Outback Affair: An Affair Novel (Entangled Indulgence) (7 page)

Jess sat quietly next to him, cradling Bowser on her lap while he backed the trailer to the water and hooked the boat on. He drove back up the slope and parked beneath the stand of melaleucas and then transferred the crabs into the iced cooler in the back of the truck.

“Just going to check the forecast, and then we’ll have a cuppa and head off.” He held up the satellite phone, which always worked in the outback—unlike regular cell phones—to Jess, and she gave him a brief smile before he walked around the back of the boat and called Mitch, his assistant manager at Cockatoo Springs.

“Where are you, Alex?” Mitch’s voice was muffled by the connection. “Clayton’s arrived.”

“Just turned off the main road; I’m taking the shortcut across.”

“Why? A bit risky with the rain coming.”

“Long story, mate. I’ll tell you when I get there. If I need help if the river comes up, I’ll radio in, and you can send the chopper out. Got a good haul of crabs for you, and the barramundi went to Darwin last night.”

Mitch laughed. “It’s already here. Clayton checked and got it in fresh before they could freeze it. He’s got the first class doing it today.”

“Great stuff. I can’t wait to meet him.”

Alex ended the call, lifted the small cooler out of the boat, and walked over to the truck. Unzipping the canvas, he reached in and pulled the old blanket from the back.

Might as well give Jess somewhere to sit. She’d been very quiet since the episode on the water. He spread it on some soft grass well back from the river before going over and opening the door to the truck. Jess looked at him and anticipation filled her voice.

“Are we leaving now?

“Soon. Come and have something to eat, and then we’ll head off for the last leg. I hope.” He was going to be honest about what was ahead. “I want to stop and get our camp set up before dark. It’s raining up ahead.

“How do you know?”

“I was talking to my…to my mate at Cockatoo Springs. Rains started over on the coast last night, so we’re going to have to be careful.”

Jess rolled her eyes at him as she stepped out of the truck. “Whatever. Can’t get much worse, can it?”

Alex shook his head as she strode ahead of him to the blanket.

Oh yes it can. If the rains start, we are going to get stranded on this back road, and I don’t know if I could handle being stranded in the outback with you for too long.

She had determination in bucket loads. He was enjoying her quick comebacks, and although she’d bitched about the heat and the dog amongst other things, she was giving it a go.

When he’d held her after she’d saved Bowser, a feeling, long-buried, had shimmied up into his chest, and he hadn’t liked it one bit. Jess was playing havoc with his emotions, and he was angry at himself for putting himself into that situation. But the longer they traveled and the more he threw at her, the more respect he was developing for her toughness.

Even though she’d headed off in the wrong direction on her journey and ended up with him, she was coping despite everything he’d thrown at her. Even when he’d deliberately invaded her personal space and pressed up against her, she’d only looked at him and not commented. But that wasn’t going to happen again, anyway; getting up close and personal with her was not an option. He was going to stay well clear. She was way too appealing, and he wasn’t going to go there.

…

Jess lifted the blanket carefully and looked around the edge of the grassed area before she flopped down onto the ground next to him.

“Don’t worry, I’ve already checked for snakes. Just watch out for those grass seeds I told you about.” He held up the flask. “I’m sorry…no coffee. I’ve only got tea. Wally’s missus puts the tea leaves in the flask, and it’s pretty strong, but it will quench your thirst.”

“What do you do up here all year?” Jess looked at him over the mug of tea she’d accepted.

“In the off season, I do a bit of this and that around Cockatoo Springs. Sometimes I help with the tours.” He looked at her. “There’s a really good trip you should take if you stay there long enough. It’s a trip out into the bush, gathering bush foods, and learning about bush tucker.”

Her face lit up with interest, and his stomach clenched. She was altogether too beautiful for his peace of mind. Even with her hair tied back with a piece of string and his old fishing shirt buttoned up to her throat.

“That sounds fabulous. I’ve never read about that. I could include it in my article.” She tipped her head to the side and held his gaze. “Have you always fished up here? No other career?”

Alex looked up as the flock of red-tailed cockatoos squealed overhead. Something had disturbed them—he looked around to see what had set them off, but couldn’t see anything around. He turned his attention back to Jess. Her mug was beside her, and she’d sprawled out on the blanket on her stomach with her chin propped in her hands.

It wouldn’t hurt to be truthful here.

“I came to the Territory two years ago.”

“Where from?”

“A small town called Armidale in the middle of New South Wales.”

“No fishing there?”

“No, not this sort of fishing. I grew up in the country, and I’d never held a fishing rod until I went out on a charter from Darwin and I was hooked. Pardon the pun.

“So what did you do before that?”

“I studied to be an environmental lawyer and worked for the government in Brisbane for a while.” Alex held her gaze in his and shrugged. “At least I ended up here, working in the environment.”

“That’s a big change. What made you leave law?”

He stared off into the distance, and the raucous noise kicked up by the cockatoos stopped as suddenly as it had started.

“Life happened. I needed a change.”

“Law wasn’t for you?”

“Family circumstances.”

He’d left Emily behind in the cemetery on that cold hill in Armidale and hadn’t talked about her since he’d come to the Territory. Not only had he had to deal with her death but her betrayal had screwed with his head and his emotions for the first year. He’d only started to move on these past few months.

“You’re quiet.” Jess rolled over and sat up, placing her hand on his arm. “And you have a sad look on your face. I hope I haven’t upset you.”

She chewed her lip, looking across at him with concern

Feelings he hadn’t let surface for years were filling his chest. He dropped his head and pulled Bowser over onto his lap.

“I have two brothers and three sisters. I’m the baby of the family. My two brothers, even though they are very different in personality, both disagree with how I handled a situation a couple of years back.” Alex laughed shortly, but there was no amusement in it. “Nick and Tom both think I ran away from home, and they can’t understand me giving up my law career.” He looked up at the sky and lifted one hand.

“But hey, they were wrong. It’s not all about money.” He gestured around them. “Look what I have. The outback has looked after me, and I’m pretty damn happy. I haven’t done too badly up here.”

As soon as his contract finished in the next couple of weeks, he had to figure out what he was going to do with the rest of his life. But first, he had to sort out his passenger.

Chapter Seven

The raw pain in Alex’s voice when he talked about the ‘situation,’ which had been the catalyst for him coming to the Top End, piqued Jess’s interest. Even though she was a food journalist, she was always interested in people, and thoughts of using Alex’s story as a second article played around in her mind.

He had offered that I interview him instead of Ricardo. I could do a series, seeing I’ve come all this way.

She was curious about what had happened to spur him onto such a dramatic move in his life, but until he volunteered the information she wasn’t going to press him.

“Did you practice law for long?” She tipped her head to the side and looked at him thoughtfully. “How old are you, Alex?”

“I worked in the government department for a while, not in a law firm. I’ll be twenty-eight in a few days.”

His answer surprised her; she’d picked him as a bit older than her. The tanned skin and the shaggy hair had obviously contributed to her incorrect assumption.

She smiled. “So will I. What date?

“
December tenth.”

“You just beat me. And we’re the same age…”

“This is where a gentleman would come straight back and say ‘but I thought you were only twenty-one.’” He grinned at her. “Having a birthday bash?”

If her father had his way, there would be the full blown, ridiculous extravaganza at
Spago
in Los Angeles or one of the other restaurants where he and his latest bimbo could be photographed for some ritzy magazine. Although probably not— he wouldn’t want anyone to know he had a grown-up daughter.

And her mother would be in a health spa somewhere in Europe and wouldn’t even remember it
was
her birthday. Jess had called her a few days before she’d left for Australia, and her mother’s personal secretary answered and told her she was in the Swiss mountains. Her mother had never gotten over her father’s desertion, and even though she received a healthy settlement, she’d spent most of it to trying to recapture her lost youth.

“Jess?”

“Oh, sorry. No, no party. Maybe a dinner out with my friends, Monica and Gareth, in New York. If she’s still talking to me after this fiasco of a trip.” She held her hands out in front of her and frowned at the state of her manicure.
“
Poor Monica tries to keep me organized. If she could see me now, she’d die…that is, after she’d killed me first. What about you? Do you have anything big planned? Or does the outdoor life not give you time for that sort of thing?”

Alex looked at her for a moment before he answered, and she could almost see the wheels turning in his head.

“
My family is coming for my birthday. They’re not happy I don’t make the effort to go home, so they all descend on the resort for a week or so every December.”

“All of them?”

“Yes.” He nodded and smiled.

She’d never had much of a family life and his family sounded fascinating. If they were staying there, someone obviously had money, because it was a five star resort, and she’d seen it featured in those coffee table books with photographs of the best resorts in the world.

Alex laughed and she gazed back at him. When he smiled, the ruggedness of his face softened. “Anyway, that’s enough about me…you’ve got the potted Alex Richards’ history now. I’ll shout you a birthday drink before you go back to the States. How long are you planning to stay?”

“Until after the interview with Alessandro Ricardo.”

He frowned at her, and suddenly she wondered if any help he could give her would be worthwhile.

“It sounds like you know a few people at the resort,” she said slowly. “Tell me what you know about Ricardo.”

“He’s a very private person. Look, Jess. I’ll be honest. When you get there, you really should just have a break and forget the idea. He doesn’t do interviews. Just forget about it and have a holiday.”

“You say you don’t know him, so how do you know that? Maybe the right person hasn’t come along yet.”

There was no way she was going to give up after all she’d done to get this far.

She was going to get that interview, and if Alex couldn’t help her, she’d find someone else who could.

Without answering her, Alex stood and brushed the crumbs from his shirt. Bowser sniffed around the blanket and licked them up.

“Come on. We’d better hit the road.” He held his hand out to Jess, and she let him pull her up. Bowser wound between her legs and she lost her balance. Alex caught her, and she came up hard against his chest. Laughing self consciously to cover the heat surging through her, she pushed him away.

“Sorry, I seem to be making a habit of falling into your arms. Don’t get the wrong idea.”

Alex folded up the blanket and passed it to her before lifting the cooler onto his shoulder.

“Partner back in New York?”

“Nah. No way. Career woman to the core. Had one close call, but I found out just in time he was only after—”

“After?” Alex looked at her curiously.

“After an introduction to the boss,” she said. “Um, he was after a job.”

“Sounds like a low life. Using a woman to get what he wanted.”

They were both quiet as they walked back to the truck. Alex seemed to be lost in his thoughts as much as she was lost in hers.

Five minutes later, they were back on the red dirt road and heading west. The sun was blindingly bright through the insect-smeared windscreen. Jess reached down to her bag for her sunglasses.

“Could you pass me mine please?” Alex asked. “They’re in—”

“The glove compartment…” Jess finished off for him. “The never-ending glove compartment.”

Jess relaxed and leaned back into the seat. “Well, I’m going to start planning my strategy for pinning down the elusive Mr. Ricardo. Oh, no!”

She sat bolt upright in the seat before dropping her face in her hands and groaning. “Oh shit.”

Alex hit the brakes and slowed the car looking across at her, and his brow wrinkled. “What’s wrong?”

“I meant to call Cockatoo Springs when I got to Daly River to make my reservation, but the rain and having to stay there for the night totally put it out of my head.”

Alex started the truck again and pulled out onto the road. “No problem. You can stay at my cabin.”

Why did he find that so amusing?
She ignored the sexy smile on his face, which made the laugh lines fan deep around his eyes.

“I can show you around.”

Before Jess could answer there was a loud crack from behind them and the car slewed to the right. Alex hit the brakes and stuck his head out the window looking behind.

…

“Fuck.” Frustration and anger warred in Alex’s chest as he slammed his hands on the steering wheel. He took a deep breath and turned to Jess. “Sorry.”

“What’s wrong? Did we hit something?”

“There’s something wrong with the boat trailer. The boat’s hanging off it.” He opened his door and walked back to the trailer. The two wheels were sitting at an angle, and the under frame of the boat trailer was sitting in the red dirt of the road.

“Bloody hell.” He kicked the tire and walked around to Jess’s window. “The axel of the trailer has snapped.”

“How come?”

“All the corrugations on the road,” he said. He should have taken it slower, but he’d been too interested in her conversation and hadn’t paid enough attention to his driving. That could be deadly in the Top End. He was lucky it was only the trailer that had been damaged.

“What does that mean?”

“It means I’ll have to leave the boat here.”

“Won’t someone steal it?” Jess pushed her door open and climbed down.

“Not in the condition it’s in now. Come give me a hand and we’ll be quicker.”

Bowser jumped out of the truck and ran to the side of the road while Jess followed Alex around to the back of the truck. He pointed to the axel.

“We’ll have to unload the boat and put as much of the gear in the back of the truck as we can. Especially the food and the crabs. Sorry, the crabs are going to have to go in the front with us. There’s not enough air circulating in here, and if I unzip the windows your bed will be full of red dust for the night.”

“In the cabin with the two by eighty air con?” Jess grinned up at him and his heart lurched. Last night in Janet’s restaurant he’d thought how beautiful she was, but now, her clear almond-shaped eyes held his, and his heart lurched.

No way, not going there.

He turned away from her and spoke gruffly.
“I’ve just got to take the motor off the boat, and then I’ll get you to help me pull the trailer off the road.” Alex wiped his hands on his jeans before he lifted the side of the boat trailer.

“Will you have to come back and get it?”

“If I don’t, it’ll get swept away in the wet.”

Her eyes were wide. “Do you mean this road will go under water?”

“Yes. For most of the summer.”

Alex was looking forward to the camp ahead. It was going to be an interesting night. “You grab Bowser and get back in the truck; I’ll zip this up. And then we’ll get on the way. I don’t want to get to our campsite too late.” Huge thunderheads were spiraling up ahead, and he didn’t like the look of the sky at all.

…

The first cloud covered the sun as they turned into the road to the camp. There were a couple of places they could have camped out, but Alex had chosen this one because it was on the highest ground. If there was a storm, they’d be dry up here.

He frowned as he slowed the truck. Jess was determined to go on with the interview, and he’d seen her persistence over the past twenty-four hours. If she was that persistent at Cockatoo Springs, she’d figure out who he was in no time at all. He guarded his privacy fiercely and he was going to have to handle this very carefully. As soon as he got a chance, he was going to call Mitch and make sure there was no room for her at the resort when they arrived. She could stay in the spare room in the small cabin at the back of the resort where he stayed when he was hauling fish. That way he could keep her close and keep tabs on what she was doing. He wouldn’t go anywhere near his beachfront villa this time—not until she was on her way back home.

Alex pulled the car to the side of the road and looked across at Jess and Bowser. She was dozing with her head back on the seat and her feet on top of the cooler holding the crabs. Bowser was curled up on her once-white pants, and Jess had the fingers of one hand tucked loosely into his collar, holding him secure. Her pants were streaked with red dirt, and her silk top was dotted with water spots where perspiration had soaked in. Her hair was still tied back with the piece of string but had loosened, and her topknot was hanging to one side. Her right hand was braced on the seat between them. He looked down and grinned. Two long manicured red nails, and two snapped off with chipped nail polish, completed the picture of a disheveled traveler. If she turned up at the reception desk of his five star resort looking like that, eyebrows would be raised.

“Jess, wake up.” He touched her hand lightly. She opened her eyes and stretched, and his mouth dried as the silk top pulled across her breasts. She was almost as tall as he was, and even though she was very slim, her breasts were full. The damp silk top strained across them tightly, and she crossed her arms across her chest and glared at him.

“I have to get out and turn the wheel hubs before I can put the truck into four wheel drive. There’s just a short distance to go to where we’ll camp out tonight.”

Jess unfolded her arms and looked out the window. “Rain’s coming?”

“Not yet.” He pointed up the hill. “There’s a spring-fed freshwater pool where we can wash. It’s away from the main river, and there are no crocodiles there.

“I’d kill for a wash now, and before we leave in the morning so I don’t turn up looking like a hobo. I was thinking too… could I use your satellite phone to make a reservation? How long will you stay there?” Jess looked at him, and Alex focused on maneuvering the truck over the deep corrugation.

The driver’s side dipped to the right, and Bowser rolled along the seat and landed in his lap. Jess gasped as the car tilted back the other way at the opposite angle, and she grabbed for Bowser as he rolled back toward her. It was likely he’d be at Cockatoo Springs for a couple of weeks. He had to make time to meet with Clayton, the new chef, and to work out the program for the wet season. He also had a CEO from one of the big travel companies flying in for a two-day visit. He’d been difficult and insisted on dealing with Alessandro himself, and Mitch had talked Alex into the meeting with Larry Bartholomew before he left. Then the whole family was arriving in a few days for his birthday. Last year, they’d managed to keep his fake identity secret, and although they couldn’t understand his motivation, he’d never confided Emily’s deception to anyone else. He had this stupid idea it was gallant to keep her memory untarnished. If he’d known how hard it would be to run the place privately once the school had taken off, he would never have even taken the job on in the first place.

The next challenge was to keep it quiet for one more visit, and then once his contract was done, Ricardo could disappear quietly.

“Ah… I’ll stay a week or so and then I’ll head to Darwin for the wet season.You can still fish up there away from the rivers.” He had to get Jess sorted and on her way home well before his family descended. And somehow he had to convince her that an interview with Ricardo was out of the question. Then he had to get rid of this bloody fascination she was weaving over him.

It was safe here. No crocodiles. It was time to put another plan in place and turn back into the fishing hobo that pissed her off. He’d been way too accommodating, and he wasn’t happy with this connection that seemed to be springing up between them.