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‘No, I’ll lead the way,’ Luke insisted. ‘Having stayed here for at least ten consecutive years I’m sure I don’t need anyone to lead me round.’
Message received loud and clear. But she led the way anyway.
‘What the hell is this nonsense about you being manager?’ Luke demanded the moment the door had closed on Margaret.
‘How much experience of running a hotel do you have, Luke?’ Lucia challenged. ‘Exactly,’ she said when a muscle in his jaw worked. ‘You’ve got more money than Croesus, as well as endless experience in the international business arena, but I have the hands-on experience—which began around the time Nacho asked me if I could organise a polo supper for him. I think I was about fourteen at the time. Plus, I fully understand that you need to be sure your investment in the Sundowner is safe, but let neither of us fool ourselves. I know this place is a means to an end for you. You want to reinstate Polo on the Beach and the Sundowner Guest House is in the perfect position: perfect stables, perfect access to the beach—’
‘You seem to have it all worked out,’ Luke growled tensely.
‘Let’s just say I’m not the child you seem to think I am. Shall we start the tour?’
‘It seems I don’t have much option but to go along with this for now, as Margaret has already appointed you.’
‘Not so much of the “for now”,’ she warned. ‘I fully expect to be fired if I fall short in any way. But the one thing I don’t need is for you to prop me up.’
‘You’d just like to spend my money?’ Luke suggested coolly.
‘Margaret appreciates your investment,’ Lucia countered pleasantly. ‘Shall we?’ she suggested.
Luke’s eyes flashed a warning signal that clearly stated it was game on. ‘After you,’ he bit out.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
*Fans self … * Hot momma, this man might not be mine but I cannot—will not—think about anyone else making a move on him. I might be damaged goods, but I’m still capable of admiring a fine ass. And in the unlikely event that Luke ever made a serious move on me I can rest assured that it could never come to anything because he’d soon realise that when it comes to sex I’m a complete non-starter. So when he finally settles down I shall just have to go on retreat to Outer Mongolia and never come back …
FOR the sake of maintaining a professional front she blanked Luke, huge and powerful, dwarfing her completely as he stayed close at her side as they went up the stairs. Luke in snug-fitting jeans—a little frayed, a little ripped, a little pale and worn in places. She refused to notice that too. Inviting him to go ahead of her at one point, she surveyed the tight hips and muscular thighs—purely out of clinical interest, of course. Just as she’d thought. He was bigger than her brothers. And that heavy Aran sweater did look great with Luke’s swarthy skin, his hunky build and brooding amber gaze.
And there it ended, Lucia told herself firmly. Luke Forster would be the first to admit that he believed women existed to be protected, rather than to stick their heads above the parapet and invade a man’s world. Women were far better seen and not heard—preferably in the bedroom, she imagined, remembering the blonde.
‘You’re being uncommonly accommodating, Lucia,’ Luke commented as she led the way down the landing.
‘I’d like to show you the attic room,’ she replied in a businesslike tone, careful to maintain distance between them.
‘I’m all attention,’ Luke said, moving close enough for their hands to brush.
She led him into the huge room that took up much of the top of the house. It had the most spectacular view through picture windows of the endless beach and the sea beyond. Margaret had always dreamed of turning it into a residents’ lounge and library. Lucia explained this to Luke. The room was still full of ladders and decorating equipment, but she threaded her way through all the tackle until she reached the windows where they could look out over a beach the colour of rich Jersey cream and the wild Cornish sea beyond, which had turned from angry pewter to smooth, crystalline blue.
‘What do you think?’
‘Apart from the shock of discovering Margaret has appointed you manager of the Sundowner, do you mean?’ Luke enquired, hitting her with a curve ball.
‘I imagine you could override that if you wanted to,’ she said, returning to the subject at hand. ‘So, what do you think?’
‘You know what I think,’ Luke growled. ‘I love this place. But to turn it into an exclusive venue for international polo players who are used to the best will be a complex project.’
‘And you don’t think I’m up to it?’
‘You’re not exactly tried and tested.’
Wasn’t that the truth? And now she must stick to the subject at hand. ‘I’m not an amateur, either,’ she said. ‘I may not have your facility for figures and keeping ten thousand plates spinning at once, but I do know how to run a hotel—and from the bottom up. I can stand in for any job you care to name.’
Except for one, he thought, remembering the concierge.
‘And if anyone knows how to cater for demanding polo players,’ she pointed out, ‘it’s me.’
He couldn’t argue with that. ‘So, how do you feel about us working together, Lucia?’
‘How do you feel about it?’ she countered.
