Luke turned at the unexpected question. With everything that had happened, he’d forgotten all about why he’d come to see Claudia in the first place. ‘I’m going to stay. Help you manage the resort. At least until the spa is up and running anyway.’
Claudia stared at him for a moment, her heart beating almost as hard as it had when the door had slammed and scared the bejesus out of her. ‘Really?’
Luke grinned. ‘Really. Get dressed. I’ll meet you downstairs. There are things to plan.’
Claudia didn’t know what to say. Or do. If she hadn’t been naked and just made a complete idiot of herself she’d have leapt out of bed and hugged him. As she’d hugged him hundreds of times in the past.
Instead she said and did nothing, just watched him disappear and the door shut after him.
Then she sank down onto her back and, grinning like a loon, pulled the sheet over her head and threw herself into a full naked body shimmy, squiggling her shoulders, arching her back off the bed and drumming her heels on the mattress.
She was getting her spa!
EIGHT
Claudia’s head was buzzing by the time she’d had a quick shower, thrown on her uniform and hightailed it downstairs. Not even the embarrassing thought of what had transpired in her room was enough to stop her from seeking Luke out. She found him breakfasting with everyone else.
‘There you are, darling,’ her mother said. ‘Luke’s just been telling us what you two have been up to.’
Claudia paused mid-sit, startled at the announcement as everyone beamed at her. Luke, sitting in the seat beside hers, gave her a wink.
‘Has he now?’ she murmured.
She knew he wouldn’t have said anything about the...incident, but her mind couldn’t help but go there. Especially as Luke was clearly amused at her mother’s choice of words. His warm brown gaze was level with her brea**sts and she sat quickly to quell the memory as her nipp**les firmed against the fabric of her bra.
‘It’s wonderful,’ Avery agreed, the excitement in her voice sharpening her accent.
‘Yes,’ his mother agreed. ‘You are sure your firm will understand, though?’ Gloria pressed.
Luke gave a short nod because he knew his decision to work remotely would not be popular with the partners. Major adjustments would have to be made to accommodate it. Not to mention he’d be working two demanding jobs. Long days at the resort would be backed up by long hours into the night when clients were awake on the other side of the world.
He couldn’t see himself getting much sleep.
But these were extenuating circumstances and at least these days they had the technology to run with something like this so, why not? The Internet made distance a nonsense—email, iClouds, Skype, teleconferencing—anything was possible.
‘It’ll take some setting up,’ he dismissed, ‘but it shouldn’t be a problem.’
‘There now,’ Avery said to two sets of parents. ‘You can get back to your holiday.’
Claudia wanted to kiss her. ‘That’s right,’ she agreed quickly. ‘You guys retired so other people could wait on you for a change. You really don’t have to worry about the Tropicana.’
Her mother beamed. ‘Excellent. I feel so much better knowing the two of you will be doing this together.’
There was general conversation over breakfast about the new addition but Claudia felt inadequately prepared to answer a lot of the questions raised. ‘To be honest,’ she admitted, ‘I’ve never been to a spa and I think I’ve only ever had one massage in my entire life.’ She looked at Avery, who was more accustomed to the day-spa life. ‘That time in Bali...on the beach...do you remember?’
‘Oh, yes.’ Avery smiled. ‘Your masseuse was an ancient woman with hardly any teeth.’
Claudia nodded. ‘And yours was that buff young guy wearing a shirt that showed off every perfect muscle in his abs.’
Avery’s smile turned dreamy. ‘Oh, yes,’ she sighed. ‘Incredible fingers too.’
Jonah looked unimpressed. ‘I hate him already,’ he murmured, gliding a possessive hand onto Avery’s shoulder, and Claudia felt a pang hit her square in the chest at Jonah’s caveman display. She glanced quickly at Luke, then glanced away again.
Avery smiled at Jonah and the look they shared took the pang into chest-pain territory. ‘We’ll have to do some tours,’ Avery said enthusiastically as she dragged her gaze away from Jonah. ‘See what’s out there. See what’s new and innovative and popular.’
‘That will be impossible for a while,’ Claudia dismissed. ‘We have one hundred rooms upstairs that all need to be assessed one by one and given a good clean so we can at least offer them to the public and have some income again.’