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CHAPTER ONE

‘THIS IS A private beach’

Rosie had to raise her voice to reach the big, brutal-lookingthe anchor on his sleek black launch off shore He’d stilled, so she was sure he’d heard her, but for so her arms made no impact at all

‘Damned invaders,’ Rosie’s late elderly e stick at any sailors bold enough to drop anchor near her private island ‘You can’t swierently, with her crab-like hands planted firmly on her bony hips, Doña Anna would continue to berate visitors—whoht couldn’t do much harm if all they wanted to do was enjoy the crystalline waters and sugar-sand beach for an hour or so—until they took the hint that they weren’t welcome and left for kinder waters

Rosie tensed as the ht at her Withassessment stabbed her like an arrow

Her body reacted in the craziest way, softening and yearning as the force of his personality washed over her The effect was as powerful as if they were standing toe to toe

She was instantly in ‘fight or flight’ mode Her brain sharpened to make that call Only what they’d called her pure, da her rooted to the spot She ht not have had the best of starts in life, but she wasn’t a victim and never would be

And a promise was a promise, Rosie vowed Her promise to Doña Anna, that she would keep the island safe, was sacrosanct However inti theany further than the shore

The man had other ideas

Her heart thundered as he sprang lightly onto the bow rail, preparing to dive into the sea Keeping the island safe would take ood intentions, she suspected He ice her size and built like a gladiator

His dive , he powered towards the shore There was so hard and ruthless about hi it with apprehension Crew of a enerally wore some sort of uniform with the na clothing Stripped to the waist in cut-off shorts, he was maybe thirtyolder than she was, anyway

Rosie was in h

er early twenties She couldn’t even be sure of her date of birth There was no record of it A fire at the orphanage had destroyed all evidence of her history shortly after she arrived Her life experience was lie, isolated world inside an institution, and now a small island off the southern tip of Spain

She’d been lucky enough to be offered a job on Isla Del Rey by a charity that ran a sche on a trial basis as a companion/housekeeper for an elderly lady who had driven six previous companion/housekeepers away On the face of it, not theopportunity, but Rosie would have jus of the institution, and the island had seemed to offer sanctuary from the harsh realities of the outside world

That world was back with a vengeance now, she thought as the man drew close to shore