The Socialite's Secret. Carol Marinelli

Scarlet persisted, but he shook his head.

      ‘Not with your bodyguards watching.’

      ‘You know who I am now, don’t you?’

      ‘Not really,’ Luke said. ‘I know two of your names and I’ve heard of your mother. You’re not a midwife, I take it?’ She shook her head and Luke glanced down at the bill he had just been given. ‘There should be champagne on there,’ he said to the bartender.

      ‘It’s on the house,’ the bartender said, and smiled at Scarlet as it dawned on Luke that she didn’t have to pay.

      Scarlet’s presence in the club was more than enough.

      It annoyed Luke.

      Not that Scarlet had been playing him along—now that he understood why, it didn’t annoy him in the least—but he wanted to have bought her that drink.

      ‘Add it,’ Luke said, and handed back the bill.

      ‘Sure.’ The bartender shrugged.

      He turned around and Scarlet was still there. ‘Take me with you,’ she said. Her arms went around his neck and Luke went to peel them off but then he heard the desperation in her voice. ‘Please.’ Scarlet closed her eyes. She was so tired of the noise and no doubt drama would await her when she returned to the hotel. It felt like for ever that she had been trying to escape. She looked up at Luke and he was so calm and so slightly bored with it all, as was she, and she gazed into his beautiful eyes. ‘I’ll make it worth your while.’

      ‘You don’t need to offer sex, Scarlet.’

      ‘I want to spend some time with you.’

      ‘Why don’t you ask me to take you for dinner?’

      ‘Dinner?’ Scarlet frowned.

      ‘Well, it’s nearly one, so I’m not sure where.’ Luke smiled but he let her hands remain around his neck and his hands moved to her hips. The urge to kiss her was back.

      ‘I haven’t eaten since breakfast,’ Scarlet admitted.

      It was almost that time again, Luke thought, but then he pushed that aside. Unlike most men, the thought of a one-night stand didn’t thrill him—his father’s perpetually roving eye meant that he’d lived with the fallout for long enough to learn from James Edwards’s mistakes.

      ‘You really want to take me for dinner?’

      ‘I do.’

      ‘I’m sorry I lied to you,’ Scarlet said. ‘I just wanted to see if you’d like me if I was normal.’

      ‘You are normal,’ Luke said.

      As was his body’s reaction to her.

      There was a need, an absolute need to get her away from here, to just talk, to get to know her some more and, yes, to get to that mouth.

      ‘Can you lose your bodyguards?’ Luke asked. He couldn’t stand the thought of them overseeing things. He wanted Scarlet away from the hype and he knew he would take good care of her. Judging by her previous offer to make it worth his while, they didn’t take proper care of her either.

      ‘I can’t.’ She shook her head. ‘You don’t get how it is—I can’t go anywhere without them.’

      Luke didn’t play games.

      Ever.

      ‘Can you lose your bodyguards?’ he asked again, and Scarlet heard the warning. If she said no, he’d be gone.

      ‘They’ll dial 911 if I disappear.’

      ‘Well, they shan’t get very far if they do,’ Luke said, and he told her the UK emergency number. ‘I’ll take care of you but I’m not buying you dinner with an audience.’

      He wanted to take her for dinner!

      ‘I could go to the loo and try to …’

      ‘Climb out of the window?’ Luke scoffed at her plans. ‘Why don’t you simply tell them that you’re having a night off?’ But then he halted as he realised, for the first time, that life in her world wasn’t that simple.

      ‘Please take me for dinner,’ she said.

      ‘I’ll go outside and wait down the back,’ Luke offered. ‘If you can’t get out of the loo there will be an emergency exit. But,’ he warned, ‘if you tell your bodyguards what you’re up to, if I even get a hint that they’re around, I’ll hand you back over to them. I’m not going to be playing your celebrity game, Scarlet.’

      Luke meant it.