Unexpected Places (11 page)

Luke laughed, relaxing. Changpu had lost this time. Placing his treasure in the safe, he slammed the door. ‘Go and make our dinner, baby, while I take the boat downstream. Make it substantial, okay? We’ve had a big day, and we have a big night in front of us.’ He raised his eyebrows suggestively, letting her know he hadn’t forgotten their bargain.

She rolled her eyes.

He waited till she got to the doorway. ‘Moonbeam…’

She turned, and he grinned at the fire spitting out of her eyes.

‘Bring me a beer before you start.’

She flounced off, her blonde ponytail swinging.

About an hour later, Luke drained the last of his second beer. And chuckled as he remembered Ariana’s display of deafness when, after she’d crossly shoved the first bottle into his hand, he’d told her to bring him another in half an hour.

Maybe he was being too hard on her. No harm in playing nice. She’d been great today. Fun. Brave. Hell, there wasn’t a woman he’d ever known who would crawl through those dark, dank tunnels without a word of complaint. In fact, she seemed to have enjoyed the danger.

He let his mind wander back over their day together. To their funny boxing match. To her bravery when faced with that giant locust. To her sweet body as he’d followed it uphill. To her pretty, smiling green eyes. He stiffened.

To her plotting, lying green eyes. Cold, harsh reality flooded over him in a welcome rush.

Idiot.
Ariana was a beautiful, brazen thief.

As he left the bridge, he glanced out at the river. The setting sun had changed its colour from muddy brown to pink and red and glittering blue. Very romantic. Did she deserve romance? Luke snorted. No. She’d brought all this down on top of herself, with the added crime of burning the shit out of his dick.

Tonight, little Ariana, tonight is the night when you are finally going to pay.

* * *

They lounged against the comfortable plush leather seats on the back deck. At the start of the meal, the atmosphere had been constrained, with Ariana quiet, and him still playing bastard. But her first course and the wine had mellowed them both. She’d made a spicy doughnut from deep-fried lentils. Delicious.

He sipped the crisp riesling. What had Changpu told the girls he employed? ‘What do you know about the emeralds, Ariana? Did Changpu tell you anything of their history?’

She shook her head. Her long hair, freed from its ponytail, swished around her lovely face in a blonde cloud. She wore that same wary expression she wore every time that bastard’s name came up.

‘Are you interested?’ he asked softly.

She nodded, smiling. ‘Yes, I’ve been wondering for ages. How the heck did they get themselves hidden in that cave?’

He laughed. ‘They’ve had a chequered history. They were mined and cut in India in the fourteenth century, and made a brief appearance in the King of Persia’s crown, till they were stolen back to India and set into a statue of a Hindu goddess, till it in turn was stolen by no-one knows who.’

Ariana leaned forward. ‘What was the statue of the goddess made out of?’

‘Gold,’ he replied, smiling, enjoying Ariana’s interest.

‘Then wasn’t the statue even more valuable than the emeralds?’

He shook his head. ‘Not emeralds this big, this green, this perfectly matched.’

‘What happened to the statue?’

Luke sat silently for a moment, weighing her words. She’d said Changpu kept her in ignorance of what his other employees were doing. Maybe she was telling the truth. ‘The statue had been lying, hidden, in a small temple outside Bangalore, eyes intact till, I think, there was some kind of war, and the Hindu monks believed it might get stolen again.’

‘Is that when they separated the statue from its eyes?’

‘Probably,’ Luke answered. He’d tried a few times to interest girls back home in the history that he found so fascinating, but their curiosity had always been tepid at best. Ah well, they moved in the same business circles he did, after all.

He glanced up at Ariana. Her eyes were sparkling as she leaned toward him. He smiled. ‘Anyway, someone, probably one of the monks, relocated the statue and the map to an old, run-down temple in Singapore, and someone else hid the emeralds deep inside the mountain on Manitia Island.’

Silence fell. Finally she sighed. ‘You’re so lucky…’ She shook her head. ‘I’ll get the next course.’

It was delicious. Perfectly cooked steak, lightly fried herbed potatoes, and a crisp and complex Asian salad.

‘So, Ari, any chillies in here I should be worried about?’ he asked, suspiciously poking at the salad with his fork. ‘Not that I mind chillies, mind you, but if there are any, I want to supervise you washing your hands myself.’

She giggled. ‘Nope, none in the salad. But there were heaps in the doughnut.’

‘Ah. Well, we’ll have a bath later, and I’ll make sure your hands are chilli-free.’

At the mention of what lay ahead, their eyes met. She smiled, then quickly looked away. Even in the last of the light, he could see her cheeks darken.

The night was warm, the river had changed to swathes of blue and deep red, and the high cliffs on either side ensured their only view consisted of the colours of the water — and each other. The romance gods were out in force tonight.

While they ate, he gazed at her pretty face, so delicate and sweet. Her big eyes smiled up at him.

He gritted his teeth.
Idiot.

He poured two glasses of the red he’d opened, to go with the steak. A deep, red shiraz. ‘Ariana,’ he said harshly, ‘I don’t want you getting the wrong idea of what’s going on with us. This may be one of the most romantic places on earth —’

As if to endorse his words, the shining rounded backs of four river dolphins rose and fell on their journey downstream. Their stubby, silver bodies appeared to be red, as the sun’s dying rays caught their movement. Ariana gasped, her eyes shining.

Hooking his finger into the neckline of her T-shirt, he pulled her back to face him. ‘You won’t get the emeralds, sweetheart, or even the tiniest little share, so don’t bother trying. What we have is pretty basic.’ He smiled as he anticipated the night to come. He had every intention of making it as good for Ariana as he could. But he couldn’t resist teasing her a little.

‘I won’t even go into the whole chilli episode. You drugged me and knocked me out in Sydney. You owe me, Moonbeam. You agreed to fuck me, remember?’ Ariana nodded. Luke forced himself to ignore that flash of wariness in her eyes. They’d widened and, if he didn’t know better, he’d have said it was with shock. Maiden aunt–type shock. God she was good at that. That whole sweet as an innocent little kitten act.

Laughing in genuine amusement at her persistence, he stood and let his gaze wander down her tiny, perfect body. Her T-shirt clung lovingly to her breasts. As his eyes paused in appreciation, her nipples shaped and hardened against the cloth.

‘Cold, Ariana?’ He smiled.

‘No,’ she snapped, pushing herself away from the table and standing up. Her eyes, full of condemnation, splintered over him. ‘I know we have an agreement, Mr Charming. I know I agreed to sleep with you. Thank you so much for how you phrased your seduction line. But I’d prefer you didn’t say f—’ She pressed her lips together.

Arching his eyebrows in encouragement, he grinned. ‘Say it, Moonbeam. Say the word “fuck”.’

She growled like an infuriated leopard cub, with something between a squeal and a hiss. ‘Stop swearing, and don’t call me Moonbeam!’ She folded her arms around her chest and her lovely breasts seemed to be offering themselves to him. She hastily dropped her arms.

Wrapping his hand around her wrist, he pulled her close to him and kissed her. ‘Moonbeam,’ he murmured, thoroughly enjoying the way Ariana was reacting to his teasing, ‘I’m not interested in doing too much sleeping with you.’ With his other hand, he reached toward those inviting breasts. As he stroked his thumb across her hard, pebbled nipple, Ariana again made the furious leopard-cub noise, but this time added something extra, which took him by surprise. She stamped down hard on his foot.

‘Shit, Ariana!’

As Luke bent to massage his instep, she twisted herself out of his grip. He let her go, and she disappeared in a flash of black, cute backside down the steps. Wryly regarding his foot, he picked up his wine glass and wandered over to the back deck railing. He stared out at the darkening water, frowning. Those big eyes had spat fire and a threat against his balls. That was fine. He deserved it, he ruefully acknowledged. But a second before she’d stomped on him, he’d seen it again. A quick flash of fear. And he didn’t like it. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her, right? Grimacing as he remembered some of his classier lines, he kicked the bottom rail with his bare foot, and swore.

* * *

Ariana sat in the huge spa bath as it filled. The bubbles rising up around her shoulders smelled of pine. Luke’s image swam before her. She checked the label of the bottle she’d snatched up from the shower recess, and sniffed. Of course. Luke’s shower gel.

Good grief, she couldn’t get away from him, even when he wasn’t here.

When she’d raced down the steps and past the galley, down toward the cabins, she hadn’t known where she was going. She’d had vague ideas of hiding somewhere. But she’d stopped outside Luke’s cabin, paused, and then walked in. Why? What was she doing, sitting naked in Luke’s decadent two-person tub, with its gold fittings and soft lighting?

Well, she said defensively to her pursed-lipped conscience, there wasn’t much point hiding, was there? It’s not as if the boat was so huge that he’d never find her. There was a limit to the number of hiding places on board.

But it was more that that, she acknowledged to her strict overseer and constant companion. Okay, Luke had frightened her with his horrible talk of revenge. She stared down at her toes, hidden beneath the bubbles.

But, despite all that revenge talk, you’re very interested in losing your virginity to him, aren’t you, Ariana?

Ariana slid beneath the bubbles and ignored that tough question, but a vision of Luke appeared, his dark cropped hair, his incredibly handsome face, his long, lean, hard body, and, more than anything, his teasing grin.

She loved the way he teased her. No-one had ever done that before. Everyone on the commune had been so earnest. When they weren’t spaced out. The girls at school were too polite to tease in the funny way Luke did. Even when he was saying something horrible about revenge.

She heard the bathroom door open as she emerged from beneath the bubbles to take a huge breath. She knew she sounded like a whale. And there was Luke, standing in front of her, with that teasing grin on his face, the one she’d been sighing over.

‘Very elegant, little Ariana.’ He removed his shorts and her eyes were instantly riveted to what was beneath — a penis that was lengthening and hardening as his keen gaze slid down her naked body. ‘Seal impressions go down well at parties, too, if you wanted to work on a side line.’

Luke stepped into her bath and lowered himself into the water, with his long legs draped around her hips. He grasped her by her shoulders and, with easy gentle strength, drew her hard up against him. His wiry chest hair tickled her breasts. She swallowed, flushing as she realised she’d somehow pressed up harder against him, to relieve her suddenly over-sensitised nipples.

He bent his head and she felt his soft kiss on the top of her head. ‘I’m sorry about what happened before, Ari,’ he murmured, moving down and nuzzling a sweet point below her ear. An electric jolt seemed to zap straight down to between her thighs. ‘I was rude. You cooked me a delicious meal, and all I could do was crap on about revenge.’

She tipped her head to one side and stared at him. ‘You mean this isn’t about revenge?’

He laughed. ‘Yes, it is, I’m afraid. Or at least payback. You and your employer have caused me a lot of pain lately, and I think I’m entitled to something pleasant in return.’ He ran his long, roughened fingers down the length of her body.

‘But,’ he hesitated, turning serious now. ‘I know I frighten you when I talk about revenge sex, and I don’t mean to. It’s supposed to be fun. The whole idea seems bloody sexy to me. But I’d never hurt you. And if you don’t want this, say so. I’d never force you. Okay?’

He pinned his blue eyes to hers and waited for her answer.

The easy out Luke was offering her lay alluringly in the air.
Say no, you’ve changed your mind
. For, with every soft caress, every kiss, this whole deal with Luke kept getting harder. She didn’t know if she had it in her to play the seductress and thief, a la James Bond’s female villains.

Then something deep inside her rebelled. Dam — darn it, she wanted this. She wanted sex. Wanted to find out what all the fuss was about. And she wanted sex with Luke. For, despite his anger with her and all his frightening strength, she knew she could trust him. He wouldn’t hurt her.

And yes, she
could
play the lady villain, because that’s exactly what Luke was expecting.

‘Okay,’ Ariana whispered. ‘But, remember I don’t know what I’m doing. This really is my first time.’

He smiled, and, grabbing her hands, squeezed soap onto them and proceeded to wash them thoroughly. ‘Okay, Moonbeam, if that’s how you want to play this…’

Luke loved the way she played games. He loved playing them too. Into his mind flashed her last little game of smashing him over the head with a bottle and stealing his map while he was unconscious. Well, okay, he didn’t love all her games. But this sexy little innocent virgin game. Now that one was fun.

So maybe those frightened looks and that vulnerable ‘don’t hurt me’ air about her that had been kicking at him and eating a big, guilty hole inside him were part of her game too. Suddenly he felt a lot better about what he had forced her into.

He glanced down. Ariana’s eyes were closed. Her pretty, pink lips were turned up in a sweet smile as she savoured his fingers’ journey down to her femininely rounded hips, then back past her trim little waist. As he let his fingertips graze the silky texture of her lush, full breasts, she took a swift intake of breath. He grinned. Ariana enjoyed this game every bit as much as he did. ‘Do you like that, Moonbeam?’