Mistress Of Convenience

by Penny Jordan

  She was openly trembling with longing, Suzy recognised as her head fell back to allow Luke even more access to the curve of her throat. Behind her she had the hardness of the heavy wooden door, and in front of her she had the hardness that was Luke. A deep shudder tormented her as he started to explore the delicate whorls of her ear, his thumb on the pulse at the base of her throat.

  Someone was tugging frantically at the straps of her top trying to remove it. How could Luke be doing that and touching her as well?

  It wasn't Luke who was tearing off her clothes and exhaling in a rush of fierce pleasure as they fell to the ground, Suzy realised. It was her.

  Luke had felt her clothes slither to the floor as his eyes adjusted to the velvet darkness, and now he could see the pale outline of her body. Her almost naked body.

  He had known that she wasn't wearing a bra—had known it and registered Peter's equal awareness of that fact—but that knowledge and the knowledge he had now, of the soft, pure nakedness of her torso, with the outline of her breasts sketched in blurred charcoal light, were a world apart.

  Almost as though it was happening in slow motion Suzy watched as Luke turned his head and looked down at her body. His hand came out and slid beneath one breast, gently supporting it.

  If she was any more perfect she wouldn't be human, Luke thought as he felt the delicious weight of Suzy's breast on his palm. His thumb searched for her nipple.

  She gave a sharp, electrified moan and her whole body stiffened in response to his touch.

  She was a conniving, manipulative wanton who had never had a genuine emotion or reaction in her life, Luke told himself savagely. But his body was beyond listening. His hand was working urgently on her breast, preparing it for the hungry possession of his mouth. Every sweet moan she made was causing the sensation in the pit of his belly to screw down harder. If he didn't have the taste of her in his mouth soon he was going to…

  His free hand slid down her body and encountered the lacy edge of her underwear. He hooked one finger under what he thought was elastic and then realised that it was a ribbon bow. A bow he could untie with his fingers, or…Luke had a sudden mental picture of himself laying her on the bed, tugging the bows loose with his teeth. He wanted to eat her like a fresh peach, filling his mouth with her taste until the juice of her ran from his fingers and his lips.

  His erection was straining against his clothes, and he could tell from the small urgent sounds Suzy was making that she was equally aroused.

  They were partners, after all, he reminded himself with inner black humour. Partners on opposite sides of a very sharp divide, he acknowledged, and reality suddenly kicked in.

  Suzy tensed as she felt Luke's hand start to leave her breast. Something had happened. Something had made him draw back from her, and she didn't want that something. She wanted him.

  Suzy's sexual experience was relatively limited. And yet she discovered that her body knew far more than she had given it credit for. It knew, for instance, that if she reached out and touched Luke the way she was doing, just the merest brush of her fingertips, slowly, oh so slowly against that tight bulge she could feel beneath his clothing, that instead of pushing her away he would draw her to him again.

  He shouldn't be doing this. Oh, he should not be doing this, Luke warned himself. But that provocative touch that Suzy was subjecting him to, just the slightest brush of delicate fingertips against his erection, was more than he could stand.

  He wanted her right now.

  He didn't just want to taste her, he wanted to take her and fill her and spill himself inside her.

  Taking hold of her hands, Luke pinned them above her head, his body leaning into hers.

  Her eyes had adjusted to the dark now, and Suzy could see his expression quite clearly. A fast, furious surge of shocked excitement raced through her. He had lost control now. She could see it in his eyes, feel it in the way he was grinding his body into hers—and she loved it…

  As Luke felt Suzy's hips lift and writhe tormentingly against him he knew that there was no going back.

  There was nothing he wanted more than to take her right here, against the damned door, as primitively as though every layer of civilisation had been stripped from them both. He wanted to hook his fingers in those ridiculous bows and leave himself free to give her every pleasure. He wanted to lift her up against him and have her wrap her legs around him whilst he buried himself so deep inside her that no other man would ever pleasure her as much.

  Her fingers touched him again, and this time she was tracing his erection, gauging it—measuring it?

  Suzy's chest tightened as her uncertain touch revealed to her just how much of a man Luke was! She could feel Luke lifting her up against him. Shocked pleasure surged through her on a riptide. He was going to make love to her here against the door!

  She weighed next to nothing, Luke acknowledged as he lifted Suzy off the floor. The lacy thong she was wearing left the rounded contours of her bottom free to his touch. He could see the bright, aroused glitter of her eyes and he could feel the exhalation of her breath. His tongue touched her lips and then pierced her mouth. She tasted soft and sweet, warm and welcoming.

  'Open your legs,' he commanded her.

  Hot, urgent, immediate sex—that was what he wanted with her.

  His hand was on his zip before he recognised that he wanted far more than that.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  'WHAT are you doing?' Suzy protested as Luke suddenly swung her up into his arms. Had he changed his mind? Wasn't he going to make love to her after all? 'Why—?'

  'Why?' He stopped her as he laid her on the bed.

  'Because where we were would have been fine for a quickie,' he told her rawly. 'But right now I need to have much more than just that. Much, much more!' he said thickly, and brushed his lips against her half-parted mouth, then touched them to each nipple in turn before returning to her mouth to kiss her with deep ferocity.

  Whilst he stripped off his clothes he told her what he wanted to do with her, how he wanted to touch her and how he wanted her to touch him. By the time he was fully nude Suzy was ready to explode. The heat in her lower body was unbearable, and so was the pressure.

  Impulsively she reached down to remove her ribbontied thong.

  'No!'

  His hand was over hers, but instead of unfastening the bow he started to kiss her again. Her mouth, her shoulder, her breast, laving the tight peak until she was thrashing around beneath him. And then the other breast, taking his time whilst she cried out, her hands on his shoulders, her nails digging into his skin.

  But that was nothing to what she felt when his mouth moved lower, his lips caressing her stomach and then his tongue rimming her navel, tracing the lacy edge of her thong from one bow to the other and then back again. She could feel his hands sliding beneath her, lifting her, and she writhed in urgent need. She felt his breath against her skin and watched in a sensual daze of arousal as he tugged at the bow with his teeth. When it came free he pressed his lips to her naked skin and his hand to her naked body, discovering, exploring, parting the swollen folds of flesh to expose her sex to his touch and his taste.

  Suzy heard the sounds of pleasure flooding the room and knew they must be her own, but she had no awareness of having made them. She had no awareness of anything at all other than the touch of Luke's fingers and the lave of his tongue.

  She felt the tightening warning of her body, but it was impossible for her to hold back her orgasm. As she cried out her pleasure she felt Luke's mouth taking it from her into his own keeping.

  She was still trembling with its aftershock seconds later, when he moved up the bed to hold her, wrapping her tightly in his arms, his breath warm against the top of her head.

  Was it because it had been such a long time since he had done this that her reaction had affected him so much? Luke questioned himself. Had he somehow forgotten just how intense the pleasure of pleasuring a woman was for him? Had he somehow managed to overloo
k the way it made him feel? Because he was damn sure that no one had given him this feeling before. Exhilarated, Suzy clung to Luke. His naked flesh felt smooth and warm beneath her fingertips. Idly she traced the line of his collarbone, and then pressed a small kiss to it for no other reason than that she wanted to. She ran her finger around the aureole of his nipple, dark and flat, unlike the rosy fullness of her own. The nipple itself was different too. She teased it languidly and then burrowed her face against his chest, relishing the scent and taste of him.

  'If you keep doing that…' Luke warned her rawly.

  'You'll do what?' Suzy challenged him deliberately.

  'This,' he responded promptly, rolling her over and then beneath him.

  Eagerly Suzy opened her legs and wrapped them round him, welcoming him into her soft warmth. Desire ran through her with liquid heat, but more than that, as her hips lifted and writhed and her body welcomed him with fierce female longing, Suzy recognised that it wasn't just her body that could feel him, that wanted him. It was her heart and her mind as well! And that meant—

  But, no, she did not want to think about what that meant right now. In fact she did not want to think at all. She simply wanted to know. To experience. To feel. To be here in this place at this time with this man, and to hold on to what they were sharing for ever.

  A sensation of exquisite urgency was filling her, taking her with him through time and space. Each thrust of his powerful body within her own brought them closer, physically and emotionally.

  The increasingly fast movement of his thrusts was pushing her up the bed, and Suzy had to reach out to grab hold of the bedpost behind her.

  In that same moment she heard his harsh cry, and felt again that same rainbow explosion within herself as she reached her climax, and it showered her whole body with quick silver darts of pleasure.

  Soul mates. Meant to be together.

  The words, the knowledge floated through her like precious stars set in a perfect sky.

  As they lay in a damp and relaxed tumble of arms and legs, Suzy's head on his chest, his arms wrapped hard around her, Luke marvelled again at the intensity of his own pleasure. He had been so overwhelmed by his need for her that he hadn't even had time to think about any practicalities.

  In his youth, when he had been as keen on exploring sex as any other teenager, he had practised safe sex—primarily because he had had no wish to become a father before he was ready. Over the last few years his career had meant that sex, safe or otherwise, simply wasn't on his personal agenda. But he had taken Suzy to bed without even taking the most rudimentary health precautions. She would be protected against pregnancy, of course, but it was a bit late now to demand a full report on her sexual health and history!

  Moonlight streamed in through the window, leaving a silver trail on Luke's naked body. Suzy traced it with one loving finger, frowning as she suddenly found the hard ridge of a scar. Leaning up, she looked down at it, her heart twisting as she saw its raw newness. Overwhelmed by her feelings for him, she bent her head and tenderly placed her lips against the puckered ridge of flesh.

  Immediately Luke tensed, wrenching himself away from her.

  'What is it?' Suzy asked him in concern. 'Did I hurt you?'

  When he shook his head she asked softly. 'How did it happen, Luke?' She couldn't bear to think of him being in danger, being hurt.

  Pushing her away, Luke said harshly, 'If you must know it was caused by a woman just like you!'

  He could see the shock in her face, but he ignored it.

  'She may not have fired the bullet that caused it, but she was still responsible.'

  A dark, frightening anger filled his expression, banishing the intimacy they had shared. Bitterly Luke contemplated what he had done. How could he not have controlled himself? Stopped himself? How could she have made him feel like that? How could she have made him want like that, when she was everything he did not want in a woman? Anger and self-disgust left a sour taste in his mouth.

  'Luke?' Suzy whispered hesitantly.

  Why wasn't he saying anything to her? Why was he turning away from her instead of holding her as she longed for him to do?

  He had to make it plain to her that what had just happened between them hadn't left him vulnerable or open to any kind of persuasion, Luke told himself. He could still feel the soft warmth of her lips against his scar. Anger burned through him. A gunshot wound was nothing compared with what he could see inside his head. He saw the smouldering rubble of what had once been a home, the body of the pretty young woman who had lived in it lying on the ground like that of a broken doll, murdered, and all because some damn female journalist had ignored his explicit instructions so that she could get her human interest story…

  'Don't make the mistake of thinking that the fact that we've had sex changes anything,' he told Suzy brutally. 'It doesn't! After all, we both know that sex is the currency you favour. On this occasion it didn't work!'

  A cold feeling of sickness was crawling through her. Shock, anguish, despair—she could feel them all.

  Luke was making it humiliatingly plain that he had simply used her for sex. How could she have been so stupid as to allow herself to think—To think what? That because for her sexual intimacy was inextricably linked to emotional intimacy Luke would think the same thing? That because she could not stop herself from feeling the way she did about him he shared those feelings? Was she totally crazy? Hadn't he just made it brutally plain to her that he did not?

  Silently Suzy turned away from him, whilst pain raked her with burning claws.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  'I'M BORED!'

  Charlie's petulant comment was a welcome interruption to Suzy's agonised inner examination of what had happened with Luke last night.

  She and the children had breakfasted alone, Lucy informing her with a world-weary sigh that, 'Daddy and Luke are talking business and we aren't allowed to interrupt them.'

  Was it business that had been responsible for Luke's absence from both the bed they had shared last night and the suite when she had woken up this morning? Suzy didn't really care! She was glad he seemed to have forgotten his threat to stay with her day and night, and was just relieved that she hadn't had to go through the embarrassment and humiliation of seeing him.

  In fact she wished passionately that she might never have to see him again! How could he have used her so cold-bloodedly—and more importantly, how could she have let him?

  'It's a beautiful day,' she responded to Charlie's statement of his boredom. 'Why don't you go for a swim?'

  She had seen the swimming pool from her vantage point on the hillside above the villa, and had admired the elegance of its tranquil setting.

  'We can't go swimming,' Charlie told her crossly.

  Suzy frowned, wondering if perhaps their father had put a ban on them swimming without adult supervision. But before she could say anything Lucy told her unhappily, 'We can't swim because Mummy sent us with the wrong clothes. She forgot about packing our swimming things.'

  Forgot? Suzy felt a sharp stab of anger against the children's mother as she looked at Lucy's downbent head, and wondered cynically if it was just that the children's swimming things had been forgotten or if she had deliberately sent them away with the wrong clothes in order to make life difficult for their father.

  'Well, perhaps you could ask Daddy to buy some new things for you?' she suggested practically. The resort had any number of shops selling clothes and, whilst they might be expensive, Sir Peter Verey did not strike her as a man who had to watch his budget!

  A maid came in to clear away the breakfast things, and through the open door Suzy could see a powerfully built man standing in the hallway.

  One of Luke's men? Although there was no obvious evidence of the villa being heavily guarded, Suzy suspected that if she tried to make any attempt to leave she would find that she wasn't allowed to get very far.

  Idly she wondered just what it was that demanded Luke's presence here. Certai
nly the soldiers she had seen departing must have something to do with it. It must be politically delicate rather than dangerous, she suspected, otherwise the children wouldn't be here. Sir Peter might not be a particularly hands-on father, but surely he wouldn't risk exposing his children to danger?

  'It's no use us asking Daddy to take us shopping. He'll just say that he's too busy.' Lucy informed Suzy, her words breaking into her thoughts.

  The weary resignation in her voice made Suzy's heart ache for her. It told of a small lifetime of being told that her parents were 'too busy'.

  'But Suzy could take us! Lucy, let's go and ask Daddy if she can!' Charlie suggested excitedly, getting off his chair.