At His Convenience Bundle (9 page)

‘I'
M BORED
!'

Charlie's petulant comment was a welcome interruption to Suzy's agonised inner examination of what had happened with Luke last night.

She and the children had breakfasted alone, Lucy informing her with a world-weary sigh that, ‘Daddy and Luke are talking business and we aren't allowed to interrupt them.'

Was it business that had been responsible for Luke's absence from both the bed they had shared last night and the suite when she had woken up this morning? Suzy didn't really care! She was glad he seemed to have forgotten his threat to stay with her day and night, and was just relieved that she hadn't had to go through the embarrassment and humiliation of seeing him.

In fact she wished passionately that she might never have to see him again! How could he have used her so cold-bloodedly—and more importantly, how could she have let him?

‘It's a beautiful day,' she responded to Charlie's statement of his boredom. ‘Why don't you go for a swim?'

She had seen the swimming pool from her vantage point on the hillside above the villa, and had admired the elegance of its tranquil setting.

‘We can't go swimming,' Charlie told her crossly.

Suzy frowned, wondering if perhaps their father had put a ban on them swimming without adult supervision. But before she could say anything Lucy told her unhappily, ‘We can't swim because Mummy sent us with the wrong clothes. She forgot about packing our swimming things.'

Forgot? Suzy felt a sharp stab of anger against the children's mother as she looked at Lucy's downbent head, and wondered cynically if it
was
just that the children's swimming things had been forgotten or if she had deliberately sent them away with the wrong clothes in order to make life difficult for their father.

‘Well, perhaps you could ask Daddy to buy some new things for you?' she suggested practically. The resort had any number of shops selling clothes and, whilst they might be expensive, Sir Peter Verey did not strike her as a man who had to watch his budget!

A maid came in to clear away the breakfast things, and through the open door Suzy could see a powerfully built man standing in the hallway.

One of Luke's men? Although there was no obvious evidence of the villa being heavily guarded, Suzy suspected that if she tried to make any attempt to leave she would find that she wasn't allowed to get very far.

Idly she wondered just what it was that demanded Luke's presence here. Certainly the soldiers she had seen departing must have something to do with it. It must be politically delicate rather than dangerous, she suspected, otherwise the children wouldn't be here. Sir Peter might not be a particularly hands-on father, but surely he wouldn't risk exposing his children to danger?

‘It's no use us asking Daddy to take us shopping. He'll just say that he's too busy.' Lucy informed Suzy, her words breaking into her thoughts.

The weary resignation in her voice made Suzy's heart ache for her. It told of a small lifetime of being told that her parents were ‘too busy'.

‘But Suzy could take us! Lucy, let's go and ask Daddy if she can!' Charlie suggested excitedly, getting off his chair.

‘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 her 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.