The Bad Boy's Redemption - Joss Wood Mills & Boon By Request

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a ten-year-old with a point-and-shoot could’ve done a better job,’ Lu stated, her embarrassment and awkwardness temporarily banished as she spoke about her work.

      ‘Photography is so your passion. Why do you doubt it?’

      Lu blinked at him, nonplussed as she thought about his question. Because right now she doubted everything about herself.

      Will saved her from making a coherent reply when he continued in his smooth, deep voice, ‘Think you can do better?’

      Lu’s eyes sparked with indignation. ‘I know I can do better.’

      Lu didn’t pick up the tongue Will placed in his cheek. ‘I think the photographer was one of the most reputable in Durban.’

      ‘Well, I’d demand a refund.’ Lu sniffed. ‘Shoddy work.’

      Will gestured to the camera with his wine glass. ‘Prove it.’

      ‘What?’

      ‘I’m a tough subject—the least photogenic person in the world.’

      That was like saying that Ryan Reynolds wasn’t sexy. ‘You?’

      ‘Why do you think I keep endorsement deals and modelling work to a minimum? I suck at camera work.’ Will motioned to the camera. ‘Do your worst. Actually, do your best. Take a photo of me that’s better than the one on the website; God knows I need it.’

      Lu narrowed her eyes at him and couldn’t resist the challenge in his eyes. Without breaking his stare she reached for her camera, flipped it on by touch and lifted it to her face. She adjusted the light filters, the focus, and fiddled with the settings, and then her finger was on the button and his image flew to the memory card.

      There was so much she was unsure of but this she knew. Lighting, framing, capturing, Lu slid into the zone. She knew how to pull an image together, to capture the light on his face, the glint in his eyes, the tiny dimple in his cheek.

      She might not know him, but through her camera she caught a glimpse of his soul.

      And somehow, very strangely, she felt that she recognised it.

       FOUR

      ‘I can’t believe this photo.’ Will picked up her camera from the table and looked at his image captured in the viewfinder. ‘It’s really good. I look serious, but approachable.’

      Will expected her to say I told you so, but she just winged a quick, grateful smile his way as she placed a huge bowl of salad on the table.

      Will pulled on his shirt and left his towel wrapped around his hips so that it could soak up the water from the still dripping board shorts she’d found for him to wear. Lu had suggested he take a swim while she got dinner on the table, and since it was muggy and hot he’d quickly agreed.

      He gestured to the colourful cushions on the chairs. ‘I’m wet.’

      ‘Yours won’t be the first wet bum to sit there,’ Lu told him, dipping a serving spoon into the lasagne. Behind her back both dogs climbed up onto separate chairs and snuggled into the plump cushions. Lu heard their contented huffs and shook her head.

      ‘You’re very relaxed about your house,’ Will commented, thinking that his two sisters would have had a hissy fit by now at the thought of dogs on their furniture.

      ‘The furniture is old and the animals are as much a part of this family as we are.’

      Will sat down, topped up their glasses with wine and pushed his wet hair back from his forehead. He skimmed a glance over her face as she reached for a plate to dish up onto and wondered what was going on in that very busy head of hers. Not that he cared, he assured himself, he was just being naturally curious.

      Will took the plate she held out, put it down in front of him and reached for the salad. He actually groaned his approval as he dumped a mountain on his plate. ‘God, this looks so good.’

      ‘Tuck in,’ Lu told him as she dished up her own food.

      They ate in silence for a couple of minutes—well, she ate and Will inhaled his food. Even at home he wasn’t much of a cook, so he mostly ate out or ordered take out, and he’d forgotten the pleasure of a simple home-cooked meal. It reminded him of his family, of feeling relaxed, content.

      When his immediate hunger was satisfied Will slowed down and in between bites sipped his wine. Over Lu’s head he could see the portraits of her parents, and he frowned as a thought occurred to him.

      ‘So, you have brothers, right? Where are they?’

      ‘They left for university a couple of weeks ago. They’re in Cape Town.’

      Curiosity turned to intrigue. ‘And did you see much of them over the past decade?’

      ‘Sometimes far too much of them.’

      Lu’s smile bloomed and his heart flip-flopped.

      ‘I became their guardian. We all lived here together.’

      Will lowered his wine glass in shock. ‘You took on twin boys when you were—how old were you?’

      ‘I’d just turned nineteen.’

      ‘And they were—what?—eight?’

      ‘Thereabouts.’

      ‘But...you were just a baby yourself. They allowed you to do that?’

      Lu shrugged. ‘There wasn’t anybody else who could take them, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to put them into care so that I could carry on with my life.’

      Will watched her eat as he thought about what he’d been doing when he was nineteen. Playing first-class rugby in England, pretending to study, chasing girls, drinking, having a ball. Her sacrifice took his breath away.

      ‘But—’

      Lu lifted her hand and he instantly cut off his question.

      ‘It’s a bit of a scratchy subject with me at the moment. Do you mind if we don’t talk about it?’

      ‘No, that’s fine.’ It wasn’t, of course. He wanted to shove aside those curtains in her eyes and see what she was hiding, thinking...feeling. Unusual, since he never delved deeper than just below the surface; he’d never needed to.

      Will cleared his plate and looked at her bent head. If this was any other girl he’d call on years of practice, find a dozen innocuous topics to discuss, but he was finding that he didn’t want to skim the surface with Lu. How could he? She’d reluctantly told him about the death of her parents, that she’d raised her twin brothers. And, more unusually, she didn’t want to talk about her past... Most women would have given him a blow-by-blow account of her life by now.

      She was different, Will thought. And original. And because she was so different he wasn’t quite sure how to handle her.

      But they couldn’t sit here in this awkward silence. He’d have to say something.

      ‘So, do you read?’ she asked, at exactly the same time that he asked how often she went clubbing. ‘You’re kidding, right?’ Lu shook her head. ‘That was the first time in...um...six, seven—eight?—years. I’d rather hand-wash sweaty rugby kit than go again.’

      ‘That bad, huh? But if you hated it so much why were you there?’

      Lu wrinkled her nose in annoyance. ‘My brothers.’

      Will looked at the lasagne dish and Lu immediately passed it over. He gestured for her to continue explaining.

      She sat back in her chair and stared at her plate for a long time. When she lifted her eyes again they were shuttered and guileless. ‘It was just a stupid dare between us.’

      Will narrowed his eyes at the lie. Why would going to a nightclub

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