Passionate Retribution

The cool, sophisticated image didn't go with adolescent blushes. 'We can't stay in bed all day,' she muttered, sheltering behind her lowered eyelashes.

'Why not?'

She shot him a startled glance. 'People don't.' The blue eyes looked as guileless as a summer sky, and she felt deeply uneasy. 'I only asked the time,' she grumbled, plucking at the sheet. 'A perfectly normal enquiry. Why you have to dissect every syllable I utter is beyond me.'

Luke rolled over on to his back, but his eyes remained on her face. 'Natural perversity?'

'You have your share of that.'

'I take it we are to avoid any reference to last night.'

The guilelessness was replaced by a certain hard implacability.

'My hand is feeling fine, thank you.'

Luke whistled silently through his teeth. 'Emily…' There was a warning in his voice.

'I didn't want to make too much of an isolated incident,' she said cautiously.

'One-night stands being a common occurrence for you, I take it,' he said in the tone of someone with a deep, if academic interest.

'I wouldn't say that.' Idiot, she told herself miserably; he did notice!

'I've never actually slept with a virgin before, but I can still recognise the fact.' He rolled over, one arm thrown over her supine body, the other framing her face, his fingers pushed into the tumbled mass of her hair on the pillow.

Was she supposed to apologise? she wondered, feeling her stomach muscles tighten with the misery of rejection. 'Sorry I didn't match up to your standards,' she said from between clenched teeth. How dared he be angry? Hadn't she given him a gift? While it wasn't one he required, he didn't have to be so brutal about the fact.

'Do you misinterpret everything I say deliberately, or is it a genetic flaw?' he exploded with exasperation. 'You are twenty, you were engaged, for God's sake; I assumed you—'

'Were reasonably competent,' she interrupted bitterly.

Luke swore. 'I could have hurt you.' An expression she thought might have been regret flitted across his face as his quiet statement stilled her. 'There could have been better introductions, less savage, more controlled.'

She blinked, totally confused. 'The experience hasn't scarred me emotionally or physically,' she said gruffly, 'so you must have done something right.'

He looked at her, a glimmer of humour sliding into his eyes. 'How kind of you to say so.'

'I don't think—' she began as he threw one leg over her own, effectively pinning her beneath him. The texture of his hair-roughened skin was abrasive against her softer flesh, and the satisfactory, if elusive male scent of him made the words which were meant to bring distance atrophy in her throat.

'A man has to be flattered to be the first, to sample the sweetness a woman can offer; but why did you wait? Why me, Emmy?' His voice deep and sensual, like the curve of his mouth as he brushed her lips softly.

She'd been waiting for Luke even if she hadn't known it; some destiny had been pushing her in this unlikely direction. A contemplative smile played across her lips as her eyes flickered down the strong column of his throat to the deep muscles of his shoulders, and lower, over the lean, spare, elegant lines of him.

What am I doing? A deep spasm of fear and horror tensed each languor-filled muscle in her body. She was acting as if what she felt was a reciprocal thing, not a secret to be jealously guarded. She could be bemused by a few soft, suggestive words and a kiss, she realised in disgust, knowing how close she'd been to acting like a total fool.

'I admit to a certain curiosity,' she said, her voice cool, her lashes strategically lowered over her eyes— eyes filled with pain. 'I can't say I ever took a vow of celibacy deliberately; circumstances just conspired to make it that way. Gavin respected my wishes not to anticipate the marriage vows, though I now see there was a certain degree of hypocrisy involved in that assurance,' she added drily, not actually feeling touched by her ex-fianc6's infidelity any longer. 'I decided my inexperience would be an obstacle rather than an attribute if I ever intended to have another relationship. And having seen your rather hysterical reaction

I'd say I was correct.' She gave a small laugh, her throat dry. 'To be honest, this has been the ideal opportunity. I mean, it's not as if there can be any misunderstandings between us—we don't have to pretend for convention's sake that something deep and meaningful happened beyond the obvious.' She subsided, breathless, awaiting his response.

'I don't recall you being so pragmatic and cool last night,' he hit back. One supple motion brought her on to her side until they lay thigh to thigh, breast to breast. His face was filled with a black fury which she attributed miserably to wounded ego. She'd only said it before he had a chance to, hadn't she? Or was that what he didn't like?

'That, Luke, was then. Same place, different time.' she responded coolly. 'I'd be grateful if you'd let me go; I want a bath.' He was stroking her flank with long, sweeping movements and it was hard to sound unaffected when her insides were dissolving into a golden mist of desire.