A Secret Vengeance

The moment she asked that question in that fashion, Luke at least knew one of the answers he’d been looking for. She hadn’t been in love with his father. She had been in it for the material gain all along.

It made brutal sense. Why else would a girl as young as this be having an affair with a man as old as his father?

Luke wondered how much she’d already gleaned from him in cash during their liaison. Not to mention presents, the sort of presents rich older men gave their beautiful young mistresses. Clothes. Jewelry. Perfume. Lingerie.

She’d look incredibly sexy in black lace…

“On what does it depend?” she demanded to know and, immediately, another X-rated image raised its ugly head, rattling Luke with the power this female had to both arouse and tempt him without seemingly doing a thing.

Luke stared at her and tried to imagine what she would say if he offered her this place in exchange for one weekend being his mistress, giving him everything she’d given his father. And more.

Oh, yes, he’d want more. He was only thirty-two years old, a man in his sexual prime, a man who hadn’t made love to his fiancée in…

Guilt consumed him as his train of thought ended with Isabel: the woman he was going to marry in a fortnight’s time, the woman he’d vowed always to be truthful with in future.

What was happening to him here?

Not that he’d actually done anything. A man could not be hung for his thoughts, especially when in the presence of the temptation sitting before him. Did she have any idea how sexy she looked, swinging her prettily painted toes in front of him, that slit in her skirt falling further and further apart till he could practically see the entire side of her left leg? And all the while she was sipping her wine and watching him over the rim of the glass like a hunter quietly watching its prey.

Luke began to understand why his father had fallen victim to her wiles. She was the devil in disguise.

At the back of his mind, Luke knew he should get the hell out of there. But his curiosity far overrode his common sense.

“It depends on your telling me all about your affair with my father,” he said brusquely.

Her left leg slipped off her right knee, bringing her skirt back to a more modest arrangement. When she put her glass back down, Luke saw that her hand was shaking slightly. “All? What do you mean by…all?”

Luke liked seeing her agitated. He wasn’t sure why. Perhaps because he didn’t really want her to be a cold-blooded money-grubbing bitch. Luke was afraid that if she was, he might find himself in deep trouble here. For if she’d sleep with a man old enough to be her father, strictly for material gain, then what would she be capable of with him?

Never in Luke’s life had he felt the pulling power of his dark side this much. Sure, during his years at uni, he’d sometimes acted foolishly in the sexual sense. Even recklessly. He’d been a bit of a lad over in London too, perhaps because he’d been away from his father’s supposedly good influence for the first time.

But ever since he’d come back to Australia two years ago, he hadn’t wanted wild sexual thrills any more. He’d wanted a more safe, secure and settled life. He’d wanted what his father had had.

Luke stared at his father’s sexy young mistress and realised ruefully his dark side still wanted what his father had had. The nice little woman at home, and this, waiting for him at weekends.

His heart raced just thinking about it.

But they were still only just thoughts, he told himself firmly. He couldn’t, he just couldn’t act on them, no matter how tempting. He would hate himself for ever if he did.

But he still wanted to know everything about his father’s affair, to try to make sense of it all.

“Exactly that,” he bit out. “I want to know how and when you met my father? Who made the first move and why? How often you met and where? I want to know if he truly loved you, or just wanted you for sex. Tell me the whole rotten truth, Ms Gilbert, and this place is yours.”

CHAPTER FOUR

FOR a split second Celia wanted to lash out at him. But then she saw the pain behind Luke’s anger, and sympathy for him washed into her heart.

It was never nice, being confronted with a parent’s fallibility, especially in matters of the flesh. Even more upsetting, at this time in his life, so soon after both his parents’ tragic deaths.

“You’re very angry with your father, aren’t you?” she said softly.

He didn’t move a muscle, except for the one twitching in his jaw.