Kate Hewitt - Tempted By The Rock Star

She turned to watch Luke peel a lanzone with a knife. He glanced up, smiling, a decidedly wicked glint in his eyes. ‘Care to try another?’

‘I don’t know if I dare.’

‘This one’s sweet, I promise.’ And with that wicked glint still in his eyes he fed her a chunk of the sweet, moist fruit, his fingers brushing her lips as she ate it. The barest touch of his fingers against her mouth sent little pulses of awareness firing through her, flaring deep down. Desire . It seemed amazing that she could feel it. Want it—and him. She’d never wanted anyone before, not like that. Not since Pete.

‘Tasty,’ she managed, and swiped at the droplets of juice on her lips. Her heart rate was skittering all over the place, and all from that simple touch and the feelings and thoughts it had triggered, a maelstrom swirling through her.

‘You know,’ she said as Luke arranged the rest of their picnic items onto two paper plates, ‘I don’t really know anything about you.’

‘What do you want to know?’

‘Something. Anything. Where did you grow up?’

‘New York City and Long Island.’

‘The Hamptons?’ He nodded, and she hugged her knees to her chest. ‘I guess you grew up pretty privileged, huh? Bryant Enterprises and all that?’ She didn’t know much about the Bryant family, but she knew they were rich. Featured in the society pages rather than the trashy tabloids like her. ‘And you have a brother, you mentioned?’

‘Two.’

‘Are you close?’

‘No.’ Luke spoke mildly enough, but Aurelie sensed a dark current of emotion swirling underneath the words, a tension and repressiveness. She was getting to know this man, and now she wanted to understand him.

‘Why aren’t you?’

He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. ‘The short answer? Because Aaron’s an ass and Chase checked out a long time ago.’

‘Those are rather nice alliterations, but what does that really mean?’

Luke sighed and sat back, his arms braced on the rock behind him. ‘It means my older brother, Aaron, loves to be the boss. I can’t really blame him, because my father encouraged it, told him he was going to be CEO of Bryant Enterprises when he was older, and he needed to be responsible, authoritative, et cetera. Let’s just say Aaron got the message.’

Aurelie observed the tightening of Luke’s mouth, his eyes narrowed as he gazed out at the falls, the sunlight catching the spray and causing it to glitter.

‘And Chase?’

‘Chase is my younger brother. He was always a rebel, got in trouble loads of times, expelled from boarding school, the whole bit. My father disinherited him when he was in college.’

‘Ouch.’

‘I don’t know if Chase even cared. He made his own fortune as an architect and he hardly ever gets in touch.’

Aurelie hugged her knees. ‘That’s sad.’

‘Is it?’ He glanced at her, eyebrows raised. ‘Maybe he’s better off. When I do see him, he always seems happy. Joking around.’

‘Maybe that’s his schtick.’

‘Maybe.’

‘And what about you?’ Aurelie asked quietly, because that was what she really wanted to know. ‘Where did you fit into that picture?’ Luke hesitated, and she knew she was getting closer to understanding. ‘Or didn’t you?’

‘I suppose I was the classic middle child.’

‘Which is?’

‘Caught between two larger personalities. As we got older we all drifted apart and that seemed easier.’

‘It doesn’t sound like a very comfortable place.’

‘No, I don’t suppose it was.’ Luke turned to her with a faint smile, although Aurelie could still sense that dark emotion swirling underneath. ‘I don’t miss my childhood, at any rate. I was shy, awkward, and I even had a stammer.’ He spoke lightly, but it didn’t matter. Aurelie knew it hurt. ‘My father didn’t have much time for me, to tell you the truth.’ He glanced away. ‘He didn’t have time for me at all.’

‘Sounds a bit like my childhood,’ Aurelie answered quietly.

Luke turned back to her, his gaze sharp now, eyes narrowed in concern. ‘Oh? How so?’

She swallowed past the ache that had started in her throat, an ache of sympathy and remembrance. She’d never told anyone about her childhood. In the world of celebrity, it held a touch too much pathos to be interesting. ‘Well, my mother didn’t have much time for me. And my father wasn’t in the picture.’

‘Who raised you?’ That thoughtful crease appeared between his brows. ‘Your grandmother?’

‘I wish. I only stayed a summer with her, when I was eleven, but it was the happiest time of my life.’

‘Then where did you grow up?’

‘Nowhere. Everywhere. My mom never stayed in the same place for more than a few months, sometimes a few weeks. She’d get a job in a local diner or something, enrol me in school and find a deadbeat boyfriend. When he started stealing her money or knocking her around, she’d move on, dragging me with her.’

‘That’s terrible,’ Luke said quietly, and Aurelie shrugged.

‘I got over it.’

‘Julia Schmidt,’ he said after a moment. ‘Your mother. You bought the house from her, didn’t you?’

She nodded. ‘When my grandmother died she left it to my mom. I was only seventeen, and I think she hoped it would help my mom settle down.’

‘But?’

Aurelie sighed. ‘My mom didn’t want to settle down. So I bought the house from her for far more than it was worth. I was famous by then, so I had the money.’

‘And you finally had a home.’

She blinked hard, amazed at how quickly and easily he understood her. How in this moment it felt good and right and safe, rather than scary.

‘It must have been a huge loss when your grandmother died,’ he said after a moment, and she nodded.

‘I still miss her.’

‘And your mother?’

A shrug. ‘Around. Who knows? She used to appear every so often asking for money, but now that I’m not in the spotlight any more—at least not for any good reason—she’s disappeared.’ She sighed and stretched out her legs. ‘She’ll surface one day, I’m sure.’

‘So you really are alone.’

So alone. Although she didn’t feel alone right now. She wanted to tell him that, confess just a little of the happiness in her heart that he’d helped to create, but fear held her back. Rejection was still a distinct and awful possibility. There was still so much Luke didn’t know.

‘What about your parents? Are they around?’

He shook his head. ‘Both dead.’

‘I’m sorry.’ Aurelie gazed at him, saw how he’d carefully schooled his features into a completely neutral mask. ‘How did they die?’

‘My father of a heart attack when I’d just finished college.’ A pause, a telling hesitation. ‘My mother developed breast cancer when I was thirteen.’

‘I’m sorry. That’s terrible.’

He jerked his head in a semblance of a nod, his face still so very neutral. He was holding something back, Aurelie suspected, some pain that he didn’t want to share with her. She decided not to press.

‘So you’re alone too,’ she said quietly and after a taut moment of silence Luke reached for her hand.

‘Not right now,’ he said, and as Aurelie’s heart turned right over he tugged her to her feet. ‘Let’s swim.’

‘Swim?’ Aurelie eyed the deep, tranquil pool below the falls with a dubious wariness. ‘What about the giant barracudas?’

‘You mean the medium-sized ones? They’re friendly.’

‘I didn’t bring a swimsuit.’

‘I’m sure we can improvise.’ She hesitated and Luke added quietly, ‘Unless you don’t want to.’

Was this another trust exercise? she wondered. She was so used to men seeing her as an object. A trophy. She’d encouraged it, after all. And yet she knew Luke was different, knew he saw her differently.