Free At His Convenience Bundle by Penny Jordan, Maggie Cox, Kim Lawrence Page B

what he had done to her? How he had made her feel? How he had made her want him?
    To her relief he strode towards the bathroom without saying anything, leaving her alone to dress.
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    In the bathroom Luke fought furiously to sandbag his feelings. How could he have allowed himself to react to her like that—to respond to her like that? He tried to pinpoint the second things had got out of control, and the reason, rerunning the whole thing through his head in order to reexamine it and sort out some kind of damage limitation plan. But to his disbelief he realised that remembering how Suzy had looked standing there naked was already arousing him again.
    Turning on the shower, Luke stepped under its icy blast, savagely angry with himself and equally angry with Suzy. Did she really think he had been deceived by the role she was trying to play, or by the white-faced look of despair he had seen in her eyes as she tore herself out of his arms?
    As she tore herself out of his arms. The icy jets of water needled onto Luke’s skin unnoticed as he stood still.
    Suzy had been the one to end their intimacy, not him, and if she had not done so by now she would be lying beneath his body.
    Cursing himself Luke tried to ignore the images his mind was relaying to him. He was a man who intended to live his life to a specific moral code; she was a woman who didn’t have a moral bone in her body! An impossible coupling! And he intended to ensure that it remained impossible!
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    â€˜Ready?’
    Numbly Suzy nodded her head, not trusting herself to speak.
    She was wearing a simple linen top with shoestring straps with her trousers, and Luke frowned as he looked at her, recognising how effective the outfit was at making her appear fragile and somehow vulnerable.
    As he opened the suite door for her Suzy snatched a brief look at Luke, helplessly aware that the sight of him, in a pair of immaculate dark-coloured trousers and an equally immaculate soft white shirt, was doing things to her she had no wish whatsoever to acknowledge.
    As they descended the impressive staircase together, Suzy was acutely conscious of him at her side. When they reached the hallway he touched her bare arm lightly, and immediately she flinched.
    â€˜We’re a couple, remember?’ Luke warned her in a low, cold voice.
    As he reached past her to push open the door Suzy caught the clean male smell of his skin, and immediately a quiver of response ran down her spine. She felt an overwhelming urge to turn round and bury her face in his throat, just breathe in the smell of him until she was drunk on it.
    â€˜In here!’
    The door opened and Suzy stepped through it, Luke behind her. The two children she had seen earlier were seated on a windowseat, their heads bent over a computer game. Suzy felt an unexpected tug of emotion as she saw that, despite their clean clothes, they somehow had a heart-rending air of neglect about them.
    Was it because of her own childhood she was so immediately and instinctively aware that these children lacked a mother’s loving input into their lives? Suzy wondered ruefully as she watched them.
    Sir Peter was picking up the drink which had just been poured for him by the smartly dressed waiter. As he saw them he put it down.
    â€˜There you are! Suzy, my dear, what will you have to drink, Luke, are you going to break your normal abstinence tonight?’
    For all that he was their host, Suzy could see that Sir Peter was actually a little in awe of Luke, and she watched the interaction between the two men curiously as Luke announced that he would simply have a tonic.
    â€˜And Suzy?’ Sir Peter pressed, giving her another warm smile.
    â€˜Tonic for me too,’ she echoed.
    â€˜I’m afraid we have to let the children have dinner with us,’ Sir Peter apologised to Suzy as the young Italian waiter handed her her drink. ‘It really is a nuisance having them here, but I’m afraid I wasn’t