In the Heat of the Spotlight

The voice that whispered inside her wasn’t sly or cynical for once. It was the still, small voice of hope, of truth. He’s still here.

She’d told him he’d earned her trust, but she wasn’t acting as if he had. She wasn’t, Aurelie knew, acting as if she trusted him at all.

Could she act that way? Deliberately, a decision? Was change not so much a wishing or a hoped-for thing, but a choice? An act of will?

‘You ready?’ Luke called back to her and, nodding, Aurelie stepped from the plane.

The day passed in an exhausting blur of meetings with various important people, touring the city. As if from a distance, Aurelie took in the Peak, the Jade Market, the Giant Buddha. She chatted and smiled and laughed and listened, yet all the while she felt as if she were somewhere else, thinking something else.

Can I do this? Can I act differently with Luke, even when every part of me struggles to protect myself?

After a lengthy dinner with many speeches and toasts, they boarded a yacht for a pleasure cruise in the harbour. Aurelie watched Luke circulate through the guests, and realised with a pang that he looked more relaxed than when she’d seen him in New York or Manila. He looked happy.

Acting differently was a choice. An act of will. It had to be. Deliberately she walked across the deck to join him. He stopped his conversation to smile at her briefly, then resumed describing his plan to incorporate more local artists and artisans in the Hong Kong store. He spoke with authority, with a kind of restrained pride, that made Aurelie’s heart swell.

She loved this man. She was terrified, but she loved him.

A few minutes later they’d been left alone, and Luke placed his hand on the small of her back as he guided her to the railing. ‘Look.’

She looked towards the shore, and saw that the skyscrapers were shimmering with lights.

‘It’s the Symphony of Lights. It comes on every night at eight o’clock.’

‘Amazing.’ And it was amazing, to be standing here with this wonderful man, the air warm and sultry, the sky lighting up all around them. She turned to smile at him, felt the smile all the way through her soul. And Luke must have felt it too, must have seen it, because he drew her softly towards him and brushed his lips against hers. A promise. A promise Aurelie intended to keep.

They rode home from the party in a limo, their thighs brushing, the silence between them both comfortable and expectant. Aurelie followed Luke into the lift, up to the top floor where they had separate suites. She stopped at his door, and he looked at her, eyebrows raised.

Aurelie felt her heart beat hard, her mouth dry. She lifted her chin. ‘I want to come in.’

Luke rested his keycard in the palm of his hand, gazed at her seriously. She stared steadily back. This was a choice. ‘We don’t have to rush things, Aurelie.’

‘I’m not rushing things.’

He gazed evenly at her, assessing, understanding. Then he nodded. ‘All right. But I have one condition.’ He unlocked the door and opened it, and Aurelie followed him in, her heart thudding even harder now.

‘And that is?’ she asked when he hadn’t said anything, just shed his jacket and loosened his tie.

Luke turned to her, his eyes glinting, everything about him sexy and rumpled and gorgeous. ‘My condition,’ he said, taking off his tie, ‘is that we do this on your terms.’

CHAPTER ELEVEN

‘WE...WHAT?’ Aurelie blinked. ‘My terms?’

Luke nodded, his eyes still glinting, his mouth curving in a smile even though she could sense how serious he was. ‘Yes. Your terms. I’ve been thinking a lot about what happened before and I realise I handled everything wrong—’

‘Everything, Luke? I think that might be a slight exaggeration.’

‘Slight,’ he agreed wryly. ‘But I was the one in control, wasn’t I? I told you that from the beginning. I said I’d set the pace, and I’d call it off if I didn’t think it was working.’

Warily she nodded, folded her arms. She wasn’t sure where he was going with this. ‘Your terms.’

‘Yes, and they weren’t the right ones.’

‘Why not?’

‘From what you’ve told me, and from what I know about you, control is kind of a big thing.’