The Price of a Wife

by Helen Brooks

  He thought she was a hard career woman who had willingly chosen to pursue her vocation at the cost of marriage and a family, and who just happened to be without a man at the moment. In his world it would probably be the normal thing for her to pop into bed with him, and then they would enjoy a brief affair until either one of them tired of the fun. No strings, no recriminations, nothing heavy.

  But she wasn't like that. What would he do if she told him she was a virgin? The thought brought a brief surge of hysteria that she squashed immediately. She shouldn't have let herself relax so completely, enjoy herself so much. It was those cocktails and then the wine. And him. Definitely him.

  'Well, I thought the food was wonderful,' she said, with a careful coolness that was quite at odds with the mad pounding of her heart. 'Thank you very much for the lovely evening.'

  'You are very welcome.' His voice was grave but slightly mocking as his piercing eyes wandered over her flushed cheeks and anxious mouth. He settled back in his seat again, his big body relaxed and his face cool and sardonic. 'Would you like coffee here, or perhaps it would be more comfortable back at the hotel?'

  'I think here would be nice,' she said primly as she tried to fight both the cloudy effects of the alcohol she had imbibed far too freely—first in panic and then because she simply hadn't realised what she was doing—and her own feelings of attraction for the man sitting opposite her.

  And she was attracted to him. It was a relief to finally admit it, and with the acknowledgement came the realisation that she had been fighting just that very thing since the first moment of laying eyes on him.

  What was it with her anyway? she asked herself with grim ruefulness as she nerved herself to look into the silver-grey gaze trained on her hot face. Had she got a death wish or something? Even an experienced, worldly coquette like Charlotte Montgomery, who changed her men along with her nail varnish, would have trouble handling this man.

  'Here? You're sure?' He smiled slowly, and she had to admit it was a devastatingly sensual technique that would make most women melt. But she nodded firmly as she smiled a polite if unknowingly nervous smile. 'Here it is, then…' He didn't seem at all put out, and although part of her was relieved that he had accepted her decision so gracefully a tiny part of her, unawakened until this very moment, was piqued.

  The easy conversation and laughter of the meal was a thing of the past as they sipped their coffee. Josie's whole body was as tight as a coiled spring and Luke was sardonic and mordant when she answered his efforts at conversation with monosyllables which if they weren't exactly rude came very close to it.

  She was aware that she was handling this whole thing extremely badly, and conscious of the fact that he must be wondering what the hell was going on, but she had never been more frightened in her life. She had let her guard down, for the first time in the whole of her adult life, and she didn't understand why or how she could be so physically attracted to a man she had only known a few days when she had had no trouble of that kind in the whole of the last thirteen years.

  They left the restaurant with the head waiter virtually bowing them out, his face wreathed in smiles, and although the man's obsequiousness wasn't Luke's fault Josie felt as angry with him as though it were.

  'What's wrong?' They had been travelling in silence for some miles, and when Luke spoke Josie jumped visibly before she could control herself.

  'Wrong?' She forced a bright smile that was wasted on the man sitting next to her as he concentrated on the dark, unlit road through the windscreen. The restaurant had been situated in rolling countryside—part of its appeal, Luke had assured her when she had spoken of it during the meal— and they were now travelling through what looked like farmland on a lonely road that she remembered from a few hours ago was almost devoid of other traffic. 'Nothing's wrong.'

  'I don't believe you.' The deep voice was perfectly calm. 'You were enjoying yourself there for a time during the meal, weren't you? What is wrong with that?'

  'Nothing—'

  'And then you scuttled back behind that inch-thick armour with almost indecent haste,' he continued mockingly. 'Even fierce career women are allowed a few hours off occasionally, or hasn't anyone told you?'

  He thought her retreat, which on reflection had been a little obvious, was down to her concern about her image? She wasn't sure whether to be relieved or vexed that he considered her so shallow. Vexation won, and her voice was sharp when she spoke. 'Do you really like going to places like that, where you are made such a fuss of?' she asked tightly. 'Is that sort of thing important to you?'

  'You think I took you there to make some sort of impression?' he asked, with a silky note to his voice that fooled her for a moment, until she glanced at his hard profile and the straight line of his mouth. 'Is that what this is all about?'

  'I didn't say that.' Oh, hell, why hadn't she kept her big mouth shut? she thought despairingly. She was going to look an idiot however this conversation went.

  'I see. So you were just enquiring as to my ego level for the sake of social intercourse?' he drawled derisively. 'Your own special type of after-dinner conversation, I presume?'

  'I… It…' She'd been right; she was looking an idiot. The knowledge provided the burst of adrenalin she needed to bring her stammering voice under control and straighten her back against the leather seat. 'Mr Hawkton—'

  'I don't believe we're back to Mr Hawkton.' She could have hit him for the laconic amusement deepening the cool voice.

  'Luke,' she amended hastily. 'I didn't mean—'

  'Don't lie to me, Josie.' Now there was no humour tempering the silky steel. 'I've been lied to by experts, who have had immediate cause to regret it. You have me down as an egotist, the type of man who is so full of his own importance, so self-absorbed, that he finds it necessary to flaunt his assets at every opportunity, to rely on the suspect admiration of dependants to boost his credibility with a beautiful woman. That was what you meant…'

  He paused, and she found she was holding her breath. 'No doubt you have met a considerable number of such sad people in the world you and I inhabit. The rat race is fierce, with everybody using their wealth and power to guard their space, making them easily prone to corruption. I am aware of that, and also that a beautiful woman like yourself must have been propositioned more times than she can remember.'

  She didn't say anything; there was nothing to say.

  'But I play the game of life by my own rules, Josie, and I've never had the need to bribe or coerce a woman into my bed.'

  The hard, sensual face turned to her for just one second, and she shivered at the aura of pure masculinity that was so sexually attractive it hurt. Bribe or coerce? she thought with a faint touch of hysteria. He probably had to fight them off in droves.

  She was just about to make a suitably defusing type of reply, to get the conversation back on a more neutral level, when they rounded a corner in the dark country road to find several large cows standing stolidly in their path, their big faces turned towards the car's headlights. She was aware of Luke swearing grimly at her side at the same moment as he swung the car into the grass verge, the brakes screaming as the car nosedived into the long, shallow ditch beyond. Her seat belt clutched her as she jerked forward, the engine made a harsh tearing sound, and then all was quiet besides the disconcerted mooing of the disturbed bovines.

  'Are you all right?' Luke turned to her instantly. 'Are you hurt at all?'

  'I don't think so…' She hadn't had time to think, it had all happened so fast, but now the memory of that other crash thirteen years ago turned her legs to jelly and his face began to blur in the moonlight.

  'You aren't going to pass out. Josie...' He undid her seat belt as he spoke roughly in her ear, before opening his door and moving round the back of the car to the passenger side, whereupon he almost dragged her from her seat into the mild night air. 'Josie, take some deep breaths. Come on…'

  It was the fact that she was enclosed in his arms, rather than any medicinal
properties in the slight breeze outside the car, that put a surge of feeling where faintness had reigned, enabling her to stand upright instead of sagging against the hard wall of his chest. 'I'm OK…'

  He didn't let her go immediately and she was painfully, vitally aware of the muscled strength of his chest through the thin silk shirt he was wearing. His jacket was open and hanging either side of her as his arms continued to enclose her softness. 'There's no rush. Take some deep breaths and relax; you'll be fine,' he murmured softly against her hair.

  Not with you holding me like this, I won't, she thought ruefully. Relaxing and being held next to Luke Hawkton's body weren't compatible. 'Really, I'm all right now.' She forced a smile as she raised her face to look up at him, in an effort to reinforce her words. This was the present; the past was dead and gone, she told herself firmly.

  His eyes held hers for a few endless moments, glittering silver in the darkness of his face, and then he lowered his head, brushing her lips in a light, tantalisingly light caress as he carefully put her to one side. 'I'd better inspect the damage in that case,' he said quietly.

  She hoped, oh, she did so hope that he was unaware of what that brief embrace had done to her, the way it had reduced her to a quivering mess inside, while he… He was the original Mr Cool.

  She watched him now as he raised the bonnet of the car and bent over into murky blackness. 'I can't see a damn thing in here,' he muttered after a few seconds had ticked by. 'I don't suppose there's such a thing as a torch in this hire car.'

  'Do you want me to look?' she asked quickly. Anything would be a relief compared to the racing of her thoughts. She knew the embrace and brief kiss had been nothing more than an effort to comfort on his part, that he would have done the same to any female, and she didn't like the way it had affected her.

  'No, don't worry.' He straightened, his outline big and dark in the moonlight. 'There's no way I'm going to be able to get this thing out of the ditch tonight, so it's immaterial whether the engine's survived or not. Stupid animals…' He turned his head to survey the cows, who had fled back into the field bordering the other side of the road via a hole in the wire fence they must have escaped through earlier and were lumbering away into the darkness.

  'Won't…won't we need a torch to see our way?' she proffered tentatively as he moved back to her side.

  'Where exactly are you thinking of going?' he asked lazily, a faint smile twisting his lips. 'There's nothing for miles except fields and grass.'

  'But we can't stay here.' She pushed a shaky hand through her tumbled hair and then wished she hadn't as the narrowed eyes watching her so closely slanted still more, indicating that he had noticed her trembling.

  'No?' he said indolently. 'Is there something I'm missing? Why can't we stay here, Josie?'

  He knew. He knew what he did to her and he was enjoying this, every moment of it, playing with her like a cat with a mouse. How dared he? How dared he? Her chin came up, her mouth thinned and her body tensed for battle. 'Because we could be here all night if no one comes along. It's very lonely—'

  'Isn't it?' he agreed laconically.

  'So we have to try and get some help,' she persevered, hanging onto both her temper and her dignity with severe difficulty. This was her employer… like it or not. And she didn't. She certainly didn't.

  'Do I take it the panic in your voice is caused not so much by a fear of the dark, or wide-open spaces and large animals, that sort of thing, but more by the thought of a night in close proximity to me?' Luke asked with deceptive softness.

  'Not at all.' Her chin tilted even higher, but he was completely still as he stood there looking down at her diminutive shape, and she couldn't read a thing in his dark face. 'It's just that I've some work to do when we get back, that's all.'

  'Work. Yes, I see…'

  'And you must be very busy,' she continued desperately, her heart fluttering like a captive bird at his quiet scrutiny. 'I'm sure you're in a hurry to get back.'

  'Strangely, no…'

  He was going to kiss her. As the dark head lowered she knew she ought to protest, to make some movement to repulse him, but she found herself rooted to the spot as he curved a powerful arm round her shoulderblades and drew her against his muscled chest, so close that she was enfolded in the delicious smell of him that had been titillating her senses for the last few minutes.

  She closed her eyes, her head falling back instinctively as her lips parted, but after a few seconds she opened them again to find him staring down at her, the silver gaze narrowed and inscrutable, and then he whisked her off her feet and deposited her back inside the car.

  'What…?' She must have spoken out loud, because when he joined her a few moments later his dark face was mockingly satisfied.

  'You were getting wet feet out there.' He indicated her sodden shoes with a flick of his head. 'I thought you would be more comfortable in here,' he said smoothly as he glanced her way.

  'Did you?' she said flatly, and her face burnt hotly. He had known she expected him to kiss her, damn it; he had engineered that whole little episode to mate her look foolish. And she hadn't even noticed she was standing in two or three inches of water. How could she not have noticed? What had all that been anyway? A lesson to teach her that he could take or leave her? Was that it? Retribution for the panic he had sensed earlier?

  His next words seemed to confirm her suspicion.

  'You're quite safe, Josie.' He tugged his bow tie loose as he spoke, leaving it hanging either side of his collar as he undid the first two buttons of his shirt, the result of which sent her senses into overdrive as the sudden informality hit her like a fist in the chest. 'It's been years since I seduced a date in the back of my car. I prefer more… comfortable surroundings these days.'

  'I'm not a date,' she said, more breathlessly than she would have liked.

  'Exactly.' The silver eyes glittered for a moment. 'So you are doubly safe, yes?'

  'I never thought my safety was in question,' she said with forced lightness.

  'Good. In that case you will understand my reasons for not taking you on a route march across the countryside in the vain hope that we'll stumble across some habitation,' be said lazily. 'We have no idea where the nearest house is, and, romantic though the moonlight is—' he cast a mocking glance at her hot face '—it's not conducive to midnight rambles. Twisted ankles or broken legs are not on my agenda for this trip, OK? Now, some late-night traveller might well come across us before morning, and the farm vehicles are out at dawn—'

  'And failing that we follow the cows home for milking?' she said brightly, determined to act as though a night spent with Luke Hawkton didn't bother her an iota.

  'Just so.'

  He smiled that slow, sensual smile that had the power to turn her inside out, and she gulped deep in her throat as she lowered her head, allowing her hair to fall in a veil across her burning face.

  'In spite of the beautiful weather I don't think that dress is going to be warm enough…'

  To her horror, her utter horror, he shrugged off his jacket as he spoke, the thin silk of his evening shirt accentuating the massive shoulders and muscled chest more effectively than nudity would have done. She could see dark body hair curling on his chest where his shirt was undone, and, as her hands went damp and her mouth went dry, her blood heated to fever-pitch and she shut her eyes tightly.

  'Thank you.' Her voice was a squeak as he placed the jacket over her, and immediately the warmth and smell from his skin enveloped her with the dark material, causing her lower stomach to tighten and throb.

  'You're very welcome.'

  His voice was grave and she didn't dare glance at his face, keeping her eyes shut as she settled into the car seat, feigning tiredness. In fact she had never been more awake in her life, every nerve, every sinew screaming for release. She kept absolutely still for several minutes until he spoke again, his vote silky and cool in the darkness.

  'Cows I can take, and even the fact that I've put the ca
r in a ditch in the middle of nowhere and there's an important call coming through from Canada to the hotel at midnight doesn't bother me too much, but what does annoy me is the fact that you're as rigid as a board. What the hell do you expect me to do to you, for crying out loud? I thought I'd reassured you that rape isn't my style?'

  Josie turned slightly and looted at him carefully, trying to make her face as blank as possible to combat the brilliant colour staining her flushed cheeks. 'I don't know what you are talking about,' she said tightly.

  'No?' His eyebrows expressed his disbelief as they moved into a harsh frown. 'Lady, you're so nervous you'd have me believing I was the Marquis de Sade if I didn't know differently.'

  'I'm not nervous.' She glared at him now as her temper was fired. 'I was merely thinking about what we discussed today, running over a few ideas in my mind.'

  'As your employer, I can only applaud such conscientiousness.' His voice was expressionless but she sensed sarcasm, although the dark, rugged features were giving nothing away, his eyes hooded and indolent as he looked back at her. 'You aren't the average sort of businesswoman, are you?' He shifted in the seat slightly as he spoke, obviously finding its tight confines too restricting for his big body, and she tensed at the movement before forcing herself to relax.

  'You don't think so?' she asked quietly.

  'No. No, I don't think so,' he said softly, repeating her words with musing mockery. 'You're so tiny, for a start, so delicate and…breakable. How the hell do you survive in the jungle we inhabit anyway?'

  'I don't think my part of the jungle is anything like yours.' She wanted to turn away from him, to drop her eyes from that glittering gaze, but it mesmerised her. 'I just do my job the best I can, and I enjoy it, of course—that helps. And I'm quite tough, actually; appearances can be deceptive.'