Flirting with Danger by Bev Hardy (digital e reader TXT) 📖

he smiled back.

 

Charlie turned then to summon a waitress and that was when she saw him.

 

What? No, she must be seeing things; too much champagne.

 

She abandoned her effort to order the champagne and turned back to Richie, her face swiftly losing its colour.

 

"You alright?" he asked, placing a hand on her arm.

 

She cleared her throat. "Err, yes, urm..." She turned her head quickly to see if she had just been imagining things, but no. The rest of the colour left her face. It was him. He was looking straight at her. She swung her head back.

 

"Charlie, what's up?" Richie asked.

 

"Well, it's just that," her head turned again, just in case she had in fact been wrong.

 

Luke gave her a small wave of his fingers.

 

No, it was definitely him.

 

"Charlie?"

 

She shook her head. "Sorry Richie, there's someone sitting over there..." she gestured towards Luke, "He used to be my partner... when I was working as an agent. I haven't seen him for years. In fact, he should be in New York..."

 

"Oh," Richie turned to look.

 

"Anyway, what were we saying?" Charlie went on, trying to refocus.

 

"Champagne?"

 

"Oh yes." She turned again, but again caught sight of Luke, who waved yet again.

 

She growled and turned back to Richie. "I'm so sorry, but he obviously wants something and he's not the kind of person to just go away. Would you mind?"

 

Richie smiled, seeming not to be affected by her request. "No, go speak to him. I'll see if I can order that champagne."

 

"Thanks Richie. I'll not be long," she replied, taking a deep breath before rising out of her seat and beginning the nerve racking walk towards Luke.

 

A sudden strange sensation shot through the pit of Luke's stomach as he watched Charlie stand and walk towards him. He'd forgotten what an impact just the sight of her could sometimes have. He'd seen the effect in other people too. She drew attention to her with her poise, figure and looks... and something else, something which just made it impossible for people not to look. One thing was for sure, she was nowhere near to being fat and ugly... he'd known she wouldn't be... and he was very much afraid for his libido at that moment! But he wasn't going to think about that. He wasn't going to think about the way her hips swayed as she walked... about the knockout white dress she was wearing that clung to her waist and hips and stopped above the knee, exposing a smooth pair of tanned Charlie legs... or about the way, as she got closer still, he could see that the material fell in folds and dipped daringly down her front... and that, although nothing was exposed beneath the folds, the fun of the dress was to wonder how the folds stayed strategically placed so as not to revel a single thing. Did she do that on purpose, or was she just a natural tease without knowing it?

 

What the hell was he doing there? And how dare he be looking at her like that, making her feel all strange again... her legs all jelly-like. Damn it, he was watching every step she made, and in the most sinful of ways. Couldn't he see what was happening just now; she was about to become engaged... wasn't she? Well, anyway, he wasn't to know that she hadn't made up her mind yet. What right had he to look her up and down like that, in that slow, arrogant, Luke way of his? She'd forgotten about Luke's looks. Nobody she had ever known had looked at her like that, in such an outrageous way. Nobody else had that much cheek! He hadn't changed one bit... but she had. She had moved on. She had a new life now and she was happy with it thank you very much. If he thought he could come back as if nothing had changed and pick up where they left off, he was very much mistaken. Anyway, there was no reason for them to see each other now as they were no longer work colleagues, so that was an end to it.

 

She stopped in front of his table and placed her hands on her hips.

 

Wow! It was most definitely Charlie... in all her upper class, sexy, a little annoyed and bordering on sexually frustrated, glory.

 

"Hiyya Charlie," he grinned, lifting the tea cup in front of him to his lips and taking a sip, whilst his eyes continued to assess her with interest. Apart from her hair, which was now shoulder length, smoother and sleeker, she looked exactly the same. Same bright, intelligent blue eyes, same baby nose, same peaches and cream skin, but most of all, same incredibly inviting, glossy pink lips.

 

"Adams... what?" she began, holding out her hands as she found herself suddenly speechless.

 

"What?" he echoed.

 

She shook her head to clear it. This was absurd. He was sitting there as if seven years had been seven minutes since the last time they saw each other.. as if it was perfectly normal for him to be there. She had so many questions, but the shock of seeing him had jumbled them up in her head. Finally she settled for,

 

"Err, is there any particular reason why you are sitting here in my country club... in England by the way?" she stressed.

 

He pretended to think about the question momentarily before he replied. "Yes, there is."

 

Was he trying to wind her up?

 

"And?" she questioned, her voice rising in pitch as she felt her stress levels increase.

 

He glanced down at his teacup and picked it up with his forefinger and thumb, raising it again, before looking from the cup to Charlie.

 

"I'm having a cup of tea," he grinned, taking another sip to demonstrate.

 

A frown of rising annoyance wrinkled her brow. "Don't they have tea in New York, Adams?"

 

Ok, he needed her in a reasonable mood. He dropped the pretence.

 

"Can we go somewhere to talk?" he asked, lowering the tea cup down into the saucer with a clunk.

 

She folded her arms. "I'm a little busy at the moment, in case you hadn't noticed," she replied incredulously, gesturing behind her to Richie.

 

"Oh yes, such a touching scene," he commented sarcastically. "Can I take a look at the ring?" he asked.

 

She narrowed her eyes at him and gritted her teeth with annoyance. He knew she hadn't accepted it. He must have seen.

 

"Why don't you just tell me what it is you want so we can get this over with?" she replied, avoiding his request.

 

"Now, that's no way to talk to your partner is it Charlie? Don't I get a welcome back kiss or something?" he said, his voice a little harder now too as he reacted to her tone.

 

"You might have done, yes... seven years ago... if you'd have told me you were going in the first place!"

 

Luke noted that she had kept count; she knew it had been seven years. So she wasn't as damn cold as she was acting. Although he was beginning to wonder.

 

"Excuse me if my brother had been kidnapped and murdered by Mafia and I didn't think to phone right away," he retorted, under his breath, aware that heads were turning towards them.

 

She paused for a moment and searched his face suspiciously. "You don't have any brothers."

 

Luke tutted. "He was as good as."

 

"Excuse me..."

 

Charlie felt a hand on the small of her back and swung around a little guiltily. Had she been raising her voice a little too much? It was Richie.

 

"Sorry Charlie, I'm going to have to leave that extra glass of champagne; I said I'd help Eddie out after lunch. You stay here and catch up..." he glanced at Luke "... and I'll phone you later," he finished, passing her handbag to her.

 

Charlie's guy was American. What the hell was she doing with an American?

 

She took hold of his arm however before he had a chance to leave.

 

"No, really, I'll come too. Just give me two seconds..."

 

"Don't be silly; stay and enjoy yourself. We'll speak later, Yes?" he said, lifting a hand to place it in her hair whilst he leant forward to give her a soft kiss on the lips.

 

Luke wriggled in his chair and glanced away.

 

"Well, okay but..."

 

Richie was already heading towards the building. "I'll phone tonight," he said, turning briefly before striding away.

 

"Great. Thank you very much Adams!" she said, throwing her bag down onto the table and sinking into the chair. Well, she wasn't going to stay there arguing with him. Fumbling in her bag, she searched for her mobile phone. She was going to phone for a taxi.

 

"What've I done wrong now?" he snapped back.

 

"What have you done wrong? I was having a perfectly wonderful afternoon before you came and messed it all up. Why are you here Luke?" she asked again, exasperated.

 

"Now you come to mention it, I wanted an explanation. How come you never phoned? No goodbye, nothing?" he accused. "We were partners. You owed me that at least!"

 

"I owed you!" her voice was bordering on a screech. She took a deep breath or else she wasn't going to be able to say what she wanted to without exploding. "First of all, what made you think you were so special that you could just leave for weeks...disappear without a word...flouting all the rules and ignoring your obligations here... and then come back and everything would be the same? What made you think that, hmmm? And secondly..."

 

"You're all about rules and regulations," he barked out, standing suddenly. "What about people who go by their gut instincts," he said, thumping his chest with one fist. "People who don't have time to sit down and write a damn list of the pros and cons before they do anything. People who know whether they want to marry someone or not," he said, gesturing to the table that Charlie and Richie had been sharing. "You want to know something, you can't make no decisions in life 'cause you ain't got no heart lady!"

 

And with that, he turned and strode angrily away.

 

She stared after him in shock. How dare he! There was no way he was leaving her like that, not before she had finished having her say.

 

"Adams! Adams, I haven't finished with you yet!" she shouted, running across the lawn after him.

 

Rather than walking back through the building, Luke headed straight for the car park around the front of the club. Charlie caught up with him just as he reached his car and she slipped between him and the door, preventing him from opening it. Her handbag fell from her shoulder to the floor with a thud. She stood with her back to his hand that was still on the handle of the car door. He could feel that the dress was backless as his hand was in contact with her bare skin.

 

"I haven't finished yet Adams!" she shouted somewhat breathlessly.

 

"Oh really. Do go on then Charlie; I'm going to love to hear this," he replied, observing the effects of her exertions...the redness of her cheeks, the rise and fall of her chest as she fought to regain her breath, the fact that, rather disappointingly, the folds at the front of her dress had not moved at all and were teasing him with what was beneath them.

 

"What do you think I thought when you disappeared for two days?" she asked him.

 

He stood motionless for a few moments, his eyes moving over her face.

 

"Well?" she pushed.

 

More silence.

 

"That I'd gone somewhere," he finally replied. He was surprised to realize that he had actually struggled to answer that question. He hadn't thought of that before, only that she had been mad at him for not being there when he should have.

 

"No Luke," her eyes were burning into his. She tilted her head. "I thought you were dead."

 

Luke frowned.

 

"Someone works in that kind of job and then disappears for days, what did you think I would think? We were partners," she stressed emotionally, "we'd faced death together time and time again. We relied on each other to keep