LITMIR.BIZ

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of a date made her feel like a giddy girl, young, innocent, full of hope.

      Ha.

      She was none of those things. She might only be twenty-six, but she’d lived enough for three lifetimes. And as for innocent, hopeful... Luke Bryant might stir something inside her she’d long thought destroyed, but he couldn’t change her and she didn’t think she could change herself.

      And when Luke discovered that … Swallowing, she forced the fluttery panic down. There was no point thinking about the future. Luke was giving her one date. One day. And by the end of it he’d probably have had enough.

      ‘Ready?’

      She whirled around, saw Luke smiling at her. He wore a dark green polo shirt and khaki shorts, and she realised it was the first time she’d seen him in casual clothes. The shirt hugged the lean, sculpted muscles of his chest and shoulders, and the shorts rested low on his trim hips. Her gaze travelled down his tanned, muscular legs to the pair of worn trainers and then back up again to his face, where a surprising grin quirked his mouth.

      ‘Finished?’

      She had, Aurelie realised with some mortification, been checking him out. And not in a deliberate, outrageous, Aurelie-like way. No, this had been instinctive, helpless, yearning admiration. Somehow she managed to smile, nod.

      ‘Yeah, I’m done.’

      ‘And do I pass?’

      ‘You’ll do.’

      He chuckled and placed one hand on the small of her back. She felt the warm, sure press of his palm against her skin and the answering shivers of sensation that rippled out through her body from that little touch.

      ‘So where are we going?’ she asked as they left the hotel. A luxury sedan with tinted windows and a driver at the wheel waited for them at the kerb. Luke opened the door and ushered her into the sumptuous leather interior.

      ‘Camiguin.’

      ‘Cami-what?’

      He smiled and slid in next to her, his thigh brushing hers. Aurelie didn’t know why she was suddenly hyper-aware of his movements, his body. She’d already been naked with this man; he surely shouldn’t have this effect on her.

      And yet, somehow, he did.

      ‘Camiguin,’ Luke repeated. ‘A small island province in the Bohol Sea.’

      ‘So we’re not taking this car there, I assume?’

      ‘No, we’re taking this to the airport, and then a private plane to Mambajao, the capital city. And then we’ll hire a Jeep.’

      ‘Planes, trains and automobiles.’

      ‘It shouldn’t take more than two hours, overall.’

      ‘A private jet is pretty classy.’

      Luke gave her the glimmer of a smile. ‘I can be a pretty classy guy.’

      She felt a ripple of something like pleasure at the light remark, the curve of his mouth. She’d spent so much of her time trying to push Luke away and protect herself. It felt amazingly liberating not to do it. To banter without the barbs, to relax into a—

      A what? A relationship? She didn’t do relationships. Luke might go for them, but they didn’t work for her. She turned to stare out of the window, told herself this was one date. It was nothing. By this time tomorrow they’d probably have decided they’d both had enough.

      The private jet was waiting for them on the tarmac at Manila’s International Airport. Aurelie had taken private jets before, back in her heyday, but she hadn’t been on one in over four years and it felt strange. She stood in the main cabin, glancing around at the leather sofas, the champagne chilling on ice, and felt something cold steal inside her.

      Luke paused in the doorway, his gaze on her face. ‘What is it?’

      She glanced up at him, bemused that he would sense her mood so quickly and easily. She wasn’t even sure what she was feeling. ‘Nothing. Everything’s very nice.’

      ‘That’s a scathing indictment if I ever heard one.’ His gaze moved slowly over her, assessing, understanding. His forehead creased and he nodded. ‘I guess you’ve taken a few of these in your time.’

      She shrugged. ‘One or two.’

      ‘Does it bring back memories?’

      Did it? ‘No, just a feeling.’

      ‘Not a very nice one.’

      She opened her mouth to deny it, then said nothing. This honesty thing was tough. ‘Maybe,’ she finally allowed, and Luke smiled faintly, as if he knew how difficult she found this kind of talking. Sharing. All of it awkward, awful, painful.

      ‘How have you flown under the radar for so long?’

      ‘By holing up in Vermont.’

      ‘And no one there gives you away?’

      ‘They’re a close-mouthed bunch. And they’re loyal to my grandmother.’ Too late she realised she’d said more than she meant to. Funny how that happened. You started being a little honest and then other things began to slip out. Soon she wouldn’t be able to control it.

      ‘Your grandmother? Was Julia Schmidt your grandmother, then?’

      ‘No.’ She moved over to sit on the sofa, rubbing her arms in the chilled air of the plane’s interior. ‘Are we going to get going?’

      Luke sat across from her. ‘As soon as we’re cleared for take-off.’ He didn’t speak for a moment, just studied her, and Aurelie looked away from his gaze. She heard the plane’s engines thrum to life with a feeling of relief. ‘Champagne?’ he asked, and she nodded, glad he wasn’t going to ask any more questions.

      It wasn’t until he’d handed her a glass and raised his own in a toast that he finally spoke again. ‘You know, this second chance thing?’ She eyed him warily. ‘It doesn’t work if you’re going to guard everything you say.’

      ‘I wasn’t,’ she protested, and Luke just arched an eyebrow. She took a sip of champagne, glad for the distraction. ‘I told you I’m not good at this.’ He said nothing and, goaded, she said a bit sharply, ‘It’s not like you’ve been baring your soul.’

      ‘Haven’t I?’ he asked quietly. He looked away then, and Aurelie felt a strange twisting inside as she thought of his words last night. Words which made a shivery thrill run all the way through her. I know enough to know I want to know more.

      Did she want to be known?

      She took a sip of champagne, the bubbles seeming to fizz all the way through her. Maybe she did. At least for one day. One date. That was safe enough, surely.

      ‘All right.’ She set her champagne glass on the coffee table between them. ‘What do you want to know?’

      Luke turned back to her, bemused. ‘You look like you’re facing the firing squad.’

      ‘It feels that way, a little bit.’

      ‘I suppose you’ve always had to be careful about what you say.’

      ‘I haven’t always been careful enough.’ He acknowledged the point with a nod. There had been several tell-all exposés in various tabloids, all with too much truth in them. Aurelie felt herself start to prickle. ‘So what do you want to know?’

      ‘What do you want to tell me?’

      She gave a soft laugh. ‘Not much.’

      ‘There must be something. Some small, innocuous bit of information that you don’t mind imparting.’

      She smiled, felt the tension inside her ease, at least a little bit. ‘Well … I like bubblegum ice cream.’

      ‘Bubblegum?’

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