“So it wasn’t successful?”
“It was.” She pressed her chin into the pillow. “And I wanted it to work so I agreed to a delay in getting my pay. I knew the money would be coming in. It had to be, I was making so many bookings.”
“You weren’t being paid?” he asked, incredulous.
Yeah, okay, maybe she had been a bit naïve. “He said it was going to take a couple of months. And I was happy to hang tight. I had savings that I came over with. I really believed in his service. He was so good with online design. Really gifted.”
“But?”
Of course there was a “but.” “He was into a lot of things online,” Lexie admitted wearily. “And he wasn’t nearly as good at gambling as he was at building that website.”
She heard Luke mutter something inaudible. Yeah, she had a similar reaction when she’d found out. But there was nothing she could do about it now.
“How long since you’ve been paid?”
“A couple of months.”
He drew a sharp breath. “And your savings?”
“Gone.” That’s why she couldn’t get into a flat right away—she didn’t have the deposit. She didn’t have income to pay the rent. She didn’t have anything. But she was going to fix that really soon.
“He took advantage of you.”
“He didn’t.” Lexie sparked up. “He had a problem and he was very good at hiding it. I wasn’t the only one he let down.” She wasn’t that naïve. Many others had lost money—other bright, capable people. It wasn’t that she was just some lamb that needed sheltering and wasn’t able to take care of herself. She’d grown up.
“So now what?”
“Now I get a new job and I get on with it.”
“What kind of job?”
“Any kind of job.”
“Online?”
“Probably. It’s what I’m best at. I’m not that great in a café.” Though right now she’d take anything.
“Do your parents know?”
“No.” She reached down and smoothed the edge of the sheet with one hand. “I don’t want them to.” They were old now and she didn’t want them to worry any more than they already did. She was a big girl, she could fix it. “They insisted I come to London. They know I’ve wanted to for years but I didn’t want to be such a long way from them in case anything happened to either of them. I don’t want them to worry more than they already do.”
He nodded. “Does Dani know?”
“Not the worst.” She didn’t want her best friend to go back to thinking she was less than a notch above incompetent. It had taken years to prove herself—that student exchange trip to America had been the first, but since then she’d taken several trips abroad—a wholly capable woman who could handle anything.
“But you told me.”
Yeah. Crazy, huh? Lexie flicked a glance at him but he had his eyes shut. She couldn’t help taking another look at his bronzed chest then too. The wide expanse of smooth skin and muscles beneath was beyond impressive. He was fitter than any guy she’d ever seen. He always had been handsome but now he was in another league altogether. All of a sudden Real Luke was far more enthralling than Fantasy Luke had ever been. And now that she was older, she fully understood the pleasure that could be had with him. All her basic instinct hormones screamed for it. She actually licked her lips as she stared.
Then she remembered herself. Hell, he could open his eyes any second and catch her gawking and she knew what a playboy he was. She’d get over the lust—she wasn’t being used again. She looked back into her own lap and pressed her hot cheek on the cool pillow she still clutched.
He groaned as he shifted position, turning to lie on his side away from her.
“Are you okay?” she asked, wincing herself as she watched how obviously painful it was for him to move.
“Tired. Sore. I took some painkillers.” His laugh turned into a moan. “I took a lot of painkillers.”
Of course he had. Here she was dying of lust and he was uncomfortable and cramped in his strip of his massive bed, slowly zoning out on drugs.
“How many?” she asked.
Silence. Silence that went on too long and started to worry her.
“How many painkillers did you take, Luke?”
More silence.
She peered over his shoulder so she could see his face. He looked exhausted—his mouth pressed tight and turning down at the corners as if he was sad or in pain. Had he taken a whole bottle of painkillers? She started to sweat—and not in a sexy way. She didn’t want him overdosing on her watch. He was so fit that medication probably had more of an impact on his system than it would on anyone else’s. But he wouldn’t have taken more than a doctor had prescribed, would he?
“Luke.” She shook his shoulder, mentally blanking out the feel of his hot skin and solid muscle under her fingers. “Are you okay? Luke?”
Sleepily he opened one eye. “Lexie?”
“Yes, it’s me. Are you okay? How many painkillers did you have?”
He simply closed his eyes again, only now he was smiling. “Lexie.”
She stared at him. Seconds slowly ticked by and she realized he really was asleep—his breathing deep, regular, relaxed. That easy breathing meant he was okay, didn’t it? But the painkillers still bugged her. She couldn’t decamp to the sofa now. She’d lie beside him for a little while to make sure he was all right.
She gathered up another couple of pillows and redistributed them, using them to make a mini Great Wall of China down the middle of the bed. Then she looked over them at his broad, bronzed back—his muscles were still discernable even though he was relaxed. She’d watch him for a while—annoying man. She couldn’t help but worry. Mango jumped up on the bed and burrowed into the pillow mountain. She put out a hand to pat him so he’d lie still.
Keeping watch was the least she could do, right?
Chapter Four
Luke woke early, his knee aching like murder, but his mind felt fresher than it had all day yesterday. He carefully flexed his muscles, remembering everything. Lexie in her gold lace. Lexie being cheated out of her pay at work. Lexie landing in London with no money and no place to stay. Lexie on his sofa.
He turned his head and swallowed back a yelp of amazement. Lexie wasn’t on his sofa. Lexie was on his bed. His pulse hammered. Why on earth was she asleep in here?
The last thing he remembered was talking with her. He’d had that handful of painkillers and had been fully zoning out. She’d insisted that she’d be the one to sleep on the sofa. He’d been too sore and spaced to be the gentleman and take it himself. Yet here she was with a ton of pillows randomly scattered between them? Jeez, had he completely forgotten something awesome happening?
Oh, as if. There was no way he could have gotten up to anything, with the state his body had been in. Though he wouldn’t mind now. Except he didn’t want to wake her this second—he wanted to look at her without worrying about what his own expression might be giving away.
She was on her back and her cute kitten pajama top had rucked up, revealing the smooth stretch of her stomach. In the bunched-up cloth he could see that a couple of pink buttons had come undone. He leaned a little closer, his eyes widening. She was literally playing peek-a-boob. Luke gritted his teeth. He shouldn’t look, he really, really shouldn’t.
Aw, hell. He was a guy, wasn’t he? Yet he gazed for only a second, suddenly wishing that he could see her body in a different situation. Not surreptitiously like this. He wanted her to bare herself completely to him. For her to want to.
Her face was turned toward him, her cheeks flushed a deep pink. Her hair was swept to one side, a glorious river of color on her pillow. A sheen glimmered over all of her. Yeah, he knew she was hot in every way. Mango was nuzzled in to the curve of her hip. Damn dog. How could he be jealous of a dog?
He remembered her arrival so clearly. His parents had said they were getting an exchange student—a girl—for six months. All the way from New Zealand. He’d be
en completely uninterested—it wasn’t even as if she’d speak another language. He’d been hoping for some babe from Sweden or something. And then he’d seen her. Slim, slightly taller than Dani, her strawberry-blond hair swept back into a tight, high ponytail. At the airport pickup, for the briefest of seconds, her eyes had met his. Cat eyes. Green, gleaming, stunning. She hadn’t looked at him directly again—until her seventeenth birthday.
He’d been eighteen and in his last year of school—was already taking some college courses because he was so far ahead academically. He was two years older than Dani, and Lexie was right in between them. But because of the differences in their school systems, and her shyness issues, she went into Dani’s class.
At first, he thought the attraction was because she was foreign. A novelty. But it was more than that. The more he’d gotten to know her—and that had taken some time—the more he’d been drawn to her. That gentleness in her manner, her compassion. And the humor she’d mostly kept hidden. In the end, to fight it, to cover up, he’d dated a different girl every week. Systematically working his way through the senior girls in his school—and the girls’ school down the road. Frankly, he’d been a slut.
None of them had lasted. None of them had been Lexie.
But Lexie Peterson had been out of bounds. Under his family’s roof, under his family’s protection. She was fragile, shy, sensitive. The whole reason she’d come on exchange was to build her confidence. He and Dani had been lectured—told exactly what they had to do and how to treat her. After the Ferris wheel incident, Luke hadn’t just been lectured. He’d been punished and threatened with far worse should he transgress again.
He hadn’t.
He knew she was the only child of older parents who’d kept her close. Until they realized that their darling daughter was so sheltered she was ill-equipped to deal with the real world—too timid. So, all credit to her parents, they’d bundled her off for six months to Luke’s family in Boston to have an overseas experience and gain some social confidence. For painfully shy Lexie, it had almost been too much. Luke remembered her wide eyes and pale features and the way she’d stoically tried to blink back nervous tears. But she’d bonded with Dani. At first Dani thought she had her very own doll to make over, but Lexie held her own, not letting Dani dominate. Doing that, she earned Dani’s respect and trust. They became unlikely best friends. Luke had heard them laughing so many times in their bedroom.
Seven years later, both Luke and Dani lived in London—he on an eighteen-month transfer within the global consultancy he worked for, and Dani because she’d fallen for a British guy she’d met at grad school.
And now pretty, all-adult Lexie was here too. Stirring in his bed. Gritting his teeth, Luke closed his eyes tight. He didn’t want to scare her off too soon this morning, and if she knew he’d seen her like this she’d be so embarrassed she’d scamper off faster than Mango with a cat after him.
He heard her movements as she woke. A sudden jerk bounced the bed. He tried not to smile as he imagined her expression as she’d realized she was showing some skin next to him. In seconds she’d slipped off the bed—quiet as the mouse she’d always been. Yeah, still easily embarrassed. Still completely gorgeous.
He feigned sleep for another fifteen minutes while he heard the shower run and then cease, and doors quietly open and close. Until there was no noise in the room at all. Then he got out of bed and stood in another ice-cold shower, dragged some baggy sweats over his bandaged knee, and didn’t bother with a T-shirt. He took in a deep breath before heading to the kitchen.
She was at the counter frowning at the coffee machine. She turned as he came in. He watched as color swept into her face faster than a hundred-meter-sprint star took off from the blocks. Cherry red. Excellent. He tried not to preen but he couldn’t help but be satisfied that she liked him half-naked. Yeah, it was sick how much he wanted her to want him.
“I’ll do the coffee,” he said huskily. His head had gone all woolly as he clocked her reaction.
“Thanks,” she said turning her back to him. “I’m hopeless with that machine.”
He chuckled. He’d forgotten she had a talent for killing domestic appliances. “How come you’re so good online and you can’t work gadgets?”
“Anyone can point and click. But I was really good at customer service.”
“Not too shy to talk anymore?”
“Over the phone and e-mail is easy.” She said crisply and glanced at him again. “You slept okay?”
There was still a trace of pink in her cheeks. Was she worried he’d seen her? “Like a log,” he answered honestly. “The painkillers knocked me out.”
“I’ll get out of here today then.”
Exactly what he didn’t want. “Where are you going to go?”
She swallowed.
“You can’t go to Dani,” he said calmly, handing her a cup of coffee. “She has her hands full bonding with her stepdaughter. And you admitted to me last night you don’t have any money. So admit the rest now—you don’t have anywhere else to go. Please don’t insult me by leaving.”
“You wouldn’t be insulted.”
“Absolutely I would.” He totally overdid puppy-dog eyes that would make Mango proud. “I’d be crushed.” It was no exaggeration.
She drew in a deep breath. “Just one more night. Maybe two. As soon as I get a job I’m out of here. And I’ll sleep on the sofa again.”
He chomped on the inside of his lip to stop from smiling. Like she’d slept on the sofa last night? “Sure.”
She turned toward the door. “If it’s okay with you, I’ll just grab the rest of my stuff from your room.”
As long as she was staying, anything was okay with him. Just as he’d been seven years ago, he was drawn to her expressiveness, her smile, the awareness that there was so much going on beneath her quiet exterior. This time around he wanted to get to know every last bit of her. Uh-huh, every inch. He sat at the table and poured himself a massive bowl of muesli. Maybe he shouldn’t be messing around like this, but damned if he could resist the temptation. He’d been living like a monk for months, and all work and no play made for a dull boy, didn’t it? And Lexie wasn’t the innocent she’d been back then. He’d seen that already in the way she’d sassed back at him a couple of times—and the way she’d looked at him. She could hold her own, and that made her all the more attractive. But he was going to have to be careful and make sure they were on the same page. He’d have a flirt and fling, but he was still decades off getting any woman a ring.
Twenty minutes later Lexie walked in, eyes widening when she saw him still sitting there taking his sweet time over his cereal. “You’re not going to work?”
“I’ve taken the month off, remember?” He answered in amazement. “I’m supposed to be training.”
“But you’re not anymore.”
“So you think I should just go back to work immediately? Injured and all?” Yeah, like that would be so much fun. He hadn’t had a holiday in ages because he’d been building up leave for Kate’s marathon. So he was damn well going to have a break now. He might even have a good time. A full-out flirt time. He leaned back and watched her, more openly than he ever had before.
“Well, no, I guess not.” She nibbled on her lower lip. “Are you going to stay home all day?”
He’d go insane with boredom on his own. Why—did she want him to go out? She didn’t want to be home alone with him? What was with the resistance—the reluctance to be alone with him?
Fed up with hiding how much she got to him, Luke looked across the table at her and thought of everything he’d like to do if she stayed home with him today.
Her eyes widened, deepened. Her mouth parted as if she were going to say something. Only she didn’t. And that pretty cherry-red color rushed into her cheeks again, and her lips.
Luke stilled. He might not have had a girlfriend in a while, but he knew the signs, and he was certain Lexie was having some lustful thoughts of her own. Oh yeah, there
really is a God.
“What are you planning to do today?” he asked softly.
“Job hunting.” She sounded desperate for a breath.
Luke smothered his smirk, outrageously pleased she was bothered. That was good. He clamped his teeth together as the challenge drove through him. “No.” He shook his head.
“I have to.”
“You’ve been in London what, less than a week? Have you seen Buckingham Palace yet?”
She shook her head.
“The Tower of London? Hyde Park? The Tate?”
She kept shaking her head.
“That’s tragic. You have to see the sights. Isn’t that why you’re here?”
“I have to earn money.”
“Delaying the hunt by a day isn’t going to make much difference. Come on, I’ll take you on the best-ever tour.”
“You can’t—”
“Yes, I can. I’ve been here over a year already, know the place like the back of my hand. I’ve got ‘knowledge’ as good as any of those cabbies.” Total exaggeration, but hey, he was on a roll here.
“What about Mango? You can’t leave him home alone all day. He’s been traumatized.”
“We’ll take him with us.”
She looked skeptical.
“He doesn’t usually stay home alone all day,” he explained. “I take him to work. I have special permission.” He reached under the table and scooped up the midget mutt who had been lying over his left foot. Sensitive little critter seemed to know that his leg was in need of extra care. “He gets a lot of attention from the secretaries.”
“I bet he does.” Lexie glared at them both. “No wonder he’s so spoiled.”
Luke’s lips twitched at the less-than-subtle emphasis in her words. She thought he was spoiled by the secretaries? “Well, he’s so gorgeous, what do you expect?”
“So he’s turned into a total diva with constant outrageous demands.”
Luke laughed. “He’s used to getting his own way. Nothing wrong with that, right?”
Bargain in Bronze Page 21
