Revenge and Redemption
A Ravenous Romance™ Original Publication
Jennie Brumley
A Ravenous Romance™ Original Publication
Copyright © 2010 by Jennie Brumley
Ravenous Romance™
100 Cummings Center
Suite 123A
Beverly, MA 01915
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60777-333-7
This book is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
Chapter One
“That guy has been staring at you forever!”
Penny Royale followed her exuberant assistant’s gaze to the man sitting at the table in the back of the café and snorted humourlessly. “Trust me, I am the last woman in the world that guy would be interested in. Well, second last,” she corrected as she slid a citrus tart and a non-fat-soy-latte across the countertop.
“Nonsense.” Karen sniffed.
“Do you know who that man is?” Penny said as she nodded at the man in question. The man who still had the power to make her knees wobble and her heart race at the mere sight of him, even after so long. The man who seemed a little too engrossed in the morning newspaper every time she glanced in his direction.
“He’s tall, dark and sinfully delicious. Who cares who he is?”
“His name is Luke Hardcastle.”
“Wait, you know him?”
“Mostly by reputation.”
“Mostly?”
Penny ignored Karen’s upraised eyebrows and impish grin. “You know those overbearing, self-absorbed millionaires with the endless string of model girlfriends and the holier-than-thou attitude that you hate so much?”
“Yeah,” Karen said cautiously.
“Meet their king!”
Karen looked crestfallen. “Bummer.”
Penny laughed. “If it makes you feel any better, he wasn’t always a jerk, not really.”
“What changed?”
“Not sure, but a couple of years ago his women started getting thinner, blonder, and more frequent.”
“Typical. Tell you what, though, he’s looking at you again.” Penny shifted her gaze back to Luke and got caught in his stare. “Are you blushing?” whispered Karen with no small amount of amusement.
Penny quickly turned away and cleared her throat. “I think I’ll go downstairs and do some real work now.”
She took off down the stairs and headed straight to the back of her book shop to hide in her miniscule office. She sucked in her tummy and squeezed her way past the boxes of newly arrived best sellers, then slumped into the plastic garden chair that had been serving her needs since her antique kitchen chair broke.
Penny was still amazed the chair was the only thing that got broken the night she tripped over in the dark and landed awkwardly on her favourite stick of furniture. The fact that she’d been drunk at the time hadn’t helped relieve the guilt of smashing something so beautiful.
Of course the only reason she’d been drunk in the first place was because her so-called date that evening had been a total creep. He’d admitted during the entrées that he’d only asked her to go out with him because she was Selina Royale’s niece, and he’d been hoping for an introduction, a shortcut into the corporate shark tank that was Royale Industries. It was shortly after that little revelation that she’d stopped paying attention, both to her date and how much wine she’d consumed. Because when it came down to a choice between talking about her abusive aunt with forced civility or suffering a blinding hangover, the hangover was definitely the lesser of two evils.
Why was it every time a man asked Penny out on a date, she would find herself talking about her aunt, whether she wanted to or not? Wasn’t there even one man out there who wanted her? Just her?
Of course not, she thought. Don’t be daft. What man in his right mind would choose to be with a giant freak like her? No man, that’s who.
Certainly not a man like Luke Hardcastle. No, not Love-’em-and-leave-’em Hardcastle. She knew his preferred type well enough. Models. Tall, blond, snap-in-half-in-a-stiff-breeze willowy, butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-their-mouths models, women who oozed sophistication and grace. Not a tall, fat, brunette klutz who opened a café above her bookshop because she appreciated a good slice of chocolate cake and full-fat cream in her coffee. No, never someone like her.
Penny stared vacantly at her laptop and frowned. Still, what was Luke doing here? Maybe he didn’t realise who owned the place. Hmm…doubtful. Her name was on the front door. She’d recently won the Small Business Woman of the Year Award. The place was called Royale Teas, for pity’s sake!
What was he up to?
She shook her head to clear the suspicious thought from her mind. She was being stupid, paranoid, and for what? In all likelihood his being here was just a coincidence.
She turned her attention to more productive endeavours, but as her fingers were about to touch the keyboard, a knock sounded on her door.
“Come in if you dare,” called Penny, thinking it was probably just Karen with a Luke update. But when she looked up she was surprised to see it was the man himself, and her voice stuck in her throat. She nervously shot to her feet, knocking her chair over backwards against the wall, then tripped over the protruding legs as she moved towards the door. Luke reached over the boxes and caught her arm to steady her.
“Careful, Miss Royale, we wouldn’t want you to have a fall in the workplace.”
Penny just stared at him wide-eyed and mute, as his deep, warm voice filled her tiny office and wrapped itself around her like a lover’s arms.
Oh no, not again!
She’d had the same fanciful reaction the first time they’d met face to face, eighteen months ago, when she still worked for Selina.
And not just to his voice, but to his touch. Ten years of unrequited yearning had surged through her body at the feel of his flesh against hers, at the fantastic sensation of scorching heat that had flowed from his fingertips and into her. Her knees had shook and not from fear, even though he’d yelled at her, his legendary calm giving way to his now infamous temper. Her heart had thundered in her chest, her mouth had run dry.
And all he’d done was shake her hand.
This time he was holding her bare arm. Same idiotic schoolgirl reaction, though. Same heat. Same yearning. Same deer caught in the headlights.
Penny groaned inwardly.
Why him? Why couldn’t she crush on some normal bloke with a nice normal job and a nice normal life? She knew why. Because no nice normal man had ever made her feel the way this man had. No nice normal man had ever made her heart thump out of her chest just by shaking her hand.
So what that he had a reputation for being a womanizing pig, or that he made more money in a day than she did in a year? So what that he was tall enough to hold her the way she’d always imagined a man should hold a woman, or strong enough to lift her freakishly large body effortlessly in his undoubtedly perfectly sculptured arms? Who cared that he had the most beautiful golden eyes that sparkled like the sun glinting on the Brisbane River? It didn’t matter that he was disturbingly handsome with his stylish short black hair and golden skin and wide sensuous mouth that she just knew would satisfy her every fantasy and—and he was staring at her. Waiting.
Penny managed to pull herself together long enough to free her arm from Luke’s strong grip. “Thank you,” she muttered as her cheeks flamed with embarrassment.
“Quaint office,” he said. “Cosy.”
Penny clenched her jaw at the sardonic tone in Luke’s voice and fought the urge to tell him to get the hell out of her quaint office.
For a moment there, she’d forgotten they were enemies.
“Is there something you wanted, Mr Hardcastle?” she said a little too sharply as she tried to ignore her traitorous thoughts. Unlike Selina, Penny had never mastered the act of indifference. Of course where Selina was concerned, it wasn’t an act.
Luke smirked. “I want to speak with you about a personal matter. Why don’t you come to my office and we can discuss it?”
“I realise my office is roughly the size of a broom cupboard, Mr Hardcastle, but you sought me out, not the other way around, so you can tell me all about your personal matter right here, right now, or you can leave. I believe you know where the door is.”
Luke’s eyes narrowed at that jibe and he could see she was fighting back a smirk of her own. Of course he knew where the bloody door was. He was standing in it.
“Fine,” he said tightly as he stepped fully inside and closed the door.
“I’d offer you a seat, but…” she said, leaving the statement hanging as she gestured at the lack of available space.
Luke quickly scanned the office, and Penny was wrong. He’d been in broom cupboards much bigger than this. He tried to squeeze past the boxes that blocked his way but he was too big, he simply wouldn’t fit, so he gave up and decided to lean on them instead, and was instantly grateful for the barrier as he watched Penny bend over to retrieve her chair.
Gone were the disgusting grey outfits she’d worn at Royale Industries, and hello! tight jeans and T-shirt. Luke’s eyes bulged with unrestrained lust as he took in every luscious curve of her denim-clad ass while his hands itched to grab her fleshy cheeks, to squeeze and spank—
“You were saying?” she said as she sat down, her face an odd combination of contempt and discomfort, her arms folded over her chest, drawing his gaze to her big, beautiful breasts.
Luke tried to ignore the rush of heat coursing through him, sparking every cell of his body with need, the same need he’d always felt whenever Penny Royale was within sight. He clenched his jaw and fisted his hands to gain some small modicum of control.
Don’t go there, he thought. Repress and forget. Remember who she is, what she is. She’s a Royale. She’s the enemy. Remember Cassie...
“I own you,” he said, his voice sounding cold even to his ears.
“Excuse me?”
Luke cleared his throat and continued in a more casual manner. “I own you, Miss Royale, you and every other business on this block.”
“I see,” Penny said slowly, “and you’re telling me this because…?”
“I know some of the other retailers look to your business acumen and expertise when dealing with the landlord, so consider this a courtesy call. I’m your new landlord, and I wish to discuss the parameters of the new lease agreements. I thought you might like to take a look at them before I speak with the other retailers.”
Penny’s eyes narrowed. “I thought you said you wanted to discuss a personal matter.”
“I would have thought the future of your business was a personal matter, Miss Royale. We wouldn’t want anyone going out of business unnecessarily, would we?”
He watched her jaw clench and her skin pale as the blood drained from her face and he felt disgusted. Remember Cassie...
“I don’t suppose you happen to have one of those new agreements on you?” she said tightly.
“Not at present, no.”
Penny’s eyes darkened, the soft grey-blue he’d once fantasised about hardening to steel. She tilted her chin and glared at him, her lips pursed in a moue of irritation. A more kissable pout he’d never seen, and his blood began to heat with lust once more, but he forced himself to concentrate on the matter at hand and not the hardening cock in his trousers.
“Come to my office this afternoon and we’ll go over the new agreement. Four o’clock.”
Luke knew Penny wouldn’t say no. Changes to the lease meant possible changes to her income, she had a mortgage to pay, and wages, and he doubted her aunt would bail her out if things went wrong. Not with their history. She couldn’t afford to say no.
Her jaw twitched with tension but she nodded her head sharply. “Four o’clock.”
“Good. I’ll see you then.”
* * * *
Four o’clock loomed. Penny stood on the footpath outside Hardcastle Tower, stared up at the building across the street and shook the nervous tension from her hands. Royale Industries. She’d not been within cooee of the place for eighteen months, not since the day her aunt fired her. Just the thought of going anywhere near the place sent a shiver down her spine and yet here she was.
The tall grey building was as cold and uninviting as it had ever been, much like its CEO. Selina was in there somewhere, barking orders at her simpering cronies, making millions from other people’s misery, and that old familiar feeling of self-loathing began crawling over Penny’s flesh, chilling her blood and sucking the air from her lungs. She felt unclean, knowing the things she knew, the things she’d seen—things she’d done.
She turned away and went inside to meet Luke.
The elevator doors opened with a ping and she was greeted by his assistant, a thin, leggy blonde in a skirt suit so short it bordered on obscene but, Penny noticed as she gestured for her to follow, she was also very beautiful. Catwalk beautiful.
Typical, Penny thought.
“I’m Sandra, Mr Hardcastle’s personal assistant. Mr Hardcastle is running late. He apologises for the delay and requests that you sit in his office to wait for him. Would you like a coffee or tea while you wait?”
Penny smiled with practised politeness as the beautiful blonde gestured to a black leather couch lining one wall of Luke’s expansive office, but shook her head. “Water is fine, thank you.”
“Of course.”
Instead of sitting as requested, Penny paced out the room. Nothing quaint about this office, she mused as she walked to the wall of glass that served for a window and marvelled at the magnificent view. The Museum, the Art Gallery, the edge of the South Bank Parklands, even the City Cats on the Brisbane River could be seen as they ferried passengers from one jetty to another.
“Great view, isn’t it?”
Penny turned around to see Luke walking through the office door, a briefcase in hand, his assistant following him with a bottle of water and a glass of ice on a tray.
“Thank you, Sandra. You can go home now.”
Luke waited until they were alone again before addressing Penny once more.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said as he slipped his jacket off and tossed it on the couch. His tie quickly followed. “My meeting ran overtime. Please, have a seat.”
He gestured to a stylish black leather chair in front of his desk. Penny watched his every movement as he loosened his shirt collar with long, lean fingers and rolled up his sleeves, revealing the toned muscle of his forearms, the strength of a man who knew the value of hard work. A good man, she’d always thought, despite their enmity. A devilishly sexy man, but an honest man.
“Now, I suppose you would like to see the new lease agreement,” he said as he sat opposite her.
“That is why I’m here, isn’t it?”
Luke leaned back in his chair and smiled, smug. “Not exactly.”
Chapter Two
Penny’s eyes narrowed as her stomach hit the floor. She knew it. Luke was going to tear down her beautiful little corner of Brisbane and turn it into a multilevel carpark. He was a property developer, for pity’s sake. Why else would he want such old buildings?
“What do you mean ‘not exactly’?” Penny said, barely repressing the anger in her voice. “Why am I here, Mr Hardcastle?”
“Please, call me Luke, and you’re here because I want your help with a small...side project I’m working on.”
Penny was confused. Why would one of Australia’s wealthiest men need her help with anything? “What sort of project?” she asked warily.
“The destruction of Royale Industries.”
“Okay,” Penny said slowly, “I thought you said this was a small project.”
Luke was surprised by Penny’s reaction. Even with their strained relationship he’d expected outrage, contempt, or at least indignation on her aunt’s behalf, not complete apathy.
Maybe he was wrong about Penny?
Or maybe the apple fell closer to the tree than he thought. After all, how would Selina Royale react if Luke said he wanted to destroy her niece? Probably the same way she reacted when he accused her of destroying his sister’s company eighteen months ago—with total indifference.
“You don’t seem surprised.”
“I’m not.”
Luke frowned at her continuing bland expression. “Why not?”
“Because every time a man wishes to discuss anything with me the conversation invariably turns to Selina. I’m kinda used to it.”
Then Luke saw it. Penny tried to hide it but she was—what, disappointed? Hurt, even?
Interesting.
“In that case let me get straight to the point. Eighteen months ago your aunt bought out Cassidy Holdings, broke it up and sold it off bit by bit, making herself a tidy fortune in the process. She acquired the shares at a fraction of their value because information was leaked to the business community that caused the prices to plummet. I believe Selina leaked that information, knowing it would cause a panic and give her the opportunity to strike.”
He watched Penny shift in her seat as she crossed one long leg over the other, and wondered for the umpteenth time that day what they’d feel like wrapped around his hips as he drove himself into her. He grit his teeth. The fantasies he’d kept at bay for years had returned, flooding his body and mind with a tidal wave of lust. Lust he was not supposed to feel. Lust he would not allow himself to feel. And certainly wouldn’t act upon.
“Okay,” she said. “So why don’t you go to the Department of Fair Trading? Or the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission? Why come to me?”
“Because I don’t have any proof, and I need you to get it for me.”
Penny started laughing. The sound was so sweet to Luke’s ears he had to clench his jaw and grind his teeth to force his mind to concentrate. He frowned. He couldn’t let her affect him. “This isn’t a joke. I’m serious, Penny.”
“I know you are.”
“Then what’s so funny?”
“That you would need my help for something like this. I sell books and coffee, for pity’s sake. I’m not into corporate espionage or private investigation. I would have thought a man like you would have professional people to do that for you.”
“I do. How do you think I know about Selina leaking the information? But all I have is hearsay. I need actual proof if I want to take her down.”
“And why do you think I’ll be of any help to you?”
“Because you worked for her, with her. You know how she thinks, how she conducts business...and I know what she did to you, Penny. I know she fired you and kicked you out on the street. Exactly how long did you have to stay in that shelter?”
The laughter died from Penny’s face and again he felt that twinge of disgust. His words had killed her lovely smile. Anger and hate replaced it.
“Mr Hardcastle...”
“Luke, please.”
“Mr Hardcastle, I’m going to say something to you that I should have said this morning. Go to hell!” Penny stood up and headed towards the door.
“Not so fast, Penny. There is one other reason I thought you’d help me that I think you might be forgetting.”
“And that would be?” she asked, her hand on the doorknob.
“I own you.” Penny’s hand fell to her side. “You’ll help me ruin Selina or I’ll ruin you instead.”
“Why?”
“Why not? Selina ruined my sister’s life, and you helped, and you know it. I simply want to return the favour as Cassie can no longer do it for herself.”
Luke leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers under his chin as he watched Penny. Slowly she turned to face him. Her chest heaved with every irritated breath, causing his eyes to be drawn to the ample swell of her breasts. He shifted in his seat to accommodate his growing erection.
Penny pulled a set of keys from her jeans pocket and walked back to Luke’s desk. He frowned as she laid them in front of him and pointed to each key.
“The blue one opens the door to the shop, the red one is my house key, and the green one opens the laundry door—it sticks sometimes, but if you jiggle it it’ll come good.”
“What are you doing?”
“You said you’d ruin me if I didn’t help you. Selina will ruin me if I do. Oddly enough, if I have to lose to someone, I’d rather it be you than her. Goodbye, Luke.”
Luke stared at Penny dumbfounded as she walked out of his office. When he’d gone over every possible scenario in his mind as to how this meeting would go, he certainly didn’t picture this. Luke jumped to his feet and raced after Penny. He caught her at the elevator.
“Penny, stop. We haven’t finished.”
“We have nothing further to discuss.”
Luke almost growled with frustration. He had definitely underestimated this woman. It was not something that happened often and as much as he didn’t want to admit it, it made her even more appealing.
The doors to the elevator opened and Penny stepped inside. Luke was desperate. He hadn’t wanted to do this, it was too Selina Royale in its vindictiveness, but Penny was leaving him no other choice.
Luke braced his arms against the doors of the elevator, holding them open, filing the cavity with his large body. He stared at Penny, his expression cold, and kept his voice from betraying his desperation.
“What if I didn’t ruin you? What if I ruined your fellow retailers instead?”
He stepped back and waited with his arms folded neatly across his chest. The doors began to close, until Penny’s hand shot out between them and made them open again.
Luke had been glared at by his fair share of women but something in Penny’s steel-coloured eyes at that moment chilled him to the bone. She stepped from the elevator and slapped his face hard, then marched straight back into his office.
Luke adjusted his jaw as he followed her. He closed the door behind them, then sought out the glass of ice his assistant had brought in earlier. He almost laughed as he sat down at his desk, holding the glass to his cheek.
“I’ve been slapped before but, bloody hell that hurt.”
“Be thankful that was all you got,” Penny said.
Luke looked at her with new eyes. “You really aren’t what I was expecting,” he said.
“Didn’t you have me investigated?”
“Of course I did, but we’ve met before, remember? I thought I had you pegged.”
“You met a different person,” she said as she shifted her eyes from his.
“So I see. Never judge a book by its cover, eh?”
“Cute.”
Luke smirked at Penny’s dryness. “I must admit I find it interesting that you will quite literally fight for the rights of your neighbours but don’t even bat an eyelid for your aunt.”
“So?”
“She’s family.”
“Families come in all shapes and sizes, Luke, and Selina may be related, but she is not my family.”
“Then why won’t you help me? You know she’s crooked.”
“I never witnessed anything illegal in all my time at Royale Industries. Morally reprehensible, yes. Illegal, no. And the reason I won’t help you is not because of loyalty to Selina.”
She sighed heavily. “All outgoing employees are made to sign confidentiality agreements forbidding them to disclose any and all information gleaned while working at Royale Industries. I’m sorry, Luke, the agreement is binding for three years. I can’t help you.”
There was a moment of silence, then a crack. The glass in Luke’s hand shattered. He dropped the broken glass as the pain in his hand cut through the haze of burning hatred that had welled within him.
Penny jumped to her feet. “First-aid kit? Luke?”
“Behind Sandra’s desk,” he said dispassionately.
Penny dashed out of the office and came back with a white box. She flipped it open and pulled out saline ampoules and alcohol swabs. She tweezed some small shards of glass from the heel of his palm and cleaned the cut.
“You’ll live,” she said as she applied a Band-Aid to his hand.
“But Cassie won’t,” he said quietly.
Penny’s throat constricted with guilt. Eighteen months ago word had leaked out that Cassandra Cassidy, CEO of Cassidy Holdings, was dying from cancer. Luke’s half-sister had taken over from her father and in six months turned the company around from a flailing financial nightmare into a prosperous and worthwhile venture.
Selina had been furious. She had wanted to buy them out but Cassie’s company’s revival ruined those plans. Penny wouldn’t put it past Selina to do what Luke was accusing her of, but she had no proof either. She never saw anything illegal take place and Selina had some of the best lawyers on retainer to ensure she never crossed that line.
“How is she?” she asked quietly.
“Not great, not that she ever lets on how bad she really is. But that’s my baby sister. Never backs down.”
Penny looked long and hard at Luke. The man was her first and only real crush. From the first day she’d seen him standing on the footpath opposite Royale Industries, Luke Hardcastle had been her fantasy man. A man she had tried to help once before, and had incurred Selina’s wrath for doing so. What did she really have to lose if she did it again?
Everything.
The word was a lump that choked her and threatened to crush her. Selina would crush her, her business, her life. Penny had employees to think about now; she was accountable for more lives than her own. It didn’t matter that Luke looked so vulnerable and simply begged to be comforted. He was still the man trying to blackmail her into doing his dirty work. Even so, the urge to slip her arms around his neck and cradle his head against the pillow of her breasts was enticing.
She moved to a safe distance away from temptation. “I am sorry, Luke. I do wish I could help, but I can’t.”
Luke slowly raised his head and stared at her. “Do you, Penny? Do you really wish you could help?”
Penny looked away before she could drown in his golden depths. “I know better than anyone what a bitch Selina can be, Luke. I don’t blame you for wanting to cut her down to size.”
“Then let me take a look at that agreement.”
“What?”
“The confidentiality agreement, I’ll have my lawyers go over it and see if they can’t find any loopholes. If they can, will you help me?”
“And if they can’t?”
“Then I’ll just have to think of some other way to bring that bitch to her knees.”
“And until then, are you still going to hold the leases over my head?”
“Yes. I can’t take the chance that you’ll go telling tales to Aunty Selina in the meantime, can I? I wouldn’t want you trying to curry her favour.”
Penny clenched her jaw. If only Luke knew how bloody unlikely that statement was.
“Fine, but if you want to hold a lease over my head, then hold my lease over my head. Leave my friends alone. They are good, honest, hardworking people who deserve better than to get caught in the middle of this nonsense.”
“Fair enough.”
“And you and I are going to sit here all night if we have to and go over their lease agreements. I will not let you rip them off.”