Revenge and Redemption

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.”