“Because I don’t have any proof, and I need you to get it for me.”
Penny started laughing. The sound was so sweet to Luke’s ears he had to clench his jaw and grind his teeth to force his mind to concentrate. He frowned. He couldn’t let her affect him. “This isn’t a joke. I’m serious, Penny.”
“I know you are.”
“Then what’s so funny?”
“That you would need my help for something like this. I sell books and coffee, for pity’s sake. I’m not into corporate espionage or private investigation. I would have thought a man like you would have professional people to do that for you.”
“I do. How do you think I know about Selina leaking the information? But all I have is hearsay. I need actual proof if I want to take her down.”
“And why do you think I’ll be of any help to you?”
“Because you worked for her, with her. You know how she thinks, how she conducts business...and I know what she did to you, Penny. I know she fired you and kicked you out on the street. Exactly how long did you have to stay in that shelter?”
The laughter died from Penny’s face and again he felt that twinge of disgust. His words had killed her lovely smile. Anger and hate replaced it.
“Mr Hardcastle...”
“Luke, please.”
“Mr Hardcastle, I’m going to say something to you that I should have said this morning. Go to hell!” Penny stood up and headed towards the door.
“Not so fast, Penny. There is one other reason I thought you’d help me that I think you might be forgetting.”
“And that would be?” she asked, her hand on the doorknob.
“I own you.” Penny’s hand fell to her side. “You’ll help me ruin Selina or I’ll ruin you instead.”
“Why?”
“Why not? Selina ruined my sister’s life, and you helped, and you know it. I simply want to return the favour as Cassie can no longer do it for herself.”
Luke leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers under his chin as he watched Penny. Slowly she turned to face him. Her chest heaved with every irritated breath, causing his eyes to be drawn to the ample swell of her breasts. He shifted in his seat to accommodate his growing erection.
Penny pulled a set of keys from her jeans pocket and walked back to Luke’s desk. He frowned as she laid them in front of him and pointed to each key.
“The blue one opens the door to the shop, the red one is my house key, and the green one opens the laundry door—it sticks sometimes, but if you jiggle it it’ll come good.”
“What are you doing?”
“You said you’d ruin me if I didn’t help you. Selina will ruin me if I do. Oddly enough, if I have to lose to someone, I’d rather it be you than her. Goodbye, Luke.”
Luke stared at Penny dumbfounded as she walked out of his office. When he’d gone over every possible scenario in his mind as to how this meeting would go, he certainly didn’t picture this. Luke jumped to his feet and raced after Penny. He caught her at the elevator.
“Penny, stop. We haven’t finished.”
“We have nothing further to discuss.”
Luke almost growled with frustration. He had definitely underestimated this woman. It was not something that happened often and as much as he didn’t want to admit it, it made her even more appealing.
The doors to the elevator opened and Penny stepped inside. Luke was desperate. He hadn’t wanted to do this, it was too Selina Royale in its vindictiveness, but Penny was leaving him no other choice.
Luke braced his arms against the doors of the elevator, holding them open, filing the cavity with his large body. He stared at Penny, his expression cold, and kept his voice from betraying his desperation.
“What if I didn’t ruin you? What if I ruined your fellow retailers instead?”
He stepped back and waited with his arms folded neatly across his chest. The doors began to close, until Penny’s hand shot out between them and made them open again.
Luke had been glared at by his fair share of women but something in Penny’s steel-coloured eyes at that moment chilled him to the bone. She stepped from the elevator and slapped his face hard, then marched straight back into his office.
Luke adjusted his jaw as he followed her. He closed the door behind them, then sought out the glass of ice his assistant had brought in earlier. He almost laughed as he sat down at his desk, holding the glass to his cheek.
“I’ve been slapped before but, bloody hell that hurt.”
“Be thankful that was all you got,” Penny said.
Luke looked at her with new eyes. “You really aren’t what I was expecting,” he said.
“Didn’t you have me investigated?”
“Of course I did, but we’ve met before, remember? I thought I had you pegged.”
“You met a different person,” she said as she shifted her eyes from his.
“So I see. Never judge a book by its cover, eh?”
“Cute.”
Luke smirked at Penny’s dryness. “I must admit I find it interesting that you will quite literally fight for the rights of your neighbours but don’t even bat an eyelid for your aunt.”
“So?”
“She’s family.”
“Families come in all shapes and sizes, Luke, and Selina may be related, but she is not my family.”
“Then why won’t you help me? You know she’s crooked.”
“I never witnessed anything illegal in all my time at Royale Industries. Morally reprehensible, yes. Illegal, no. And the reason I won’t help you is not because of loyalty to Selina.”
She sighed heavily. “All outgoing employees are made to sign confidentiality agreements forbidding them to disclose any and all information gleaned while working at Royale Industries. I’m sorry, Luke, the agreement is binding for three years. I can’t help you.”
There was a moment of silence, then a crack. The glass in Luke’s hand shattered. He dropped the broken glass as the pain in his hand cut through the haze of burning hatred that had welled within him.
Penny jumped to her feet. “First-aid kit? Luke?”
“Behind Sandra’s desk,” he said dispassionately.
Penny dashed out of the office and came back with a white box. She flipped it open and pulled out saline ampoules and alcohol swabs. She tweezed some small shards of glass from the heel of his palm and cleaned the cut.
“You’ll live,” she said as she applied a Band-Aid to his hand.
“But Cassie won’t,” he said quietly.
Penny’s throat constricted with guilt. Eighteen months ago word had leaked out that Cassandra Cassidy, CEO of Cassidy Holdings, was dying from cancer. Luke’s half-sister had taken over from her father and in six months turned the company around from a flailing financial nightmare into a prosperous and worthwhile venture.
Selina had been furious. She had wanted to buy them out but Cassie’s company’s revival ruined those plans. Penny wouldn’t put it past Selina to do what Luke was accusing her of, but she had no proof either. She never saw anything illegal take place and Selina had some of the best lawyers on retainer to ensure she never crossed that line.
“How is she?” she asked quietly.
“Not great, not that she ever lets on how bad she really is. But that’s my baby sister. Never backs down.”
Penny looked long and hard at Luke. The man was her first and only real crush. From the first day she’d seen him standing on the footpath opposite Royale Industries, Luke Hardcastle had been her fantasy man. A man she had tried to help once before, and had incurred Selina’s wrath for doing so. What did she really have to lose if she did it again?
Everything.
The word was a lump that choked her and threatened to crush her. Selina would crush her, her business, her life. Penny had employees to think about now; she was accountable for more lives than her own. It didn’t matter that Luke looked so vulnerable and simply begged to be comforted. He was still the man trying to blackmail her into
doing his dirty work. Even so, the urge to slip her arms around his neck and cradle his head against the pillow of her breasts was enticing.
She moved to a safe distance away from temptation. “I am sorry, Luke. I do wish I could help, but I can’t.”
Luke slowly raised his head and stared at her. “Do you, Penny? Do you really wish you could help?”
Penny looked away before she could drown in his golden depths. “I know better than anyone what a bitch Selina can be, Luke. I don’t blame you for wanting to cut her down to size.”
“Then let me take a look at that agreement.”
“What?”
“The confidentiality agreement, I’ll have my lawyers go over it and see if they can’t find any loopholes. If they can, will you help me?”
“And if they can’t?”
“Then I’ll just have to think of some other way to bring that bitch to her knees.”
“And until then, are you still going to hold the leases over my head?”
“Yes. I can’t take the chance that you’ll go telling tales to Aunty Selina in the meantime, can I? I wouldn’t want you trying to curry her favour.”
Penny clenched her jaw. If only Luke knew how bloody unlikely that statement was.
“Fine, but if you want to hold a lease over my head, then hold my lease over my head. Leave my friends alone. They are good, honest, hardworking people who deserve better than to get caught in the middle of this nonsense.”
“Fair enough.”
“And you and I are going to sit here all night if we have to and go over their lease agreements. I will not let you rip them off.”
Luke fought to keep himself in check, to keep his face from betraying his delight. Seeing Penny all riled up like that, with her arms akimbo and her magnificent chest heaving and her cheeks flushed a pretty pink had made his cock twitch with expectant excitement. He’d almost expected her to waggle a disapproving finger at him.
“I’m hungry. Do you like Chinese?” He picked up the phone and ordered a meal, then turned his attention back to Penny and watched her pace across his office.
She stopped by the window and turned back to face him. “You know, I used to think you were one of the good guys,” she said. “I’d never thought much of your social life but you were always on the level where business was concerned. I’d never have thought you would lower yourself to her standards.”
Luke winced at the harsh judgement, especially her criticism of his social life. If only she knew—
“It’s called fighting fire with fire, Penny.”
“The only problem with that, Luke, is that everyone gets burned.”
* * * *
It was two o’clock in the morning when Luke stopped his car outside Penny’s house in West End. The small weatherboard cottage was very familiar to him. He and his dad used to build and renovate houses like this one before Luke, at age seventeen, suggested building something bigger.
Penny’s house had been renovated. A Queenslander-style veranda had been added all the way around the little house and the doors and windows looked decidedly new, as did the corrugated iron roofing and still fresh-looking coat of paint. It was obvious she was doing well for herself.
Luke watched Penny sleeping in the passenger seat. All night long, as they’d gone over lines and paragraphs and addendums, he’d watched her as she’d fidgeted with her clothes and hair. She definitely had image issues, though he’d be damned if he knew why. She was beautiful, sexy, no more so than when she was deep in thought.
She had this habit of chewing on her bottom lip and every time she did it Luke’s eyes were irresistibly drawn to her lusciously rosy mouth. He would watch with lascivious fascination as her lip would swell and darken with blood giving her a sensual pout that simply begged to be kissed.
And dear God, had Luke wanted to kiss her. Hell, he wanted to do a whole lot more than that.
More than once he found himself walking around the office to put some distance between them. At one point during the night he’d had to remove himself from her presence altogether. It was either that or actually try to kiss her and risk another slap. Not that he’d minded the sting of her palm. Strong women were definitely a turn-on.
But all the while his inner voice had chanted, She’s a Royale, as if that would magically transform her into something far less desirable than the woman now sleeping beside him.
Sleeping beside him.
That thought was going to haunt him when he finally got to bed tonight. Suck it up, Luke, he chided himself.
“Penny?” he said softly. She didn’t stir. He reached over and gently shook her leg. “Penny?” he said a little louder. Her eyes opened and she blinked at him, sleepy. “You’re home.”
She turned her head towards her house, then looked down at the hand spread across her leg, the hand Luke had been caressing her with, gently circling his palm against her thigh, the action feeling as natural to him as breathing…
“Thanks.”
…but inappropriate nonetheless, especially considering the circumstances. Although he couldn’t help but notice she didn’t shy away from his touch.
“No problem,” he said as he moved his hand away.
“Uh, why don’t you come inside and I’ll get those papers for you?”
Luke swallowed hard as he thought of all the reasons following Penny inside her house was a bad idea, then fought the urge to ignore them. “It can wait ’til tomorrow.”
“What time is it?” Penny asked, and yawned.
“Around two.”
“Then it already is tomorrow. Come on, I have them in my office. It won’t take a minute.”
Luke’s resolve weakened. “Okay.”
He followed Penny inside her little house.
“Wait here, I won’t be a moment.”
“Don’t want me to see your safe combination, huh?” he joked softly.
“No, I just don’t want you to see how messy this end of the house is.”
Luke chuckled quietly as Penny disappeared down the short hallway, towards her office. Towards her bedroom.
“Get a grip before you do something stupid,” he muttered to himself. “She’s a Royale.”
While he waited he took the time to poke around. Her house was very much like her shop: a little old world, maybe even a little bohemian, certainly eclectic. Both were warm and quirky and definitely not what he would have expected from a Royale, not after seeing the frigid rigidity of her aunt’s office building. In that respect, at least, Penny was very different from Selina.
Luke moved into the lounge room. The aged pine sideboard and coffee table were stacked high with books on every subject, old and new and all emanating that unique scent of milled paper and printer’s ink. But the walls were almost bare—no art, no posters, no photographs. Just a big station clock ticking away quietly.
As warm as this little house was, it also felt very lonely.
He sat down in one of the large inviting arm chairs. It was soft and comfortable, its chocolate coloured overstuffed cushions the type you snuggle into on a cold winter’s night. He smiled lazily as images of snuggling with Penny snuck sideways through his brain, then sprung out of the chair like a jack-in-a-box and shoved the unwelcome thought from his mind.
The sound of Penny’s footsteps as she re-emerged from her office brought him back to the hallway. She handed him a manilla envelope, and as he took it his hand brushed against hers. Heat blazed through his body and made it jump with a yearning he could no longer hide. Their eyes met and Penny chewed her full bottom lip.
That was more than Luke could bear.
“Screw it!”
He let the envelope fall to the floor and pulled her into his arms. He kissed her hungrily, his lips bruising, demanding. He’d wanted to taste that rosy pout for ten years—even if she was a Royale—and tonight as he’d worked beside her his body had ached for her.
When Penny slid her hands into his hair and held him to her, returning his kiss with equa
l fervour, his eyes widened in surprise, but then he simply surrendered to the moment and snaked his hands down to cup the ample rounds of her ass, pulling her tight against him, no longer hiding his arousal but pressing it hard against the soft folds of her belly.
His tongue lashed against hers, searing her with the passion he’d long denied, and he knew his resolve was defeated. Luke would claim her as his, would take her to bed and bury himself deep inside her voluptuous warmth. Anything to stop this feeling from ending.
But it had to.
He could not succumb to his lust. He would not let it defeat him.
As abruptly as the kiss had begun, it stopped. Luke put Penny at arm’s length and slowly shook his head, panting his frustration at the ceiling before lowering his eyes to meet hers once more.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. It’s been a long day,” he offered as an excuse, weak as it was. “Is this everything?” he said as he picked up the envelope. Penny nodded even as she touched her lips with trembling fingers, enticing him again.
“Yes.”
“Right then, I’ll be off. Goodnight, Miss Royale.”
“Goodnight,” she whispered, her sweet voice barely audible over the blood pounding in his ears.
Luke walked back to his car in a daze. He slumped into the driver’s seat and head-butted the steering wheel. “You’re a bloody idiot, Luke.”
Chapter Three
Penny felt dejected as she watched Luke drive away. But then, what had she hoped for? That his kiss was a sign of more to come? That he would make love to her? That he wanted her? That was a joke. Penny knew Luke’s type and she wasn’t it.
Still, she touched her fingertips to her lips again. They were swollen from the force of his kiss and the graze of stubble that would undoubtedly be shaved clean come sunup, leaving no reminders of his obvious lapse in judgement. Penny was a Royale, after all, and there was nothing Luke Hardcastle hated half so much as a Royale.
She groaned out loud. It was bad enough that yet again, a man was using her to get to Selina, but why did it have to be Luke Hardcastle—and why did he have to kiss her? Obviously he’d seen her staring at him, drooling as she watched him walk around his office with his powerful legs and perfect ass and disgustingly handsome face, all exuding a raw masculine power that commanded attention. Obviously he intended to use that attention against her.
Revenge and Redemption Page 2
