Then mid-week she’d discovered Lucas had spoken to the chairman of Brentford’s. The firm had given her three months’ holiday. When she had discovered from one of the other partners why, she had been furious and deeply hurt in equal proportions.
She heard the doorbell ring. They were flying out to Greece today and tomorrow was their wedding day. ‘Unfortunately,’ Amber muttered darkly, smoothing the fine buttercup silk summer dress she had chosen to wear over her slender hips, and, taking a deep, calming breath, she walked out of the living room, along the hall and opened the front door.
Lucas stood on the path, tall and dark, and the expression on his strong face was one of amusement. ‘I don’t believe it—you live in a country cottage with roses around the door. It is not you at all, Amber,’ he drawled mockingly.
Put out by his opening comment, Amber snapped, ‘How the hell would you know?’ Her heart had leapt at the sight of him—she had not seen him since last Sunday.
A green polo shirt fit snugly over his wide shoulders, and outlined the musculature of his broad chest in loving detail. Khaki cotton trousers clung to his hips and long legs. A pair of sunglasses was shoved carelessly back across the thick black hair of his head, revealing his perfect features in stark beauty. It wasn’t fair; no man should look so good. Even the summer sun glinting on the silver wings of his hair only enhanced his vibrant masculine charm.
Lucas straightened. ‘As I recall I know you very well.’ His dark eyes roamed over her face and down over her shapely figure in a blatant sensual caress.
‘Only in the biblical sense,’ Amber returned, and, turning back into the hall, she grabbed the case she had packed and walked to the door. ‘I’m ready. Let’s go.’ She did not want to invite him into her home, because she knew her marriage to Lucas would only last as long as it took Spiro’s will to pass probate. She loved her cottage; she had bought it from her landlord three years ago, and had had great fun renovating it. She wanted no memories of Lucas to haunt it when she returned.
‘Is that all your luggage?’ Lucas demanded, one dark brow arching incredulously on the single suitcase. ‘We are getting married in the morning, we will be in Greece for at least the rest of the summer. Where are all your clothes? Surely not in that thing.’ He flung an elegant tanned hand at her admittedly rather battered suitcase.
‘Let’s get one thing straight here, Lucas. I don’t need anything special for a civil marriage that is strictly business and will be terminated as soon as possible; the dress I am wearing will do. Easy-care wash and dry as are the other clothes I have packed. I don’t need much to bum around on a Greek beach for three months, which is all I will be doing since you took it upon yourself to get my employer to give me a holiday. Understood?’ Amber told him belligerently, squaring up to him, her golden eyes flashing. If he thought for one second she was going to socialise with him, or play the part of the loving wife, or climb into his bed like a good little girl, he was in for a rude awakening.
Black eyes clashed with hers, and she saw the glint of fury before he successfully masked it with self-restraint.
‘Amber, you can walk around naked, if that is what you want,’ he drawled mockingly. ‘In fact, I would prefer you to.’ His eyes, flaring with sensual heat, roamed over her body. She looked breathtakingly beautiful, the buttercup silk dress outlining her luscious curves in loving detail. Her eyes were wide and lustrous, with just a trace of vulnerability in their golden depths that her anger could not hide. She was nowhere near as confident as she wanted to appear.
‘Oh, that is not what I mean and you know it,’ she snapped.
Lucas knew now was not the time to argue. ‘It was a joke, Amber, I hear what you are saying. A business arrangement.’
Expecting an argument, Amber was surprised at his easy agreement, and for a moment felt ridiculously disappointed. But then what had she expected? She remonstrated with her foolish heart. Lucas had not wanted her five years ago, he was hardly going to be desperate to marry her now. On that sobering thought she brushed past him, dropped the suitcase on the path, and turned to lock the door of her little cottage.
‘What exactly do you intend doing with this place?’ Lucas asked, picking up her suitcase in one hand, his other hand settling at the base of her rigid spine as he urged her away from the house.
‘Why, nothing,’ she informed him dulcetly. ‘I expect to be back at work in three months.’ Lucas wasn’t getting it all his own way. He had ridden roughshod over all her objections, charmed her father, and bribed her boss to give her a three-month sabbatical, by the simple expedient of becoming a client of Brentford’s. He might have blackmailed her into marriage, but he was definitely not blackmailing her into his bed again.
‘Well, it is a bit small, but I suppose I could get used to it,’ Lucas murmured.
Amber tensed. ‘What do you mean by that?’
His sensuous mouth tilted at the corners. ‘Why, Amber, darling, once we are married, what is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.’
Amber’s eyes widened in astonishment at his words. ‘You’re joking.’
‘If you want us to live in a cottage rather than a mansion,’ he said, shrugging his broad shoulders. His dark eyes watched the myriad expressions flicker across her exquisite face, and then flicked appreciatively over the soft curve of her breasts, the narrow waist and on down over the slender hips and long legs. ‘I don’t mind,’ Lucas said huskily, his dark eyes dancing wickedly.
He was laughing at her; she should have been furious. ‘But—but, I—I mean you have just agreed the marriage is strictly business,’ Amber stammered to a halt. He was handsome, a rampantly virile male, and she stared at him, her breath catching in her throat.
‘I know exactly what you mean, Amber,’ Lucas emphasised dryly. ‘You are angling for a fight and I flatly refuse to give you one. Business marriage or whatever! If my competitors are to be convinced, we have to live together for as long as it takes. Now relax, the sun is shining, it is a beautiful day, and tomorrow will be even better. Get in the car and let’s go.’ With a broad grin he urged her out onto the road and into the passenger seat of a black BMW.
She watched him through lowered lashes as he slid into the driving seat after depositing her suitcase in the back. Why had she even imagined for a moment that she would be able to resist Lucas, deny him her body? If he wanted her he only had to smile at her, and she was lost. Why had she even tried to pretend she hated him? She loved him, and the realisation of exactly how vulnerable she was hurt like hell. But it made her all the more determined to defy him.
Starting the car, Lucas turned his dark head and smiled at her again. ‘I have a surprise for you when we get to the airport.’
Her own vulnerability to his blatant masculine charm made her respond with biting sarcasm. ‘Let’s hope it is the same surprise as the last time you said that to me. You are marrying someone else…’
Lucas stiffened, his smile vanishing, his dark eyes staring straight ahead, watching the road. Amber noticed the dull stain of red on his cheekbones and for a second thought he was embarrassed until he spoke. ‘No, this time it has to be you. I have no choice.’
Amber opened her mouth to argue and stopped. Shrinking back in the seat, she let her thoughts loose, and winced at her own conceit. She had been so incensed at being conned into marrying Lucas, convinced she was making a great sacrifice for her family; she had never thought for a moment how Lucas had to feel. He had loved his first wife, Christina,