Partners in Love

by Saunders, Jean

  Gnawing away at the back of her mind was something else, though — something of more immediate importance. A suspicion was forming in her mind. She didn’t want to think about it, but there was no way she could avoid it. Back in the cove she had been too incensed with the stranger’s insolent masculinity to question what he was doing there, even though he had looked nothing like the usual tourist. And what about his companion? Robin remembered the way the other man had been scrutinising the hillside. She’d wondered briefly whether he had been bird-watching — either the feathered or the female variety, she thought dryly — but now there was something else she remembered.

  The stranger had made an odd comment: “I wasn’t aware you’d taken a lease on this particular patch of sand ...”

  It was that use of the word lease that did it. Robin felt her heart begin to pound sickeningly. It had to be, of course — the unknown Mr. Burgess, who was coming to dinner that evening and with whom her father was entering into some kind of dubious partnership. Who was going to profit most? Robin wondered cynically. Well, she’d keep a very shrewd eye on things tonight, and if there was any hint of dirty business, she’d clamp down on it fast. Her father knew all about buying and selling in the retail book trade, but she was willing to bet the stranger at the beach would win hands down when it came to big business deals. And Robin wasn’t going to let him get the better of her father ...

  She had the advantage over Mr. Burgess. She had guessed his identity, while she doubted if he even knew she existed. She dressed with care that evening. If he thought he was dealing with simple folk, as she had referred to herself, he could think again. Robin looped her golden hair up into a more sophisticated style and wore long drop earrings that gleamed in the light. She dressed in a simple black cocktail dress with a deep neckline and caressing figure-moulding shape. On her feet she wore slender high-heeled sandals with diamante straps that would put her a little nearer the stranger’s height. Her face glowed with the honeyed suntan and the soft lip gloss and green eyeshadow she’d subtly applied. She knew very well what she was doing and that she looked fantastic. She’d let him think she was playing up to him, and she’d find out just exactly what his game was in developing property down there at the back of nowhere. Instinct told her he wasn’t just doing it for the benefit of the tourists. He was in it for himself, and she had every intention of letting him know she despised him for it. He’d have a shock when he saw her and discovered just who she was.

  The guests had already arrived by the time Robin made her entrance down the long curving staircase into the drawing room, where she heard her father laughing over some little joke with his two companions. For a moment Robin hesitated. Maybe it wasn’t the stranger she’d met that day after all. What a fool she’d feel then, after going to all this trouble. She didn’t admit that she’d be more than a little piqued if it wasn’t him.

  Not for a moment would she allow the thought to enter her mind that she wanted to see the admiration the stranger had already accorded her, acknowledging the unspoken attraction between a man and a woman, sweeter than any words, an exhilaration of the senses. Robin heard the stranger laugh and knew it was he.

  She pushed open the drawing-room door and three people turned towards her, different expressions on their faces: her father, slightly anxious, mutely hopeful for her acceptance of the situation and her support; the young man, whom Robin assumed to be the surveyor, and who now seemed struck totally dumb at seeing this golden vision in front of him; and the stranger — the nonstranger, Robin thought — who was now wearing an elegant dark brown velvet dinner jacket and immaculate white shirt, his legs encased in beautifully pressed trousers. The creases at the sides of his blue eyes were more defined now, and there was a triumphant gleam in his eyes as his gaze possessed her for the briefest moment, but long enough to take in every inch of her appearance. Then her father was making the introductions and she learned that his name was Luke Burgess.

  Smiling sweetly, Robin held out her hand. The second Luke took it in his own, holding it with seductive gentleness as his forefinger made tingling little movements against her palm, unseen by anyone else, Robin knew that he had known all along who she was.

  “It’s so good to see you again, Miss Pollard.” It was just as if he knew she was dressed up like that for a purpose, she raged, even while she smiled sweetly at him. And he was outplaying her at her own game.

  Chapter Two

  “Have you two met before?” James Pollard asked at once.

  Robin eased her hand out of Luke’s. She could still feel the pressure of his fingers and resisted the urge to rub at her palm to rid herself of the tingling sensation his touch had evoked. She turned to her father.

  “Just briefly at the cove today.” She spoke blandly enough, but her mouth trembled slightly. Normally she said “my cove,” but tonight the full force of knowing it was no longer exclusively hers was hitting her between the eyes. It had never been really hers, Robin thought honestly, but that didn’t alter the fact that it was this man who was taking away a childhood dream.

  “I thought it must be your lovely daughter, Mr. Pollard,” Luke said easily. “Anyone taking the trouble to climb down those steep steps in the hillside had to be local, and since this house is the only one around here, I put two and two together.”

  So he can count, too, Robin thought sarcastically.

  “We’ve always liked it that way,” she said coolly. “Being the only house around here, I mean.”

  Her eyes clashed with Luke’s for a moment, and then she turned to the other man, Bill Withers, to ask what he thought of Cornwall, giving him all her attention and hoping Luke felt the snub as sharply as she had meant it.

  “It’s a very pleasant part of England,” Bill began with enthusiasm, only to pause as he heard James Pollard’s chuckle.

  “Don’t call it England in front of the natives, Bill,” he said lightly. “Don’t you know we consider them all foreigners east of the Tamar?”

  “I thought that was a little piece of folklore put about for the tourists,” Luke commented. His fingers stroked the stem of his glass with a small caressing motion, and Robin found her eyes being drawn to the movement against her will. Imagining those same hands caressing her skin, her mouth ... good grief, what had her father put in her glass tonight! she thought abruptly. She wasn’t usually so affected by the appearance of a stranger, especially one who was planning to spoil her private heaven.

  She put her glass down on a little table and stared serenely at the man who was causing such a churning inside of her.

  “Oh, if you stay down here awhile, I think you’ll get the idea that Cornwall is primarily for the Cornish, Mr. Burgess.”

  “Luke, please,” he instructed. “But you must agree that without the tourists it’s a dying county. All the statistics prove that you need them. The old fishing industry has petered out; the tin mines are worked out and the mines generally derelict except for a few; the china clay industry is not as prosperous as it once was ...”

  “You’ve done your homework,” Robin had to admit, finding her temper begin to rise at his calm dismissal of the things that had made her home county great. “But we still have our heritage, Mr. Burgess — all right, Luke,” she added, at the little quirk of his eyebrows. “We’re still a fiercely proud people who don’t take kindly to strangers and especially those who come storming down here and expect to change us —”

  “Like property developers and tourists,” he finished for her.

  In the silence that followed, Robin realised that the brief exchange had got a little heated, their voices rising. There was nothing of the genteel visitor about the man, she raged. He was ruthless and dynamic and knew exactly what he wanted. There was a sudden dark gleam in the blue eyes holding hers, and Robin knew with an instant unbidden thrill that he wanted her.

  It was raw, sensual need that she glimpsed in his eyes for that moment before he veiled the briefly revealed animal desire. But Robin had seen it and r
ecognised it and knew, to her fury, that it had struck an answering spark in her that she despised. Of all the men in the world, she wouldn’t let herself fall for this arrogant, macho stranger...

  Her father was laughing as Mrs. Drew, the housekeeper-cum-factotum, announced that dinner was ready in the dining room. “You’ve met your match with Luke, Robin,” he said. He was openly amused at finding a man willing to stand up and spar verbally with his headstrong daughter and not flinch after the first few caustic remarks. He’d told her once that she was never going to find a man until she curbed her sharp tongue, and that it would take a strong-willed man to tame her.

  Infuriated, Robin remembered his teasing words as Luke Burgess took her arm to accompany her into the dining room. Again she was aware of the pressure of his touch — of everything about him. And the thought that suddenly stunned her was that here was a man who was man enough to satisfy any woman.

  All through dinner she became increasingly aware of the fact that her father and Bill Withers seemed to be holding one conversation, while she and Luke were managing quite well to hold another — one that, to Robin’s chagrin, was charged with double meanings. Only now did she realize that Luke Burgess stimulated her mind in a way no man had for a long time. She wasn’t yet ready to admit that he stimulated her in other ways, too, and that her feminine response to his masculinity was as inevitable as the changing seasons.

  “I take it, Robin, that you know all about our project from your father.” He made no pretense at formality, cutting through the social barrier of polite small talk.

  Across the candlelit table she managed to glare into his eyes while keeping a reasonable smile on her lips.

  “Oh, yes,” she cooed. “I haven’t paid that much attention to it though. This is not the first time we’ve had people from the big cities coming down here, thinking they can change us. They’ve usually gone away again and nothing has come of it.”

  His blue eyes challenged hers.

  “What did you do to them, Robin? Frighten them away with tales of the little people on the misty moors? I’m not so easily put off when I see something I want.”

  “Really?” Her heart gave a little lurch.

  “Besides, my big city, as you call it, isn’t so far removed from Cornwall. We’re still ‘west-country’ in Bristol.”

  So that was why his accent wasn’t unfamiliar, Robin realised.

  “I’m sure you’d find it terribly boring in the wilds, though, after city life.”

  “On the contrary, I’ve seen nothing to bore me yet. In fact, I’ve been fascinated by all I’ve seen so far. I intend to get to know it all much more intimately. I believe in giving every new project the vigour it deserves.”

  He was impossible, Robin fumed. All the while he had been talking, his eyes had left her flushed cheeks and soft mouth and taken their fill of the smooth line of her throat to where the low neckline of her black dress revealed the golden swell of her breasts. Robin watched as he ran the tip of his tongue very lightly over his top lip in a blatant gesture of desire.

  He was outrageous! But over and beyond the fury she felt was a new and exalted sensation as the woman in her reacted. He wanted her ... and although it was too soon — too soon and too unthinkable, because he was the enemy who was infiltrating her domain — the fire of a matching desire was running through her veins like quicksilver.

  “Have you met my father before?” She needed to bring the talk back to safer matters and drag her thoughts away from the turbulent emotions inside her.

  “We’ve had several telephone conversations and exchanged letters,” Luke replied, taking her cue, as if he knew exactly what he was doing to her and understood when to play it cool, leaving her stranded in confusion. She was unused to the feeling and angered by it.

  “Bill and I are staying at a hotel in Helston until tomorrow afternoon. Perhaps you and your father would like to come over during the morning and we can show you our proposals and the architectural plans we’ve drawn up. I’d like you to be our guests for lunch, and then perhaps we can come back to the site and explain more graphically just how little we intend to change the natural beauty of your particular space.”

  Luke had deliberately used her own phrase, Robin noticed at once. But he had included her father and Bill Withers in the invitation, and James agreed at once to the idea. It was best that they knew exactly what was going on, Robin decided. They had a stake in all this, and if they had any objections to the plans, there was no reason why they shouldn’t speak up and say as much. She had every intention of doing so.

  She was beginning to feel like her father’s champion. James Pollard wasn’t a man to be dazzled by the thought of the money to be gained from the project. He was financially secure, but Robin guessed it was the idea of being involved in a project once more after the years of retirement that intrigued him — and possibly blinded him to the true intentions of these strangers. Robin suddenly saw her new role as protector of her father’s interests as the most important one she had ever undertaken, one that hadn’t devolved on her before she met Luke Burgess.

  Was that only that afternoon, she thought with a little shock? They had progressed so far in such a little time, but it happened like that with some people — people whose lives were destined to be intertwined whether through love or hate or friendship.

  “I’m sure a lady of leisure can find something to object to,” Luke was saying now. “How do you fill your time, Robin? I can see that your summers consist of lazy days at the beach, and you certainly have the suntan to prove it.”

  She was quite sure that if her father and Bill hadn’t been listening, Luke would have asked her if the tan was over her entire body. The question was there in his eyes. Before she could think of a reply, Luke gave a short laugh.

  “And I suppose in the winter you’re one of these precious do-gooders who throw themselves into social activities for the community, as daughter of the country squire and all that. Are you?”

  He said it teasingly enough for it not to be insulting, and James seemed to think it funny enough. Robin bristled at once, taking the bait.

  “Sorry to disappoint you, Luke,” she said lightly, not betraying the resentment she felt at his assumption. “I’ve never been a social butterfly or a do-gooder. In fact, until six weeks ago I was secretary-companion to Elaine Fowler, the pianist. You probably haven’t heard of her.” She conveyed the impression that he’d be too much of a vulgarian to appreciate good music.

  “Didn’t she die suddenly at her home in London?” he asked, to her surprise. Robin’s throat was momentarily constricted by grief, and she had to swallow back the sharp recollection of that awful morning when she had gone in to awaken her beloved employer. She nodded, acknowledging that at least Luke must read the newspapers.

  “That’s right. So, far from spending the summer lazing about on beaches,” she added cuttingly, “I’ve spent my time coping with a lady who drove herself too hard, considering her years, but died the way she would have wanted: loved by her public.”

  She blinked the unexpected mist of tears from her eyes, not wanting to fall apart at the dinner table and furious with Luke Burgess for stirring up so many memories of a sweet woman who had given pleasure to millions throughout her career.

  “And what about you?” She put a caustic note into her voice. “What do you do all day? Sit behind a big desk, sticking little pins into a map deciding which part of the country to disrupt next?”

  This time it was Bill Withers who couldn’t resist a laugh. Robin glanced at him, seeing his round face alight with admiration for his companion. Obviously Bill was a fan of Luke’s.

  “I’d better put you right there, Robin. Luke is a terrific architect in his own right, though he works closely with the top man in the firm, Roy Hutchings. I reckon Luke could cope with this project blindfolded, though; and far from sitting behind a desk all day, he keeps his finger firmly on the pulse of everything that goes on and is hardly ever in the office when an
ybody wants him. He can be a hard taskmaster, but any client who goes to Burgess Developments knows he’s getting a first-class job done.”

  “Thanks for the plug,” Luke said dryly.

  “Well, there’s nothing like getting so spontaneous a recommendation from one of your own colleagues,” James said warmly, clearly impressed. “Now, if we’ve all finished, perhaps we can go into the drawing room for coffee and liqueurs.”

  Robin went ahead of the men. Luke’s impression of her had been totally wrong, but her ideas about him had also been wrong. She had thought him a figure-head, no more ... though she should have known better. A man as aggressive and hard as Luke Burgess would obviously not be content to sit behind a desk all day. He was ambitious, too; she had sensed that from the beginning. Her earlier suspicions that her father was being coerced into leasing his land still lingered. She wouldn’t embarrass her father that evening by mentioning them.

  Bill was becoming more voluble as the four of them relaxed in the drawing room and the aroma of freshly ground coffee filled the air. Robin bit into a crisp after-dinner mint chocolate and hid a smile as the young surveyor elaborated on his boss’s character, as if he’d taken on the defender’s role himself.

  Luke sat opposite her, and although she listened attentively to Bill, she kept Burgess in the periphery of her vision and knew just how often his eyes were upon her. It was almost as if there were really only the two of them in that softly lit room and the conversation around them was merely filling the time until they could be together.