The Loner's Guarded Heart

Josie bit her lip and glanced at the goanna. ‘Is it going to jump too? Or chase me?’

‘Nope. This is his tree. It’s where he feels safe.’

She glared at him again. ‘So, of all the trees in the forest I had to pick his?’

‘Yep.’

‘I’m so happy.’

He guessed from the way she gritted her teeth together as she said it, she didn’t mean it.

Without any more prompting on his part, Josie shifted her weight from her behind to her stomach then tried to take her full weight with her arms to lower herself to the ground. Kent leapt forward and wrapped his arms around the tops of her thighs.

‘I don’t need—’

The rest of her words were lost when her hands slipped and she landed against him with a muffled, ‘Oomph.’

Kent couldn’t manage much either as the top half of her body slumped over him and he found his face mashed between her breasts. Then a long, delicious slide as her body slipped down his.

They were both breathing hard when her feet finally touched the ground.

They paused then sprang apart.

‘Thank you,’ Josie babbled, smoothing down her hair. ‘I, umm…It probably wasn’t necessary to jump to my rescue like that, but, umm…thank you all the same.’

‘Are you going to make a habit of that?’ he snapped. He darn well hoped not. His body wouldn’t cope with it. Even now he had to fight down a rising tide of raw desire. He didn’t need this.

‘It’s not part of my plans.’

He wanted her off his mountain. Fast. He flung his arms out. ‘Doesn’t this prove how unsuited you are to this place?’

Her chin shot up although her shoulders stayed hunched around her ears. ‘Because I’m frightened of goannas?’

‘Because you’re frightened of everything.’

‘I’m not afraid of Molly. Not now,’ she pointed out reasonably enough. ‘I just didn’t know what to do when that thing started running at me.’

‘Run away at right angles to it,’ he answered automatically.

‘I’ll remember that.’

He didn’t want her remembering. He wanted her gone. ‘You don’t know how to protect yourself out here.’

‘Well…I’m not dead yet.’

‘What would you do if some big, burly guy jumped out at you, huh?’ To prove his point, he lunged at her.

The next moment he was lying on his back, and staring up through the leaves of the trees at the clear blue of the sky. With no idea how he had got there.

Josie’s face hovered into view as she leaned over him. ‘Does that answer your question?’

She’d thrown him? He deserved that smug little smile. For some reason he wanted to laugh again.

He scowled. No, he didn’t. He wanted her off his mountain.

‘I might be hopeless, but I’m not completely helpless, you know. Men I can defend myself against. It’s the dogs and goannas that I have trouble with.’

He rolled over onto his stomach to watch her saunter away. He really wished he didn’t notice how sweetly she filled out a pair of jeans. Molly licked his face, as if in sympathy, then trotted after her new-found friend.

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