A Woman to Remember

by Miranda Lee

  It would explain how she had acted at the exhibition that night. Luke began to see her love life as a series of one-night stands with men who meant nothing to her but a means to an end.

  ‘Care to explain that remark?’ he said tautly.

  ‘Does it require an explanation? Do you really care? Good God, you’re going to get what you want, so why make a fuss? Look, I told you this morning that I needed you. You knew what I meant then, just as you know now. But if you insist on my spelling it out then I will.

  ‘You’re an extremely handsome, very sexy man, Luke, and I’m madly attracted to you. I haven’t been with a man for quite some time, and I find myself wanting to make love to you so badly that to sit here and act normally is almost impossible.’

  Luke blinked his shock at her, for her words did not match her manner, which remained so cool and controlled that he wondered if she was joking.

  How long was ‘quite some time’? he wondered dazedly. A fortnight? A month? Not eighteen months, that was for sure!

  He felt his blood beginning to boil, and his temper along with it. ‘Then why not just do it?’ he snapped. ‘Get up, take my hand and take me back to your room right now. Why torture yourself any longer? Don’t be a coward, Rachel. Do it!’

  She threw him a look which riveted him to his chair, stunning him with its fury and its passion. And then she laughed again—a mad, demonic chuckle which chilled his soul.

  ‘You really know how to get under a woman’s skin, don’t you, Luke?’ she muttered, draining the rest of her wine with one swallow. ‘I’ll bet you’ve had plenty of practice. But you’re quite right,’ she added, astonishing him by actually standing up and picking up her purse. ‘This is all such hypocrisy. Let’s go,’ she said, and began to move off, her long legs carrying her quickly from the restaurant.

  Luke caught up with her at the lifts, his face flaming from having to endure the embarrassment of inventing an excuse to the startled waiter, not to mention the many curious eyes which had stared at him as he’d raced after her.

  ‘It’s just as well no one knows me around here,’ he flung at her.

  ‘Or me,’ she retorted, her cheeks pinkening as well. ‘You think I’d be doing this if anyone around here knew me?’

  ‘Frankly, I don’t know what to think,’ he bit out truthfully.

  ‘Then don’t,’ she snapped. ‘Just do what you usually do. Take what’s on offer, and don’t ask any questions.’

  He glared at her through narrowed eyes, fearing at that moment what he might do to her. Maybe she saw the troubled turbulence in his gaze, or maybe she had a sudden crisis of conscience. All he knew was that her face unexpectedly began to crumple, her hands flying up to try to hide her distress.

  ‘Oh, God,’ she cried. ‘God...’

  There were no actual tears, just a moaning sound which tore into Luke’s guts. Her shoulders began to shake while she struggled for control. Unable to help himself, he gathered her into a comforting embrace, holding her tight against him as they waited for a lift.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she choked out between shudders. ‘So sorry...’

  ‘Hush,’ he soothed. ‘Hush.’

  ‘S-sorry,’ she repeated raggedly.

  ‘Me too,’ he rasped, moved beyond words as she continued to tremble violently against him.

  The lift doors opened and it was blessedly empty. Luke bundled her in, one arm staying wrapped around her while he punched the floor number.

  ‘Here, give me this,’ he said, removing the purse which was clenched defensively between them and was digging into Luke’s ribs. He tucked it under his left arm then reached up to stroke her head, smoothing down the glossy blonde hair and pressing her face against his chest. She turned her head with a shuddering sigh to lay her cheek against him, the trusting gesture sending a sweet, curling sensation all through him.

  Her rag-doll limpness evoked the same possessive protectiveness and tenderness in him which he’d felt for her during their first encounter. Where before it had thrown him, Luke now accepted it as perfectly reasonable. How else was he supposed to feel about the woman he loved?

  He almost laughed at his own stupidity in having denied it for so long, at having listened to his own desperate reasonings.

  You don’t know anything about her, he’d tried telling himself many times over. You only spent one short evening with her. Love at first sight is just so much romantic rubbish. She’s a slut, a whore, a... a...rotten damned adulteress! You can’t possibly be in love with her!

  But he was.

  It wasn’t logical, or reasonable, or even sensible. Clearly, she was one highly mixed-up woman. But, despite all that, he still loved her.

  ‘Rachel,’ he whispered, wanting to hear her name on his lips.

  She lifted her strained face and he bent to press light lips on her forehead, then on her nose, followed by each cheek, and ending up at her softly parted lips. Her sharply sucked-in breath told him all he needed to know at that moment.

  He kissed her, and it was exactly as he remembered. The sensuality of her mouth. The little sounds she made deep in her throat. The total surrendering of her body to his. She was clinging to him when the lift doors opened, and it took a moment for either of them to realise that there were people waiting to get in.

  Luke summoned up a suave smile from somewhere, and swept a limp Rachel past the staring couple. She’d managed to find her feet a little better by the time they made it to her room, but remained shaken and silent while he opened the door with the key in her purse and ushered her inside. She stared at him while he tossed the key and the purse onto the bedside table then began taking off his jacket.

  He smiled reassuringly at her, rather liking her silence and her hesitation. He draped his jacket over a nearby chair and began to attack his shirt.

  ‘Luke,’ she suddenly burst out.

  His hand froze on the second button of his shirt, instinct warning him that he was not going to like what she was about to say.

  ‘What?’ came his curt query.

  ‘I...I...I hope you’ve got some protection with you...’

  His relief was mixed with some irony. So she wanted him to use something tonight, did she? No more mad risks? No more being totally carried away?

  ‘That goes without saying,’ he said brusquely. ‘I’m not in the habit of taking insane chances.’

  She blushed fiercely, her eyes unhappy as they dropped to the floor. Luke could see that things were in danger of deteriorating, so he did what any sensible desire-ravaged man would have done. He stopped undressing and stalked over to drag her into his arms again, his mouth descending with a hunger and force which brooked no more nonsense or delay.

  It came as little surprise that she seemed to relish his mad display of passion, moaning beneath the savage sweeps of his tongue then actually matching his passion by wrapping her arms tightly around his waist.

  He responded by sliding his own hands down over her buttocks and pulling her hard against him, all his stomach muscles contracting at the feel of his erection pressed into the mound above her sex. He only just managed to keep a lid on his wildly flaring arousal.

  Till she made a rotating movement with her hips.

  ‘God, Rachel,’ he gasped as he burst away from her, raking both his hands through his hair while he battled to control his throbbing flesh. ‘You shouldn’t do things like that. Not at this point.’

  ‘I suppose not,’ she agreed huskily. ‘But you do have an unfortunate effect on me.’

  ‘Unfortunate?’ he repeated, his nostrils flaring when her hands lifted to the top button of her jacket. ‘How do you mean...unfortunate?’

  A strange smile played on her lips while her hands moved tantalisingly down her front, undoing each button as she went. ‘You make me do things I know I shouldn’t. You make me... weak... and wicked,’ she added, parting her jacket and pushing it back off her shoulders.

  Luke’s breath caught in his throat. For she was naked underneath, had been
all along.

  The silky top slid down her arms and fluttered away onto the carpet. Luke sucked in another sharp breath when her hands went to her waist and she began to slip the silk trousers down over her hips, taking her underwear with her.

  She had to bend over to complete the action, and those glorious hard-tipped breasts swung away from her body, twin orbs of lush perfection. Various erotic tableaux teased his brain, sending torturous messages from his brain to his body. His loins filled with a dull, heavy ache the like of which he’d never known before.

  He had to have her, and he had to have her quickly.

  ‘For pity’s sake, Rachel,’ he practically implored when she straightened, even the simple action of her tossing her hair back from her shoulders bringing a flash of unbearable discomfort.

  There was no pity for him, however, in her glazed green eyes. ‘Now you,’ she ordered huskily.

  ‘Me?’

  ‘Yes. I want to undress you.’

  His groan finally communicated his hell to her.

  But, if her smile was anything to go by, the knowledge evoked a perverse pleasure in her, not pity. ‘Poor Luke,’ she murmured, stepping forward to reach up on tiptoe and kiss him lightly on the lips, her naked nipples brushing his chest. ‘I won’t take too long,’ she said huskily, busy fingers nimbly flicking open the remaining buttons on his shirt.

  But then she slowed, taking her time in peeling the shirt back from his tensely squared shoulders and feasting her eyes over his bared chest.

  ‘God, but you’re beautiful,’ she said thickly, and spread both her hands over the curls in the centre of his chest. ‘Beautiful,’ she repeated, and began rubbing her satin-soft palms out over the broad flat muscles which housed his male nipples, trailing repeatedly over them till they tightened into round hard pebbles of heightened sensitivity.

  ‘Don’t blame me if this doesn’t work out as well as you hope,’ he warned darkly, struggling desperately for control as she went about her ruthless journey of discovery.

  She didn’t answer. She merely smiled and bent to lick where her fingers had been.

  Luke bit his bottom lip and let her do it for a while, loving yet hating the way his stomach somersaulted at every sweep of her tongue. But when she actually took one of the taut nubs between her teeth, and tugged it none too gently, he grabbed her shoulders and wrenched her head away.

  ‘That’s enough of that,’ he growled, putting her from him quite firmly then stripping off the rest of his clothes himself. While he was at it he rummaged through his pockets to find his wallet, extracting some protection before he was beyond caring.

  He could not believe it when she took the condom from his wildly unsteady hands, knelt down and did the job for him. Her expertise shattered any secret hope he might have harboured about how often she’d done this type of thing. Hell, her idea of not having had a man for a long time was probably three whole days!

  God, if only she’d take her hands off him. If only she’d stop caressing him. He couldn’t take much more of such intimate foreplay. Not this first time.

  No, don’t do that, for pity’s sake, he screamed silently, even as he let her. Oh, sweet Jesus...

  ‘Rachel,’ he choked out at last. ‘You simply must stop.’

  She ignored him.

  ‘Didn’t you hear what I said?’ he groaned, dragging her upright and shaking her.

  Her bewildered blinking told him how far she’d retreated from reality. She was breathing heavily, but then so was he. Luke stared at her mouth, that pouting, panting mouth, which only moments before had brought him right to the edge.

  He was still on the edge, damn it.

  ‘Make love to me, Luke,’ she had the hide to say at that point, and she sidled against him once more.

  Luke’s blood pressure reached new heights, as did his frustration. ‘You haven’t given me much of a chance.’

  ‘I know,’ she rasped, lifting her right leg and sliding her thigh provocatively up and down the outside of his. ‘I wanted to be ready for you. I’m ready now, Luke. Do it to me now.’

  He needed little encouragement, and surged inside her, groaning with pleasure and dismay when he felt himself begin to come almost immediately. Hell, he knew he wasn’t going to be able to hang on. She was so hot and wet and wild, writhing and rotating on him till nothing was going to stop his desire exploding. He gritted his teeth and tried to will it away, but nothing could stop him. Nothing.

  He cried out his agony and ecstasy, holding her tightly as he shuddered violently into her. Just as his male ego began to tip him into despair she did the most incredible thing. She came too, her flesh answering his in the most intensely mutual release he had ever experienced. Their bodies throbbed as one, pulsing deep within each other, bringing a physical and emotional satisfaction to Luke which quite blew him away.

  They fell onto the bed together, their bodies still fused, both still climaxing uncontrollably. Luke rolled her on top of him, where he grasped her buttocks and kept rocking her against him, seeking to prolong the sensations, not wanting them ever to end. Finally they both became still, with Rachel collapsed across him. She moaned one last moan against his chest, her arms flopping wide on the bed in an attitude of total exhaustion and satiation.

  Luke felt as if he’d just run a marathon, his heart still pounding. All that could be heard in the room was his ragged breathing. But gradually his blood calmed down, and the room became very quiet. He was beginning to think he just might live to make love again in the near future when a jarring sound broke the silence.

  Wide green eyes jolted immediately open, to stare at the telephone by the bed. Luke scowled his impatience at the interruption, then frowned at Rachel’s obvious alarm.

  Who on earth, he wondered, was ringing her room at this hour? And why did she look so damned worried all of a sudden?

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ‘AREN’T you going to answer it?’ Luke said after a few more rings. ‘This is your room, after all.’

  ‘Well...er...um...’ She glanced down at where their bodies were still intimately joined.

  Luke came pretty close to blushing. ‘Right,’ he muttered, easing away from her and swinging his legs over the side of the bed, thankfully on the opposite side of the bed to the telephone. ‘You can answer it now,’ he added as he stood up and stalked off towards the bathroom.

  He shouldn’t have done it, he supposed. Hurried to do what he had to do, then sneakily opened the bathroom door just far enough so that he could listen to what she was saying.

  But he had, telling himself that he simply had to find out all he could about the woman he loved—especially since she wasn’t about to offer any information. He needed knowledge if he was to get past this hard protective shell she’d built around herself.

  ‘So what did the doctor think?’ she was saying, when he first tuned in to her side of the conversation. ‘Are you sure, Sarah? I could quite easily come home for tonight and drive back in the morning. I’m sure I can talk the photographer into letting me start a bit later or delaying the shoot another day. If not, he’ll just have to find himself another model. The money’s not that important, compared to my son’s health.’

  Luke gripped the doorknob. A son? She already had a son!

  Black jealousy speared through him, mixed with torment over her dismissive attitude towards him. And there he’d been thinking he must mean something special to her for her body to respond to him so swiftly and totally.

  The realisation that he’d just been callously used once again filled him with dismay and disgust. It added to her guilt, somehow, that she’d only cheated on her husband eighteen months before, but had done so after having had his baby. God, but she was despicable!

  ‘No, Sarah, I’ve made up my mind,’ she swept on firmly. ‘I’m coming home right away. I know there’s nothing much I can do but sit with him, but I won’t be able to sleep tonight anyway for worrying. If I leave straight away I should be there in well under two hours. The tr
affic will be light at this hour. See you then, Sarah... Yes, I will... Bye.’

  She hung up and turned, still nude, to find him standing at the foot of the bed, equally buck naked, glaring his frustration at her. ‘Yes, I will, what?’ he demanded sharply.

  ‘Yes, I... I will drive carefully,’ she returned, her momentary stammer the only evidence that the situation was in any way rattling her. ‘That was my mother-in-law,’ she explained hurriedly. ‘I told you she’d been sick. Well, she’s taken a turn for the worse. I have to go home. I can drive back up here tomorrow, if you insist.’

  ‘Don’t bother lying to me, Rachel,’ he snapped. ‘I heard everything.’

  He rather enjoyed seeing her go pale. He would enjoy seeing the bitch go a damned sight paler before he let her go this time.

  ‘You never mentioned that you had a child,’ he added coldly.

  Now heat raced back into her pale cheeks. ‘You were listening!’ she accused him, and he almost laughed at her indignation. The pot was calling the kettle black!

  ‘It seemed the only way to find out anything about you,’ he said testily. ‘You do have this passion for secrecy. And secrets. So, I ask you again, why didn’t you tell me you had a son?’ Even as he said the words, the most ghastly suspicion began to form in the back of his mind.

  ‘Why should I?’ she tossed back, momentarily throwing him with her offhand manner. ‘My son is none of your business. If you must know, having a baby is not always good for business. Now, if you’ll excuse me,’ she said, scooping up her scattered clothes from the floor, ‘I have to get dressed and get going.’

  ‘And you have to come back tomorrow and finish this job,’ he demanded, all the while desperately trying to push that irrational suspicion to the back of his mind. For it just couldn’t be true. It was too fanciful for words. Even she wouldn’t be that wicked.