He knew what had happened all those years ago wasn’t her fault. She’d been a kid. Sure, she’d been silly, naïve—reckless, even. But who wasn’t at that age? She hadn’t deserve what had happened to her and he’d made sure that the loser who’d attacked her understood how wrong he’d been.
Luke watched her walk back to the table filled with people he hadn’t seen in years. People who had once been closer to him than his family. People who’d made him feel normal. People who’d made him feel as if he belonged somewhere for the first time in his life. For the only time in his life. He’d never felt like that since.
The memory of that summer on Weeping Reef had got him through some tough times in his life. Had it only been a few months they’d all lived together on the island? It had seemed like longer. It had seemed that summer had lasted for years. It was the place where he’d remembered being young. Having fun. Being himself. But that was over. His reality now was work and responsibility and money and more work.
And he liked his life. He didn’t want to go back. He’d grown up so much since then, learned so much. He was different now. Stronger.
But as he watched Amy walk away, clearly angry and upset, he didn’t feel strong. He felt twenty-four again. Inept. Out of his depth and totally unable to decide what to do next. At twenty-four he would have ignored it. Ignored her. Ignored the way she felt and the fact that he’d put his foot into it. He would have sat with the others and said nothing. Carried on as if nothing had happened.
But he wasn’t twenty-four any more. He was turning thirty-two in a month. And over the years he’d learned that the only way to solve a problem was to throw himself into it. Avoiding problems always made them bigger, more bad and harder to solve. Walking away was for sheep, and he wasn’t a sheep. Not any more.
His feet flew across the floor and he had his arm on hers before she even sat down. ‘Amy, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it came out.’
Her eyes shot up to his. The same pretty brown eyes he remembered from all those years ago, but now a little more lined around the edges. From laughing. Or perhaps from crying. Probably both. If her life had been anything like his it would have been filled with both over the last eight years.
There were no tears in her eyes now, but there was something else. A fierce, angry determination he’d never seen before.
‘It doesn’t matter, Luke, that was a long time ago.’
She turned away, but he wasn’t letting her go. She didn’t fool him. There was no way she didn’t still think about what had happened. He did. A lot.
During the last year in particular he had thought about it constantly. Since Koko. Since he had almost been the father of a daughter himself. He’d thought about all the things that could go wrong. All the trouble a girl could get into. He’d braced himself. He’d been as prepared as he could. He’d actually been looking forward to it after the initial shock had worn off.
‘Amy.’ He took the drinks from her hands and placed them on the table before moving a little closer to her. ‘I’m sorry.’ He held her eyes. ‘I meant you’re still an impossible flirt.’
‘Is that what you think of me?’ Her eyes hardened. ‘I’m just a silly flirt who deserves everything she gets?’
She hissed the words and as he held her arm he could feel her shake just a little. Clearly it wasn’t okay. Clearly she still thought about what had happened all those years ago. And clearly he’d put his foot in it big-time.
Her eyes darted from one of his to the other. Challenging. Hard. No fear, just distrust. That made his gut clamp hard. He didn’t want her to feel that way about him. For some reason that was important. He didn’t want her to feel she couldn’t rely on him.
‘No, Amy. That’s not what I think. I like how you flirt with everyone you meet. You’re friendly and sweet…if a little naïve. But I like that about you. I always did.’
He didn’t move his hand from her arm or his eyes from hers. He couldn’t let her go. Not until she realised that he had her. He wasn’t going to hurt her. Something inside him burned to let her know that.
‘I was just teasing you.’
She stayed silent but didn’t move. The noise of the bar whooped around them but right then Luke couldn’t concentrate on anything but her and his need to make her understand what he meant.
‘What happened to your freckles, Lollipop?’
Her brow furrowed and her eyes lost that angry gaze. ‘What?’
‘Your freckles…across your nose.’ He softly grazed the top of her nose with the tip of his finger. ‘They’ve disappeared.’
A smile involuntarily moved his mouth. That summer they’d spent most of their time in the sun. Amy had worked on Reception but she had often gone out ‘delivering a message’ or ‘taking a parcel’. He’d known what she was up to. She’d skipped out as much as possible to enjoy the sun and find his sister to get into mischief.
As the resort manager he should have hauled her into his office, gave her a warning—told her off, at least. But Amy had had a way about her. Cute, cheeky, sweet with just a whiff of sexy. He’d never been able to do anything more than give her slap on the wrist. And she known it. And she’d taken advantage of it. Batting her eyelashes and flashing her magnetic smile whenever she wanted something.
His eyes moved from her nose to her eyes. They weren’t batting their lashes at him now. They were still. And hot. He saw something. Something that hadn’t been there eight years ago. A sudden curious hunger that he knew he was transmitting right back to her.
No, no, no. This wasn’t right. He stepped back a little, letting go of her arm. He couldn’t feel that. Not with Amy. Not with little, scrawny, troublemaking Amy. His sister’s best friend. His little sister’s best friend.
But she wasn’t that little any more. She didn’t seem young at all. She looked…His eyes landed on her lips. Full and soft, they were covered in hot pink lipstick. She looked…delicious. His tongue darted out to wet his own bottom lip. Everything in his body stirred. She was right—she was no lollipop any more. The pretty little nymph had blossomed into a gorgeous woman, and she was looking at him now as if she was thinking exactly what he was. Sin.
‘There are a lot of things about me that have changed, Luke.’ Her voice had changed. It was deeper, with a hint of husk. ‘And one of them is that now I know when to flirt harmlessly…’ She moved closer, her breasts brushing his arm. He looked down and watched them—tanned and bouncing slightly as she moved. ‘And when to flirt with intent.’
‘And what are you doing right now?’
‘Oh, I think you know exactly what I’m doing.’
His eyes moved up quickly and checked hers. ‘Well, I hope you know what you’re doing. You don’t want to find yourself in more trouble than you can handle.’
She moved even closer and the stirring in his body started to roar. Quietly, slowly, but persistently. This wasn’t little lollipop Amy any more. This was a woman well aware of her power.
‘You think I can’t handle you, Luke?’
Luke’s mouth dried up. The idea of her handling him was doing violent things to his body. Things were springing to life. He had to calm this down.
‘I think you might have enough to handle with all the booze being passed around this table.’ He nodded towards the table full of glasses. Some shots of tequila had arrived and were being scattered amongst the others.
She looked away quickly, then back at him. Hard. Hot. He held steady.
‘Not scared, are you, Luke?’