Rescued By A Millionaire

CHAPTER THREE

IF THERE was one thing Jenna prided herself on, it was her ability to cook. Years of long school holidays where she’d been alone and a childhood where her only friends had been servants had driven her into the kitchen of her parents’ various homes and hotels. There she’d met possibly the only kindness she knew. In the process she’d learned fabulous cooking.

She needed all her skills now. To make a decent stir-fry with two fresh(ish) onions and everything else from cans was a skill in itself.

‘Why don’t you just chuck the lot together and stir?’ Riley demanded as she drained and dried every can of vegetables.

‘Because I’d end up with stew.’

‘What’s wrong with stew?’

‘To someone who survives on baked beans, probably nothing. But some of us have taste.’

He smiled, a low, lazy smile that had her curiously unsettled as he watched some more. ‘Why are you putting those vegetables to one side?’

‘I’ll feed Karli the basics. Rice and sauce will be easy to feed her when she’s three-quarters asleep. Then I’ll reheat and stir the crunchy vegetables in just before you and I eat. There’s nothing worse than snow peas that don’t crunch.’

‘I thought there was nothing worse than baked beans.’

‘Baked beans don’t even count in the worse stakes,’ Jenna said darkly. ‘Okay. Done. Stir this while I wake Karli.’

Somewhat to her surprise he did stir. Then, as she carried a dopey, half-asleep little girl back into the kitchen he surprised her further by holding out his arms to take her.

She hesitated. She wasn’t accustomed to receiving help and she half expected Karli to shy away. But Karli settled on Riley’s lap without a murmur, gazed at Jenna with eyes that were barely focussing and let herself be fed like a baby.

If she wasn’t really hungry she wouldn’t have been able to eat at all, Jenna thought, but she managed to get a good few mouthfuls into her before the little girl’s eyes sank closed again.

‘Thank you,’ she whispered to Riley as she gathered Karli up again to take her back to bed.

‘Think nothing of it.’ He smiled again, and once again that strange, unsettled feeling swept over her. She glanced at him uncertainly. But now wasn’t the time to examine why he was making her feel as she was undoubtedly feeling. She had to focus on Karli.

It took her a few minutes to settle the little girl back into bed, and when she returned Riley was scooping the stir-fry onto two plates. He’d added the crunchy vegetables all on his own.

‘I thought you’d never come,’ he told her. ‘I decided that your snow peas would definitely go soggy.’

‘I thought you didn’t care.’

‘I care.’ He gazed down to where every vegetable was clearly delineated in its succulent sauce, and the rice underneath was fluffy and fragrant. He closed his eyes and sniffed in appreciation. ‘Believe me, I care.’

‘What-with your baked beans going to waste in their crate?’

‘I guess I could just try this to be nice,’ he said grudgingly. He sat-and then had to make a wild grab for his plate as Jenna hauled it away. He missed. ‘Hey!’

‘There’s no need to be polite on my account.’ Jenna sat herself down with two plates before her. ‘I’ll nobly eat your share. You go bake your beans, Mr Jackson.’

His gorgeous grin swept back. ‘Miss Svenson, can I have my dinner back?’ His grin deepened as Jenna hauled his plate further away. ‘I really would like to try your dinner-and it’s greedy to eat that much by yourself.’

Jenna eyed him with caution. His grin was magnetic. Wonderful.

She wanted more of it.

‘Say please.’

‘Please,’ Riley said promptly and grabbed-and the first mouthful went down before Jenna even managed to smile. He tasted and his eyes widened in astonishment.

‘Wow!’

‘Don’t you want your beans?’

‘No way.’ He devoured another forkful and then another. ‘I’m thinking I might put a lock on the door and keep you here for ever. Silly girl to get off the train. Now you have a job for life.’

A job for life.

She didn’t answer. Suddenly her laughter died. She forced herself to keep on eating, but his words had hit an exposed nerve. The light-hearted banter she’d been indulging in was a camouflage.

She ate on, but she couldn’t stop thinking. A job for life.

What was she going to do now? How could she cope?

Riley had suggested keeping her here-locking the door-and there was nothing stopping him doing just that. Would Brian look for his daughter? Would her own father care?

No one would.

And Nicole was dead.

She looked up and found Riley’s eyes were on her, gently questioning. His grin had disappeared. ‘I won’t, you know,’ he told her.

‘You won’t?’

‘Keep you here.’ He smiled again, but now his smile was one of disarming gentleness. ‘You know, if I could take you to Adelaide I would. But in four days I’ll put you on the train and you’ll be safe. You’ll be safe while you’re here as well. You can trust me, Jenna.’

It was a totally uncalled-for gesture of reassurance and it floored her. She’d landed herself on this man with her own stupidity, and he was being so…so nice.

There was a lump forming in the back of her throat and she fought it back. She’d last cried…when? She couldn’t remember. She never cried and she wasn’t about to now.

‘This Brian,’ he said, seeing her distress, and leading her away from it. ‘Karli’s father. He was on the train?’

‘Yes.’

‘If he looks at a map he’ll see how much danger you’re in.’

‘He won’t look at a map,’ she said dully. ‘He’s achieved his ends. He won’t be thinking of us at all.’

Riley finished his dinner, looked at his empty plate with regret, and pushed back his chair with an air of a man who had all night to listen. ‘Do you want to tell me about it?’

‘Not much.’

‘If I’m to help…’

‘There’s nothing more you can do to help,’ she told him. ‘You’re doing enough.’

He hesitated. ‘Then tell me because I want to know,’ he said softly. ‘You had a reason for getting off that train and I want to know what it was.’

‘We should never have been on it.’

‘So why were you?’

‘Nicole sent us tickets.’ She bit her lip. ‘Or I thought Nicole sent us tickets.’

‘Nicole?’

‘My mother. Karli’s mother.’

His eyes didn’t leave her face. ‘The lady who died yesterday. Are you going to explain?’

She sighed. She hauled his plate towards her and made to get up, but his hand shot across the table and caught her wrist. His hold was strong, yet gentle. Urgent yet patient.

‘Tell me, Jenna.’

There was nothing else to do. She needed this man’s help. She had to tell him.

‘Nicole Razor is…was my mother,’ she said and watched his eyes widen.

‘Nicole Razor. The lead singer for Skyrazor?’

‘That’s the one,’ she said grimly. ‘Ex-singer, ex-model, ex-drug addict, ex-anything else you want to name.’

‘I remember. She used to be married to…’ He hesitated and she saw his eyes widen as he hit memory recall and got the connection. ‘…Charles Svenson.’

‘Racing driver. Yep. That’s my dad.’

‘But he’s not Karli’s dad?’

‘Karli’s father was Nicole’s fourth marriage-Charles was the first. Brian was probably her biggest mistake. She married him while she was high on drugs and he hooked into her for what he could get.’ She hesitated. ‘Though it’s not fair to say he was her only mistake. All her husbands were after Nicole because of the fame thing.’

‘So you’re wealthy,’ he said slowly and she watched as his face changed. ‘You’re the daughter of Charles Svenson and Nicole Razor.’

What was she supposed to say to that? She’d learned early never to say anything. But he was waiting for her to respond.

With what? With sick humour-her only defence.

‘Poor little rich girl,’ she said mockingly, but his face stayed still and watchful.

‘So what happened?’ he asked.

‘Like Karli said-Nicole died yesterday.’

‘I don’t understand any of this.’

‘It’s easy.’ She hesitated. ‘No. It’s hard, but I’ll make it brief. Nicole didn’t want me and she didn’t want Karli. We were mistakes. Brian didn’t want Karli either, but, by the time they split, he and Nicole hated each other. The court gave Nicole custody and Nicole responded by putting Karli straight into an English boarding-school.’

‘Boarding-school.’ Riley’s brows snapped down. ‘What-at five?’

‘There are very few places now that take them that young,’ Jenna said bitterly. ‘You have to pay through the nose. And Nicole did. She was always touring, and the attraction of an English boarding-school was that it was in England. Brian is Australian. He couldn’t get near Karli. Nicole was playing at custody battles to try and hurt him further.’

It was history playing over, she thought bitterly. Her own father was American and Nicole had done exactly the same thing to her.

‘Hell.’

‘It was hell,’ Jenna whispered, but she couldn’t tell him why she knew exactly what a hell it really was. ‘I haven’t been in contact with my mother for years, but when I found out about Karli I realised her school was only an hour’s drive from where I work. I’ve been taking her home with me as much as I could. I just hated leaving her there.’

‘Why didn’t you take her permanently?’

Her eyes flashed up to his then. There was condemnation in his tone. Condemnation!

She wasn’t going to explain why. How dared he even begin to think of judging her?

Their eyes locked for a moment, anger meeting anger, but his eyes softened first. A duel over the dinner plates obviously wasn’t on the agenda. ‘So how did you get here?’ he asked, obviously deciding to let his last question go unanswered.

‘Brian rang me,’ she said, trying to swallow her anger and move on. ‘I’d never met Brian. A lot of the stuff I’ve been telling you about him I’ve only realised in the last few days. I hadn’t seen my mother for years and all I knew of her I read in the tabloids. I knew there’d been a custody battle for Karli and he’d lost, but that was all I knew. Anyway, I’d taken Karli out of school for the half-term holiday. Brian rang the school and they said she was with me. So he rang me. He said Nicole was in Australia. In Perth. I’d read in the paper that she was on tour so it made sense.’

His eyes were non-judgemental again. Watchful. ‘So you decided to come and see her?’

‘No one just pops in to visit Nicole.’ She hesitated, trying to remember the jumble of emotions she’d felt as Brian had rung. ‘But it was strange. Brian sounded really upset. He said Nicole was suffering from depression-which didn’t surprise me. She was always suffering from something, and after the life she’d led and the pills she’d popped a bit of depression would be the least of it. Anyway he said she wanted to see both of us and she was prepared to pay all expenses if we came immediately.’

‘So you came.’

‘I didn’t want to,’ she told him. ‘I mean…why would I want to see Nicole? I haven’t had anything to do with her for years. But Brian wanted Karli over here, and seeing Nicole was ill it was Brian who was making decisions on Karli’s behalf. If I didn’t come then she’d have to fly out on her own. And then Brian added further incentive. The train ride.’

‘Why the train?’

‘The story he gave was that this was too good a chance to miss,’ she told him. ‘Brian’s very plausible. He said he was desperately missing Karli and if we came by plane to Sydney and then had over three days travelling by train to Perth, not only would it be an exciting holiday for both of us, but it’d give him a chance to be with his daughter for a while.’ She hesitated, trying to remember why she’d agreed.

‘It sounded reasonable,’ she told him, thinking it through. ‘I knew Nicole would move heaven and earth to keep Karli and Brian apart. If someone didn’t do what Nicole wanted she could be…spiteful. So if this was a chance for Karli to be in Australia, then it made sense that Brian would be grateful for the opportunity to spend some time with her. Anyway, as I said, I didn’t want to come-but when I told Karli what was about to happen she disintegrated. In the end I couldn’t let her travel by herself. So I agreed. That was the start of my dopiness. It was all a huge, huge mistake, and it was based on an outright lie.’

There was a moment’s pause. Riley’s eyes rested on her face and she sensed that he could almost see the pain. ‘Tell me,’ he said gently. ‘Why was it a mistake?’

She felt sick. Telling him like this…it brought it all back and she felt the emotions of the last couple of days rise to the point where they almost overwhelmed her. But she forced herself to continue.

‘Brian was insistent that we come straight away,’ she told him. ‘He said he only had a few days off work, and Nicole would maybe leave Perth or change her mind and we’d miss the opportunity. So we came. He met us at Sydney airport and whisked us straight to the train. And he was nice. He was really nice. Right up until the moment we got on the train he was nice-and then he let it all drop.’

‘So what happened?’

‘He started drinking,’ she said. ‘And when he’d had a few drinks he was cruel. Not cruel to me. To me he was just plain slimy. He couldn’t keep his hands off me. But he spent the entire train journey putting Karli down. I couldn’t believe it. A grown man belittling a five-year-old, over and over again.’ She looked up at him, willing him to understand. ‘You’ve met Karli. Anyone can see that she’s fragile. She’s the loveliest little girl, but she couldn’t do anything right. It was almost as if Brian wanted to seduce me-as if he could, the slime ball-and he thought Karli was in the way.’

‘But you were stuck with him,’ Riley said, and she nodded.

‘Yep. We were stuck on the train and couldn’t get away. I thought of getting off the train when we went through Adelaide but…’ She hesitated. How to say she had no money to fly them to Perth? Their flight home was paid from Perth. Their train fare was paid for. She’d decided they’d just have to stick with it.

But she wasn’t going to tell Riley that.

‘But I didn’t,’ she told him, flatly, no longer caring what he thought. ‘So we travelled for another half a day and then the conductor handed Brian a message that had just been radioed through as urgent.’

He knew what she was going to say before she said it. ‘Saying Nicole was dead?’

‘Saying Nicole was dead,’ she said flatly. ‘The depression thing was a lie. And I hadn’t checked.’

‘So, what was it?’

‘She’d taken a drug overdose,’ she said, her voice flat and lifeless. ‘We didn’t know. But Brian knew. She went into a coma five days ago and she’d been on life support ever since.’

He frowned. ‘But-’

‘Nicole has no family,’ Jenna told him. ‘Apart from me and Karli and we…we’ve never counted. But apparently there was some glitch in the divorce proceedings with Brian, which Brian’s kept quiet about and hoped like crazy that Nicole didn’t realize. So he’s still officially her husband. Maybe he guessed with her lifestyle there was a good chance she’d soon end up dead. Anyway, he’s planned this from the time he knew her condition was hopeless. He stopped the hospital leaking her condition to the press. He got us both out here and as soon as he had us safely on the train he gave permission for her life support to be turned off.’

There was a long silence. Then… ‘I still don’t understand.’

He didn’t understand? She barely did herself. She lifted her water glass, twisted it round and round as if by doing so maybe she could see things from a different angle. Suddenly Riley’s hand came across the table to rest on hers, forcing the glass down. She released the glass, but his hand stayed where it was. Warm and strong and compelling.

‘Tell me.’

She had to tell him. She had to say it out loud.

‘It was because of Nicole’s will,’ she whispered.

‘What about Nicole’s will?’

‘I’m only going on what Brian yelled at me,’ she told him. ‘But as far as I understand… When Nicole married Brian she made a will leaving him everything, but then she started hating Brian as much as she hated my father.’ She hesitated, trying to make clear something that had no logic-that only unreasoned malice could explain. ‘All through my childhood-and Karli’s-Nicole worked very hard to get us both away from our respective fathers, so much so that we’ve been permanently based in England. I know she’s thought of that as a success. Charles is in America. Brian’s in Australia. Karli and I are in England and if there’s ever been a suggestion that we go anywhere else then Nicole’s almost been apoplectic with rage.’

He nodded, trying to take it in. ‘And so?’

‘So the codicil said that as long as Karli and I were still in England when she died and we had no contact with our fathers, then we’d inherit everything she owns. Which, I gather, is a fortune. But it seems that the rough way the change was drafted means that as Karli and I weren’t in England at the exact time of her death, then the original will stays valid, and Brian gets everything.’

His eyes darkened. She could see anger flaring.

‘So he conned you into leaving England.’

‘For myself I don’t care,’ she whispered. ‘But the way it happened was awful. Brian came into the lounge car on the train and everyone was there. An old lady was telling Karli a story about the Koori people who lived out here. Karli was happy. Just for a minute she was happy. Then Brian appeared. He walked straight up to Karli and he put his face into hers and he shouted “Your mother’s dead and you’ll get nothing. I’ve won. You stupid little brat, you won’t get a thing”.’

‘No.’ It was a whispered exclamation of horror that she could only agree with.

‘So I got off the train,’ she said dully. ‘There was nothing else I could do. Karli went limp with shock and I picked her up and took her back to our compartment and started throwing our stuff into our suitcases-fast, because the train was already stopped. Just as it started moving we got off. End of story. Brian’s gone on to Perth to claim Nicole’s fortune, and Karli and I… Karli and I are going home.’

Home.

Home to what? Home to her bleak little bedsitter. Home with Karli. There’d be no money for school fees now. Karli would have to live with her.

Maybe that was for the best anyway.

Maybe she could sue Nicole’s estate for Karli’s maintenance, she thought drearily, and then reality slammed back again. Yeah, right. As if she could afford a lawyer.

And she still had to get them home. She had to get to Perth so she could use their return plane tickets. How much would it cost to get them from here to Perth? Were their train tickets still valid?

It was all just too hard. Despite the heat, Jenna suddenly felt cold. She gave a long, convulsive shudder, then pulled her hand away from Riley’s and started to rise. She lifted a plate, but Riley was before her, rising and taking the plate from her.

‘Leave it,’ he told her. ‘I’ll handle the washing-up. Seeing you cooked, it’s only fair. You go and take a shower. I’ll clean up and make coffee.’

‘Coffee?’

‘It’s my one skill,’ he said with pride. ‘My coffee’s the best for miles.’

‘That’s not saying much,’ Jenna retorted, responding to the gentle smile in his eyes. He was encouraging her to lighten-and there was something about this man that did just that. He made her smile when smiling seemed impossible. ‘There’s nothing but saltbush for miles. Unless your cows make coffee.’

‘Don’t disparage my skills. You wait. And meanwhile…’ He turned and delved into a crate by the door, rising with an armful of linen. ‘Here you go, Miss Svenson. Don’t let it be said that Barinya Downs doesn’t provide its guests with luxury.’ At her look of amazement he grinned. ‘Maggie packs this for me, in case I ever want to change my sheets-which, I’ll admit, doesn’t happen so much as she hopes.’ His smile deepened. ‘You know where the shower is-you saw me come out of it. It works on bore water. You need to pump while you shower. Cold water only. And you found the toilet? I should have warned you that you need to watch out for spiders. Take the torch, and if you get bitten make sure it’s somewhere I can put a tourniquet.’

‘You’re kidding.’

He relented. ‘I’m kidding. There was a redback spider nest when I arrived, so I did the hero thing with a can of insecticide.’ He eyed her clothes. ‘You want something to sleep in?’

‘I guess.’ She’d put Karli to bed in her knickers, but knickers were hardly appropriate nightwear for her. She was practically sharing a bedroom here. ‘I left our gear on the siding.’

‘Very wise.’ He smiled again. ‘The good thing about being the only humans for a hundred miles is that no one’s going to pinch your designer luggage.’

Designer luggage? What did he think she was? She tried a glower but she was too tired and too confused and too…just too everything. The day was suddenly on top of her and he could see it.

‘I’ll put one of my shirts around the wash-house door,’ he told her, taking pity on her sudden confusion. He placed a hand on her shoulder-gently, reassuringly. It was the sort of gesture he might have used on Karli, and why it suddenly made her want to weep she had no idea.

‘Go take your shower, Jenna,’ he told her. ‘Worry about tomorrow tomorrow. For tonight, I think we all need to sleep.’

She definitely wanted to sleep, but she also definitely wanted to shower.

She made up the bed at the far end of the veranda and lifted Karli over. The little girl didn’t wake as she was shifted. Her tummy was full, she felt safe and cared for, and her body was taking all the sleep it needed.

Karli still had a child’s ability to sleep whenever she needed. Jenna wasn’t quite so lucky. Dust was ingrained in every pore, and the thought of cold running water was even more appealing than sleep.

Maybe she shouldn’t shower when the little girl was alone, she thought briefly, but Karli was deeply asleep. Even if she stirred… Jenna thought of Riley’s tone as he’d talked to Karli. The way he’d smiled and the way Karli had responded.

‘You’re nice,’ Karli had whispered. ‘Nicer than my daddy.’

Karli was right. Jenna acknowledged it as truth, using a sixth sense that years of coping with an unkind world had taught her to trust. Riley Jackson was kind, with an ingrained sense of decency she knew she could depend on.

She could depend on him?

‘I can,’ she whispered. The man might make her senses come alive as they’d never come alive before; he might make her feel as aware as she’d ever been aware of a man-but she knew that here in his house she’d found a haven for her little sister that she could trust absolutely.

So, yes, she could take a shower. The concept was even appealing when she examined the wash house.

It was definitely a wash house, she decided. Calling this place a bathroom would be a joke. The ramshackle lean-to at the side of the house consisted of four walls, a concrete floor and a pipe with a shower-rose at head height. Beside the pipe was a pump. If one pumped, Jenna guessed, the water would spray out over her head.

The only problem was that the pump was designed for someone with muscles like Riley Jackson.

Jenna stripped and pumped. And pumped. And pumped. The water trickled out, grudgingly.

‘There’s nothing like building up a sweat as you shower,’ she told herself as she tried to pump and lather at the same time. ‘No wonder the man has muscles.’

‘Are you talking to yourself or do you have company?’

She froze. Naked and soapy, she crossed her arms uselessly across her breasts. The door had no lock-of course-and part of Jenna expected Riley to walk straight in.

‘I’m okay,’ she quavered.

‘Hey, it’s all right.’ He’d heard her fear, she thought, and, damn, there was suddenly laughter behind his concern. ‘We colonists know not to intrude on a lady’s ablutions. Even though you imperialists do wander round strange men’s bedrooms at will.’

Damn the man, he was laughing at her! ‘Oh, go away,’ she snapped. She shoved the pump handle down so hard that a thoroughly satisfactory stream of water gushed down over her hot-and-bothered body. That was all it needed. Anger. Well, if that was all it needed, she had anger by the bucketload. ‘I can’t concentrate with you out there,’ she told him, pumping with a vengeance, and she could hear his grin broaden.

‘Do you need to concentrate?’

‘Yes,’ she snapped. ‘I can’t handle the soap and the pump at the same time. This pump was built for Superman.’

‘You want me to come in and help?’

‘No!’ It was a yelp and there was a broad chuckle from outside the door. Which, strangely enough, seemed reassuring. Then the door opened a crack and Jenna went back to clutching her breasts. But all that appeared was a tanned, sinewy arm, holding a shirt. The arm reached up and hooked the shirt behind the door-and then the arm retreated.

‘Never let it be said that I didn’t offer,’ Riley told her, sounding wounded. ‘But if you don’t want help, then far be it from me to push. I’m off to bed. There’s coffee on your bedside table. Is there anything else you need?’

‘Privacy,’ she snapped, and again there was a chuckle.

‘What, no thank you?’

She thought about that. Thank you. Okay, maybe he deserved one of those.

‘Thank you,’ she whispered and heard a sudden arrested silence on the other side of the door.

‘Think nothing of it,’ he said at last.

‘I mean it,’ she managed. It was surreal, standing naked and dripping and talking to a complete stranger on the other side of the door. But she had to say it. ‘Without you we’d be in desperate trouble,’ she told him. ‘We’re incredibly grateful. Both of us.’

‘Yeah,’ he said, and the laughter was suddenly gone from his voice. ‘Yeah, well, that’s just fine. Goodnight.’

And he left her to it.

He left her disconcerted to say the least. She pumped on, but she was thoroughly confused.

Why did he have this effect on her? Despite the cold water, her body seemed to be burning. The man had her unnerved, and it wasn’t just the strangeness and isolation that were making her jumpy.

It was the way her body reacted to him, she decided. It was as if he had the power to flick a switch inside her, making her achingly aware of herself-of nerve endings she’d never imagined she had.

Which was really, really dumb. She was here with Karli. As well as looking out for herself, she now had to look after a child. The responsibility was almost overpowering.

The last thing she needed to do was to complicate her life by pretending she was attracted to some yahoo cowboy in the Australian Outback.

Pretending?

‘Okay, so you’re attracted,’ she conceded. ‘But you’re not stupid. Now stop fantasising and get your hair washed and get out of here.’

Even that was easier said than done. Jenna’s hair was full of dust, but there was no shampoo and the soap refused to lather. No matter how she scrubbed, there were no suds. Finally she pumped the soap out, but her hair still felt stiff and matted.

At least the worst of the dust had gone, and without Riley’s disturbing presence her body was finally cool. She towelled herself dry, put on Riley’s shirt-it hung almost to her knees-and tried to run a comb through her hair.

She winced at the feel. Why wasn’t it clean? Puzzled, she pumped a little water into her hand and tasted. It was thick with salts-coarse, untreated bore water.

At least the tap in the kitchen was connected to rainwater, she decided. She could rinse her hair there.

She retrieved her kerosene lamp from the corner of the wash house, gathered her belongings and took a cautious step back onto the veranda.

Riley was already in bed.

There was a hump under the bedclothes on his end of the veranda and he didn’t stir as she came out. She thought back to the man’s face as she’d first seen him. One of her first impressions had been exhaustion. ‘I’ve been working in the sun for the past twelve hours,’ he’d told her.

He deserved his sleep.

Well, she wouldn’t disturb him. She checked on Karli, who was also sleeping soundly, dumped her filthy clothes at the foot of the bed she’d be sharing with her sister, drank her coffee-which tasted surprisingly good-then tiptoed past Riley and back out to the kitchen.

Here was the rainwater. She gave a sigh of relief, turned on the tap and lowered her head under its flow. And let it run…

‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’

She bumped her head on the tap. She gasped, got a mouthful of water and choked. When she finally managed to raise her head, Riley was towering above her. The tap was firmly turned off and it didn’t take a genius to see that he was angry. More than angry. He was full-blown furious.

‘What…?’ Jenna tried to talk, coughed and tried again. ‘What do you mean?’ The man was dressed only in a pair of boxer shorts. He was almost as naked as Jenna felt. In Riley’s shirt, bra-less and with no knickers, she felt exposed and…and…

Well, just plain exposed.

‘Bloody English twit.’ Riley placed his hands on Jenna’s arms and physically lifted her away from the tap. Then he tilted her chin, forcing her to face him. ‘Lady, there is one fact of life you learn here and you learn it fast. There is nothing-nothing!-more precious than rainwater. Rain water is the only thing we can drink and it hasn’t rained for six months. And here you are, letting it run all over your hair and down the drain. I reckon you’ve just used two weeks’ drinking water.’

‘But…’ Jenna’s voice faltered into appalled horror ‘…are you so short?’

‘Short enough that a couple more hair washes will make the place uninhabitable.’

Jenna stared up at him in the flickering light cast by her lantern. She was appalled. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘You’ll be a lot sorrier if you die of thirst,’ he said grimly. ‘All for the sake of clean hair.’

Silence.

‘The cattle…’ she managed. ‘How do they survive?’

‘They have a stronger tolerance for salts than we do. They’ll drink bore water.’

‘Oh, help.’

‘Help’s right.’ He stared down at her for a moment longer. And then, before she realised what he intended, before she could possibly react, he bent and lifted her into his arms, tossing her against his bare chest as if she weighed nothing.

‘What…what are you doing?’ Jenna squeaked. ‘Put me down.’

‘You, Miss Svenson, have caused enough trouble for one day,’ Riley said grimly, only the sides of his mouth twitching as though he was suppressing laughter. ‘You may have come from a privileged background where everything you wanted you got, but there are rules in this place and you obey them or you pay the consequences.’ And holding her effortlessly against him, he stooped to turned down her lamp and then strode out to the veranda.

She held herself rigid in his grasp. There was nothing she could do except clutch her dignity to herself as best she could and submit. She couldn’t fight him. If she wriggled…well, Riley’s shirt was making her respectable but only just, and there wasn’t a lot of wriggle room.

But, the feel of this man’s arms, of this man’s skin against hers… What was happening to her?

She trusted him, she told herself fiercely. She trusted him and her instincts weren’t wrong. Were they?

‘What are you doing?’ she managed as he kicked the door open before him and made his way unerringly through the darkened house.

‘I’m doing what everyone does with misbehaving juveniles,’ he told her, with only a hint of wicked laughter in his voice. ‘I’m sending you to bed.’

He strode on with her speechless, rigid in his grasp.

Finally he reached the bed on the veranda. Karli was sound asleep on one side, barely taking up any room at all. Riley stood, looked down at the sleeping little girl in the moonlight and his face twisted.

‘You’re nothing but trouble,’ he told Jenna. ‘The two of you.’

He held her out over her side of the bed and let her drop. She landed with an ignominious bounce.

He lifted a spare towel from the pile of linen beside the bed and he dropped it onto her head.

‘If I were you, I’d towel myself dry, then get into bed and stay there,’ he told her. ‘And if I catch you wasting rainwater again, then I will personally place you in the Land Rover and take you to the railway siding and leave you there until the next train comes through.’ He glanced across at Karli and once again his mouth twisted. His expression was one that almost might have been pain.

‘I should do it now,’ he muttered. ‘I can’t, of course, but I should.’

He stood for a moment, still staring down, only now he was staring at Jenna, as if he was expecting her to defy him.

She didn’t. She couldn’t. She lay staring up at him in the moonlight and she was absolutely speechless.

And Riley’s mouth quirked into a rueful smile.

‘Goodnight, then, Miss Svenson,’ he said softly. His hand came down and he touched her face-fleetingly, in a gesture that was as unexpected as it was comforting. ‘Sleep well. Don’t let the traffic keep you awake.’

And he was gone, striding purposefully back to his own bed as if rid of a pest. To her fury, as she heard him lower himself onto his bed she heard a low, throaty chuckle.

Angry or not, Riley Jackson had just enjoyed himself.

Toad!

For ten minutes she lay still, her face burning with mortification. She was also trying to block out the knowledge that Riley was in bed not fifteen feet away from her.

She sat up and towelled her hair, turned her pillow to the dry side, then lay and stared in the opposite direction to Riley, out into the night sky.

Facing away from him didn’t help a bit.

She was a fool. What must he think of her? From the moment she’d left the train she’d been nothing but a twit, and she should have guessed about the water.

‘Let it go,’ Riley growled and she almost jumped sky-high.

‘I’ll get over it and so will you,’ he told her, his voice weirdly intimate in the night. They were lying in the same bedroom like two lovers and his words were so soft that she almost might have been dreaming.

‘I…thank you,’ she whispered and once again she heard the chuckle.

‘You’re welcome. Go to sleep.’

Sleep. How could she sleep? She wriggled down between the sheets and lay rigid. Karli slept on beside her, calmly oblivious of the turmoil her big sister was experiencing.

It’d be great to be five years old, Jenna thought bitterly, and then she thought of what she’d gone through from that age until now and thought, no. No, it wouldn’t.

She put out her hand and took Karli’s in hers. The little girl’s fingers curled around hers, trusting even in sleep.

She’d do whatever it took, Jenna thought. Whatever…

Damn Brian.

Men!

She’d never sleep.

She wriggled down further into the bed. Amazingly, the mattress and pillows were comfortable. ‘Not that it’ll make a scrap of difference,’ she told herself. ‘There’s no way I can sleep here.’

Her damp curls sank deeper into the pillow. The warm night air caressed her tired body, soothing her fears. Beyond the veranda, the stars were brilliant in the outback sky.

Karli held her hand, and Riley was asleep close by.

‘There’s no way I can sleep here,’ she repeated, but the words grew slower as she thought them. ‘There’s no way.’

The world was still.

Her eyes closed.

She slept.