by Penny Jordan
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 someo
ne had it on a string. What if he saw her and came over? Introduced himself? Luke would immediately suspect the worst.
Her appetite had completely deserted her, but then she saw Jerry was walking away from them and disappearing into the crowd on the other side of the square. Suzy tried to relax, but her insides were a tight ball of anxiety and apprehension. She had never liked Jerry—he was loud-mouthed, boorish and vulgar, and the sexual innuendo of the comments he had made to her had filled her with nausea. But she knew that he was an exceptionally shrewd reporter.
To her relief she heard Luke asking the children, ‘Finished, you two?’ He signalled for the waiter and asked Suzy, ‘If you’re ready to go…?’
Suzy was on her feet before he had finished speaking, but they had no sooner walked back into the crowded square when Charlie suddenly piped up urgently. ‘I need the bathroom!’
An innocent enough request, but it was one that caused the two adults who heard it to tense in silent dismay.
One look at Charlie’s screwed-up and anxious face told Suzy that there was no way the little boy could wait.
‘There must have been lavatories back at the café,’ she told Luke. ‘You’ll have to take him back there. Lucy and I will wait here.’
Luke looked down at Charlie and inwardly cursed. The square was busy and Charlie was only young—there was no way he could let him go alone. It was obvious that he would have to take him to the lavatory. Which meant that he would have to leave Suzy here unguarded.
‘Why don’t you take Lucy?’ he suggested, as Charlie tugged anxiously on his arm.
‘I don’t want to go.’ Lucy forestalled his attempt to at least keep some check on Suzy.
‘We’ll wait here for you,’ Suzy told him, quickly checking the crowd to make sure there was no sign of the reporter.
Luke hurried Charlie through the crowd. He could not blame the little boy for what had happened, and neither could he accuse Suzy of having engineered the situation.
How much longer were Luke and Charlie going to be? Suzy wondered anxiously, willing them to return so that they could leave.
‘Lucy, where are you going?’ she protested as Lucy suddenly started to hurry towards one of the stalls.
‘It’s all right, I just want to look at something,’ Lucy called back to her.
Suzy suddenly froze as the crowd parted and a couple of yards behind her she saw Jerry—looking right back at her.
She turned away, hoping to disappear into the throng of sightseers, but he was too quick for her, and she tensed as she felt his hand on her arm.
‘Suzy! Suzy Roberts! What a coincidence!’
The oily, speculative look he was giving her made Suzy feel sick as it brought back unwanted memories.
‘What are you doing here?’ he demanded, still watching her with a look in his eyes which Suzy did not like.
‘I’m on holiday with my partner,’ Suzy lied uncomfortably, adding quickly, ‘I must go. He’ll be wondering where I am—we got separated by the crowd.’ Turning away from him, she went to where Lucy was standing, looking at a stall selling handmade jewellery.
‘Why didn’t you stay where I left you?’
Suzy could hear the censorious note in Luke’s voice. Had he seen Jerry? She looked round anxiously, but the reporter was nowhere to be seen.
‘I wanted to look at one of the stalls,’ Lucy answered sunnily. ‘Are we going back to the villa now?’
‘Yes, we are,’ Luke agreed.
Suzy shivered as she saw him looking searchingly at her. Surely if he had seen Jerry with her he would have said something, only too delighted to have his suspicions of her confirmed? But it was not so much her fear that Luke might have seen Jerry with her that was making her feel so anxious, Suzy acknowledged as Luke guided them through the crowd, it was her concern about the reporter’s presence here in the resort, so close to the villa.
The owner of the magazine did have excellent sources of sensitive information, although who they were Suzy had never known. It was not entirely beyond the bounds of possibility that Roy Jarvis could have sent Jerry to Italy to check up on what was happening at the villa.
And, that being the case, didn’t she, as an honest citizen, have a moral obligation to tell Luke that she had seen him?
From his vantage point several yards away Jerry watched Luke and Suzy making their way through the crowd with the two children.
He had recognised Luke, of course, and unless he was mistaken—and he was sure that he was not—those two kids with them were the Verey kids, who were staying with their father.
Jerry had only arrived at the resort the previous day, sent there to check out a tip-off about Sir Peter Verey’s real reason for being in Italy. Now he had the happy feeling that things were very definitely going his way!
Suzy Roberts and Lucas Soames. Well, well, what a piece of luck!
Suzy was still struggling with her moral dilemma when they got back to the villa.
Jerry might just be at the resort on holiday, or even following some other story involving the celebrities who stayed there, she tried to tell herself. But her conscience refused to be convinced.
CHAPTER TEN
‘LUKE, can I have a word?’
Luke frowned as the operative he had put in charge of the perimeter security at the villa approached him.
It was twenty-four hours since he had driven Suzy and the children back from the resort—twenty-four hours, far too many of which he had spent fighting against his own emotions instead of concentrating on his professional business, which was why he had this morning finally instructed one of his London operatives to supply him with a full and detailed report on Suzy. He was sure the information in the report would back up his professional distrust of her and help him to banish these unwanted emotions she was causing him! The more information he had about her, the better.
Last night after dinner he had escorted Suzy to their suite and pretended to busy himself with some work whilst she prepared for bed. Only when he had been sure she was soundly asleep had he gone to bed himself, and even then he had not been able to relax.
In her sleep she had turned over to lie facing him, and he had wanted…
Luke did not want to think about what he had wanted to do.
Unable to trust himself not to give in to the temptation she represented, he had got up and spent the rest of the night sleeping uncomfortably in a chair.
He had got up and dressed before she had woken, though, determined not to allow her to suspect how vulnerable he had become to her. He had even caught himself thinking that if things could be different, if they could somehow find a way…To what? he had challenged himself. To forget what she was and what she did? Impossible! Furiously angry with himself, he wished he had never set eyes on her.
She was with the Verey children now, sunbathing beside the pool. The swimsuit she had been wearing when he had walked past earlier had made him remember what it had felt like to hold her naked body.
Hell, but he would be glad when all this was over.
‘Yes, Phillips, what is it?’ he asked his operative.
‘The guards have reported that a chap’s been hanging around the gates, asking questions about Ms Roberts.’
Luke’s eyes narrowed. ‘What chap?’ he demanded grimly.
Hugh Phillips was young and keen, and quickly told Luke what he knew.
‘He said he was just a friend, and refused to give any name, but according to the guards he was asking rather too many questions—and not just about Ms Roberts.’
Luke felt his stomach churn with anger—and something else! What the hell was he feeling like that for? He ought to be feeling vindicated, because he had been right to suspect Suzy, instead of savagely angry.
‘Well, if he’s so keen to see Ms Roberts, then perhaps he should be allowed to do so, Hugh. Tell the guards to allow him to persuade them to let him in. Don’t make it too easy for him, though. I don’t want him getting suspicious. We need to know who he is and what
he’s up to. Keep him away from the house. You can let Ms Roberts meet him in the surrounds.’
Luke could see that Hugh Phillips was battling not to show any reaction to the mention of Suzy’s name. Like everyone else, Hugh believed that Suzy was Luke’s own partner.
‘Have you got all that?’ he checked coolly.
‘Yes,’ Hugh answered woodenly.
‘Good—and remember, the minute he comes back I want to know!’
Once Hugh had gone Luke went to stand in front of the window of the small room he used as his office.
He had received unofficial confirmation this morning that the African President was finally satisfied with the security arrangements and was prepared to set a firm date for the meeting.
With that in view, and his suspicions regarding Suzy confirmed, he should be feeling pleased. Instead of which he felt strangely disappointed. Suzy must somehow have made contact with her ‘friend’ when he had had to take Charlie to the lavatory, and that was surely a predictable move on her part, so why was he feeling as though what she had done was some kind of personal betrayal? What the hell was happening to him? He was thinking—feeling—more like a betrayed lover than a man with no emotional involvement with her.
And as for the man who had come asking for her! Her ‘friend’…Luke’s muscles clenched against the pain of the surge of jealousy and male anger that pounded through him. He had to be someone from the magazine—not Roy Jarvis, of course. Another reporter, perhaps.
They would soon know, Luke promised himself, and when Suzy did meet up with him he would need to know what was being said.
He unlocked one of the drawers in his desk and searched through until he had found what he wanted. The minute recording device lying on the palm of his hand was so sophisticated that it was almost impossible to believe that so much technology could be packed into such a small thing. Designed to be slipped underneath a watch, it could record and transmit conversations with remarkable clarity. It could also reveal the location of the wearer to within a metre.