Page 49 of His Last Gamble

‘To cover up the truth,’ Lucy said, a shade sadly. ‘Oh, sis, don’t tell me off, I couldn’t help it, really. I fell head over heels in love with a married man.’

And as her sister gazed at her, silently begging for understanding and forgiveness, it all suddenly clicked into place.

‘Max!’ Charmaine breathed. ‘You fell in love with Max.’

‘Right,’ Lucy nodded. ‘Right next door at the casino, where I met him. Of course, we were ever so discreet because of his wife, and that’s why I just let people think it was Payne I was seeing,’ Lucy rushed to explain, having the grace to blush. ‘But the more it became obvious that this was the real thing for both Max and me, things became more fraught. Although Max and his wife didn’t have any children, they had been married a long time, and Max just couldn’t bring himself to break the news to Maria. So, in the end, I gave him an ultimatum and went home. But, oh, Charmaine, I was so miserable without him. I thought I’d never see him again. But then, last week, Max came over to England and told me he was getting a divorce. Apparently, he’d been as miserable as me. Well, after that, I just had to come back with him and help him face the music, didn’t I? His wife has a lot of friends on the island, and I couldn’t let him go through all this alone. It wouldn’t be right. So, no matter what people say, Max and I are going to be together.’

And yet again there was that touch of bravado mixed with unease in her sister’s voice; but now Charmaine could understand it only too well. Love did things to you — it turned you into a different person, it seemed. Having been willing to fight tooth and nail for Payne, she could hardly condemn her sister for fighting for Max, could she?

‘Oh, Luce! I believed the rumours,’ she finally confessed. ‘I thought Payne Lacey had seduced and dumped you. So I persuaded Jo-Jo to do the next shoot out here and got myself invited along as a model. I had this big plan to go all out for Payne, make him fall for me, and then dump him, just like I thought he’d done to you.’

Lucy stared at Charmaine, amazed. Was this her quiet little country-mouse sister? No, obviously not.

‘Well . . . I don’t know what to say,’ Lucy eventually blurted. ‘Thanks, I suppose, for rushing to avenge me. And . . . well, good on you, girl! If this is what it took to get you to start living your life at last then I can’t say I’m sorry,’ she finished with a spurt of laughter and a huge grin.

Charmaine couldn’t help but laugh too, then abruptly groaned. ‘Oh but, Lucy, it all went so wrong,’ she wailed. ‘I fell for him instead! And then he proposed and I thought I had to say no, because of you. Thinking you loved him still, I mean. And then last night happened, and that wild, silly bet, and now . . . well, now I don’t know what I’m going to do!’ she finished in despair.

Lucy smiled ruefully. ‘What a hopeless pair we are when it comes to romance. Still, there’s nothing standing in your way now, right?’ she pointed out slyly.

And Charmaine gulped at the thought. ‘Right,’ she agreed. But her heart was pounding like a frightened rabbit.

* * *

Payne glanced up as the office door opened and Charmaine looked around. When she saw he was alone, she pushed open the door and walked in, and Payne gasped at the sheer effrontery of her outfit. On anyone else that grey jumpsuit with the industrial-sized zipper and rolled-back sleeves would look workmanlike and about as sexy as a potato sack.

On her, it set his pulse racing dizzily.

‘Hello. I wondered if I could have a word,’ she said, sounding unbelievably nervous. ‘About last night.’

‘Ah yes. The bet you lost,’ he said, which was not exactly the start she’d been hoping for. He smiled like a wolf. ‘Come on in.’

Charmaine nervously closed the door behind her and looked around the office. It was light and airy, with views across the gardens, acres of beige carpet and a pale wooden desk and matching filing cabinets. Bright splashes of artwork, scenes of the islands done by a local artist, brightened up the room.

And, taking up one whole wall . . . She stopped dead in her tracks and gaped at it.

It was a giant print of herself, taken that first day on the beach. She was in the swimsuit with the beach robe lapping around her feet in the waves. As a fashion shot it was hopeless, of course — one of her many mistakes.

‘Phil presented it to me this morning as a wedding present. He must have been up all night getting it done,’ Payne said, his voice husky with emotion.

He too was staring at the picture, at her face, which had a sensual, almost haunted quality. Charmaine remembered what she’d been thinking when Phil had snapped it, and felt her heart contract.

For the first time, she saw herself as Payne and Phil saw her, and realised that she was beautiful.

But what would Payne say now if she’d told him that, at the moment that picture was being taken, she was plotting his downfall?

She dragged her eyes away from the picture with some effort.

‘I wondered what Jinx was up to in here the other night,’ she said the first thing that came into her mind, then could have bitten off her tongue. Why had she blurted that out? What did it matter now? She sounded like a jealous fish wife!

‘Jinx?’ Payne said. ‘Oh,’ he added, and grinned. ‘Don’t worry, darling. When that red-haired virago was in here — and she’s only been in here the once — so was Mrs Simms.’

‘Mrs Simms?’

‘My secretary. Seventy, feisty, and more than a match for mischief-making redheads, believe me.’

Charmaine nodded. So Jinx was just up to her usual tricks, trying to create the impression of an intimate and satisfying little tête-à-tête. She must have known Charmaine would be watching out for Payne — Jinx was an expert on the all’s-fair-in-love-and-war game.

Charmaine dismissed Jinx from her mind once and for all.

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