The Reluctant Duke (18 page)

‘How the hell should I know? ‘ he rasped. ‘Perhaps you were hoping that I would fall in love with you, and then you could laugh in my face when I told you how I felt…?’

Lexie did laugh—but not in Lucan’s face. She laughed out of self-derision; she was the one who had fallen in love with Lucan, not the other way round! ‘Five minutes in your company—a minute!—would be enough to tell any woman that you don’t know the meaning of the word love, let alone how to feel the emotion!’

‘Really?’ Lucan became very still, deathly calm again—the sort of cold, remorseless calm that anyone with any sense of self-preservation would know to back away from.

Lexie might have behaved recklessly by going anywhere near Lucan, might have committed the ultimate in stupidity by falling in love with him, but she wasn’t totally bereft of a sense of self-preservation. ‘I think it’s time I left, Lucan.’

‘To go back to London?’

She shook her head. ‘To my grandmother’s cottage. I need to see her before I leave—assure her that all is well.’ Even if it wasn’t! ‘I’ll get a train back to London later today.’

‘Being completely conversant with the train times, as you said.’

‘Yes.’

Lucan nodded abruptly. ‘I trust you’ll forgive me if I don’t stand on the platform and wave you a fond farewell…?’

Did hearts really break? Until that moment Lexie hadn’t thought that they did. But if they didn’t, then what was the wrenching pain in her chest just at the thought of never seeing Lucan again after today? Of knowing that he was somewhere in the world, hating her…?

She gave a shaky smile. ‘I’ll forgive you, Lucan.’

‘I won’t forgive
you,’
he came back gratingly.

Yes, hearts really did break, Lexie accepted desolately. In fact they shattered. ‘Goodbye, Lucan.’

He stared at her with those cold, analytical eyes for several long seconds more, before turning on his heel and striding purposefully from the bedroom.

Lexie moved to once again sit down shakily on the side of the bed, burying her face in her hands as she at last let hot, scalding tears cascade down her cheeks.

It wasn’t until much later—after Lexie had visited her grandmother and was sitting on the train taking her back to London—that she realised Lucan hadn’t returned her locket and chain to her.

‘L
EXIE
, I know it’s late, but there’s someone here to see you.’

‘It’s okay—Brenda, isn’t it? I told you I can see myself in,’ drawled a familiar—achingly familiar—voice, before Lexie had a chance to look up from the paperwork on her desk, which she had been trying to finish before leaving work for the evening.

But her head snapped up now, the colour draining from her face as she saw Lucan looming tall and dark behind Brenda where she stood protectively in the doorway. Devastatingly handsome Lucan, dressed in one of those dark tailored suits he favoured, with a snowy-white shirt beneath and a black wool overcoat that reached almost down to his ankles.

It had been five days since the two of them parted so ignominiously in Gloucestershire. Five long and painful days when Lexie had see-sawed between aching to see Lucan again and the certainty that seeing him would only make the heartache she was suffering even harder to bear.

Her gaze quickly returned to his face, searching those austerely handsome features for some sign of why Lucan was here now. That sculpted mouth was unsmiling, and those dark eyes returned her gaze unblinkingly, almost challengingly.

Lexie’s eyes veered away from those penetrating depths and she smiled at her assistant instead. ‘You get along home, Brenda,’ she encouraged the other woman as she slowly stood up. ‘Mr St Claire is probably here to discuss his account.’ Although Lexie very much doubted that ‘account’ really described the invoice she had sent to the St Claire Corporation two days ago, on behalf of Premier Personnel.

She moved to stand in front of her desk once Brenda had left, after shooting her a sympathetic grimace, relieved that she looked businesslike today, in a black suit with a pale blue blouse beneath the jacket, her hair pulled back from her face and secured with a black clasp at her crown.

‘Do you have a query on your account, Mr St Claire?’ she prompted lightly.

Lucan strolled farther into the office. Lexie’s nervousness increased as he softly closed the door behind him before turning slowly, his expression still totally unreadable. ‘Unless I’m mistaken, the invoice submitted from Premier Personnel was for zero?’

Lexie leant back against her desk. ‘That’s correct.’

Even
thinking
of sending Lucan a bill for the two days she had supposedly worked for him had smacked of demanding payment for services rendered; Lexie felt bad enough already, without that. She certainly hadn’t expected that the invoice would bring Lucan here in person. Had she…?

‘Was there something else, Mr St Claire?’

Lucan walked towards her, once again reminding Lexie of that jungle cat stalking its prey. His steps were measured and somehow menacing, his dark and predatory gaze holding her captive. ‘Why no charge, Lexie? You did work for me for two days, after all.’

‘Not really.’ She shook her head, her hands moving to
rest on the desk either side of her. She gripped the edge tightly, so that Lucan shouldn’t see how badly her hands were shaking just at being near him again. ‘I—I just thought it best.’

‘For whom?’

‘For all concerned.’ Lexie grimaced.

‘Hmm.’ Lucan nodded slowly. ‘Would you like to go out to dinner?’

Lexie’s head snapped back as she eyed him warily. ‘Go out to dinner…?’ She moistened her lips nervously.

He gave a humourless smile. ‘Let’s not start repeating each other’s words again, hmm?’

Lexie was too stunned by the invitation to be able to think of any coherent words of her own. It was traumatic enough that Lucan was here at all, without the complete shock of having him invite her to dinner. She swallowed hard. ‘I’m not sure I understand.’

Lucan had known by Lexie’s shocked expression when she first saw him, and the wariness in her eyes now, that his dinner invitation was the last thing she had been expecting. After the way they had parted five days ago, and his response to discovering she was Sian Thomas’s granddaughter, it was probably a natural reaction.

Lexie looked very professional today, in a black suit, with the wild ebony of her hair pulled back from the paleness of her face. Very un-Lexie-like!

‘I believe there are still some things the two of us need to discuss,’ he bit out grimly.

Lexie watched him guardedly as he stood only inches away from her. ‘And I thought we had agreed to disagree on the subject of my grandmother and your father?’

Lucan thrust his hands into the pockets of his overcoat to stop himself from giving in to the impulse he felt to remove the clip from Lexie’s hair and so allow it to cascade wildly
about her shoulders as it usually did. His fingers instead came into contact with the rectangular box at the bottom of the right-hand pocket. He removed the velvet-covered box, glancing down at it before holding it out to Lexie.

‘You forgot this when you left…’

Her expression became even more wary, and she eyed the box as if it were a snake about to strike her a lethal blow.

‘It’s only your locket, Lexie,’ Lucan drawled.

‘Oh,’ she breathed softly, and was very careful that her fingers shouldn’t come into contact with his hand as she took the box from him to flip up the lid and look inside. ‘You’ve had it repaired…’ She looked up at him almost accusingly.

Lucan’s mouth tightened. ‘There seemed little point in not doing so once I knew of its contents.’

Little point at all, Lexie accepted as she gently ran a finger over the surface of her locket. The gold chain looped through it was now intact.

‘Unless there was some other reason you didn’t want me to have it repaired.?’

Her gaze flicked back up at Lucan. She was very aware of his close proximity. Of the tangy smell of his aftershave. The warmth of his body.

‘I—No—no other reason,’ she assured him huskily.

He nodded abruptly. ‘According to my mother, the locket and necklace once belonged to my father’s grandmother—a lady he was very fond of.’

Lexie bristled. ‘If you’re trying to say this is some sort of family heirloom and you want it returned—’

‘I’m not,’ Lucan dismissed impatiently. ‘Why do you always assume the worst of me, Lexie?’

Lexie chose not to answer that particular question in
favour of asking a more pressing—shocking—one. ‘You’ve shown my locket to your
mother?’

He gave another inclination of his head. ‘She believes my father must have loved you very much to have given you something that meant so much to him.’

Lexie had absolutely no doubt as to how much her Grandpa Alex had loved her. How much he had loved
all
his beloved Sian’s family. ‘You showed my locket to your mother?’ she said again, incredulously.

Lucan gave a rueful smile. ‘You’re starting to repeat yourself now, Lexie. Or would you prefer I call you Alexandra?’ He quirked dark brows.

‘No, I would
not
prefer that you call me Alexandra! ‘ she snapped, and moved determinedly away from the sensuous lethargy, the heated reaction Lucan’s closeness was starting to have on her senses after she had felt cold for so long.

‘Because it’s what your family call you?’

Lexie dropped the closed velvet jewellery box into her handbag behind the desk before straightening to answer him suspiciously. ‘How do you know what my family call me?’

Lucan shrugged. ‘That’s one of the things I would like to discuss with you over dinner.’

Lexie moved her head from side to side. ‘I don’t want to have dinner.’

‘With me? Or at all?’

‘At all!’ She’d had absolutely no appetite since returning from Gloucestershire five days ago. In fact, the mere thought of food made her feel ill—to a degree that she had lost several pounds in weight over the past few days! ‘I can’t believe you took my necklace and showed it to your mother!’ she muttered again.

‘You seem a bit hung up on that fact.’

‘Of course I’m “hung up” on it!’ Lexie snapped. ‘You
had no right to do that, Lucan,’ she told him emotionally. ‘No right at all.’

He gave a rueful grimace. ‘Lexie, I took your advice after you left Mulberry Hall five days ago.’

‘My
advice?’ she repeated incredulously. ‘I’m pretty sure I didn’t say anything that day about taking my locket and showing it to your mother!’ All Lexie remembered about that day was her complete devastation at the realisation that she had fallen in love with this man.

Seeing Lucan again, being near him again, only served to show her how deeply she loved him. How much she wished that things could be different between them. That the two of them were free to have a relationship, even if it only lasted a matter of days or weeks.

Instead, Lexie had fallen in love with the one man who would never love her.

‘No,’ Lucan conceded dryly. ‘But you did suggest that I talk to your grandmother,’ he added softly.

Lexie’s eyes widened as she stared across the desk at him. ‘I—You—’

‘I think perhaps you should sit down, Lexie—before you fall down!’ Lucan drawled derisively.

Yes, she should perhaps sit down. No, not perhaps—she
had
to sit down, Lexie acknowledged as her legs began to tremble. She dropped weakly down into the chair behind the desk.

‘You’ve spoken to my grandmother…?’

‘At length,’ Lucan confirmed softly. ‘Want to change your mind about coming out to dinner with me…?’ He lifted a mocking brow.

‘This was a much better idea than going out and eating dinner in a restaurant,’ Lucan approved huskily an hour
or so later, as he and Lexie sat opposite each other at the breakfast bar in the kitchen of her apartment.

Their conversation had been put on hold while Lucan drove them there from the offices of Premier Personnel, stopping briefly to buy a selection of cheeses and fruits from a local delicatessen, along with a bottle of red wine, which Lucan had acquired from the off-licence next door.

In fact, the whole scenario of sitting in the kitchen, food spread out before them on the breakfast bar, reminded Lucan strongly of their last evening together at Mulberry Hall, when he and Lexie had eaten cheese and biscuits together before making love.

Especially so as Lexie looked more like herself now. She had disappeared to her bedroom as soon as they’d arrived, emerging ten minutes later having changed into a fitted cream woollen jumper and figure-hugging denims, and with her hair released in disarray about her shoulders.

She grimaced now. ‘I’m sure you’re no more eager than I am to make a scene in public.’

‘A scene?’ he repeated slowly. ‘I’m hoping it won’t come to that!’

‘No doubt that’s a case of hope springing eternal!’ She took a sip of the red wine.

‘Possibly,’ Lucan allowed dryly. ‘You need to eat something, Lexie, You’re looking very pale.’

Her eyes flashed deeply blue as she glared across the breakfast bar at him. ‘We’ve been very busy at the office.’

He frowned. ‘I wasn’t implying anything else…’

Lexie drew in a ragged breath, knowing she had overreacted to a perfectly innocent observation; she
was
very pale, and she
did
need to eat. Except, more than ever, she had a feeling that food would choke her!

It wasn’t helping her already frayed nerves that Lucan had taken off his overcoat and jacket while she was in her bedroom changing out of her work clothes. His tie had also been removed, and the top button of his shirt undone, revealing a tantalising glimpse of the dark hair on his muscle-rippling chest.

‘Sorry.’ Lexie gave another grimace. ‘Things have just been a bit hectic the past few days, with both my parents away.’ Despite her self-assurances to the contrary, when she had disappeared out of the office the previous week. ‘I suppose that at least shows me you haven’t felt compelled to damage the reputation of Premier Personnel after last week.’ she added lamely.

Lucan’s brows lowered over narrowed dark eyes. ‘What happened between us is personal, Lexie, not business-related.’