Lucas came a little closer, a mocking smile curving his lips, blue eyes glinting. ‘Quite a lot, as I recall, amore,’ he declared in the sexy undertone she remembered so well but had never thought to hear from him again. Just like years ago, it sent shivers up and down her spine.
As he spoke, those mesmerising eyes ran over her with deliberate provocation, making her feel as if he had actually touched her, though there was virtually the width of the room between them. Her nervous system shot into overdrive and every hair on her body rose up. It was still an incredible sensation and made her feel weak at the knees.
Yet it was totally inappropriate, considering the circumstances, and Sofie battled to keep her reaction from showing, because she knew his look was a taunt to test her responses. He was toying with her and she couldn’t allow him to see how he still had the power to affect her so strongly.
‘Back in the day, maybe, but not now,’ she declared stolidly, forcing her legs to propel her to the desk, where she was able to lean against it and take the weight off her trembling knees.
Hands still in pockets, he strolled towards her, and she was made vitally aware of the strength and power in those long legs and muscular thighs. She could recall in minute detail how they felt wrapped around hers and it set a pulse throbbing way down inside her. She very nearly groaned and willed herself to stop her thoughts from taking that wayward path.
‘Why not? After all, nothing has changed between us,’ he countered smoothly, the words ricocheting through her system, setting her stomach turning.
Her eyes widened. What game was he playing now? What could he possibly hope to achieve by going down this road? Clearing a throat that showed a disconcerting tendency to dry up at his staggering claim, she managed to speak. ‘I left you. That would be called a change.’
‘True, but I discovered something interesting the other night. Despite my feelings about what you did, that connection between us was still there. Across the clichéd crowded room, it was as hot and as powerful as ever. It’s not over, is it, caro?’ Lucas challenged softly, setting her pulse racing madly.
Sofie staggered mentally and flipped open the appointment book with trembling fingers, pretending to read it. This was a tack she had never thought he would take. He couldn’t mean anything by it; it was just a means of rattling her chain. And he was rattling it—violently. ‘D-don’t be ridiculous. Everything was over when I left. I told you the other evening it was a waste of time pursuing this.’ She made herself glance up at him. ‘Look, I’m too busy for this. Do you want David to take your picture?’ she asked curtly, and the gleam in his eyes grew more intense.
‘That too.’
Her nerves leapt so much it must have been visible. Concurrently, anger suddenly welled up and she looked him squarely in the eye. ‘Stop it, Lucas! This isn’t funny. I don’t have time for your games. In fact, I think you should leave right now!’
‘Who said it was a game? You and I have plenty of unfinished business between us. More than I imagined. So, I won’t be going anywhere just yet. Let’s say I plan to investigate the possibilities more fully. Besides, you used to want to be alone with me,’ he confided, still with just the faintest hint of mocking amusement in his tone.
She stared at him, her large green eyes incredulous. ‘Let me see if I have this straight. You’re telling me you still want me and you think I want you too?’ He was quite right, of course. The pull of sexual attraction was so incredibly strong she felt shivery and had to battle a primal instinct which was urging her to close the distance between them. It was taking all her strength to remain where she was.
Lucas laughed. ‘I don’t think, caro, I know. There was always this powerful chemistry between us. I felt it the instant I saw you again, and so did you.’
Also true, but once again she refused to admit it. ‘Don’t presume to know me.’
‘Can any man truly know a woman? Look at my own situation. I thought I knew you, but I never suspected that you would just up and leave the way you did. However, when it comes to recognising physical attraction, I’m never wrong. You still want me, Sofie. If I kissed you right now, you’d melt in my arms just as you always did.’
She couldn’t withhold a gasp at his sheer gall, true though she knew it to be. ‘You have a n-nerve!’ she protested, and he laughed out loud.
‘Actually I have thousands and, though I would wish it otherwise, they’re all responding to you! Urging me to kiss you. To answer the mystery of how those luscious lips would taste now.’
Naturally, that drew her eyes to his lips, and all her senses suddenly wanted to know the taste and feel of them again. ‘If you tried to kiss me, I’d slap your face!’
‘No, you wouldn’t,’ he argued with conviction, and her pulse jumped because, of course, he was right.
Which was why she couldn’t allow it to go unchallenged. ‘And you know this because…’
His answer was to step closer so he could reach out and touch the pulse that beat at the base of her throat. Sofie felt the contact to the very core of her. It was like getting a powerful electric charge that sent shockwaves rippling through her. Her breath caught as he looked deeply into her eyes.
‘Your pulse is racing, caro,’ he declared mockingly.
She brushed his hand away. ‘Of c-course it is. I’m angry with you!’ she stammered, and his lips curved into a broader smile.
‘Liar,’ he countered softly. ‘If you were truly angry, you would be sending out totally different vibrations, giving an altogether different message.’
‘I’m not sending any message!’ she retorted gamely, all the while floundering in this totally unexpected situation.
‘You might not want to be, but you are. I know all the subliminal signals you send out. Your message is as clear as if you had used neon lights!’ he told her confidently, and her stomach lurched nervously. She didn’t want him to know her so well. She needed him to be blinded by anger. Only then could she be sure of keeping her secret hidden.
Unable to retreat from the field he had chosen to fight on, she folded her arms across her chest and squared up to him. ‘Th-that’s one heck of an ego you’ve got,’ she returned derisively.
Lucas shrugged, unfazed by her claim. ‘What you call ego, I call simple honesty. If you weren’t attracted to me, why were you watching me so ravenously the other night?’
Sofie caught her breath at his choice of words. ‘I was looking at a lot of people,’ she corrected firmly, though her voice held the faintest of wobbles.
‘Indeed you were, but none of them did you watch as you watched me,’ he countered boldly. ‘So much hidden passion, caro! It begs the question, why did you leave me when you still want me so much after all this time?’
He had given her an opening and she used it. ‘Yes, well…s-sex isn’t everything,’ she said as she struggled to find something else to say. When they came, they were painfully hard words to utter. ‘W-when I realised there was…nothing else going for us, I…I left.’ Oh, she ought to be struck down for the lie! She had wanted everything from him—she still did. However, her distrust would never let her risk her heart again.
If her answer stung, he didn’t show it. In response he raised his eyebrows. ‘Really? And yet I have the distinct memory of you telling me I was the love of your life,’ he said softly, and his blue gaze lanced into hers, testing her reaction.
Sofie had to brace herself to look him in the eye. ‘I must have lied,’ she denied croakily, and it hurt to say it, because he was, and always would be, her only love. ‘I s-suppose I wanted you to ask me to marry you out of sheer vanity. Y-you were quite a catch, you know.’ She watched him for signs of anger, but he was too much in control to reveal anything. She couldn’t begin to guess what he was thinking.
‘If I was that much of a catch, why leave the goose that lays the golden egg?’
She managed to shrug, pretending an indifference she could never feel. Of course she hadn’t married him for his money, though if it woul
d speed his departure she would allow him to think so. Fortunately she had an answer ready. ‘I didn’t want to be trapped that way.’
That brought a sardonic twist to his lips. ‘How unlucky for you, because you’re still trapped, caro. The marriage wasn’t dissolved and, as you left me, the matter of divorce is in my hands.’
‘Then let me go,’ she urged in a flash, willing him to agree.
Lucas tipped his head on one side thoughtfully. ‘You know, caro, I would, were it not for one thing. I’m not ready to let you go yet.’
Anxiety brought a lump to her throat and she had to swallow hard. ‘B-but you have to!’
He laughed, a far from pleasant sound, revealing at last some of the anger inside him. ‘I have to do nothing. I have control here, Sofie. You signed up for the whole nine yards. I don’t think a couple of months is much of a bargain. As I said, you owe me, and I fully intend to collect—in kind.’
Sofie’s heart contracted and her breath failed her. ‘Y-you can’t possibly be suggesting that you and I…’ The words wouldn’t form, but she knew what he was proposing—that she return to the marriage bed until he said enough. ‘That’s positively medieval! I—I’d have to be crazy to agree!’
Lucas shrugged. ‘On the contrary, it would be crazy to refuse—if you want your freedom.’
Sofie stared at him, hardly crediting what she was hearing. The man she had fallen in love with would never have suggested such a thing. But then, she hadn’t believed that he would ever betray her, either.
‘I will never give in to blackmail. You and I getting back together for any reason can never happen,’ she responded tautly, attempting to regain control of the situation.
‘Never say never, Sofie. It’s tantamount to a challenge, or is that what you intended all along?’
Her nerves skittered because that hadn’t been her intention at all. ‘Why would I challenge you? I want you out of my life, not back in it!’ He had to go—for more than one reason. She couldn’t allow him to find out about Tom, and she couldn’t let him try to work his magic on her—she was far too susceptible to it.
‘That, I’m afraid, is unlikely to happen any time soon. However, let me get to the point of my visit and leave you alone for the rest of the afternoon. I came to tell you I shall be taking you to dinner this evening.’
Sofie’s stomach leapt at the blunt statement of intent, but at least it stirred her sleeping temper. ‘You came to tell me? What if I have other plans?’ she challenged angrily, but Lucas was unmoved.
‘Cancel them,’ he commanded shortly, and they were staring at each other like protagonists in a ring when the telephone rang.
‘Shall I take the call or would that interfere with your plans?’ she asked sarcastically, which brought a mocking smile to his lips.
‘By all means take the call,’ he insisted calmly, making her blood boil.
Muttering under her breath at his cavalier tactics, she reached for the receiver. ‘Hello?’ she greeted the caller, hoping that if it turned out to be a long call Lucas might leave.
‘Hi, gorgeous, why haven’t you rung me?’ challenged a familiar voice, and Sofie laughed affectionately, half turning away from Lucas for a little privacy, as the man on the other end of the line was Nick Colclough, a local gallery owner who was trying to persuade her into putting on a show of her work. So far she had refused.
‘Sorry, Nick, but I’ve been busy. You know how it is. How was the trip?’ Nick had been holidaying in the Bahamas with his family.
‘Incredible. Let’s have lunch and I’ll tell you all about it,’ he suggested cheerfully.
‘Can’t, I’m afraid, I’m having a working lunch today,’ she refused truthfully.
‘Dinner, then. I’ve had an idea about a combined showing that might tempt you into saying yes. We need to talk it over,’ Nick urged her to agree, and Sofie was tempted to accept just to put Lucas’s nose out of joint. However caution prevailed.
‘Could we make it lunch tomorrow? I have…plans for tonight,’ she told him, glancing over her shoulder at Lucas, who, she discovered, was watching her intently.
‘With anyone I know?’ Nick responded cheekily, and Sofie laughed wryly.
‘It’s just business,’ she corrected, wishing it really were that simple. ‘See you tomorrow, Nick. Bye.’ She ended the conversation and set the receiver back down.
‘Boyfriend trouble?’ Lucas asked casually when she turned back to him, and Sofie sighed heavily, combing her hair back with her fingers.
‘Nick’s a friend, nothing more,’ she retorted tiredly. Her lack of sleep was catching up with her, shortening her temper when she really needed to be cool and controlled.
One eyebrow lifted. ‘Really? Does he know that?’
She looked at him squarely, eyes flashing angrily. ‘Nick is a happily married man. Our relationship, such as it is, is strictly professional,’ she informed him firmly.
Lucas merely nodded. ‘Good, because for the foreseeable future you won’t be seeing other men,’ he said bluntly, and now it was her turn to raise her eyebrows.
‘Just because we’re still technically married, don’t think you can order me about,’ she warned him, and those blue eyes took on a challenging glitter.
‘You misunderstand me. It was a statement, not an order. You won’t be seeing other men because you won’t want to,’ he corrected in a voice as smooth as velvet and, though she wasn’t about to say so, she knew full well that Lucas was more than enough for any woman.
However, it would only count if she were about to comply with his wishes, and she wasn’t that foolish. ‘Well, now,’ Sofie said doggedly, folding her arms, ‘we’ll have to see about that, won’t we?’
It was a challenge no red-blooded man could ignore and Lucas stepped closer, so that every increasingly ragged breath she took brought with it the spice of his cologne mixed with his unique scent. ‘Do you doubt it?’
She inhaled deeply and incredibly had the urge to close her eyes and savour it. ‘It’s beside the point. I have no intention of playing your games!’
At that he smiled with lazy confidence. ‘Then it’s up to me to get you to change your mind,’ he countered, not about to take no for an answer. Flicking back his cuff, he glanced at his wrist-watch. ‘I have to go. I shall pick you up at eight. Don’t be late.’
Sofie blinked at the sudden change to brisk businessman. ‘I haven’t said I was going to have dinner with you,’ she reminded him.
‘No, but we both know you are. Besides, you put Nick off for me,’ he came back swiftly and she gritted her teeth, reluctantly accepting he had won the point.
‘You don’t know where I live.’
His beautiful lips twitched. ‘Don’t I? You’d be surprised what I’ve discovered about you in the last couple of days, Sofie,’ he told her, and immediately icy fingers tightened about her heart as she contemplated what that might be. ‘You live in a cottage in a village just outside the city. You started working here a couple of years ago and have a small bank account, but no credit card, under the name of Talbot. How am I doing so far?’
Sofie felt giddy with relief. He knew nothing about Tom! ‘It’s amazing what money can do!’ she retorted snappily.
‘Why the name Talbot? You never quite explained that.’
She didn’t want to explain it now either, but it occurred to her that if she wanted him to stop digging it would be in her best interests to give him some facts herself. ‘After my Grandma Talbot, on my mother’s side. She was the one who got me interested in photography.’
‘We never did get around to talking about our families, did we? We were far too busy making love,’ Lucas pointed out ironically. ‘Now, I really must go. Until tonight. And Sofie…’ he gave her a penetrating look ‘…don’t even think about backing out.’
With that word of warning, he finally strode out of the studio, leaving Sofie to collapse on to the seat behind the desk and prop her head in her hands. She couldn’t believe what had just pass
ed between them. Lucas had to be crazy to think she would ever agree to his plan for them. He might have a right to be angry at her leaving without giving him a chance to defend himself, but the payment he demanded was going too far!
She rubbed her hands over her face, trying to think. There had to be something she could do to get him to change his mind. Whatever she did, it had to be tonight, for she couldn’t have him lingering around her in case he would find out about Tom.
Tom! Her stomach lurched as she realised that her son would be at home when Lucas called for her. If he should see him, then he was far too astute a man not to realise that Tom was his. The consequences of him knowing were too great. She couldn’t lose her son. It would destroy her. Battening down on a rising sense of panic, she knew she must keep Tom hidden.
Reaching for the telephone, she dialled a number and shortly a familiar voice answered. ‘Hi, Jenny, it’s Sofie. I have a really big favour to ask you…’
Minutes later she set the receiver back on its cradle and took a calming breath. It was all arranged. Now all she had to do was survive the rest of the evening.
CHAPTER THREE
THAT evening Sofie felt able to take a long, hopefully relaxing bath, secure in the knowledge that Tom was staying over at Jenny’s house and would never know that Lucas had been and gone. Her conscience troubled her, though. Having discovered she was pregnant after leaving Lucas, there had been a good reason not to tell him about the baby. Not to tell him now felt wrong, but she had lied herself into a corner. It was fear of what Lucas would say, what he would do, that sealed her lips now.
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