Abby could understand why he felt so crushingly guilty. How could he tell everyone they had broken up two hours before Kimberley’s tragic death? What would it have achieved except more hurt for the poor girl’s family? And, even if he had told them, wouldn’t it have heaped even more blame on his shoulders that he didn’t deserve? Couples broke up every day. Every minute or second across the world, people were ending their relationships. How could Luke have possibly known by ending his relationship with Kimberley she would be involved in a car crash a couple of hours later? It just wasn’t possible.
And it certainly wasn’t his fault.
But it made her realise how deeply sensitive Luke was underneath the gruff front he presented to the world. He’d thought deeply about how Kimberley’s family would suffer even more heartache if they thought he had no longer wanted to be with her.
‘Was she terribly upset when she left your place?’
His features clouded with the memory. ‘That’s another thing I’ve never really understood. She wasn’t all that upset. I got the feeling she knew I was going to end things that day. I even thought she seemed... I don’t know...relieved somehow. And yet...’ He gave his head a little shake. ‘Maybe I just wasn’t good at reading her mood. I keep asking myself, did I listen to her? Did I hear what she wasn’t saying instead of what she was?’
‘Maybe in that two-hour window she talked to a friend,’ Abby said. ‘That’s usually what women do when they’re upset. They go to their girlfriends for support.’
‘If she’d told anyone then no one mentioned it at the funeral or since,’ Luke said. ‘That’s been one of the hardest things, apart from the guilt. Her family see me as the grief-stricken partner, unable to move on.’ He gave a quick twist of his mouth. ‘Thing is... It seems to help them to think that. They find it comforting that someone other than them is still devastated by her death.’
‘But you are still grieving,’ Abby pointed out. ‘It’s a process, not a timeline. You move through each of the stages when you’re ready. Some people take years, others a lifetime and some never get through it. There’s no right way of doing it.’
His smile was a wry slant. ‘I can see why you landed that job of yours. That’s a wise head on those very beautiful shoulders.’
Abby shrugged off his comment and eyed the last olive on the tasting plate. ‘Aren’t you going to eat that?’
He pushed the plate across the table. ‘It’s all yours.’
* * *
Luke went to his London office first thing on Monday morning and shuffled his diary around and in the process gave everyone on the staff a minor heart attack at his uncharacteristic spontaneity. It was weird, but no one at his office seemed all that surprised that he was ‘engaged’ to Abby Hart. They bought it just like everyone else who had access to a phone or computer screen or newspaper.
‘I always thought you were a dark horse, Luke,’ Kay, his middle-aged secretary, said with a teasing smile. ‘But I couldn’t be happier for you. I love Abby’s column. I read it every week. Her advice stopped me divorcing John last year.’
Luke frowned. ‘I didn’t know you guys were having trouble.’
Kay flickered her eyes upwards in a don’t-get-me-started manner. ‘I was going to leave him because he’d stopped helping me around the house and would just sit on the sofa in front of the TV while I buzzed around doing everything. But Abby pointed out in her column, most couples don’t get divorced over a basket of washing. There are usually bigger issues that are hiding under the dirty laundry. She was bang on the money. Poor John had some financial worries from his business that were making him depressed and moody and tired. He was too ashamed to tell me about them, and if it hadn’t been for Abby’s advice I still might not know. That girl is a genius.’
Luke couldn’t hold back a smile. ‘She is pretty special, isn’t she?’
Kay’s beaming smile rivalled a set of sun-soaked solar panels. ‘Well, look at you, smiling for the first time in I don’t know when.’ She leaned forwards and rested her forearms on her desk, her expression now sober. ‘I guess you kept your relationship with Abby a secret out of respect for Kimberley’s family. But they must be happy for you, surely? It’s been five years.’
Luke’s gut did its usual sharp claws clench when he thought of Kimberley’s family. He’d called them to explain his engagement to Abby wasn’t real, that it was just a favour he was doing for her. He hadn’t told Abby he’d told them that because she was so insistent no one knew her fiancé was a fake. But he couldn’t allow Kimberley’s parents to hear about his ‘engagement’ from another source, especially in the press. ‘Yes. I told them.’
‘Well, even if you hadn’t, you’d have to be a fossil hiding under a rock not to have heard about the outing of Abby Hart’s Mr Perfect,’ Kay said with another smile. ‘Thing is, how on earth did you two keep it a secret for so long? That’s taking dark horsemanship to a whole new level.’
Luke kept his expression safely in neutral. ‘Believe me, it wasn’t easy.’
* * *
Luke was on his way back to his house, where Abby was waiting for him before they headed to the airport, when he walked past a high-end jewellery store. He stopped outside and looked at the window display for a moment, realising it was totally out of character and that he was crossing a line he had never crossed before. But he couldn’t stop thinking about her showing that shop assistant her ring the other day and how it had seemed to embarrass her. Why shouldn’t he buy her something she wouldn’t be embarrassed wearing? It was a way to make sure she was treated the way she deserved to be treated. It would also make him less conflicted about putting such a short time frame on their fling. He pushed open the door and asked to see the diamond pendant in the window. And once he had purchased the pendant he continued on his way home.
Luke was a little shocked at how much he was looking forward to this week on the island. Not just because he hadn’t had a holiday in...when had he last had a holiday? It was so long ago he couldn’t remember where he’d gone.
One thing he did know—he’d gone alone.
But a week with Abby on a private island was the stuff of fantasies. He couldn’t help feeling excited about it. Hugely excited. Not just because their lovemaking was so freaking amazing, although he wouldn’t be worthy of his testosterone if he didn’t get hard just thinking about her in his bed. It was because Abby was fun to be around. She made him smile and he could barely remember the last time he’d smiled before she came barrelling into his life and demanding he be her Mr Perfect.
Luke was the last person to consider himself perfect, especially in an intimate relationship, but he couldn’t help enjoying playing the role of her fiancé as it gave him the freedom to do and say things he wouldn’t normally feel comfortable doing.
He wasn’t a touchy-feely person. He wasn’t the life-of-the-party loquacious type. He would rather design a robot than speak at length to a real person. At least he could program a robot to do what he wanted it to do.
But for some reason, with Abby, none of that mattered.
He liked the differences between them. He liked her laughter and her lightness of personality. He liked how she was positive and had such a can-do attitude. Her resourcefulness was a little wacky at times, like pretending to be in a relationship when she had never been in one before, and then giving everyone relationship advice that actually worked. Not to mention setting a date on when a fling should end. You didn’t get much wackier than that.
Luke wanted this week on the island to be perfect for her. To make up for all that had happened in her childhood. He wanted to spoil her and make her feel like a princess for the next week.
Only a week?
He elbowed the thought away. A week was what they had agreed on.
And he was going to enjoy every smoking-hot second of it.
CHAPTER NINE
THE PRIVATE ISLAND and luxury villa were even better in the flesh than in the photographs, Abby decided when they
arrived. Stunning views of the sparkling blue sea and the white sandy beach that fringed it could be seen from the sun-drenched terrace in front of the villa. A gorgeous infinity pool was set on the other terrace, which overlooked another fabulous view of the ocean. There were beautifully manicured gardens situated about the villa, and the slightly peppery scent of the scarlet pelargoniums that were in terracotta pots and hanging baskets filled the air.
The warm air with its hint of sea salt caressed Abby’s face when she lifted it to the sun and she closed her eyes for a moment, taking in the distant cry of a seabird and the twittering of the birds in the nearby shrubs. She opened her eyes to see Luke smiling at her. ‘What?’ she said, suddenly embarrassed.
He gave her pony-tailed hair a gentle tug. ‘You’re so easily impressed.’
‘Who wouldn’t be impressed by this?’ She waved her hand to encompass their surroundings. ‘This place is amazing. Pardon me for being a little overwhelmed but I’ve never been on a private island before. Nor have I seen a place as fabulous as this. Apparently the villa has won several architectural awards and I can see why.’
Luke gave a cursory look at the villa. ‘It’s not bad.’
‘Not bad?’ Abby laughed. ‘You’re the master of understatement. I would like to see something that does impress you.’
‘You in one of those bikinis I bought you would impress me,’ he said with a glint in his eyes.
Abby’s core coiled and contracted with need. ‘That can be arranged as soon as I unpack.’
Luke opened the front door of the villa with the key he had been given by the person who had brought them to the island by boat. She still couldn’t believe they had the island to themselves for the week. Not even any of the household staff were on the island this week. The housekeeper and gardener and pool maintenance people were on leave. However, gourmet food and boutique wines and champagnes had been left as part of the prize package, and the boat operator had informed them fresh fruit and vegetables would be brought in by boat mid-week.
Abby followed Luke inside the villa and couldn’t stop a gasp escaping when she saw the interior of the foyer. The walls and floor were polished marble and a Swarovski crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling in prisms of glittering light like a fountain of shimmering diamonds. The large windows allowed the view to come in from each side of the villa, making it seem even more spacious and spectacular. Three sides of the villa overlooked the sea but the fourth side overlooked the densely wooded forest of the hilly area on one side of the island.
Luke had a floor plan in the folder he had been given by the boat operator, but Abby was too impatient for that. She went on her own tour of discovery, calling out to him when she found another delightful room or stunning angle of the house.
‘Look at this, Luke.’ She pointed to the well-appointed kitchen and the breakfast room that opened on to a terrace where jasmine hung in a scented arras from the side of the villa. ‘I can’t wait to cook in there. And we can eat outside whenever we want.’
‘It’s a holiday. You’re not meant to cook.’
‘But I want to cook.’ Abby all but drooled at the luxury appliances and the acres of marble workspaces, which made her cramped kitchenette look like a shoebox. A baby’s shoebox. She opened a butler’s pantry. ‘Goodness me, you could park a car in here it’s so big.’ She closed the door and grinned at him. ‘Am I gushing too much?’
His slow smile made something in her stomach drop. ‘Come here.’
Abby walked across the kitchen to where he was standing, her breath snaring in her throat when he slipped a hand to the nape of her neck. His eyes were so dark a blue his pupils almost disappeared. ‘I don’t want to waste a second of this holiday with you slaving over a hot oven.’
She linked her arms around his neck and leaned into his hard frame, her body tingling at the erotic contact. ‘So you’d prefer me slaving over your hot body instead?’
The glint in his eyes intensified. ‘I couldn’t have put it better myself.’ His hands settled on her hips, holding her against the pulse of his body. His mouth came down and covered hers in a long, drugging kiss that made the backs of her knees feel fizzy. A hot pool of longing opened up inside her, creating a whirlpool deep in her core.
Abby sighed against his mouth, weaving her tongue with his, her body tingling with the need to get closer. Luke’s hands were already working on her clothes, peeling them from her body as if he was unwrapping a present he had been waiting to open for a long time.
‘I want you,’ he said, moving his mouth against the sensitive skin of her neck, the caress of his warm breath sending shivers down her spine.
Abby was suddenly conscious of how hot and sticky she was from their travel. ‘Maybe I should shower first...’
‘I have an even better idea.’ He took her hand and led her out to the sun-dappled infinity pool on the terrace.
There were towels in a hamper under a shelter and he took two out and laid them on two sun loungers. There was even sunscreen in a spray bottle thoughtfully placed nearby.
Then he undid the rest of his shirt buttons, looking at her with such explosive erotic intent her legs threatened to give way. ‘Ever skinny-dipped before?’
Abby shook her head. ‘I’ve always been too shy to do something like that.’ Not to mention she was a hopeless swimmer. She only ever stayed in the shallow end because she hadn’t learnt to swim with anything remotely near proficiency.
He stepped out of his trousers and shoes and socks and underwear before he came back to help her with the rest of her clothes. With each article he removed, he left a kiss in its place, his lips and tongue moving over her flesh in little nudges and licks that made her desire for him swarm through her body in a hot wave.
The sensation of the sun on her naked skin was so sensually arousing but, teamed with Luke’s kisses and skilled caresses, she was breathless and aching with need within seconds. ‘Are you sure no one can see us?’ she said, sliding her hands down his muscular chest.
‘We’re totally alone.’
Abby glanced nervously towards the ocean in the distance. ‘What about on the water? Maybe there’s a yacht with a stonking big telescope that will—’
‘Abby.’ Luke’s voice had a soothing quality to it that was like a caress in itself. ‘You’re safe with me. I wouldn’t bring you out here if I didn’t think it was private.’
Was she safe?
Safe emotionally?
Abby brushed aside the thought. She wasn’t falling in love with Luke. That wasn’t part of the deal. How could she fall in love so quickly anyway? She was confusing phenomenal sex with love. Hadn’t she written a column about that once? It was a classic mistake people made, especially women, confusing great sex with love, often being disappointed when the novelty wore off, to find there was nothing underpinning the relationship but physical lust.
Luke picked up the sunscreen and sprayed her back and shoulders and then handed her the bottle to do his. Once they were safely covered with sunscreen, he brought her back to the cradle of his body, his hands sliding down to cup her behind, his mouth fusing to hers in a searing kiss that made her toes curl against the sun-warmed flagstones. Then he lifted his mouth off hers to blaze a trail of kisses down to her breasts, subjecting each one to licks and sucks and gentle nips that made her gasp with delight.
After a moment, he lifted his mouth off her breast to nod towards the pool. ‘Time to cool off?’
Abby glanced at the markings on the floor of the pool. ‘Can we stay in the shallow end?’
‘You’re not confident in the water?’ He framed it as a question but it sounded more like an observation, especially since he was looking at her in an understanding manner.
‘Well, let’s put it this way,’ Abby said with a self-deprecating grimace. ‘Every time I try and swim, someone throws me a flotation device and calls for a lifeguard. Swimming lessons weren’t a priority at any of my foster placements.’
‘Then that’s something I c
an help you with while we’re here.’
‘Ella told me you won a heap of medals during your schooling but you stopped swimming when your parents split up,’ Abby said.
A shadow passed over his features. ‘Yeah, well, club training wasn’t a priority after that.’
‘Because you were always too busy looking after your mum and Ella?’ Abby asked.
He made a twisted movement of his mouth. ‘Don’t get me wrong. I was glad to help with Ella. She was a good little kid and no bother. I just missed out on the stuff other teenagers my age were doing. It made me feel like an outsider. But I guess you know all about feeling like that.’
‘Sure do. But I think what you did for Ella and your mum was amazing. They’re so lucky to have you.’
He gave her a quick smile. ‘Let’s get you in the water before you melt, okay?’
Abby was so hot from his caresses she was expecting the water to sizzle when she entered it, holding Luke’s hand for support. And the only melting she was going to do was when he looked at her with his dark blue eyes full of smouldering desire. The water enveloped her in a blessedly cool embrace that felt like silk against her naked skin. Maybe swimming wouldn’t be so scary after all.
Luke brought her close to the aroused length of his body. ‘There’s only one problem with making love in water.’
‘Putting on a condom?’
‘Yep.’
Abby bit her lip. ‘I guess we could go without...’
He looked at her for a long moment. ‘No can do. Too risky.’
Abby knew he was being responsible about having safe sex. She was always insisting on her followers doing the same, but a part of her—a secret part—wished he would relax his rule for her. ‘Because this is just a fling, right?’ She tried to tone down the bitter note in her voice but didn’t quite pull it off.
He let out a gust of a breath and slid a hand down one of her arms. ‘Abby... Think about it. If you were to get pregnant it would—’
‘I know, I know, I know,’ Abby said. ‘It would be a disaster for you.’
A Virgin for a Vow Page 11
