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‘Kids are usually on the streets because they have nowhere to go. Or at least nowhere safe.’ He shrugged. ‘I have the means and the resources to help and the inside knowledge on how they think. It was a logical decision.’
Logical my foot, she thought. He cared. He really cared.
She gazed across the table at him. She felt terrible that she had pushed him to tell her about his childhood, pushed him to dredge up those dark times, and she just wanted to go to him and wrap her arms around him and tell him that if she’d known him back then she would have found a way to take care of him. A way to keep him safe.
As if reading her mind he scraped back his chair and stood up. Eleanore gazed up at him, very afraid that the evening was over.
‘Enough with the morbid details of my life.’ Lukas saw the pity in Eleanore’s eyes and didn’t like it. It was way past time he stopped talking about things he’d all but forgotten about. He reached out his hand for her. ‘I want a tour of the Krystal Palace.’
‘Now?’
‘Why not?’
‘Well, it’s empty, for one.’
Lukas smiled. ‘Hopefully the last time it will be with any luck, and the perfect time to go through it. Wouldn’t you say?’
Eleanore didn’t know what to say. She only knew that she didn’t want the night to end just yet.
CHAPTER TEN
THE HOTEL LOOKED majestic as they approached. The large construction fence had been removed and the ice building glowed with a mystical energy set off by well-placed blue, pink and golden lights that phased in one after the other.
When they pulled up in Lukas’s black Ferrari two warmly dressed security guards greeted them but other than that the hotel was silent in the freezing night air as they went through the double glass doors and into the empty foyer.
Eleanore snuggled deeper into her overcoat and pulled her ushanka down over her ears. Lukas smiled and placed his hand in the small of her back.
Everything was softly lit and the ice sculptures of unicorns and snow wolves and nymphs that Eleanore had commissioned stared down at them as they passed.
‘So maybe not quite alone,’ she murmured.
Lukas chuckled and glanced at the domed roof. ‘There’s your glass-topped ceiling.’
‘Yes. And that wasn’t easy. It’s held up by reinforced steel inserts at the top. I’d like to take all the credit for its construction but really it was your engineer who worked out how to keep it safely in place.’
Lukas gave her a look. ‘I think you’re too modest, Miss Harrington.’
Eleanore shrugged. ‘Anything like this is a team effort.’
He didn’t say any more but followed her through the maze of corridors that led to the various rooms.
Still having the master keycard Eleanore was able to access all of the guest suites.
Lukas made all the right noises when he spotted the tropical fish tank over the top of the ice futon and Eleanore could tell that he particularly liked the Bedouin tent set in a desert oasis with a heated outdoor spa that was completely private. He was equally impressed with the fifteenth-century Louis XV boudoir and the Australian bush shack but his eyes took on a particular light when they reached the captain’s cabin of an old pirate ship.
Stepping back, Eleanore let him go in ahead of her.
This was still her favourite room with its large porthole-shaped windows, antique desk carved from ice with a treasure map etched into the top, the admiral’s chair covered with lamb’s wool and the large ice globe of the world that could be spun. The pièce de résistance though was the elaborately carved four-poster ice bed with real red velvet drapes that dominated the room. Lukas walked over to it. ‘Sturdy.’
Eleanore held her breath. There was no missing the expression on his face and it took her breath away.
‘Do you imagine being tied to it?’ he asked her softly.
‘No!’ Yes. Maybe... Her heartbeat picked up and heat raced through her blood instead of oxygen. She didn’t think she was a prude but tied up? She hadn’t even had sex yet!
Her pulse beat fast beneath her skin. They were all alone in the hotel. Just the two of them, and a deep sense of inevitability swept over her. She wanted this man. She had wanted him even before she had met him and it seemed that he wanted her too.
‘You don’t sound convinced,’ he said softly.
Eleanore stared at him. Would it be so bad to give in to the desire coursing through her? Her career was on track—she hoped—and it wasn’t as if one night with a man was going to derail her long-range plans. And anyway, who made the rule that she couldn’t temporarily deviate from her goals now and then? Just because she hadn’t before didn’t mean it would be catastrophic, did it?
