One Penny Surprise (Saved By Desire 1)

“Yes, but you didn’t. I don’t want you to do anything you are going to regret in the morning.” The words were difficult to say, but his conscience wouldn’t allow him to do anything else.

“I have done so little with my life but try to appease others; my father mostly and look where that has got me. I could be dead right now, and I haven’t experienced even half of what I want to do. One lesson that tonight has taught me is that life is precious, and it is only the foolish that waste a moment of it.” She leaned back to look at him. This time though, the fear and worry in her eyes had nothing to do with the attack. It had everything to do with the possibility that Luke might not want her in that way. “Of course, if you don’t -”

“Of course I do,” he growled as he tugged her closer. “How could I not? The attraction has been right here from the very first, you know that.” Thankfully, he watched her nod. “It is just that you have to consider the future. If we take matters any further you are committing your life to mine in a way that I won’t allow you to back out of. I won’t let you to go back to Cumbria, or start over anywhere else without me. I have to work with the Star Elite. It is what I do. I have been doing it for so long now that it is an intrinsic part of who I am. However, we don’t have to live in London if you really don’t like it here. The smog is terrible, and the streets can be busy and crowded. It must feel like a world away from Cumbria. But there is a lot of suburbs around here, little villages not too far away that can afford just as much country, and quietude, as Cumbria. We can both start over, and live wherever you want to live.”

“You make it sound so permanent,” she whispered.

“That’s because it is,” he cautioned. “I just want you to think about it right now, that’s all.”

Her disappointment was strong, but she nodded and backed away from him. In a way she felt terribly risqué for having offered herself to him so blatantly. He must think her a complete harlot. Deep inside though, she knew he was right. She was taking a step in her life that would change her, and her future, permanently. She had only just attained her freedom from a life of drudgery and boredom with Clarence. Did she really want to sacrifice it for a chance to be with Luke? After all, she really didn’t know him all that well. Although he was tall, extremely handsome, and incredibly protective, she knew very little about him – the man. She had no idea if they were compatible. All she did know was that she had never felt so safe, so loved, so content with the world and her place in it, as she did when she was in his arms. She had never felt this fierce flood of attraction that swept everything, including logic, aside whenever he touched her. There was no awkwardness or politeness; just an easy familiarity that had blossomed out of nowhere.

Was friendship enough? Would she regret not taking the chance to be with him if she turned it down and left him behind and went to Cumbria? Would she ever get this golden opportunity to sample what it really felt like to be loved and wanted for herself?

“Let me clean your cuts,” she whispered. She fetched the bowl of water and some strips of cloth while Luke took a seat at the table again. She tried to ignore the shaking of her hands while she dipped the strips but was excruciatingly aware that Luke watched her closely. When she tried to dab away at the blood on his face their eyes met and held. The atmosphere between them shifted and thickened. Everything within her tingled with molten awareness.

Luke placed his hands on her waist but didn’t know whether he should tug her toward him or hold her away. He could see nothing but calm acceptance in her eyes, and a slight tinge of disappointment that nearly unmanned him. He captured her hand when she tried to dab at the cuts on his face. They didn’t hurt. Her touch was tender; the most loving he had ever felt. He wanted more.

“Poppy,” he growled.

Poppy looked into his eyes. Her sigh shimmered over them. It felt as though some unseen hand, some guiding force, propelled her to make a decision right there and then. With more boldness than she really felt she decided to take her future into her own hands. In doing so she would be accepting her own fate, whatever that was. But she knew that if she was to hand over anything of herself to anyone it had to be Luke. She knew instinctively that he could be trusted. Before he could caution her again, she captured his face in her hands and slammed a kiss on his lips that stole his breath.

His ready response took any further decisions out of both of their hands, and left Poppy with little choice but to cling to his shoulders and return his kisses as he swept her high into his arms, and carried her up the stairs.

The following morning Poppy awoke encased in blissful warmth. She was tired, but also joyously alive. Her body hummed with the after effects of what she had shared with Luke last night, and she couldn’t be more pleased about it.

Luke

Just thinking of him brought a smile to her lips and a soft sigh that came straight from her heart. Her smile grew when his arm tightened around her waist and drew her tighter against him. The kiss he placed on her shoulder made her grin, and she looked a little sheepishly over her shoulder at him.

“Morning,” he murmured, tugging her around until she faced him.

“Morning,” she replied, unsure what the etiquette was for such an occasion.

Luke smiled back at her. He felt inordinately proud of the telltale blush that stained her cheeks, not least because he was the one responsible for it. Before she could find some excuse to get up, he captured her lips and rolled her over without giving her the chance to say anything else. For a long time the only sounds in the room were soft whispers and sighs.

An hour later, she lay curled against him once more, a little stunned that after everything they had shared last night her body could still respond in such a way.

“What happens now?” she whispered after several moments of comfortable silence.

“Well, you are not going back to Cumbria,” he replied firmly.

“I didn’t mean that,” she replied, blushing profusely. “I meant about what happened last night. He is still out there somewhere.” She glanced out of the window over the broad expanse of Luke’s chest. The sun was shining now and had obliterated all trace of the smog that had hung over London most of the night. Outside the window the green leaves of the tree danced gaily against the glass, teased by a gentle breeze. Birds chirruped happily from within those leafy depths and, for all intents and purposes, everything was right with the world. She didn’t want to bring their current problems into the room, and let it break the wonder she felt at being with Luke, but she couldn’t just let him leave without knowing where he was

going and what danger he might face today.

Luke kissed her and tipped her chin up until she was looking at him. He understood her worries and slid down in the bed so he could face her.

“Well, I need find Toby today. I think it is safe to say that the attacker was out there waiting last night, and he can only have followed us when we left here. That smog was too thick for him to have seen us anywhere else. Unfortunately, I have no idea how much of my conversation with Toby he overheard. The boy may be in just as much danger as you right now. I need to warn him.”

He didn’t add that as soon as the first flames of desire had been slaked, and Poppy had slipped into an exhausted sleep, he had crept downstairs and spoken with his colleagues, Marcus, Barnaby, and Jeb, who had been about to leave for the Riverside Club. They had already seen the state of the cloak and agreed that Luke needed to remain with Poppy.

Unfortunately, the possibility that he might have put Toby in danger last night didn’t sit well with him. He needed to see with his own eyes that the boy was alright and tell him about the attack so he would remain extra vigilant.

Unfortunately, he just couldn’t risk Poppy going outside and being subjected to another attack. Next time she might not be so lucky. It was imperative now, to his own future happiness, that she remain alive and safe because without her in his life, well, he had no life. It was as simple as that. As far as he was concerned, what they had shared last night had changed the dynamics of their relationship, and secured their future together. She appeared to have accepted that her future most definitely lay with him. Now all he had to do was ensure that they actually had a future to enjoy. With that in mind, he had to find a way to persuade her to remain indoors, even if it was by herself.

“Do you have another cloak?”

“You are staying here,” he warned her darkly, aware of the direction of her thoughts. He might have known she would be prepared to accompany him again and shook his head with a mixture of pride and disbelief. “I will wait until one of my colleagues return. Then I will go and meet with Toby. Marcus can keep an eye on the house in Camden for him, and will send the lad away if he sees him in the area. For now, you are perfectly safe as long as you don’t answer the door to anybody. There is someone watching this house, of that I am sure, but they cannot get in or out without breaking in. I doubt they would do that given the number of men who have been coming and going of late.”