“Of course you do,” Penny said quietly as she stroked his stubbled cheek. “Cassie wants that too, but don’t you think she should have some say in how she spends the last of her time?”
Luke bowed his head. Penny took his hands again.
“Look at her, Luke,” she said as she led him to the kitchen door. “She’s the same vivacious Cassie she’s always been. She’s a people person. She needs to be around people. How do you think she got Cassidy Holdings back on top so fast? Because she’s good with people and people are business. She spends most of her time confined to a hospital, Luke. If she wants to let loose on the weekends, then why shouldn’t she? She’s earned it.”
They watched Cassie for a moment, talking and laughing, easily conversing with people she’d never met before. Luke leaned back against the door frame and pulled Penny into his arms. He held her close and rested his chin on her head.
“I know you’re right,” he said quietly, “but she’s all I have left, Pen.”
Penny stiffened in Luke’s arms and she felt the sting of tears fill her eyes as she remembered the truth of their relationship.
None of this was real. All of it was temporary. Cassie was all he had left.
Even so, she empathised. Luke had never been alone. But Penny had. She’d spent most of her life alone, dreaming of the family that would never be hers.
“I never really had a family, so I don’t know how it must feel to lose the people you love one by one, but I do know that when you find people who make you feel as though you belong, who are willing to go out of their way to help you…people who make you feel safe and actually give a damn−” Penny stopped as Luke hugged her tighter. “Those people are your family, Luke. It doesn’t have to end with Cassie.”
Luke tilted Penny’s chin up and gazed into her eyes. He smiled and stroked her cheek, his warm knuckles gently grazing her flesh, making her shiver with longing, with need.
“Penny, I want to−” Luke’s mobile phone started ringing. He swore softly as he pulled the phone from his jeans pocket and looked at the caller display. “I’m sorry, honey, I have to take this. Business.”
Penny nodded and he moved away. Two minutes and several grunts of acknowledgement later, Luke shoved his phone back in his pocket. “Is everything all right?” she asked.
“Yeah. Great, actually. I just received some very useful information on a project I’m working on. A friend of mine in Hong Kong has been doing some consulting work for me. I have to fly over and see him next week.”
“Next week?”
“Just for a few days,” Luke assured her.
“Will you be back in time for the ball?”
“Definitely.” Luke smiled as he pulled Penny into his arms again. “After all the teasing Cassie put me through last night, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Teasing? she thought. What teasing?
* * * *
Penny sat in near silence during the drive home. Friday night seemed like a lifetime ago. She tried to imagine what Luke would have said, what he would have done if she’d let those three little words slip out.
I love you.
Would he have laughed at her? Would he have gone home instead of spending the night and making love to her twice more, gently nudging her awake by nuzzling her breasts and stoking her inner heat back to flaming glorious life with a strong, lean finger?
It didn’t bear thinking about. That night she’d decided to live in the moment, because when all of this was over Luke would be gone and she would be alone again.
Only she didn’t want to be alone anymore. Penny wanted Luke in her life. As more than just a friend.
At the barbeque, she’d watched him laughing with Angie and her family, his manners all charming and easy. Angie had told Penny that Luke was perfect for her, and she knew the old woman had offered to find Luke a wife.
Did Angie tell Luke to marry her? If Angie had her way she’d be planning the wedding already. She wasn’t to know their relationship was a farce. She wouldn’t understand the pretence of love being used to seek revenge.
And what a revenge it would be now that Penny had given in to her lust and made love with Luke. Sure, he said he didn’t want revenge on her now, said he believed her remorseful apology for her part in the Cassidy Holdings deal, but what if he was lying?
Luke used women up and tossed them aside like old news, and he didn’t even have vendettas against them. Now that he’d taken her to bed, and taken her virginity no less, his revenge would be sweet, indeed. When all of this was said and done, he would leave her and take her broken heart with him.
After dropping Cassie off at the hospital, Luke decided he would rather stay at Penny’s house for the night than go home to his cold, empty penthouse. Funny how it never seemed that way before he took Penny there. Now he couldn’t stand being there unless she was there with him, filling it with her warmth and laughter.
“I actually have a slow Monday for a change. Thought it might be nice to sleep in, start late, maybe go to the book shop with you for coffee before I start work.”
He watched Penny open the door and stroll inside, tossing her keys in a shallow crystal bowl on the dresser by the door. She went to the kitchen and deposited barbeque leftovers in the fridge, then turned around to lean back against the fridge door.
Luke reached for her and pulled her into his arms. Her resistance, while token, made him nervous. “Are you all right?” he asked quietly.
Penny nodded and hid her face in his chest.
“Are you sure?”
“It’s been a very long weekend. I’m just tired.”
Luke scooped her up in his arms and carried her down the hallway.
“What are you doing?”
“Relax,” he said softly. He carried Penny to the bathroom and gently placed her on the padded wrought-iron stool beside the old claw-foot bathtub. “Don’t move.” Soon hot water and bubble bath filled the bathtub and lavender-scented steam filled the air.
Luke knelt in front of Penny and removed her shoes, then thumbed open the buttons of her pink cotton blouse. He pushed the garment from her shoulders and smiled at the plain white bra beneath, then leaned forward and pressed his lips to the warm fleshy crescents that showed above the cups.
“Stand.”
She stood as commanded. Luke unfastened her denim shorts and eased them down her legs to reveal white cottontail knickers. He gazed up at her and thanked God she didn’t have her hair in ponytails today. It would have been his undoing to see her wearing such virginal garb teamed with those schoolgirl ponytails she used to wear. Too much like his old fantasies. Exactly like his old fantasies. He curbed a wicked grin as he wondered if she owned any knee-high socks and patent Mary Janes.
Luke slowly slid her knickers down, leaned forward to press a kiss on her lips, then stood to remove her bra, slowly dragging it down her arms and casting it aside, admiring the way her full breasts fell naturally against her chest, how they beckoned him to touch, to suckle.
His own clothes came off with a lot more haste and a lot less grace before he helped her into the bath and slid in opposite her.
It was a tight fit in the big antique bathtub. Either occupant would have filled it quite nicely just by themselves, but the way in which limbs had to be placed and bodies had to touch to make room for them both made for some very delightful friction. Luke grinned at the sight of himself squeezed into the tub with her, his feet on the bath rim both sides of her shoulders.
He held Penny’s feet against his chest and massaged them. His strong fingers kneaded and rolled her toes and arches until her head fell back, eyes closed, a sensual smile playing around her mouth.
“You know, for a tall woman you have very small feet,” observed Luke with a teasing tone.
Penny laughed and opened her eyes as she played with Luke’s toes. “And for a big man you have enormous feet.”
Luke grinned broadly and waggled his eyebrows. “You know what they say about men with big
feet…” Penny returned his grin. “Come to Hong Kong with me.”
“I can’t go to Hong Kong.”
“Why not? It’s only for a couple of days and Karen is more than capable of running the shop while you’re away.”
“It’s not that, Luke. I don’t have a passport. Selina would never let me get one and even after I was on my own…where would I go?”
“Haven’t you ever wanted to travel?”
“Of course I have. I’d love to see Britain and Canada…”
“Italy?” he asked hopefully.
“And Italy.”
“Then it’s agreed. You get a passport sorted out and I will take you to Italy. Then we can compare the wines of Italia to those of Western Australia.”
“Western Australia…?”
“Margaret River wine region, remember? The Chocolate Factory? I thought we’d go the week after the ball.”
Penny’s brow creased as she stared hard at Luke. “But, I thought…wasn’t that just part of our cover story?”
“And what cover story is that, then?” he said carefully.
“That we’re lovers.”
“We are lovers, Penny.”
“That’s not what I mean and you know it. This isn’t a real relationship. It’s all for show. Isn’t it?”
“Honey, this has been a real relationship since I stopped blackmailing you.”
Penny’s frown deepened. “But Friday night was the first time we…you know.”
Luke sighed even as he smiled. “Sex has nothing to do with relationships, Pen. As tortuous as the past two weeks have been, keeping my hands to myself and getting to know you better has only made me want to be with you even more. The sex is just a bonus. If you think about it, it was a very old-fashioned way of doing things, but then everything about you, Penny Royale, is a little old-fashioned,” he said with a grin and a sweep of his arms that encompassed her house filled with antiques.
Penny blushed and smiled. “I like older things. They’re more homey.”
“Does that include me?” he teased.
“I’m not sure I’d call you homey,” she said.
“Then what am I?”
“Provocante.”
Luke laughed as he hauled her into his lap and splashed half the water out of the tub in the process. “You think I’m sexy, huh?”
“You know you are.”
“Do I?” He chuckled as he tickled the side of her throat with his feathery kisses and seized both of her big soft breasts in his hands, gently squeezing, making her wriggle against his chest, making his cock thicken with lust.
“You like my breasts, don’t you?”
“What gave me away?” he said as he rolled her nipples between his fingers.
He felt Penny draw in a deep breath. “Why do you only date skinny women?”
Luke sighed heavily. He knew this would come up again sooner or later. How should he answer? How could he possibly explain it, to her of all people?
“I’ll make you a deal. If you promise to come away with me to Western Australia for a week’s holiday, I promise I’ll tell you why I dated so many curve-challenged women. What do you say?”
Chapter Fifteen
The week before Luke left for Hong Kong passed too quickly. The week he was gone passed too slow. But Penny had plenty to keep her body and mind occupied and off her problems. All except one.
How the hell was she going to get Selina to admit her wrongdoings?
The week before Luke left, Penny had lunch and dinner with Selina twice, and the only thing she’d accomplished was to finally get Selina to hand over her money. But as Luke said, that at least was something.
Penny still recorded their conversations and Luke still listened to them to try and catch Selina out in a lie or decipher any double entendre in her words. But it was just as Penny had warned: Selina had been doing this for a very long time and was very good at keeping secrets.
“I could try making her angry,” Penny had suggested over dinner the night before Luke left. “Selina lets all manner of secrets slip when she’s angry enough.”
“I didn’t think the ice queen could get angry.”
“She just needs the right motivation, like insulting her appearance or business acumen.”
“Really?”
“Really. When I was about sixteen, Selina went to one of those Brisbane-heads-of-industry-luncheon things. I remember her being all excited about going, something about some sexy young entrepreneur she was intending to seduce, but when she came home she was furious. She raged about how he had dared to reject her and how she would get even with him for slighting her…oh, how did she put it? Her delicate sensibilities!”
“Delicate?” Luke had snorted derisively. “That woman is about as delicate as a sledgehammer on glass.”
Then, while Luke was in Hong Kong, Penny had dinner with Selina again, and this time it was Penny who went home furious. With Luke away, Selina obviously saw an opportunity to make mischief. She’d kept on pestering Penny about what men get up to when they’re away on business trips, and that a man with Luke’s reputation for the ladies was bound to stray eventually. After all, most of his relationships only lasted a month or two and he’d already been with Penny for five weeks.
That morning, four hours before Luke’s flight was set to land at Brisbane International Airport, Selina actually entered Royale Teas with a stricken expression on her face. Penny had thought the worst. Luke’s plane had crashed.
But no. Selina had merely come to see if Penny was all right after hearing that Luke had dumped her for one of his exes while away in Hong Kong. At seeing Penny’s blank face she’d then produced the daily newspaper’s gossip page, featuring a colour photo of Luke…with his arms around Charlie York.
* * * *
Penny waited in the back of the black stretch limousine with the window shades raised while the driver waited inside the terminal for Luke. She had wanted to greet him herself but for the first time in weeks cameras seemed to dog her every step, and they too seemed to be awaiting Luke’s return.
No doubt so they could capture the gloriously fiery demise of Brisbane’s steamiest couple.
Penny hid deep inside the limousine’s interior away from the flashing cameras that captured Luke’s every step as he walked from his private jet to the car.
“Where did the paparazzi come from? What the hell is going on?” Luke said, scowling as he slid inside the car and shut the door.
“I could ask you the same thing,” Penny said as she tossed the newspaper article at him.
“What’s this? What the hell is this?” Luke frowned at the article in his hand. “Honey, I have no idea what this is. I haven’t seen Charlie since the wine launch.”
“Really? Because according to that article you spent every night of your trip flitting from one party to the next, with her. She’s been over there shooting a photo spread for a magazine or calendar or something.” Penny pinned Luke with a jealous glare. “Are you leaving me for Charlie?”
Luke stretched his arms across the back of the seat, his eyes glowed, and his lips tilted up in that grin she loved so well. There was not even the slightest hint of displeasure in his voice.
“If you thought I was leaving you, then why did you go to the bother of hiring a limo and chilling champagne?” he said, with a nod at the bottle in the ice bucket.
“I organised this before I saw the article. I didn’t see the point in wasting my money by cancelling the service,” Penny said stiffly.
Luke smiled as he sidled closer to Penny on the long cream leather seat that stretched along the interior. She moved further away.
“I promise you, Penny, I did not see Charlie in Hong Kong, nor did I flit anywhere. I’ve spent the last four days in airports, on planes, and in meetings.” Luke picked up the article and tapped his finger on the photo. “And this isn’t Hong Kong,” he said. “It’s Sydney.”
“What?” Penny grabbed the newspaper. “How can you tell?”
“The tie. Charlie bought it for me. It was the one and only time I’ve ever worn purple,” he said with a grimace. “The article is bogus, Penny. I’m not going anywhere.”
Penny thought she’d cry, and she wasn’t sure if it was from relief or embarrassment. “Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no. Selina played me. I’ve been away from her games for too long. I didn’t even see it coming. I’m such an idiot,” she groaned.
“No, you’re not,” said Luke as he took advantage of her distraction and pinned her beneath him on the seat. “I’d probably think the same thing if I was in your shoes. Rest assured, honey, if I was going to leave you, not that I have any intention of doing so, I wouldn’t be so cowardly as to do it via a gossip column.”
Luke looked around the limo and back at Penny, his golden eyes pools of molten lust. She bit her lip as he slid his hand down her leg and dragged her skirt up her thigh.
“So, why did you hire such a comfy mode of transportation?” he murmured in her ear, his breath like a warm spring breeze on her skin.
“What can I say? I’ve missed you,” she gasped as he slid a finger inside her. “I…I didn’t think I could wait until we got home…before the urge to rip your clothes off got the…the better of me.”
“All my clothes? I’m not sure we’ll have enough time for that.”
“I paid him extra to take the long way home.”
“Did you, now?” Luke chuckled as he sat up again, unzipped his trousers, and released his rock hard cock. “Well, then, let’s not waste time.”
An hour later the driver announced they were only five minutes away from their final destination.
“I’ll give you ten thousand dollars to keep driving,” Luke rasped through the intercom.
“I’m sorry, Mr Hardcastle, but this is the end of the line.”
“Make it twenty.”
“I’m sorry but−“
“Screw it! How much just to buy the bloody limo?”
The driver’s good-natured chuckles echoed through the intercom. “Let me make a call.”
Revenge and Redemption Page 15
