At His Convenience Bundle

by Penny Jordan

  For Suzy, trapped inside her small cave, time blurred.

  She was a child again, trying to comfort her crying mother, telling her everything would be all right—only her mother wasn’t there, and she was the one who was crying.

  Images and memories came and went, sweeping over her in waves of semi-consciousness. Curled up in a foetal position, she relived the happiest of her memories and experiences. And thought of Luke, whose name, whose taste would surely be on her lips as she took her last breath…

  Luke stood grim-lipped in front of the Italian in charge of the rescue operation.

  ‘I do not care how well trained your men are,’ he told him curtly. ‘I go in first. And now.’

  It was nearly midnight, and the rescue team had managed to tunnel down to where Suzy was trapped—thanks, in the main, to Luke’s experience and leadership. The watch Suzy was wearing had registered the fact that she was still breathing, and the bugging device had also helped them pinpoint her location. They had discovered that Suzy had fallen down some kind of tunnel or shaft, and now lay in a small space below it.

  ‘It is still too risky for anyone to go in!’ the Italian protested, trying to sound authoritative but failing when confronted by Luke’s implacable will and air of command. He tried to persist. ‘It will be several more hours before we can send someone in to bring out the young lady.’

  ‘I’m going in now,’ Luke told him bluntly.

  ‘The tunnel is not yet secure. It could collapse and bury you both,’ he warned, but Luke wasn’t listening to him. He had already gathered together everything he might need, including medical equipment, food and water.

  As the leader of the rescuers had said, the newly dug tunnel still wasn’t safe. Its roof needed strengthening before they could risk bringing Suzy out. But it was strong enough to allow Luke to go to her, and that was exactly what he intended to do. No matter what the risk to himself. He had to be with her!

  Moving carefully, Luke crawled slowly through the tunnel. He had never liked tunnelling, it made him feel slightly claustrophobic and all too aware of his own vulnerability, but right now he wouldn’t have cared how long the tunnel was just so long as it took him to Suzy.

  The brightness of the torch Luke was carrying woke Suzy from the exhausted doze she had fallen into.

  Confused, and half in shock, she thought for a moment that she was hallucinating when she saw Luke crawling into the small space illuminated by the torch.

  ‘Luke!’ Her voice shook, and so did her body.

  ‘Luke!’ she repeated. ‘How…? What…?’

  Her words were smothered against his chest as he took her in his arms and held her there—held her as though he was never going to let her go, Suzy thought. She made a sound. Something between a laugh and a whimper, shivering as she clung to the warmth of his body.

  ‘It’s so cold in here, and so dark. I thought…’ She fell silent, unable to tell him that she had feared she would die here, in this small dark space beneath the ground. ‘Are we going to get out now?’ she asked him looking towards the tunnel.

  ‘Soon,’ Luke answered, giving their surroundings one searching inspection and then switching off the torch—partially to save its light for when they needed it, but also to save Suzy the reality of seeing how dangerous their prison was.

  The feel of her in his arms was making his heart thud heavily with emotion. He was with her. He was holding her safe, as he should have held her all along. His hand cupped her face and stroked her hair whilst his other arm held her close to his body.

  Half dazed, Suzy decided that she must be imagining the soft brush of Luke’s lips against her hair, that it was a fantasy she was allowing herself to drift into.

  Even so, she reached out a dusty hand to touch him. Something about the darkness and their intimacy was allowing her to drop the barriers she had put up against him to protect herself.

  ‘I’m so glad you’re here. I was afraid I was going to die here.’

  Something about the quality of his silence made her tremble.

  ‘We are going to get out of here, aren’t we, Luke?’ They must be—otherwise he wouldn’t be here with her, risking his own life.

  There was just the merest pause, the merest missed rhythm in his heartbeat before he told her calmly, ‘Yes, of course we are. But we could be here for a while yet.’

  ‘A while?’ Suzy’s own heart started to thump. ‘But if it isn’t safe what—? Why—?’ Her mouth had gone dry.

  ‘I owe you an apology, Suzy,’ Luke told her lightly.

  ‘And now that I’ve got you to myself, I have got the perfect opportunity to deliver it.’

  He was trying to make light of the situation, Suzy recognised, her heart flooding with bittersweet emotion.

  There was so much Luke wanted to say to her, but he was fully aware that up above them every sound from their chamber was being monitored via Suzy’s watch—hardly an asset when one wanted to whisper words of love and regret.

  As he touched her wrist Suzy opened her mouth to ask what he was doing, but Luke silenced her, placing his finger against her lips as he removed the small device and muffled it.

  ‘What—?’ Suzy demanded when he’d finished.

  ‘It’s what’s commonly referred to as a “bug”,’ Luke told her wryly.

  ‘You bugged me?’

  The pain in her voice tore at his heart.

  ‘I had no choice,’ he told her quietly. He gave a small sigh. ‘I do owe you an apology, Suzy—we both know that.’

  ‘You were just doing your job.’

  Her defence of him made him wonder grimly how he could ever have thought of doubting her. Her honesty was so patently obvious.

  ‘How long are we going to be down here, Luke?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he admitted honestly. ‘Are you feeling okay? I’ve brought some water, and they will be putting an airline through the tunnel.’

  ‘An airline?’ Suzy’s body trembled. ‘You mean in case the tunnel collapses again?’

  That was exactly what Luke did mean, and he cursed himself inwardly for adding to her distress.

  ‘It’s just a precaution,’ he tried to reassure her.

  Suzy felt faint and sick. Even with Luke so close to her, holding her, she still felt afraid, her thoughts going round and round.

  ‘We could die in here,’ she said in a small panicky voice.

  ‘Don’t think about it,’ Luke advised her firmly.

  ‘Talk to me, Luke,’ Suzy begged him, desperate to have her mind taken off their danger.

  ‘What do you want me to talk to you about?’ Luke responded.

  ‘Tell me about the children you rescued,’ she replied.

  Half of her still didn’t dare to believe that he was actually here with her, that she wasn’t alone any more. She needed to hear his voice to keep her fears at bay.

  Sensing what she was feeling, Luke hesitated and then settled her more comfortably against his body, frowning a little as he realised how cold she was.

  The children! Those were the very last memories he wanted to resurrect right now, but how could he deny Suzy anything?

  ‘What do you want to know about them?’ he asked quietly.

  ‘Everything,’ Suzy answered. ‘But first tell me—are they all right now?’

  ‘They’re recovering,’ Luke told her slowly, ‘and with time, and proper medical care, hopefully they will be able to return and live reasonably normal lives. Raschid, the little boy, lost an arm.’

  He felt Suzy’s tension and cursed himself beneath his breath for having told her.

  ‘Halek, the little girl—the baby—is fine,’ he added.

  ‘And their parents—their mother?’ Suzy asked tentatively, not really sure why she felt so impelled to ask that particular question.

  Was she reading his mind? Luke wondered helplessly.

  ‘Both dead.’

  ‘Tell me what happened,’ Suzy whispered.

  She could feel the rise and fal
l of Luke’s chest as he breathed in and then exhaled slowly.

  ‘The children’s mother was helping us with information. Her husband, their father, had been killed trying to resist the tyranny they were facing. She wanted to avenge his death by helping us to set her people free. It was a dangerous situation for her, and important that we kept her identity hidden, that no one gave away the fact that she was helping us.’

  ‘But someone did,’ Suzy hazarded, lifting her head from its resting place against Luke’s shoulder to try to peer up into his face.

  ‘Yes,’ he agreed heavily. ‘Someone did.’

  She could feel his remembered anger in the increased thud of his heartbeat, and suddenly out of nowhere she knew!

  ‘Was it—was she a reporter?’ she guessed intuitively.

  She was still looking up at him; he could tell by her her gentle breaths as they fell on his face.

  ‘Yes, she was,’ he confirmed. ‘Somehow or other she’d heard about Maram and decided to she wanted to interview her for a human interest story. Of course I informed her that she was going to do no such thing, and I pointed out to her the danger she would be putting Maram in. She ignored my warning, though, and managed to find a young rookie soldier foolish enough to be seduced by her—and I mean literally—into giving her Maram’s name. Two days after she interviewed her Maram was murdered, and that was when I found out what Sarah had done.’

  ‘Perhaps she didn’t realise the danger she was exposing her to,’ Suzy suggested huskily.

  ‘Oh, she realised all right,’ Luke told Suzy harshly.

  ‘I had told her myself. But she just didn’t care. Nothing mattered more to her than getting her story—not even another woman’s life. She even had the gall to try to photograph Maram’s children as they were being lifted out of the rubble of their home—the rubble that still contained their mother’s body!’

  ‘Jerry said that you have taken financial responsibility for the children,’ Suzy murmured.

  ‘They needed medical attention they couldn’t get in their own country, and they could only be brought to the UK for treatment if someone agreed to sponsor them. It was the least I could do, seeing as I was responsible for the death of their mother.’

  ‘No! It wasn’t your fault,’ Suzy protested immediately.

  ‘I was the Commanding Officer, and I’d had enough experience of the determination of reporters to get their story to realise that this particular reporter wasn’t going to put another woman’s life before her own career,’ Luke responded grimly.

  ‘And is that why you hate women reporters?’ Suzy asked him quietly. ‘Because of what she did?’

  ‘Well, let’s just say that she reinforced everything I’d already experienced and felt about them as a breed,’ Luke acknowledged. ‘One woman murdered, two children nearly killed, three of my men shot and a gunshot wound myself didn’t exactly endear her type to me!’

  ‘You were shot?’ Suzy exclaimed anxiously, before putting two and two together and asking softly, ‘That scar—is that—?’

  ‘Yes,’ Luke told her tersely, anticipating her question, before continuing. ‘Fortunately the children are survivors—and once they are medically fit to do so they will be returning to their own country to live with their mother’s sister, who will love them as her own. Why are you crying?’ he asked Suzy gently.

  ‘I’m not,’ Suzy fibbed.

  But she was, and her tears were tears of sadness for the children and tears of joy for herself, because she was so proud of the man she loved.

  The man she loved! Suddenly Suzy wanted to tell him how she felt, how much she loved him. How she had believed the first time she had seen him that fate had brought them together and that he was her one true love, her soul mate. It didn’t matter any more that he didn’t share her feelings, or that he didn’t love her back. She wasn’t going to die without saying the words that were locked up inside her heart.

  ‘Luke,’ she began shakily, ‘if we don’t get out of here I—’

  ‘We will get out,’ Luke began, and then stopped speaking as a sudden rumbling above them had them both looking upwards. ‘Don’t worry,’ he reassured her.

  ‘It just means that they’re closer to getting us out, that’s all.’

  Suzy stared into the darkness, wishing she could see his face and his eyes so that she might have some clue as to what expression they were holding and if he really believed what he was saying or was merely trying to comfort her.

  ‘Suzy—’

  The raw urgency of the way Luke was saying her name had Suzy turning to him.

  ‘This is all my fault,’ he told her grimly. ‘If I hadn’t been so determined not to believe you—’

  Suzy felt the pad of his thumb brush against her lips.

  ‘I’m sorry, Suzy,’ she heard him whisper. ‘Oh, God, I am so sorry. I’d give anything, do anything, to get you out of here safely.’

  Suzy could feel the warmth of his breath against her mouth, and suddenly, sweetly, she recognised that he was going to kiss her. She was lifting her face towards him when they both heard the sound of activity in the tunnel.

  A shower of debris fell down from the ceiling above them, and immediately Luke moved to cover Suzy’s body with his own.

  ‘Luke, what’s happening?’ she demanded, terrified.

  ‘It’s all right,’ Luke reassured her, holding her tightly. ‘Everything’s going to be all right. We’ll soon be out of here.’

  Just hearing his voice made her feel better, Suzy acknowledged as she leaned into him, soaking up the comfort of his presence and his warmth whilst his hand shielded her head from the stones rattling down around them.

  Suzy was still wrapped in Luke’s arms ten minutes later when their rescuers arrived.

  ‘Take Suzy first,’ Luke instructed them. But when they came to lift her away from him she could hardly bear to let go!

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  ‘LUKE?’

  The moment he heard the small, anxious cry Luke was awake, throwing off the duvet he had covered himself with and padding across the suite to where Suzy was lying frozen with terror in the middle of the large bed.

  It was three days since they had been rescued from the grotto, and every night Suzy had had the same nightmare. Every night Luke had gone to her to take her in his arms, to comfort her and reassure her that she was safe. And once he had done that he had gone back to his makeshift bed on one of the sofas.

  It was Suzy who had been insistent that there was no point in declaring now that they were not partners—not with the African President’s visit so imminent.

  ‘You’ve got enough to worry about without having to explain who I really am,’ she had told Luke when he had told her that although he would prefer it if she didn’t leave the villa until after the meeting, he would, if she wanted, make it clear to Sir Peter that they were not partners and ensure that she was provided with her own room.

  In the event it was perhaps just as well that they were still sharing the suite. Her nightmare had woken her every night, leaving her shivering with cold and fear, only able to go back to sleep once he was holding her safely in his arms.

  ‘They’ll stop soon,’ Suzy had told him last night, her teeth chattering as she clung to him.

  Luke hadn’t said anything. Locked away in his desk drawer was the report he had commissioned on her. And the information it contained had increased his guilt and his shame. She was innocent of everything he had accused her of. She had not lied to him. She had told him the truth and he had refused to believe her. He had treated her with contempt and cruelty. Luke knew he would never forgive himself. When he had read about her life as a child, with her mother, Luke had felt the acid burn of tears stinging his eyes, and his anger against himself had trebled. His anger, but not his love. His love, he recognised now, had been born fully formed and complete the moment he had set eyes on her!

  His love. Broodingly, Luke went towards the bed, lithe and silent as a panther as he moved through t
he darkness. His love was a burden he would never lay on Suzy’s shoulders. His report had told him what kind of person she was: the kind of person who put others before herself, the kind of person who gave up her own future to look after the mother who had never cared enough to love and protect her as she deserved. One day Suzy would meet someone for whom she felt as he felt about her. Someone she could love as he loved her!

  A savage pain tore through him. He had reached the bed and he sat down on it. Because of Suzy’s nightmares he had taken to wearing a pair of boxers to bed, but he still had to turn sideways so that she wouldn’t see the telltale outline of his erection.

  ‘It’s all right Suzy, I’m here,’ he told her gently.

  ‘Oh, Luke hold me, please!’ Suzy begged him.

  Her nightmare terrified her. In it she was trapped underground on her own. She could hear Luke talking to her, but he wasn’t there with her, and she was afraid. Afraid that she would die without seeing or touching him again.

  Physically she had not suffered any harm from her incarceration in the vault beneath the grotto, but emotionally and mentally it was taking her longer than she had expected to recover.

  Reluctantly Luke took hold of her, tensing as she burrowed closer to him. His body registered the fact that she wasn’t wearing anything other than a pair of silky briefs.

  Here in Luke’s arms was the only place she felt safe, Suzy acknowledged as the nightmare receded and the warmth of his body comforted her. Comforted her and then aroused her, she admitted shakily, as the familiar feelings of longing and love filled her.

  Unable to stop herself she leaned forward and brushed her lips against his shoulder, and then his throat, her tongue-tip investigating the taut flesh over his Adam’s apple.

  Luke felt as though he had been speared by a firebolt His erection was no longer a mere outline beneath his boxers, but a hard and obvious straining of flesh, aching to be touched and tasted as she was touching and tasting his throat.

  ‘Luke, please kiss me,’ Suzy whispered against his lips.