Six Australian Heroes

‘And why is that?’ she couldn’t resist asking. ‘What have you got against love and marriage and children?’

‘Absolutely nothing,’ he bit out. ‘It’s just not for me. Look, it’s as well that we’ve had this little talk. I would hate to think that I would do something tonight which we would both regret. Under the circumstances, I think you should ask Cynthia to put me in a separate bedroom when we get back.’

Laura sucked in air sharply. ‘But I can’t do that!’

‘Why not?’

‘Because I just can’t!’

His eyes narrowed on her, with a glint of wicked humour. ‘Is this your pride speaking, or something else? Don’t tell me you’ve been secretly attracted to me all this time?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ she snapped. ‘No one was more surprised than I when I reacted the way I did when you kissed me.’

‘I wouldn’t say that,’ Ryan said dryly. ‘I was pretty surprised myself. Okay, so it’s a matter of pride. In that case I won’t ask for a separate room, but I think I will sleep on the floor. I don’t trust myself to keep my hands off you if we share a bed. Hell on earth, woman, stop looking at me like that!’

‘How am I looking at you?’ she asked, trying to sound innocent but feeling anything but. She didn’t want him to sleep on the floor. And she certainly didn’t want him to keep his hands to himself.

‘Don’t try to play games with me, Laura. I’m way out of your league in the games department. Erica called me a libertine.’

‘I don’t believe you’re a libertine at all,’ she said, feeling angry with Erica for saying such a nasty thing. ‘A libertine doesn’t care about people’s feelings. You obviously care about mine to warn me off you. A libertine would just take what he wanted without a second thought.’

‘Would he now?’

For a split second, his eyes grew so cold that a shiver ran down Laura’s spine. But then he whirled away from her and strode over to the edge of the creek. She stared after him, not knowing what to say or do. So she just stood there and waited. Eventually, the sun dipped down behind the hills and the air turned suddenly cool, at which point he turned and walked back towards her.

‘Let’s get back,’ he said, and grabbed her hand once more.

But there was nothing warm or affectionate in his grip. She could feel anger in his fingers, but wasn’t sure who he was more angry with, her or himself.

‘I promise I won’t look at you like that any more,’ she said during their hurried walk up the hill.

‘Good,’ he snapped. ‘And I promise I won’t bloody well kiss you any more!’

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

‘HE’S absolutely gorgeous, Laura,’ was the first thing Gran said. ‘I can’t tell you how pleased I am for you.’

They were in the old servants’ quarters, Jane propped up in bed and Laura sitting in an armchair not far from her. Cynthia had certainly done the room up nicely, Laura conceded privately, with everything Jane could wish for. The walls had been painted a rich cream colour. There was a brand-new flat-screen television sitting on a high chest-of-drawers opposite the foot of the bed and the old wooden floorboards had been freshly polished and varnished.

‘He’s a very special person,’ Laura said, trying to ignore her disappointment over Ryan’s decision not to take advantage of her obvious desire for him. It was perverse of her, she knew, but she almost wished that he would. She could not believe how much she wanted him to make love to her for real. It was cruel, the intensity of her yearning for him.

‘I hope you don’t think I’m being rude asking you this,’ her gran said. ‘But have you been to bed with him yet?’

Laura’s hands tightened over the ends of the armrests.

For a moment, she wasn’t sure what to say. But then decided to go with the truth.

‘No, Gran,’ she said. ‘I haven’t.’

‘Wise girl,’ her grandmother said. ‘Playing hard to get is the way to land a man of the world like your Ryan. Though I doubt he’s as tough as he looks.’

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘I suspect that underneath his macho façade your Ryan is quite a sensitive fellow. Reading between the lines, I wouldn’t think his childhood was a bed of roses. It must have been hard on him, not having a father, then having his mother die when he was still just a child. Damaged children can sometimes find it hard to trust, and to expect happiness. In that regard you two have something in common.’

‘I’m not damaged, Gran,’ she said defensively.

‘Aren’t you, dear? I would have thought that any girl as attractive as you who reaches your age still single has to be somewhat damaged, for one reason or another.’

‘Gran, that’s old-fashioned thinking! Girls don’t have to get married today to be happy.’

‘That’s tommy rot. Every girl wants commitment. And children. You do want children, don’t you, Laura?’

‘Of course I do, in due time. Now, Gran, please don’t start dropping hints about marriage and children at dinner tonight. Men like Ryan like to run their own race. He’ll get round to proposing when he’s good and ready.’

‘He’s nearly forty, Laura. What’s he been waiting for all these years?’

‘For the right girl to come along, I suppose,’ Laura said, but not very convincingly.

‘He won’t get a better girl than you.’

Laura’s heart turned over at the compliment. Her gran had always loved her, no matter how she’d acted. Laura knew she’d been a difficult teenager after the shock and grief of her parents’ tragic deaths. Not to mention having to live in a house where she wasn’t exactly wanted. Without her gran’s love she would have been even more wretched than she was. How on earth was she going to survive without her? Yet she would have to. And soon. There was a grey pallor to her grandmother’s skin which frightened Laura.

A weary sigh escaped her grandmother’s lips. ‘I would dearly love to see you married before I go to meet my maker.’

‘You will, Gran,’ Laura said, blinking back tears. ‘You will.’

‘You’ll have to be quick, my darling girl. I don’t have much longer on this earth.’

‘Nonsense. You’ll live till you’re a hundred!’

Her grandmother smiled a wry, knowing smile. ‘I’ll be content with eighty. Which gives you just over a month to get Mr Perfect to propose. Now, I think I should have a little nap before dinner, dear. I get very tired these days. You go make yourself beautiful for that man of yours—not that you don’t already look beautiful. Being in love agrees with you.’

Laura tried not to look guilty. She longed to tell her gran that it wasn’t love making her cheeks flush and her eyes sparkle but good old lust. Not that there was anything good about it. Or old, for that matter. This was an entirely new experience for Laura, which perhaps was why she didn’t know how to handle it. If she’d been one of those girls who’d had loads of lovers she might not be so confused, or so lacking in confidence where sex was concerned. A more experienced woman would use sharing a bedroom tonight to seduce Ryan herself. She would not be letting him go all noble on her and sleep on the floor. She would vamp him into bed and enjoy his absolutely gorgeous male body all night long.

Would she dare do that? Could she?

Probably not. She wouldn’t even know where to start.

Laura suppressed a sigh as she rose from the armchair and gave her grandmother a kiss on her papery-thin cheek. ‘See you at dinner, Gran.’

‘I hope you’ve got something pretty to wear,’ Jane said.

It was then that Laura remembered the sexy red dress she’d bought. And the very sexy shoes.

Her heartbeat quickened at the thought that maybe she wouldn’t have to do a single thing. Her outfit might do the seducing for her!

She beamed down at her grandmother. ‘I have a smashing red dress,’ she told her. ‘Alison helped me pick it out this morning.’

‘Ah … Dear Alison. She’s been a wonderful friend to you over the years, hasn’t she?’

‘She certainly has.’

‘She’s a good girl. You’re a good girl, too.’

Am I? Laura wondered as she closed the door. Would a good girl want what she wanted? What had happened to her longheld belief that she would need to be in love before she could enjoy sex with a man? Why did she suddenly want nothing more from Ryan than his body?

Shaking her head, she began to make her way back along the hallway which would carry her to the front of the house, and the stairs.

The sound of muffled male laughter met her ears as she passed the door of the billiard room. Clearly, Uncle Bill was back and Ryan had followed Cynthia’s suggestion that they have a game of billiards. They sounded like they were enjoying themselves. Laura could see that Ryan would get along well with Uncle Bill, who was a man’s man. No doubt Ryan would know exactly how to act in her uncle’s company. He was clever that way, she could see. He had more social skills than herself, no doubt a product of running his sports-management company. She often put her foot in her mouth, whereas Ryan seemed to know exactly what to say to please everyone.

Except her, she thought with sudden mutiny. He hadn’t said what she wanted to hear down at the creek. Hadn’t done what she’d wanted him to do, either. How dared he kiss her like that and then reject her?

Okay, so he probably thought he was being cruel to be kind, not sharing her bed tonight. Clearly, he thought she was way too vulnerable a female to cope with an affair with the likes of him. Added to that was his own wariness at sleeping with people he worked with. Both reasons did show Ryan as a man of surprising character but, damn it all, couldn’t he see that he’d already gone too far? Nothing was ever going to be the same again anyway. She could not possibly show up at his office every Friday, feeling like this. So she might as well do her best to seduce him tonight and be damned with the consequences!

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

‘LAURA! For God’s sake!’ Ryan exclaimed as he rapped sharply on the bathroom door. ‘What’s taking you so long in there?’

He’d returned to the bedroom around six-thirty to find Laura sitting cross-legged in the middle of the four-poster bed in the corner, talking to someone on the phone. Given she was giggling, he assumed it was her girlfriend, Alison something-or-other. Nothing annoyed Ryan more than the furtiveness of females when they talked to each other on the phone. If only women could be as straightforward as men, then the world would be an easier place to live in and life wouldn’t get so damned complicated.

Laura did interrupt her conversation briefly to tell him to use the bathroom first to get ready for the dinner, so he had, all the while perversely peeved by her lack of attention to him. He should have been pleased that she’d stopped looking at him like he was her favourite dessert. And he should have been proud of himself for resisting the temptation to take advantage of the sexual frustration that she claimed she’d have to be suffering from to fancy him all of a sudden.

Instead, he’d gone about showering and shaving in quite a foul mood, even nicking himself once with his razor, which he hadn’t done for years. He’d also forgotten to take his clothes in with him, forcing him to come out of the bathroom with nothing on but a towel wrapped around his hips. Now, Ryan knew he had a good body, but what had Laura done? Nothing; not a single stare in his direction. Instead, she’d nonchalantly gathered up her clothes and sashayed past him into the bathroom without giving his bare chest a second glance.

Ryan’s considerable male ego had been severely dented, so much so that he almost decided then and there to abandon his resolve to keep his hands—and his mouth—well away from her. He spent ten gratifying minutes fantasising about what he was going to do when she emerged. First he would kiss her until she started moaning again. Then, when she had totally melted against him he would lift her up and carry her onto that incredibly sexy bed where he would show her that, even if she didn’t truly fancy him yet, she sure would soon.

Unfortunately the passage of time had a way of ruining perfectly good fantasies, and at the same time of increasing one’s level of frustration. Which was why, after Laura had been in that infernal bathroom for forty minutes, an extremely irritated Ryan started banging on the bathroom door.

‘Cynthia said to be down in the front lounge at seven-thirty for pre-dinner drinks,’ he said through gritted teeth.

‘I’m having a bit of trouble with my hair,’ she replied airily. ‘Why don’t you go down and make my apologies? I’ll join you as soon as I can.’

‘Fine,’ Ryan bit out, thinking that maybe a drink or two would soothe his ill temper.

Laura sighed with relief when she heard the bedroom door open, then close. She wasn’t really having trouble with her hair, or her make-up. She’d surprised herself by doing both very well indeed. The fact was she’d been ready for some minutes but just hadn’t been able to find the courage to leave the bathroom and face Ryan, looking the way she did in her new dress and shoes.

Which was crazy. It was what she wanted, wasn’t it—to see his eyes darken with desire for her? To drive him mad with how sexy she looked?

And she did. Oh yes, she very definitely did!

Alison had given her strict instructions over the phone as to how to present herself if she wanted to get laid that night: hair down and curled lightly around her face. Lots of dark eye-liner and mascara. The reddest of red lipsticks. And she wasn’t even to consider putting some silly pin into the neckline of the dress to hide her cleavage.

Laura had gone along with everything she had suggested and the result was wicked! She could hardly believe it was her staring back. She could also hardly believe that Alison had been so eager to have her succeed in going to bed with a man like Ryan.

When Laura had first told her what had happened so far, Alison had been genuinely shocked—not by Ryan making a pass but by his backing off.

‘I don’t understand it!’ Alison had exclaimed. ‘Not if he’s already got rid of the girlfriend. It just doesn’t make sense.’

Laura explained that he had this life rule about not dating anyone he worked with. She didn’t tell Alison about his near-disastrous fling with a client, as she felt that had been a confidential confession.

‘But you don’t want him to date you,’ Alison had shot back, exasperation in her voice. ‘You just want him to bonk you silly all night. Isn’t that right?’

‘Er … yes,’ Laura had admitted, her throat drying at the thought.

‘In that case, this is what you must do …’ At which point Alison had relayed a long list of instructions as to how Laura was to look. And to act—especially after they returned to the bedroom at the end of the evening.

Laura had been laughing over her outrageous suggestion in that regard when Ryan had walked back into the room. Suddenly, she had realised it was one thing to talk about seduction techniques over the phone and quite another to go through with them; just having him in the same room made her hyperventilate with nerves. But she knew she would only have this one chance. So she’d hurriedly shunted him off into the bathroom, putting some calming distance between herself and the object of this insanely powerful desire. Then later, when he’d emerged—wearing no more than a towel, for pity’s sake!—she’d kept her eyes rigidly averted from his breathtakingly beautiful male body and followed Alison’s advice to act cool and indifferent to his charms.

‘Your gran was right,’ Alison had said earlier. ‘Playing hard to get is the way to go. If I’m any judge at all of the male sex, then once he sees you in that dress and shoes you won’t have to do much later on. But if he’s still resistant you might have to go to plan B.’

‘Plan B’ was performing a none-too-subtle striptease.

Laura swallowed as she tried to imagine following that last piece of advice from her friend. She wasn’t sure if she could be that bold. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that.

Right now, she didn’t even feel bold enough to go downstairs. Everyone was going to be shocked when they saw her, not just Ryan. They weren’t used to seeing her dressed like this. She wasn’t used to seeing herself dressed like this. It had been years since she’d shown her cleavage in public. Years since she’d spent the night in a man’s arms. Years since she’d trembled at the thought.

Laura frowned as she accepted that she’d never felt quite like the way she felt at this moment. She might have become concerned if her brain had still fully been connected with her body. But logical thinking had become difficult since Ryan had kissed her earlier this afternoon. Her mind had shrunk to one focus and one focus only: to get him to make love to her tonight.

Now she frowned some more. For she didn’t want him to ‘make love’ to her, did she? That would suggest an emotional involvement with the man. Only a fool would fall for Ryan Armstrong, and she was no fool.

So, rephrase that, Laura Ferrugia. You want to have sex with him. That’s all. Then, once this weekend is over, you don’t want to see him ever again!

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

‘GO AND see what’s keeping that girl, Ryan,’ Bill said when ten to eight came round and Laura still hadn’t made an appearance downstairs.

Ryan had spent a sociable twenty minutes in the elegantly furnished living room, talking to Laura’s cousin and his pretty blonde wife and sampling some of Bill’s top-quality scotch. Laura’s grandmother hadn’t joined them for drinks but she would be at dinner, he’d been told. His earlier irritation had dissipated somewhat with Laura’s absence. But it seemed his respite was at an end.

‘She’s probably still having trouble with her hair,’ he said, repeating the excuse he’d made for her not accompanying him downstairs at seven thirty.

‘Yes, well, Cynthia said dinner would be served precisely at eight,’ Bill said ruefully. ‘And when Cynthia says eight, she means eight.’

Ryan knew Laura wouldn’t want to offend her aunt or anyone else in the family. This weekend was supposedly about impressing them.

‘I’ll go get her,’ he said, and headed for the double doors which led out into the main hallway. He was just approaching the bottom of the staircase when Laura appeared at the top.

He couldn’t help it—he stared. And then he swore, a crude four-letter word which echoed what he would have liked to do to her in no uncertain terms. Fortunately, he hadn’t said it loud enough for her to hear.

‘You’d better get yourself down here,’ he managed between gritted teeth. ‘The natives are getting restless.’

And so am I, by God, he thought agitatedly as he watched her sashay down the stairs.

No one would have recognised her as the drearily dressed creature that showed up at his office every Friday. He’d thought she looked pretty good today when he’d picked her up. But this was something else.

She was shockingly gorgeous in that low-cut red dress and those incredible shoes. He didn’t know where to look at first, his eyes raking over her impressive cleavage before dropping to her shapely legs which were on show as she moved slowly down the stairs. He’d always thought her legs were good. But in those shoes, they looked unbelievable. Not wanting to ogle her like some lecher, he lifted his eyes back up to her face. No peace there, however. Made up, and with her expertly waved hair moving slinkily around her bare neck, she looked like one of the sultry screen-sirens of the forties and fifties. Ava Gardner, with a bit of Lauren Bacall thrown in.

There had been times in Ryan’s life when he’d regretted things he’d done. He supposed everyone had regrets. But right at this moment he really regretted telling Laura that he’d sleep on the floor tonight.

‘I think I made a mistake telling you to buy a red dress,’ he bit out when she finally made it to the bottom of the stairs.

She seemed taken aback. ‘You don’t like it?’

He laughed a dry laugh. ‘You know damned well that I like it. You look absolutely stunning.’

‘Thank you,’ Laura said, thrilling to his compliment. ‘You look pretty good yourself.’

‘In this old thing?’ he returned, smiling a crooked smile.

It wasn’t the first time Laura had seen him in a suit and tie. But usually his suit was business black, the shirt white and his tie a conventional grey or blue. Tonight he was wearing a single-breasted one-button charcoal-grey suit combined with a silk shirt in a burgundy colour and a striped tie in burgundy and silver. He looked every inch an irresistible man of the world.

She wondered momentarily just how many lovers he’d had. Hundreds, no doubt. Whereas she’d had the grand sum of two.

But she was going to crank up that number to three tonight, or die trying. Not of humiliation, she hoped.

Surely he would not reject her? She’d seen the hunger in his eyes just now. All she had to do was convince him that she wasn’t the fragile emotional flower that he thought she was.

‘Ryan,’ she said abruptly when he stopped at the lounge and reached for the knob.

‘What?’ he returned a tad impatiently.

Laura cleared the lump which had suddenly filled her throat. ‘I … er … don’t want you to sleep on the floor tonight,’ she blurted out, trying not to blush but failing miserably.

Ryan’s eyes narrowed as they ran over her once more. ‘I see,’ he said, and she wondered what it was that he saw.

‘So it was just an act up in the room just now?’ he went on.

Laura winced. ‘Yes,’ she admitted, and blushed some more.

‘There’s no need to feel embarrassed. I’m flattered that you want me enough to bother playing games, since that’s clearly not your style. Frankly, however, I’d much rather you were straightforward with me. I despise deception and hypocrisy and holier-than-thou attitudes towards sex. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to get laid, Laura. As long as you don’t make a big deal out of it.’ He looked at her, banked heat in his eyes. ‘Are you sure this is definitely something you want to do? Think about it over dinner and we’ll speak later on. Okay?’

Clearly, he didn’t expect an answer. Opening the door, he cupped her elbow and ushered her into the lounge.

Dinner was a triumph and a trial. Everyone thought she looked fantastic, and said so, even Aunt Cynthia. The food was surprisingly good, the wine superb and the conversation lively. If Laura didn’t say all that much, no one seemed to notice. Once everyone had stopped complimenting her on her appearance, the attention had naturally swung to Ryan who was a much more interesting subject. Shane bombarded him with questions about his soccer career. So did Bill. Jane seemed content to just sit and smile at the happy couple across the table.

Laura could not have felt less content. Or less hungry—for food, that was.

She could not stop thinking about what Ryan had said. What if, because of her so-called sensitivity, he ultimately rejected her again? What if he did indeed sleep on the floor and leave her to lie in that big bed all alone, all night long? How could she bear it? She could hardly bear sitting here at this table, listening to everyone talking absolute rubbish and making each course last much longer than it should. Didn’t they know that she wanted the meal over and done with in record time? She had to know one way or another what was going to happen. Not knowing was killing her.

By ten, dessert had finally been cleared away and they all moved back into the front lounge, where Cynthia served up coffee in ridiculously small gilt-rimmed cups that she no doubt thought elegant. Laura supposed they were. She didn’t want coffee at first, until she remembered that coffee kept you awake. After that, she had her cup refilled three times from the large silver coffee-pot which they were told had once belonged to a French Count and which Cynthia had bought online. When Gran declared she was tired and wanted to go to bed, she asked Laura to take her. Naturally, she couldn’t refuse. As she rose from the sofa, Bill also stood up, suggesting the men retire to the billiard room whilst the women cleared up. In the past, Laura would have made some cutting remark over this chauvinistic attitude, but decided to bite her tongue this time. She did, however, glance at Ryan, who smiled in wry approval at her silence.