The Irresistible Tycoon

by Helen Brooks

  Not that Lucas had stepped out of line for a minute. Oh, no, not ice-man. ‘Oh, stop it.’ Kim acknowledged she was being spectacularly unfair. It was just that she hadn’t expected her ‘just friends’ decision to be quite so hard, or so apparently easy for him! Sour grapes. Kim nodded to the accusation. Probably. Which made her really mean.

  Enough. Get your mind off Lucas and on to something else, she told herself sternly, and with that in mind she walked out of the kitchen door into the spangled sunlight of the garden. ‘Fancy the paddling pool out, sweetheart?’ she called to Melody, who was busily engaged in looking for weeds in her little plot of ground.

  A whoop of delight was the answer, and within half an hour the paddling pool was full and they were both in their bikinis, Melody splashing about in the tepid water and Kim sitting in a deckchair under the shade of a copper beech with a mug of coffee in her hand.

  An abundance of wisteria had gracefully draped itself over the adjoining garden wall during May, and this was now giving way to a cascade of rambling roses, their delicious scent wafting gently on the still air.

  It was a world away from the nightmare of the little bedsit they had endured for two long years. Hot tears pricked at Kim’s eyes—which was ridiculous, she told herself firmly, when she ought to be smiling if anything. But Lucas had made all this possible—given her back her independence, her chance of carving a good life for herself and Melody, of living somewhere like this. And she was grateful, incredibly so, but she’d never really told him.

  She blinked very hard. And sooner or later some woman, a little more beautiful or talented or charismatic than the rest, would snare him. She wasn’t aware he was dating again but he could be, for all she knew, and she couldn’t blame him if he was. As he’d said, celibacy wasn’t his style.

  And it would be her fault. Her fault she had missed a chance of heaven. But… Kim stared straight ahead but the garden had vanished into the black abyss of her thoughts. If she had her chance over again she would do exactly the same. She might be throwing away her chance of heaven but the hell she had endured with Graham precluded stepping into a relationship again. With Graham she’d had the excuse she hadn’t known what she was doing, but there would be no justification for willingly putting herself and Melody at risk again.

  The same old arguments and counter-arguments she had mentally indulged in for the last two months raged in her mind, and when Melody tapped her arm impatiently, saying, ‘Mummy, Mummy. I said I can hear the doorbell,’ it took Kim a few seconds to bring herself back to the real world.

  ‘I’m sorry, sweetheart. Mummy was daydreaming.’ Kim smiled into the little face frowning up at her, hastily reaching for the cloudy blue sarong that matched the bikini as she rose.

  She wrapped the delicately patterned cloth round her waist as she entered the house and padded through the hall to the front door, and it was only as she opened it she realised she hadn’t given a thought to who might be calling at ten o’clock on a sunny June morning.

  ‘Lucas!’ For a moment she stared blankly at the tall, lean figure in front of her dressed casually in a charcoal shirt and black jeans, but as the silver eyes narrowed slightly and showed their appreciation of her clothes—or lack of them—reality surged in in an overwhelmingly hot flood that started at her toes and worked upwards.

  Kim resisted the impulse to cross her arms over her breasts and said instead, her voice as cool as she could make it, considering she was giving a first-rate impression of a furnace at full tilt, ‘What’s the matter? Is anything wrong?’

  ‘Plenty,’ he drawled lazily, ‘the first thing being that I’m kicking myself for not calling round before, this summer.’

  She tried for a smile, which was a mistake because it turned into more of a nervous twitch, and then, as she heard Melody’s excited voice just behind her calling Lucas’s name, Kim groaned inwardly. If she knew anything about her hospitable little daughter, Lucas was going to be invited to come and see Melody’s new paddling pool, which of course was fine, great—or would have been if her mother wasn’t half-naked!

  ‘Lucas!’ Melody skidded along the hall on small bare wet feet and with an abandonment Kim envied, and as Lucas bent down and held out his arms Melody jumped right into them. ‘I kept asking Mummy when you’d come and she said she didn’t know,’ Melody told him as she put small hands on his shoulders and looked into the dark rugged face. ‘She said you were busy.’

  ‘Not too busy to call and see you,’ Lucas said easily, straightening with Melody still perched in his arms and standing to look at Kim. Two pairs of eyes, one glittering metallic silver and the other deep liquid brown, surveyed her unblinkingly, and Kim sighed her acquiescence to the unspoken request.

  ‘You’d better come in,’ she said a touch ungraciously to Lucas. She couldn’t fight them both.

  ‘Thank you,’ he said with mocking gratefulness, and the colour which had just begun to die down returned with new ferocity.

  Irritating, impossible man! All the warmer feelings she’d indulged in earlier went right out of the window.

  ‘Coffee?’ She led the way down the hall, painfully aware of the transparency of the sarong and the revealing nature of the bikini. The purchase of the bikini had been in the nature of a statement one Saturday a few weeks before.

  Lucas had taken her out to lunch the previous day, and as they’d been leaving the restaurant there had been a low and discreet call from a table across the room, and a woman had made her way to their side. An exquisitely dressed and equally exquisitely beautiful woman.

  Lucas had introduced them, and Kim had been very conscious of a pair of green feline eyes looking her over from head to toe. Perfectly painted, glossy lips had managed a half-smile before the woman had gone on to ask if Lucas was coming to some party or other that weekend. ‘It will be such fun, darling,’ the carefully modulated voice had urged seductively. ‘Clarice’s little get-togethers always are. Remember the last time when we finished up in the pool and I lost my bikini top? A designer one, too, darling,’ she added in an aside to Kim. ‘Although Lucas found it for me.’

  She just bet Lucas had. Kim’s face must have spoken volumes because she remembered Lucas’s mockingly cynical smile as he had made their goodbyes, and led her out of the restaurant with a light hand at her elbow.

  ‘An old friend?’ She’d resisted asking until they were nearly back at the office.

  Lucas had shrugged easily. ‘In a manner of speaking.’

  ‘The party sounded as though it was a bit wild,’ Kim had said brightly, hating him.

  ‘Not really.’ Amused eyes had rested on her flushed face for a moment. ‘Felicity could make a wake sound like a riot. Clarice and her husband recently spent a fortune on an indoor pool that could house the Olympics, so now every invitation comes in an evening dress and swimwear form. Clarice just likes to be different.’

  ‘Evening dress and designer swimwear,’ Kim had said tartly. ‘The competition must be fierce.’

  ‘I wouldn’t know.’ They’d arrived back at Kane Electrical and Lucas had driven smoothly into his parking space before turning to her, resting his arm casually on the back of her seat. ‘I prefer au naturel, myself, but if I have to wear something a pair of old jeans will do.’

  The mental pictures that had flashed on to the screen of her mind had taken some working through, but by the time Kim had left the building later that day she’d managed to get her errant thoughts under control. Just.

  However, the image of a green-eyed, red-haired beauty had stayed with her, along with the uncomfortable knowledge that the only item of swimwear she possessed was a very functional one-piece that had seen better days. She had bought the bikini and matching sarong the next day.

  ‘If you go out into the garden with Melody I’ll bring the coffee in a minute,’ Kim offered coolly once they were in the kitchen and Lucas was standing by the open back door.

  He looked very dark and masculine in her little limed-oak kitchen and every bi
t as disturbing as the most erotic of her dreams.

  ‘No hurry.’ Melody had nestled herself comfortably in his arms, half-turned so that her fair head was resting against his collarbone and her face was turned towards Kim. ‘We’re fine.’

  He was making no secret of the fact that he was enjoying looking at her, and Kim was distinctly conscious of the briefness of the bikini and the deep V between her tingling breasts. And of Melody next to his heart. The pose was relaxed and Lucas looked natural, like a father. It sent such whirling panic through her she almost dropped the coffee pot.

  Once in the garden Lucas refused Kim’s offer of the deck-chair and lay sprawled out at her feet after insisting she be seated. It caused her equilibrium untold problems to see his dark head at a level with her thighs, his long, lean muscled body propped on one elbow as he surveyed Melody splashing in the sunlit water.

  ‘A water baby.’ His deep voice was lazy and amused and Kim bitterly resented his imperturbability when she hardly knew where to put herself.

  ‘She’s always loved the water.’ It was tight and stiff but the best she could do. She paused a moment, trying to make her voice normal before she asked, ‘Why are you here, Lucas?’

  ‘Because it’s a beautiful day, Maggie is in America and I thought you might be able to use a friend’s company,’ he said quietly, still with his gaze directed at the small figure in front of them.

  He’d done it again, read her mind. Kim didn’t know whether to be angry or thrilled, but in view of all the complications that went hand in hand with this man she decided on the former.

  ‘That’s very kind of you,’ she began tersely, ‘but—’

  ‘No, it’s not kind, Kim.’ He looked up at her then, and she felt her breath leave her body at the intensity in the beautiful silver eyes. ‘It’s selfish, if you really want to know. I want to be here with you, and with Melody. I’ve wanted to be with you every damn weekend for months and this morning I decided enough was enough.’

  ‘Oh.’ She stared at him, totally taken aback and with all coherent thought clean gone.

  ‘So what do you say to a day together?’ he asked slowly.

  He wasn’t touching her, not in any physical way, but Kim could feel the power of his magnetic personality reaching out and enclosing her. He looked hard and dark and sexy, and she found herself beginning to tremble.

  ‘I thought perhaps lunch at a little place I know,’ he continued quietly, ‘and then an afternoon on the river, followed by dinner at my place. Martha is standing by for Melody’s likes and dislikes.’

  ‘Lucas—’

  ‘Just friends, Kim, if that’s what you want.’ He surveyed her with unfathomable eyes. ‘You can’t deny you could use a friend right now.’

  A friend was one thing; Lucas Kane was quite another. Nevertheless the thought of a day with him was like Christmas and New Year rolled into one and magnified a million times, and Kim felt her resolve wavering. And then Melody took the decision right out of her hands when her daughter came to stand in front of them, small hands on tiny hips, as she said, ‘Can Lucas stay for lunch, Mummy? Please?’

  Kim hesitated for a moment, but it was long enough for Lucas to sense her indecisiveness and capitalise on it with the ruthlessness that was an integral part of him. ‘Better than that,’ he said lightly. ‘We’re going out to lunch and then you can have a ride in a boat on the river—would you like that? And if you’re very good…’

  ‘What? What?’ As Lucas let his voice die away mysteriously, Melody jumped up and down in her excitement.

  ‘If you’re very good you can come and see where I live,’ Lucas said softly, ‘and meet Jasper and Sultan.’

  ‘Who are Jasper and Sultan?’

  ‘My dogs—very big dogs.’

  ‘Do they bite?’

  ‘They don’t know how to bite,’ Lucas assured her seriously, ‘only how to lick.’

  Melody nodded, believing him utterly. ‘I like dogs like that,’ she stated firmly.

  Kim looked at them helplessly, and then, as Lucas raised his eyes to hers, the crystal gaze pinned her. ‘Go and get changed,’ he said very quietly, ‘while I wait for you.’

  They continued looking at each other for a second, and Kim’s pulse leapt at the tone of the last words. He was an enigma, this man. Every time she thought she had got him worked out he did something to amaze her, the way he had today. But whereas all Graham’s surprises had been nasty ones, everything she learnt about Lucas just made her love him more.

  It was too dangerous a line to pursue, and Kim held out her hand to Melody. ‘Let’s make ourselves pretty,’ she said as lightly as she could.

  It was an enchanted day, the first of many in the weekends that followed. Lucas seemed to hit just the right note with Melody, being neither too indulgent or too strict, and Melody took to Greenacres—Lucas’s fabulous home with its several acres of grounds—like a duckling to water.

  She took huge delight in bossing Lucas’s enormous hounds around and fell in love with each one of Martha’s cats, as well as Martha herself. And the old woman fully reciprocated the feeling, taking on the role of fussy grandma as though she had been born to it.

  Lucas was always the perfect host—relaxed, urbane, amusing and thoughtful, and his kisses—social kisses, Kim assured herself, and not to be confused with anything else—were gentle, warm and totally non-threatening. The kisses of a friend.

  After that first Saturday, Kim had tried to refuse further outings but Lucas had simply ignored her protestations with an arrogance that was pure Kane, although she had stuck to her guns about never staying the night at Greenacres. She felt uncomfortable at the thought of waking up in Lucas’s home; she felt uncomfortable about a lot of things that were happening. But she kept reassuring herself that Lucas knew exactly where he stood—she couldn’t have been more specific.

  So all in all it was a magical summer, partly, but with dark surreal undercurrents that sometimes brought Kim wide awake and sweating in the middle of the night.

  And then, at the beginning of September, two things happened within a few hours of each other which ripped Kim’s fragilely built world apart, and were all the more unexpected for the great weekend she’d just had.

  The weekend had started with Maggie phoning her from America on Friday evening to say that Pete had turned up on her doorstep with an engagement ring.

  ‘He can’t do without me, Kim.’ Maggie had been on such a high the receiver had fairly vibrated. ‘Apparently when I left England it prompted him to do some serious thinking and he’s been having counselling for his fear of commitment. It brought up all sorts of things, issues he’s been burying for years all relating back to his childhood and so on, but he knew he’d lose me if he didn’t persevere—so he did!’

  ‘I’m so glad, Maggie.’ And she had been.

  ‘He wants us to get married as soon as possible and get a place together. He’s so different. He’s talking about the future, children; I can hardly believe it’s Pete.’

  ‘If anyone deserves a happy ending it’s you, Maggie,’ Kim had said warmly.

  ‘I think he half expected me to contact him in spite of all I said before I left, and when I didn’t it convinced him this was make or break time. He’ll never know how near I came, time after time, to picking up the phone, though,’ Maggie added ruefully. ‘He’s staying out here with me for a short holiday and then we’re flying home together the third week of September, so I’ll see you then.’

  ‘What’s the ring like?’

  ‘Oh, Kim, it’s gorgeous! Three emeralds enclosed by a border of diamonds.’

  There was more of the same, and the two women chatted for another two or three minutes before they finished the call. The news gave Kim a warm glow all through the following Saturday, spent at Lucas’s home with Melody, and the Sunday when Lucas took them out for Sunday lunch before they visited an antique fair in the afternoon, returning home early because Melody had a headache.

  But Monday morning
started badly. One of Melody’s school shoes disappeared off the face of the earth, a full glass of milk hopped off the breakfast bar and hurled itself on to the floor—according to a tearful Melody—and then Kim couldn’t find her car keys. By the time they turned up under a cushion Kim was running half an hour behind schedule, which wouldn’t have mattered so much normally but in view of the important meeting due to start promptly at nine in Lucas’s office mattered immensely.

  Since their weekend jaunts, Kim had become almost obsessive about fulfilling all of her responsibilities at the office. The last thing—the very last thing—she wanted was for Lucas to think she was presuming on their relationship; she still hesitated to call it friendship, even in her mind. Friendship should be a pleasantly relaxing, easy, agreeable type of thing, predictable and harmless. Lucas didn’t fit one of those criteria.

  Kim was constantly on tenterhooks around him, vitally and exhaustingly alive. She was exhilaratingly aware of every little thing about him—the slightest inflexion of his voice which told her the sort of mood he was in, the way his intimidatingly intelligent mind never stopped selecting and storing data, the way he could strike with deadly intent and accuracy. And yet he’d allowed her to see his private side too, that seductive and fascinating part of him that was much more dangerous than anything he displayed in his working life.

  On arriving in Kane Electrical’s car park, the heavy driving rain exploded into a cloudburst as soon as Kim opened the car door, and in spite of the doors to Reception only being a few yards away her light summer coat was soaked through after her breathless dash.

  Great. Raindrops were trickling down her neck and dripping off her fringe as the lift whisked her up to the top floor. Ten minutes past nine and she looked like a drowned rat.

  Once in her office she could hear voices from the other room, and after switching on her desk lamp—the morning had turned as dark as night—she hurried into her private cloakroom and stripped off her wet coat, quickly dabbing her fringe and the rest of her hair before peering in the mirror at her damp face.