Lucas: The Hunter Brothers Series (9 page)

CHAPTER 8

Christmas
had been wonderful as Chas and I cobbled together a turkey dinner as best we
could and Dex had woken at four AM, so excited to see if Father Christmas had
been that we all had to get up. Chas had only managed an hour’s sleep; rolling
in at three in the morning from her Christmas Eve party with the staff from
Elite, which she spent most of the day reminding me as she shirked the washing
up and nodded off during the Queen’s speech.

We
cuddled on the couch as Dexter played with all his new toys, reminiscing about
Christmases past and how Mum would make the day so special, gorging on mince
pies and chocolate and lighting a candle for the ones we had loved and lost.
For all it was unconventional, our little family was happy and content. The
biggest surprise of all was the present that had landed on my desk just before
I finished work yesterday. Melody had got one too and I’d asked her what it
was.

“It’s
a present from Lucas, he does it every Christmas,” she’d said, smiling at the
box and I wondered if she had a soft spot for the man herself, or whether he
always just sent good presents. Chas and I had sat in stunned silence for a
good five minutes after tearing off the wrapping to reveal a Tiffany box before
I’d even dared open it. It was the most stunning silver bracelet I’d ever seen,
finished with a single diamond set in a star and the most expensive piece of
jewellery I owned. I could barely believe my eyes, desperate to call him, but settling
on a text;

‘Thank
you so much for the present, Lucas, it is incredibly beautiful. I have never
had anything like it. I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas.
Jess x’

I
was a bit tipsy when I put on the kiss, wondering whether it had been a touch
unprofessional, but the man had got me a Tiffany bracelet. It didn’t matter
that he also got one for Melody, or that it was probably pocket change for
someone so wealthy. The fact that he’d done it at all after everything that had
happened moved me. What came back warmed my heart even more.

‘You
are very welcome, Jessica. I would have loved to see the smile on your face.
Wishing you a very merry Christmas.
Lucas
.

I
hadn’t got a kiss, but I hardly expected one from Lucas Hunter. I didn’t
imagine the man textually kissed anyone. He wanted to see my smile and that was
enough to send my overactive imagination spiralling into fantasies of cobalt
eyes and secret trysts and delicious threats of spanking.

Boxing
Day was spent playing with Dex and utilising the Christmas leftovers for a
turkey curry and bubble and squeak. The curry was fine, but by mid afternoon I
was seriously starting to regret frying up the potatoes, cabbage and Brussels
spouts, suffocating in the middle of what could only be described as a fart-off
between my sister and my son.

The
more I told them they were gross, the more they did it. “That’s why it’s called
bubble and squeak, Sis. Because it bubbles in your belly and squeaks out of
your bum.”

I
was pretty certain that wasn’t how it got its name, but Dex found it so
hilarious I was loathed to Google it and put them straight. I escaped to the
clear air of the kitchen in protest, going through the final docklands party checklist
for the umpteenth time. It was under control, at least it looked to be, and with
three days to go until the party itself my nerves were beginning to unravel.
Everything on the list was checked, almost.

Elite
had organised the staffing and the catering and the site foreman had informed
me on Christmas Eve that the area we’d be using for the party itself had been
finished. With most of the building staff on a two week break, a core team had
stayed on, fitting out a huge space over two floors which represented the
biggest apartment in the block. It would look the part but nothing was
functional, which meant confirming the arrival of the most luxurious portable
toilets available to man, and organising a back room, out of sight from the
guests, to keep the food hot and the champagne cold.

The
response had been even better than we’d hoped for. Red London buses were
bringing the guests from an early champagne reception in the city which was
easier access and far more central. It would also reinforce just how quick their
commute to the city would be. Charlie had labelled it ‘a stroke of genius’.

I’d
decided against entertainment because the party would be split over several
rooms and two floors. I didn’t want to distract the guests interested in
purchasing a property who would be speaking to the team of estate agents on
hand to discuss options and prices and hopefully sell some off plan.

A
last minute brainwave had left me up against the clock as I arrived back in the
office late on Thursday, running through the final details and noticing that
Melody and I were both wearing our bracelets. “Snap,” I grinned, holding up my
wrist as I walked past her desk which earned me a particularly nasty glare.

She
was probably thinking Lucas would have bought her something better than me. I
was learning to laugh at Melody’s mean nature and wasn’t taking it nearly as
much to heart as she left for the evening without saying goodbye. I noticed a
thin line of bright light seeping out from under the door of his office and
resisted the urge to go and say hello. I hadn’t seen him for days and I’d
missed him.

I
text Chas to check that she’d dropped Dex at Mrs Jones’ house to be swiftly
informed that she would have him until I got back and there was pasta bake in
the oven for tea. I asked her to tell Mrs Jones I’d be back by seven thirty at
the latest; she was having him overnight tomorrow and any longer seemed like a
bit of a liberty.

 
I’d needed to wait for darkness to fall to get
the full effect of my new audacious last minute plan and I only had tonight to
check if it would work. I looked up as Lucas’s door opened and he stepped out of
his office looking absolutely glorious, the shadow of at least a day’s stubble
darkening his strong jaw as he held my gaze with those incredible eyes.

“You’re
working late,” he smiled, hovering at the side of my desk as I licked my lips
in an effort to replace the moisture he’d somehow managed to suck from my dry
mouth.

“I’m
heading to the docklands. There’s something I need to check out before tomorrow
that wasn’t part of my original proposals,” I said, gazing at him to assess his
reaction and suddenly wondering whether I should have informed him before now.
The man was nothing if not a control freak.

“What
is it?” he asked, smiling warmly and it was one of the few times I’d ever seen
him truly relaxed.

“You’ve
kind of got to see it to get the full effect,” I said as he threw me a bemused
glance.

“What
are we waiting for then, Jessica?” he asked as I stared up at him wide eyed and
unable to contain my shock.

 
“You want to see it together?
Now?”
I asked as he chuckled, a low deep seductive sound
that did dangerous things to my insides.

 
“Yeah, I’ll give you a ride,” he said and I
was barely able to hold back my immediate response, ‘I wish you would’,
flushing and nodding as I grabbed my coat, following him to the car park and a
black sporty Range Rover I hadn’t seen before. Lucas Hunter clearly believed
that four wheels weren’t enough for one man.

“Hop
in,” he said, lights flashing as he hit his keys and the car beeped to life. I
savoured the moment, looking across at Lucas as he turned to smile, pulling
into the London streets and heading towards the docklands. I wanted to stare,
forcing myself to look away, feeling him watching me just as closely in a ping
pong game of surreptitious glances which did nothing to quell the fluttering in
my stomach.

“Did
you have a good Christmas?” I asked eventually, breaking the silence as he
turned to smile at me.

“It
was lively,” he laughed gently. “But that’s not unusual when the Hunter family
are together.” I wanted to know more, understand the man behind the boss and
find out whatever I could while he’d dropped the moody, brooding persona and
was uncharacteristically jovial.

“Tell
me about them,” I smiled as he chuckled.

“Well
Charlie was making the most of the party season,” he said, raising his eyebrows
in a look that screamed pure sex as my skin bristled and he smiled knowingly. “And
Tyler was playing the rock star, but we don’t stand for any of that shit,” he
laughed.

“He’s
the lead singer of Heat, the band that were playing that night we first met,
isn’t he?” I asked, watching his face as he smirked slightly. I wondered if he
was having the same visual as I always did – face to face, with me semi naked
having soaked his glorious body in champagne.

“Yes
he is and I rather enjoyed that night, Jessica,” he said, turning to smile as I
swallowed hard, desperately trying to think of a question to distract my errant
body from turning into a quivering mess.

“He’d
just signed a record deal, right?” I asked as he nodded.

“Yeah
– they’re due to release their first single soon,” he said as I thought back to
the conversation I’d had with Chas the night she’d confronted him, certain that
she’d mentioned someone else.

“You
have another brother, don’t you?” I asked as he turned a puzzled frown on me,
obviously wondering where I’d got my information.

“Roman.
We didn’t see him at Christmas,” he said quietly as his smile faded. I knew
from the darkness that flashed fleetingly across his face that whatever had
happened with his other brother was a cause of great sadness to him.

“My
father was there too,” he said eventually as I smiled, trying to lighten the
mood.

“Four
Hunter men in a house at Christmas, I bet that was a cocktail of testosterone,”
I laughed, blushing suddenly as he turned to me, flashing his eyebrows in
surprise.

“Why
do you say that?” he asked, once again picking up and delving deeper into the
comment that would embarrass me the most. Why the hell had I said it?

“It’s
just that you’re...” I started, my voice trailing off and not quite knowing how
to finish the sentence as he quirked his eyebrow at me before I changed the
subject completely and hoped he wouldn’t push it. “We’re almost there,” I
chirped brightly as he laughed at me, deciding not to pursue his first line of
enquiry, thank God.

“So
are you going to keep me in suspense about what you’ve done?” he asked as I
nodded excitedly. “You might want to know I don’t like to be kept in the dark,”
he said seriously as I fought my desire to suddenly blurt it out, knowing that
he’d see as soon as we rounded the next corner.

I
tried again for a change of subject. “I’ve loved every minute of doing this,
Lucas. I’m nervous about tomorrow, but I’ve done my best. Elite have been
brilliant and so have the site foreman and the developers, so providing I
haven’t screwed up and forgotten anything essential it should all go to plan,”
I smiled across at him.

“I
have every faith in you,” he said, turning to look at me and that firm praise
from that soft full mouth had my heart fluttering. I’d seldom heard Lucas
praise anyone, if ever, but it seemed that my beautiful boss was human after
all. I watched his expression closely as he pulled the car around the next
bend, beholding the Waterside development in all its glory.

“Fuck
me,” he muttered under his breath and for the second time tonight I resisted
the urge to say’ I wish you would’, settling instead on a much more
professional “Do you like it?” I was pleased I’d held my nerve and surprised
him.

He
pulled the car to a halt as he soaked it all in and I was absolutely ecstatic
with the result. It looked every bit as incredible as it had on the computer
generated image I’d seen, the whole apartment design projected across the front
of the old industrial space and tricking the eye into believing it had actually
been completed.

It
showed the restaurants across the bottom, with virtual outdoor seating and each
apartment window, similar but all slightly different and the shadows of people
moving around inside. It was absolutely breathtaking.

“I’d
live there,” I grinned as Lucas turned a huge beaming smile on me, leaning
forward to kiss my cheek. I drank in that heavenly masculine scent, revelling
in the closeness, the feel of his skin and the soft brush of stubble, my breath
hitching at the contact as he gazed at me momentarily before pulling away.

 
Jesus, that chaste kiss had been electrifying,
lighting up my skin and I swallowed hard, forcing myself to look away, but not
before noticing that Lucas looked almost as affected as I did.

A
sudden tap on the window startled me from my thoughts as I opened the door and
jumped from the car, stepping out to shake Darren’s hand. “It’s amazing,” I
gasped as he smiled broadly, turning and offering his outstretched hand to
Lucas as he walked around the car and moved beside me. He placed his hand on
the small of my back, heating the skin beneath my coat, that electrical surge
I’d felt in the car running between us again as I looked up at him.