Carole Mortimer Romance Collection. Carole Mortimer

stranger talked past Juliet and over her shoulder, and as she turned she could see the waiter arriving with his tray of coffee things. In fact, it wasn’t just coffee; there were rolls and croissants there too.

      And he was obviously a man used to giving orders and expecting them to be obeyed, she thought as she watched the waiter putting the tray down on the table on the patio before going off to get the second cup.

      ‘Come and sit down,’ he offered now, strolling back on to his patio with long, easy strides. ‘Would you like something to eat?’ He indicated the rolls and croissants. ‘There’s plenty here for two.’

      Juliet gave him a perplexed frown. She hadn’t exactly got around to refusing his offer of coffee, but it must have been obvious to him that she had been about to do so when the waiter arrived. And yet he was choosing to ignore that. He had also put her in a position where it would look very churlish of her to refuse the offer now.

      She joined him on the patio to his suite with some reluctance, the man waiting to resume his seat until she had made herself comfortable in one of the four chairs arranged around the table, and choosing the one directly to her left rather than the one opposite which she had been hoping he would opt for.

      ‘Nothing to eat for me, thank you,’ she refused stiltedly, not exactly comfortable with this situation; she felt as if she had been coerced into it, and it didn’t sit well with her normally self-sufficient nature.

      He gave her a considering look. ‘You look as if a few pounds in weight wouldn’t do you any harm.’ He arched pointed brows at her almost boyish figure.

      Juliet was well aware of the fact that she was probably more slender now than she had ever been in her twenty-seven years, and that it didn’t exactly suit her to be this thin, but she certainly didn’t appreciate this man telling her so. ‘Just coffee, thanks,’ she told him abruptly, intending to drink up as quickly as possible and make her escape.

      But as he nodded before pouring the steaming hot brew into the waiting cup she knew that that wasn’t going to be immediately possible, not unless she wanted to make a complete idiot of herself by scalding her mouth in her haste! She added plenty of cream when he placed the cup in front of her, but even so she knew it was still going to be too hot to drink just yet.

      ‘I’m Liam, by the way.’ He looked at her enquiringly.

      ‘Juliet,’ she muttered into her cup, just as unforthcoming, before taking a hesitant sip of the steaming liquid. It was as hot as she had suspected, and she put the cup back down again, resigned to spending more time than she wanted in this man’s company.

      ‘Thanks.’ He smiled dismissively at the waiter as he arrived with the other cup and saucer. ‘Are you here on business or pleasure?’

      Juliet looked up at him sharply as she realised that he was once again talking to her. ‘Business?’ she echoed tautly.

      He shrugged broad shoulders, relaxing back in his chair. ‘There are plenty of business opportunities here. Even this hotel is up for sale.’

      And she hardly looked in a position to buy one of the Carlyle hotels! ‘So I believe,’ she answered non-committally. ‘Is that why you’re here?’ she returned challengingly.

      He shook his head. ‘This is purely a pleasure trip for me. I was just curious about you; you don’t look the usual type to book into an adventure playground like this one.’ He raised questioning brows at her.

      Juliet bristled with indignation. What ‘type’ did she look? Oh, he was right, of course, but even so…!

      And he hardly looked like the bored socialite in search of the sun—a description which seemed to fit most of the guests here. ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time.’ She shrugged dismissively.

      Liam nodded. ‘Thinking about a holiday and actually taking one are two different things, aren’t they?’ he said drily.

      ‘But you’ve only just arrived here—I mean, I haven’t seen you around for the last week,’ she explained awkwardly, that colour back in her cheeks as she realised that she had given away the fact that he was the sort of man she would have noticed if she had seen him before. But she would have done; he was hardly the type of man to be overlooked in a crowd, let alone here at this hotel! Nevertheless, she felt a little embarrassed at having acknowledged the fact.

      ‘I arrived last night. As you said, it seemed like a good idea at the time,’ he added grimly. ‘Now I’m not so sure.’

      ‘You’ve hardly given yourself time,’ Juliet pointed out.

      Liam looked at her over the rim of his coffeecup, having ignored the cream and sugar to drink it black. ‘How long have you been here?’ he drawled.

      She shrugged. ‘Almost a week.’

      ‘And?’ He arched blond brows.

      She suddenly realised the point he was making. ‘I didn’t come here with the intention of enjoying myself,’ she snapped irritably.

      He sat back once again. ‘No? Then you are here on business?’

      This man was altogether too curious, too probing, too damned direct! ‘Perhaps,’ she returned non-committally, trying the coffee once again, just wanting to drink it and be on her way back to her own suite of rooms.

      ‘I’m not that daunting, am I?’

      She looked up sharply to find that Liam was watching her, amusement dancing in those deep blue eyes now as he looked pointedly at the halfempty cup in her hand. Juliet put the cup back in its saucer with a clatter. ‘I think I should get back to my suite now. I would like to shower and change before breakfast,’ she told him stiltedly.

      He nodded. ‘Join me for lunch?’

      She stiffened defensively. ‘No, I——’

      ‘We’re both on our own, Juliet,’ he cut in reasonably. ‘It’s ridiculous for the two of us to eat alone.’

      She stood up abruptly, her hair falling loosely over her narrow shoulders, a blaze of red in the sunshine. ‘I prefer to eat alone, thank you,’ she snapped. ‘And I’m certainly not here for a pickup!’ She was breathing hard in her agitation.

      Liam appeared unmoved by her outburst, looking at her consideringly. ‘I didn’t for one moment think that you were,’ he finally said softly.

      Juliet gave him one last frowning look before turning on her heel and hurrying away across the garden to the main entrance of the hotel, very conscious as she did so that he was watching every step of her departure.

      She began to breathe easily again once she was inside the reception area, although the haste of her steps didn’t lessen as she hurried over to the lift and waited impatiently for its arrival to the ground floor. Not that she thought for one moment that the man, Liam, would follow her; she just felt completely disturbed by the whole encounter, wanted to get to the privacy of her own suite as quickly as possible so that she could begin to relax her jangled nerves.

      Not that Liam had been the first man to show some sort of interest in her since her arrival here. There had been several other single men in the complex who had obviously seen her as a prime target for a holiday romance, although she hadn’t thought any of them particularly had romance in mind, more like a bed-partner for the duration of their stay! But she hadn’t been interested in any of their overtures, and she certainly wasn’t interested in Liam’s either.

      It wasn’t that he wasn’t an attractive man—she would be fooling herself if she didn’t acknowledge that—but she wasn’t interested in a relationship of any kind, of any duration, with anyone.

      She had come here for quite a different reason, and after six days of waiting she had to accept that it had been a wasted journey. It had been made out of desperation anyway—a last-ditch attempt to locate and talk to Edward Carlyle before it was too late. The problem was that he had made it very clear that he didn’t want to talk to her, that