Read Online His Most Exquisite Conquest by Emma Darcy - Free Book Online Page A

of her nature, but maybe it was all designed to play him, to take him where she wanted him to go, ensnare him into not looking beyond what she gave him. Was he being fooled by this woman?
    He glanced sharply at Lucy as he resumed his seat. Her chin was up at a defiant angle. Her face was taut. No smile. Her whole body looked tense. Her gaze was lowered, seemingly fixed on the table next to theirs, where the waiter was serving sweets. Michael didn’t think she was considering what to order for herself, but he decided to pretend that she was. A bone-deep pride insisted that Lester not see he had disturbed either of them in the slightest.
    Michael reached over and touched her hand to draw her attention back to him. Her head turned slowly, reluctantly, and when she lifted her gaze to his he saw her eyes were anguished.
    Because what she was had been revealed...or because it deeply distressed her to have him think anything nasty of her? There was no certain way of telling at this moment, and he wasn’t about to sit in judgement with Lester watching.
    Michael quickly composed an indulgent smile and nodded to the next table. ‘Do you fancy any of the sweets being served over there?’
    ‘What?’ she asked in a dazed fashion.
    ‘You said you wanted to see what sweets other people ordered before you decide,’ he reminded her.
    ‘Oh!’ There was a second of utter disbelief, almost instantly chased away by immense relief. The frozen look on her face cracked into a smile that showered him with a gush of warmth. ‘I wasn’t really looking at them.’
    He squeezed her hand. ‘Don’t let Lester spoil your appetite. I love the way you appreciate good food.’
    The smile wobbled. ‘He was so nasty. I thought...’ Her eyes searched Michael’s anxiously.
    Again he squeezed her hand. ‘He’s gone, Lucy. We were enjoying ourselves. Let’s wipe him out of our minds and keep on enjoying ourselves.’
    She looked at him wonderingly. ‘You can do that?’
    ‘Yes.’ It wasn’t the absolute truth, but he grinned at her to lighten the moment and said, ‘Though I’m glad you didn’t sleep with him. I have standards, too, and Lester doesn’t meet them.’
    ‘I hate abusive men,’ she said fiercely. ‘My father was abusive when he got drunk. It was a huge relief when he dropped out of our lives.’
    Michael frowned, wondering what exactly ‘abusive’ entailed, if there was any bad sexual history that might have led to sluttish behaviour on Lucy’s part. ‘Do you mean violent?’ he asked cautiously.
    Lucy grimaced. ‘He did hit Mum occasionally. Most of the time, though, he’d just get mean and nasty.’
    ‘What about you and your sister?’
    She shook her head. ‘We learnt early on to stay out of his way when he got drinking.’
    Michael sensed nothing hidden behind her answer and felt relieved that there’d been no sexual abuse. He wished Lucy hadn’t made that ‘slut’ remark. It sat uneasily in his mind, along with Lester’s ‘bigger bucks’ remark.
    ‘Not a happy household,’ he murmured, thinking how lucky he had been with his parents.
    ‘It was happy when my father was away in Mount Isa,’ she said quickly. ‘He lives there full-time now. He’s a miner.’
    ‘I see. He came home to Cairns in between shifts.’
    ‘Yes. And it was always a relief when he left.’ She shook her head again. ‘Mum should never have married him. She was pregnant with Ellie at the time and more or less got trapped into it. She was on her own up here, having come from a broken home herself—no one to turn to—and she tried so hard to hold it all together. I couldn’t have had a better mother, Michael.’
    ‘Well, I’m glad of that,’ he said sincerely. ‘And I’m sorry your father wasn’t what he should have been.’
    She eyed him curiously. ‘What was your father like?’
    ‘He was great. Both my parents were. Harry and I were brought up in a very happy home.’
    She sighed. ‘Then you must have only good