by Penny Jordan
'If she can what?'
Suzy spun round as Sir Peter and Luke came into the room.
'Daddy, Mummy forgot to pack our swimsuits and our shorts and things,' Lucy answered her father, a little reluctantly.
She obviously felt that what she was saying was a betrayal of her mother, Suzy recognised.
'Yes, and we want Suzy to take us out and buy some new ones,' Charlie added importantly.
Suzy could feel both Sir Peter and Luke looking at her. The relaxed approval in Sir Peter's eyes certainly wasn't mirrored in Luke's.
Suzy's heart gave a painful jerk. The sight of him was releasing the despair and anguish she had been fighting to ignore. Self-contempt and misery crawled through her veins like poison. And yet, as she dragged her gaze from Luke's face, Suzy acknowledged that it wasn't the anger she should be feeling that was making her tremble inwardly, but a destructive and humiliating ache of longing!
She was distantly aware of Sir Peter exclaiming enthusiastically, 'What an excellent idea! My dear, you are a godsend!'
'Peter, I don't think—' Luke began, an ominous expression in his eyes as he cast Suzy a freezing look of contempt.
'Luke, I know you want her all to yourself, and I can't blame you.' Sir Peter smiled. 'But we mustn't disappoint the children!'
Luke had intended to spend the morning catching up on some paperwork and trying to see if there wasn't some way that President Njambla could be pinned down to a definite date in order that he could wind up the whole exercise with as much speed as possible. He told himself he should have guessed that Suzy would try to pull this kind of trick.
He had already given orders that no one was to be allowed to leave the villa without his permission, and thanks to the high wall that surrounded the property it was impossible to leave other than via one of the discreetly guarded gates.
The staff all lived in, and had been thoroughly vetted, and it should have been an easy task to ensure that Suzy did not have any outside contact with anyone. He had taken possession of her mobile phone and her passport.
Taken possession! Luke wished his brain had not supplied him with those two particular words. Last night he had physically taken possession of Suzy herself, but only because his desire for her had taken possession of him!
'Indeed we mustn't,' Luke answered Sir Peter grimly. 'I'll organise a car. Are you ready to leave now?' he asked Suzy curtly.
'Well, I need to go upstairs and get my bag,' Suzy responded shakily as she tried to withstand the look he was giving her.
'I'll come with you,' Luke announced, leaving her with no option other than to walk towards the door, uncomfortably aware as she did so that he was following her.
Halfway up the stairs she asked herself bitterly why, after what he had done to her and what he had said to her, the reaction of her body to the knowledge that he was so close behind her now was one of longing and not rejection.
Quickening her step, she headed for their suite. But as she reached for the door handle Luke was there before her. Suzy flinched as she felt the brief brush of hard fingertips against her wrist.
'Quite a clever move,' Luke said conversationally as he closed the door, imprisoning her with him in the room's heavy silence. 'I had forgotten that female reporters are different from the rest of their sex and do not possess any scruples where children are concerned.'
There was a look in his eyes that confused Suzy—a mixture of biting contempt and savage anger laced with pain, as though somehow his words had a personal meaning for him.
'I am not using the children!' Suzy denied heatedly.
'It was their idea to approach their father. And besides, I could hardly manufacture the fact that their mother has been spiteful enough to send them here without proper holiday clothes. The dress Lucy was wearing last night looked so uncomfortable. Poor little scraps—I feel so sorry for them,' Suzy told him emotionally.
Luke could feel himself tensing as he listened to her. Why, when he knew she was acting, was he allowing himself to react to her faked emotions, allowing her to needle her way under his professional skin, letting her touch personal nerve-endings he had no damned business allowing her to touch?
'And as for using them! You're a fine one to talk about that!' she accused him angrily. 'You're keeping me imprisoned here because whatever it is that is going on might potentially be dangerous—and yet you are using the children as camouflage!'
'The children's presence here is directly against my wishes,' Luke told her shortly, looking away from her.
'So you mean that there is actually someone who can't be bullied, threatened and coerced into doing what you want?' Suzy couldn't resist demanding.
Immediately Luke turned round, subjecting her to a narrow-eyed gaze that made her want to shiver, as though her flesh had been touched by a blast of cold air.
'Coerced?' Luke challenged her. 'If by that you are trying to imply that last night I coerced you…you certainly didn't give me the impression that you didn't want what was happening. In fact—'
'I don't want to talk about last night,' Suzy interrupted him wildly. 'I don't.'
Was that because she didn't want to have the pathetic remnants of the fantasies and daydreams she was holding onto wrenched from her? Why not? What was the point in stubbornly clinging to them? They were worthless…meaningless…like the physical act she had shared with Luke!
'Save the emotional histrionics for Peter,' Luke told her contemptuously. 'He's becoming besotted enough with you to believe them!'
His words made Suzy frown. Certainly Peter was enjoying pretending to flirt with her, but a pretence at flirtation was all it was. If Suzy could see that she wondered why Luke, who was surely trained to observe and analyse people's behaviour and reactions, could not.
'The children will be waiting,' she told him stiffly.
'I'll just get my bag.'
Before she could move, Luke said, 'Stay here. I'll get it.'
His unexpected chivalrous gesture caught her off guard, but nowhere near so much as his casual question as he picked up a briefcase and opened it.
'Are you all right for money?'
'Yes. I've got enough of my own.' Suzy stopped him quickly.
His concern for her after his earlier comments was like balm on a painful wound, and she watched silently as he closed his case and then crossed the room to pick up her small handbag. It looked tiny grasped in his large hand as he brought it to her.
'And just remember,' he warned her grimly, 'I'm going to be right beside you. If you were thinking—'
'You mean that you're coming with us?'
Luke's hand was pressing against her wrist and Suzy could barely think for the effect his touch was having on her body.
'Why not? You're my partner, after all, and according to Peter I can't bear to let you out of my sight,' he told her derisively.
He certainly wasn't exhibiting any concern for her now, Suzy recognised. He was standing so close that she felt as though she could hardly breathe.
Automatically Suzy stepped back. Her mind and body were tearing her apart with the ferocity of the conflicting messages they were sending her. She wanted to go somewhere quiet and dark and stay there until she felt able to cope. Instead she was going to have to go to the resort, with Luke at her side and a smile pinned to her face.
Impulsively she turned to Luke, driven to get him to believe her and to set her free, but the words died unspoken as she saw the look on his face.
Well, if he could feel contemptuous about her then somehow she would learn to feel the same way about him, she told herself fiercely, and walked towards the door.
As he watched her Luke too was prey to conflicting emotions. He had absolutely no doubt that his suspicions concerning her were correct. And, that being the case, it was essential that he prevented her from having any kind of contact with anyone she might pass information on to. In that sense, in the professional sense, she was his enemy.
But his anger and bitterness towards he
r because of what she was—they were not professionally objective feelings, in any way, shape or form. They were personal. And on that personal level those feelings were unacceptable, Luke told himself grimly. Unacceptable and potentially prejudicial to his ability to do his job.
When fighting men became battle-weary they ceased to be effective. That was one of the reasons why he had left the Army. Because he had begun to feel he had fought too many wars and seen too much death. Was he now experiencing a similar syndrome within his current work? Was Suzy Roberts getting to him because for some reason he was no longer an effective operative? Or was he no longer an effective operative because Suzy Roberts was getting to him?
It wasn't going to be the latter. No way would he allow himself that weakness! To lose it over a woman like her? To want her, ache for her; hunger for her to the point where those feelings dominated every other aspect of his life?
No way!
Her subtle manipulation of the children this morning proved that he was right to be suspicious of her. So why, knowing all of that, when she had looked at him earlier with that faked pain in her eyes, had he been driven to take her in his arms and—?
And what? And nothing, Luke told himself savagely. Absolutely nothing!
* * *
'Luke, there's a parking space.' Suzy called as she looked out of the window of the large four-wheel drive vehicle in which Luke had driven them down to the resort.
'I've seen it,' was Luke's clipped response, and he neatly reversed the large vehicle into the small space.
Her eyes shadowed, Suzy turned her face away from him, angry with herself for letting such a small and unimportant rejection of help bring betraying tears to her eyes. She turned to get out of the Jeep.
'Wait there,' Luke told her imperiously, sliding out of his own seat.
Was he afraid that she might jump out and try to run away? Suzy wondered scathingly as she watched him come round to her own door and open it. Immediately she made to scramble out, but as she did so Luke took hold of her, lifting her bodily out of the car and placing her gently on the ground.
Raw pain scalded Suzy's throat, making it impossible for her to speak as she stood stiffly in his hold.
To anyone looking at them his gesture would have seemed one of loving consideration. But he did not love her. He loathed and despised her!
The pain in her throat had reached her chest. She could feel Luke looking at her, but she refused to return his gaze. She did have some pride, and there was no way she was going to let him see the anguish she knew must be in her eyes.
With a small twist of her body she pulled away from him in mute rejection, and then tensed as she felt him tighten his grip on her, constraining her. Now she did look at him, resentment emanating from every pore of her body as she resisted his hold.
What the hell was that damned perfume Suzy was wearing? Luke wondered savagely as the air around filled with the scent of her. It conjured up for him mental images his senses had retained: her body, silky smooth beneath his hands, fire and passion beneath his touch as she moved against him, with him…
A thousand brilliant images flooded his senses as the warm morning air wafted her scent around him. It might be morning outside his body, but inside it, inside his head, it was night, with its soft, sensual darkness, its dangerous memories…
Against his will Luke felt his gaze sliding slowly from her eyes to her mouth, to absorb in greedy silence its shape and beauty. His mouth already knew its texture, her texture, but those memories were not enough. Suddenly he wanted to know it again. To trace its tender outline, to stroke its soft warmth, to probe the sweet resistance it offered him and capture its innermost sweetness.
Suzy felt as though she was about to collapse. Luke was looking at her mouth and his look was scorching her, making her want to lift her face to him and plead for his kiss. Frantically she dragged her hot gaze away from his face and looked at the car.
The children! To her shame, she realised that she had actually forgotten about them!
Her small frantic movement brought Luke back to reality. Releasing her, he turned towards the car and went to help the children out.
CHAPTER NINE
'LUKE nearly kissed you then,' Lucy confided innocently to Suzy as she fell into step beside her, whilst her brother, boy-like, immediately stationed himself at Luke's side.
Kissed her? What for? Punishment? A gesture of his contempt? Suzy wondered sadly as the four of them made their way from the car park to the town's quaintly narrow and very steep streets.
'I think there's a children's shop not far from here,' Suzy announced, indicating the small square they were just entering.
Before they had left Sir Peter had handed her a very large sum of euros, telling her to get whatever she thought the children might need. And Suzy intended to do just that! It appalled her that their mother should be so selfish as to send them on holiday without the necessary clothes purely to spite her ex-husband, without giving a thought to how the children themselves might feel.
However, she was by nature thrifty—she had had to be, she acknowledged wryly. So she would get the best she could for the money.
Several cafés fronted onto the ancient cobbled square, their canvas sun umbrellas adding a bright splash of colour to the greyness of the weathered stone.
'It's just down here,' Suzy told Luke, indicating the narrow alleyway in front of them.
The children's clothes shop was three doors down, and Suzy could see Lucy's eyes light up as they walked inside. Within seconds the little girl was standing in silence, absorbed in the racks of clothes. Silent maybe, but her expression said it all, Suzy reflected as she watched the pleasure and excitement illuminating her face.
'Tell me what you think you would like, Lucy,' she suggested. 'And then we can have a look.'
She could feel Luke standing behind her, and in any other circumstances she would have suggested that he take Charlie to the other side of the shop and pick out some clothes for him. But she was too conscious of Luke's biting statement that he was going to remain glued to her side to do so.
Instead she waited patiently whilst Lucy went slowly through the rack, stopping every now and then to look enquiringly at Suzy.
'You need a couple of swimsuits and some shorts, Lucy,' Suzy said gently. 'Some tee shirts, and perhaps a dress?'
A tender smile curled her mouth as she saw that Lucy was hovering over a trendy pre-teen outfit of which wasn't really suitable for holidaywear, but Suzy could see its appeal for her.
Watching the interplay between child and woman, Luke reminded himself angrily that Suzy was a skilled actress.
* * *
More than an hour after they had entered the shop both children were kitted out, and Lucy's face was glowing with delight because Suzy had ruefully agreed that she could have the outfit she had set her heart on.
'Can we have an ice cream now?' Charlie asked as soon as they reached the square.
'It's almost lunchtime,' Luke told him, but instead of insisting that they needed to return to the villa to Suzy's surprise he suggested that they find a table at one of the cafés and have an early lunch there.
'Yes!' Charlie exclaimed excitedly.
Five minutes later they were sitting at a table, menus in their hands.
'Suzy, do you think I could wear my new trousers for dinner tonight?' Lucy asked earnestly, after the waiter had taken their order.
Suzy couldn't help it. Over Lucy's head her gaze met Luke's, her eyes brimming with tender amusement.
'I don't see why not—so long as your father doesn't mind,' she agreed.
Completely happy, Lucy leaned her head against Suzy and stroked her bare arm with loving fingers.
Her small, innocent gesture and the message of trust it carried made Luke feel as though a giant clamp was tightening around his heart.
How could one woman be two such very different people?
Different? What the hell was he thinking? She was only one person�
�a devious, manipulative, despicable person, incapable of any kind of genuine emotion.
The waiter brought their food, and Suzy was just beginning to eat hers when she happened to glance across the square.
Shock froze her into immobility as she saw the man standing only yards away and immediately recognised him. Jerry Needham! He was one of the reporters from the magazine; one of the men who had made her life such a misery when she had worked there.
What was he doing here? Taking a holiday? Or something more sinister—like trying to find out what was going on at the villa? Her heart was jerking around inside her chest as though someone had it on a string. What if he saw her and came over? Introduced himself? Luke would immediately suspect the worst.