His Ring, Her Baby / His Bride for the Taking

She was startled. “It is?”

“It’s customary, yes.”

Oh, yes, she remembered hearing about the outback custom now, but had never experienced it.

“It’s easy enough to do,” he said. “Just unhook the chain and you can swing the gate open.”

“Okay.” She did as he said, aware he was watching her. Those eyes sent a trickle of sweat running down between her breasts but she ignored it as she hopped back in the vehicle.

He drove forward and stopped. “Now you have to close it,” he said, his lips twitching.

She didn’t find it funny. “Why didn’t you say so before?”

“You didn’t ask.”

She shot him a withering glance, then got out of the vehicle, closed the gate, then got back in. She had no problem with opening and shutting the gate, but the rest of it was an unnecessary effort. He could have at least told her instead of letting her look a fool.

“Lighten up, Vanessa,” he said, after they’d been driving a minute or so.

“Me lighten up? You’re the one who—”

“Bloody hell!” Unexpectedly he turned the wheel and drove off the road and onto the dried grass. It became clear he was heading for a portion of a broken fence. “I knew it. Brady was supposed to fix this yesterday.” He didn’t look pleased as he stopped the vehicle beneath a tree. “He’ll have to go.”

She was relieved she wasn’t the object of his anger but she felt a little sorry for this Brady. “Perhaps he didn’t have enough time?”

“Then he could bloody well make time,” he snapped, then expelled a breath. “This isn’t the first time he hasn’t followed orders. He was given a second chance and now he’s lied to my farm manager. That’s it as far as I’m concerned.”

She could understand that, but still she couldn’t help but feel sorry for the other man. Kirk would be a hard taskmaster. He didn’t like being let down. She knew that more than anyone.

He opened his door and climbed out of the vehicle. “You can get out and stretch your legs, if you like.” Then he peeked over the back at a sleeping Josh. “It’s going to get hot in here with the engine off, but I can’t keep the air-con running for too long even with the engine on. It’ll be best if you open all the doors to give him some breeze. I’ll try not to be too long, but let me know if he starts stressing and we’ll head back.”

Vanessa did as suggested and opened all the doors while he retrieved a toolbox from the back. He may be hard on others but she couldn’t fault his thoughtfulness in regards to her son. He certainly showed a very human side when it came to Josh.

Unlike the side he showed her.

No, she wouldn’t think that right now. Kirk was kind enough to bring her on this outing when he’d had no need, especially as he didn’t want her as his housekeeper in the first place.

It was enough.

The quiet must have woken Josh because he opened his eyes. Chatting to him, she poured some water on a cloth and wiped his face to keep him cool, then unbuckled him and gave him a bottle of juice. She stood under the tree and watched Kirk fix the fence, Josh on her hip.

“How’s he doing?” Kirk asked after a few minutes.

“He’s okay.”

“I’m almost done here. We’ll soon have him cool.”

His genuine interest in her son’s well-being took her by surprise again, but not for the first time since Mike’s death she wondered about Josh not having a father. As a child she’d taught herself not to miss having a dad, but would her son? Her childhood had been difficult at times when so many of the other kids seemed to have a father. Would Josh feel cheated because he didn’t have a man to show him all the things that fathers should? Or because he didn’t have a father who could come to the school play or a church picnic?A father to complete the family?

Her thoughts too painful, she pushed her sadness away.

Just then Kirk reached forward to pick up one of the tools from the box, and her gaze lowered to the open neck of his khaki shirt where she could see a light sprinkling of chest hair. All at once her hands itched to slide through the wisps of dark hair and curl her fingers into him. Quickly she looked away.

“Finished,” he said after a few more minutes, then dropped the tools back in the box and came toward her. “Ready for the rest of the tour?”

She nodded. She was more than ready to move on.

Soon they were on their way again, heading back the way they’d come—at least she thought they were—then taking a detour. She had to open and close a couple of gates but soon they seemed to be coming back toward civilization.

“That paddock over there is a cropping paddock,” he pointed out as they drove.

“There’s nothing in it. Is that because of the drought?”

“No. It’s just been sprayed, that’s all. That way it can be ready to plant crops in a few months’ time.”

“What sort of crops?”

“Cereals. Things like wheat, which we sell, and barley and oats for cattle feed.”

Then he went on to show her all the different types of paddocks from calf paddocks to weaner paddocks, breeding cow paddocks to bull paddocks. There were so many paddocks her head spun. And they weren’t tiny little parcels of land, either. They stretched for miles and miles.

“Naturally I keep my best stud cows in a separate paddock closer to the yards.”

“Of course.” She understood these animals cost thousands of dollars. He’d have them where his men could keep a close eye on them.

Finally they drove up to the cattle yards. Beyond were huge sheds that Kirk said stored feed and fertilizer and machinery, and farther beyond were the manager’s residence and the workmen’s cottages.

One of the men rushed to open the gate for them and Vanessa smiled to herself. She never thought someone opening a gate would be such a big thing, yet she felt like a queen.

She was soon introduced to some of the staff. She could imagine her presence as housekeeper was making the rounds of gossip, but they were all very polite and pleasant and some of the men even seemed shy.

Then she was introduced to the farm manager, but not before she heard Kirk ask him about Brady’s whereabouts and learned that Tom had fired the man over a dispute earlier. Brady apparently had already cleared out.

“Good,” Kirk said, looking grimly satisfied.

Before long the farm manager’s wife, Fay, hurried over to introduce herself. She was a pleasant woman in her forties who insisted they come to the house for lunch.

“Thanks, Fay,” Kirk said, “but one of the trucks has arrived early to pick up a load of stock for sale. Tom and I have to help.” He looked at Vanessa. “I’m sure Vanessa would be happy to keep you company.”

“I’d love to,” Vanessa said.

She and Josh ended up staying a couple of hours, and she learned that Fay was Kirk’s office manager and helped out a lot with the bookwork.

“I can do a lot from here,” Fay said, showing Vanessa her office, complete with the latest computer equipment. “And twice a week I pop up to the main house to do things like filing or collecting the letters for the post that I’ve e-mailed Kirk and he’s signed.” Fay smiled. “But I always made time for coffee and a chat with Martha.”

“Well, I hope you’ll make time for the same with me.”

Fay’s smiled widened. “That would be lovely.”

After that, Kirk drove Vanessa and Josh back to the homestead. “What do you think of Fay?” he asked, once he’d parked the Range Rover near the front steps. “You seemed to get on well together.”

Her face relaxed. “She’s really nice.”

He nodded, then, “And what do you think of Deverill Downs?”

She had the feeling he cared what she thought. “It has a certain charm,” she said, and meant it, then recognized that this really wasn’t about her. This was about the pride he had for his cattle station.

He looked pleased and that was that.

The next morning, Vanessa had put Josh down for his morning nap when she heard Suzi barking out in the barn. She didn’t want to think about snakes, though it definitely crossed her mind as she made her way outside.

She found Suzi over in the corner, barking at something beneath a large wooden bench. Heart thumping, Vanessa took a quick look back at the knee-high partition erected around the pups. She counted them and realized one was missing, then saw a small hole at one corner of the wood where it must have escaped.

Grabbing the flashlight hanging near the door, she shone it under the bench. And there was a sleeping puppy. Suzi hadn’t been able to get to her offspring because a roll of wire partially blocked it.

She turned to Suzi. “So you think we should get him out, huh?”

Suzi sat looking at her expectantly.

“Okay, little mother. Give me a moment.”

Trying not to think about spiders and snakes and every other poisonous animal that seemed to inhabit this country, Vanessa reached under the bench and drew the puppy toward her.

“Here we go,” she said, placing it in front of Suzi, who barked then picked it up in her teeth and trotted back to the others.

Smiling, Vanessa pushed herself to her feet. But as she went to stand, she heard a ripping noise and felt a pain at the back of her left shoulder blade. She gasped. Had she just been bitten by a snake? She glanced behind her and went weak with relief when she saw a nail sticking out of the bench.

Reaching over her shoulder, she managed to touch the gash. Her fingers came away with blood on them. Great. That was all she needed. Stitches.

Looking in the bathroom mirror a few minutes later, she was thankful to see a cut only about half an inch long and not too deep. A bit painful but nothing she couldn’t handle, she decided, dabbing at it with antiseptic cream from the first-aid kit in the laundry room, then changing into another blouse.

It hurt like the devil as she went back to the kitchen but she ignored the pain as best she could. She’d just decided to gather the ingredients to make a lemon meringue pie for dessert when she heard the sound of Kirk’s vehicle returning.

Her pulse started to race and she called herself a fool for letting him affect her this way. He was her employer, for heaven’s sake. He had come home for lunch, that was all. He hadn’t come home to see her.

Vanessa reminded herself that she still had to be wary where Kirk was concerned. Attraction, that was all it was. She’d been without her husband for a while, and Kirk was used to having any woman he wanted.

She heard him come in the back door and stop to wash his hands in the laundry, then his footsteps came to the kitchen door. She pretended to be busy wiping the sink down.

A moment crept by.

She knew he was there.

She started to casually turn and—

“Bloody hell, Vanessa.” He strode toward her. “You’ve got blood on the back of your blouse. What happened?”

She whirled around and found Kirk far too close for comfort. Alarm flashed through her.

She swallowed. “One of the pups escaped and I got caught on a nail getting him out from under the bench.”

“Let me take a look.”

She stepped back but came up against the sink. “No, I cleaned it up myself and put some antiseptic cream on it. And I had a tetanus shot last year when I walked on a nail, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

Kirk ignored her as he turned her around, holding her still. “It’s been bleeding. Now it’s stuck to your shirt. I’d better take a proper look at it.”

She went to move away. “It’s nothing. Really.”

“You may need stitches.”

“I don’t.”

He paid no attention as he strode toward the laundry room. “I’ll get the first-aid kit. We’ll use the guest bathroom. It’s got good light in there.” He disappeared, then came back with the small box in his hand. “Come on, Vanessa. Don’t dilly-dally. You don’t want to risk it getting infected.”

There was nothing for it but to follow him along the hallway to the guest bathroom.

He placed a stool in front of the basin. “Sit.”

She sat but she was getting annoyed at his bossy attitude. “Want me to roll over, too?”

His gaze snapped to hers in the mirror. “I generally save that for the bedroom,” he said, with a smirk.

“You wish!”

A glint returned to his eyes before he pulled out a wad of cotton wool from the first-aid kit. “Right. It’s going to hurt like hell, but if I wet it first the material should come off easily.” He paused at their reflection, his eyes plunging to her blouse then up again. “You know you’ll have to take that off afterward, don’t you?”

All at once the air charged with electricity. It zipped between them, alive and determined to be recognized.

Panic rose in her throat. Her eyes darted to the box of assorted items. “Didn’t I see a pair of scissors in there? Just cut around it. I don’t mind.”

His movements stiff, he turned the faucet on and held the cotton wool under running water. “You’ll ruin another shirt,” he warned.

She shrugged. “What’s one more?”

Not looking at her, he placed the water-soaked gauze on the cut and dabbed at it a few times, causing her to flinch. “Sorry, I’m being as gentle as I can.”

She swallowed. “I know.”

“There.” Another second or two and he lifted the cotton wool away. “You should be able to take the blouse off now without too much damage.”

Her breathing shallowed.

His eyes caught and held hers, and suddenly she was imagining having his strong arms around her, his warm kisses.

“Want some help?” he said, his voice thickening, a pulse ticking in the strong cord of his neck.

She could feel herself blush. “Er … no. I can manage.” She willed her hands to move, only they wouldn’t.

A few seconds went by.

“Sure?”

“Yes. I mean, no.”

The blue of his eyes darkened like a midnight sky. “Can’t make up your mind?” he asked huskily.

“No. I mean, yes.”

He made a guttural sound, his expression stilling. All at once there was nothing more serious than this moment. Nothing more serious than them.

She watched, mesmerized in the mirror, as his hand came to rest on her good shoulder … rested then tiptoed along her collarbone to her throat.

She moistened her lips. “Er … what are you doing?”

His blue eyes said it all. “I don’t know,” he muttered. “I just don’t bloody know.”

Her heartbeat slammed against her ribs. She had to bring back some sense of sanity. “Don’t touch, remember?” she tried to remind him, tried to take charge, only her voice merely dropped into the whirlpool of sensuality in the room.

“I remember. But … if I were to touch I’d do it like.” His index finger touched the sensitive hollows of her neck. “This.”

She moaned silently, her breath entering her lungs in short spurts.

His finger slipped inside the collar of her blouse. “And touching’s not always the same as … caressing.” He stroked the top of one breast.

Oh, God.

“It’s not?”

“No. There’s a difference.” Another pass over the top of her breast. “Feel it?”

She moistened her lips. She could feel nothing else. Closing her eyes, she gave in for a moment, all soft and pliable and very much a woman. “Oh, yes.”

And he was very much a man.

An aroused man. She only had to turn her head and she’d be able to press her cheek against him, inhale him and—

Her eyes burst open and she jumped to her feet, shaken by how easily things had gotten out of control. “Um … it’ll be okay. Don’t worry about the cut. It won’t get infected. I know it won’t. It—”

His face closed up. The moment had passed. “Sit down, Vanessa.”

She shook her head. “No. It’ll be fine, you’ll see.” She leaped the distance to the open doorway.

“Vanessa?”

She turned. “Look, it’s okay. I’ll just stick a plaster over it or something.”

His eyes pierced the distance between them. “You know, Vanessa, sometimes a plaster isn’t enough.”

Unable to stand the tension of being cooped up in the house with Vanessa any longer, Kirk ate a quick lunch then took off for the cattle yards to see how his men were going with fixing a broken water pipe. He had to keep busy.

What the hell was he thinking bringing her here to Deverill Downs? Damn him for letting himself be coerced into this. She hadn’t fooled him, of course. She may fool herself into believing that using him was acceptable, but any respect he afforded her was only as she wanted—as an employee. And even that was going to be difficult for him at times when every instinct inside him warred between wanting her and trying to keep perspective.

God, she’d looked bloody magnificent when she’d flared up at him though. She was lucky he hadn’t swept her up in his arms, carried her to his room and made love to her until dawn.

He’d known it was going to be difficult keeping his hands off her. So the last thing he’d needed today was to apply first aid to her back.

Her lovely, sexy back.

Just the thought of touching her soft skin … of being in a confined space with her … her scent … drove him wild.

He had to stop thinking about it.

He had to stop thinking about her.

He even managed to do that during dinner that evening but only because she was right there in front of him and he didn’t have to think. Not when he could see her.

Josh ate dinner with them, and that helped, though Kirk suspected Vanessa deliberately kept her son up past his bedtime. Not that he minded. He had to admit he was growing to like the kid. Josh had a charm that snuck up on a person.

Like the boy’s mother.

Only, Vanessa’s charm wasn’t pure and innocent like her son’s. There was danger in her charms. A man could drown in them. Drown and not even care.

Thankfully tonight there was a lifesaver in the vicinity in the form of Josh. He was a welcome distraction and Kirk couldn’t help but be mildly amused at his antics. Every time Vanessa turned away from him to eat her dinner, Josh babbled something and dropped his spoon over the side of the high chair.

Kirk looked at her son and felt something kick him inside. Josh was like the son he would have loved to have had one day.

The son he would never have.

He forced away his inner pain. “He’s doing that deliberately, you know,” he felt obligated to point out as she mildly scolded Josh and gave him a new spoon.

“I know,” she said, her mouth curving with tenderness.

Careful, he told himself. “You do?”

“It’s a game, Kirk, that’s all.” Josh babbled and dropped the spoon again and she gave a soft chuckle. “See.” She bent to pick it up but this time didn’t replace the spoon. “No more, young man. That’s enough.”

Kirk’s brows drew together. All that bending over wasn’t good for her back.

Her lovely, sexy back.

The image returned. Both of them in the bathroom. The scent of her. “How’s the cut?” he all but growled.

Her safe-and-sound smile faltered and two pink dots appeared in her cheeks. “It’s a bit sore,” she said, averting her eyes.

Masculine pleasure spurted through him at her reaction. She might not admit she was attracted to him, but her body couldn’t deny the magnetism between them.

“Then keep an eye on it,” he said gruffly, and went back to eating.

Straight after dinner he headed to the study, glad to be able to throw himself into his bookwork with renewed determination. He even managed to put thoughts of Vanessa aside and concentrate on the job at hand.

There was always a ton of paperwork to deal with in an operation this size. Fay was a terrific help as an office assistant, and he employed someone in Jackaroo Plains to do his accounts. But there was still a lot to do himself. Filling in government forms and surveys, plus keeping up-to-date with world breeding programs, latest research and development, and long-range weather predictions, took up much of his time.

Around an hour later he remembered he’d left the local newspaper on the hallway table. It had market data on recent sales and stock prices and he’d wanted to read it.

As he headed down the hallway, he heard Vanessa’s soft voice in the kitchen.

“I said I’d call you when I could, Grace,” she was quietly chiding. “You didn’t have to call the motel.”

For a minute he thought they had visitors, but then he realized she must be talking on her cell phone.

“No, I wasn’t trying to hide anything from you. I just wanted to settle in here first.”

Pause.

“There’s nothing to be upset about. I was going to stay at Jackaroo Plains for six months anyway. Nothing’s really changed.”

Another pause.

“What? You’ve got a dossier on him already? Then you’ll know he’s a good man.”

They were talking about him.

“He’s rich? So? That’s not why I’m here. Money doesn’t matter to me. I’m only his temporary housekeeper when all is said and done.”

A long silence followed her words.

“Grace, I can’t help it if you don’t like it. I needed to get away for a while. You know that.” All at once, Josh started to cry. “Look, I have to go. Josh needs to go to bed.”

Silence.

“Yes, he’s up late but he’s a bit restless tonight. He might be teething. Yes, call me later in the week.”

She hung up.

There was a heavy sigh. “And yes, Grace, I’m peachy-keen, too,” she mused out loud.

Kirk didn’t bother about the newspaper. He quietly went back to the study and frowned as he sat down at his desk. Okay, so that conversation had substantiated some of what Linda had told him about Vanessa’s in-laws. They had sounded a trifle overbearing.

But perhaps they were merely concerned for the welfare of their family? That was understandable. He sure as hell would be checking out a person if one of his family were staying with someone he didn’t know.

No, he wasn’t convinced Vanessa had needed this job.

And that meant she hadn’t needed to use him.

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