‘Unless your partner will have a problem with it?’
‘Partner?’ She looked mystified.
‘Justin,’ he enunciated. Saying the man’s name helped him remember that she was spoken for. That she was off-limits.
Her face cleared. ‘Oh, Justin. He isn’t my partner. He’s my oldest brother. I share a flat with him.’
Luke’s heart missed a beat. He’d managed to keep his hands off Sara so far by telling himself that she was attached and therefore off-limits.
Now it turned out that might not be the case.
Given how blank she’d looked when he’d asked her about her partner…it made him pretty sure that she wasn’t attached at all.
All of a sudden the room seemed to shrink. Right now, Sara was close enough to touch.
And, oh, he wanted to touch.
Taking her to Scarborough would be a spectacularly bad idea. Way too full of temptation—temptation he wasn’t sure he’d be able to resist.
Then he realised that she was speaking. ‘Sorry?’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Pay attention.’
‘Yes, ma’am. Would you mind repeating that?’
‘Please,’ she prompted.
He’d like to hear her saying that word in other circumstances. In a different tone. All husky and sensual and on the edge of losing her control.
All the blood in his body went south, and he had to swallow hard and close his eyes for a moment to regain control. He just hoped she didn’t look down at his lap, because the evidence of his thoughts was pretty clear. ‘Please.’
‘I said, did you mean telling you honestly what I think?’
‘Given that half my clients will be female, I need a female point of view. Which, obviously, I don’t have. And you tell it like it is—which is what I want to hear. You don’t have a hidden agenda.’
‘You said the weekend,’ she said. ‘Would you want to leave on Friday?’
‘Yes. We’ll stay Friday evening and Saturday, and come back Sunday. And I’ll let you have Monday and Tuesday off to make up for the time, as well as paying you while we’re away.’
‘It’s not about the money.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘It should be. You’re running a business, not a charity.’
‘Staying in a hotel with you.’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘That means separate rooms, yes?’
‘Of course it means separate rooms. I’m asking you to join me as my consultant. My colleague.’ Even though he would’ve liked to ask her for a different reason, he knew that mixing business and pleasure was a stupid idea. Besides, although it had turned out that Justin was her brother, not her partner, she hadn’t actually said she was unattached. ‘So your partner won’t mind?’
‘I already told you, Justin’s my brother.’
‘Which is why,’ he pointed out, ‘I didn’t ask you again if Justin would mind. I asked you if your partner would mind.’
‘I’m single, if that’s what you mean.’ She lifted her chin. ‘I could ask you the same. Will your partner mind me accompanying you?’
‘I’m not seeing anyone right now,’ he said, ‘so it’s not a relevant question. That’s why I asked you to come with me: to give me a female viewpoint.’
‘What about your mother? Your sister?’
‘I don’t have either.’
She flushed. ‘I’m sorry, Luke. I didn’t mean to stamp on a sore spot.’
‘You weren’t to know,’ he said lightly. He knew Sara would assume that his mother was dead; he had no idea whether his mother was still alive or not, but he’d lost her a long time ago. Even before he’d walked out on his family, nearly half a lifetime before. ‘Let’s change the subject, hmm?’
‘Good idea.’ She looked relieved. ‘Um…what sort of dress code are we talking about?’
He shrugged. ‘Whatever you want. I should warn you now, it’s not a posh hotel. It might’ve been, once. But now it’s…’ He stopped, trying to think of a nice way to put it.
‘Shabby genteel?’ she suggested.
‘Pretty much.’
‘And you’re going to turn it around. Restore it to its former glory.’
‘If all the figures stack up and my gut feeling tells me to go for it—yes, that’s the idea.’ And he needed to get out of here. Before he did something utterly stupid. Like swivelling his chair round, taking Sara’s hands and pulling her off balance so she landed in his lap and he could kiss her until they were both dizzy. He glanced at his watch. ‘Right. I have a meeting. I’d better go.’
‘There isn’t a meeting in your diary.’
Well, of course she’d know his schedule. She was acting as his PA. ‘I forgot to put it in,’ he fibbed. ‘I’m going to see the temp agency. Interview a few potentials.’ And that was exactly what he was going to do. Even though they weren’t expecting him. Because right now he needed to put space between himself and Sara. For both their sakes.
Sara forced herself to concentrate on the task in hand when Luke had gone. Strange how the office felt empty without him.
And she still felt guilty. Not about the banter—she was pretty sure he enjoyed it just as much as she did, and she knew that he’d come up with a dozen valid reasons why working overtime was good for you, to counter her arguments—but about the fact she’d inadvertently hurt him. There had definitely been a flash of pain in his eyes when she’d mentioned his mother and he’d told her he didn’t have one. It was a fair bet that the rest of the men in his family were the sort who’d bury themselves in work rather than discuss their feelings, and Luke himself had admitted that he dated a different girl every couple of weeks. So he probably didn’t allow himself to get close to anyone in case he lost her, the way he’d lost his mother.
A man alone.
It made her want to put her arms round him, give him a hug and tell him that everything would be fine.
Not that she had any intention of doing that. Because she knew it wouldn’t stop at a hug. Several times in the last week she’d looked up and met Luke’s gaze; he’d quickly masked his expression, but not before she’d been aware of the flare of heat. Desire. Interest.
Exactly the same way she felt. And, the more time she spent with him, the stronger those feelings became.
Perhaps she should’ve refused to go to Scarborough. They’d be stuck in a car together for a long journey. They’d spend the whole weekend in each other’s company. And, even though it was business, it would be all too easy for it to slide into something else.
Uh. Slide. Bad analogy. Because now she had other pictures in her head. X-rated ones.
She dragged in a breath. ‘Don’t be so stupid. You’ve already been there, done that and got your heart broken,’ she told herself loudly. ‘Remember Hugh? He was just as much of a workaholic as Luke is. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now.’
Though Hugh’s mouth hadn’t had such a sensual curve as Luke’s.
And whereas she’d eventually been able to wipe Hugh’s kisses from her memory, she had a feeling that she wouldn’t be able to do the same with Luke’s. She’d get hurt. Badly.
She’d just better hope that he managed