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Luke wanted to say, And you couldn’t use the phone? but that would be rude and ungrateful and they spent the next few minutes talking over their parents’ travel plans as if their mothers hadn’t just caught them making out like horny teenagers.
It felt awkward and unnatural and Luke was relieved when Gloria and Lena took their leave. ‘Be good,’ Lena said as they both walked to the door, springs in their step.
‘And if you can’t be good, be careful,’ Gloria threw over her shoulder as the door slowly closed.
Claudia and Luke stared at the door as it clicked shut on a burst of raucous female laughter and excited chatter they could hear despite the thick wooden barrier. ‘Oh, God,’ Luke said. ‘They’re already picking out china patterns, aren’t they?’
Claudia nodded miserably. She wondered if her mother or Gloria had any idea that their unintentional interruption had actually had the opposite effect to what they’d clearly been plotting all these years.
‘You and I can never just have a...fling, can we?’ he murmured.
‘No.’ Claudia shook her head. ‘Not with our parents knowing anyway. If we’re in any kind of a relationship, they’re going to be sending out invitations and humming the wedding march. But we always knew that...’
‘Yes.’ Luke rubbed a hand along his neck. They had. They’d just let their hormones get in the way.
Stupid!
Look what had happened the last time he’d let them take over—an ex-wife and a torpedoed career. Did he learn nothing?
‘We can’t do this, can we?’
Claudia looked at him. A quarter of an hour ago she’d been minutes away from having him naked and inside her. Now she knew she’d never know that feeling again and she thanked her lucky stars for last night. To have known Luke in the carnal sense.
‘No. We’ll break their hearts when you go back to London, back to your other life. I don’t want that to be a source of friction between them.’
She waited for him to say he wasn’t going to go back. That he’d decided to stay.
Luke shoved his hands on his hips. ‘Yes.’
He looked frustrated and weary and Claudia knew exactly how he felt. Their kissing had revved her up and now she was standing here, her engine running, with nowhere to go. ‘We’ll always have last night.’ She shrugged.
Luke gave her a half-smile. ‘Yeah,’ he murmured, his gaze dropping to her mouth briefly, the muscles in his corded forearms flexing and for a second she thought he was going to leap the distance between them and kiss her anyway.
But he didn’t.
Instead he looked away, dropped his hands to his sides and headed for his room. ‘See you in the morning,’ he said, pulling the door closed after him.
Claudia stared at the door.
Morning.
One long, sleepless night away.
* * *
Opening day was a success. Everything went off without a hitch and their guests were all lovely, very aware of the hardship that had recently befallen the Tropicana and extra accommodating with the limited activities available. Mostly they were family groups, grateful for the lower-key atmosphere, happy to hang out at the pool and play on the beach.
On Wednesday their parents left to much fanfare and relief as far as Claudia was concerned. Even just the disappointment she’d glimpsed on her mother’s face as she’d realised she and Luke had been serious about their non-relationship had been hard to take.
She couldn’t begin to imagine how much worse it would be if they had gone ahead and had a fling, built up their mothers’ hopes and dreams only to dash them all when Luke left to go back home again.
Because he was going back to London—he’d made that very clear.
Thankfully over the following days and weeks they were much too busy to dwell on it. Between running the hotel and moving things along with the spa complex, not to mention Luke working all hours of the night as well as working with Jonah on a new advertising campaign, they didn’t have time to be social.
They didn’t have time to be lovers.
Make time, that pesky little devil that seemed to have taken up permanent residence on her shoulder, urged her every night as she lay in bed trying not to think about Luke lying in his bed. Right next door. Completely naked.
Sure, she could make the time if she wanted to throw caution to the wind, set up something clandestine with him, but the outcome wouldn’t change. He was still leaving and all nights and nights of endless sex and passion would ultimately get her was even more exhausted than she was now.
There was a lot to do and she had to be on her game—not yawning and constantly distracted by whatever acrobatic sex they’d had the night before. Her guests deserved bright, chipper Claudia of old and that was what they were getting. The Tropicana had been dealt a huge blow both physically and financially and turning that around took hard work and focus.
