Bought for His Bed. Kate Hardy

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СКАЧАТЬ him. ‘When my parents broke up my father told me that if I didn’t go with him I’d never see him again. I stayed with my mother, so that was it. The only reason I know about his other child is that when the divorce came through he wrote to tell my mother that he and his new partner had already had a son.’

      Luke’s mouth hardened. ‘Do you have any other relatives—cousins?’

      ‘In England,’ she said evenly. ‘We exchange Christmas cards.’

      He hugged her, a swift contraction of his arms with no sexual implication at all. Oddly touched by his swift response, she smiled mistily up at him. Luke had everything—money, power, a family he loved, outstanding physical attributes, yet he had enough empathy to understand how very lonely it could be sometimes when you had no one.

      Fleur felt a quiver in the air—as though something deep and basic had changed between them. His gaze dropped to her mouth and darkened, then flicked up to hold hers. For several seconds they danced slowly and more slowly, until a raucous male voice broke the spell.

      ‘Hey, Luke, mate, get off the floor if you don’t want to dance.’ A tall, balding man grinned openly as both Luke’s and Fleur’s heads swung around.

      Heat burned Fleur’s cheeks. The man’s partner waved at them, her smile sympathetic and slightly envious, and Luke laughed quietly and pulled Fleur close to him, guiding her away.

      After a few seconds he said, ‘Time to go home, I think.’

      Fleur nodded. ‘The Princess will be pleased.’ Yes, that was fine—her voice was cool and colourless. ‘She’s looking a bit tired, and she hasn’t got up for the last two dances.’

      He gave her another sharp look, but didn’t hold it. ‘She’s probably a bit jet-lagged.’

      Sure enough, no one objected to the idea of leaving, though Gabrielle gave the film star a regretful glance or two when she and her grandfather got into the second car, driven by a chauffeur.

      Luke drove through the silent night. No one said much as the road wound beneath palm groves by the sea, and then over a spur of the central mountain range and down into the bay where Luke’s house sprawled in its exotic garden.

      Fleur gazed blindly into the moonlight, every sense alert and tense with a useless anticipation that wouldn’t be squelched, however hard she tried.

      Because Luke wasn’t going to make love to her—not with a house full of guests.

      ‘Tired?’ His voice broke into the silence.

      ‘A bit,’ she admitted. ‘It’s been fabulous in the true sense of the word—like something out of a fairytale.’ Only the princes in those fables were a bloodless lot, not like Luke.

      ‘I’ve enjoyed it, too.’

      Casual words, the sort of thing he probably said after any social occasion, yet she hugged them to her heart.

      Back at the house the Prince and Princess went to their room. Fleur waited with Luke only until the second car disgorged its passengers, then said her goodnights.

      Once in her bedroom, she went across to the dressing table and glanced sideways at her reflection. She looked reckless, she thought warily—all green mysterious eyes and a sultry, beckoning mouth. The cosmetics experts certainly knew their stuff!

      And then her eyes fell onto the fabulous pearl pendant Luke had lent her.

      Biting her lip, she slipped it over her head, hesitating for a second with it in her hand. The gold and diamonds glinted coldly, but the pearl lay warm in her palm, its lustre as beckoning as the moon.

      Another memory, she thought sadly.

      She didn’t want the lovely, precious thing in her room overnight; the responsibility was too much. Holding the pendant carefully, she opened her door and saw Luke and the Prince talking down the other end of the corridor.

      Although she’d been quiet, the men turned the instant she appeared. She swallowed, because on both dark faces there was the same look—intent, almost predatory, as though two warriors were conferring on tactics.

      After a final low-voiced comment to the Prince, Luke strode towards her while Guy Bagaton went into the bedroom he shared with his wife.

      Luke kept his eyes on her while they walked towards each other. He wasn’t frowning, but something in that keen, burnished gaze intensified the aura of determination surrounding him, and she shivered in spite of the warmth.

      As he came up she held out the pendant. ‘You’d better lock it up.’

      He took it from her, his eyes scanning her face. ‘All right?’

      ‘Yes,’ she said abruptly.

      She stepped back and closed the door, wondering bleakly if any other woman had ever shut the door in his face. Probably not, she thought starkly, pulling the lovely silk dress over her head. Like all the other clothes, she’d leave it behind when she left Fala’isi.

      She was just coming out of the bathroom when her door opened again, and Luke came in, moving with the noiseless, predatory gait of some big animal. When he saw her, he stopped, and the door swung closed behind him.

      ‘I did knock,’ he said abruptly. ‘I didn’t realise you were in the shower.’

      Shocked into silence, Fleur watched him with enormous eyes. Against Luke’s black and white splendour she felt very undressed in the camisole and matching shorts she wore to bed, and very vulnerable, too, she thought with painful honesty, a pulse beating rapidly in her throat. She looked around for her wrap, but it was in the wardrobe and she wasn’t going to walk across there in her flimsy garments.

      Luke said curtly, ‘We need to talk.’

      She swallowed. ‘About what?’

      ‘Something that’s come up.’ His mouth compressed. ‘Where’s your dressing gown?’

      ‘In the wardrobe. Shut your eyes.’

      Shrugging, he obeyed, and she scuttled across the room to the wardrobe and pulled on the crisp cotton dressing gown. Tying the belt around her waist she said, ‘Is this about Gabrielle?’

      Luke’s opened eyes were uncomfortably penetrating. ‘Why?’

      ‘Because if it is I think you should know what she said to me this evening.’

      Luke’s frown deepened while she hastily sketched in the substance of the conversation. When she’d finished he said without inflection, ‘I wonder if that’s what her grandfather’s told her.’

      ‘Is it true?’

      Her heart picked up speed while she waited for his answer.

      But when it came it wasn’t exactly comforting. ‘I bought everything from him two years ago.’

      He went on with harsh distinctness, ‘He didn’t sell his interests to me as a sweetener for a marriage deal. It was a purely business decision, because he has nobody else to leave them to—Gabrielle’s father died young, СКАЧАТЬ