There was an odd expression in his eyes. Kate wanted to look away but couldn't. Her heart was lurching and bumping in her chest. `I hope you think you've got a good return on your investment,' she said bravely.
Unhurriedly Luke reached out and pushed the soft wing of hair away from her face. `I do,' he said. `I do indeed.'
Before she knew how it happened his hand had slid under her hair to hold her head still as he bent and kissed her.
Caught unawares, with her hands trapped in her pockets, Kate was helpless to resist. She toppled against his lean, hard strength, felt his arm pull her closer.
Past arrowed into present. Here on this damp winter street, with Luke's lips insistent on hers, Kate might -have been standing in that summer wood again. The deep ache of need was the same, the yearning, the heady sense of desire at the taste of his mouth and the firmness of his hand at the nape of her neck.
Kate's response was purely instinctive. Her lips parted and she relaxed into him, submerged by a jumbled tide of intense excitement, lurking guilt and recognition that no one else had ever been able to make her feel this way.
She wanted to free her hands from her pockets, to touch his face and feel his male-rough jaw beneath her fingers, but Luke was lifting his head, lifting a hand, and a black taxi squealed to a halt beside them.
The click of its meter seemed unnaturally loud. Dazed, Kate stared at it as if she had never seen a taxi before. 'Wh-what did you do that for?' she managed.
`Just a wise investor enjoying a little profit,' Luke said. She couldn't read his expression as he turned away to speak to the driver, but then he handed her into the taxi and shut the door on her as if nothing had happened.
`I'll see you at the airport at half-past ten,' was all he said through the window. `Don't be late.'
CHAPTER SIX
THE terminal was crowded, and Kate didn't see Luke until he appeared suddenly beside the check-in desk. He looked about him impatiently, glancing at his watch and obviously wondering where she was.
It gave Kate a moment to school her features to cool unconcern before she stepped forward to attract his notice.
She had spent a restless night, trying to get Luke's kiss out of her mind, but every time she closed her eyes the scene was replayed with the same vivid thrill of memory: his hands, his mouth, the hard, exciting strength of his body close to hers.
Alone in the darkness, she had found it easy to tell herself that she had merely been caught by surprise. Why else would she have leant into him like that? Why else would her lips have yielded to the warm persuasion of his mouth? Why else would she have kissed him back?
Luke should never have kissed her, Kate had decided, finding it easier to be angry with him than to remember her own abandoned response. The most charitable explanation was that it had been a whim on his part, quite meaningless. Kate was determined to treat it the same way. It would be far less embarrassing for them both if she just ignored the whole issue.
But now, with the stomach-clenching jolt of her heart at the sudden sight of him, with the fire leaping along her pulse, it didn't seem quite so easy.
No sign of her inner turmoil showed in Kate's face as she wished Luke a cool good morning.
Luke's eyes were shuttered as he returned her greeting curtly, and to Kate's relief he was disinclined for conversation as they checked in and went through Passport Control into the departure lounge. He looked grumpy, and Kate was glad to take refuge behind an air of brisk efficiency.
She was wearing one of the outfits Luke had picked out, a soft tan skirt with a loosely structured jacket and an ivory silk shirt. The casual elegance suited her understated looks, but Luke didn't comment. He had taken some papers out of his briefcase and was studying them with a grim face, effectively ignoring her.
Kate eyed him covertly. His brows were drawn together, his mouth set in an inflexible line. He looked so hard and forbidding that if it hadn't been for the way her pulse was beating it would have been hard to believe that this was the same man who had kissed her last night.
Did he even remember? Kate wouldn't have put it past him to have put it completely out of his mind as soon as she'd been out of sight. Their first kiss hadn't meant anything to him; why should their second? Unconsciously wistful, Kate's eyes deepened to the colour of honey, and she glanced at him again. If Luke did remember kissing her he had obviously decided to ignore it now.
Well, that suited her!
`I suppose you're waiting for me to apologise for kissing you last night,' Luke said abruptly, without looking up from his notes.
Kate, just relaxing into the comfortable certainty that the whole embarrassing episode could safely be forgotten, looked at his bent head with resentment. She should have remembered that it wasn't possible to relax with Luke. He had an uncanny ability to catch her at a disadvantage.
`There's no need to apologise,' she said, proud of her cool manner, but unable to look at him directly. Instead she glanced with studied casualness over at the passengers milling around the duty-free shop. `I didn't take it seriously.'
He looked up at that. She didn't see him, but she could feel his sharp eyes upon her.
`Oh? And how did you take it?'
Why couldn't he just accept the let-out she had given him? Kate thought crossly. It was just like him to be difficult about the whole thing!
`You clearly weren't thinking about what you were doing.'
`How do you work that one out?'
There was the merest suspicion of amusement in his voice and Kate's eyes flickered back to him suspiciously, but he was looking down at his papers again. All she could see were the angular lines of nose and cheek as he scribbled notes.
Her pride rebelling at her being cross-examined by Luke in this embarrassing way while he had half a mind on a quite different subject, Kate spoke more waspishly than she had intended.
`I'd have thought it was obvious. In your book, girl plus dinner plus darkness equals kiss. Unfortunately, you left the fact that I'm your secretary out of the equation.'
`I think I must have forgotten that, under that glamorous new image of yours, a disapproving Kate still lurks,' Luke said with some dryness, making a final note and then slipping his pen into his jacket pocket.
`It's not my new image. It's yours,' Kate pointed out sulkily.
`Oh, I don't know,' Luke said judiciously. He put his papers back into his briefcase and snapped it shut. `All I did was spot the beautiful, rather sexy woman you could be if only you'd let yourself.'
Kate felt herself grow suddenly hot. She would have given anything to have been able to say something cutting in reply, but could only stare fiercely at the book-stall while she fought down a blush. She wished he wouldn't say things like that. He was so much easier to deal with when he was being downright unpleasant.
`I don't want to be beautiful and sexy,' she said desperately. `I'm not like that.'
`You were like that when I kissed you last night.'
`You caught me unawares,' Kate defended herself. She drew a deep breath and forced herself to look straight into Luke's slate-grey eyes. `You were the one who went on about how grateful you were that our relationship was strictly business, so I'd be grateful if you'd remember that in future. Since we have to work together, it seems only sensible.'
`Very sensible,' Luke mocked. `I wouldn't expect a sensible secretary like you, Kate, to suggest anything else!' He glanced up at the flight monitor and, much to Kate's relief, got to his feet, putting an end to the discussion. `Come on, the flight's boarding now.'
Paris was veiled in a typically pale blue-grey light as they took a taxi into the centre from the airport. They were staying at the Paris Oasis on the rue du Faubourg-St-Honore, the standard-bearer of Philippe Robard's chain of hotels, and Kate was impressed by its understated elegance.