Then, in a more serious vein, having—he hoped—explained to her as gently as he could why she no longer had to feel she should work for him, he went on. This was the key message he needed her to absorb—the message that would reassure her, that would ensure she was never tempted to leave him again. This was where he would explain that he would provide all she could ever want or need or dream of.
He softened his voice and stroked her hair, gazing down into her wide, wide eyes. ‘Because, Talia, from now on you won’t have to face the world on your own.’ He dropped a tender kiss on her lips. ‘From now on you’ll have me to look after you. To take care of you.’ His fingers dropped to the glittering ruby bracelet around her wrist where it lay across his chest, tapping it gently. ‘This is a token—proof of how much I want you, of how much I want to take care of you. You can trust me, Talia, because of this. That’s what I want you to know.’
He lifted his hand away and traced the soft outline of her parted lips as she lay gazing up at him. He could not read her expression, but that did not trouble him. She would be taking in his words, finding in them the reassurance he wanted her to have. The knowledge that she was safe to commit herself to him as she had not dared to do before,
‘You won’t have to leave me again, Talia. I know you did that first night, because you were afraid. Afraid to risk coming with me because you might have been disappointed. I was a stranger—you knew nothing about me other than that we lit fires inside each other. So you went back to the safety and the security of your existing life.’
His expression changed.
‘I was angry with you then. For walking out on me. For rejecting me. But since then—since our time together—I’ve come to terms with it. And now that your old life is gone, now that it’s behind you, I acknowledge...’ He paused, and when he spoke again there was a rueful quality to his voice. It was guarded, as well. ‘I freely admit that my actions caused the destruction of your former life. Maybe you can accept this bracelet as...as recompense?’ His voice warmed and he gazed lovingly upon her. ‘As my promise to you that I will take care of you from now on.’
He trailed his finger along the glittering gems once again.
‘Rubies are beautiful, but so many other gemstones would suit you, too!’ He relaxed back against the pillows, his hand cupping her shoulder affectionately. ‘Hong Kong is brilliant for jewellery,’ he told her. ‘And how about a Tahitian pearl necklace when we explore the South Seas? Would you like that? Hand-picked from oysters of our own choosing!’
Talia was looking at him. There was something strange about her expression, and in her voice when she spoke. ‘Oysters die when you take the pearls to make a necklace from them.’
He gave a rueful laugh. It was an odd thing for her to say, to be sure, but he had a reply for it all the same. ‘There’s a price to be paid for everything in life, Talia. No one can escape it.’
‘Yes, you’re right,’ she said quietly. She lifted the hand which was weighed down by the ribbon of rubies and shifted her gaze to look at it.
‘Do you like it?’ Luke asked softly. He knew she did, but he wanted to hear her say so.
‘It’s beautiful. Exquisite,’ she acknowledged, though her tone was unexpectedly flat.
His hand tightened around her shoulder. ‘And so are you, Talia. Beautiful. Exquisite.’
There was a husk in his voice, a quickening in his limbs. He felt arousal stir and begin to take him over. He started to kiss her, opening her soft mouth to his, letting his free hand drop to her breast, moulding it with his palm until it peaked between his scissoring fingers.
She gave a low moan in her throat—a sound that was so familiar to him now that it served to heighten his own arousal. He moved his body over hers, beginning his possession. He would lose himself to this woman, and for some reason that no longer frightened him. He wanted to lose himself to her, this beautiful woman. She might be the daughter of his enemy, but that was behind them now that he had cleared the air.
A tide of passion flooded through him as he felt the facets of the rubies brush against his shoulder when she lifted her hand to snake it around the nape of his neck. He could feel her surrender to the passion flooding through her as powerfully as it was through him. Her fingers meshed into his hair, shaping his skull, deepening her own kisses.
His last conscious thought was, She will never leave me now. Never.
Triumph filled him. Triumph and absolute certainty.
Yet when he woke at dawn she was gone.
CHAPTER NINE
TALIA CLIMBED OUT of the taxi which had brought her from the train station. Her journey back to Marbella had been long and arduous. It had begun with her creeping from the villa, catching the early-morning bus to the capital, then taking another bus to the airport.
She had been reluctant to waste her meagre resources on taxis, and for the same reason she’d bought the cheapest flight available, which had meant multiple changes at various airports before she’d finally landed in Malaga to take the coastal train to Marbella.
Tiredness ate at her—and, worse than tiredness, a desolation of the spirit such as she had never known. She had thought she’d felt desolation before, on that morning after the party when she’d forced herself to leave the man who had swept her off her feet.
But that had not been desolation like this.
She felt again that crushing, stifling feeling in her chest as she stepped inside the luxurious villa that was like a mocking ghost from a life that had ceased to exist.
Maria greeted her warmly, and with a grim effort Talia pasted a doggedly bright smile on her face. It was a smile that softened as she went out onto the terrace to find her mother relaxing in the shade, looking a hundred times healthier than when Talia had last set eyes on her.
‘Mum—oh, you’re looking so much better!’ Relief flooded through Talia as she greeted her mother. It was the only good emotion she’d felt since—
She sheared her thoughts away. They had been agony for her all the way back here, and she could bear to think them no longer. Not now when she had to face her mother. When she had to hide the truth from her. When she had to hide what she had so nearly been reduced to. It had taken all her strength to reject Luke’s promises and she could not bear to think about it.
‘Well, I’ve Maria to thank for that.’ Her mother smiled, encompassing the Spanish woman still beaming at Talia’s return.