Hers For A Night

Walker Kate

Tell me,’ Lucas Mallory murmured, in a tone that was so soft, so deceptively warm that for a moment she missed the warning in the tightness of the muscles around the strong jaw, ‘are you usually this prickly with everyone or is this strictly personal?’

‘I am not prickly!’

‘No? Well, in that case I’d hate to meet you when you’re in a bad mood.’

‘My mood is my own business! And if it’s not exactly welcoming, then perhaps you should remember that

you’re the one who imposed his company on me. I didn’t invite you to join me!’

‘Look, lady, I simply came over to introduce myself and find out what you wanted from me in return for your generous donation. I didn’t know I had to wait for a formal introduction. After all, you’re the one who made the first move by bidding for me. I had no intention of imposing on you in any way.’

Georgia flinched away from the lash of his sarcasm, knowing she had no defence against it. She was painfully aware of the possibility that, if she wasn’t very careful, she could risk raining all her plans by alienating him right from the start.

‘Perhaps we’d better begin again.’

To her relief, Lucas followed her lead easily enough.

‘Why don’t I get us both a drink and then we can sit down and talk about it?’

‘Fine. My table’s over there.’

She had to forget how much she disliked men of Lucas Mallory’s type, Georgia told herself firmly as she watched him make his way to the bar. After all, it was precisely because he had that sort of confident, macho lady-killer character that she had chosen him for this scheme in the first place.

She wasn’t the only one who was watching, she noted. Even in the most crowded room, his imposing height and lean strength would mean that many eyes would be drawn to him. The forceful cast of his features under the silky dark hair inevitably made him the centre of much female attention.

But it wasn’t just the female members of the audience who had turned their heads in Lucas’s direction. The aura of confidence and complete self-assurance that seemed to emanate from him so easily made him an object of interest to men too. That interest was touched with a degree of envy, even from the few who were unaware of the full extent of his reputation and success. He would be a perfect match for her father in all ways.

‘Fiver for them,’ Lucas said quietly, making her jump as he placed two wine glasses on the table in front of her. She had watched him walk towards her, and yet now he seemed suddenly disturbingly close, towering over her in a way that she found slightly disturbing.

‘I thought a penny was the usual rate,’ she retorted, and saw his firm mouth curl up at the corners.

‘In the everyday world, perhaps. But at this exclusive gathering I reckon the price must be commensurate with the exorbitant rates they charged for the tickets and the meal, so I worked on a five hundred percent increase.’

‘That seems about right,’ Georgia laughed. ‘Why are you looking at me like that?’

He didn’t answer in words but simply leaned forward and traced the outline of her curved upper lip with a gentle fingertip.

‘Don’t!’

Her head jerked back violently, as if the soft touch had been the burn of white-hot metal. Lucas, however, seemed unconcerned by the hostility of her response.

‘You should smile more often, it changes your face completely,’ he murmured. Then, as she deliberately clamped her mouth tight shut, erasing all traces of her earlier warmth, he pulled out the chair opposite and sat down, reaching for his wine glass. ‘So what were you thinking about?’

Caught off balance, Georgia found that the words were out before she had time to form them fully in her mind.

‘Oh, I was just realising how much you reminded me of my father.’

‘Ah.’ Lucas leaned back in his chair, dark eyes fixed on her face with an unnerving intensity. ‘And is that what put that look on your face?’

‘I-what look?’

‘That “I would rather be anywhere else than here” expression.’

‘Don’t be silly!’ Had she really given so much away? ‘I mean, you know perfectly well why I’m here!’

‘Do I?’ The questioning lift to one dark eyebrow matched the sardonic note in his voice.

‘Of course you do! After all, you’re here for much the same reason.’

‘I’m here to take part in an auction that’s supposed to be a bit of fun, and by doing so help a charity that I—’

‘Which is my aim too.’

‘Really?’

The long, powerful body looked indolently relaxed in his chair, but the watchful darkness of his gaze, with his eyes slightly narrowed, and the restless tapping of one strong hand on the immaculate white linen of the tablecloth, told a very different story.

‘Then why do I feel that there’s some hidden agenda in all this?’

‘Hidden agenda? Oh, really, Mr Mallory!’

‘Lucas,’ he corrected with a soft forcefulness that warned her he would allow for no prevarication.

‘Lucas,’ Georgia amended unwillingly.

His name sounded strange, alien on her tongue, and she had an unpleasant, unnerving feeling of things slipping out of her control.

This was not at all how she had planned that the evening would go. Not that she had really thought beyond the actual auction, she admitted to herself with uncomfortable honesty. She had been determined to be the highest bidder, to secure Lucas Mallory as her ‘slave’ for a day, but after that it had all been vague, to say the least.

One thing she had obviously not taken into account was the part that Lucas himself would play in all of it.

‘There is no hidden agenda, no matter what crazy ideas your over-active imagination has come up with. Like you, I simply came here to support the charity, enjoy a meal and bid in the auction.’

‘And that’s the part that intrigues me,’ Lucas inserted smoothly, throwing her off balance once more. ‘It’s obvious that you haven’t entered into the light-hearted spirit of things like everyone else here. There seems to be a touch of.’