A Lesson In Seduction

‘That’s an awful lot of lovers for any one woman,’ he

said smoothly.

‘Well, maybe that’s a little on the high side,’ she said weakly.

‘Only a little?’ His eyebrow etched the daring question. It wasn’t often that he had Rosalind so thoroughly off balance and he intended to press his advantage.

‘Shall we just say I’m considerably less experienced than most people seem to think?’ she said, wryly conceding him his victory.

He showed an unfortunate tendency to rub it in. ‘How much less?’

‘I don’t think that’s any of your business, do you?’ she retorted, ruffled by his persistence. She wondered what Luke would say if she told him that the reason why she was such an expert in light-hearted flirtation was that she had been celibate for years. Turning aside propositions without wounding egos or losing valued friendships took a practised sleight of tongue.

‘After what nearly happened just now I think it is,’ he said with a quiet, unnerving certainty that prompted an instant, knee-jerk objection.

‘Nothing happened—’

‘I said nearly,’ he corrected her, his eyes dropping to where her nipples still thrust against her thin top. ‘But I don’t happen to think that what we did was “nothing”. It certainly felt like something to me. I’m afraid I don’t have your sophistication—I don’t quite know how to handle this...attraction between us...I don’t know what to do.’

For a shattering moment she took him literally. ‘You don’t mean that you’ve never—? That you’re a...a...?’ She stepped away from the mind-blowing thought and trod on a cylindrical piece of coral on the uneven track. Her ankle twisted as her foot skated away, sending her down on one knee amongst the crushed shells.

‘Steady!’ He picked her up and set her on her slender legs again, bending to brush at the shell-dust that mingled with the blood that seeped from the minor scrape. ‘You don’t have to propose to get me into your bed,’ he said, straight-faced. ‘I didn’t mean I was that innocent. Is your ankle all right?’

‘It’s fine,’ she said dismissively, ignoring the slight stinging of her grazed flesh as she watched him straighten and reveal his lightly flushed face. ‘Then what did you mean? How many lovers have there been in your murky past?’

He hesitated before answering briefly. ‘One.’

Rosalind felt instantly light-headed. ‘One what? One important one? One legion?’

He didn’t smile. ‘One lover. My wife.’

‘You’re married?’ she whispered, her honey-coloured complexion paling, making her incredulous green eyes look enormous. She was profoundly shocked, even more so than when she had gone to a party she had thought she would have to miss and surprised Justin in the act of infidelity with one of his nameless pick-ups. At least with Justin she had been prepared by her growing suspicions. And somehow Luke seemed to be the type to wear a wedding ring...strait-laced, strictly honourable...

‘I was. She died.’

Rosalind was appalled by her sense of relief and rushed to atone for her inappropriate emotions. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘It was a long time ago.’ He put a hand under her elbow, turning her in the direction of the hotel. ‘Come on, we’ll walk the rest of the way back. I’ve got some antibiotic cream I can use to clean up that cut.’

‘If it was a long time ago you must have married very young...’ Curiosity crawled through Rosalind’s veins as she limped gracefully along beside him. What had his wife been like? she wondered.

Was she pretty? she asked him silently. Did she make you laugh? Did she make you happy? If she was alive would you still love her?

‘I

was nineteen and Christie was eighteen.’

She turned that over in her mind. He would still have been at university. Hadn’t he said he had lived with his parents?

‘Did you have to get married?’

As soon as the question left her lips Rosalind’s curiosity faltered. What if Christie had had a baby? Children? Luke could be a father, for all she knew. A family man. Someone who loved children and believed that procreation was the essential purpose of marriage.

‘Quite the reverse,’ he said firmly. ‘Christie and I were sweethearts all through our teens but she came from a very religious family, even stricter than mine. There was no question of sex before marriage.’

‘Oh.’

He intercepted her sideways glance and judged it correctly. ‘And yes, that is one of the reasons we got married so young,’ he admitted drily. ‘We were both mature for our age and very sure of our feelings, and our parents realised that we were having more and more difficulty in refraining from the full expression of our love. They were happy to approve a marriage that would avert a sin.’