Mistress of Convenience. PENNY JORDAN
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her. ‘What are you doing?’ she demanded, the sound of her voice raw and frantic in her ears as she recognised her fear and the reason for it.
What was it about this man that made her feel like this?
Luke studied her silently, assessing her behaviour and her reactions. She looked convincingly both distraught and distressed, and he mentally applauded her acting talent whilst cynically wondering how many victims she had honed it on.
Ignoring her anxious question, he asked one of his own. ‘Why were you photographing the villa?’
His response caught Suzy off guard.
There was something about the coldly intense way he was watching her that unnerved her, and Suzy felt a shudder of apprehension run through her body. Stubbornly she fought against giving in to it—and to him!
‘Why shouldn’t I?’ she shot back. Antagonism towards him was a far safer emotion than that dangerous and overwhelming surge of longing she had experienced the last time she had seen him. Don’t think about it, she warned herself frantically. Don’t remember. Don’t feel…
Seeing him then had been like having the clouds part to reveal a miraculous space of blue sky and a dizzying vision of heaven. But things were different now, she reassured herself fiercely. She was different now!
Taking a deep breath, Suzy gave a deliberately nonchalant shrug before saying, ‘That’s what people on holiday do—take photographs.’
Her body language was flawless, Luke acknowledged grudgingly. Not by so much as the flicker of one of those ridiculously long eyelashes of hers was she revealing the fact that she was lying. He could feel his temper starting to rise. Immediately he checked it, alarmed that somehow she had managed to pierce the shield of his professionalism.
‘On holiday?’ He gave Suzy a comprehensive and cynical look. ‘Oh, come on—you can come up with something better than that, surely?’
Just looking at her now—anger sparking her eyes to brilliant gold, flushing her cheeks with heat—anyone other than him would have believed immediately that she was a woman righteously defending herself from an unwarranted attack. But he knew she had to be lying, given who she was, and sure enough, as he continued to watch her, she was unable to continue to return his gaze.
What was Lucas Soames trying to say? Suzy wondered frantically. Had he guessed how he had affected her? Did he think she was nursing some kind of desire for him and that she had followed him here?
Her face began to burn again. If he did then she was going to make sure…
‘Nice camera.’ Luke interrupted her thoughts, adding assessingly, ‘Expensive too.’ Still nervously on edge, Suzy told him stiffly, ‘It isn’t mine…it belongs to a friend.’
Luke could see the discomfort and the guilt in her eyes—but, to his own irritated disbelief, the knowledge that he was right to be suspicious of her made him feel more angry than satisfied. Determined to stamp on such feelings and destroy them, he responded coldly, ‘A friend? So, Roy Jarvis is a friend now, is he, as well as your employer?’
Her employer!
Suzy shook her head.
‘I don’t work for the magazine any more,’ she told him quickly. ‘I…I left.’ Even saying the words was enough to bring back the unpleasant memories, and she had to swallow against the bile of her distress.
‘Oh, come on. You don’t really expect me to fall for that, do you?’ Luke demanded unpleasantly.
‘It’s true,’ Suzy insisted fiercely. ‘I no longer work for the magazine. You can check if you don’t believe me!’
Her eyes were more green than gold now, Luke recognised. Reflecting her passionate nature? He frowned, irritated with himself for allowing his attention to be distracted from the professional to the personal.
‘Oh, I have no doubt that officially you might have left, but it isn’t unheard of for your boss, your friend, to use underhand methods to get what he wants. He has sent you here to work undercover—which is, as we both know, why you are up here photographing the villa and spying!’
Now cynicism had joined the cold disdain icing his voice, and Suzy decided that she had had enough. Not allowing him to finish, she interrupted him hotly.
‘That’s ridiculous! Why on earth would he send me to do that? It’s the resort that is full of the glitterati, not this villa, and as for my agreeing to spy on anyone—I have my own moral code!’ She gave him a bitingly scornful look, but her glare might have been directed at an invisible shield for all the effect it had on its intended victim.
‘Very affecting.’ Luke stopped her. ‘But you are wasting your breath and my time with this unconvincing show of innocence. I know exactly what you are, remember? I’ve witnessed your professional reporting methods—and your moral code—at first hand,’ he reminded her grimly.
A telltale crimson tide of guilt and misery flooded Suzy’s face. Illogically she felt not just humiliated by his words but emotionally hurt as well.
How could he say something like that to her? Hadn’t he been able to tell that she had kissed him because of her own overwhelming need to do so and not for any other reason?
Unable to stop herself, Suzy discovered that she was reliving the feelings she had had then. Anguish filled her. Did he really think she was the kind of woman who would do such a thing for any other reason than because she simply had not been able to stop herself?
The very thought of what he had implied disgusted and nauseated her, and she burst out defensively, ‘That wasn’t—I didn’t—I did it because—’
Abruptly Luke stopped her again. ‘You did it because you thought it would be an excellent way of providing a firescreen for your companion—yes, I know that!’ he told her grimly. ‘Unfortunately for you it wasn’t very effective.’ He paused, and then added curtly, ‘And neither was the kiss!’
What the hell was he thinking of? Luke asked himself savagely as his comment fell into the silence between them and he was forced to remember the kiss they had shared. A woman as experienced as this one must have felt his body’s arousal, and gloated over his response to her. Any minute now she would be reminding him of it and challenging him to deny it. And there was no way Luke wanted to be dragged into that dangerous and unreliable ground.
Yes, he had responded to her. He could not deny that! Yes, he had for a split second in time experienced the most extraordinary physical longing for her, and the most extraordinary emotions. But that had been a momentary weakness, quickly controlled, and of no lasting or real importance whatsoever!
‘What did Jarvis tell you to do—apart from take photographs?’ he demanded sharply, steering his questions back in the right direction.
Still grappling with her own feelings, Suzy told him angrily, ‘He didn’t tell me to do anything!’
Her anger must somehow have heightened her senses, she decided, because suddenly she was aware of the musky male scent of Lucas Soames’s body. She could see the sunlight glinting on the fine dark hair of his muscular forearms. Her heart somersaulted and then attempted a cartwheel, crashing into her chest wall as it did so. She willed herself to drag her gaze away from his body, but somehow it was impossible to do so. The white tee shirt he was wearing, although not tight-fitting, still revealed an impressive breadth of shoulder and chest. Something dangerous was happening to her, and she seemed powerless to stop it.
Suzy began to panic.
The back of her head was burning from the heat of the sun. It was making her feel slightly sick and dizzy—or was it the intensity of the navy blue gaze, the shock of her own emotions that was responsible for her malaise?
She couldn’t give in to such feelings, Suzy warned herself frantically. She must not give in to them! She must think of something else! She must get away from here—get away from here and from Lucas Soames, and the sooner the better. If she