Blackpeak Station (19 page)

‘Say it.’ He leaned over her, a hand on either arm of her chair, one knee parting hers.

‘No.’

‘No?’ He drew back a little.

She bit back a groan. ‘I haven’t heard from you for months,’ she managed. ‘And now you just turn up here? Where have you been, why haven’t you called?’

‘I’m here now.’

Her resolve hardened. Did he really think that would work again? ‘It’s a long way to drive for a booty call,’ she said coldly. ‘Couldn’t you find anyone closer to home?’

His look made her flinch. ‘Is that what you think this is?’

‘What am I supposed to think? I thought you’d forgotten all about me.’

Gazing down at her, eyes still angry, Luke ran a hand through his hair. ‘Oh, believe me, baby, I’ve tried.’ Abruptly, he turned away.

What the hell did that mean? Straightening up, Charlotte strove to pull herself together.

Luke sank into the armchair beside the fire. He rubbed his face, and then stared into the flames. He looked lost and, suddenly, tired. In the hall, the clock chimed the half hour.

‘Do you want me to go?’

She sighed. If only she did. Life would be so much simpler. ‘It’s late,’ she said quietly. ‘I guess you’d better stay here now. Tonight, I mean.’

He looked at her. ‘And tomorrow?’

‘Tomorrow,’ she shrugged, ‘no doubt you’ll be in your usual hurry to leave.’ Immediately, his expression made her regret the cheap shot. God, his eyes were so …
naked
. Vulnerable. It was as if she was at last seeing the real Luke. Raw and aching and as mixed up and scared of getting hurt as she was. It was all she could do not to walk over there and put her arms around him. Stay right where you are, she told herself sternly.

‘Not this time,’ he said softly.

‘Why?’ Charlotte couldn’t resist. ‘Is it another public holiday in Shanghai?’

A little wickedness crept back into Luke’s eyes. Oh my God — it was.

‘Qingming,’ he said, watching her carefully.

She had to smile.

‘Will you come here? Just for a minute. Please?’

Keeping a close eye on him, she walked over and sat down on the edge of the opposite armchair. Luke leaned forward, taking both her hands.

‘Look. I know I’ve been a dick.’

‘A total dick.’

He smiled briefly. ‘I thought I could just walk out and that would be it. But the thing is, I can’t stop thinking about you. About’ — his voice fell — ‘us.’

Uh-huh.

‘I’ve never been with anyone quite like you.’

A vision of Susannah Liddell popped into Charlotte’s head. Now that she could believe.

‘Tonight …’ Luke groaned slightly. ‘Tonight I was sitting in my office, and I just couldn’t stand it any more. I needed you’ — for a second, he started to pull her forward, then recovered himself — ‘so
badly
.’

Charlotte closed her eyes briefly. She knew just how he felt.

‘So I just got in the car and drove. All I could think of, all the way down, was …’ He broke off and knelt between her knees, his hands running up her thighs. ‘Please tell me I haven’t fucked this thing up. You and me.’

You and me?
They were really a thing? Oh God. It was no use at all. ‘Maybe you haven’t.’ Closing her eyes again, she leaned back as Luke pulled her hips towards him and his mouth came down on hers.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ Jen peered through the kitchen window at the Range Rover parked outside. ‘When did that happen?’

Charlotte blushed. ‘After you’d gone to bed.’

‘What, he just turned up? And you let him in? Ugh, Charlie.’

‘Morning.’ Luke padded in, and pulling Charlotte forward, settled possessively behind her on the chair. ‘You’re looking lovely as ever, Jen.’

Jen gave him a withering glare.

As his arms tightened under her breasts, Charlotte turned her cheek into his shoulder. ‘Want some toast?’

Who cared what Jen thought? Luke was wearing his old ripped jeans and a black polo neck and his eyelashes were still wet from the shower and he smelled very good and she had more than half a mind to flag whatever she had planned for the day — what was it again? — and drag him straight back to bed.

The phone rang. Luke stood up. ‘Um, do you mind if I get that? It might be for me.’ He grinned as they stared at him. ‘I’ve had my calls diverted.’

Shaking her head in disbelief, Jen headed for the door.

‘Luke Halliday … Trevor! Thanks for getting back to me …’

Charlotte sighed and put the jug on. Well, she had said he could use the phone.

‘Sorry,’ he said, ten minutes later, recapturing her. ‘It’s just that this way, I can be where I want, and nobody needs to know.’

Where he wanted? She smiled. ‘And where’s that?’

Her eyes widened as he began to demonstrate.

The phone rang again. ‘Luke Halliday …’

Wandering through to the office, she checked her
calendar. Outside, it had started to rain. She had nothing that urgent to do today — surely, sooner or later, he had to get off the phone.

‘There you are.’ Luke leaned over the back of her chair. ‘Look, I’ve got to Skype into a breakfast meeting in Melbourne at nine — is there somewhere nice and quiet I could set up?’ His hand slid casually down her shirt. ‘I’ll be an hour or so. I don’t want to get in anybody’s way.’

Distracted as she was, Charlotte had no intention of letting him commandeer her office this time around. ‘You can use the billiard room.’

‘The billiard room? Well, obviously.’ He pulled her bra strap back up and dropped a kiss on her neck.

‘Come on.’ Leading him down the hall, she opened the door opposite the formal lounge.

‘This room gets me every time.’ Luke looked around, taking in her great-great-grandfather’s library shelves, the buttoned leather chairs. ‘You’ve got the set of
Pride and Prejudice
in here.’ He shivered.

It was a bit cold. Not to mention dusty. ‘I can light the fire if you like.’

‘Thanks.’

He examined the painting above the mantelpiece, then moved onto the next. Leaving him to it, she fetched an armful of wood from the sitting room, set the fire and put a match to it. Hopefully the wire netting on the chimney had held and there were no starlings up there.

‘You really never come in here?’ He ran his hand along the side of the antique billiard table.

‘Almost never.’ She got up, dusting off her jeans. ‘We don’t have much use for it, really.’

He watched her, his finger toying with the cue ball. ‘I can think of a use for it.’

‘Can you?’

‘Come here.’

Lifting her onto the edge of the table, Luke began unbuttoning her shirt. He checked his watch. ‘Christ.’ Charlotte groaned. ‘Sorry, baby, I’ve got to do this thing.’

Not as sorry as she was — she reached out and pulled him against her, hard. Ah … okay, maybe he was.

‘You …’ Shifting his hips, he bit her lower lip. ‘… have to go now.’

Reluctantly, she slid down. ‘Find me’ — she watched his face as she brushed a finger under the front of his jeans — ‘when you’re done.’

He pressed her back against the table’s edge. ‘Just try and stop me.’ With a shake of his shoulders, he let her go. Walking away, he picked up his laptop from the chair and flicked it open.

An hour, huh? Surely she could wait that long. Charlotte left him prowling the room for the best background shot and floated back to her office. Right, then. Where had she been?

The phone rang. ‘Hello?’ She rolled her eyes at herself. ‘Luke Halliday’s phone.’ There was an odd echo on the line. ‘Hello?’

‘Hello?’

‘Yes?’

‘Hello, may I speak with Luke, please?’

Charlotte frowned. ‘Flavia?’

There was a long pause. ‘Carlotta?’

‘Yes,’ she smiled, ‘it’s me.’

‘But’ — Flavia sounded worried — ‘you are in Luke’s office?’

‘Um, no, not exactly — he’s kind of in mine. He’s working down here for a few days.’

‘He is working with you? Ah! That is good.’

Pretty damn excellent, actually.

‘So you are — how do you say? — together with it?’

Charlotte smiled. ‘Yeah, we are.’

‘I am so pleased,
cara
. I thought maybe—’ Flavia broke off.

God. Was there no one who’d thought she and Luke might work out?

‘But you are happy, so I am happy, and Luca — he will be very happy, I am sure. Nick — well, maybe he is not so happy, but I am taking him to La Scala tonight …’

Charlotte laughed.

Flavia’s voice dropped. ‘Carlotta,
cara
, let me tell you about this brother of yours … Ah! But I cannot because he is here, and so is our car, and so I must go —
ciao ciao
. Tell Luca to call me tomorrow!’

Shaking her head, Charlotte put down the phone. Okay — work. This time. She opened her monthly report to Nick and the Sammartinos. How many of the new stud ewes did she want to try with the Australian sire? She’d better talk to the vet before she pitched the figures.

The door closed. ‘You,’ said Luke, in front of it. ‘Here. Now.’

She smiled, not moving. ‘That didn’t take long.’

‘Believe me, baby, this will.’ He peeled off his polo neck and glared at her. ‘Do I have to come and get you?’

Letting her eyes wander down the line of his abs, she thought that perhaps he did … Slowly, she moved around to his side of the desk. God, she’d like to unbutton those jeans. She caught her breath as he began to do so for her.

Her own hand, reaching back for the edge of the desk, knocked over the phone. ‘Oh, Flavia called,’ she remembered dutifully, putting it back in its cradle.

Luke froze. ‘Flavia?’ There was a second’s pause. ‘What did she say?’

‘She said she was going out, and to call her tomorrow.’ Charlotte watched his face. She’d been too swept up in Flavia’s charm at the time, but come to think of it now — ‘Why was she calling you?’

He stretched his neck to either side. ‘She was returning my call. There’s an opportunity I think the Sammartinos might be interested in.’ Tilting his head again, he looked into her eyes and undid another button.

She felt her knees part. God — that was quite a trick. ‘What kind of an opportunity?’

‘A joint venture.’ He prowled towards her, his eyes moving down, ranging over her breasts. Bloody hell. If her shirt buttons actually popped, she wouldn’t be surprised. ‘With a client of mine in Shanghai.’

‘Doing what?’

‘A building project.’ Luke arrived between her thighs. ‘Do you really’ — opening her shirt the old-fashioned way, he pinned her down on the desk — ‘want to talk about that now?’

Gazing up at him, she shook her head.

‘No? You’re sure?’ Watching her face, he moved his hips forward. ‘Good. Now, where were we?’

After a barely interrupted afternoon, the phone rang again at four o’clock while Luke — fresh from the billiard room — was taking a shower. Charlotte, already showered and sprawled beside the kitchen range with a cup of tea, wasn’t quick enough to stop Jen picking it up.

‘Hello?’

Charlotte watched her frown.

‘Who am I? Who are
you
?’ Jen held the phone away from her ear. ‘Well, actually, yeah — I do know who you are, you just told me … no you can’t, he’s not here … taking a shower, I think …’

Charlotte winced. Not exactly something Luke would be doing if he were in his office in Christchurch. And she had a feeling Jen didn’t sound like a Cooper Liddell Sachs PA.

‘What a bitch.’ Jen put the phone down. ‘She hung up.’

‘Who was it?’

‘Somebody’s daughter, apparently.’

‘Not Susannah Liddell?’

‘Yeah, that was it.’ Jen settled down in the opposite chair. ‘Who’s she?’

‘Oh,’ she lied, ‘just some woman Luke works with, I think.’ She had a feeling that explaining how she’d met Susannah wasn’t going to make Luke look any better in Jen’s eyes. Charlotte smiled to herself. Unfortunate as it was that Jen had outed Luke, she couldn’t help a small surge of triumph.

‘So.’ Jen raised her eyebrows. ‘Busy day, huh?’

‘Um, yeah … Sorry I haven’t been around. I got a bit caught up.’

‘Yeah, I know. You guys should really think about pulling the curtains.’

No! She pressed her hand to her mouth. ‘God, I’m sorry.’

‘No harm done.’ Jen shrugged. ‘I was gay already. So how long’s he staying this time? Till you run out of rooms?’

Charlotte shrugged defiantly. It was a big house.

Chapter
SEVENTEEN

Charlotte had a fire blazing in the billiard room. She’d even vacuumed. It was ten o’clock on Friday night, and Luke should be there any minute. She hadn’t seen him for nearly two weeks, and she was waiting for him in nothing but the red jersey dress she’d stolen from Andrea for their first ‘date’ and a few dabs of her new perfume. A black-ribboned box of Chanel No.19 had arrived two days ago with a note that read,
Time you had some of your own — this is my favourite. Can’t wait to smell it on your skin
. There was no name on the note, and she loved that Luke had known he didn’t have to sign it.

Were those footsteps in the hall? With a shiver of anticipation, she arranged herself more elegantly in the high-backed leather chair. She heard the door she’d left
ajar open further, and the footsteps paused. All he’d be able to see from there would be her bare legs, carefully crossed at the ankle. The door snicked shut. Yikes — she hoped it
was
Luke … the back door was unlocked, so actually, it could be anybody …

Half a second before she ruined her planned effect by turning around, there he was, in front of her. Her breath caught. How could anyone who’d just made a five-hour drive possibly look that good? He’d already lost his tie and unbuttoned his collar, but his grey striped shirt was barely crumpled, and his grey flannel trousers hung from his narrow hips in a hopelessly Cary Grant way. A bottle of champagne dangled from one nonchalant hand, two glasses from the other.

‘Hello.’

Charlotte saw the dress register on his face. He put the wine down and leaned back against the mantelpiece, his eyes sliding over her.

‘Hello.’

‘I’ve been waiting for you.’

‘So I see.’

She uncrossed her ankles. Luke leaned over her chair, watching her face as he slowly ran a hand up her thigh. She saw his eyes widen. ‘Baby …’ He drew in his breath. ‘You really have been waiting for me.’

‘So, what are we celebrating?’ She moved her hips slightly.

‘This.’ He nosed her neck. ‘And that.’ Charlotte closed her eyes as he moved to kiss her, but his lips barely brushed against hers. ‘And you marrying me.’

Her eyes flew open. ‘What did you say?’

‘I think I just asked you to marry me.’

She stared at him in shock. ‘But …’

The green eyes laughed down at her. ‘But what? I should
be down on one knee?’ He lowered himself to the carpet. ‘Mmm … you’re quite right.’

‘But how would that even … what would we do?’ Luke was already beginning to demonstrate rather effectively. She tried to hold her train of thought. ‘I mean … how would we live? I need to be here, and you need to be in Christchurch.’

Luke looked up. ‘I need to be with you. Right here.’ His hand pressed home his point. ‘Every night. If that means living here, then that’s what we’ll do.’

‘Really?’ She arched her back.

‘Really.’

‘Don’t stop.’

‘You haven’t said yes yet.’

Hadn’t she? Christ. This was totally mad. She groaned. ‘Yes.’

‘Yes what?’

Oh, she really had no idea … ‘Yes please?’

Luke smiled. ‘Good girl.’ She gasped at her reward. ‘But I was going for yes, I’ll marry you.’

Oh my God, oh my God. She couldn’t, could she? The room was slipping away. Oh, maybe she could … ‘Yes, I’ll marry you.’

‘I now pronounce you man and wife.’ The minister beamed. ‘You may kiss the bride.’

The organist leapt into action as Matt lifted the veil from Siri’s face and kissed his wife. In the second pew back, Kath dabbed at her eyes. Charlotte, much to her chagrin, was forced to do the same. Kath squeezed her arm.

‘Your turn next, dear! I’m so happy for you.’

Charlotte blushed and smiled. Beside her, Jen sniffed.

‘Tissue, dear?’

‘No, it’s okay thanks,’ replied Jen sourly. ‘Something just got up my nose for a second.’

Charlotte ignored her. The service really had been lovely. Of course she was doing the right thing. Totally. It was just the fact that she hadn’t seen Luke for a week that was making their engagement seem so … unreal. That she’d had to tell everyone by herself, without him beside her to confirm it.

‘Are you sure, dear?’ Kath had asked, peering at her naked hand, when Charlotte broke the news on Monday night.

Jen had been more forceful. ‘Are you nuts?’ she’d demanded. ‘Why?’

‘Because I love him. He makes me …’ Charlotte smiled to herself. ‘Weak at the knees, you might say.’

‘Oh, for Christ’s sake. So does cholera. Charlie, will you stop and think about what you’re doing? With your actual brain, I mean?’

Rex had harrumphed something along the lines of ‘hope you’ll be very happy’ and then hardly spoken at all for three days. And as for Nick — well, he hadn’t even been able to manage that much.

‘I don’t know what to say to you, Charles.’

An expensive silence had frosted the line from Milan.

‘How about, you’re happy for me?’

‘Okay … but I think you’re making a huge mistake.’

‘Thanks a lot.’

‘I’m sorry. But I do.’

At least she’d known her mother would be pleased.

‘Oh, Charlotte, darling — that’s fabulous!’ She’d heard the pull of a tissue leaving the box. ‘I’m so happy for you.’ Andrea sniffed a couple of times. ‘It is quite soon, though, isn’t it, dear? Are you sure you shouldn’t try living together first, see how things go?’

Bloody hell.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if she didn’t have doubts of her own. After all, she and Luke had only known each other for a few months — she could probably still count the number of days they’d actually spent together. Or at least, she would be able to, if her mind would stop wandering off to exactly how they’d spent them … Was jaw-dropping sex really a basis for lifelong commitment? As it always did at this point in the argument, Charlotte’s spine began to tingle. Maybe not — but it was a pretty damn good start.
Every night
. She smiled. Luke would be back tomorrow.

‘Have you made any plans yet?’ Kath asked, as they filed out of the church.

Blushing again, Charlotte shook her head. Not for the wedding, no … ‘I guess we can start talking about it tomorrow.’ At some point.

‘Come on,’ said Jen, leading the way to the car. ‘Let’s get to the bar.’

‘Are you thinking church or civil?’

‘Oh, church, I think,’ she decided, airily, on the strength of today.

‘What religion is Luke?’

Um … She was rescued by the photographer.

‘Come on, everyone — group picture!’

When he’d finished, Charlotte and the other guests left the newlyweds posing in front of the lake and drifted off to the reception. For once, there were more utes than tour buses in the hotel car park.

Eventually, Matt and Siri made their entrance, both grinning from ear to ear. Charlotte couldn’t help but smile too — Matt looked like a younger, schoolboy version of himself in his bow tie and tails. As a tide of his female relatives swept Siri away, Matt sauntered over to join his
workmates at the bar. Rex slapped him on the back.

‘Well done, mate.’

‘So!’ Charlotte leaned in. ‘You can tell us, now — where
are
you off to for your honeymoon?’

Matt glanced around. ‘Promise you won’t tell?’

‘Swear.’

‘Nepal!’

‘Trekking? You’re kidding, right?’

Matt looked surprised. ‘No — I’ve always wanted to see the Himalayas. I had a good talk to Hurry about the trip.’

‘Do you think Siri will like it, though, dear?’ asked Kath delicately.

‘Yeah, course. It’s about the only place she hasn’t been.’ He searched the crowd for his bride. ‘I can’t wait to see her face.’

‘Yeah.’ Jen sipped her wine. ‘I wouldn’t mind seeing that one myself.’

‘Anyway, I’d better go find her … see you later.’

The hotel put on a pretty good buffet — also accidentally attended by several Japanese tourists who’d come to get their photos taken with the bride. After they’d been ushered back to their guide, and the speeches had been made, the band struck up, and the older generation waltzed the early evening away.

Charlotte watched Matt sweep Siri around the dance floor. They looked so happy. Who’d have given them a chance? It wasn’t as if they’d known each other for years … Or — she glanced over at the top table, where Siri’s parents still sat, looking slightly nervous — that Matt and Siri had anything much in common. Not even a country. And they didn’t care. They were together — that’s all that mattered. Everything else they could just work out as it came along. She felt a lump rise in her throat.

Except that she and Luke … well, they weren’t exactly together, were they? They weren’t even in the same district.

‘Where’s this supposed fiancé of yours, then?’ Owen from Glencairn, looking rather the worse for the bar, slid into the empty seat beside her. ‘Vanished again? Reckon Matt’s got more chance of seeing a yeti than we have of clocking your bloke.’

Looking round for a means of escape, Charlotte opened her mouth to say ‘he’s working tonight’. As her eyes glanced over the doorway, she stopped. There he was, in his beautiful pinstriped suit and his crisp white shirt and his lilac silk tie, making everything else in the room look so ordinary. He was scanning the tables, looking for her. She watched him, waiting for his eyes to find her, and caught her breath as they did. It was like a line sinking into her chest — she could feel it tightening as he began to walk towards her. Towards
her
. He was the sexiest man she had ever seen, and he wanted to marry her — what the hell had she been thinking? How could she have any doubts?

‘There he is,’ she told Owen, without taking her eyes from Luke’s face. She could pretty much hear Owen’s jaw drop as Luke stopped beside her chair.

‘Hi.’ Luke leaned down. ‘You smell good,’ he breathed, against her Chanel-ed neck. The room disappeared as he kissed her.

When Charlotte opened her eyes, Owen had fled.

‘I like this.’ Just below her collarbone, Luke traced the neck of her new silver lace dress. ‘So what’s the rest of it like?’

Shorter than you’d expect, actually. She swung her legs out from under the table.

Luke’s mouth twitched. ‘I like it more.’

She smiled, relieved. She’d bought the dress online —
after old Jim Clements’ crack about bridegrooms at the races last year, she’d been too scared to wear her Fratelli Sammartino tux to an actual wedding — and when she tried it on with her heels she’d been a bit shocked at how little it covered. ‘What happened to the business dinner you couldn’t get out of tonight?’

‘Turns out I could.’ He stroked the back of her knee. ‘It got cancelled this morning. I did call’ — he pinched her gently — ‘but your phone was off.’

It always was — she never could remember to turn it on when she did get to somewhere with a signal.

‘So … are you pleased to see me?’

Looking into his eyes, Charlotte sighed happily. So very pleased. ‘Want to dance?’

Luke turned his head, surveying the dance floor with a shudder. ‘How about we get out of here?’

‘But the party’s just starting.’

‘Uh-huh.’ His hand slid over and up her thigh. He leaned in, his mouth close to her neck, his arm brushing her breast. She smiled to herself — already, he smelled of Chanel.

‘Anyway,’ she remembered, with some effort, ‘I’m sharing a room with Jen.’

‘Not any more, you’re not. I’m checked in right upstairs.’

‘They had a spare room?’ With the wedding party staying, she was surprised.

‘Just a suite, actually.’

Jeez. ‘You didn’t have to do that.’

His eyes moved over her. ‘Oh, I think I did.’

‘I mean we could have stayed somewhere cheaper. We’re all at a motel down the road.’

‘You mean there’s somewhere worse than this?’ Luke glanced round the room. His attention returned to her face. ‘Come on.’ He stroked the nape of her neck, his fingers
running down her bare back to toy with the zipper of her dress. ‘Come with me.’

‘You don’t even want to stay for a drink?’

His left hand moved higher up her thigh, while the right unzipped her an inch. ‘Do I look like I want to stay for a drink?’

Yikes. Just as well they’d dimmed the lights. Trying not to giggle, she shook her head.

‘What do I look like I want to do?’

Charlotte caught her lip in her teeth.

‘Exactly. So I suggest you come with me now … unless you want me to do it right here.’

God, he really looked like he might. He pulled her to her feet, smiling wickedly as he re-zipped her dress. With a guilty look round, she tugged at her hem. Luke’s hand lingered in the small of her back while he looked her up and — mainly — down. ‘After you.’

Hoping the disco lights would disguise the scarlet brand blazing on her forehead, Charlotte swayed through the crowd and out into the foyer.

‘This way.’ He guided her to the stairs, then fell back, following two steps behind. Blushing, she tried to concentrate on not falling over as they made their way down the long corridor to … leaning next to the entrance, she peered at the plaque … the Lake Suite. How imaginative. Luke flung open the door.