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And that had been her undoing.
With Matt, there had been no opportunity for leisurely exploration, no chance to really learn what pleasures their bodies could give them on the way to climax.
Until the night Lukas had taught her.
Lukas! Not the man she loved. Not the man she was engaged to.
No, it had been his best friend—and, after that night, her worst enemy!—who had brought her to orgasm and had held her in his arms while she trembled and shuddered—then came to her senses and realized what they had done.
Humiliated and furious, feeling she’d been taken advantage of at the same time she knew she had allowed it to happen, Holly had been terrified that Lukas would go straight to Matt the next morning and tell him what she’d done.
She’d been shocked to learn later that day that he had actually left the country only hours later. He hadn’t gone to see Matt at all.
Why hadn’t he? Had he expected her to ’fess up and break off the engagement herself, knowing that she’d betrayed Matt? If she didn’t, would Lukas tell him what had happened?
For days, weeks, months after that awful night, Holly had expected the other shoe to drop. Feelings of panic fluttered in her stomach every time Lukas’s name came up. But he never came back.
And as far as she knew he had never said a word.
She was aware that she was holding her breath as she watched him walk down the row of cars. Consciously, carefully, she let it out. She had to stop overreacting to him. She wasn’t a kid anymore. And whatever he did now, he couldn’t hurt her anymore. He couldn’t tell Matt what had happened between them.
She hadn’t wanted to see him again. But now that he was here, maybe it was a good thing. One more bit of the past she could put to bed before she moved out to her coral atoll and discovered the path for the rest of her life.
She took a deep breath, then let her gaze follow him, looking for the Porsche mentioned in the What’s New! article. His “dream car,” he’d called it. A vintage model, green and low-slung and more powerful than a pride of jungle cats. The sort of car alpha men drove.
But even as she scanned the row, Lukas stopped next to an old stake-body truck, its back end half loaded with drywall and lumber.
“Come on,” he called to her as he opened the passenger door to the truck.
Holly stopped, then blinked. “That?”
“I didn’t bring the Maserati,” he drawled. “You’d get the seats wet.”
She gaped as she walked toward him. “You have a Maserati, too?”
“No. I have a Porsche. But I drive the truck, too. Easier to haul stuff when I’m working.”
Holly’s brows lifted.
“I’m restoring a building.”
“Yes. I heard. Althea told me about it. And...I read the article,” she admitted. “It’s how I knew where to write to you.” Holly felt self-conscious saying it, but refused to allow it to show. “You’ve done very well,” she added, and then her cheeks did burn because she sounded so...judgmental. And prim.
Lukas’s mouth quirked in a sort of wry self-deprecation. “Who’d a thunk it?”
“I didn’t mean that!”
“No. I don’t suppose you did. Surprised my mother, though. She always thought I’d come to a bad end.”
“She did not!” Lukas’s mother doted on all her children. Still, when Holly reflected on Lukas’s childhood, she realized that between the broken windows and the broken bones, Mrs. Antonides probably had had moments of despair.
“Let’s just say she’s happy that her worst fears weren’t realized.” Lukas was clearing off the passenger seat as he spoke, removing a couple of paint cans and some tools. He stowed them in the back, then pulled out a towel, handing it to her. “In case you want to dry your hair.”
Holly took it doubtfully. “You carry towels?”
“For a lot of years I never knew when I was going to see running water and indoor plumbing again, so I learned to take advantage of every opportunity.”
“Of course you did,” Holly replied drily, then realized he could read something else into that comment.
And had, for he cleared his throat. “Like I said, I owe you an apology for that.”
Holly lowered the towel so she could peer at him over the top of it.
Lukas looked as uncomfortable as she’d ever seen him. There was a hint of red across his cheekbones. “I shouldn’t have...taken advantage.” There was serious color in his face, which amazed her. Was he embarrassed?
