Partners in Love

by Saunders, Jean

  Robin’s smile was a little forced at this crisp analysis of Luke’s character. “Not every girl is these days,” she said lightly.

  “You’re right there,” Maureen agreed. She looked at Robin shrewdly. “I’d say you weren’t the sort to go in for casual affairs, Robin. Something tells me it’s marriage or nothing for you, and if I’m right, I’d steer clear of a certain person’s advances if I were you!”

  The pizzas arrived, saving Robin from having to give any sort of answer. It was just as well, because she wasn’t at all sure what kind of answer she could give.

  Chapter Six

  It took Robin very little time to settle into the office routine and into her new life. Being in close contact with Luke when he was in the office meant she learned very quickly that all his dealings were apparently strictly aboveboard. He wasn’t in the habit of under-cutting business rivals or buying up valuable pieces of land at rockbottom prices unless they were offered to him at such prices. He paid a fair price and was highly respected by clients and associates alike.

  Robin was forced to concede that in business, at least, there was nothing for which she could readily condemn him. Dealing with invoices for building materials of all kinds, she admitted, too, that there was nothing of the cowboy about him. Materials were of the best quality, and property with Luke Burgess’s name on it was guaranteed.

  If she were any other secretary working for such a boss, she would have counted herself lucky. As it was, there was still the undeniable fact that the holiday complex Luke was building in Cornwall was on part of her territory, and he had no right to be there. She freely admitted she was unreasonable about it. She didn’t want the tourists there. She didn’t want Luke there, and the resentment towards him and her father for allowing him to build didn’t lessen.

  As for the man himself, in the weeks that followed, Robin was forced to admire his business sense. Often she had to answer letters from enthusiastic clients and listen to glowing remarks about his integrity. His staff, too, was loyal. Even Maureen’s unguarded remarks over lunch that first day had been made with tolerant affection. If Maureen were ever accused of gossiping, she would have been truly horrified.

  There was definitely something about the man, Robin admitted grudgingly. And something else intrigued her too. Far from bombarding her with his attentions, Luke had been oddly reticent about asking her out. On several occasions he’d taken her to dinner at some of the city’s best restaurants. Once they’d gone to a restaurant on a ship in the river, and they’d taken a drive one Sunday afternoon out to the Mendip Hills and the coast. Apart from that, he’d made no attempt to seek her out.

  Robin was alternately relieved and annoyed. After Maureen’s warning, she had bristled a little whenever Luke was around, expecting to get the big macho treatment, but it didn’t happen. She was suspicious, wondering if he was doing this deliberately, allaying her earlier hostility with a calculated display of charm. Finally, one afternoon when he had suggested that she go with him to view a new site and she was alone in the car with him as they sped out of the city towards the open country, Robin could contain her curiosity no longer.

  “Have I got two heads or something lately, Luke?” she demanded, in what her father used to call her bossy voice. “You seem very distant towards me. I hope my work is satisfactory.”

  They were in open farmland now, at the top of a rise. Far below, Robin could see the foundations and iron girders of the country club being erected, and a small team of workmen who looked like ants. Luke stopped the car at a good vantage point. The windows were halfway down, and the clean, fresh air was like wine. Without the noise of the engine to distract them, she was suddenly aware of the total silence all around them. They might have been the only two people in the world. There was only one sound she was registering, and that was the pounding of her heart, loud as thunder in her ears as Luke turned to her. His voice was soft and slightly thick.

  “I’ve no complaints about your work, Robin.” He dismissed the thought like tossing away unwanted rubbish. “I’ve no complaints about anything regarding you. I thought I’d made that perfectly obvious from the minute I saw you.”

  “That’s all right, then.” She gave a shaky laugh and ran her tongue round her lips, which were suddenly dry. Like a mouse caught in a trap, the thought ran around her head that they were miles from anywhere, and there was the sudden dark gleam in Luke’s eyes that hadn’t been noticeable lately. But it was there right now, and so was the triumphant smile playing around his sensual mouth. She wouldn’t look at it.

  He leaned towards her. His finger traced the curve of her cheek with a gossamer touch, sending little shivers of awareness through her. It trailed beneath her chin, stroking lightly, delicately, and Robin thought frantically that if he didn’t stop, she would scream. One sensitive finger stroking the skin could be unbelievably erotic.

  His eyes challenged her to jerk away, but if she did, then he would know just how his touch was affecting her. She stared into his eyes unblinkingly and heard him give a soft laugh.

  “You may sit there with that frigid look on your face, Robin, but those expressive eyes of yours tell me something different. Whoever said the eyes are the windows of the soul knew what he was talking about. Didn’t you know that when a woman is sexually aroused, her pupils dilate? And yours are telling me loud and clear all I need to know, Robin.”

  Before she could protest his arrogance, his arms had pulled her close, his fingers tangling in her hair and holding her fast, his mouth seeking the warmth of hers. It had been a few weeks since he had kissed her, and the unexpected flames of pleasure that his touch evoked in her numbed her for a few exquisite moments. She was unable to resist, totally and wantonly under his spell, responding without wanting to.

  Somewhere in her conscious mind a warning voice whispered to her to stop this right now, to remember that Luke was the enemy. But she smothered the voice, lost in sensation, dizzy with desire. He awoke every dormant need in her.

  She could feel the drum of Luke’s heartbeats, as rapid as her own. Somehow he managed to hold her close, despite the awkwardness of their position. She wouldn’t let herself think that he was so practised in this ... She didn’t want to think at all, only to feel.

  “Luke,” she breathed faintly, when he finally ended the kiss, only to touch her mouth over and over with his lips in tiny ghost kisses.

  “Now tell me you feel nothing for me.” His arrogant, relentless voice seemed to echo in her head. “I don’t believe you can lie to yourself, Robin, so don’t lie to me!”

  “I never pretended to feel nothing for you.” These double negatives were confusing her as much as his nearness. She didn’t know what she felt anymore. Love, hate, aggression — all those words were applicable in some measure. Luke’s palm softly caressed her breast. She heard him draw in his breath a little at her hardened nipples. They spoke, too, saying what she refused to admit in words: that Luke was the most exciting man she had ever known. The one she wanted.

  And he wanted her. Wanted ... not loved, as he had no doubt wanted so many other women — not loved. And Robin needed to be loved if she was to surrender herself, her body and soul, to a man. To share herself with anyone — that total commitment — demanded no less in return. And nothing less than love would do. The receptionist’s cheerful words soared into her mind.

  “Love ’em and leave ’em, that’s what Luke does.”

  And Robin knew she couldn’t bear it if she ended up as one of his castoffs. Appalled at the way her thoughts were going, she checked them right there and pushed him away from her with an angry gesture.

  “All right, you’ve had your fun,” she mumbled, praying he wouldn’t know what an effort it cost her to behave that way. “It’s all a game to you, isn’t it, Luke?”

  She saw the set look on his craggy features and knew she had angered him by her snub. His blue eyes spat fire at her and the muscles in his jaw were tightly stretched, the cords in his neck standing out. F
or a moment he looked as if he wanted to take her in his arms and shake her, and she visibly shrank back in her seat.

  His mouth twisted sardonically as he spoke. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to molest you again, Robin. And just what little game are you playing? I wonder. You wanted me just now as much as I want you. Is this your usual style, leading a man on and then giving him the big freeze?”

  Hot tears threatened to spill over, and she blinked them back furiously.

  “I did not lead you on! I asked you a perfectly innocent question, which you still haven’t answered. I didn’t expect you to leap on me like an — an animal.”

  “Forgive me.” He oozed sarcasm. “I thought you said you weren’t a fragile plant. What was the question, anyway? I seem to have forgotten it.”

  “I asked why you’d been so distant lately,” she said coldly. “It just seemed out of character — and I’ve been proved right, haven’t I? Is this the way you operate, confusing your victims until they wonder what they’re supposed to have done to upset you?”

  He paused. “Is that what you thought?” he said at last. He moved fractionally away from her, and to Robin’s surprise he looked almost embarrassed; at least, in any other man she would have called it embarrassment. Luke hid his feelings well, and she couldn’t be sure.

  “If you must know, I had a good talking-to about you!”

  Robin gaped at him. Not her father, surely. Her face burned. Oh, he couldn’t have. She was a grown woman, capable of running her own life. She couldn’t believe James would have done such a thing. Luke’s next words dispelled the thought.

  “My dear housekeeper decided you were too nice a girl to be caught in my clutches, as she so eloquently put it,” he said coolly. “Mrs. Somerton apparently got the idea that your tearful face on the night you arrived in town was due to my advances — as if you weren’t able to put down any man who came within a mile of you, as I assured her. But since she’s known me since childhood, she decided to lecture me on how rotten I was being, taking you away from home and then trying to seduce you. She made me feel like the big bad wolf, so to please her I decided to keep my distance. Satisfied?”

  While he was talking, several things dawned on Robin. Firstly, he respected Mrs. Somerton and paid attention to what she said, whether mistaken or not. Secondly, despite the laconic way he spoke and the attempt to be amusing, there was a distinct note of anxiety in his voice, almost as if he had seriously been reflecting on the housekeeper’s words, reviewing their own situation and perhaps having second thoughts about the wisdom of upsetting James Pollard’s daughter, whether because James might cancel the deal — that is, if he was allowed to under the terms of their contract — or because he felt slightly guilty about trying to seduce his own business partner’s daughter.

  One thing Robin was quite sure about: She had no intention of asking Luke the true reason! Instead she took his words at their face value, giving a brief nod.

  “Thank you for telling me. I’d prefer it if we kept our association on a business level from now on.” She could be as cold as ice when she chose.

  Luke switched on the car engine, preparatory to descending the steep, narrow country road to inspect the building site below.

  “During working hours, certainly,” he retorted. “After that, I’d say it’s every man for himself.”

  “You have a talent for putting things crudely,” Robin said freezingly.

  “That’s just where you’re wrong,” Luke said as the car roared off at far too fast a speed, proving how nettled he really was. “There’s nothing crude about a man desiring a lovely woman. It’s what life is all about, Robin, and if you’re too shortsighted to see that, then I’m sorry for you. We could have had a marvellous relationship, but if you don’t want to know ...”

  He left it unsaid, but the silence said it all. If Robin didn’t want him, there’d be no shortage of women who did. And she never doubted it. For the rest of the day, while she tried to take in the information the site manager was telling her and Luke, and during the long drive back to her flat, Robin was tight with tension, wondering just what she was throwing away. And what was more, wondering why.

  It was too late for them to go back to the office that afternoon. Luke had driven unsmilingly for the last ten miles, and Robin was conscious of suppressed misery. Even when they were battling verbally, there was some contact between them. This silence seemed to stretch interminably like some endless void, and she felt empty and depressed.

  She needed food, she thought feverishly. She had some steak in her fridge. She’d cook herself a meal of steak and french fries and pretend she was at the Ritz. But she knew it wasn’t lack of food that was turning her stomach upside down. As the car jerked to a stop, she started to get out with a feeling of utter relief. She couldn’t take much more of this silent hostility. Luke’s voice made her jump.

  “I propose going down to Cornwall next week to see how the work’s progressing. I shall stay several days. Do you want to come with me? Maureen’s used to holding the fort here for short periods of time.”

  The smile was spreading across her face before he finished speaking. She felt like hugging him, only she didn’t. But she couldn’t disguise the warmth in her voice.

  “Oh, Luke, yes! It will be lovely to see my father again, and the weather will still be good down there.” She hesitated, but it would be just too churlish to expect him to stay in a hotel this time. “You’ll stay at the manor with us, of course. Dad will expect me to ask you, I’m sure.”

  “Since you put it so graciously, I accept.” Luke was smiling too, if rather stiffly, and Robin breathed more easily. It would be simply impossible to work together if they were not on speaking terms, and her father would sense the animosity immediately. At least while they were in Cornwall they had better give the appearance of being on good terms, or James would only worry about her. Adult or not, she was still his one ewe-lamb, as he used to tell her.

  “Thank you, Luke,” she said quietly.

  “What for? It’s business, remember? I need to inspect the site. I never leave a site without personal inspection and involvement for too long. My reputation is at stake.”

  She smiled again. His eyes were telling a story as well now, and she realized it was the best way he knew of smoothing things between them. He didn’t have to ask her along. She pressed her hand on his arm for a moment.

  “Thanks anyway,” she said, and got out of the car.

  She felt wilted once she reached her flat, turning on the radio for instant company. Luke had drained her. She was at once stimulated by him and antagonised by him. She tried to understand her feelings for him. If the little matter of the holiday complex above her beloved private cove didn’t get in the way, she knew she would think about him entirely differently, finding in him the Romeo to her Juliet, the Tristram to her Isolde.

  She passed a trembling hand across her forehead. Those fictional characters were all lovers, soul mates, partners in love. Robin thought she had gleaned enough about Luke Burgess by now to know that love didn’t come into his involvements — not the kind of love that lasted a lifetime, the kind Robin yearned for. If it did ... if she once believed that Luke really cared for her, enough to make a lasting commitment, how would she feel? How did she feel?

  She wouldn’t even let herself surmise the answer to that one. It was so unlikely that it wasn’t worth her thinking time. She wouldn’t let herself fantasise for one single moment how it would be to be truly loved by Luke, loved and wanted for all time.

  “Don’t be a fool,” she told herself aloud, her voice shaking. “Get a hold of yourself and remember the vital issue. It’s only Dad’s land he wants, and you’re just an added bonus.”

  But she knew now that he didn’t go in for double-dealing in business, so it rather cut the ground from under her arguments. She smiled wryly as the pun struck her, then angrily tried to push Luke out of her mind as she went into the kitchen to prepare her meal. The fact still remained th
at the holiday complex was going to ruin the serenity of the Cornish scene, she thought caustically, and no amount of sweet talk or anything else was going to change her feelings about that!

  Once she had eaten, she felt more relaxed and decided to phone her father to tell him of her forthcoming visit. She could hear the delight in his voice as he replied.

  “That’s wonderful, darling, and you sound so much better now. Not working you too hard, is he?”

  “Oh, no! Quite the contrary. I’m enjoying the work, as a matter of fact.” To her surprise she knew she spoke the truth. The job was interesting and always changing, and if it weren’t for Luke’s occasional disturbing assaults on her senses, she’d be enjoying it even more.

  “Good. It’s a change from your last job, but sometimes it’s good to break away completely and do something new. When do you plan to come down, Robin?”

  “I’m not sure which day yet. Luke just said next week, so I’ll have to phone you again and let you know. And, Dad, I’ve asked him to stay at the manor this time. It’s all right, isn’t it? I felt I could hardly do anything else.”

  “Of course it is, darling. I like the man, and after all, he is my partner in a way. You’ll both be very welcome.”

  She remembered his last words when she’d hung up. They seemed to unite her and Luke more as a married couple than as business acquaintances. Robin was losing patience with herself and the way her thoughts kept straying to no-go areas. She looked out of the window. It was a mellow night, softly dark, and she felt restless. Impulsively she changed into a sweater, slacks and jacket, and spent an exhilarating hour tramping over the Downs. The sounds of city traffic were muted up here, and if she let herself dream just a little, she could almost imagine she was striding over the moors at home, over bracken and heather, with the scent of gorse and wildflowers to tease her nostrils.