'If we don't charge her, then she won't come.'
'And you want her to come.'
'Yes,' he snapped, and Rob grinned.
'I see,' he said thoughtfully. 'Shall I ring Barb, then, and tell her the five-minute dating was a success?'
'Just try it.'
'That's what I thought,' Rob said. 'Okay, not yet. But I'm thinking I might get Mrs. Matheson to pull out all the stops. It's time we had a great dinner.'
'Nothing special,' Jake said.
'You don't want to scare her?'
'Rob … '
'I know,' his manager said, placating. 'But I'm thinking lobster. She can think we have it every night, because we're not trying to impress her at all.'
'Manwillinbah Lodge.'
She turned into the driveway and she could scarcely believe she was on the same planet as the place she'd just left. The lodge looked gracious and inviting, long and low and sprawling. Beyond rambling rose gardens were acres of grapevines, just coming into bud. It looked not where she belonged at all.
Why was she panicking?
She shouldn't be here. She should be somewhere she could be alone to think things through. Though hadn't she had enough time to think things through, and where had that got her?
But before her muddled thoughts could take her any further, her car door was tugged open, and Jake was looking in.
'Hey,' he said softly. 'I was starting to think I'd need to come up the mountain and fetch you. Welcome, Tori. Welcome, Rusty.'
He was smiling. That smile was enough to make a girl panic all on its own. 'I was just coming to tell you … to tell Rob I wasn't coming,' she muttered. 'And to thank you for the cleaners.'
He nodded, suppressing his smile. 'That makes sense. Or not. The cleaners were my pleasure. As for not staying … You want to have dinner while you tell us why not?'
'I can't stay here,' she said wildly, gesturing towards the house.
'Why ever not?'
'I don't fit.'
'You fit in fine,' he said. 'Our only two guests were burned out themselves. They're here to sleep.'
'I don't have any clothes.'
'Odd,' he said thoughtfully. 'You'd have thought I'd have noticed no clothes.'
'You know what I mean.'
He did. His gaze met hers and she knew he understood. 'You look great,' he said softly. 'Tori, you look lovely. Jeans and T-shirt are practically uniform here and no one's going to judge you even if they weren't. Dinner's on the table in an hour. That gives you time to have a bath first.'
'You're saying I'm dirty?'
'I'm saying there's a heated spa bath on your balcony with a view to die for. It's totally private. If you're dirty to start with, there's only you to notice. Unless you want me to come scrub your back?'
'No!'
'No?' He was laughing now, and suddenly she found herself smiling back. Okay, she thought, maybe this wouldn't be as bad as it seemed. She didn't need to trust. She only needed to stay for a night. And tomorrow …
'Worry about right now,' Jake said gently and, chameleon-like, his laughter was gone again. It was replaced by a gentle concern she found disconcerting.
Insidious. Impossible to resist.
Inviting her to trust. Terrifying.
'Okay, no back-scrubbing,' he said, and he put out a hand to help her from the car. 'Nothing but bath, food, sleep, and if that's not what you need I'll eat my medical degrees. There's no pressure, Tori. You're our welcome guest.'
His hand was waiting. Just waiting. All she had to do was accept.
'I won't bite,' he said softly. 'Rob's in the house, as is our housekeeper, Mrs. Matheson. There are two elderly ladies lying on Rob's fabulous lounges on the balcony watching the cockatoos. One's wearing dungarees, one's wearing tweed. Life's safe here, Tori. It's a refuge, if you like. You provided refuge for your battered wild creatures. Now it's time for you to take refuge.'
'I don't need-'
'I think you do. Barb thinks you do, too.' He hesitated but then continued. 'Maybe I should confess I phoned Barb this afternoon. When she heard your koala was dead she was all for rushing up the mountain and taking you home herself. Only I gather Barb has a husband, five sons and a menagerie. We both thought you'd be best here. So what's it to be, Tori? Here, or Barb's, because no one's going to let you stay in a motel by yourself tonight.'
'Even if I want to?'
'If you really want, then we'll pay for a five-star hotel in the best part of Melbourne,' he said. 'And you needn't think I'd have to personally pay-according to Barb half the valley would have their hands in their pockets in a minute to help you. So what's it to be?'
Still his hand was held out to her.
What was it to be?
She could still drive away. She knew she could.
There was a bath inside. A bath!
And Jake.
There was the problem.
She looked up at him. He smiled.
She couldn't trust.
She didn't need to trust. This was a night in a guesthouse, nothing more.
She took a deep breath. She tried to smile back. She put her hand in his and let him pull her up.
The tug had her rising too fast. She almost overbalanced, but he had her steady, catching her shoulders, holding.
He was so near.
She should pull away-but didn't.
'Tori … ' he said uncertainly, and she just looked at him. Sex on legs, she thought absently.
No. He was much, much more.
Get a grip, she thought frantically and shoved her hands up, breaking his grip. She came close to falling back down into the car-but didn't. Thankfully. A girl had some pride.
'I … Thank you,' she muttered and managed to get herself round to the other side of the car to retrieve her cardboard box.
'I like your luggage,' he said, and grinned.
'Eat your heart out, Mr. Gucci,' she said, managing a smile in return. 'This is so next year's catwalk.'
'I believe it is,' he said. 'If there's anyone who can start a trend it would be you.'
'Enough with the compliments,' she said, feeling … disconcerted. No, more than that, totally flummoxed. 'You promised me a bath.'
'I did. Let me carry your box.'
'I can manage myself,' she said with an attempt at dignity. 'Once upon a time I depended on others. I don't do that any more.'
'It's only carrying a box,' he said mildly.
'No,' she said softly, as she carted her belongings up the steps and into the house. 'Believe me, it's much, much more.'
She lay back in the vast spa; she let the bubbles float up around her and she felt as if she was floating herself. From here she could see all the way across the valley floor. There were candles lit around her, gardenia with maybe a hint of citrus. The housekeeper had lit them as she'd settled her into the room.
'And don't worry about privacy,' she'd said. 'There's oneway glass so you can see forever but no one can see you, even if there was someone outside, which there isn't. The one-way glass is brilliant. Jake had it installed just after his father died.'
'Jake did that?'
'He wants this place to be the best. It was his stepmother's passion, and we want to carry it on.'
Jake's stepmother's passion … There was a lot here she didn't understand, that she hadn't thought through.
She knew this place had been built by the local doctor and his wife. Charlie McDonald had cared for this community for as long as most people remembered. He'd cared for her mother during her long illness, allowing her to die at home surrounded by her family and her beloved animals. Tori remembered him with deep affection, and with gratitude.
He'd lived in Combadeen and his wife had run the lodge. The place up on the ridge had been his weekend retreat, so they'd been weekend neighbours. But just after she'd started university he'd retired to the city, and she'd not heard of him until his funeral.
And now …
The old doctor was Charlie McDonald. Jake was Jake Hunter.
Illegitimate? Who knew with mixed families?
She tried to remember community gossip. There was talk of a son at his funeral. She remembered a faded baby photo on Dr. McDonald's surgery wall. That must be Jake.
She'd find out. She had all the time in the world to get it right, she thought dreamily as she sank deeper into bubbles. But then she thought, No, she was only here for a night until she organised something more permanent, and Jake himself would return to New York. There'd be no time for questions.
The thought left her curiously bereft.
But at least she could sleep tonight, she reminded herself. She glanced through into the bedroom, at the enormous bed piled with white-on-white eiderdowns and feather pillows. A woman could melt into a bed like this.
As opposed to melting into a man like Jake Hunter?
She was delirious. That was the only possible explanation for where her mind was taking her. She was not thinking of doing any melting into any man.
All she had to do to stop that was to think of Toby. Betrayal. A heartache that would never leave her.
Jake was different.
Maybe or maybe not, she thought sharply, but Jake was heading back to New York and he didn't want to even indulge in five-minute dating, much less anything else. She was tired beyond belief and her mind was playing tricks.
So get out of the bath, get to dinner, so you can go to bed.
Right. She wiggled even deeper under the bubbles.
'Tori?'
Uh-oh. Jake's voice brought her bolt upright. 'Tori, are you okay?'