The Bad Boy's Redemption. Joss Wood

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      ‘I’d just turned nineteen.’

      ‘And they were—what?—eight?’

      ‘Thereabouts.’

      ‘But...you were just a baby yourself. They allowed you to do that?’

      Lu shrugged. ‘There wasn’t anybody else who could take them, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to put them into care so that I could carry on with my life.’

      Will watched her eat as he thought about what he’d been doing when he was nineteen. Playing first-class rugby in England, pretending to study, chasing girls, drinking, having a ball. Her sacrifice took his breath away.

      ‘But—’

      Lu lifted her hand and he instantly cut off his question.

      ‘It’s a bit of a scratchy subject with me at the moment. Do you mind if we don’t talk about it?’

      ‘No, that’s fine.’ It wasn’t, of course. He wanted to shove aside those curtains in her eyes and see what she was hiding, thinking...feeling. Unusual, since he never delved deeper than just below the surface; he’d never needed to.

      Will cleared his plate and looked at her bent head. If this was any other girl he’d call on years of practice, find a dozen innocuous topics to discuss, but he was finding that he didn’t want to skim the surface with Lu. How could he? She’d reluctantly told him about the death of her parents, that she’d raised her twin brothers. And, more unusually, she didn’t want to talk about her past... Most women would have given him a blow-by-blow account of her life by now.

      She was different, Will thought. And original. And because she was so different he wasn’t quite sure how to handle her.

      But they couldn’t sit here in this awkward silence. He’d have to say something.

      ‘So, do you read?’ she asked, at exactly the same time that he asked how often she went clubbing. ‘You’re kidding, right?’ Lu shook her head. ‘That was the first time in...um...six, seven—eight?—years. I’d rather hand-wash sweaty rugby kit than go again.’

      ‘That bad, huh? But if you hated it so much why were you there?’

      Lu wrinkled her nose in annoyance. ‘My brothers.’

      Will looked at the lasagne dish and Lu immediately passed it over. He gestured for her to continue explaining.

      She sat back in her chair and stared at her plate for a long time. When she lifted her eyes again they were shuttered and guileless. ‘It was just a stupid dare between us.’

      Will narrowed his eyes at the lie. Why would going to a nightclub be a dare for an adult woman? Nope, there was a lot more to that story than she was saying.

      ‘If that was the best dare they could come up with then they are very uncreative.’ Will deliberately kept his voice mild.

      Her blush told him that she realised he’d caught her lie. Lu licked her lips and took a sip of her wine as he placed his utensils together on the plate and pushed it away.

      ‘More?’

      Will groaned. ‘No, I’m stuffed. It was good, thanks. Do you always keep trays of lasagne in your freezer?’

      Lu’s wide smile flashed. ‘With teenage boys in the house you always need extra food for when their mates come home unexpectedly. And I keep a couple of trays in the freezer for Mak to take when he runs out of food—which is often.’

      Mak again. Will was very rarely jealous. Clothes and looks didn’t concern him, and his success at whatever he chose to do was his to achieve or not, so he never felt envy. However, he did feel something distantly related to jealousy at the very apparent bond Lu shared with Mak.

      Will swallowed the last of his wine and thought that if he was at the point of admitting jealousy and frustration then it was definitely time for him to go. He deliberately looked at his watch and was surprised to find that it was later than he’d suspected. ‘I should go. We have a gruelling early-morning team run along the beach tomorrow.’

      Lu stood up with him. ‘You run with the team?’

      ‘I can’t expect them to do anything I won’t do,’ Will replied, picking up their plates and the lasagne dish. ‘In the kitchen?’

      ‘Thanks. I’ll stack them in the dishwasher.’

      Lu fiddled with her camera, then picked up their wine glasses and the salad bowl and followed him inside.

      Will changed from the swimming shorts into his clothes and thought that in his normal life, with a ‘normal’ girl, he’d just lay it on the line and suggest they spend the night together: big fun, no commitment. That spark of attraction to Lu was there, he admitted to himself. It burned hard and bright and he’d ignored it all night. Whenever he thought about acting on it something held him back.

      His conversation the other night with Kelby kept resonating with him and he was forced to admit that Kelby had been bang-on with a lot of his observations. He was Mr Control these days—his life went into a tailspin when he cut loose—and if he had to be totally truthful he admitted that he’d never allowed any of the attraction he felt to a woman to be fanned into a fire. He used sexual attraction to get...well, sex. And while he always made sure that both he and his partner had a fun time in bed, he knew that at any time he could walk away. He didn’t allow himself to get emotionally involved because he genuinely believed that he couldn’t offer a woman anything permanent. Every fire went out eventually.

      Yet Kelby’s question kept prodding him in the head.

      ‘Why don’t you try being friends with a woman instead?’

      And Lu—strong, calm and capable—was just the type of woman he could be friends with. Her decision to raise her twin brothers at such a young age told him that she was loyal and determined. He liked those traits in men and they were very attractive in a woman too. He could respect her—another trait he considered essential for a friendship.

      And, with her lithe body and quick smile, she was a lot easier on the eye than Kelby and his other mates.

      Lu had just started to stack the dishwasher when Will walked back into the room, his car keys dangling from his fingers. ‘Thanks, Lu. For dinner and the company.’

      ‘Pleasure.’ Lu walked him to the hall and shoved her hand into the pocket of her shorts, pulling out a memory card. She held it between her fingers. ‘Change the photo, OK?’

      Will’s smile was warm and deep as he took the card. ‘I’ll pass it along. Thank you.’

      Will couldn’t stop himself from lifting up his hand to touch her cheek. He needed to know whether her skin was as soft as it looked, whether her bottom lip was a plump as he thought it was.

      It was all that and more.

      Will shook his head as he turned away. He’d never had the urge to touch his mates’ faces and thank God. If he did he’d get the snot smacked out of him.

      * * *

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