The Rancher's Adopted Family (7 page)

Good grief. She was going mad, wasn’t she? She had to be a little crazy to get into such a fever about one kiss.

From the start, she’d sensed she should be wary of Seth Reardon. He was incredibly sexy, despite or perhaps because of his remote, brooding air, but she’d picked up all kinds of signals that he was dangerous, too.

Rachel had been so cagey about him. Even the woman at the Tamundra pub had hinted that he was trouble. And on reflection Amy had to admit she’d had difficulty thinking straight from the moment she’d met him.

Thank heavens she hadn’t thrown herself at him tonight.

The man was a disturbing mystery.

He’d claimed that his heart had been broken, but it hadn’t happened over Rachel.

And yet…he’d made love to Rachel and she’d thought he was
The One
…and he’d fathered Bella, and now Rachel was dead…but Seth wasn’t particularly upset about it.

None of it made sense. Had the man no feelings?

Was there a cold unemotional side to him that Amy hadn’t seen yet? Had Rachel known that, and sensibly kept her distance?

With a groan Amy rolled over to face the wall and thumped at her pillow. The Seth she’d seen over the past two days had given her the impression that he was warm and vulnerable—and wounded—but that didn’t sit with the alternative image of him as cold and unfeeling.

Would the real Seth Reardon please stand up?

He was a jigsaw puzzle she couldn’t solve unless she found the vital missing pieces.

She’d wanted to ask him about the woman who’d broken his heart, but she didn’t know him well enough to ask such an intimate question. She’d known him for such a short time.

Heavens, had it really only been two days?

Sighing heavily, Amy rolled the other way again and pulled the sheet around her bare shoulders. She thought about Seth’s uncle’s sad story, and she wondered how the poor man had felt when Seth’s mother—the woman he’d loved and lost—had given his name to her son.

And how had he felt years later, when his young nephew had been abandoned by that woman? He’d probably taken care of the younger Seth out of love for his brother, and a sense of duty, but it must have hurt deeply, if he’d still loved the boy’s mother, in spite of her failings.

But fancy there being two Seth Reardons. That was a surprise. That was—

Oh, my God
.

Amy shot upright in the bed, her heart racing.

It was a crazy thought, but…

Was it possible…was it even remotely possible that Seth’s
uncle
had been Rachel’s lover?

When Seth told her that his uncle had died, she’d pictured him as an elderly man, but he needn’t have been
that
old.

At a guess, she would say that Seth was around thirty, and his uncle was younger than Seth’s father, so he might have been only fifty or so when Rachel met him.

She tried to imagine Rachel falling for a fifty-year-old man. He’d need to have been a well-preserved and decidedly good-looking fifty-year-old man—but he was sure to be handsome if he was related to Seth.

It was possible, wasn’t it?

Her friend had always been a little unconventional in her tastes, and the more Amy thought about it, the more it started to make sense.

Rachel was less likely to burden an older man with the news that he was about to become a father. She’d confided to Amy that her schooldays had been blighted by the fact that her parents were so much older than everyone else’s folks. Kids were cruel and their barbed comments had hurt.

And if Seth’s uncle had fathered Bella, the younger Seth’s apparent lack of grief for Rachel made more sense, too.

Slowly Amy sank back onto the pillow.

Wow!

Her head reeled with the thought that the Seth she knew, the Seth who’d kissed her and sent her to the moon, might not be Bella’s father after all. It was ridicu
lous, but she
loved
the possibility that he hadn’t been Rachel’s lover.

But hang on, girl. Don’t jump to too many conclusions
.

This could be wishful thinking. If Seth wasn’t Bella’s father, why hadn’t he just come out and said so? Was he trying to protect his uncle? His reputation? Was that why he’d been so negative about Rachel’s book?

Or was her new theory total rubbish?

Amy groaned. She wouldn’t be able to get any of these answers until morning, but the questions were going to keep her awake all night.

Seth woke, as he always did, at dawn and he lay very still, with his eyes closed, listening to the silence of the sleeping house and to the warbling songs of the honeyeaters in the rainforest, signalling the start of a new day.

Out of habit, he reached for the wristwatch on his bedside table and squinted at its dial. Yep. Five-twenty a.m. on the dot.

Normally he would leap out of bed. In summer, he liked to get any heavy work out of the way before the day got too hot. But in deference to his houseguests, he stayed put. They were just across the hall and the slightest sound might disturb them. No point in waking them too early.

It had made sense, he’d thought, to put Amy and Bella together in the room across the hall. If the little girl was scared during the night, Amy would be there for her.

But he couldn’t help fantasising about Amy sleeping in a room on her own…

OK, lamebrain, what could you have done? Snuck into her room? Continued on where the kiss left off? Oh, yeah. Brilliant. Then you’d really make a dog’s breakfast of this tricky situation
.

If only he could stop thinking about her. Memories of their brief kiss had haunted him all night, reappearing and expanding out of all proportion in a string of X-rated dreams.

He wasn’t sure that he could survive too many nights with Amy in his house, sleeping in her flimsy white nightdress just across the hallway. He’d be a pile of cinders before the time was up.

Problem was, the wanting wasn’t only about physical desire.

He’d found himself enjoying simply
being
with Amy…hanging out…talking with her and listening to the warmth in her voice…watching the changing moods in her lovely brown eyes…admiring the sweet and tender way she cared for Bella.

For years, Seth had avoided this level of interest in any one woman, but Amy Ross had slipped quietly under his radar. She was so easy to be with and there was something delightfully refreshing about her. He liked her
and
he desired her, and he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Damn it
…He had to stop.

He knew he and Amy had no future. Hadn’t he learned anything from Jennifer?

His gaze flickered again to the nightstand and he saw the fancy wristwatch that had been Jennifer’s last gift, the precious farewell gift she given him before she went back to New York.

She’d been so excited about finding the watch in a jewellery shop in Cairns.

‘It tells two different time zones simultaneously, so you’ll always know what time it is in New York. Isn’t that neat, Seth? You’ll know the right time to call, and you’ll be able to picture what I’m doing. I won’t be so far away.’

‘But it can’t change the facts, Jen,’ he’d warned her. ‘You’ll still be on the other side of the world.’

‘I’ll come back. Soon. I promise.’

With that promise calming his fears, they’d made love for the last time, and if Seth closed his eyes he could still see the morning sunlight rimming Jennifer’s auburn hair with fire…could still see the rainbow flashes from the diamond he’d put on her finger.

He’d let her go home.

To America.

She’d been so sure she would simply wind things up in New York and come hurrying back to marry him.

‘I love you, Seth. I promise, darling. I don’t need the city, when I’m with you.’

I promise
…

She’d been sincere at the time—he’d give her that. Jennifer had never dreamed she would find the pull of her hometown impossible to resist. In all innocence, he’d let her go back and, inevitably, she’d been seduced by the exciting bustle and buzz of the Big Apple. She’d found herself clinging once more to the security of familiar faces, to the reassurance of well-loved sights and sounds, to the comfort of crowds.

It had only taken six weeks before she’d come to her senses. She’d cried so hard when she’d telephoned Seth that he’d barely been able to make out a word she was saying, but eventually he’d understood that she wasn’t coming back, and, no, he shouldn’t fly over there to be with her.

It couldn’t work, she told him. Their worlds were too different.

For Seth, the lesson was clear.

Love, alone, was not enough.

The softest breath fanned Seth’s cheek. Startled, he turned to find Bella’s blue eyes half an inch from his.

‘What are you doing here, little one?’

‘Up!’ the little girl demanded, and before he realised quite what was happening she gripped his bed sheets, slung one leg high and hauled herself, like a tiny commando, up into the bed beside him.

‘Should you be here?’ he asked as he flung one hand out to prevent her from tumbling back to the floor. ‘Where’s Amy?’

Bella didn’t answer.

Somewhat alarmed, he scooted over to make room for her in his king-sized bed. She merely giggled and began to bounce on the mattress, sending her dark curls flying.

She was a cutie—no doubt about that—this tiny human being who was, amazingly, related to him.

Seth knelt on the bed, ready to catch her if she bounced too high, and he marvelled at her incredible energy and enthusiasm. She was such a happy little thing, so full of life, and, thanks to Amy, she had no sense of the tragedies that had robbed her of her parents.

The word orphan had always horrified Seth.

When his father died and his mother disappeared to the far side of the world, he’d been haunted by visions of storybook orphans, starving and freezing in the snow.

But he’d had his mother’s letters. Inadequate, but tangible, they’d arrived on his birthdays—and he’d had his uncle, whose kindness and love had saved him and kept him afloat.

Now, as he watched this giggling, bouncing little girl, he choked up, thinking about the man who’d fathered her.

I owe you one, mate. I owe you big time
.

Except that Amy had picked up the baton. She’d assumed responsibility for her friend’s daughter and, as far as Seth could tell, she loved the kid unreservedly, as if she were her own.

He supposed the security and stability of Amy’s happy family had given her the grounding she needed to reach out without fear. Seemed she was doing damn fine splendid and she didn’t need his help.

‘You’re a lucky kid,’ he told Bella. ‘You’re much better off with her.’

Within seconds of waking, Amy saw that Bella’s bed was empty.

She bounced out of bed in a panic. Bella usually climbed straight into Amy’s bed for a morning cuddle and she’d never wandered off before.

Amy darted into the hallway. ‘Bella!’

‘She’s in here.’

In mid-dash down the hallway, Amy skidded to a halt. Seth’s voice had come from his bedroom.

Zap
. Heart thumping, she turned in at his doorway.

Part of her brain must have registered that Bella was bouncing in the middle of Seth’s huge bed, but almost all of her attention was caught by his bare chest.

Oh, help
.

Amy had to stare; she simply
had
to. Seth’s chest was so fabulously toned, so amazingly muscly and masculine and
naked
.

The sight of him now in his bedroom was such a different matter from seeing him by the pool yesterday. It was totally unexpected, for one thing. But now, after he’d kissed her…After her night of restless tossing and turning…

‘Bella marched in here and took over my bed,’ Seth explained, with an apologetic grin that didn’t quite hide the fact that he was checking Amy out.

It was only when she saw the unmistakable spark of appreciation in his eyes that she remembered she was in her nightdress. Her thin white cotton nightdress. Again. Which meant she was even more scantily clad than he was.

This was becoming an embarrassing habit.

Surreptitiously, she attempted to cross her arms over her chest as she backed out of the room. ‘Bella has so much energy first thing in the morning. Thanks for taking care of her.’

Frantically, she tried to beckon to the little girl. ‘Come on, now, Bella. That’s enough bouncing. Time to get dressed.’

Bella continued to bounce.

‘Hey!’ Seth caught the little girl in mid bounce and swept her so high she squealed with delight.

Amy watched the rippling sheen of his muscles and felt the oxygen sucked from her lungs.

Grinning, Seth turned to her, holding the giggling, wriggling child. ‘Here you go. She’s all yours.’

Struggling to breathe, she prepared to take Bella from him. Their forearms bumped, of course, and for a heady moment she found her hands squashed between Bella’s squirming body and the solid wall of Seth’s bare chest.

He was warm and satiny and hard…and touchable…She could feel his heat, smell his skin…

Pulling away, she blushed hotly, and turned to dash for the safety of her room, but she was distracted by a silver-framed photograph on the dresser near the door.

Clutching Bella, Amy took a second look. It was a
close-up portrait of an incredibly handsome man approaching middle age.

His dark hair was feathered with silver and his face had the kind of tan that came from years of living in the outdoors. White creases showed at the corner of his eyes, but, despite the slightly weathered look, there was a breathtaking, film-star quality about him.

‘Is this your uncle?’ she asked.

Seth’s eyes followed the direction of her gaze and she saw a flash of pain in their blue depths. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘That’s Seth. Everyone around here called him Boss, so there was no confusion about our names.’

‘He looks younger than I expected. When was the photo taken?’

‘A few years ago. Not long before he died, actually.’

Cold shivers skittered down Amy’s spine. So…Uncle Seth had been a hunk. A mature hunk certainly, but indisputably attractive.