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She was, Aurelie thought distantly, halfway to falling in love with him. It didn’t seem possible after such a short time, and yet she felt the truth of it inside her, like a flame that had ignited to life. She never wanted it to go out.
And yet what did she want? The memory of that passionate kiss by the side of the stage had seared itself into her senses, but she still felt her insides jangle with nerves at the thought of what else could happen. What she wanted to happen … and yet was afraid of, both at the same time.
Despite her wonder and worry about what might happen later, she still enjoyed every minute of the evening spent by Luke’s side. A dinner for the VIP guests had been arranged in the conservatory on top of the store, with the lights of Singapore stretched out in a twinkling map on three sides, and the bay with its bobbing yachts and sailing boats on the other. A silver sickle moon hung above them, and she felt the warm pressure of Luke’s hand on the small of her back.
‘Are you having a good time?’
‘Very.’ She turned to smile at him. ‘You’ve done an amazing job with all these openings. I’ve heard a lot of great things about the new design of the store.’
‘I’ve heard a lot of great things about your new song.’
She let out a little laugh. ‘If you hadn’t started clapping, I’m not sure anyone would have.’
‘They would have. They just needed a little nudge.’
‘Maybe next time you should hold up cue cards. Flash “Clap” in big letters as soon as I finish.’
‘Next time they’ll know. There were a lot of media people out there in the audience tonight. Word will get around.’
She drew a deep breath and let it out rather shakily. ‘That’s a scary thought.’
‘Is it?’
‘I don’t know what the response will be.’
‘Does it matter?’
She stared at him, surprised, until she realised it didn’t matter. She hadn’t written or performed the song to impress people or even make them change their minds about her. She didn’t even want a comeback. She wanted … this.
Acceptance and understanding of who she was, not by a faceless crowd or the world at large, but by Luke—and by herself. And somehow he’d known that even before she had.
‘Come on,’ he said, ‘I have some people I want you to meet.’ And with his hand still on her back he guided her through the room.
Luke watched Aurelie chat and laugh with the CEO of the Orchard Bank of Singapore and felt something inside him swell. He loved her like this, natural and friendly and free. He loved her.
The thought, sliding so easily into his mind, made him still even as he attempted to keep involved in the conversation. He was trying to negotiate a new deal with a local clothes retailer to design exclusively for Bryant’s. It would be an important agreement, and he couldn’t afford to insult the CEO across from him.
And yet … he loved her? After just a few short days? When he still couldn’t really say he knew her, not the way he’d known the three women with whom he’d had significant relationships. They’d dated for years, had known each other’s peeves and preferences, had run their relationship like a well-oiled machine. And yet now he felt he could barely remember their faces. Had he loved them? Not like this, maybe not at all. He’d been emotionally engaged, certainly, although it hadn’t hurt that much when they’d mutually agreed to end it.
But this? Her? It felt completely different. Completely overwhelming and intoxicating and scary. Was that love? Did he want it, if it was?
Did he have a choice?
And could she love him, when there were things he hadn’t told her? Failures and weaknesses he hadn’t breathed a word about? His insides clenched at the thought. She’d been slowly and deliberately baring herself—her soul, her secrets—while he’d kept his firmly locked away.
Could love exist with that kind of imbalance?
‘Mr Bryant?’
Too late Luke realised he hadn’t heard a word the man in front of him had said. He swallowed, tried to smile.
‘I’m sorry?’
Several hours later Luke found Aurelie laughing with the wife of a foreign diplomat and placed a proprietorial hand on the small of her back. He liked being able to touch her in this small way, even if the ways he really wanted to touch her—had been dreaming of touching her—were still off-limits. He’d told her he wouldn’t touch her until she wanted him to, until she was certain, and he knew she wasn’t yet. He saw the shadows in her eyes even when she was smiling.
‘I’m sorry to steal Aurelie away from you,’ he told the woman, ‘but we have a full day tomorrow and she needs her rest.’ He smiled to take any sting from the words, and the woman nodded graciously. ‘Been having a nice time?’ he asked Aurelie as they headed down to the limo he had waiting.
‘Amazing, actually. I thought it would be completely boring, but it wasn’t.’
‘That’s refreshingly honest.’
She laughed, the sound unrestrained, natural. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to be insulting. It’s just I’ve gone to so many parties and receptions and things and it’s always been so exhausting.’
‘Another performance.’
‘Exactly. But it wasn’t tonight. I was just able to be myself.’ She shook her head slowly. ‘I never thought that playing my song would give me anything but a kind of vindication that I could be something other than a pop star, but it has. It’s made me feel like I can be myself … anywhere. With anyone.’ She paused before adding softly, ‘With you.’
She gazed up at him with those wide stormy-sea eyes and Luke felt that insistent flare of lust. He wanted her so badly. His palms itched with the need to slide down the satiny skin of her shoulders, fasten on her hips. Draw her to him and taste her sweetness.
She must have seen something of that in his face because her tongue darted out to moisten her lips and she took a hesitant step closer to him. ‘Luke—’
He didn’t know what he might have done then, if he would have taken her in his arms just as he’d imagined and wanted, but then the doors pinged open and a crowd of guests moved aside to let them pass. Luke let out a shaky breath and led Aurelie towards the limo.
They didn’t speak in the intimate darkness of the car, but he felt the tension coiling between and around them. Felt her thigh press against his own when the limo turned a curve, and the length of his leg felt as if it had been dusted with a shower of sparks. He heard, as if amplified, every draw and sigh of her breath, the thud of his own heart.
He hadn’t felt this overwhelmed by desire since he’d been about eighteen. He let out another audible, shaky breath and stared blindly out of the window.
They remained silent as the limo pulled in front of the hotel, and then in the lift up to their separate suites on the same floor. Luke took out his keycard; it was slick in his hand. His mouth had dried but he forced himself to speak. To sound as if he were thinking of anything other than hauling Aurelie into his arms and losing himself deep inside her.
‘So. Another big day tomorrow.’
‘Is it? What’s the schedule exactly?’
Was he imagining that she sounded just a little breathless? Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and Luke’s gaze was irresistibly drawn to the movement, the curve of her ear and the elegant line of her neck.
He swallowed. ‘We fly to Hong Kong, spend a day touring the city with some officials and then have the opening on the following day, along with a reception. Then two days’ rest and on to Tokyo.’
‘Right.’ She glanced away, and the lift doors swooshed open. Luke walked down the corridor, conscious, so conscious, of Aurelie by his side. The whisper of her dress against her bare legs, the citrusy scent of her, the way each breath she took made her chest rise and fall.
She stopped in front of the door to her suite, and he stopped too. She waited, her hand on the door, her eyes wide. Expectant. But he’d promised himself—and her—that he wouldn’t touch her until she asked. Until no uncertainty remained.
Standing there, he knew that time had not yet come. Unfortunately for him.
‘Goodnight, Aurelie.’ He cupped her cheek, just as he had the night before, because despite all his promises he couldn’t resist touching her, just a little. Aurelie closed her eyes. Waited. It would be so easy to brush his lips against hers, to deepen the kiss he knew she wanted. But it was too soon, and he’d still seen the shadows in her eyes.
With a supreme act of will he dropped his hand from her face. He smiled—at least he thought he did—and walked down the hall towards his own lonely suite of rooms.
Aurelie stepped inside her empty suite and leaned against the door, her eyes closed.
Damn.
Why hadn’t he kissed her? He’d wanted to, she knew that. She’d wanted him to, had willed him to close that small space between them, but instead he’d pulled away.
Maybe you didn’t know what you wanted. And until you do, completely, I’m not going to touch you.
His words from yesterday reverberated through her, made her think. Wonder. Was he waiting for her to take the lead? To say she had no more uncertainty, no more fear?
Did she?
No. She was still afraid. She’d been telling Luke the truth when she said she’d never enjoyed sex. If she’d been totally honest, she would have told him she dreaded it. Hated it, and yet used it because at least then she had some control.
And now? She wanted sex—sex with Luke—to be something different. Something more. And that terrified her more than another bout of unenjoyable coupling.
She opened her eyes, paced the room, her mind racing. She wanted this. She wanted Luke. And, just like with her song, with the trust, with the intimacy, she knew she needed to push past the fear. For her sake as much as Luke’s.
So … what did that mean, exactly? Right here, right now? She ran her now-damp palms down the sides of her dress. Brushed her teeth and hair, applied a little perfume. And then before she could overthink it and start to get really nervous, she went in search of Luke.
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