The Hotel Magnate's Demand

‘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?’

‘Scared? Of what?’

She smiled. A magnetic bright white that glowed in the dark bar. She shrugged a little. ‘You tell me.’

Luke’s heart beat steady but hard. She’d pegged him. He was scared. Scared that he actually wanted to take little lollipop Amy home, get her naked and kiss her entire body. And that he’d enjoy it. And he’d want to do it again and again.

But he wasn’t going to do that. Not with her. She was too close. She wasn’t someone he wanted to hurt. And hurt her he would, if he let himself go there.

‘The only thing I’m scared of is that this lot are going to get kicked out if they get any drunker.’

He looked behind him at the group of old friends. Laughing so hard they were falling off their stools. Passing shots of tequila around, talking louder. and getting more animated with every drink. Fun. That was what they were. Fun, easy and carefree. And Luke wanted a little bit of that. He’d just gone through the toughest year of his life and he was back here in Sydney for this. Fun. Not Amy. Not relationships. Tequila. Laughs. Old friends.

He swiped two shots off the table and handed one to Amy.

‘We may as well join them, Lollipop.’ He swept the liquid into his mouth and enjoyed the burn as it travelled down his throat. Get drunk. That was what he was going to do tonight. Then he’d be able to forget and relax and maybe live a little.

What he wasn’t going to do was his little sister’s best friend. He planned on staying right away from that little wasps’ nest, because he sure wasn’t ready to get stung again.

CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_6f953fe2-2a4b-551f-b0d8-7fdf05461bdf)

THE HOT TEQUILA warmed Amy’s already hot blood. She watched Luke as he necked another shot. What the hell was she doing? Flirting was something she did. With everyone she met. She’d always done it. She’d realised from a young age that she often got what she wanted with a little bit of sugar rather than salt.

From a young age she’d also realised that her flirting could sometimes land her in trouble, so she’d taken great care to tone it down in the past eight years. She only flirted outrageously with people she knew well—like Dave the barman, who happened to be one of her little brother’s mates. But she shouldn’t have flirted so outrageously with Luke. Could she make it any more obvious how she felt about him?

Amy sidled in next to Willa on the red velvet banquette. More partygoers had arrived and the room was filling with hot bodies. Inside her chest the usual thrill of excitement thumped. But tonight there was something else in there. Caution. An unmissable beat.

Calm the hell down. But it was hard to tell her heart to do that with Luke sitting right opposite her, with his big hard body and his come-to-bed eyes that had just locked with hers so hard she’d thought she’d never prise them loose.

‘What the hell happened? That was a pretty heated conversation.’

Amy glanced at Luke as Willa spoke. A couple of vodka sodas and her friend’s whispering hiss echoed like a train in the desert.

‘Shh.’ Amy moved a little closer so she could hiss herself into Willa’s ear. ‘Your brother hasn’t changed at all. He still thinks you and I are two little girls who can’t take care of ourselves.’

‘What did he say?’

He’d said she was still making men do stupid things. As soon as he’d said it she been able to tell he regretted it. She knew he hadn’t meant it as it had come out. She couldn’t remember how many times he’d told her over and over that night that it wasn’t her fault. That just because she’d been friendly it hadn’t given that loser the right to expect anything from her or to do…what he did.

Amy pushed down the swooping, then glanced at Luke. His eyes met hers and her stomach settled. He hadn’t meant that. He’d rushed straight over to her to tell her he hadn’t meant that. But what if he was right? Maybe she was flirting a little too fiercely. Amy hitched at her shirt. Maybe she was exposing too much skin.

No. No! Stop! she scolded herself. What had happened hadn’t been her fault. The way she dressed and the way she spoke to people had nothing to do with what had happened. It had been his fault. This shouldn’t ever have been her problem, her hang-up.

Amy shook herself physically. When she’d come home from Weeping Reef her mother and father and even her little brother had wrapped her up in their little cocoon of a family and helped her recover. That was when she’d met Laurie. Sweet, nice Laurie. Who’d loved her. Who’d made her feel whole again.

She’d hadn’t thought about what had happened in years. It had only been in the last six months, since her old friends from Weeping Reef had come back into her life and their stories had been rehashed, that she’d thought about it again. But she was strong. She was tough. She wasn’t going to let the memories of one bad night make her into a victim.

‘Ames? Was he awful?’

‘No, not at all.’ Amy shook her head and turned back to her friend. ‘Sometimes I’m just too sensitive. And besides, I think I’m still in a little bit of shock that he’s even here. You should have warned me!’