Bargain in Bronze

His gaze seared her skin and her thoughts turned to chaos. Surely he wasn’t going to kiss her? Never. But maybe he was—was he going to kiss her just to soothe her nerv

es? The way he had all those years ago? She wriggled, trying to put an inch between them. Because she was not turned on by that idea. So not turned on.

So turned on.

His eyes glittered wickedly. “Do you remember that time on the Ferris wheel?”

Of course she remembered it. He’d done it then, hadn’t he—kissed her to calm her down. Only it had the opposite effect.

She breathed hard, wishing she could stop the huge blush. Her skin felt on fire. “No. What time was that?” She desperately wanted to play it cool.

He laughed. “Liar. You were scared shitless.”

He’d found her. She’d lost Dani at that big fair. She’d been looking up at the big wheel and wishing she had the guts for it. But heights had always been hard for her. Then he’d come along and she’d wanted to prove she could. He didn’t try to cajole her, he didn’t really say anything. He just looked at her as though he knew she could do it. And she’d wanted to—with him.

“You sat there next to me, refusing to acknowledge you were scared out of your mind,” Luke stepped closer so his rock-hard stomach was sealed to hers. “And when we finally got back to the zenith you turned and smiled at me. First time you ever really smiled just at me. Your lips, your eyes…your skin was glowing. You were so pretty.”

Lexie swallowed. She remembered that exact moment. The wheel had stopped—they were stuck at the top for a moment, only a moment. But that had been enough. He’d kissed her. He’d kissed her and kept kissing her. The wheel had started again and she hadn’t seen a thing. She’d been too busy feeling passion for the first time in her life. A kiss that had started sweet and soon turned hot—his tongue stroking her lips until she’d parted them. She’d let him kiss her. She’d let him in. And she kissed him back. Her first taste of intimacy and it had meant something to her. It had been bliss.

Until their turn to leave the Ferris wheel came and Dani was waiting for her at the bottom and he just walked off. Never once looking back. Never once mentioning it again.

Until now.

He’d made her feel like such a kid. She’d been so open with him—he had to have felt her adoration—but he’d ignored her completely. She’d had to work so hard to hide how much it had hurt, how much she’d wanted to cry. And she hadn’t. That was the first time, the worst time, that she’d controlled her wayward emotions. Until then she’d been an overly sensitive crybaby who’d struggled with new situations and meeting new people. Truth be told, she still struggled with that. She could do it so much more easily now—control her nerves, her fears. She could manage lots of things, including him. And damn it, she could control her desires too.

“My father tore strips off me.” Luke said quietly.

“He saw us?” Her eyes widened as she stared up at him. “Seriously?”

“They all saw.”

Oh, dear heaven. How embarrassing was that? She’d had no clue.

“He saw and he told me I wasn’t to go near you again.” He grimaced. “He did more than tell.”

Lexie gaped. “You got in trouble?”

“As big as it got.” His arms tightened around her, drawing her closer still.

All his muscles were big and tense, and Lexie was trying so hard not to melt on the spot. Desperately she resisted the urge to lean right against him.

“You never said anything,” she whispered.

“Now you know why.”

“You still could have said something. Anything.”

“I didn’t think you gave a damn. You never looked at me again. Not once.”

“I was shy,” she said harshly. “Anyway, it didn’t take you long to find someone else.”

His mouth twisted.

“Several someone elses,” Lexie said, reminding herself as much as she was him.

She pulled her muscles taut to gain a little distance and looked away from the intensity in his eyes. That’s when she realized they were moving—had been this whole time. The wheel was spinning and she hadn’t looked out the damn window once. Hadn’t looked beyond him to see the other passengers or the three-sixty view or anything.

But at least she wasn’t scared. No, instead she was furious.

She looked back at him. He hadn’t moved—was still too close, too focused. And he still had that half-smile playing on his lips. He was going to kiss her again. Now. Was this why he’d brought her here? To replay that moment in their past?

Well, that wasn’t happening. She wasn’t going to be the challenge again. She didn’t trust him—not someone so thoroughly spoiled. Guys who had it too easy walked away too easy, too. She’d had to learn that one more than once and she didn’t need a repeat.

“You know, the view really isn’t that great up here.” She pushed out of his arms, proudly standing alone as their capsule hit the highest point of the wheel. “It’s too cloudy to see far. We should get back on the bus.”

Chapter Five

Lexie marched back to the bus as soon as they were off the Eye. She wasn’t playing his game. She wasn’t going to let him get away with a lame excuse and think he could get what little he wanted that easily.

“What are you going to do?” Luke broke the silence ten minutes later when they were on board and taking in a new sightseeing route. “You’re going to stay in London, right?” He shifted in his seat, his knee obviously bugging him.

“I’m not sure,” she said, refusing to feel bad about his injury. He’d been the one insisting on doing this today. But she was glad he’d gone for a total topic change.

“Why don’t you build your own online travel company?”

She laughed in disbelief. “No.” She shook her head. “I can’t design the site. I could run it, but I’d need huge technical support.”

“So get technical support.” He leaned closer. “All those clients you had, they must be looking for a new service.”

“They’re in Australia,” she drawled sarcastically. It would never work.

“What does that matter? It’s online. And if there was a need there you can bet there’d be a need here.”

She frowned. “You do like to make the impossible seem possible, don’t you?”

“Do I?” A laugh was shaken from him.

“It’s what you do. This amazing feat and then that incredible job and then something else altogether astounding. You’ve always got some mission on.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

Because sometimes it was. Because that’s what she was today, wasn’t she? Another mission to him. Another challenge. That’s why he was standing so close all the time, sending intimate smiles her way. Thanks to his knee he had nothing else to do. It wasn’t that he was that into her. The guy just couldn’t be without a goal—no matter how small it might be. “I guess it depends on each mission. But is that all life is to you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why do you have to win all the time? Win the scholarships, be the youngest consultant, get the plum job transfer, land the plush apartment, date the models, do the marathon… When is it enough?”

“It’s never enough,” he grinned, clearly treating the conversation as a joke.

“For whom?” She really wondered. “Do you need people’s admiration that badly? The kudos?” She shook her head.

He sat back, his forehead creasing. “It’s not about impressing other people.”

“No?”

“I don’t care what other people think of me,” he said bluntly. “But I do have a ‘need-to-win’ gene. And I’m not going to apologize for that.”

No. And in truth she didn’t really want him to. But she wasn’t a thing to be won—no woman was. “You know, all the things you did inspired me once.”

“Once?”

She nodded. He’d inspired her to do something she didn’t think she could do—something as little as riding on a Ferris wheel. That day had been a turning point. He’d helped her lay the first solid block of confidence within herself. Then he’d broken her heart. But in some

ways that experience too had cemented her growth—her determination to manage her emotions, to develop and prove them all wrong. That she wasn’t too shy and scared to do anything exciting. She’d had to work so hard to hide that he’d hurt her. And it was such a silly, small teen hurt. But it had taught her that she could do it. She could fake it. And so she did, she had. She’d discovered she could adventure with the best of them.

“Only the once?” he didn’t look that thrilled. “Not any more?”

“So much of the stuff you do is amazing,” she said carefully. “But I wonder why you need to prove yourself over and over.”

“Like I said, it’s not about what other people think. But I don’t believe in wasting life,” he said. “Got to make the most of it, don’t you think?”

She laughed. “I guess.”

“No guess about it. There might never be a second chance—you’ve got to make the most of every opportunity that comes your way.”

That’s what he did every time, right? He made the most of everything and played every game to win—no matter the consequence or impact on anyone else. Because he didn’t care about what others thought—or did? Or even felt?

She looked at him, wishing she could see inside his head and figure out whether he truly was all gold on the inside, or whether the glitter that emanated from him was merely the superficial finish she suspected it to be.

Somehow he’d gotten closer again—so close she could see each dark eyelash framing his eyes. She no longer knew what famous landmark they were driving by, there was only Luke—looking at her and looking like he was determined to win. But she didn’t want to be the prize. Not when she knew it wasn’t about the prize for him. It was all in the challenge.

Suddenly he sat back, letting go of her hand to dig his phone out of his pocket. She hadn’t even realized it was ringing. She tried not to listen in too obviously.

“Hey, how’s she doing?” Luke asked. There was a long moment of silence as he listened to whoever was on the other end.

“Is she there?” he asked quietly. “Put her on for me.”