“Sometimes,” he said quietly. “Not always. Sometimes the fear is to protect us.”
Meg placed the T-shirts on top of her underwear, spreading them so they hid the scraps of lace that were her secret indulgence. Plain, practical Meg liked pretty, sometimes even sexy, lingerie.
Luke crossed to the dresser. She’d divided the space on top in half. One-third, two-thirds, actually. A third for his things, a watch and a framed photo of his mother only needed so much space. The two-thirds on the right was littered with her things. Perfume, a pair of earrings, a scented candle and… “Don’t touch that.”
He turned with a curling photo in his hand. “This?”
“Yes,” she sighed, “that.”
“Why not?”
“I didn’t mean don’t touch it. You can have it. Throw it out if you like.”
He lifted a questioning eyebrow.
“I needed something to show people when I went back to try to find you. Clearly, I don’t need it anymore.” The photo showed the two of them, Luke sitting up in bed, looking ill but still with a certain intensity to his gaze, and Meg perched beside him looking worried and pointing to something off camera. Their wedding photo. She didn’t even know why she’d left it out and on the dresser.
He was about to place the photo back where it had stood leaning against her perfume, when instead, he picked up the small crystal bottle and brought it to his nose. He closed his eyes and nodded. “Very Meg.” Opening his eyes, he studied her. “Flowers and sweetness.” Meg adjusted her T-shirts in the case.
“Tell me about this dinner the caterers in my kitchen are setting up for.”
She opened her mouth to speak.
He held up a warning finger. “I just want the facts. No evasive answers. What party do you have planned for tonight?” He frowned. “And if you’re planning a party, why are you packing as though you can’t get out of here fast enough.”
“There’s a Christmas dinner for the Maitland Foundation here tonight. Most of the really big donors will be here. I haven’t had all that much to do with the organization. I just agreed with Sally when she suggested that this house would be the perfect place for the dinner. And agreed with her that there was no reason it couldn’t be here.”
“She didn’t tell you that she asks every year if she could have it here, and that every year I tell her no?”
Meg swallowed. Sally had told her she’d bear the blame if Luke got back before Christmas, but it didn’t seem fair. “Actually, she did. But I couldn’t see any reason not to have it here. You have a beautiful home. And it’s so much more personal to have a dinner in a home than at a restaurant.”
Luke blew out a heavy sigh. The hands at his sides had curled into fists. And for a few brief seconds he shut his eyes. Meg contemplated sneaking out. Too soon he opened them again, the silver sharp and intent. “So why are you packing now?”
“Now that you’re back, I don’t need to be here for it.”
He crossed to the bed. Took everything out of her suitcase, dropped it onto the bedcover, then zipped the case shut. “Think again. If I have to be here for this dinner, then you most definitely do.”
She unzipped the case and gathered up the pile of clothes. “No, I don’t.”
“These donors who are coming, they know I have a wife?”
“Yes, most of them,” she said slowly, holding her clothes to her chest and hoping fervently that she’d covered her underwear with her T-shirts.
“Then they’ll expect you to be here. The Maitland Foundation and its donors espouse strong family values. You could cost it thousands if you don’t show, Mrs. Maitland.”
“That’s not fair.”
“You’re right, it’s not.” He smiled, devious and victorious. “I’ll leave you to start getting ready.” He stopped at the door and nodded at the clothes in her arms. “I’m sure the red will look fetching on you.”
Meg glanced down. There were only two red items in her arms and neither of them was a T-shirt.
Four
Meg paused and wrapped her fingers around the polished wood of the banister. She’d made a point of staying out of the caterers’-and Luke’s-way while she showered and dressed and put up her hair. But now she barely recognized the entranceway that she’d last seen just a few hours ago. Her homemade decorations were gone. The stairs were twined with ivy, among which nestled hundreds of glinting fairy lights. Below her, an enormous Christmas tree, topped with a star, glittered and sparkled in silver and gold in the entranceway, scenting the air with the fragrance of pine. Tall candelabra stood either side of the front door. The house was filled with the delicate notes of a string quartet playing Christmas music. It was as though someone had waved a wand and transformed the already graceful foyer into something magical.
Luke strode through the doors thrown wide from the next room and had a foot on the bottom step before he looked up and stilled. A slow, knowing smile spread across his face. “I was just coming to get you. Our guests are starting to arrive, darling.”
The wand must have touched Luke as well. Before now, she’d only ever seen him dressed casually. Even then, and even when ill, he’d looked striking, had an undeniable charisma. But now, in an elegant tuxedo, its cut and custom tailoring accentuating the breadth of his shoulders and his lean strength, he looked devastating. A surge of possessiveness and pride swept through her. This man was her husband.
She quashed both the possessiveness and the pride. She had no right to feel possessive of a man who wasn’t in any way hers. And she had no right to the pride. He’d had to believe he was dying to offer marriage. Even so, he waited expectantly for her. And she couldn’t quite calm the leap of her pulse.
Part of his attraction was the way when he looked at her she felt like he only saw her, only thought of her, as though she fascinated him every bit as much as he fascinated her.
Meg held a little tighter to the banister. She had only one dress suitable for a dinner like this. And it was red. Now Luke would think, and he’d be right, that she wore the red lace beneath it. Or worse, and he’d be wrong, that she wore it for him.
She descended the stairs. Wearing the demure but fitted dress and too-high heels, she was well out of her comfort zone. Or maybe it was his silver gaze steady on her that made her hyperaware of her every movement.
Tonight. She just had to get through tonight without succumbing to his pull. When she was away from him again she’d be fine, but when he was near, he scrambled her thought processes till she didn’t know what she wanted, or till she wanted things she knew she oughtn’t.
She stopped a step above him and finally, defiantly, met his gaze. And looked quickly away, her defiance doused. Heat. She’d read heat in his eyes. For her.
It was insane.
As insane as the heat of the response deep within her that his gaze had ignited.
He needed to get back out into the real world, remember the type of woman he was attracted to, the type of woman who belonged in his world, and stop playing games with her.
Except it didn’t feel like a game.
She looked back at him, he waited, his hand extended. Trapped by his gaze, Meg swallowed and put her hand in his, felt his fingers fold around hers. And at that touch, that gentle, unerring connection, something shifted and changed, including Meg in this evening’s magic.
Hope flickered. Might she be entitled to one enchanted evening?
She did her best to quash the thoughts. A childhood spent lost in books and fairy tales was now having the unwanted repercussions her grandmother had warned of.
Luke smiled, that same smile he had back up in her-his-bedroom as his fingers tightened around hers. “Let’s go, Mrs. Maitland, we’re having a party.” His tone was light, teasing. Maybe she’d imagined the heat.
The living room was now decorated in silver and gold, with enough candles to keep them going for months if the power ever went out. Luke paused in the doorway and glanced up. Mistletoe hung from the door frame. In full view of those guests who’d already arrived, he planted a quick, hard kiss on her lips. Then he put his mouth close to her ear and whispered, “I knew you’d look good in red.” His words and his warm breath on the bare skin of her neck sent a shiver through her.