The blonde was probably having her nails done and Luke had nothing better to do than harass her, Lucia guessed, flashing a glare at his centrefold. If there was one thing guaranteed to switch her thoughts from her own screw-ups it was wondering how one of the sharpest men on the planet had been caught in such a picture and by a Technicolor blonde. She had never known Luke to let his guard down before.
‘So, what do you do when you’re not working, Lucia?’ he said.
‘Oh, you know …’
‘That bad?’
‘I’m usually so exhausted after work I just sleep.’ True, unfortunately, but definitely the safest option.
‘So you wouldn’t want to come to supper with me tonight?’
‘With you?’ Luke couldn’t have surprised her more. There were so many reasons why she wanted to go out with him, and so many reasons why she shouldn’t.
‘Why not?’ he said, adding casually, ‘It is your birthday, isn’t it?’
Her brothers must have put him up to this, Lucia realised as her heart thundered a tattoo. ‘Yes, it is,’ she confirmed. Matching Luke for nonchalance, she added, ‘Don’t tell me you’re asking me out on a date?’
‘You wish,’ he countered, with a flash of the camaraderie they had shared before hormones kicked in. ‘Well?’ he demanded in the same offhand tone. ‘What’s your answer?’
She had to release her stranglehold on the phone and shake her hand to get the blood flowing through her fingers again before she could think straight. If she accepted, and Luke started q
uestioning her, how would she explain to him what one part freedom in Cornwall to nine parts humiliation in London felt like? How would he react when she told him that there wasn’t a chance she was going to turn her back on her new life? How would she hide from Luke what had happened in London?
And what about the blonde?
No. She couldn’t accept. If she went out with Luke it would be—
What? Surrender? Defeat? Weakness? What?
Wasn’t she guilty of overreacting just a little bit?
While she was trying to decide Luke started talking ‘horse’—a language spoken exclusively by Luke and her brothers. Dreams were almost always better than reality, Lucia reflected, gazing at Luke’s centrefold, thinking maybe she owed it to the Sisterhood to warn the women of the world about him. Luke’s poster image suggested an impossibly sexual animal with a body designed for sin, when she knew the only type of physical activity that really got Luke’s juices flowing involved a bit, a bridle and a pair of really sharp spurs.
‘Well, if everything’s okay your end, Lucia?’
‘What?’ She realised he was about to sign off. ‘Don’t go yet—I mean … It’s um … fun talking to a dinosaur.’ She laughed, hoping Luke hadn’t detected the flash of desperation in her voice. No one said she had to go cold turkey. A familiar voice was like tonic wine. You drank it down and then you felt better. Right?
‘Now you want to talk?’ he said dryly. ‘How about you start with what really brought you back to Cornwall? And for goodness’ sake call your brothers, will you?’
‘I have.’ So many times. But they were always playing polo. And as for Cornwall … ‘I’m just taking a break in Cornwall.’
No way was she telling Luke the truth. It would be the easiest thing in the world to howl down the phone that things hadn’t turned out the way she’d hoped they would, and could Luke please lend her the money to fly home? But if she did that this climb-back of hers would be over before it had started, and she would have proved everyone right about her. Deep inside she would hate herself. She would be a failure and everyone would know it.
‘Well, I hope everything works out for you, Lucia—’
‘Tonight,’ she cut in with one final burst of desperate lonely energy. ‘That supper you mentioned?’
When this was met by an ominous silence she realised Luke had probably had second thoughts. Maybe it was time to eat some humble pie.
‘I think I could make it tonight.’
‘So you have no plans?’ he said flatly. And when she remained silent he added, ‘I never thought I’d see the day when Lucia Acosta stayed home on her birthday … But if it’s a matter of money and you’d rather go out with some friends—’
‘Stop that, Luke!’ Money was the way her brothers had always controlled her.
‘Don’t be so touchy,’ he fired back.
‘Then get it through your head that I don’t need your money. I’ve got everything I need right here.’