Australia: Wicked Mistresses(8)

Sauntering back, Gabriel swept the first aid kit off the ledge. Moving past, he took a seat at the foot of the bed and began to sort through bandages and lotions.

“So, Nina, how do you know the groom? You’re not an old flame here to cause trouble?” He looked up, almost hopeful. “Are you?”

“We’ve never met.”

The square angle of his jaw shifted. “You’re not a friend of the bride or the groom, yet you’re attending their wedding?”

She cleared her throat, formed words in her mind to explain her situation, but those words would not leave her mouth. She wanted to tell him. She needed to. She certainly couldn’t lie about who she was.

He dabbed a cotton ball with antiseptic, and indicated with a tip of his chin that she should sit too.

“I’ve got it,” he said. “You’re a wedding planner. One of the experts people hire to make sure everything’s perfect on the day.”

Smothering a sigh, she shook her head and joined him.

The line between his brows furrowed again. “You really don’t want me to dig any more, do you?”

“It’s not that exactly…”

“Look, if you’re more comfortable sticking with Nina the Mysterious for now, I’ll back off. Privacy can be a huge issue, I know.”

She opened her mouth to fess up, but something held her back.

The thing was…she wasn’t sure who she was any more. With each passing day she wondered more. Being here with this delectable man only seemed to confuse the matter. She was a waitress, yet he was treating her like a princess. Once she had been a princess, of sorts, but then her family had lost everything and, not long after, she’d lost her position. Much of her identity had been lost with it.

The truth was she would rather remain Nina the Mysterious for now. Lately she’d felt so exposed and raw and vulnerable…She wasn’t certain she could stand to peel off one more layer—even to the man who’d saved her life.

Not that she was embarrassed that she’d taken a waitressing job. She would rather step up any day than lie around fanning herself and hoping for some miracle to materialise and get her out of this jam. If she was embarrassed about anything it was that her performance here could have been better. If she was going to stay—and for now she had to—the other staff were right: she needed to take it up a gear.

As if agreeing to put an end to the identity discussion, he nodded at her foot. “Let’s fix you up.”

He first applied antiseptic to the bump on her head, then to her ankle. A large adhesive bandage was fitted, and a crepe one wound around that. When he was done, she ran two fingers over the joint—which didn’t feel nearly as sore as it had.

“Don’t have much in the way of other provisions.” He pushed on his thighs to stand. “Some bread and spread, if you’re hungry. And I do have a bottle of quite passable red wine.”

Watching firelight flicker behind his silhouette, shifting ever darkening shapes over the roughly hewn walls, she felt she didn’t need another thing other than that fire’s heat, this blessed mattress, and her host’s not unpleasant company. Despite the sexual awareness bubbling away below the surface—or perhaps because of it—she hadn’t felt this stress-free in ages. Being stranded with a gorgeous man clearly worked for her. Why not go for broke?

She smiled on a nod. “A glass of wine would be nice.”

In the kitchen, he opened the bottle of red and dug out a packet of peanuts and filled a ceramic bowl.

“Here’s a not so interesting fact,” he said sauntering back. “When I was a kid I wanted to run a macadamia nut farm.”

“Well, I think that’s very interesting.” She accepted a glass and he poured. “I wanted to own a ballet school. What happened to your dream?”

He hesitated in pouring. “I’m not sure. Maybe I should put it on my ‘to-do’ list.”

He raised his glass, she raised hers, and they sipped. The wine was mellow, and trailed warmth from her throat to her belly. Repositioning her weight, she leaned back on one elbow and sipped again.

“So,” he said, getting comfortable beside her, “you dance?”

She screwed up her nose. “I was awful. I just liked the costumes.”

Grinning, he grabbed some peanuts from the bowl which he’d set between them. “What else do you like?”

“You’ll laugh.”

“All the better.”

“I like boxing.”

He spluttered, and hit his chest to help clear his throat. “Didn’t you see Million Dollar Baby?”

“Not competition boxing. Just mucking around.” She protected her chin and jabbed the air. “At the gym.” She shrugged. “I’m improving.”

Her ankle throbbed once, and pain spiked up her shin. Careful of her wine, she manoeuvred back until she lay on her side, her cheek resting in one palm.

Better.

“What about you?” she asked. “Ever put on the gloves?”

“Nope. But I’ve tried practically every other sport.”

“A figures man crossed with an athlete? I’m seeing that turbo-blasting calculator guy again.”

“Ballet and boxing. We all have another side.”

She took a long sip. We sure do.

“How’s the ankle?” he asked, shaking some peanuts in his palm and throwing them back into his mouth.

“Much better.”

Chewing, he evaluated the weather through the window. “The rain’s set in.”

She finished his thought. “And we should bunk down here for the night?”

“Don’t know that there’s an alternative. The resort doctor can check your head and leg tomorrow.” His grin was crooked, and criminally sexy. “I think you’ll make it past dawn.”

“Thanks to you.”

When she smiled over her glass at him, a double-knot in Gabriel’s chest yanked tight.

More than ever before he was head-down, needing to ensure that the professional gamble he’d taken turned into a goldmine. Nothing at any point in his career had mattered more, and he’d learned that success meant keeping your eye on the ball. Always.

But as he watched his mysterious Nina in the fireglow—shadow and light playing over her heart-shaped face—a distracting something tugged inside of him. Something intense and pleasant and real.

She was beautiful, certainly—although he doubted she was aware of the power of her smile or how expressive and bright her eyes were. Her body was strong, yet wholly feminine. Sensual. She was all woman.

As she looked up from her glass and back towards the crackling fire—her drying hair splayed over her shoulder—more than physical attraction spoke to him. Even as he instinctively hardened in anticipation of enjoying another kiss or three, an added influence whispered in his ear.

He wanted to put a name to it, but the only word that came to mind hardly fitted. Trust was earned over a lifetime. Something he didn’t ask for and rarely gave away.

Still, whatever it was that stirred him up about Nina, it felt good. Even if straight-out lust was way less complicated.

He prised his gaze from her lips and found his feet. “More wine?”

She made a purring sound in her throat, and her heavy-lidded gaze met his. She stretched her good leg straight along the mattress and replied, “Half a glass. Any more after that bath and I might go to sleep.”

Relieving her of her glass, he skirted the bed and found the bottle. He poured her half, filled his up, then found a handtowel to mop up the few drops spilled on the cedar table.

“There’s a creek out the back of here, filled with fish and some platypus. Or is that platypi?” He rounded the bed and, keeping an eye on his over-full glass, sat carefully down. “I was thinking this afternoon when I first saw you that this place reminds me of a spot my aunt took me on vacation once when I was a kid…”

His words trailed off.

Her arm was stretched out over the quilt, one cheek lying on that inside elbow. Her lips were slightly parted. If he spoke loudly enough she would rouse, but her breathing said she was already on her way to dreamtime. An experience like the one she’d endured today would knock it out of anyone. Couple that with a relaxing soak and glass of good wine…

Still, he was disappointed sleep had taken her so quickly.

His gaze slid down her tranquil form and he gnawed his lower lip. What should he do about those legs? The wolf inside wanted to leave them exposed, but the reluctant gentleman said she might catch a chill.

Setting down the glasses, he eased the quilt over her body, covering her legs and those peach-tipped toes. Then, so as not to disturb her, he placed the chair before the fire, which had grown to a vigorous state. Stretching the cranky muscles in his legs, he threaded fingers behind his head and clicked his thoughts over to its usual fare. To work. To that crucial venture.

To this island.

After investing so much in this project, his efforts to set this place back well on its feet couldn’t fail. Anything that didn’t work towards the reestablishment of a healthy profit margin would be culled. Nothing that worked against success would be tolerated. His involvement here must have one outcome and one outcome only.

Absolute success.

He filed figures through his mind—advertising budgets, staff payrolls. Where to cut, where to spend…