‘Rubbish.’
‘If that’s all you’ve come to say—’
‘Not nearly,’ he snarled. ‘If you’re working for Margaret, why aren’t you sleeping at the guest house?’
‘Have you been there recently?’
‘It can’t be any worse than here. This caravan’s freezing. It’s damp and the roof is leaking.’
‘The roof can be repaired.’
Luke flashed a fast penetrating glance. ‘By you?’
‘I’ll find someone.’
‘Make it fast. And you’ll pay them how?’ he fired back in quick succession. ‘You’d better ask your miracle workers to remove the spiders while they’re at it,’ he added, brandishing a really leggy one.
‘Don’t kill it.’
‘What do you take me for?’
‘You really don’t want to know.’ She watched transfixed as Luke transported the spider to the door, as if it were a priceless Fabergé egg he was holding in his large fist.
‘You can’t stay here,’ he said, having deposited their hairy friend outside.
‘Says who? You?’
‘I won’t let you,’ Luke confirmed, resting one giant fist on his hip.
She knew that pose. It was like a big cat, kidding you it was relaxing just before it pounced. ‘You can’t stop me living here.’ Tilting her chin, she directed a warning stare into Luke’s eyes.
‘Let me put this another way, Lucia. You don’t have to stay here.’
‘You’re offering to pay for me to move somewhere better?’ she guessed, trying to remember that determination to remain calm.
Luke shrugged.
‘I’ve already told you—I don’t need your help, Luke.’
‘You clearly do,’ he argued.
‘Margaret needs me here on site.’
‘If Margaret needs you why don’t you clear a room at the guest house and move in?’
‘I’m working on that as fast as I can.’
‘Work faster.’
Luke’s amber eyes had turned obsidian black, and they were very close—within touching distance. It would only take a step, a breath, one move by either of them … Luke’s heat licked around her like a possession spell, or maybe a lust spell, showing him to be unashamedly male. It was far too much man for her damaged soul to handle.
She breathed a sigh of relief when Luke turned away to stare out of the window. Luke was her friend and she wanted it to stay that way. He had always been the one person she could confide in when her brothers ganged up on her. She wished she could confide in him now, one last time, and have Luke draw her into the safety of his embrace. But if he did that she wouldn’t know when to stop, and then she would find herself in the ambit of Luke’s world, rather than her own.
‘The guest house is barely habitable,’ she explained, drawing her business persona round her like a protective cloak.
‘And sorting it out will be a long job,’ Luke agreed turning round to f
ace her.