‘Where to?’ she cried out, half in humour, half in an emotion he could not name.
‘Anywhere we want. Name somewhere you want to go. Anywhere at all.’
She laughed now, catching his eagerness. ‘The Caribbean!’ she exclaimed. ‘I’ve never been in all my life!’
‘Done!’ He gave an answering laugh. ‘Now all you have to do is choose the island.’ He rolled onto his back, wrapping one arm around her shoulders, the other across her flank. ‘There are a thousand to choose from—we can explore them all!’
He heard her laugh again, and then he was cradling her cheek with his hand.
‘Come with me.’ His voice was different now. Serious. Intense. ‘Come with me.’
His eyes met hers, held them. She was still gazing up at him, and the troubled look had found a home there once more.
Could she not believe that he was serious? That this was no idle banter?
He drifted his hand languorously across her silken flank and felt her stomach tauten at his sensuous touch. ‘Let me persuade you,’ he said huskily.
Emotion was welling up in him, as powerful as the desire building in him again. Words shaped in his mind.
I will not lose her—not now. I will not.
It was his last conscious thought as passion was rekindled between them, consuming all in its heat.
I will not lose her...
* * *
Luke stirred. Something was wrong. Very wrong. He reached out his arm, feeling only cold sheets. His eyes flared open, going immediately to the en suite bathroom door. It was standing open, no one inside. His eyes swept the room.
No Talia.
And no handbag, no shoes, no jacket, no dress. No discarded underwear slipped from her eager body as he’d taken her to his bed, to sate himself on her and change his life for ever...
No trace of her existence.
Except the note propped on the desk.
Face stark, he got up and walked towards it. Something was tightening around his guts, like a boa constrictor throwing its coils around him to crush the life from him.
Luke—I have to go. I didn’t want to wake you.
That was it. Nothing else. For a long moment he just stared at it as the breath was crushed from his lungs. Then, wordlessly, he screwed it up and dropped it into the bin.
He walked into the en suite bathroom refusing to feel a single emotion.
CHAPTER TWO
TALIA SAT IN the back of the taxi, staring at her phone. It was signalling a low battery, and she was glad of it in a cowardly way. Her brain was not working properly. It seemed to be split in two, and neither side would connect with the other. She was still with Luke, folded against his body, dreaming of Caribbean islands.
Islands to escape to...islands to set me free...
Free from what her eyes were forcing into her head as she reread her mother’s repeated pleading texts.
Darling, phone me! You must phone me. You absolutely must!
She could not face making the call. Yet fear was biting at her out of nowhere. Her mother had never sounded so desperate...
But before she phoned her she must get to her flat, set her phone to charge and then shower—wash Luke from her. And she must change into her day clothes—what she thought of as her prison clothes.