* * * *
The next day was Saturday. The day of the ball. Penny and Cassie spent the day at a spa being pampered before their big night, and Luke met up with Grant Bellows to do some male bonding and brotherly intimidating before collecting the girls. Final preparations were checked at the Brisbane Convention Centre’s Plaza Ballroom and then the women disappeared again to get ready.
Cassie emerged first. Luke smiled warmly as his sister showed off her soft gold satin and chiffon gown that brushed the floor and floated around her delicate frame like a golden breeze. He had to clear his throat twice before Grant realised he was being handed something.
“I believe this honour is yours now,” said Luke as he handed the man a black velvet box.
Grant fumbled with the latch. He looked so nervous. When Cassie laid her hands on his to steady him, Luke though the he’d drop the box altogether.
“Relax,” she said.
“How can I relax,” Grant whispered, “with you looking like a goddess?”
Luke had to stifle a chuckle. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen his sister blush. Grant opened the box and presented Cassie with beautiful pearl earrings and bracelets. He waited for her to put the earrings on herself, then fastened the wide bracelets, made from strings of cream- and champagne-coloured pearls, to her wrists.
“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known,” he said as he bent to kiss her.
“Where is Penny?” said Luke impatiently as he checked his watch.
“I’m here.”
Luke turned with a mind to admonish her tardiness, but when he saw her all thought and speech deserted him. There stood the woman he loved, with her beautiful body outfitted to perfection in a red silk satin creation that would have put Jessica Rabbit to shame.
“I told you so,” Cassie teased.
Luke took a moment to absorb the vision standing before him. The halter dress left nothing to the imagination as it clung to every luscious curve of Penny’s body. The plunging V neckline showed her gorgeous breasts off to perfection, and a series of high splits in the flowing red fabric that cascaded from her hips revealed one long, smooth leg after the other as she glided towards him on red satin stilettos that were laced up her calves with red satin ribbons. Her long chestnut brown hair had been styled in soft 1930s waves and her sensual pout was painted as red as the dress.
It was a full minute before Luke found his tongue. “You know, no one would miss us if we didn’t go,” he said, trying for all he was worth to sound nonchalant.
Penny smiled and took Luke’s breath away for a second time.
He had to touch her, he had to hold her in his arms and feel those soft curves pressed against him. He slid his hands into her silky hair and pulled her to him.
He had to taste her. He gently brushed his lips over hers, savouring the softness of her delicious pout, the sweetness of her breath, then he kissed her brutally, not caring about their audience, not caring about anything but the feeling of all-consuming love he felt whenever this woman was in his arms.
When he finally let her go, he presented her with the jewelry he’d bought her for the occasion. Diamonds.
Lots and lots of diamonds.
“Are those real?” Penny gasped. Luke smiled as he fastened the Art Deco drop earrings through her ears and then fastened two wide matching diamond cuffs to her wrists.
“Every carat. All forty-seven of them.”
Penny’s eyes widened impossibly. “Luke, I couldn’t possibly wear these. I’ll be terrified of losing them.”
“Nonsense.” He stroked a finger along the side of her throat and down the expanse of her décolletage, brushing against the side of her breast. “You look absolutely breathtaking.”
* * * *
When they arrived at the ball they were confronted by the usual media storm. The red carpet was lined with reporters and photographers and filled with their fellow guests. Penny was overwhelmed by the spectacle but Luke kept one strong hand firmly on the small of her back and guided her ever forward until they were safely inside.
If inside the ballroom could be called safe.
Even upon entry, Penny could hear Selina laughing like a jackal, fawning over some young man too stupid to know a succubus when he saw one.
Then there were the models.
Penny hadn’t seen the revised guest list until she and Cassie had come by to check the final details. One whole table had been bought by Mod Dolls Modeling Agency, the agency that Charlie York was contracted to, as well as three other ex-girlfriends of Luke’s. Penny could see them lapping up the attention of the crowd of men that had flocked to them. Charlie in particular looked incredible.
Penny’s old insecurities began creeping sideways through her brain, but just as she lifted a hand to fiddle nervously with her hair, Luke took her hand and skirted the edge of the room. He pulled her aside into the concourse off the main ballroom and, ignoring the comings and goings of the wait staff, he quickly pressed her up against the wall and slashed his mouth over hers.
Penny forgot all about feeling nervous and insecure. Now she just felt like crawling all over Luke, this amazing man who held her like she was the most valuable thing in the world.
She slid her hands under his jacket, over his chest, and around his back, feeling his strong, taut muscles flex under her fingertips. Luke’s offer to ditch had been tempting. In a black Armani dinner suit with a crisp white shirt and white bowtie, he looked good enough to eat. And his spicy scent was driving her wild.
Luke groaned as she worked her lips down his neck and back again before nibbling on his earlobe. He slid his hand down to the splits in her dress and eased the satin aside, then hooked her thigh in his hand and hoisted her leg around his hip. She tried to resist him. She really did.
“People are watching us.”
“I don’t care. I want you,” he breathed on her neck.
“Luke,” she whimpered as he licked the hollow of her throat. “We can’t.”
“We can. There’s a hotel next door. Let’s get a room. No one will miss us.”
“Your apartment is only ten minutes down the road.”
“I don’t think I can wait that long,” he said. “I just want to strip you. This dress is disturbingly arousing, and I just know you’ll be wearing equally inspirational knickers,” he added as he pressed his thigh hard between her legs, the instant sensation of hard muscle and soft lace being smashed against her clit making her weak at the knees.
“What about my shoes?” Penny said raggedly as she squirmed against Luke, her hips gyrating of their own accord against his body.
“The shoes stay,” Luke said against her neck. “And the diamonds.”
“We can’t. Cassie’s counting on us.”
Luke made a frustrated noise. Slowly he released her leg, then leaned his forehead against hers as their breathing calmed. He shifted against her and she felt him adjust himself.
“Then, shall we?” he said with a resigned sigh as he held out his arm.
It didn’t take long for Penny and Luke to be separated, and once separated, it didn’t take long for the vultures to start circling.
Selina was the first to swoop.
“So he took you back, did he? I must say I am relieved.”
“Oh?”
“Of course I am, darling. How else are you going to keep spying on him for me if you’re not sleeping with him?”
“Of course.” Penny sighed.
“But I am impressed that his floozy would turn up to the same event he takes his lover to. I can’t tell if she’s incredibly brave or just downright stupid. And my, my, haven’t we been decked out to the nines tonight? What’s all that bling worth, do you think? Two, three hundred thousand? A cool half million, perhaps?”
Penny couldn’t miss the acidic note of resentment in her aunt’s voice. “I didn’t think to ask.”
“It must be nice…but no, I shouldn’t say anything.”
Penny tried her har
dest not to roll her eyes. She was not going to fall for Selina’s tricks again. “Yes, you should, Aunt Selina. What were you going to say?”
“Well, it’s just that with all the money he throws at you, the dresses, the jewelry...your house, well, you’ve finally stepped up.”
“Stepped up?” Penny’s jaw was beginning to hurt from clenching it so tightly while forcing the smile to stay on her lips.
“Yes, after all the fuss you made over the man when you left Royale Industries, about morals and codes of ethics, et cetera, it’s just good to see that you’ve realised what utter foolishness it all was.”
“How exactly did you come to that conclusion?”
“Because you’re taking him for all his worth, darling. The ice dripping from your every limb tonight proves that, and I must say bravo! Gold-digging whores the world over will be clamouring to learn your secrets. Tell me−”
“Penny, here you are. I need you.” Cassie tugged on Penny’s arm and dragged her away from Selina. “Are you all right, Pen? You look about ready to explode.”
Penny took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I think that’s what she had in mind.”
“Maybe you should go find Luke. From what I saw of him earlier, I think he could use your company, too.”
* * * *
Luke lost sight of Penny just as she was accosted by Selina. He was introduced to a number of people from the Cancer Foundation and chatted quietly with one of Cassie’s doctors. But just as he was accepting a glass of champagne, he found himself being confronted by two men he didn’t know.
“Matt Taylor,” announced the first man. “Royale Industries.”
“Doug Sands.”
“Luke Hardcastle,” Luke said coolly as he recognised their names and shook their hands a little more firmly than necessary.
“Oh, we know who you are,” Matt said with a leering grin. “And we just wanted to ask you, how did you do it?”
Luke regarded Matt Taylor with unabashed disdain. The man was at least four inches shorter than Luke and very thin. Definitely not man enough to handle Penny when she was in a passionate mood.
“Do what, exactly?”
“Transform Penny Royale from virgin to vixen,” chimed in the other one. “Who knew she could look like that?”
Luke narrowed his eyes as he weighed and measured Doug Sands. This one reminded Luke of a bulldog: short, brawny, and tactless.
“Penny is not a subject open for discussion,” Luke said tightly. Taylor and Sands grinned at each other.
“So she’s giving you the runaround too, huh?”
“Can’t say I’m surprised. Bloody virgin. I dated her for a month and got nowhere, although if I’d known she could look like that I might have persevered.”
“I tried every trick in the book and got little more than a kiss out of her. Six weeks I wasted on that fat−”
Luke’s glass stem snapped and the flute smashed on the floor, splattering his shoes with glass and champagne.
“One more word about Penny and I’ll personally throw you both out on your asses,” he menaced through gritted teeth. “Stay the hell away from her or you’ll deal with me.”
Both men cringed and backed away. Luke was a big man and knew his ferocious temper had become the stuff of legend. He didn’t lose it often, but when he did it was spectacular. The two smaller men scurried away like rats under Luke’s blazing glare.
Luke looked down at his hand. He was bleeding. After asking for directions to a first-aid kit and assuring an overly friendly waitress that he was quite capable of applying a Band-Aid by himself, Luke patched up his hand.
“Hardcastle, I’ve been looking for you.”
“Chris Marks.” Luke closed the first-aid kit with a bang. “Well, doesn’t this night just get better and better?”
* * * *
Penny wandered around the ballroom searching for Luke until she spied him disappearing into the concourse again with another man. She followed after them, but as she reached the entrance to the concourse she slowed her pace. She could hear raised voices. Luke’s voice. Penny quickly looked about to see if anyone else had heard the commotion but no one seemed to be paying any attention.
Good, she thought, I can stop them before it escalates into something newspaper-worthy.
She stuck her head around the corner to see Luke standing over that bastard reporter. He looked furious. She pulled back a little and remained hidden. If Chris Marks was about to get a dressing-down from Luke, then Penny wouldn’t dream of interrupting.
“Stay away from Penny, Chris. I won’t have her upset. Not tonight.”
“Oh, come off it, Luke. Everyone knows your whole relationship is a lie. Just admit it.”
Luke was quiet for a moment. “What’s in it for you if it is?”
Penny frowned.
“Money. I don’t know why you and that fat sow are playing happy families and I don’t care, but if you want me to stay quiet and keep your little secret out of the papers, then you will pay me for the privilege.”
“I see,” Luke said.
“It is, isn’t it? This is all some elaborate set-up. I knew there was something screwy going on that night I saw you at the quays. The way you watched her. It just wasn’t right. And the anonymous e-mail I got that night just before leaving work, tipping me off to a juicy story…it was you, wasn’t it?”
Penny stifled a gasp behind her hand. An e-mail tipping Marks off? No one but Luke knew she was going to his house that night. Penny hadn’t even known herself. It had to have been Luke. He’d lied to her. He had set her up. Did that mean everything else was a lie, too?
“But why? What’s in it for you? A little payback perhaps for what the Royales did to your sister?” Chris continued.
“I thought you said you didn’t care.”
“I care if it means a front-page article. But I’d be willing to console myself with cold hard cash.”
“How much?”
“To keep it out of the papers? Or to keep it quiet from Miss Royale, too? I’ve seen how she looks at you, all doe-eyed. She doesn’t have a clue, does she?”
“How much?”
Penny clutched her chest. Her heart was breaking. She could feel the sting of tears welling in her eyes and heard nothing more over the pounding of her blood in her ears. So Luke had gotten his revenge after all.
But not completely. There was still one Royale standing, and Penny would be damned if she was going down alone. She took a deep breath and turned back to the ballroom. She surveyed the crowd. Laughing, happy people stood in every direction, mocking her in her despair.
Then she saw her. Selina.
Sudden anger rose up in Penny like a rebellious teenager as she stormed towards her aunt. This was all her fault. All of it could be laid at that harpy’s feet. It was time to put an end to this. It was time to knock that vulture off her perch.
It was time to make her angry.
Chapter Sixteen
“You pathetic old hag!”
“I beg your pardon!” Selina spluttered at Penny’s opening volley.
“You heard me.”
“Don’t you dare speak to me like that, you ungrateful−”
“Ungrateful? Ungrateful!” Penny spat, her voice growing louder every second. “What exactly should I be grateful for, Aunt Selina? Huh? You tell me!”
“Well, for start−”
“Should I be grateful for the constant insults you threw at me every chance you got, or the impossible standards you set so you could watch me fail, or maybe it was the daily slaps across my face that you think I should show you gratitude for?”
* * * *
“Luke? Luke! Where the hell is my brother?” Cassie snapped as she searched the ballroom. She turned the corner into the concourse just in time to see Luke’s fist connect with Chris Marks’s face. The reporter crumpled to the floor and cradled his bleeding nose.
“Stay the hell away from my family, in person and in print! If you ever try to bla
ckmail me again I’ll bury you.”
“Luke?” Cassie’s tentative voice broke through the testosterone-soaked air and made her brother turn on his heel.
“What?” he snapped.
“It’s Penny.”
“What’s wrong?” His temper receded, instantly replaced with concern.
“Come on,” Cassie said as she grabbed Luke’s arm in one hand and her skirt in the other and ran back to the forefront of an all-out war.
* * * *
“I took you in! I gave you everything!” Selina screamed, her face turning blotchy with rage.
“Saint Selina.” Penny sneered. “You only took me in because the courts forced you to.”
“And didn’t that turn out well?”
“Oh, very well, indeed. You got a slave and I got a first-class ticket to hell.”
“Oh, boo-hoo,” Selina jeered. “You lived in luxury.”
“I lived in a museum. Don’t touch! Don’t talk!”
“Children should be seen and not heard!”
“That’s rich! A whole week would pass and the only communication between us would be via Post-It notes on the fridge. You were never home to see or hear me.”
“Most kids would see that as a blessing.”
“I was nine!”
“What you were was a waste of space! I took you into my home, I educated you at the best schools money could buy, and what did it get me? A useless, good-for-nothing traitor. You were more interested in mooning over the competition than running Royale Industries. How many times did I catch you wasting time staring out the window at Hardcastle Tower? You’re the pathetic one, darling, dreaming of your knight in shining armour. Well, let me clue you in to a few things about Luke Hardcastle−”
“Don’t you dare drag Luke into this! He’s never done anything to you!”
“Oh, hasn’t he? Did he tell you that?” Selina said with a smug smile that promised Penny wouldn’t like what was coming next. “I wonder what other lies he told you to get you into his bed. And you would have swallowed them whole, you stupid girl. Luke Hardcastle is a consummate womanizer. He even tried seducing me a few years ago.”
Penny grimaced. “Luke would never stoop so low as to waste his charms on a ridiculous woman like you.”
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