Single Girl Abroad (Mills & Boon M&B) (Mills & Boon Special Releases) (7 page)

There was no finesse in him as he lifted her high and brought her down onto him and held her tight. Madeline gasped and buried her face in his shoulder as she adjusted to his possession.

Tight. She was so warm and tight. One arm at her back and one in her hair as need pushed Luke further and harder into her, too far in thrall to be a gentleman. Too far gone to care that they were in an elevator. And then she bit down hard on the cord of his neck, not gentle but ravenous, and the wildness he carried deep down inside him rose up and finally broke free.

Raw power and desperation, as she matched him need for need.

White heat and exaltation as she cried out her release.

Red haze and incantation as he rode her hard and exploded deep inside her.

That they’d remained upright when they’d lost their minds seemed something of a miracle to Luke. That Madeline still clung to him seemed even more of a miracle. He put his forehead to hers, breathing hard as he closed his eyes and tried to remember how they’d come to this.

‘Maddy,’ he murmured, when he had the words for speech. ‘Maddy, I’m sorr—’

‘Don’t,’ she said, and covered his mouth with trembling
fingers. Her lips replaced her fingers, softer still and even more vulnerable. ‘Don’t be.’

So he kissed her again, as gently as he could, and even then the bite of hunger raised its head and threatened to overpower him.

He pulled out of the kiss, and put his lips to her temple instead.

He looked in the mirror at what he’d done and closed his eyes, not ready to face the truth of it.

‘I wish …’ What did he wish? That the last five minutes hadn’t happened? No, he didn’t wish that. ‘I should have taken better care of you.’ He shouldn’t have lost control.

‘I’ve no complaints.’ He tasted the truth in her words. He opened his eyes to find her watching him solemnly.

‘None,’ she said with a shrug. ‘I wanted this. Wanted you, in spite of all those very good reasons to stay away from you. I may not know where all this is heading, but I’m big girl enough to take plenty of responsibility for how we got here.’

Even as Madeline finished her speech, body parts rippled and twitched. Madeline’s lashes came down to cover her eyes and she caught at her swollen lower lip with her teeth.

‘Aftershock?’ he murmured, in that dark knowing voice.

‘Mmm.’

‘More?’

‘Please.’

Madeline whimpered as her legs closed vicelike around him and she ground down hard. A not so gentle thrust,
the brush of his thumb, and she tilted her head back, and came for him again.

Hot colour stained her cheeks when finally she deigned to open her eyes.

‘Would you like me to kiss it better?’ he murmured silkily. ‘Because, trust me, all you have to do is ask.’

Inner muscles jumped for him again and Luke hardened, feeling invincible. Half a dozen slow and rocking strokes, an open-mouthed kiss that imprinted itself somewhere in the vicinity of his heart, and he came deep inside her again.

Madeline emerged from Luke’s latest possession boneless, and damn near mindless. By some miracle they were still standing, but Luke’s chest heaved with the effort of drawing breath and he stood shoulder slumped to the mirrored wall in what she suspected was a valiant attempt not to crush her.

His eyes were closed; his grin was wide. ‘You know how you said you got us into this?’ he murmured, his voice a throaty purring rumble. ‘Any ideas on how to get us
out
?’

‘Not one.’ A functioning brain was not one of her current assets. ‘I got nothing.’ Nothing that didn’t involve extreme mortification on her part. ‘You
do
realise that I’m never going to be able to step into this elevator again without thinking of you?’

Luke’s grin widened. Clearly not his problem. He opened sleepy eyes, gleaming gold against sable lashes. ‘Take the stairs.’

‘That would require me finding my feet,’ she said. ‘I’m not entirely sure that’s possible.’

‘It has to be,’ he murmured. ‘Because if we stay here like this much longer, chances are I’m going to drop you.’

He eased out of her and slid her down his body until her feet touched the ground. His hands came up to frame her face. Big hands. Gentle hands, as he urged her closer and into the sweetest of kisses.

‘I’ll make a deal with you,’ he murmured. ‘If you don’t overthink what just happened, neither will I.’

‘It’s a good deal, don’t get me wrong,’ she said as she straightened her dress down over her stomach and thighs and clamped her knees together. ‘I’ll think about it.’

He fastened his trousers, buttoned his shirt, and bent down to pick up his jacket. He kissed her again, no hands just lips, and she responded again. She had the disturbing suspicion that she would always respond to this man’s kisses.

He deftly unbuttoned his inside jacket pocket and retrieved the Delacourte diamonds, before letting the jacket drop to the floor once more. He separated necklace and earrings and dumped the earrings in her hand.

‘Turn around,’ he said, and draped the diamonds around her neck. Madeline slipped the earrings back on and stared at the picture she and Luke made in the mirror. Tousled and wanton, the pair of them. Satiated and surrounded by the warm scent of sex.

‘Is your housekeeper in residence this evening?’ he said.

‘Uh-huh.’

Luke winced. ‘Can you walk?’ he asked next as he pressed the button that would open the lift doors.

‘I can shuffle.’ Thighs and knees firmly locked together might be best, otherwise the scent of sex was going to get a whole lot stronger.

He looked at her with the faintest of grins before scooping her up with one arm behind her knees and the other around her waist as he strode from the lift. He deposited her on her feet at the door, tucked a wisp of her hair behind her ear, and draped her wrap around her neck, his eyes warm as he nodded his approval. ‘Perfect,’ he said. ‘I’m pretty sure she won’t notice a thing.’

Madeline was pretty sure he was joking. ‘You’re not coming in?’

‘Well, I
would
,’ he said. ‘But no.’

Madeline narrowed her eyes. ‘Luke Bennett, are you scared of my housekeeper?’

‘Shouldn’t I be?’ he said.

‘Well, yes. But that’s beside the point. I put out for you in a
lift
.’

‘The recollection of which is burned into my brain,’ he said in all sincerity.

‘But you won’t even come into my house?’

The house paid for by her late husband. The husband whose ashes probably sat in a vase on a mantelpiece somewhere. The husband Luke railed against, even though everything he’d heard about the man and Madeline’s relationship with him had been good. ‘It’s complicated.’

‘It’s not that complicated,’ said Madeline darkly. ‘Is this about William?’

‘Partly. I can’t compete with him money-wise, Maddy. You know that.’

‘I’m not asking you to.’

‘Then try this for a reason.’ Luke gave it to her straight. ‘I’m scared. I’m dead scared of what I feel for you and what I’ll do for you. Coffee I can do. The rest of the night I can do. The rest of the week I can do, here with you. But one day my phone’s going to ring and I’ll have to go and if you ask me to stay you’re going to break me in two. So you be sure, Maddy. You be damn sure before you invite me any further into your life that you know what you’re getting us into.’

He headed for the lift. She didn’t call him back. Straight backed and fiery eyed, she glared at him.

‘I wish to hell I’d never laid eyes on you,’ she muttered.

‘Try wishing to heaven instead,’ he said grimly. ‘I hear they’re a lot better at giving people what they want.’

‘W
ELL
, well, well,’ said Jake as Luke strode into the tiny dojo kitchen at five past twelve. ‘Aren’t you looking all loose limbed and relaxed.’

Luke checked his clothing. Nothing wrong there. Not a lot he could do about his current looseness of limb either, except wait for it to wear off. As for baring his soul to Jake, no, no, and no. He didn’t even want to
think
about what he and Madeline had started tonight, let alone talk about it. He really didn’t. ‘Bite me.’

Jake’s gaze slid to his neck. ‘Someone has.’

Luke stared him down in silence.

Jake’s lips twitched, but he made no further comment.

Luke headed for the fridge and pulled out a couple of beers.

‘Pass,’ said Jake as Luke set one of them down in front of him.

Luke briefly considered putting Jake’s beer back in the fridge, but sooner or later this conversation was going to
swing round to Ji. Luke let the unwanted beer stand where it was.

‘Did you know that Maddy’s husband stepped onto the road unexpectedly, got run over by a truck, and died?’ Luke asked his brother.

‘Happens I did,’ said Jake.

‘And that Maddy had bought him an empty funeral vase a year earlier?’

Jake blinked. Then he began to grin. ‘You can’t think that had anything to do with his death?’

Luke set the beer to his lips and slaked his thirst before answering. ‘Why not? Maybe purchasing the vase initiated a contract that got fulfilled a year later. It’s not as if those kinds of processes aren’t in place—look what happened with Hallie and Nick.’

Jake was laughing outright now at the mention of their sister and her similar experience with such a funeral vase. ‘You think Maddy bought the vase, offed her husband and yet you
still
had sex with her? How does that work, exactly?’

Luke opened his mouth. He closed it again without speaking because there was sure as hell nothing to say. The memory of being inside Maddy in the lift closed in on him, turning him twitchy, and lazily, impossibly alert. He didn’t smile. But he wanted to.

‘Man, you are so screwed,’ said Jake.

‘Yeah, well. I’m not the only one,’ said Luke, retaliation being a perfectly reasonable form of defence, not to mention the kind he vastly preferred. ‘We started the evening at an art show hosted by Bruce and Elena Yi. You know them?’

‘No. Should I?’

‘Probably. They’re Jianne’s aunt and uncle. And they sure as hell know of you.’

Jake shrugged. ‘Lucky them.’

‘I spoke to Elena Yi for a while,’ offered Luke carefully. ‘It seemed only polite considering she’d gone to some lengths to arrange the meeting. She seems to think that Ji’s in trouble.’

Not by a flicker did Jake’s emotions show on his face. But he reached for the beer Luke had left on the table, and cracked it and drank deeply before replying. ‘What kind of trouble?’

‘Ji’s father wants her to marry some business associate of his. Ji’s aunt thinks the man’s a monster. She’d like to cut this monster out of Ji’s life completely, hence the need for a hero. She’d prefer you to appear on a white charger, if at all possible. Judging by the madness of those paintings tonight, I figure any colour of horse will do.’

Jake sat back in his chair and ran a hand through his hair. He put his beer to his lips and Luke let his brother be. Jake had always been the calm one, the unflappable leader of their family unit, but that didn’t make him an ice man. All it did was make him more dangerous than the rest of them put together on those rare times that his emotional levee finally did break.

‘What does Ji want?’ said Jake finally.

‘I don’t know.’ Luke reached into his back pocket, pulled out a business card and slid it across the table. ‘But she’s staying with her aunt and uncle in Singapore at the moment, and that’s their private number. You could always call her and find out.’

Jake stared at the glossy red card with its ivory-coloured embossed Chinese characters. He didn’t pick it up. ‘She could just be batty,’ he said. ‘The aunt. I mean a monstrous suitor and a dynasty princess in need of saving? It’s a scene ripped straight from a fairy tale.’

‘Well, the uncle’s crazy, then, too,’ said Luke. ‘Because he’s backing his wife all the way.’

Madeline slept fitfully, rose early, and found herself at work by seven. Her personal office staff didn’t work weekends, and truth being told Madeline had no real need to be there other than to reassure herself that the security she craved still existed and that she had full control of it.

Better this than lazing in bed and recalling what it was like to surrender herself into the arms of a passionate warrior. A crusader who stared death in the face every time he took a job. A lover who surrendered to pleasure with an intensity that reeked of no tomorrows.

Better to bury herself in work than contemplate a body replete.

Far wiser to forget all about Luke Bennett’s hungry lovemaking than to acknowledge—with the dismay of a junkie who already knew after only one hit—that life had just changed irrevocably.

When her office phone rang at five minutes past nine, Madeline stared at it for at least half a dozen rings before finally picking up and speaking her name.

The pregnant silence on the other end of the phone wasn’t exactly encouraging. ‘Hello?’

‘Mrs Delacourte?’ said a soft female voice. ‘My name’s Jianne Xang.’

Oh.

‘You went to my aunt and uncle’s gallery presentation last night. With Luke Bennett.’

‘Yes,’ said Madeline. ‘Yes, I know.’ God help her.

‘I was hoping I could get a contact number for him from you.’

Oh. ‘I have a number for him on my mobile if you’d care to wait while I retrieve it.’ Madeline didn’t know what to say of what she knew of Ji’s relationship with the Bennetts. Which admittedly wasn’t much. ‘Another way to contact him would be to call his brother’s dojo. That’s where he’s staying. At Jake’s. You could try calling him there?’

Awkward silence.

‘Hang on, I’ll grab my mobile.’

‘
Shi shi ni
,’ said Jianne. A polite thank you.

Madeline gave the woman Luke’s number.

Jianne thanked her again, in English this time, and hung up.

Madeline took one look at the Delacourte apartment project filing cabinet full of plans that might never see the light of day and promptly put her elbows to the desk and her hands to her face. Surely her role in the Jake and Jianne Xang saga had come to an end, hadn’t it? Contact had been established between representatives of the two families. Messages had been sent. Hundred-million-dollar deals had been blown. What more could they possibly want from her?

Apart from a phone number.

The phone rang again. Madeline groaned. If Jianne Xang wanted the dojo number she could have that too.
Maybe Jake would thank her one day. Maybe Ji and Jake would get back together, Bruce Yi would deign to do business with her, Delacourte would start to grow again, and Luke would stop disarming weaponry for a living.

And maybe she was dreaming.

‘Your housekeeper gave me your work number. I think I’m growing on her.’ Luke’s voice on the other end of the phone line, sparking a head full of memories of last night in his company. Before the elevator, and in it. After the elevator, and the way they’d parted. Not amicably.

‘Hey,’ she said warily. It was better than saying nothing at all.

‘Ji just called. Said you’d given her my number. She wants me to meet her for lunch.’

‘Sounds like fun.’

‘Yeah, well, I need your help.’

‘I’ve already given you my help.’

‘Well, I need more. What if Ji gets upset? What if she cries?’ he said darkly. ‘That’s never good.’

‘What? The honourable warrior no good at comforting distraught women?’

‘This warrior runs a mile from distraught women,’ said Luke. ‘I’m amazed you haven’t noticed.’

There hadn’t been
time
to notice. Not at the pace they’d moved.

‘Are you distraught this morning, Maddy?’ he asked quietly. ‘About what went down last night?’

‘Not really. Not exactly. But I am confused so if it’s clarity you want from me, Luke Bennett, you’re in for disappointment.’

‘Clarity’s overrated,’ he countered. ‘I’m sitting here
trying to tell myself that I want you to come to lunch simply so you can help with Ji. With my next breath I’m planning how to get you naked with me inside you and to hell with what comes afterwards.’

Not a lot a woman could say to a statement like that. Not a lot she could do except remember to breathe, and close her eyes tight against the carnality of the visions that assaulted her.

‘Maybe we overreacted last night. To the situation at hand,’ said Luke, as if he very much wanted to believe it. ‘Maybe if we keep our aims and expectations in check this thing between us can work.’

‘You mean you’re aiming to be here today and gone tomorrow and I’m expected to enjoy it while it lasts and make no demands of you? I know that’s what you need from a woman, Luke. I understand why it has to be that way for you. I just don’t know if it’s going to suit
me
.’

‘There’s only one way to find out, Madeline,’ he said quietly. ‘Come to lunch.’

At one thirty-five exactly, Madeline walked into the elegant foyer of the Four Seasons hotel and headed for their high-end restaurant where Peking duck and all the delicate pancake breads and other accompaniments that went with it reigned supreme. She’d booked a table for three under the name of Bennett. According to the floor manager, one of her party already awaited her at the bar. Tentatively, Madeline headed in that direction.

Jianne Xang was everything a Shanghai princess should be. Petite, exquisitely dressed, ethereally beautiful, and intrinsically aloof.

She was also, thought Madeline on closer inspection, incredibly nervous. The eyes did not lie, and Jianne’s were fixed, hunted-deer style, on the restaurant door. Madeline’s arrival hadn’t registered with her. Luke might not have even told her to expect a third person.

If he hadn’t, thought Madeline with a sigh of exasperation at the ignorance of men, then Jianne would have discovered at the door that the Bennett booking was a table for three. No guesses as to whom Jianne expected that third person to be.

It wasn’t until Madeline started towards her that Jianne’s gaze cut to her. Jianne smiled tentatively, polite acknowledgement of a stranger, nothing more, and then as Madeline kept eye contact Jianne’s eyes grew puzzled.

Madeline had no idea what title to use when greeting this woman. Mrs Bennett? Possibly not. So she settled for informality and hoped she would be forgiven the etiquette breach.

‘Jianne?’ she asked, and when the other woman nodded, ‘I’m Madeline Delacourte. Luke asked me to join you both for lunch. Mind you, it would have helped had he
mentioned
this to you at some stage.’

‘I … see,’ said Jianne, only clearly she didn’t.

‘It’d also help a lot if he were
here
,’ said Madeline dryly. Ji’s gaze cut to the door again. Madeline’s followed. ‘Speak of the devil.’

‘You’re Luke’s … paramour?’ asked Ji delicately as he started towards them.

Nice word, paramour. Courtly and genteel. All the things her relationship with Luke wasn’t. ‘Something like that,’ said Madeline. ‘It’s complicated.’

A hint of sympathy flared deep in Jianne’s dark eyes. ‘When there’s a Bennett involved, it usually is.’

Luke reached them and greeted Jianne with a smile and a kiss for her cheek before turning towards Madeline. He did not kiss her cheek, he kissed her mouth, briefly, as if he’d done it a thousand times and would do it a thousand times more before he was through.

‘I should have taken one look at you and ran,’ she told him wryly. ‘I should have listened to your brother.’ No point tiptoeing around the subject of Jacob. He might not have been there in person, but he was the
reason
they were there, after all.

Ordering came easy, the Peking duck times three, an extravagant affair that started formal but grew increasingly casual as pancake pockets were filled and different combinations arranged. Even Ji had begun to relax beneath the easy charm of the tiger’s golden gaze by the time they were halfway through the meal.

And then, sated, Luke turned to Ji and with typical western bluntness got down to business. ‘Your aunt and uncle are worried about you, Ji. They say you need Jake’s help.’

Jianne took her time before replying. She finished the morsel of food on her plate and dabbed at her mouth with her napkin before replying.

‘They’re wrong,’ she said. ‘I have a slight problem, yes. But I can handle it. There’s no need to involve Jake. There was no need to involve any of you, and I apologise for that. My aunt and uncle acted impetuously when they enlisted your help. I should have seen it coming. I should
have known they were up to something and put a stop to it.’ Jianne shrugged. ‘I didn’t.’

‘So if Jake were to file for divorce, you’d be okay with that?’ asked Luke.

Panic flared in Jianne’s eyes. Not just an I-think-I’ve-lost-my-car-keys-panic, but bone-deep fear and anguish. ‘Yes,’ she said faintly. ‘I would be okay with that.’

‘And would it help to make your problem go away?’ asked Luke more gently.

‘That’s irrelevant,’ said Jianne.

Luke sat back in his chair and his gaze cut to Madeline. What next? he seemed to say.

‘Does Jake
want
a divorce?’ Madeline asked Luke with a questioning shrug. Heaven knew how, but she seemed to be acting as Jianne’s mouthpiece rather than Jacob’s. Maybe it was a solidarity-between-women thing.

‘Not if it causes Ji problems,’ said Luke.

‘He’s such a sweetheart.’ Madeline barely resisted rolling her eyes. Because from where she was sitting, Jake’s amenability was more a sign of problem avoidance than active co-operation. ‘Would he consider resuming his marriage to Jianne in order to make her problem go away?’

‘He’s not that sweet,’ said Luke dryly.

‘Just checking. What if he were to
pretend
to be back in Jianne’s life for a time?’ Madeline said next. ‘Would he do that?’

‘He doesn’t need to
do
anything,’ said Jianne, finally finding her voice. ‘That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I don’t need his help.’