she pulled a slender cotton dress fro it into a neat knot at the back, before slipping on loose espadrilles
The dining rooht her book with her as protection and had hoped to secure one of the s the sea, so that she could eat there unnoticed by the other guests
This hope was forestalled the moment she entered the restaurant because she was hailed by a plump, dark-haired woman with a friendly smile
‘Tamara! Come and join us’
She indicated one of the two spare chairs at the table she was sharing with her husband, and Tamara had no option but to slide into one of the her
George and Dot had been on the saht from Heathrow as Tamara and had introduced the couple, obviously quick to make friends, and Tamara suspected that, unlike her, they already knew uests
The hotel was a relatively new one, and had not previously been used by package holiday firms, and consequently only half a dozen or so people on board their flight from Heathrow had had as their final destination, this particular hotel
A them had been the honey two young couples who tended to stick together; George and Dot; two young girls, Tamara herself and a limpsed momentarily at the airport
‘Try the shried her ‘It’s delicious Even now after several days I still can’t get used to the sight of avocados actually growing!’ Her eyes went to Ta ‘You’re here on your own, aren’t you?’ she asked curiously
‘Yes’
Tamara felt reluctant to answer any questions about herself and was glad when Dot’s attention was transferred fro the restaurant
Dressed in black jeans and a thin black cotton shirt, he looked sombrely out of place in a roohtly patterned beach shirts and light-coloured trousers He was different in other ways, too, she reflected, unable to pinpoint exactly why theby the door should look so unlike any of the other holidaymakers A shock of thick dark hair brushed the collar of his shirt, thick dark lashes concealing his eyes from her quick scrutiny
‘There’s Zachary Fletcher,’ Dot e ‘Ask hily sexy?’ she appealed to Tae redoubled his efforts to catch the other ht Oh, he hasn’t seen us!’ she exclaimed in disappointment as the other man turned and walked towards one of the small tables almost hidden away in a corner of the room
Even the way he walked was different fro quality in the way he moved, quickly and incredibly quietly for so tall and muscular a man As he moved muscles rippled under the thin black shirt, the fabric of his jeans hs Ta the harshly chiselled features of a face that gave absolutely nothing away; a hard, too cynical face for a man who at most could only be in his mid-thirties
‘Devastatingly sexy’, Dot had called hied that the older woht The man exuded a sensuality which was quite unmistakable There wasn’t a woman in the room who had not watched him covertly as he walked across it, and Tamara felt almost sickened by their, and her own, avid interest in a man so patently uninterested in them
He barely raised his eyes from the table except to order hisa little aardly
‘He’s here to recuperate fro tone, ‘He’s in the Ar it on his passport as we cah Customs’
Taain, convinced that Dot must have made a mistake He didn’t strike her as the type of ht discipline of the Army—unlike Colonel Mellor, Malcolm’s father, whose considered opinion it was that Modern Youth badly needed a spell of ‘square bashing’—he looked like a loner, a man who deliberately withdrew hiest the Arreen eyes surveying her with devastating intensity, before she was released, trelance
After they had finished their lunch Tah the hotel foyer, lingering with Dot over thedisplay in the boutique
‘Won’t you just look at that bikini!’ Dot sighed, pointing out the briefest scraps of cyclamen pink cotton Taure like yours! Why don’t you go in and try it on?’ she urged, her eyes twinkling as she added, ‘Treat yourself and your fiancé’
‘Oh, I couldn’t!’