His voice was gruff, as if he meant every word, and the bittersweet pressure of his hands increased as he ground out, 'You're a miser with yourself. You keep something hidden, locked away. I've always known that, faced it, but I thought I could get you to trust me, to let me reach you. Don't tell me I was wrong!'
Suddenly, he dragged her to him with a smothered groan, gathering her into his arms, his cheeks warm against the tears that had been falling unheeded.
She felt his hurt, matching her own, and she blurted out, 'Willa has always had to be first, the centre of all attention. If she saw a man she wanted she went right ahead and took him, never mind who got hurt. And it was always easy for her—so damned easy!' She had never spoken of her earlier life with Willa to anyone. Willa was public property, a legend, and Annie was loyal. But no loyalty— nothing—mattered now.
She flung away from him, kicking off her shoes, walking rapidly to the distant line of water, driven to restless movement by the anguish inside her.
And Luke was right beside her, his hand on her arm.
'There has to be more.'
'Oh, there's more,' she rapped out bitterly, dragging her arm from his grasp, turning, heading back the way she had come. 'But I can't believe you're interested!' How could he be, when her lack of trust had killed his love?
'For God's sake, Annie!' he exclaimed huskily, hauling her back into his arms, holding her tightly against his body. 'Don't clam up on me now.' His hands began to move along her back, soothing away the tension, gentling her, and she shuddered, releasing a shaky breath. Maybe he still cared for her, after all.
'So tell me, my darling,' he whispered, his lips just touching the corner of hers, and she submitted completely, knowing that he would always have this effect on her, his slightest touch melting her, making her defenceless.
Haltingly at first, but then with more confidence, she told him of Willa's various husbands, of how they'd lasted only marginally longer than her lovers. She told him of Hernando, and how easily Willa had taken him from her.
'And when I arrived here I found Willa in one of her states,' she confided, 'I told her a few home-truths, which she couldn't have liked and when I saw you coming out of her room, heard the things you were saying to her, I thought she had taken her revenge in the way she knows best.'
'I see.' His hands travelled slowly across her back to her shoulders, lingering at the base of her neck before idling upwards to cup her face, tilting her head to look deep into her eyes.
For a rapturous moment she thought he was going to kiss her, and she needed that kiss with every atom of her being, but he said thoughtfully, 'Will you believe me if I tell you that nothing happened between me and Willa last night? That the kiss you saw me give her was my way of comforting her, of reassuring her that everything would be all right?'
The deep blue eyes held hers for what seemed like an eternity and she felt relief, an aching sadness. She had wrongly imputed to her beloved Luke the type of shallowness Norman had hinted so strongly at, the shallowness of the people who had surrounded her while she was growing up. And she had been wrong, so wrong. She would believe him unreservedly, whatever he said.
'Of course. Utterly,' she whispered, her head drooping forward on the slender column of her neck, resting against his chest, feeling his warmth, breathing in the spicy male muskiness of him.
'Thank God!' There was more than mere relief in his voice as his arms enclosed her more firmly. Then, lowering them both to the sand, he told her huskily, 'As I told you, my love, I couldn't sleep last night. Knowing you were under the same roof made me restless as hell! I went to swim in the pool and Willa appeared, clearly distressed. She hadn't been able to sleep, either, for worrying over how she was going to break the news to you.'
'What news?' Annie wasn't much interested now; her hand was walking across his chest, finding the buttons of his shirt, her fingers slipping beneath the silky fabric, and she heard his breath catch in a highly satisfactory way before he captured her errant hand and held it tightly in his own.
'The news that she has decided to mend her ways,' he told her in a voice that suggested he was having trouble with his breathing. 'She'd had a disastrous affair with a man much younger than herself, apparently, and had been mooching around, trying to decide what to do with herself in the future. In her own words, she couldn't go on as she had been doing. She was not getting any younger and had a hankering for a secure, long-term relationship. The upshot was, she's decided to accept her agent's proposal. This Griff guy has been in love with her for years, so she said. But she knew how well you and he had always got along and she was afraid that, knowing her track record, you might scratch her eyes out before you'd let her treat him as she's treated all the others.'
Annie had grown very still in his arms and now she said doubtfully, 'Do you think she means it? About wanting a long-term relationship?' Fond as she was of Griff, she was fonder of her mother. And nothing would give her greater pleasure than to see her settle down to a normal, loving marriage.
And Luke whispered against her hair, 'I think so. Anyway, I promised to break the news. Willa's been like a cat on hot bricks all day, waiting for him to arrive, for your reaction. But whatever happens in that quarter is in the lap of the gods. What is not—' his fingers curled gently around her neck '—in the lap of the gods is our future. You'll never walk away from me again, even if I have to keep you chained to my side! I love you, my darling. It began the moment I first saw you and it's never going to end. I think I must have loved you always, because right now I can't remember a moment when I didn't.'
Annie grew very still, hardly daring to breathe as she lay in his arms, their legs entwined, her hands spread against his chest, feeling the steady beat of his heart.
'You said you didn't want to know—not if I didn't trust you,' she reminded wickedly, her fingers finding a life of their own, shamelessly stroking the hard wall of his chest, feeling the low rumble of laughter leave his lungs.
'But you came up trumps in the end, didn't you?' he almost gloated. 'And I know what I said, and at the time I couldn't cope with your lack of trust. But I would never have given up on you, not even if I'd had to chase after you for the rest of my life— which would have been hellish frustrating, not to mention tiring!' His lips nuzzled the vulnerable spot below her earlobe, the moist, erotic pressure sending tremors of wildfire through every vein, every pulse-beat. Smiling, he took the tip of her finger into his mouth, his exploring tongue making her body melt with rapture, then gently, tormentingly, he nibbled until she thought she might die of the pleasure he was already giving, deciding she'd probably fragment into a million pieces if he took his lovemaking further.
Then he lifted his head, his magnificent eyes dancing with love-lights.
'We'll be married as soon as it can be arranged, and that means reneging on the promise I made to Willa—for both of us. We'll get back to England right away and make arrangements for the ceremony.'
'Are you asking, or telling?' She smiled wickedly, her heart just about bursting with her love for him, and Luke lay back on the sand, his arms crossed behind him, the golden rays of the sunlight making his features even more heart-stoppingly handsome.
'Telling,' he said succinctly. 'I aim to do all the telling in our marriage—you're such a contrary creature that if I gave you your head you'd have us both running in circles, getting nowhere.'
'Not any more,' she whispered. Life with this dynamic man was going to be exciting, blissful, poignantly beautiful—all those things and more besides.
'Thank the lord for that!' he grinned, reaching up to pull her down beside him. 'And just to set the record straight, about Monk's Hall—'
'Luke, it doesn't matter,' she cut him short, burying her head in his shoulder. 'You can turn it into a glue factory for all I care,' she assured him, meaning it.
He said lazily, 'I think the good citizens of Seabourne might have something to say about that! No, my sweet, I have something entirely different in m
ind for that house.' Idly, his fingers wandered through the silky fire of her hair and she curled her body closer to his. 'I fell in love with a girl and a house on the same day and decided I was going to have both. All my ideas for a hotel flew out of the window—Monk's Hall meant far more to me than a money-making proposition. As far as I was concerned it was our future home, but you came along and pushed the bidding sky-high! Still…' He ran a reflective finger over the curve of her cheek, bringing it slowly to rest on the full curve of her lips. 'It was worth every penny and at that stage of the game I couldn't tell you it was to be our home, or you'd have punched me in the eye, but I did tell Norman.'
'You did?' Norman's snide remarks about his cousin were beginning to fall into place. 'When?'
'As soon as I realised that you didn't love each other, that your marriage would have been one of convenience. I gave him fair warning—' He broke off, her hands having wandered inside his shirt, as if they had a life of their own. He grunted, his fingers busy with the tiny buttons of her top. 'We've talked far too much,' he warned her thickly. 'We have other things to occupy us.'
'Such as?' she enquired dulcetly, her heart beginning to pound, totally out of control now as he exposed one lace-covered breast and then the other.
'How to manipulate the strange but adorable items of apparel you seem to find necessary,' he explained as if he had some terrible grievance, his fingertips teasing her taut nipples through the gossamer lace, and Annie smiled dreamily, her whole body aching for the delight they would soon give each other.
'Don't overtax yourself, darling, let me show you…'
It was almost twilight when they walked slowly back to the villa, leaning against each other, their arms entwined. Luke had made love to her until she'd been reeling with the wonder of it, and he had taught her how to please him and that would be a lesson she would never forget. And now, almost too sated to put one foot in front of the other, she frowned as she heard the rumble of an engine coming up the drive, approaching the villa.
'That's got to be Griff,' Annie told Luke, nuzzling her head deeper into his shoulder as the car drew to a halt and a burly grey-haired man emerged. 'Better late than never.'
'And that's a taxi, right?' Luke was fully alert now, dragging her behind him as he loped over the terraces.
'Annie, baby—good to see you!' her mother's agent greeted. 'Sorry to be so late, but—'
'I'm glad you could make it at all,' Annie assured him as Luke left her side, going to poke his head in through the open taxi window.
'How's Willa?' the genial giant enquired, his eyes shrewd and watchful.
'She's—' Annie lifted her shoulders, spreading her hands, grinning. 'She's Willa.'
'Says it all, baby.' He picked up his case, turning to smile at Luke as he loped back from the cab, and Annie introduced them, knowing instinctively that the two men would be friends, hoping quite desperately that Willa would find long-term happiness with the man who had silently adored her for years.
'Well, I guess I ought to track my hostess down,' Griff was saying. 'I have a very personal matter to discuss with that lady, but see you guys at supper.'
'Not if I have any say in the matter,' Luke responded with a grin. 'Nothing personal, Griff, but this lady and I need a slice of privacy.' His smile took any sting out of his words.
Annie added quickly, 'Griff—tell Willa I'll dance at her wedding. Tell her to be happy. She'll know what I mean.'
'Will do.' His heavy brows lowered for a moment before he pulled himself together, and disappeared into the house, his intention to find his beloved accelerated by Annie's words.
'The driver's going to wait,' Luke told her gently, his words muffled through the kiss he placed on her parted lips.
'For us?' she murmured, her tongue playing with his sensual lower lip.
'Don't do that!' he groaned. 'Unless you want me to make love to you in front of one highly interested Italian cabbie! Now.' He held her a little away from him, smiling down into her desire-hazed eyes. 'Can you pack in three minutes?'
'Two, if I have to.'
'Good girl!' He swung her round and patted her neat bottom. 'Get moving. We'll be out of here in five minutes flat, on our way to start renovating a highly desirable property back home. Unless, of course, you have any fond and lingering farewells to make?'
'Not one.' As far as she was concerned the past was a blank page, and the future, her future and Luke's, lay enticingly ahead. And it began right now.
Passionate Awakening Page 14