Page 176 of The Black Trilogy

If that was the case, the two were as bad as each other. Had Ash been blinded by Nick’s money? Was she really a gold-digger out for what she could get?

Luke sidestepped out of the path of a drunk couple as he considered Ash’s motives. No, not the money. Luke wasn’t short of a few bob himself, and she’d never been interested in his cash. So, what else? Did Nick give her a better time in bed?

“I’m sick of this,” Luke muttered, kicking a discarded beer can into the gutter.

Was he a let-down between the sheets and none of his previous girlfriends had bothered to mention it? Or was it his personality? Had he not paid Ash enough attention? She’d never seemed particularly inclined to go out, but perhaps she’d been expecting Luke to take the lead in that?

Whatever the problem, Tia’s kidnapping and Luke’s botching of the initial ransom drop was the reason Nick had returned in the first place. Which meant Luke himself had been the unwitting catalyst that rekindled Nick and Ash’s romance.

Marvellous. Just marvellous.

Luke booted the beer can further down the road, just missing a couple of girls staggering out of the pub he’d been in earlier. He didn’t miss their disgusted looks.

“What’s your problem?” one of them asked.

“Nothing.” Everything.

“A woman. I bet it’s a woman,” the other said.

Luke’s limo pulled up to the kerb and his driver leapt out to open the door.

“Evening, sir.”

The first girl eyed up the car and her scowl morphed into a predatory smile. “How about we help take your mind off things?”

“Forget it.”

Luke barely grunted at his chauffeur as he climbed into the backseat and slumped back against the soft black leather. That type of girl was two a penny, sex a business transaction. Maybe he’d have been tempted once, but now he’d been touched by love and the sweet agony that came with it.

He wanted more.

Not since he got a D- in his GCSE geography mock had Luke felt like such a failure. And women confused him more as he got older. On the one hand, he hated Ash for her lies and cheating. But a part of him, the part that remembered what it was like to take a risk and win, still yearned for her. Or was it just a bad case of wanting what he couldn’t have?

“You okay, mate?” Rob interrupted Luke’s thoughts. “You’ve been distracted all evening.”

“I’m fine. It’s just been a long day.” Luke spoke through gritted teeth, daring Rob to suggest otherwise.

But with a few drinks in him, Luke’s lie skated right past. “Great night though, wasn’t it? Plenty of food, and that music got the posh chicks up dancing. Did you see the sweet brunette in the green dress?”

“No.”

“Oh. Well, anyway, I got her number.”

“Congratulations.”

Mark leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Tell me you didn’t miss Emerson Black dancing at the end? Talk about hot. What I wouldn’t give to be Nicholas Goldman right now. I mean, the way she looked at him.”

“I saw her.” Luke gripped the door handle so hard it was a wonder it didn’t snap.

“Way out of our league, though,” Rob said. “Well, maybe not yours, Luke, what with you being loaded and all.”

Mark nodded in agreement. “But I bet she’s high maintenance.”

Rob groaned. “Speaking of high maintenance, I got a quote to fix my car today. Two grand! Can you believe that?”

Luke sent Rob a silent thank you for changing the subject before he was forced to stick pins in his eyes. As the car purred along silent streets, Rob and Mark started an in-depth conversation about the benefits of LPG over diesel.

That left Luke to stew over his own thoughts the rest of the way home. Where was he? Oh, yes, Ash had got back together with her fiancé, and it was all Luke’s fault. Worse, he obviously didn’t have the moves to keep a decent girlfriend.

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