The Outback Bridal Rescue (10 page)

‘Again,’ he insisted.

‘Johnny…’ It was an anguished plea.

He picked up her fluttering hands and slammed them above her head as he drove himself deeply into the sweet hot cavern of her innermost self. He lay on the soft cushion of her breasts, his face directly above hers. He wanted eye contact but her lids were shut, her mouth open, dragging in quick shal ow breaths.

‘Look at me!’ he commanded.

The lashes flew up. Her eyes seemed unfocussed, inwardly concentrated, but they swam back to seeing him squarely.

‘Know me as you feel me, Megan,’ he said more softly, and kissed her, wanting to engage her in a sense of total intimacy with him, with the Johnny El is she had scorned for so long but was now accepting with al her being.

Megan was swamped with tidal wave after tidal wave of incredible sensation. The unrelenting swel of it had crashed through any inhibitions she might have had long before Johnny had final y plunged into this ultimate joining with her. Now she simply rode with it, incapable of doing anything else, marvel ing at the exquisite peaks of pleasure, the ripple effect through her entire body, the almost torturous tension of anticipating more and more, the ecstatic feeling of letting herself go, melting around him.

In the hazy recesses of a mind drowning in intense feeling, there lurked the exhilarating satisfaction that this was, indeed, Johnny El is making love to her. And if she’d been waiting her whole life for this, it was worth the waiting.

She didn’t question why he’d demanded she say his name.

Her thought processes were far too adrift for questioning anything. She’d wanted to say it, anyway, wanted to taste it, savour it, shout it, identifying and claiming him as the only man who had ever moved her this deeply.

As for knowing him…it was knowledge she had craved, knowledge she was now exulting in, knowledge she would hug to herself forever. It was awesome, fantastic, the glorious sense of rol ing from one climax to another, pinnacles of creamy pleasure, then final y the faster pumping of his need, spil ing into wild spasms of release, Johnny letting go, surrendering control to her as his powerful body shuddered into relaxation, accepting her readily loving embrace.

Conscious of his weight on her, he rol ed onto his side, but he didn’t disentangle himself from her. She stroked him, adoring his strength, wanting to touch as she hadn’t dared touch before. It dawned on her how passive she had been while he did…everything!

Absorbing the feelings he’d aroused had stunned her into a weird submission, as though she was in a time and place where only what he was doing to her had any reality

—an immediate and overwhelming reality that compel ed intense concentration.

Only now did she realise she hadn’t made any effort to pleasure him. Hadn’t even thought of it. Was he satisfied with how it had been? Would he want more of her when he hadn’t been given any active demonstration of desire
from
her?

She hadn’t exactly been a log, but…

‘Content?’ he asked.

It sounded as though he’d been working hard to give her satisfaction and wanted to be assured of it.

‘Are you?’ she tossed back, worried about not matching up to his previous sexual partners.

He shifted, propping himself up on his elbow, smoothing her hair away from her face with his other hand, eyeing her with brooding frustration. ‘What is it with you, Megan? You can’t concede a straight answer?’

Aware that she was being defensive again, she tried a rueful smile. ‘Sorry, Johnny. You’re a fantastic lover. Thank you for being so…so giving.’

He returned her smile. ‘Then you do feel content?’

‘How could I not? You’ve completely rocked me with a truly bril iant experience,’ she said flippantly, wary of placing too much weight on what could very wel be a one-night stand.

Rocked her…
Was that another hit at his career? Johnny’s sense of satisfaction that he had reached Megan deep down was instantly shaken by insecurities.

Maybe she had just been using him…Johnny on the spot.

And he had performed his heart out for her.

Bril iant…

‘Wel , I’m glad I’m good for something…apart from money,’ he mocked.

He saw her eyes blank with shock, then spark with alarm. Her hand lifted swiftly to his face, cupping his cheek, instinctively needing to reach into him as she rushed into earnest speech.

‘I’m sorry if that came out wrong, Johnny. It’s just that…

you’re going tomorrow…and I have to let you go…so…’

‘Easier to put me back in the box you’ve had me in for years, Megan?’

She grimaced. ‘That is where you live most of your life.

No point in my wanting it otherwise.’

He asked the crucial question. ‘Do you want it otherwise?’

Her lashes dropped. She watched the trail of her hand as it slid down his throat and over the bunched muscles of his shoulder. She drew a deep breath and wryly said, ‘Let’s be realistic, Johnny. You’re here tonight, gone tomorrow, and I don’t know if you’l ever be back.’

‘I’l be back,’ he stated unequivocal y. ‘As soon as the movie is wrapped up.’

‘Mmm…’

To his ears it was the hum of disbelief. Why wasn’t she prepared to accept his word for it? He’d never lied to her, never given false promises. Stil , there was no way to prove he would return until he did.

She was gently rotating her palm over his nipple, seemingly fascinated by the fact that it could respond like hers to caressing. It surprised him when she leaned over to take it in her mouth and her hand glided down, over his stomach, touching him, stroking him. Excitement instantly buzzed. This was hard evidence that she stil wanted him, no matter what the future held.

He rol ed onto his back, carrying her with him, letting her do whatever she wanted with his body, letting the pleasure of it stream through him. He played with her beautiful hair, running his fingers through its silkiness, winding it around them, wishing he could bind her to him just as easily. But the reality was…only time could do that. So he wanted to make the most of now.

He was ful y aroused again, teetering on the brink of climax. He quickly lifted her to sit astride him, wanting her to do the taking, wanting to watch her loving him, if only physical y. The necklace of pearls swung back and forth as she settled into a rhythm—a metronome measuring the escalation of excitement. He cupped her breasts, wanting to feel the beat of her flesh on his everywhere…soft, hot music to his soul.

She paused, her eyes glittering with stormy feeling. ‘Say
my
name, Johnny.’

He smiled at the echo of his primal need to be known by her. ‘Megan…’

‘Again!’ she fiercely insisted.

‘Megan Maguire,’ he rol ed out like the rich chord of a song that gripped his heart—a song he was yet to write but it was beating through his mind.

‘Yes.’ It was a hiss of satisfaction. ‘I am my father’s daughter and don’t you ever forget it, Johnny El is,’ she added proudly, tossing her hair back over her shoulders as though it was a mane.

Then she rode him hard, and Johnny was racing with her, exhilarated by the frenetic energy behind making him come, loving the sight of her driving them both to an intense climax, the pearls whipping around her throat. His pearls…

his woman…Patrick’s daughter…

It felt so good to hold her afterwards. No tension. No sense of conflict running between them. It was as though she gave herself to him without reservation, her body folding into the curve of his, spoon-fashion, happy with being close, relaxing into languorous contentment. No question about that now. There was a sense of peace in the silence, though Johnny knew there were other questions that would have to be answered in the future.

Had Patrick foreseen this connection between him and Megan?

Had he made his wil with a marriage in mind?

Home is where the heart is, Johnny thought, but Megan didn’t believe his heart was in the life at Gundamurra. He had to show her it was so.

She heaved a deep sigh, then quietly asked, ‘If you chose these pearls for me personal y, Johnny, why didn’t you come to my party and give them to me?’

He raised his head from the pil ow, looked over her shoulder. She was fingering the necklace as though wondering if it real y did mean anything.

He kissed her shoulder. ‘I planned to, Megan. I’d booked my flight home. Then I learnt a close friend of mine had been taken to hospital, overdosed on heroin. I hoped I could talk her into wanting to live.’

‘Her?’

‘I don’t know if the name would mean anything to you…

Liesel Furner?’

‘No. It doesn’t ring any bel s.’

‘Liesel had some brief fame as a torch singer. Her voice was very powerful, very emotional, very passionate. A great talent…but also a deeply screwed-up person. She…gave up on herself…and I couldn’t pul her out of the darkness.’

‘You cared about her.’

He paused before answering, looking back, remembering how he’d felt. Impossible to explain an experience to someone who had never been driven into those dark prisons of the mind by the abuse of others.

Mitch and Ric would have understood, but Megan? He didn’t want her to take her there. Not tonight.

He used a simple paral el. ‘I would have liked someone to care about my mother, Megan.’

Another deep sigh. ‘I’m sorry, Johnny. I guess you’re saying Liesel died, too.’

‘It didn’t matter what I said…what I did…she didn’t have the wil to survive.’

‘But she must have known you cared. At least she had that.’

While Megan had thought he didn’t care about her.

No difficulty in reading that equation.

And the truth was…Liesel’s life had meant more to him than anybody’s birthday party. The childhood abuse she’d suffered had struck a strong empathy in him. He’d wanted to give her what Patrick had given him, get her head around al the negatives, lead her into…

But he’d failed.

And it had taken him a while to get past that failure.

When he’d come home again, Megan had gone off to agricultural col ege. And ever after that, she’d removed herself from him, actively driving him away from any sense of closeness with her.

‘I’m sorry I disappointed you. It wasn’t that I didn’t care…’

‘You were dealing with your own life,’ she finished for him, a wry touch of resignation in her voice. ‘And that’s how it is, Johnny—you dealing with your life, me dealing with mine.’

We’ve shared tonight,
he wanted to argue, but he knew one night wouldn’t carry much weight with her.

It was a beginning, he told himself, and settled back down to hold her as long as he could.

STRANGE
how calm she felt the next morning after Johnny had left her to go to his own room, mindful of the untimely aspect of their intimacy if it were known. It had been a very private interlude, just between them, and they’d agreed it should stay private. Especial y since he was leaving today.

Megan wryly wondered if she had final y grown up, accepting what couldn’t be changed, respecting what should be respected. The rebel ious turmoil incited by her father’s wil was gone. The bitter scorn she’d nurtured towards Johnny and his career had been il -founded, fed by her own self-absorbed needs and total y unfair. It, too, was gone. In its place was a far more sympathetic appreciation of the person Johnny was and what drove him.

She stil wanted him. More than ever after last night. But she knew she had to let him go, release him from any sense of responsibility towards her. What had happened between them had been more her doing than his. She’d made the decisions, pushing him into giving her a very real taste of the man he was.

A generous lover…a generous person in every sense…

and it was time for her to be generous to him. No snipes.

No clinging. Just let him go to be whatever he wanted—

needed—to be.

She put the pearl necklace back in its jewel ery box, then washed and dressed in her usual shirt and jeans, conscious of feeling no need to be aggressive or provocative about anything today. The sense of putting away her life to this point before embarking on the next phase was very strong.

Her father would not be with her anymore. Johnny was going this morning. Mitch, Ric, their wives, her sisters and their husbands…they were al flying out, as wel . She would be left to get on with the task of managing Gundamurra as best she could, with the financial backing Johnny had set up and put at her disposal. This was what al her life had been building towards…fol owing in her father’s footsteps. It was time to take it on now and make a success of it.

Everyone came to the dining room for breakfast, probably conscious of its being their last meal in each other’s company for a while. Possibly a long while. Megan wondered if Mitch and Ric would ever return to Gundamurra, now that her father was gone, though both of them were very solicitous towards her.

‘If any problem arises that I can deal with, cal me,’ Mitch urged earnestly. ‘No hesitation, Megan. Just cal me. Okay?

Any legal thing you want explained, or you’re worried about, or something you want cleared with Johnny…’

The message was loud and clear. He was there for her.

As her father had been for him.

It was the same with Ric, though his concern was more personal, taking the chair beside her at the table to speak privately. ‘Megan, if Johnny starts treading on your toes, taking over what he should leave to you, let me know and I’l talk to him. I have no doubt he’d mean wel , but Patrick made you the boss here and that’s how it should be. So any time you need a mediator, I know Johnny wil listen to me.

Just lay it out and I’l handle it. Okay?’

Al three of them, determined on giving support—her father’s
boys.
And although there was no blood relationship between them, they truly were a band of brothers, Megan thought, probably closer than real family in their knowledge and understanding of each other.

They were her father’s legacy, too, she realised, not just Gundamurra. Stepping in as brothers to her, as wel , except she’d never wanted Johnny as a brother. Had her father known that? Had he written his wil with the deliberate intent of forcing both of them to deal with each other, hoping for an outcome that would at least sort out her feelings, one way or another?