away, lifted his own hand in a half-greeting and carried on ranting. ‘I left you for one dance...I came back and you were gone! I thought you’d done your normal I’m-sick-of-waiting trick and left on your own. When I couldn’t get hold of you by yesterday afternoon I went around to the house. When I saw your car was there but you weren’t I started to freak. I’m still freaking! And what were you saying about a date-rape drug? What the—’
‘She’s fine,’ Will stated, shoving a cup of coffee into Mak’s hand and cutting off another barrage of colourful swear words. ‘Did you bring clothes?’
Mak sat down and looked around, eventually pointing to the plastic bag he’d dropped by the door. Will stood up and went to retrieve it, understanding that Mak needed a minute to compose himself—that he’d been seriously worried and expressed it by acting like a jerk. He couldn’t blame the guy. It was what guys did when they were unhappy. Any man would be jumping the walls if his woman vanished on him and he couldn’t get hold of her.
There was another reason not to have a partner or a girlfriend...you couldn’t get agitated and upset if there was no one to get agitated and upset about. And he still wasn’t impressed that Mak hadn’t taken better care of her at the club—kept his eye on Lu instead of leaving her alone at the bar.
Will sat in the chair opposite Mak and poured himself a cup of coffee. They waited in an uneasy silence as Lu dressed in the next room.
Mak lifted his head and his dark eyes looked miserable when they connected with Will’s. ‘Thanks, by the way. If anything had happened to her...’
Uncomfortable with the level of emotion he heard in the other man’s voice, Will shifted in his seat. ‘Sure...I’m glad I was there.’
‘Me too.’ Mak scrubbed his face with his hands. ‘Lu is...she’s—’
His words were cut off by Lu’s return. Will’s T-shirt had been replaced by a snug, cropped T-shirt of pale pink, revealing an inch of her belly above the band of low-cut white shorts. Long legs ended in a pair of battered flip-flops. She crossed them as she sat down on the couch next to him.
Will handed her a cup of coffee. ‘Black. Add what you want to it.’ He gestured to the milk and sugar on the tray. Lu, he noticed, took hers black and sweet.
‘I hope we’re not keeping you from anything?’ Lu said after sipping and sighing.
‘I have some press interviews scheduled for later, but I’m not in any rush.’ Will placed his cup on the tray and leaned forward. ‘What do you want to do about the other night? Do you want to press charges?’ He watched Lu think.
‘I don’t know. I feel fine now. A bit of a headache, but that’s it.’ She dropped her elbows to her knees and rested her face in her hands. ‘I’d go to the police but I don’t remember a damn thing.’
Will’s voice hardened. ‘I do. I can give the police an idea of who we’re looking for.’
‘Except that we can’t prove the man you saw me with spiked my drink. He could say that he was helping me,’ Lu pointed out.
Will felt his back teeth grind together as the truth of her words registered. ‘True, but I still think you should report it.’
Lu placed her thumbnail between her front teeth. ‘You’re right. It’s irresponsible not to.’
‘I’ll take you, Lu,’ said Mak as he placed his empty cup on the coffee table.
He looked calmer, Will thought, less wild-eyed.
Lu angled her head so that she could look at the face of Mak’s watch. ‘Today is Monday, right?’
Mak nodded.
‘You can’t take me anywhere. You have thirty minutes to get to that preliminary interview at the school. That’s all the way across town. ‘
It took a moment for her words to register, but when they did Mak shot out of his chair and looked panicked. ‘I don’t want Deon going to that school.’
‘It’s a back-up plan, Makhosi. We discussed this. It’s just in case he doesn’t get into St Clare’s.’
‘You’re right—I know you are right. But I don’t have time to take you home, get him, and get across town in time for the interview. Is there any chance you can hang on here until I can get back?’ Mak asked.
‘Lu and I will go to the police and then I can run her home,’ Will suggested.
Mak threw him a relieved smile. ‘Thanks, Will. I appreciate it.’
Will stood up to shake Mak’s hand. He clenched his jaw as he watched Mak and Lu exchange another tender embrace and then Mak was flying out of the door.
Lu shut the door behind him and shook her head. ‘Mak only operates at warp speed.’ She flicked her thumbnail against her teeth as she walked back towards him. ‘You’ve already done so much. I couldn’t impose on you any more. I’ll be fine on my own. I’ll go to the police and then I’ll find my way home.’
Will resisted the impulse to grab her hand and to tell her to relax, to calm down. ‘We’ll go together,’ he insisted and saw her shoulders drop from around her ears. She’d be fine on her own, his ass. But why did he care?
The girl had had her drink spiked, he reminded himself. If he hadn’t interfered she could’ve been raped, subjected to abuse... Will ground his teeth as his blood pressure spiked. Damn straight he’d go to the police with her.
‘Maybe I should just write it off as a bad experience and avoid clubs—no matter what my brothers want me to do,’ Lu said, picking up her cup again.
‘What do your brothers have to do with you clubbing?’ Will asked, intrigued.
‘Ah...they think I need to get out more,’ Lu explained.
He felt disappointed when she waved her words away.
‘It’s a long story which you’d probably find boring.’
Strangely, he thought he wouldn’t. Sure, she wasn’t glamorous or glossy, like the women he normally came into contact with, but he had a feeling that Lu was far more interesting than most of the women he met. There was something settled about her...calm, down to earth...wise.
He admired her coolness under pressure. Her assumption that they’d slept together had been funny because she’d had a good excuse to lose it earlier. Instead she’d reined in her emotions and thought the situation through, keeping calm and in control, her emotions in check. He’d been dreading having to deal with a weepy, scared creature and her undramatic reaction had been a very welcome relief.
Impressive. He valued keeping his control and he admired her ability to do the same.
And those eyes, God...a mermaid’s eyes, reflecting the greens and blues and aquas of a tropical sea.
Will rested his head against the back of the wingback chair and thought that his brief visit to Durban had started off on a very interesting note.
THREE
Will
