He looked down at her with a glint of mockery plain to be seen in his dark eyes. ‘I didn’t decide anything, Aurora. I merely went along with your bossiness because it wasn’t the time or place to take issue with you.’
‘Bossiness?’ she repeated blankly. ‘How can you say that?’
‘What else would you call it?’ he enquired. ‘You chose to sleep with me, you even did it ecstatically.’ He looked down her slender figure in a long straight charcoal cashmere skirt with a matching tunic top, red patent shoes on her feet and a scarlet scrunchie holding her hair back, then raised a wry eyebrow. ‘You were wonderful in bed, Aurora,’ he said quite audibly. ‘Like a lovely, delicate nymph, all ivory and rose—’
‘Stop it, Luke!’ she whispered, looking around and nearly dying to see that several people had tuned in with various expressions of amusement or surprise.
‘Only if you accept my lift home.’
‘No! I…’
‘All right. Do you remember when we got to a certain stage how we stopped and sang the Skye Boat song and then—’
‘Where’s your car?’ she said wildly. ‘I’ll never forgive you for this!’
‘We’ll see. This way.’
She didn’t say any more until she was installed in the Saab with the roof closed. Then she turned her furious green gaze on him. ‘That was unbelievable! How could you?’
His long fingers played with the keys but he didn’t switch the engine on. ‘To tell you the truth, Aurora, I found it unbelievable you could sleep with me the way you did then issue a stilted little statement to the effect that nothing had changed and we should regard it as a “ships passing in the night” experience.’ He looked at her dryly.
‘Why…why didn’t you say so at the time?’ she stammered.
‘You were flying out to Rarotonga the next day. You hadn’t recovered from thinking you’d lost your father. You were on an emotional roundabout, that’s why.’
She wet her lips. ‘But nothing has changed…’
‘Apart from the obvious—how would you know?’ he shot back.
Several moments later when she hadn’t replied, he did switch the engine on and they drove off in silence.
It was a twenty-minute drive home from the airport as darkness fell and that silence lay like a brick wall between them as Aurora recalled so many details of their lovemaking a week ago—including breaking into spontaneous song at one point because she’d felt so very good on all fronts, and her father’s safety had still been on her mind, thus the Skye Boat song… She flinched inwardly.
It was she who broke the silence at last, but only to say, ‘You took the wrong turning.’
‘No, I didn’t. You can come and have dinner with me tonight.’
‘Luke…’
‘Why don’t you liken it to your initial experience of me?’ he suggested.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, you told me you felt so frustrated you decided to take things into your own hands and it was my fault you felt that way—over the matter of getting your diaries back, Aurora,’ he elucidated with an undercurrent of sarcasm.
She cleared her throat. ‘I see,’ she said in a voice devoid of all expression. ‘All right. Just don’t count on anything else happening, Luke.’
‘You mean you don’t see yourself as issuing any invitations tonight, Miss Templeton?’
She gasped, then said fiercely, ‘We both got carried away! We…’ She broke off frustratedly.
‘So we did,’ he drawled and drove into his driveway. ‘Surely—’ he cut the engine and switched his dark gaze to her ‘—that begs a question if nothing else?’
They ate inside; it was too chilly for the terrace.
It was all prepared and just needed heating up—lasagne and a salad, but it was delicious and bore all the hallmarks of being one of Miss Hillier’s concoctions.
‘I thought she was away on holiday,’ Aurora remarked as they sat opposite each other across a round table in the den, where, as had been in her day, there were some deep, comfortable chairs, a television and this table for informal meals. The chairs were covered in apricot linen with navy piping, the walls were a matt wheat colour with white trim, and the curved window that looked out over the garden gave the room a conservatory feel. There was an extremely fine collection of water-colour landscapes on the walls and a wonderful bowl of gerberas from white to yellow to apricot, orange and deep pink on the coffee-table.
It wasn’t an essentially masculine room, but he’d told her that he’d left most of the decorating of the house to Miss Hillier. Aurora had had the feeling ever since that Miss Hillier might have indulged herself in this one room.
Luke had not required any conversation from her until he’d served up dinner. He’d made her a drink and switched on the television so she could watch the evening news. When dinner was on the table, he switched the television off and put Vivaldi on the CD player.
‘She was,’ he said. ‘She came back today. How did you find your father?’
Aurora told him. ‘He’s having the time of his life and I didn’t have the heart to make a fuss,’ she finished.
‘Did you tell him about me?’
She lifted her gaze to his with a forkful of lasagne halfway to her mouth. ‘No. There was nothing to tell.’ She ate the mouthful but found it hard to swallow.
‘Nothing?’ He lay back in his chair and watched her idly until she started to colour.
‘Luke—’
‘Did it make it into your diary, Aurora? To read over when you’re an old lady and—wonder what might have been if you hadn’t been so stubborn.’
She stopped eating and sipped her wine. ‘No, it didn’t.’
‘Too painful?’ he suggested. ‘Too many regrets, perhaps, but you don’t know how to handle things since you were the one who laid down the law?’
She looked away with her cheeks now burning and wishing she could press the cool of her wineglass to them. ‘Why are you doing this?’ she said huskily.
‘Because I’m contemplating asking you to marry me and I thought the passage of a week might have made you see things differently. If you’ve been able to forget that wonderful lovemaking as if it never happened, I haven’t. Nor did I think you were the kind of girl to whom those things were…easy come, easy go,’ he murmured with a satirical little gesture. ‘Do you often sing songs in the middle of sex?’
Aurora pushed her plate away and stood up. ‘If your real reason for bringing me here was to insult me, Luke, you’ve succeeded! Don’t bother to see me out, I’ll get myself home.’
‘Sit down, Aurora,’ he ordered.
‘You can’t make me!’
‘I can and I will—and this time I’m serious about it,’ he added with a certain rough impatience that left her in no doubt he was.
He watched her react to this, saw the way her fingers whitened on the back of the chair, and suddenly could have kicked himself. ‘Please, Aurora,’ he said quietly. ‘I know you’re trying to do what you perceive as the right thing for us, but we need to talk.’
She hesitated, then sank down in her chair.
‘We don’t need to make such terribly heavy weather of it, however,’ he added with a faint smile. ‘Tell me about Rarotonga—I’ve never been there.’
Aurora spread her napkin on her lap and picked up her fork. ‘I can’t tell you that much about Rarotonga because…’ she blinked ‘…I could have been anywhere in the world.’ She dropped her fork and put her fingers to her eyes. ‘But it still wouldn’t work, Luke.’
‘I’ve done it again,’ she said helplessly.
‘And just as beautifully,’ he agreed as he ran his fingers through her dishevelled hair. ‘Mind you, we didn’t sing sea shanties this time, but you have a way of making love to me that’s—I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s like capturing a will-o’-the-wisp, a gossamer spirit, the soul of a butterfly in the guise of an exquisite girl.’
She smiled against his chest. ‘Thanks, but�
��how fanciful is that, Professor?’
‘It’s true.’ He drew his long fingers down her spine, then cupped her hip. ‘Sleepy?’
‘Yes,’ she murmured.
‘Be my guest.’ He drew her head onto his shoulder and pulled the covers over them.
Aurora relaxed with a sigh, revelling in the warmth and the closeness, as well as the feeling of security. Five minutes later she was asleep. And the next morning she flew to Beltrees with Luke Kirwan to spend the second week of her holiday with him.
They had the house to themselves for the first four days. Sir David had taken advantage of Luke’s arrival to have some time off—and this time there was no question of separate rooms.
On their first night, after a delicious dinner prepared by the housekeeper and some time spent in front of the huge log fire in the lounge, Luke led her to a double bedroom with a vast bed and its own fireplace with a three piece chintz-covered suite in front of the fire.
He didn’t turn any lights on but undressed her slowly in front of the flickering flames.
‘Very romantic,’ she commented as he unbuttoned her blouse.
‘Very,’ he agreed, ‘but also warm. Just think what it’s like outside, clear with a million stars but distinctly cold.’
Aurora shivered. ‘I’m glad I’m not out there.’
He removed her blouse, then her bra.
‘Would you like me to stand on a footstool, seeing as there’s no bonnet of a car handy?’ she murmured mischievously.
He cupped her shoulders in his palms and stared down at her high, small breasts. ‘I think I can manage. Do I—’ he lifted his dark gaze to her eyes ‘—detect a spirit of playfulness in you, Ms Templeton?’
‘Not at all, Professor Kirwan,’ she denied. ‘I wouldn’t presume to mar the solemnity of the moment in any way.’
‘Oh, yes, you would, Aurora.’ He slid his hands down her arms and stroked her nipples. ‘In fact, I get the feeling you specialize in a brand of lovemaking that’s far from solemn.’
Her lips twitched. ‘I don’t happen to be a specialist at it, Professor. I just do, and say, what feels right.’
‘So…’ he looked down at her nipples as they started to unfurl beneath his thumbs ‘…at this point in time it feels right for you to point out that I could get a crick in my neck? Is that all you’ve got on your mind at the moment?’ Once again that dark gaze sought hers.
‘Not entirely,’ Aurora said airily as a tremor ran through her. ‘It would be fair to say my mind is on other things as well. Do you know what that does to me?’
‘This?’ He stroked her nipples again.
Aurora took a breath, but said very gravely, ‘It’s so nice I’m not sure I could stand what’s still to come. It also,’ she continued as he started to smile, ‘doesn’t seem quite fair that I should be the only recipient of this kind of…heaven.’
His smile grew. ‘What would you like to do about it?’
‘Oh—help you out of your clothes and—show you a thing or two, Luke Kirwan. That’s all.’
‘All? I don’t think I could stand that,’ he said frankly.
‘Well, I think you could stand a lot more than I could,’ she replied just as frankly.
‘What makes you say that?’ he asked curiously.
She stood on her toes and kissed him lightly. ‘I just get the feeling I’m in the hands of a master. For your information, I have never sung during sex, before it or after it. And last night I went from vowing to hate you for the rest of my life to—well, being the proverbial putty in your hands.’
‘There was no resemblance to putty,’ he said softly. ‘You were gorgeous.’ His hands roamed her upper body at will.
‘I think you’d better lead on,’ she teased, ‘before I die here on the spot.’
But later she wasn’t able to tease or be playful as he drew a response from her that left her shuddering with rapture in his arms.
They had a cup of tea and toast very early next morning, then went for a ride.
Aurora wasn’t that experienced with horses, but the one Luke chose for her was sure-footed and easy to handle. And he led her to an old opal mine on the property, not much more than a hole in the ground beside a mound of pebbles.
When they dismounted, Aurora looked around at the early morning sky streaked with pink and the vast red-soil country dotted with low sage-green bush that was, apparently, favourite fare for sheep. ‘Wow.’ She pulled off her hat, threw it into the air and swung her arms joyfully. ‘This is wonderful. This is real Australia!’
He laughed. ‘You’re actually looking quite wonderful yourself, Aurora.’
‘Ah, well, I think I might know who to thank for that!’
‘I’m feeling exceptionally well myself, as it happens,’ he said whimsically. ‘But I happen to know exactly who to thank for it.’ He reached for her and kissed her. ‘You.’
She looked into his eyes and was shaken by the memories of their lovemaking. ‘I…’ she hesitated ‘…I felt as if I was flying to the moon.’
‘Now who’s being fanciful?’ he teased. ‘But I couldn’t fly you to the moon unless it was something we did to each other.’
I’m not so sure about that, Aurora thought, but decided against putting it into words because she didn’t think she could explain adequately…
‘What is going through those beautiful green eyes at this moment, Ms Templeton?’ he enquired.
‘Uh—are we looking for opals or meteorite fragments, Mr Newton?’ she enquired, with her hands on her hips.
He frowned faintly as if aware of the evasion, then, ‘Both. But watch your step,’ he warned. ‘Those mounds of pebbles are extremely slippery.’
‘Romeo!’ she responded, causing him to raise an eyebrow at her.
‘Mariner’s speak,’ she explained. ‘In the nautical alphabet Romeo stands for R and also means “yes, will do”!’
‘I gather you’re an expert on mariner’s speak?’
‘Oh, yes. Your name would be spelled out—lima, uniform, kilo, echo…and mine is alpha, uniform, romeo, oscar, romeo, alpha—for example.’
He smiled at her crookedly. ‘I’ve often meant to ask you why you volunteer your services to the Coastguard, alpha, uniform, romeo, oscar, romeo, alpha.’
‘You picked that up pretty quickly, Professor! Um…I’ve always been fascinated by radio, I don’t really know why. I suppose my father had something to do with it—it’s such an integral part of boating. Whenever I was on board with him, I used to spend hours listening to the HF radio. Yachts talking to each other from so far away, weather skeds and the like. Then he suggested I get a radio operator’s licence—anyone can take the course, so I took it at the Coastguard and enjoyed it so much I decided to volunteer—what’s wrong?’
‘I was just thinking…’ he paused and ruffled his dark hair, looking momentarily frustrated ‘…that you’re like no one else I know.’
Aurora eyed him in his bush shirt, khaki trousers and boots. ‘I should hope so, but I don’t see what’s so unusual about that.’
‘It’s not only that. You just…continually surprise me. OK, you look for opals, I’ll look for meteorite fragments.’
‘I don’t like to display my ignorance,’ Aurora said, ‘but would I know a rough opal if I found one?’
He grinned. ‘Probably not. I’ll show you what to look for.’
They spent a couple of hours searching and he actually found a small milky-blue opal for her. Then they rode back to the homestead like the wind and tucked into a huge breakfast. And the next couple of days were spent in similar fashion. Out and about exploring or helping work the sheep during the day and spending the nights together.
It was exhilarating by day and Aurora’s skin started to glow pale gold, her green eyes shone and she knew she not only looked full of health and vitality but felt it, even in spite of some saddle stiffness she suffered. She also got extremely interested in the subject of meteorites and became as keen as Luke was for the subjec
t.
By night, they talked, listened to music, read—he even got out his old crystal radio set and started to repair it. And they made love whenever the mood took them…
Such as the evening she looked up from her book to see him staring at her with a frown.
‘Luke?’ she said huskily. ‘Have I done something wrong?’
He shook his head and continued to study her.
She’d changed for dinner into her charcoal cashmere skirt and tunic top—the same outfit she’d had on when he’d met her at the airport, even to her red shoes and scarlet scrunchie. They were sitting in front of the fire in their bedroom.
‘What is it, then?’ she asked.
The firelight played on his dark hair and those fascinating hollows beneath his cheekbones. He’d also freshened up and wore clean jeans and a thin green jumper. ‘I was just wondering how to ask you to take your clothes off here and now.’
She raised a wry eyebrow. ‘Is that all? You had me worried for a moment.’
‘It’s not that simple at all. I’ve been sitting here for the last ten minutes asking myself how you could serenely go on reading your book while I was beset by these fantasies.’
She closed her book and put it aside with a faint, wise little smile curving her lips. ‘Who’s to say I was so serene?’
‘You…weren’t?’
‘I’ve just read the same page six times and didn’t make any sense of it once.’
‘Aurora…’ He grimaced. ‘I wouldn’t have known.’
‘That’s because I didn’t want you to know, just in case our minds weren’t running along the same lines. But if they are…’ She shrugged and stood up.
Beneath her charcoal top she wore a black bra dotted with tiny strawberries, and when she stepped out of her skirt it was to reveal matching briefs. She heard Luke take an unsteady breath as she straightened, released her hair and shook it out. Then, with her skin touched with the glow of the fire, she took her bra off and slid her briefs down. And she stood before him with her hand outstretched.
He studied the lovely curves of her body, all the slim, petite length of her, then he said rather harshly as his gaze clashed with hers, ‘I might not be able to take my time over this.’
A Question of Marriage Page 16