Revenge and Redemption

by Jennie Brumley

  “Thank you. I was just telling Penny that you two should visit the vineyard sometime...and Miss Cassidy too, of course,” he added with a subtle hint of inquiry.

  Luke raised an eyebrow at the mention of his sister. Bellows cleared his throat and continued, “I’ve just opened up restaurants at both my Redlands and Margaret River wineries. Perfect for a romantic evening out,” he added with a smile that exuded honest good humour.

  Luke slipped his arm around Penny’s shoulders. “We may have to take you up on that. I was going to lure Penny away to Perth with me in a couple of weeks. I don’t see why we couldn’t extend our trip to include a tour of the Margaret River. Maybe even stop by the famous Chocolate Factory…?” he added with a sly grin and a raised brow.

  “Maybe,” Penny said, returning Luke’s grin as he bent his head to kiss her lips.

  “Blagh! All those calories!” Charlie blurted out. “But I guess some women just don’t care about their health.”

  Penny turned away from his kiss. “Excuse me,” she said softly as she moved away.

  Luke tightened his grip on her shoulders but she shrugged him off. Charlie threw Luke a gloating look and walked off in the opposite direction.

  Bellows cleared his throat. “I’m sorry about Charlie,” he offered.

  Luke nodded curtly in acknowledgement. “So was I.”

  * * * *

  Penny found the bathroom and leaned against the bench as she stared in the mirror and tried not to cry. She’d been doing so well, too. Not once in almost two weeks had she argued with Luke when he said she looked pretty in that dress or lovely with her hair down—or even more beautiful naked.

  Who the hell was Charlie York to tell Penny she was fat?

  Okay, so she didn’t actually say the F word, but it was implied for all to hear. For Luke to hear. It reminded Penny of that other F word she used to hear a lot.

  Freak!

  As a girl she’d had never been comfortable in her own skin; as a woman she’d learned to accept her height and curves as an indelible fact and to be proud of them, but over the past two weeks—and certainly in the last twenty-four hours—she’d gained a whole new perspective on the subject.

  Penny was learning that to be beautiful, you only had to feel beautiful. And no one had ever made her feel as beautiful as Luke did.

  And in less than two minutes Charlie York, supermodel, super bitch, had destroyed her budding high self-esteem and Penny found herself floundering back at square one.

  Charlie had made Penny look foolish in front of Luke. Worse, Penny had let her. She’d just walked away without so much as an angry glare. Chris Marks had put his hand on her and she’d threatened to shove it up his ass. Charlie York insults her and what does she do? Hide in the bathroom.

  “Penny?”

  Luke’s voice preceded a gentle rapping on the bathroom door and a quiet creaking as the door opened. Luke’s head appeared around the edge of the door. “Are you alone?”

  Penny nodded and he came in.

  “Are you all right?” he asked as he drew her to him and held her against his chest.

  She snuggled against Luke’s warm body and let the sound of his heartbeat soothe her nerves. “Don’t let that spiteful brat spoil our night,” he said.

  “It wasn’t just Charlie. I’ve been hearing whispers all night. I’ve tried to ignore them but Charlie was the last straw.”

  “Whispers? About what?”

  “About us. How you’re using me for rebound sex, how I’m using you for your money, how you must be either blind or desperate or both to be sleeping with a frumpy cow like me...”

  Luke’s jaw clenched so hard his skin paled. “Charlie,” he ground out. He tilted Penny’s face up so she had to look at him. “Well, we can discount the first two comments, to begin with. We both know I’m using you for revenge and you’re the one using me for sex,” he said with such a straight face that Penny burst out laughing.

  Luke’s face softened and he smiled. “Much better,” he said as he wiped away an errant tear from her cheek. “As for that last comment, I am neither blind nor desperate, and you, my sweet woman, are beautiful.”

  Luke’s words wrapped Penny up in a world of confusion. She wanted to believe him, she wanted to shrug her shoulders and shake it off and be the confident woman she’d been at the beginning of the night, before Charlie’s little barbs started sticking in her flesh and stinging her pride.

  But the simple fact of the matter was that Charlie’s words sounded so much more familiar to her than Luke’s.

  All her life she was told how unwanted she was for one reason or another, and apparently it was going to take more than two weeks of being told otherwise to change her psyche’s mind.

  Luke sighed. “You don’t believe me, do you?”

  Penny opened her mouth to answer but no words came out. She shook her head, unable to speak.

  Luke cupped her face in his hands and stroked her cheek with the pad of his thumb. “Is it because Selina took every ounce of self worth you ever had and ground it into dust? Is it because that self-serving, sanctimonious, miserable bitch forced all of her own insecurities down your throat, raising you to believe you’re not worth a damn just so she could feel good about herself?”

  Penny opened her mouth again but closed it when she felt the tears filling her eyes. Her chest felt tight and her stomach churned but she nodded her head, acknowledging her shame.

  “You are a beautiful, sexy, passionate woman, Penny Royale. I’m going to tell you that as often as I have to. Until you believe me.”

  She searched Luke’s eyes, looking for the truth in his words. “Why?”

  “Because you are worth a damn, Penny. No matter what anyone else tells you, you are worth a damn to me!”

  Without another word Luke slashed his mouth over hers, telling her he believed what he was saying to be true. He believed she was beautiful. He believed she was sexy. He believed she was passionate. Then she believed it too.

  Penny leaned into Luke’s kiss, deepened it and entwined his tongue with hers. Luke growled against her mouth as he backed her against the bench and lifted her onto its edge. He slid his hands under her skirt and up her thighs, spreading them wide, nestling himself between them, and then his fingers curled around the edges of her knickers and yanked at them so urgently they ripped apart.

  “I’ll buy you more.” His lean fingers made short work of the zipper at Penny’s back. “Oh, honey,” he groaned as he tugged her dress down and revealed the black silk and lace strapless bra that she’d finally had the guts to wear, and no longer had the knickers to match.

  Penny clawed at Luke’s chest. She wanted to rip his shirt off, his pants off, to feel the heat of his potent masculinity inside her, filling her. Burning her up from the inside out. She gasped as his fingers slipped inside her and stroked her wet, hot centre, penetrating her body, pistoning into her with the same forceful determination that he’d seduced her with the night before, bringing her easily to orgasm, his mouth muffling her cry of ecstasy as her hips bucked against his hand.

  Luke held her tightly as her pleasure subsided, but before her trembling ceased he bent his head to tease her nipples from their silky prison with his teeth, and she shivered with renewed anticipation, biting her lip so hard to stifle her lustful moan she was amazed she didn’t taste blood.

  She watched as Luke pulled back and released his rock-hard cock, exposing it to her appreciative gaze and eager caresses. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a condom, violently ripped the packet open with his teeth and quickly sheathed himself, then yanked her forward, tilted her hips, and thrust inside her.

  “You’re so tight,” he said as he wrapped one arm firmly around her back and held her close. “Feels so good.”

  His mouth crashed against hers in awkward, jerky movements, mimicking their bodies as he slammed himself deeper inside her. Penny slid her hands under his jacket and raked her nails down his back, drawing him closer still, want
ing all of him—his heart, his soul. But she would settle for his body. For now.

  Luke kissed a trail across her cheek, his tongue flicked out and circled the shell of her ear before licking a path down her throat. The ensuing sensation was that of unrepentant desire, desire that was demanding release, making her want to scream with the frustration of keeping quiet. She tunnelled her fingers through Luke’s hair and forced his mouth back to hers, the heat of his twisting tongue the only thing capable of ensuring her silence.

  All too soon the tension of her building climax made her whimper and writhe. The hurried, powerful thrusts of her lover’s hips, the thought they might be discovered at any moment, the heat of his breath against her neck and face—

  It was all too much.

  Her body began to spasm, her breasts heaving with every gasping breath. Luke tightened his grip on her and jerked his body into hers one, two, three times. He rested his head against her sweat-slicked breasts and she held him there with shaking hands.

  Slowly the blood stopped pounding in her ears and her breathing calmed to normal. Luke lifted his head and Penny reached up to stroke his cheek. She snaked her hand around his neck and pulled him back for one last lingering kiss, and then he helped her to her feet and they made themselves presentable.

  Luke zipped up Penny’s dress while she checked her hair and makeup in the mirror, then realised in wide-eyed horror that Luke had been facing the mirror the entire time.

  He hadn’t only participated in their tryst, he had watched it, too.

  At first the thought mortified her, but then she saw his reflection grinning at her and she couldn’t help laughing at herself, at him.

  At the torn knickers he was shoving in his pocket.

  Luke nuzzled the back of her neck and slid his hands under her skirt again, squeezing her naked ass with one while slipping a long, lean finger through her slick curls to rub at her clit with the other.

  Penny slapped his hands away even as she giggled, then thanked God the skirt of her dress came down to her knees. All she had to do now was avoid sitting down. And strong updrafts.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Luke awoke alone.

  He didn’t like it.

  Last night in his bed, he and Penny had made love. Passionate, intimate, devoted love. And Penny had finished what she’d started in her bed. Luke tucked his hands behind his head and grinned at the ceiling as he remembered Penny’s luscious mouth wrapped around his cock, devouring him with the same gusto with which she’d sucked down those sticky pastries at Mama’s Table, his hands fisted in her hair as her mouth jack-hammered up and down his erection.

  His already stiff cock hardened even more.

  He groaned. He needed her deep, soft, tight body. He wanted her back in bed, under him, on top of him. As long as she was naked and in his arms he didn’t care. He just wanted her. In his life. Forever.

  He threw back the sheet and moved to sit on the edge of the bed, leaning his arms on his knees and resting his head in his hands.

  Life was so much simpler without women.

  If they weren’t trying to steal his money, they stole his heart. And so far there was only one woman who couldn’t care less about the size of his bank account, who knew that there was more to life than money.

  Penny valued friendship and honesty. She trusted him. Even after everything he’d put her through, she trusted him. There was nothing Luke wouldn’t do to keep that trust.

  Almost nothing.

  He wouldn’t give up his plans for revenge, not only because Selina Royale deserved to be knocked off her perch, deserved to be revealed and reviled for the mendacious bitch she was, but as long as he sought that plan of action he could keep Penny by his side, and in his bed.

  Once all of this was over, once Penny got the evidence Luke needed, he wasn’t altogether sure he wouldn’t lose her. Was she just playing along until she knew her business was safe? Luke had assured her he would protect her but there was every possibility—

  No. Penny trusted Luke. He was certain. He had to be.

  He had to trust her too.

  Luke stood up and stretched, then fell purposefully to the floor with a thud. He hadn’t liked waking up alone, his body so tense with need. He knew of only three things that helped relieve that tension. He couldn’t face a cold shower, Penny had already left the bed, and that left push-ups.

  If he’d been single or gone to bed alone it wouldn’t have been a problem. Luke would happily push out fifty or more reps just to wake himself up properly before facing another punishing day in the corporate world. Hell, he’d done push-ups almost every morning since he was thirteen just to try and bulk up his already freakishly tall frame. But he’d discovered they had other benefits when he was sixteen and started dating girls, before he’d discovered sex was a much more satisfying way of relieving tension.

  But going to sleep with a beautiful woman in his arms meant his body expected a beautiful woman to be beside him when he woke up, and that meant his arousal was more demanding and tense than usual. But pushing out a solid fifty was enough to take the edge off anybody.

  Luke slowly rose to his feet again and listened hard. No noise. Cassie must still be asleep. But where was Penny? He pulled on an old pair of board shorts and went in search of her. He found her in the large open living space, her feet together, legs straight, hands on the floor, eyes closed, her glorious ass pointed squarely at him.

  He hadn’t heard Penny because she was doing yoga in the lounge room.

  Luke just stood in the hallway and watched. She looked so sexy in her indecently short candy striped boxer shorts and tight, pink curve-hugging singlet as she moved from one impossibly twisted position to the next.

  He thought about doing more push-ups but he really didn’t think they’d help at this point. Slowly he stalked towards Penny. She turned at the sound of creaking floorboards and greeted Luke with a smile.

  “Good−”

  Luke stole her greeting with a volatile kiss, his tongue lashing against hers, his lips crushing her lips, but before he could push her to the floor and satisfy his lust right there on the lounge room rug, he heard the sound of a throat clearing. Luke released Penny’s lips and turned his head towards the dining table.

  So much for Cassie sleeping in, he thought irritably.

  She was reading the Sunday morning paper and sipping orange juice. Her eyes danced with good humour. She turned the newspaper around so he could see why. The social pages were filled with pictures of couples at various events from Saturday night, including Grant Bellows’s wine launch.

  Luke took the page from her and looked at the photos. He grinned at the one of him and Penny in a passionate embrace, oblivious to the camera. Their lips were locked, his hands groping her ass, a filmy scrap of lace protruded from his pocket, and under the photo were a few words describing how the couple-of-the-moment was more steamy than the balmy Brisbane nights.

  There was also an interesting shot of Grant and Charlie. While Charlie was clinging to Grant for dear life, the wine maker’s eyes seemed bashfully engaged elsewhere.

  “Poor bloke,” grunted Luke. “I hope he’s as sensible as he seems and gets rid of that gold-digging twit quickly.”

  “Oh, he is,” Cassie said, “and he has.”

  “How do you know?” Luke asked with a frown as Penny sidled up to him and slid her arms around his middle. He draped his arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her temple, loving the natural easiness they’d fallen into over the past couple of weeks, and loving even more that he no longer had to drag her out into public to get her to touch him.

  “Because after you two…disappeared…Grant followed Charlie outside to have a few quiet words, only they didn’t stay very quiet. He called her a ‘childish, money-grubbing poser’ and she called him ‘an old leather handbag.’ Then he told her it was over and she told him to jump overboard. Then Charlie teetered away on those ridiculously high heels of hers and began drinking whatever she could la
y her hands on, and Grant asked me to dance. He’s going to be my escort for the ball, by the way.”

  “I see,” Luke said slowly as that last tidbit of information sank in. “Does he know about…?”

  Cassie stiffened defensively. “Yes, he does, and no, he doesn’t care.”

  Luke nodded and said no more on the subject. “Well, my lovely ladies, what do you wish to do this morning? The sun is shining, birds are singing, and my stomach is grumbling. Got any more of that juice?”

  * * * *

  The barbeque was just getting under way when Penny ushered Luke and Cassie through the dark brown brick house to the extensive garden beyond. Angie spotted them as soon as they exited the kitchen door and rushed forward to welcome them to her home. She hugged Penny and Cassie, then spoke in a flourish of Italian to Luke, who laughed in response to whatever was said.

  “Come, come, eat, drink. We have much to celebrate. And you,” she said to Cassie as she put her hands on her hips. “You need fattening up. Come.”

  Penny and Cassie laughed as Angie dragged Cassie away to a trestle table overloaded with the usual fare of pasta and salads and wine, but Luke was frowning again.

  “Let her have some fun, Luke. She isn’t dead yet,” Penny said, more bluntly than she’d intended.

  Luke turned his intensified frown on her, his golden eyes glazed with pain and irritation. “Don’t presume to know my mind just because we’re sleeping together.”

  Penny grabbed Luke’s hand and dragged him back into the kitchen. “I don’t presume anything. I’m only telling you what Cassie is too afraid to tell you herself.”

  “Cassie tells me everything,” he argued stubbornly.

  “Not when she thinks it’ll upset you more than her, she doesn’t. She loves you so much, Luke. She wants to protect you just as much as you want to protect her. She knows she’s dying. She doesn’t need you telling her she can’t do things just because she’s sick. Let her have some fun.”

  “I don’t tell Cassie she can’t do things just to be a killjoy, Penny. Every time she overdoes it she weakens just that little bit more, steps a little closer to death’s door, and call me selfish if you like, honey, but I want my little sister to hang around for as long as possible.”