The Irresistible Tycoon

by Helen Brooks

  ‘Meaning you didn’t like it,’ Lucas challenged pleasantly.

  ‘I didn’t say that.’

  ‘You didn’t have to.’

  He seemed quite unconcerned and it rankled, badly. She stared at him, totally unaware of how her face was betraying her, and was further taken aback when he strolled over to her with lazy assuredness, taking her arm as he said, ‘So, my prickly little secretary, ready for an evening with the big bad wolf? Do you have a coat? It’s chilly outside.’

  ‘It’s in the hall.’ She had stiffened at his touch and had seen his mouth tighten but she just couldn’t help it. He was so…big.

  The Aston Martin was crouching on Kim’s short drive, looking quite incongruous in such humble surroundings, and she found herself taking several deep silent breaths as she slid into the car and waited for Lucas to join her after he had shut the passenger door.

  ‘Have you eaten since lunchtime?’

  ‘What?’ Kim turned startled eyes to his dark face.

  ‘Food.’ His voice was patient now, overly so, and made her want to kick him. ‘Has any passed your lips lately?’

  ‘I had a little of the spaghetti bolognese I made for Melody’s tea,’ Kim said a trifle defensively. ‘Just the last bit in the pan. There was too much to put on her plate.’

  ‘Dangerous habit, that.’ He slanted a mocking glance at her from under hooded lids. ‘You’ll get fat if you eat Melody’s leftovers.’

  ‘It wasn’t exactly her leftovers,’ Kim returned tightly. ‘Besides, I was hungry.’

  In actual fact, she had thought eating something might calm the flutters in her stomach the thought of the evening ahead had produced, but it hadn’t worked.

  ‘All to the good anyway; we shan’t be eating until later.’

  He started the engine as he spoke, nosing the car out of the small driveway and on to the quiet residential road beyond Kim’s front garden.

  Kim forced herself to sit absolutely still although every sense in her body was screaming. He was wearing an intoxicatingly delicious aftershave that was subtly sensual and made her want to lean over for a good deep lungful as she nuzzled the harsh—and, she had noticed, recently shaved—jawline.

  She lifted her chin in defiance against herself and said carefully, ‘We’re having that talk first?’

  ‘We’re going to the theatre first,’ Lucas said mildly.

  ‘The theatre?’

  It was almost in the nature of a screech and Lucas narrowed his eyes against it as he repeated, ‘The theatre.’

  ‘But…but you didn’t say anything about the theatre.’ She felt somehow that this was turning into a proper date, with this new slant on the evening.

  ‘Look on it as a nice surprise,’ Lucas said smoothly at the side of her, his eyes on the road ahead.

  ‘I don’t like surprises.’ It was a touch petulant but Kim was past caring. How on earth had she come to be sitting here like this with Lucas Kane driving her to goodness knew where? she asked herself feverishly. He was as male as males went, and everything which cold logical common sense told her was dangerous. Strong and aggressive, with a darn sight too much sexual charisma and pull in the male-female department, not to mention hugely experienced and wealthy to boot.

  ‘Stop panicking, Kim. I’m taking you to the theatre and then to dinner, not to show you my etchings.’

  Her eyes shot to the dark profile but Lucas’s face was unreadable.

  She opened her mouth to deny the accusation and then shut it again. She couldn’t win in a war of words with Lucas. Every time she attempted it she seemed to get herself into a worse tangle and he won another battle. Besides which—she bit her lip hard and concentrated fiercely on the dark road ahead—he was right. As usual.

  Okay, so she couldn’t compete with him mentally, and neither could she deny the effect he had on her physically, she told herself silently, but what she could do was to conduct herself with cool dignity and reserve throughout the evening. The ice maiden approach. Say little, observe much and rise to nothing.

  The more she had got to know him, the more she had realised why Lucas chose his lovers from women with careers as similarly high-powered to his own. He was an intimidatingly intelligent individual; he would require mental stimulation from any companion he invited into his bed as well as physical gratification. She wasn’t dumb—even though Graham had tried to persuade her otherwise—but neither did she have what those sort of women had.

  She had always liked the idea of a career, but she knew herself well enough to recognise that for her family and home would always come first. She didn’t want to be up with the cream of the high-fliers—knowing all the latest deals, the latest gossip, having a finger on the pulse and acting ruthlessly and with absolute focus when she had to. And that was the sort of women Lucas gravitated towards. She was just a change from his usual diet, a passing fancy; he’d find her infinitely boring after a time.

  So… She narrowed dark eyes at the brightly lit streets as they reached the heart of the city. She would just be herself but with a great deal of reserve. And by the end of the evening he’d probably be champing at the bit to get her home.

  Her soft mouth drooped unknowingly.

  The theatre was splendid and their seats were in the stalls with an excellent view of the stage, but Kim was hardly conscious of her surroundings.

  Like her, Lucas had dressed up—in his case, a black dinner-jacket and tie—and when he had removed his overcoat in the foyer she had had to force her eyes away with relentless determination when she realised she was ogling him, pretending to admire the elaborately decorated walls and ceiling instead, her cheeks burning.

  Once in their seats she buried herself in the programme Lucas had bought her, steeling herself to show no reaction when his thigh briefly brushed hers as he adjusted his long limbs in the limited leg-room.

  He leant over her slightly as the cast-list swam and moved before her eyes. ‘Have you seen this particular company before?’ he asked easily. His cool relaxed tone further evidence to Kim that she was the one with the problem.

  ‘No—no, I haven’t.’

  ‘They’re good.’

  ‘Right.’ As he settled back into his own seat Kim expelled her breath in a silent relieved sigh and prayed for the performance to begin.

  How could you be surrounded by people and yet feel as if the rest of the world wasn’t there? she asked herself desperately. She didn’t want to feel like this. It was too disturbing. She didn’t want to be with Lucas Kane. He was too disturbing.

  ‘Stop frowning; people will think we’ve had a fight.’

  Her eyes snapped sideways and met the mocking silver gaze head on. ‘You’re my boss, I’m your secretary; having a fight isn’t an option,’ Kim said primly.

  ‘Is that so?’ Lucas contemplated the statement. ‘Then what happened after I kissed you?’ he asked interestedly. ‘Correct me if I’m wrong, but if that wasn’t a fight I wouldn’t want to be around you when you’re really mad.’

  Kim eyed him severely. She didn’t want to be reminded of that kiss and she suspected Lucas knew it. ‘That was just setting the record straight.’ And look where it had got her!

  ‘The record being that you do not want a sexual relationship with any man ever again,’ Lucas murmured softly. ‘Which, of course, is too ridiculous to take seriously.’

  ‘Ridiculous or not, that’s the way I feel.’ It was a sharp snap, all her earlier resolutions of keeping calm and distant blown to the wind.

  ‘No, you don’t.’ There was triumph in the silver eyes. ‘You want me, Kim. Your lips and your body told me that this morning.’

  ‘Lucas.’ Kim glanced round nervously.

  ‘And sooner or later it will happen,’ he continued silkily. ‘You know that as well as I do; that’s why you’ve been as jumpy as a cat on a hot tin roof from the first day you came to work for me.’

  ‘It won’t happen, Lucas.’ Her eyes had darkened to ebony, and Lucas experienced a moment o
f intense irritation at the stubborn set of her soft mouth. ‘I have Melody; she’s the only person I need in my life.’

  ‘Melody is a wonderful little girl but she’s a child.’ He was careful not to let any of his anger sound in his voice. ‘I’m talking about a normal healthy relationship between two adults of the opposite sex.’

  ‘If such a thing exists.’ It was out before she even thought about it, and she felt her heart thud with horror at what she had unwittingly revealed. How was it he made her say things like that? she asked herself feverishly. Made her face things she didn’t even know she felt herself?

  ‘Oh, it exists, all right.’ His voice was very soft and his eyes piercing on her flushed unhappy face. ‘And when it’s good it’s the greatest thing on earth.’

  ‘I wouldn’t know anything about that.’ It was very stiff and cool. ‘And frankly I don’t want to.’

  ‘Yes, you do.’ He refused to accept her self-denial. ‘But you’re too scared, too locked up in yourself to admit it. You want me to hold you, Kim, to kiss you, taste you, ravish you. You want me to take you to heaven and back, to feel me inside you while you lie naked in my arms.’

  ‘Lucas, stop it. You can’t say things like that here.’ She was shattered, but more by the dangerous desire his soft deep voice was invoking than anything else.

  ‘Why? No one can hear us.’ He was so close she felt enveloped in his maleness, his scent, his warmth, and she was trembling. She couldn’t help it.

  ‘Please, Lucas…’

  ‘I want you, Kim. I want you more than I’ve ever wanted any woman in my life and after this morning I know you want me, too. I’m not going to let you deny us both.’

  The arrival of further couples at the side of them, corresponding with the theatre lights fading and the start of the play, effectively finished any further conversation, but Kim continued to shake for the first ten minutes of Tennessee Williams’s Suddenly Last Summer, and in spite of the potent and riveting nature of the play she couldn’t seem to let her mind give it the attention it deserved.

  The bar was crowded at the interval but Kim didn’t mind that; it cut out the chance of any more intimate conversation.

  She concentrated on sipping her glass of white wine with what she hoped was seen as cool aplomb, but with Lucas’s arm draped casually round her waist and his lean hard frame pressed against her in the crush of human bodies, the composure was only on the surface.

  In just a few hours Lucas had managed to completely alter the tenor of their association from formal employer and employee to… Her mind jerked to a halt. To what, exactly? she asked herself silently. Well, whatever it was, it didn’t matter. She had to get back to how it had been and as quickly as possible.

  ‘You’re frowning again.’ His lips brushed her ear as he whispered against the silk of her hair and she felt the impact right down to her toes.

  ‘Am I?’ She looked at him out of the corner of her eye but refused to be drawn further.

  ‘Uh-huh. And I dare bet you were thinking of me,’ he drawled affably.

  ‘Surprising though it may seem, I’m not always thinking of you.’

  ‘Something I intend to rectify from now on,’ said Lucas firmly.

  Kim took another sip of her wine and prayed for the wit and courage to put him in his place. It didn’t come. She adjusted her position slightly as a large plump woman on the other side of her who was drenched in a particularly sickly-sweet perfume trod on her left foot, but the manoeuvre only had the effect of emphasising that Lucas wasn’t quite so cool and controlled as he looked as she came into contact with his thighs.

  The betrayal of his body startled her into looking straight into his face and the silver eyes were waiting for her, his mouth twisted in a crooked grin that told her he was fully aware of her thoughts. ‘I told you I wanted you, Kim,’ he said gently against her ear again, his warm breath causing frissons of sensation in every part of her. ‘And a cold shower isn’t an option here.’

  She knew her cheeks were burning and wished with all her heart that she was one of the sophisticated, blasé, worldly-wise women he was used to, women who would have a light amusing comment on their tongue to defuse such a situation without any awkwardness—but she wasn’t. And then, as Lucas reached behind him and placed his empty glass on a shelf running along the length of the wall, he moved her into the circle of his arms, his hands resting possessively on her waist.

  ‘Incredible woman,’ he whispered softly against her forehead, his warm lips caressing her as he spoke. ‘Defiant and angry one minute, shy and bewildered the next. I don’t know one other woman who blushes like you do. Sensual and all woman in my arms and then as cold as a beautiful ice sculpture. You fascinate me, Kim. Do you know that?’

  ‘I don’t want to fascinate you,’ she said desperately, whilst knowing—with a feeling of overwhelming panic—that that wasn’t quite the truth. Which made her crazy, insane, because getting involved with Lucas would mean emotional suicide for sure.

  ‘Perhaps that’s part of what drew me at first,’ Lucas murmured thoughtfully, almost to himself, as he leant back slightly in order to hold her drowning eyes. ‘The world is full of gold-diggers, Kim, or men and women who chose their partners for the kudos reflected on them. Esteem, renown, furthering one’s reputation or career—it’s the name of the game.’

  ‘Not my game.’ She tried to extricate herself from his arms but he didn’t seem to notice, and then, as she broke eye contact, she looked at his mouth and her heart seemed to stand still. It was a hard, faintly stern mouth—even when he was being gentle, the way he was now—and devastatingly sexy.

  ‘No, I know that.’ His brow creased in a quizzical ruffle. ‘Sometimes you seem as young as Melody, and yet the very fact of her existence proves you are not what you seem. You’ve been married, borne a child. You’re a mother, a single parent who provides for her family.’ There was a faintly whimsical note to his voice, as though he couldn’t believe what he was saying, and although she felt she should feel insulted Kim couldn’t summon up the necessary anger.

  ‘Lots of people are different underneath,’ she managed evasively, vitally aware of his hands idly caressing her slender waist and the massiveness of his shoulders and broad chest. They were creating a whole host of feelings she could well have done without.

  ‘Maybe, but usually for the worst,’ Lucas responded drily.

  ‘That might be the case with me.’ She had spoken lightly but the root was in her fragile self-esteem, and instead of the witty or cynical answer she was expecting Lucas said nothing for a few moments, his eyes narrowing on her lovely face.

  ‘If he wasn’t dead, I’d want to kill him.’

  It was like a punch in the chest and tension shot through every part of her body at the look in his eyes. She froze, becoming stiff and unyielding in his arms, and Lucas swore silently to himself for going too fast.

  But then she slowly relaxed again, brushing a wisp of hair from her thick fringe out of her eyes as she said, very quietly, so quietly he had to lower his head slightly to hear her, ‘He used to say that to me, that he wanted to kill me, towards the end. He knew I wanted to leave him and he used to threaten—’

  ‘What?’ Lucas was amazed she was talking like this and scared to say anything in case it drove her back in her shell.

  ‘He used to say he would kill Melody first, then me. That he would find me wherever I went, hunt us down. He…he was unbalanced when he was drinking, violent, capable of anything. And then other times, when he was sober, he would take Melody to the park and act like a normal father. But I could never relax. One time he went out sober and came back and I could smell the drink on his breath. He wasn’t drunk, but he’d been drinking when he was supposed to be looking after her.’

  She raised agonised eyes to his horrified face as he expelled a long hard breath.

  ‘I wouldn’t let him go out alone with her after that; I wouldn’t let her out of my sight for a minute. He was becoming too unpred
ictable,’ Kim said flatly.

  ‘Did he go anywhere for help, professional help?’ Lucas asked softly.

  Kim shook her head, her eyes cloudy and dark. ‘Graham wouldn’t acknowledge he’d got a problem,’ she said bitterly. ‘It was me who was at fault, according to him. I was boring, a kill-joy; he used to—’ She stopped abruptly, suddenly aware she was saying too much. There were some things, secret things, she had sworn she would never tell a living soul.

  ‘He used to?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter.’ She was retreating from him but there was nothing he could do about it in the middle of a theatre bar, Lucas told himself silently.

  ‘Could I have another glass of wine?’ Kim finished the last of the clear white liquid in one gulp and held the glass out to him with a brittle smile. She didn’t really want another drink but she had to do something to break the curiously intimate bubble his arms had woven round her, a bubble that had made her reveal far more than she had intended.

  In the last few minutes before the bell rang for the second half Lucas kept the conversation light and amusing, and Kim tried to respond in kind, but inwardly she was as tight as a coiled spring.

  Now that the spell his nearness had evoked was broken she couldn’t believe how she had spoken to him—him, Lucas, the one person in all the world she needed to keep at a distance. She didn’t want him to know anything about her life—past or present—she told herself feverishly. He had power enough over her as it was.

  In spite of all her misgivings and self-recrimination, Kim found herself enjoying the second half. And then the lights rose and they were making their way out to the car, the damp chilly air after the hot-house warmth of the theatre making Kim shiver on the steps of the building.

  ‘Cold?’ Lucas didn’t wait for an answer, drawing her into his side with a practised ease that seemed perfectly natural and which made Kim feel she would be overly crass if she objected to the arm round her shoulders. But it was too cosy, too ‘coupleish’ to be anything but acutely disturbing.