Ran From Him

Jenny Schwartz

Six years ago Cate Trapani fled emotional blackmail and a forced marriage with tycoon Daniel Garren. But now she’s back, determined to save her brother from a similar fate: his happiness sacrificed on the altar of their father’s business interests and her ex-fiancé Daniel Garren’s ambition. But Daniel isn’t the villain she remembers, and she's not the awkward, innocent girl she used to be. This time, she'll fight for what she wants. But so will Daniel—and what he wants is Cate.

A love story in the classic category romance style, set in Perth, Australia.

Heat rating: sensual.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Note from the Author

Chapter One

Norse gods, all golden vigour and ruthless assurance, are seldom seen in Australian airports.

When Cate Trapani saw this one, she tripped over her own feet.

No, no, no. She leaned against a wall and closed her eyes. She was too tired, too vulnerable to face Daniel Garren. Please, let him be a figment of my imagination. A product of worry and exhaustion.

A burst of masculine laughter sent a shiver down her spine. She recognised that lazy, confident sound. Once she had thought it held indulgence, even affection. Now she knew better.

She opened her eyes and studied Daniel. It was six years since she’d last seen him.

But six years make little difference between twenty six and thirty two. Then he’d been a man arrogant in his abilities, and that arrogance had proved entirely justified. Single-handed he had taken his family’s mining company from near-collapse to billion dollar status.

The bright lighting of Perth Airport turned his golden fairness to dazzling brilliance. His appearance proclaimed him a descendant of Viking marauders. He towered above the stewardess walking beside him.

Despite her evident sophistication, the elegant Thai woman looked dazzled.

“Oh, lord.” Cate wasn’t dazzled. She despaired.

Daniel strode along, vibrantly alive and enjoying life, while she felt like something the cat had dragged in. Dragged in and rejected.

Couldn’t fate have allowed her to reappear in his life as something more than a sleep-addled, disoriented traveller?

True, Daniel’s expensive suit was also rumpled from a long flight, but on him it looked sexy. He’d discarded his tie, and the open neck of his white shirt showed a strong, tanned throat.

Cate pulled at her striped shirt, worn loose over creased and crumpled tan trousers. Even her shoulder length black hair had slipped out of its usual tidy plait and fell about her face. She tried to tuck it behind her ears before giving up.

Why do I care?

Yes, he was going to see her. She could hardly abandon her luggage just to avoid him. But what was the worst that could happen? He’d simply congratulate himself on a lucky escape—if he recognised her at all!

She had changed a lot in six years. Maybe he wouldn’t recognise the woman she’d become.

If he did…she forced herself to think beyond a panicky emotional response born of old memories. She wasn’t powerless these days. If he did recognise her, maybe she could spin that to her advantage.

After all, even without her dad’s incredibly out-dated notions of a dowry, Daniel had rescued his family’s finances—and he’d done so without adding the burden of a wife barely out of the schoolroom.

So she’d done him a favour in running away from their wedding. Would it be stretching things to say he owed her?

Probably.

But looking as she did right now, if he recognised her, he’d have to admit his good luck in avoiding a forced marriage to a messy, limp noodle! Oh rats. She was so tired even her metaphors were muddled. She rubbed her eyes. Think, woman.

Daniel was logical. Confronted with her looking like a disaster, he’d be grateful she wasn’t part of his life, and then, he’d see why he had to stand with her against her dad’s latest meddling.

Not that she was in danger this time. No, she’d cut ties with her dad. Matt Trapani couldn’t shape her life any more—although sometimes she ached with the need to talk to him. Her mum had died when Cate was twelve, so Cate had been super-close to her dad. But he’d made his position clear. In defying his wishes, she’d ceased to be his daughter.

Only her brother Rob hadn’t cut Cate from his life, which was why she’d do anything to ensure his happiness.

And here was her chance!

Six years ago, Daniel had escaped being wedded to a Trapani. Surely he would help his sister to do the same now?

Unless—

Cate’s head bumped the wall as she jerked back, literally, physically jolted by a shocking thought. She hated being cynical, but life had taught her suspicion and distrust—and the man strolling through the airport, head inclined to listen to the beautiful woman beside him, had played his part in those painful lessons.

Daniel wouldn’t be above meddling in his sister’s life. He’d always had a big-brother-knows-best relationship with scatter-brained Amie. Had he and Matt cooked up this marriage of Amie and Rob, of Garren and Trapani business interests, to replace the familial merger that Cate had scuttled by running away six years ago? After all, some of the mining companies were struggling for finance in the current business climate. Maybe Daniel needed a connection to Matt’s broader corporate portfolio, and Rob and Amie were the sacrificial goats?

Just because you were paranoid, didn’t mean you were wrong! Cate ground her teeth. “Devious rat.” She glared at Daniel, suspicion hardening into certainty as tiredness set her slumping against the wall. Her Sicilian nonna would have known a suitable curse. “Conniving, devious rodent. Oh no!”

He’d seen her.

Blood rushed to her face, then receded, taking her strength with it. Her knees wobbled.

His blue eyes widened, and the good humour dropped from his face. This was the real man, hard and compelling. “Cate?”

She flattened her hands against the wall and pushed away from it, standing as tall as possible. Too late to think that instead of tired reflection and muddled plotting she should have made a run for it as soon as she spotted him. All she could do now was put her game face on and not reveal any weakness.

“You look tired.”

She deflated with a long sigh of frustration and resignation. “That’s because I am tired. You look well,” she added resentfully. She ignored the stewardess who had swivelled on one elegant foot when she noticed Daniel’s pause, and now stood beside him.

His blue eyes lit with laughter. “Should I thank you for the compliment, or apologise?”

Just go away. She bit back the juvenile response. For her own self-respect, she needed to show him that she’d changed; that the loving, eager-to-please girl whom no one had listened to, had matured into an independent woman, a woman capable of fighting for her brother’s happiness.

Concern for Rob’s happiness—for his future—was the only force powerful enough to make her return to Perth. As much as she loved the city on Australia’s west coast where she’d grown up, painful memories had kept her away ever since she fled. Those memories were why she was braced for a horrible few days.

Meantime, a key player in her memories of that bad time waited for a response. He didn’t even look impatient.

“It was a neutral observation.” She kept her voice even. “I don’t make personal comments to strangers.”

He didn’t like the “strangers” appellation. Dark blonde eyebrows twitched together.

She waited for him to attack, to point out that a formerly engaged couple were hardly strangers.

He surprised her. “Is Rob picking you up?”

Beside him, the forgotten stewardess scowled at Cate, then stalked away, her narrow hips swinging.

“No. Rob isn’t expecting me.”

“Oho.”

Cate shifted restlessly. “I—”

“We’d better collect your luggage.”

“I can manage.”

“I’m sure you can.” Again, that unnerving scrutiny. “But I have to collect my own luggage.”

She sighed and allowed herself to be pushed along the path of least resistance. After she had her backpack, she would shake him off. If they had to duel over their siblings’ futures, then she needed to be alert. Prepared. Not exhausted, and thrown by his sudden reappearance and how good he looked.

It felt weird to walk beside him to the luggage carousal. They didn’t speak, so he didn’t incline his head towards her as he had with the stewardess. But she was still aware of the connection—that they walked together. Perhaps it was her tiredness or perhaps the unlikeliness of them being together, but she had a surreal sense of existing in a bubble with him. Around them the world circled, buzzing with emotional conversations as families, friends and lovers reunited.

“Watch out!” He jerked her back against him as a bleary-eyed man swung a heavy, brass-edged case off the luggage carousal and missed her by millimetres.

“Sorry,” the man mumbled.

She barely noticed, absorbed instead by the sensations generated by contact with Daniel. She breathed in ocean-inspired cologne and a musky scent that was purely male. His body was as hard and strong as ever.

“Th-thank you.” She choked out the words.

“No problem.” He stepped away, his hands lingering a moment to steady her.

She didn’t look around, but concentrated on the carousal. No way would she reveal her body’s irrational responsiveness to him or that she had wanted to stay in his embrace. “That’s my bag, the blue canvas backpack.”

He brushed past her to collect it, and she shivered at the momentary contact. She watched the easy movement of his muscles as he swung first her backpack, and then his leather case, off the carousal.

Her heightened awareness of him confused and annoyed her—and made her desperate to put distance between them. She planned to thank him for her luggage, grab a taxi, and check into a hotel for much-needed sleep. She’d been tired even before she received the news that sent her flying back to Western Australia. Now the exhaustion was in her bones.

“The taxi drivers are on strike,” Daniel said when she embarked on her strategy of dis-engagement.

“Wha-at?” She stuttered to a halt.

“A stewardess was just telling me. Apparently, the strike was called suddenly. The drivers want a pay increase.”

“Don’t we all.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow.

“No, I guess you don’t.” And then, unforgivably. “How times change.”

For an instant, all expression vanished from his face.

Cate braced for an icy backlash. Although she refused to apologise. She hadn’t asked him to butt into her life. He could have walked past and left her in the terminal. Really, why hadn’t he? She’d have loved for him to ignore her. “Strangers” she’d called them, and strangers they were. Even during their engagement.

She’d known returning home would be hard. But this was too much. She wanted to lie down on the ground and tantrum for all that had gone wrong. The taxi drivers’ strike was the last straw. She didn’t want to call Rob for a lift. It was the middle of the night and although he was a night owl, she was in no state to tackle him about anything, let alone his future.

“Fortunately, I left my car in long-stay parking,” Daniel said. “I’ll drive you.”

Her mouth dropped open. After her insult, he should have walked away.

In fact, he was walking away, but with her backpack.

“Arrogant, manipulative male.” But what choice did she have? She ran a few steps to catch up.

His expression showed his sardonic appreciation of her situation and capitulation. He swung her bag from one hand. “You look different.”

“I should do. There’s a big difference between eighteen and twenty four.”

“Yes. You were barely out of the nest. A skinny little fledgling with big ideas.”

“Not little.” She’d been five foot ten since she was sixteen.

At well over six foot, he ignored her rebuttal. “You’ve grown some curves.”

She glared. “Well, you haven’t grown any manners.”

Her curves were a sore point with Cate. Less well-endowed friends couldn’t understand her attitude, but she hated the way men focused on her figure. She was a person—a bright, clever, compassionate person—not a doll.

“Not the smoothest compliment I’ve ever paid. But you know, Cate, even tired you are stunning.”

The casual, disinterested sincerity silenced her. Other men had said similar things, but they’d all wanted something. Her dark hair and eyes, and sun-kissed skin hadn’t been appreciated for themselves alone.

Daniel, though, clearly didn’t care if she believed him or not. He just kept on walking.

The automatic airport doors opened, and she folded her arms for extra warmth as they walked into the cool autumn night.

Outside the terminal, the airport remained brightly lit. The stark lighting suited his uncompromising features. He wasn’t handsome. His square jaw was too strong for beauty and his cheekbones too broad. It didn’t matter, though. Daniel’s emphatic masculinity challenged and lured women.

“Moths to a flame,” she murmured.

“Pardon?”

She unfolded an arm and pointed up at a floodlight being bombarded by suicidal moths. “They never learn.”

He glanced at the moths and away, shifting his grip on their luggage. “Here’s the car.” Its lights flashed a welcome.

It was a new four wheel drive, the red dust on its mudguards showing it had seen more than city streets.

Daniel put down their bags and opened the passenger door. “Get in. You’ll be warmer.”

She complied while he stowed their bags.

When he climbed into the driver’s seat, he reached into the backseat and handed her a jumper. “Here. There’s no point shivering.”

For six years Cate had guarded her independence. No one had shared with her the small moments of life, and her job as a journalist allowed scant time for courtesies. Daniel’s unfamiliar concern for her comfort startled her. It left her lost for a response.

“Thanks.” She pulled the cream wool jumper over her head and tugged its long length down. She flapped the sleeves in wry amusement at their size difference and spoke without thinking. “I forget how much bigger you are.”

Her breath hitched as she saw the sudden blaze in his eyes. “You look lost in my jumper.” He caught her hands and carefully rolled back the sleeves. The brush of his fingers against her wrists quickened her pulse, and she struggled to control her breathing. As he concentrated on his task, she could count every gold eyelash that brushed the soft skin beneath his eyes.

He looked up and a small smile curved his mouth. “Warmer?”

She was boiling.

“Good.” He withdrew slowly to face forward in the driver’s seat.

She clenched her hands. She wasn’t sure whether her wayward body might reach out to him. Moths to a flame, but she knew better than to follow an impulse. Heedless moths battered their wings to shreds, and died.

He started the car and smoothly navigated his way out of the car park.

Her heartbeat settled to a regular thud-thud-thud. She closed her eyes. With her eyes closed, she could ignore him. Maybe.

“Cate, we’re home.”

Home? The voice sounded familiar, but in the muzziness of sleep, Cate couldn’t place it. Where was home? Her tiny Sydney flat? But she never brought a man there.

Male fingers touched her face. “Caty?”

“Hmm?” She turned her head, and the fingers trailed against her lips. “Mmm.” Her lips parted naturally. A finger trailed back and ran gently along her lower lip. Back and forward, tantalisingly light. It was maddening.

She sent out an exploratory tongue tip, and the finger hesitated.

“Not a good idea.”

Suddenly, she was completely awake. Horrified, she stared into Daniel’s bright blue eyes.

They crinkled at the corners as he smiled. “Do you always wake so nicely?”

“No! No.”

“Pity. I was having Sleeping Beauty ideas and thought I might have to kiss you awake.”

The tremor that shook her was unmistakeable. Her body screamed, Yes!

“No. I wake by myself.”

“Do you, Cate? I would have thought some man would want the privilege. Early morning kisses, early morning sex.”

She blushed, and tugged at the door handle. It opened easily and she almost fell out onto the concrete. The cold air broke the sensuous spell and dispersed the muzziness of sleep. She looked around. They were in an underground car park.

“Where are we?” The sleeves of Daniel’s jumper had unrolled, and she pushed them angrily back to her elbows. “Which hotel is it? You could have dropped me at the front door. You don’t need to escort me inside.”

“Ah, but I do.” He walked around the back of the four wheel drive and unloaded their luggage.

“No.” Heavens knew what the gossips could do with a picture of Daniel Garren and Cate booking into a hotel together. “Don’t you have a home to go to?”

He laughed.

“So?” She pushed the sleeves of the jumper out of her way, and set her hands on her hips. “Go.”

“Cate, we’re at my apartment.”

Her eyes widened.

“I decided it’s too late to try a hotel, and definitely too late to drive from hotel to hotel if they’re full. I have a spare bedroom, two in fact, which you can use. In the morning, you can sort out something for yourself.”

“Rude, dictatorial—”

“If you wanted a say in the decision-making, you shouldn’t have fallen asleep.”

“You could have woken me.”

“I thought I did.”

The reminder, and his wicked glance at her mouth, silenced that protest.

Then she recalled the lack of taxis courtesy of their drivers’ strike. She had no idea where his apartment building was situated, and she shrank from the idea of literally walking the streets searching for a hotel at this late hour.

Fuming at him and her own impotence, she allowed herself to be herded towards a lift.

He used a security card, then punched the button for the penthouse.

The lift whooshed upwards. Cate stared stubbornly at the floor.

“After you.” He ushered her out of the lift and pushed open the penthouse door. Subdued lighting lit a wide open space.

Irresistibly, her attention was drawn to the floor length windows.

“One hundred and eighty degree views. City, river and hills. The view is why I bought this place. That, and it’s easier to lock and leave an apartment than it is a house.”

“No garden or pets.” She understood. She’d thought the same thing when she’d rented her small flat, the whole of which could have fitted in his lounge room.

Through the windows she saw the city lights reflecting dreamily in the wide, still Swan River. She yawned.

“You can have the full tour in the morning. For now, I’ll show you your room.”

“Sleep sounds wonderful.” She rubbed at her eyes, the wool of her borrowed jumper soft against her face, and made a mental note to skip the tour. She had no intentions of becoming matey with Daniel—and heaven forbid that Rob and Amie marry, and she and Daniel become family!

The guest room was elegantly decorated in cream and gold, with yet another stunning view from the window. Cate swayed just inside the doorway. All she needed was the bed. “I’m about to crash.”

“Go for it.” Daniel put her backpack down just inside the door, offered a casual good night, and departed.

Guiltily, she realised she was staring after him and snuggling into the jumper, enjoying the way it smelled of him. Hastily, she stripped it off, draping it over a chair. She contemplated a shower, then gave up the idea as too much effort. Stripping off the rest of her clothes, she crawled between crisp, lavender scented sheets and slept.

Ten o’clock found Cate drowsily awake and contemplating the muddle she’d gotten herself into. How on earth had she let herself be reasoned and charmed into staying in Daniel Garren’s penthouse? Could anything be worse? And what had gone wrong with her brain and instincts of self-preservation that for even one second she had felt his attraction?

“I must have been mad.”

Renewed by her sleep and determined to set the world to rights, she threw back the covers and swung her legs out of bed.

There was a brisk knock at the door before it opened.

Cate yelped and dived back under the covers.

Daniel watched. He wore jeans and a white T shirt which hugged his chest. His feet were bare. Yesterday, in his business suit, he’d been formidable. In casual dress, he was devastating. His appearance was a reminder that with this millionaire it was the man himself who was powerful, not his money.

“What do you want?” She tugged the covers up to her neck, uncaring that the action revealed her lack of sophistication. With Daniel, she felt the need for any protection she could claim.

“I phoned Rob and he wants a word with you.”

She glared.

Daniel waggled a phone at her.

She snatched it and put it to her ear. As he walked out, she poked out her tongue.

“Cate, you should have told me you were coming.” Rob’s loved voice was warm and musical in her ear. She relaxed into its familiar comfort. “I’d have collected you from the airport. At least running into Daniel meant you weren’t stranded by the taxi drivers’ strike.” Rob hesitated. “He’s not really a bad bloke.”

“You couldn’t prove it by me.” She seethed at how easily he’d circumvented her intention of speaking with Rob in her own time—which was definitely not naked in Daniel Garren’s penthouse. And by what right did he march uninvited into her room? “Daniel is a bossy, bullying rat.”

Rob laughed.

So did Daniel, entering with two mugs of coffee.

“I have to go, sis. I’m phoning from work. But Daniel will take care of you. We can catch up for dinner, tonight. Salsa’s Restaurant at seven. Daniel will know the address. It’s Amie’s favourite. And Cate, it’s good to have you home.” He hung up.

She threw the phone to the foot of the bed.

Daniel ignored her sulks and sat down, his hip nudging her knee. He handed her a mug of coffee. “We need to talk.”

“Not when I’m naked.”

A suspicion of a smile lightened his expression. “I expect it would be unsporting, not to mention ungentlemanly, to talk while you’re at such a disadvantage.” He stood, all smooth muscle and assurance. The smile vanished. “But Cate, I’m serious. I won’t let old hatreds and your pride destroy Amie’s happiness.”

She controlled her anger, but it was a near-run thing. The coffee sloshed alarmingly in her mug. “Get out and I’ll get dressed.”

After a long, measuring look, he did so.

She set the mug aside with a thump and hurried into the bathroom. Her image in the mirror frightened her. She prided herself on self-discipline, but just now passion burned furiously in her eyes and coloured her cheeks. She looked like a gypsy girl about to pull a knife on a cheating lover.

“Stab him to the heart,” Cate advised her reflection.

Daniel’s words had stabbed her. Always sister Amie, and his mum, came first. He would destroy anyone and everyone to protect them. Six years ago, he’d dismissed Cate’s frantic eighteen year old emotions. He hadn’t believed her when she said she didn’t want to marry. He’d believed her dad’s lies that Cate was happy but nervous, that she wanted him—because those lies had meant Daniel would get the money he needed to rescue the family firm and keep his mum and sister comfortable.

She studied her haunted eyes in the mirror. “That’s how little you meant to him. You were just a means to an end.” She’d known that forever: it shouldn’t hurt.

She set the shower to cold and stepped in. It cooled her tumultuous thoughts and feelings enough that she relented and added warm water, taking her time to wash her hair and then dry it to a smooth shoulder-length curtain of black silk.

Her coffee was cold by then—but a life in journalism had taught her to appreciate any and all coffee. She drank it as she dressed in black trousers and a white, uncreasable shirt. Unlike Daniel, she had no casual clothes to wear, and besides, the armour of her professional appearance might help her. She was under no illusions. She was going into battle, and if it was the last thing she did, she would save Rob from manipulative men like Daniel and her father. Her beloved brother deserved a happy life and a chance to follow his dreams.

Daniel waited in the kitchen. He’d put on shoes and a chambray shirt with the sleeves rolled to the elbows. It intensified the blue of his eyes. “The cupboards are bare, so I thought we’d go out for breakfast.”

“Fair enough.” She heard the note of belligerence in her voice and shrugged. So be it. If he thought a public setting would stop her having her say, he was in for a rude surprise.

It was a shame, though, to let animosity spoil the pleasant short walk down one of the city’s quiet side streets. Her skin prickled with charged emotions: anger, regret, confusion. In other circumstances, she’d have slowed her steps to enjoy the warmth of the sun and to peer in the windows of a jewellery store and bookshop. Somehow in the six years she’d been gone, they city had changed amazingly.

Or perhaps she was seeing it now through adult eyes?

Daniel lead the way to a corner cafe with a view of the river. He ordered bacon and eggs, and Cate chose French toast which arrived swimming in maple syrup.

“Cholesterol heaven,” he approved. “You look like you need feeding up.”

“Don’t worry about me.”

“Oh, but I do. I want to know what is going on in that scheming mind of yours. When Amie told me she was going to marry your brother, Rob, I knew you wouldn’t be happy to leave them alone.”

“Me leave them alone!” She spluttered. “Your sister needs your permission to breathe.”

His face flushed, lines deepening around his mouth. “I care about Amie.”

“And I care about Rob.”

“Rubbish. You just can’t bear the thought of my family and yours being united.”

“United? Businesses are united. People marry. But you wouldn’t know about love without strings. You’re just like Dad. Everything’s big business to you. Does Amie know she’s being sacrificed on the altar of money and ambition?”

“Now, listen.” He sucked in a harsh breath, shook his head. “I was wrong last night. You haven’t changed at all. I remember you when you were eighteen. A spoilt rich kid who decided she wanted to play house, and your daddy was prepared to buy you a husband. Why did you pick me? Because I’d been kind to my young sister’s friend? Or had I the glamour of an older man?” His smile was savage.

She opened her mouth to answer, but he talked over her.

“And I needed your father’s money to save the family company, to ensure my mum and Amie’s security, and so I prostituted myself by agreeing to your father’s proposal: the loan I desperately needed to keep the company afloat, if I married you. And then, you jeopardised everything by running away. Did you get cold feet? Did the fantasy become too real, a real man too much for you?”

“Stop it.” Her voice shook with passion and the pain of memory. “You don’t understand anything. You never did.”

They both ignored their breakfasts. She didn’t know about Daniel, but if she tried to eat now, she’d be sick. Her stomach was in knots.

“You’ve twisted it all. Maybe that’s how you justify your behaviour to yourself.”

“Cate.” Warning and threat, just by saying her name.

She drew a steadying breath, telling herself she wasn’t intimidated. She was a journalist. She knew how to tell a story, and unlike Daniel, she got her facts right. Well, let him hear the truth. She’d tell him she knew just what he was. He certainly wasn’t the injured innocent he claimed to be.

“When I was twelve, Mum died.” She saw Daniel’s jolt. Of course, he’d known the facts of her life, but knowing and facing them were very different things. Not that she would use her mum’s death to score points. No, but as a journalist she’d learned that strong stories didn’t shy away from emotion. Her story began with her mum’s death, and the fundamental changes it caused in Cate’s life.

“It’s hard to remember, but before then, Dad encouraged me to be a tomboy. He was proud of my daring. He kicked the football around with me as well as with Rob. He took us snorkelling and surfing. When Mum died in the car crash, Dad changed. He wanted to wrap me in cotton wool. He sold our home and bought an executive residence with a housekeeper’s flat. I tried to be what he wanted. I didn’t rebel. I worked hard at school, and I burned up my energy in sports. I played netball and volleyball, and most of all, I ran.”

Daniel had to understand how desperately she’d tried to meet her dad’s expectations. If he couldn’t understand that, then he’d never understand the emotional pressure she’d caved in to, and ultimately run from. She’d lost one parent she loved, and back then she’d been terrified of losing, or disappointing, another. Her dad had used her love for him against her.

“When I was eighteen, I thought I was free. Would you believe, I planned to study medicine? I had the grades for it, and Dad never complained about paying for Rob’s law degree.”

She could recall her excitement, the anticipation of adulthood. She stared at her plate of French toast before raising her eyes to Daniel’s.

He was sitting unnaturally still, almost frozen, only his blue eyes blazed with emotion.

Not that she could read his thoughts. She glanced away, looking at the city street busy with morning traffic. “But instead of university, Dad said I was to marry you. He knew I was getting too old for him to control, and he looked at you controlling your mum’s life and your sister’s, and he thought you could control me, too. I tried to argue. I tried to talk with you. No one listened. So I ran away.”

“Oh God,” Daniel said.

She avoided looking at him. Her emotions were too close to the surface. But she heard the shock in his voice. It was unmistakeable. As a journalist she’d heard that flat, blank tone at the site of the worst accidents. She kept going. “I knew Dad would honour his loan to you. After all, you were willing to keep your word. It was me who ran.”

“Caty.” Daniel reached across the table.

But she withdrew her hands, hiding their tremble in her lap.

He left his hand on the table, palm up. “Where did you go? You were eighteen.” He swore. “All I thought of was the business, what I would lose if Matt withdrew the loan offer. I blamed you.” That stunned note again, and then a deeper note, one resonant with anger and disgust. “I never even asked if you were safe.”

“I had my passport. Remember, you’d booked a honeymoon in Shanghai so you could continue your business talks with the Chinese steelmakers? I found an advertisement asking for volunteers to work in Africa. I had no ties. No reason to stay in Australia.”

“I can’t—” Daniel threw money onto the table and pulled her out of her chair and out of the cafe.

She breathed in the fresh air gratefully. It steadied her, and brought her back to the present in which he still held her hand and was walking them fast back to his apartment. She had thought he’d dispute her version of events, but he’d believed her. She didn’t know what to do with that response. She’d been angry at him for so long.

“Relax.” She pulled at his hold, but his grip only tightened. “It all turned out for the best. You got your money, saved the family company and your mum and sister. You’re a big success. And I found my purpose in life in Africa.”

He stabbed at the apartment’s lift button. His mouth was a grim line. The doors opened, and he hauled her inside forcefully enough that she bounced against his side.

“Hey!”

“Just be quiet.” He spaced out the words.

“I’m the one with the right to be angry here.”

“Are you?” He pulled her hard against him. “And how do you think I feel?” He forced up her chin so she stared into his glittering blue eyes. “I find I was party to forcing an innocent eighteen year old girl to run to Africa. Africa! You could have been killed.”

She shook her head, bemused at the force of his emotions, but unable to break the intensity of their locked gazes. “I was at an orphanage.”

His mouth twisted. “An orphanage. Hell, Cate, could you make me feel any worse?”

“I was happy there.”

He released her hand.

She put both palms flat against the warmth of his chest and pushed, giving herself distance. “The lift has stopped.”

The doors were open and the lift waited patiently at the penthouse. Cate escaped through the open doors, then waited for Daniel. It needed his security card for the door to open.

He swiped the card automatically, his attention on her. “You couldn’t have been happy.”

“I was. Eventually.”

He sighed and his shoulders shifted as if settling a weight. “Come and tell me about it.”

She hesitated. It would be easier to take her backpack and leave. She could book into a hotel. She’d seen two from the cafe. She looked at him.

He waited, leaving her free to decide.

“You could just read the book.” Her flippant comment lacked force. She crossed to a butter yellow leather lounge and sank into its cushiony embrace.

“What book? You wrote a book?”

She smiled at his disbelief. “Haven’t you heard of Lion Cub Courage?”

“You really wrote a book.” He sat down on the sofa beside her, close but not touching. “No one told me.”

Her smile went awry. “Who would?”

“Amie. You and her were friends for years. School friends.”

“We lost touch. No, I lost touch,” Cate corrected herself. “I left my whole life behind, just keeping contact with Rob. Besides, my book wasn’t a bestseller, although it paid for my journalism degree.”

“You’ve been busy.”

“Mmm.” She tipped her head back and stared at the sun-streaked ceiling. “I found that I liked writing. Years ago I wanted to be a doctor to heal people, but I’ve learned since then that different hurts need different healing. Sometimes people need a sense of kinship and a happy ending. Good writing cheers the heart, or at least, makes you realise you’re not alone.”

He moved, abruptly bringing her focus back to him.

“I’m sorry you were alone, and lonely.”

“It wasn’t for long.” She rejected his sympathy, and smiled at her memories. “The orphanage was for AIDS orphans, but it wasn’t a sad place. The kids responded to the nuns’ warmth with their own outpouring of love and laughter. I felt needed, and yet, free. I started recording the highs and lows, and the strangeness of Africa, in a blog. The blog became popular and an editor suggested I put it into book form.” She shrugged. “I did, and then I named it after the children. They have the courage of lions.”

“I’ll have to read it.”

“There’s no need.” The book wasn’t just about the kids. Re-reading it now, she knew how much it revealed of her own youthful search for a place to belong, and the courage to reach for her dreams.

“I think there is.”

She looked at him doubtfully. Had he ever known her uncertainty and search for identity? He always seemed so definite.

“The one thing I regret about the book was not being able to give the all the proceeds to the orphanage, but Sister Lucy urged me to invest in my future. She said she dreamed of education for all her children, including me.”

Daniel smiled. “She must be proud of you?”

Cate lifted her hands and let them fall. “She says she is, but she asks when will I write another book.”

“When will you?”

“I don’t know. I have a job with a Sydney paper and it takes all my energy.”

“Sometimes we have to re-prioritise.”

“Yeah.” She thought of how she’d dropped her job and everything when she heard Rob’s news of his engagement to Amie. A big enough shock could re-prioritise anything.

Daniel stretched out long legs. “So you live in Sydney, are gainfully employed and busy. Too busy for a relationship?”

“If you’re asking, am I involved with someone? the answer’s no.” Not that it was any of his business.

“I knew that.”

She ruffled up. Was he referring to her physical response to him last night? She’d been tired; not herself.

“No ring.”

“Oh.”

“Nor me. You were the closest I’ve ever come the altar.”

“And it scared you off for good?”

A slow grin lit his face, relaxing the tension that had gripped him since she told her story. “No. Like you, I’ve been too busy.” He sobered. “Have you seen your dad since you left home?”

“No.”

“He took your running away hard. You were his princess.”

“He never asked Rob how I was.”

“Ah.” Daniel slanted an assessing gaze her way. “And did you ask how he was?”

She kicked at the floor with the heel of her shoe. “Yes.”

He took her hand and smiled slightly, his thumb running over her knuckles. “A wedding is a good time to heal old wounds.”

She pulled her hand away and bounced up from the sofa. “There isn’t going to be a wedding.”

“Cate, I realise you’ve had a difficult time—and God knows I’m sorry for my part in it—but that’s no reason to ruin your brother’s happiness.”

“His happiness?” She glared her disbelief. “You don’t care about Rob’s happiness.”

Daniel’s mouth tightened. “I admit my primary concern is Amie, but she and Rob are happy together. This is what they both want.”

“Amie and Rob are nice people. They like to please the people they love. If you and Dad decided to unite your businesses, Amie and Rob wouldn’t argue about being the sacrificial goats.”

“That’s preposterous.”

“Is it?”

He stood and paced away from her, as if he couldn’t trust himself not to strangle her. For a few moments he stared out the window. “I’m not going to argue about this with you. Yes, your dad and I have a couple of business interests in common, but they’re not our main concern, and they’re definitely not the reason for Amie and Rob’s marriage.”

“Excuse me if I don’t take your word for it.”

“If you go charging to Rob with these suspicions, you’ll only hurt him.”

She hesitated. It was true that the subject needed tactful handling. “Rob has dreams. He’s a musician.”

He walked towards her. “Amie told me he plays the guitar.”

“And sings. Dad never cared about Rob’s dreams. He doesn’t listen to what Rob, or anyone, wants.”

“Rob is happy with Amie, and Amie is telling the whole world she’s in love. Hold off until tonight and you’ll see for yourself.” He clasped her shoulder lightly.

“The dinner tonight. Don’t tell me you’re invited to Salsa’s, too?”

He grinned crookedly. “One happy family.”

“No.” She twisted away from his gentle hold. “No one listened to me six years ago, but you’ll not do the same to Rob. I’ll go to dinner tonight, but if I find Rob’s not in love, I’ll blast the whole thing sky high. I’m sorry if Amie’s truly in love—if—but Rob’s my brother. You should understand. After all, you were willing to sacrifice my future for your sister’s.”

Chapter Two

Cate’s challenge hung on the air. Six years ago, her happiness hadn’t mattered compared to the comfort of Daniel’s mother and sister. To secure their future, he’d been willing to marry her.

“I won’t let Rob be sacrificed to your plans for Amie’s life.”

Daniel grimaced. “You’re being irrational. If you think I’m a ruthless protector of Amie’s happiness, why would I force her into marriage? Think about it. And think about this: if you choose to meddle in Rob and Amie’s life, tonight, you’ll regret it.”

He stalked off to the kitchen, the set of his shoulders radiating anger.

She frowned after him. Was his final promise a threat or warning? Did it matter? Regardless of Daniel Garren, she wasn’t leaving Perth until she saw Rob happy and living his own life—not a life dictated by her father or Daniel.

Rob wasn’t liked Daniel. He might be her older brother, but he’d taken after their mum. Rob hated conflict. He would quietly sink his dreams to keep those he loved happy.

No way would Cate allow her dad or Daniel to use that against Rob.

While she fumed, Daniel returned unexpectedly with a security card for accessing his apartment. The anger, though not his impatience, had disappeared from his face. “You’ll need this. I’m going out and mightn’t be here to let you back in. I doubt your backpack holds a dress suitable for Salsa’s, which is formal, so you’ll need to go out and buy something party-ish.”

Cate resented the way he’d closed their fight. How could he ignore the conflict between them while she still vibrated with tension. “If you’re ashamed to be seen with me, stay home. As for your security card, my bag’s packed. I’ll move to a hotel.”

“Why bother?” He dropped the security card onto the coffee table. His final shot came from the doorway. “After all, we’ll soon be family.” The door slammed.

She picked up the security card and threw it as hard as she could. It dropped unsatisfyingly short on the polished wood floor.

“I’m moving out,” she told the empty room.

Except, if she did, how would she know what Daniel was scheming?

Reluctantly, she retrieved the security card. Until she’d seen Rob and Amie for herself, she’d be wise not to cut off her nose to spite her face. At the moment, she had access to Daniel and a better chance of identifying and unravelling his plans. She’d have to watch him closely.

Unsettlingly, the idea appealed.

She rushed to deny it. “I won’t stay here a moment longer than I have to. I don’t even like him.”

The last words revealed too much, and their mental echo mocked her. She mightn’t like him, or trust him, but she couldn’t deny Daniel’s attraction.

So she ran.

She collected her purse from her room, tucked the security card into it and dashed out of the apartment.

Of one thing she was determined: not for all the pearls in Broome would she buy a new dress that afternoon.

No way, no way, no way. Never would she listen to Daniel. The brisk rhythm of her defiance carried her out onto the street.

She spent half an hour in the nearby book shop and her jangled nerves calmed. She peered covetously in at the jewellery store’s windows, admiring rings and earrings she couldn’t afford. A pretty bangle in white gold appealed, as did the rubies and yellow topaz necklace. A deep blue sapphire set in a gold ring reminded her of Daniel’s eyes.

The jewellery store window lost its appeal. She bought a chicken and salad sandwich, and sat in a park to eat it. She enjoyed people watching.

A little girl dressed all in pink chased pigeons, giggling at their cooing and bobbing and hurried flights from her pursuit. Her mum sat with her feet up on a bench to rest.

Cate smiled at the toddler’s innocent enjoyment and her own heart lifted. A world with happy children in, was a world worth fighting for, a world filled with the wonder of love and hope. She no longer believed in that happy ending for herself, but she’d fight like a tigress to defend Rob’s chance at it.

She dusted sandwich crumbs off her fingers, and as the pigeons swooped, continued on her walk around the city, re-learning her old hometown and encountering surprise after surprise. Her feet were tired when she spotted a familiar name, Salsa’s.

The restaurant looked both formal and elegant, and she studied it uneasily. She chewed her bottom lip as pride and common sense debated her next action.

Little though she relished taking Daniel’s advice, appearing at Salsa’s in her plain work clothes would only embarrass her.

She walked slowly on, considering the problem and paying new attention to the boutiques she passed. She stopped in front of a window displaying a silver floating gown. Its sweetheart neckline and princess cut wasn’t a style she would wear, but at least it wasn’t bizarre, and it made concessions to the fact that real women had real figures. Cate couldn’t fit in clothes designed for skeletons.

Lured inside the boutique, she fell into the clutches of an enthusiastic sales woman. In fact, the woman was also the small boutique’s designer, and she insisted that she had the perfect dress for Cate.

What’s more, she was right.

When Cate saw herself in the mirror, she smiled. The heavy cream silk gown with its pattern of scarlet roses was a dream to wear. It slid sensuously over her skin and its scooped neckline and full swirling skirt draped and clung to her figure. Her image reminded Cate of the gypsy girl she’d seen in the penthouse mirror that morning.

But this gypsy girl had married the king.

“Perfect. You wear it exactly as I imagined it.” The designer beamed. Then she held up her finger in an aha moment of memory, and plunged into the back of the shop. She re-emerged with a matching silk purse.

Cate couldn’t resist. She thought of the hotel bill she saved by staying with Daniel, and whipped out her credit card. Then she followed the designer’s advice and found matching high heels in a shoe shop four doors away.

The three inches of extra height would make her taller than Rob and distinctly taller than petite bubbly Amie, but Daniel wouldn’t be dwarfed. And it was Daniel she’d be partnered with. Following the formal announcement of their engagement, Rob and Amie would have to pair off.

It was strange to think of Daniel as her partner.

If her dad had had his way, she and Daniel would have been six years married. Maybe they’d have had kids. Probably, we’d be divorced, she decided cynically. Still, something in her stirred at the thought of tangle-haired blue-eyed imps giggling and trusting in her love, and in Daniel’s.

She shook her head to clear it of silly dreams and focussed on her surroundings. Since her feet were tired and she’d wandered further than she’d intended, she caught the free city bus. Its wide loop through Perth showed her both old favourite places and the changes of six years.

By the time she stepped off the bus near Daniel’s apartment building, she regretted the years away. For all of its changes, Perth was home as Sydney could never be, and part of her longed to come home.

She walked into the penthouse, and tensed.

From the kitchen came the sound of running water and the click of a lid. Daniel was home.

“Good timing.” He emerged from the kitchen. “I’ve just put the kettle on to boil. Would you like a cup of tea?” He noticed, but didn’t comment on the shopping bags she carried.

“Thanks, I’d love a cuppa. White with one sugar.” She could be casual, too. She wouldn’t explain her change of mind about staying in the penthouse. Probably he’d peeked into her room and knew by her backpack that she’d return; hence, his lack of surprise. Or did he just expect that people would naturally follow his orders? “I’ll put these away.” She swung her shopping bags and walked away with would-be jauntiness.

Afternoon tea with Daniel?

She took her time unfolding and hanging up her silk dress, trying to slow her quickened pulse. Her nerves tingled with anticipation and she resented every tingle. She didn’t want to be brought alive by the challenge he presented.

“You’re here for Rob’s sake. Nothing more.” Any entanglement with Daniel would be self-destructive. Never again would a man control her life. She had to remember that Daniel’s power was a threat.

She walked back to the living area feeling wary and tense.

He lounged on the yellow sofa with their tea in mugs on the coffee table in front of him. His eyes were hooded as he watched her skirt the coffee table and sofa, and sit opposite him in the single safety of a leather recliner.

“Four hours until dinner,” he said. “Three hours before you need to start getting ready.”

“I bought a book to read,” she said, forestalling any offer to entertain her or arrange her time. The book was a current affairs commentary and she placed it on the table so he could read the title.

“I also bought a book. Yours. But I wasn’t planning on reading it now.”

Her eyes widened. It was shivery to think of him reading the private glimpses of her soul which she’d given in her book. She’d been silly to mention it to him. She avoided discussing it further. “What were you planning?” She sipped her tea, glad for something to do with her hands. They curled protectively around the white and blue china mug.

“I think we could both do with working out some tension. There’s a swimming pool downstairs.”

Swimming. Exercise. The idea appealed. “I don’t have bathers with me.” But she’d seen a boutique around the corner that sold them, and with summer a fast-fading memory, swimwear was on half-price sale. “A swim does sound good.”

He waited as she argued it out with herself.

The thought of exercise proved too tempting to resist, especially when her tense neck muscles twinged. She set down her mug. “Give me twenty minutes and I’ll be with you.”

“Great.” He stretched, then slumped bonelessly. Apparently, he was prepared to wait all day for her company.

Why? A few hours ago they were bristling at each other.

Maybe by being nice to me, he thinks I’ll simmer down before dinner with Rob and Amie, Cate thought cynically. We don’t want Amie to be upset.

Or maybe, said a tiny voice of hopeful goodwill. He honestly regrets what happened six years ago now that he knows the truth of it. Maybe he’s trying to be friends.

Friends with Daniel? No. He didn’t need her—and she didn’t need him. There was nothing between them except bad history.

She tapped impatiently at the lift button, wanting to escape her thoughts. She’d buy the bathers and a session in a cold swimming pool would clear her head. She rushed to the boutique and chose a red one-piece, thinking of how good the water would feel as exercise burned away her confused emotions.

Only returning did she have second thoughts. Her steps slowed and the bag containing her new bathers bumped her knee. Idiot. She’d agreed, voluntarily, to spend time with Daniel. That’s not exactly avoiding him.

But swimming didn’t count. They’d share the pool, but nothing else. Moreover, with the bathers in hand, she’d look foolish if she changed her mind.

I’ll concentrate on swimming and ignore him.

He must have heard the lift because he opened the door to the penthouse.

All the air in her lungs vanished.

He had changed into swimming gear. Wearing black trunks and a towel over one shoulder, he was gorgeously male.

Her pulse thudded in shock and lust.

“I’ve put a towel and a robe in your room.” He stepped aside so she could enter.

“Ugh. Thanks.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say, and was despairingly aware of his recognition of her response to him. She clutched her shopping bag tighter, and hurried to her room.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid.” The lecture was uninspired but sincere as she changed from her work clothes to bathers. Her fingers were clumsy. “You’ve seen men before.” She’d interviewed whole football teams. But when she looked at her face in the mirror, it remained flushed with embarrassment and arousal.

She knotted the borrowed robe viciously tight at her waist, picked up the towel, and braced herself to face Daniel again.

He had shrugged on a robe himself, and his eyes gleamed as he saw her relax at the sight. He flicked her cheek gently. “Men like to be appreciated as much as women. When your eyes widened at the sight of me—” He broke off as she gurgled with embarrassment. He grinned. “I appreciate you, too. In fact, I think it’s a good thing the pool’s cool rather than heated.”

She couldn’t find an answer.

He laughed, locked the penthouse behind them and lead the way to the pool.

She dived in with relief, and set out on a fast lap. Daniel kept pace, then after a couple of laps, surged ahead. When they both swam to the side of the pool, she’d forgotten her embarrassment.

“You’re a fantastic swimmer.” It explained his well-developed chest and shoulder muscles. She watched as he lifted himself out of the pool.

He turned and caught her watching. “I swim a lot.” He extended a hand and helped her out of the water. “We’ve time for a soak in the hot spa. You look cold,” and just for a second his eyes flicked down.

She looked too, and saw her nipples had puckered at the double coolness of pool water and cool air. Her colour rose, but she smiled wryly. “As kids, we used to call it, ‘headlights on’.”

He laughed, and slung a companionable arm around her shoulders. “That’s nothing to the embarrassment a teenage boy can encounter at a swimming pool full of gorgeous girls.” He steered her to the spa, and she slid into the water, hiding her tell-tale body.

Daniel slid in opposite.

He was big and healthy and male, and just for the moment Cate decided she could acknowledge that he attracted her enormously.

His eyes closed as he surrendered himself to the luxury of the hot, pulsing water.

Cate felt her own muscles melt. She followed his example and shut her eyes. The water was warm and supportive, the spa pulse stimulating. She was aware of her body, and almost terrifyingly aware of its potential for pleasure. Her eyes snapped open, and she found Daniel watching her.

He said nothing, only his gaze lingered on her eyes, her wet lips, and lower to where the water blurred the contours of her body.

Her breath came shallow. She wanted him to touch where his eyes had travelled. Her breasts swelled and sensitised, aching against the wet constraint of the bathers. She shifted restlessly. The water bubbled against his chest, and she wanted a similar freedom to touch and caress. She wanted…

He stood, water surging and streaming off the hard lines of muscle and bone. “Time to shower and get ready for the evening.”

The evening—and real life. She sagged. She’d forgotten that this man was potentially her enemy, to be fought in defence of her brother. If only she could discover if he was sincere in wanting his sister’s happiness, or if, like her dad, business interests drove him.

“Everything will work out, Cate.”

She no longer believed such promises. Happy endings were achieved by hard work. She towelled off quickly, then wrapped the borrowed robe around her.

They rode up in the lift in silence. Inside the penthouse, he hesitated, then his mouth quirked and he stepped back. “Go and make yourself beautiful. I don’t think Salsa’s appreciate the drowned rat look.”

She was well aware that her black hair was plastered to her scalp and her eyelashes were wet and spiky. “Maybe an hour won’t be long enough.”

“If you’re fishing for compliments.” His voice deepened. “Don’t. I’d need very little encouragement to strip those bathers off you and prove how beautiful you are.”

Her brain ceased to operate. She froze.

“Cate.” He sounded exasperated. “Go.”

She fled.

Unthinkingly, she stripped off her bathers and stepped into a hot shower. If he were with her…the water became gently exploring, tantalising fingers. She moaned. Her body was enthusiastically ready to imagine Daniel sharing the shower.

Was he showering just a few metres away? She leaned her forehead against cool tiles and fought for control. If she were a different sort of woman, she wouldn’t be here alone.

“But I’m me.” The whisper echoed softly. She sighed and began shampooing the chlorine out of her hair.

Cate allowed her hair to dry into its natural curl, then pinned it up. The hair clasp had a red silk rose on it that matched the print on her dress. She wore no jewellery. Better not to compete than to be outclassed by Amie’s bling.

“Poor little working girl,” Cate mocked herself, but for all her attention on surface issues of appearance and presentation, she knew the deep internal quivers were from the thought of facing Daniel.

“It’s pheromones, irrational.” He might want her body, she might want his, but it was only lust. When she went back to Sydney, she’d forget him. “Count on it,” she told her reflection and swept out of the bedroom, high heels clicking defiance and determination, only to halt in the doorway to the living area.

Daniel stood looking out the windows, his hands thrust into his pockets. His very stillness made her hesitate to interrupt. Hadn’t he heard the staccato tap of her heels? “Daniel?”

He swung around and for a long moment said nothing. Then he took his hands out of his pockets and started towards her. “You are beautiful.”

Her smile went awry. “You look handsome yourself.”

The formality of dark suit and white shirt underlined his masculinity.

“This old thing?” He flicked the lapel of his expensive jacket.

Despite her fast pulse, Cate breathed a silent sigh of relief that he had followed her lead onto the safe ground of casual teasing. He wouldn’t add to her tension tonight by playing on their attraction. She wouldn’t be able to concentrate on Rob and his feelings (or lack of them) for Amie if she was vibrating with awareness of Daniel.

“Cate, I owe you an apology. I made you uncomfortable before, and I’m sorry. You’re a guest under my roof and you should feel safe here. I can’t deny you’re attractive, but I won’t seduce you.”

It was a sincere apology and promise, but he stood close and she could smell the clean scent of him and remember the body beneath the formal suit. Seduction didn’t have to be a conscious thing.

Nor was there any need to treat her as a naive girl.

“I know you won’t seduce me,” she lied through her set smile. “Seduction would require my cooperation.”

Devils danced in his blue eyes. “Brave words, Caty, but I meant what I said. Unfortunately.”

He held out his hand, and she placed hers in it. The gesture was a small act of trust, an acceptance of a truce. For a little while she would accept his flattery and attention. She’d drink champagne, but remember not to over-indulge.

His gaze ran down her body, lingered at her shoes, and came back to her eyes. “Nice shoes. Amie told me once that sexy shoes have to be impractical. A good thing I planned to drive.”

“I could walk in these,” she said even as her toes winced at the thought of the distance to Salsa’s.

“Those shoes are for dancing and seduction. Not walking.” He tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow. “Cinderella, your carriage awaits.”

In the underground car park, she looked for the four wheel drive, then smiled with genuine delight when Daniel opened the passenger door of a Ferrari parked beside it. “I like this modern day carriage.”

He grinned down at her as she slid into the seat. “What, no comment about boys and their toys?”

She returned his grin. “No. It’s a great car.”

“If you’re a good girl, I’ll even let you drive it.”

She relaxed into the seat as she listened to the throaty roar of the engine and watched his smooth handling of the powerful car. She dropped her voice to a husky murmur. “I can be good, very good.”

She actually saw Daniel’s knuckles whiten on the steering wheel. She dropped her false seductiveness and laughed. It was satisfying to see Daniel, and not her, discomposed for once.

He grinned good naturedly, but gave warning. “Throw out dares like that and I’m liable to take them up.”

“Promises, promises,” she teased, brave in her knowledge he wouldn’t break their dinner date with Amie and Rob.

They arrived at Salsa’s and he gave the car keys to the valet and opened her door himself. He helped her out of the low slung car, then bent and kissed the sensitive skin below her left ear. His tongue tip traced a quick delicate pattern.

“I always accept a dare,” he whispered before straightening and leading her into the restaurant.

She walked in a daze. Her skin tingled with the incitement of his kiss and burned where his hand touched her waist, lightly guiding her.

“There you are.” The happy shriek came from Amie, waiting with Rob in the foyer. She rushed forward, a vision in white skin-tight satin with silver sequins and feathers, and hugged Cate, babbling about how good she looked and how was she, and wasn’t this exciting?

Cate blinked and didn’t even try to answer. Over Amie’s shoulder, she saw Rob smiling, and smiled back. Suddenly her shifting, uncertain world felt stable again.

Daniel detached Amie with casual ease, leaving Cate free to hug her brother.

“Amie’s right,” Rob said. “You do look wonderful, and I’m glad you’re here.”

“Me too.” She regarded Rob with affection. His suit was as expensive as Daniel’s and, in deference to Salsa’s dress rules, he wore a tie, but somehow he still managed to look raffish. His brown hair was a fraction too long, his purple and blue tie reminiscent of a thunderstorm, and his watch, though expensive, had a worn leather strap. His nose was too large for him to lay claim to good looks, but his light brown eyes were warm with affection as they dwelt on his sister.

She hugged him again. “I’ve missed you.”

“We missed you so much.” It was Amie who answered. “There are so many things to plan for the wedding.”

“Plan them inside,” Daniel said.

Cate followed his gaze and saw the maître d' hovering with displeasure at their noisy usurpation of his kingdom. Daniel took her arm, and the maître d was quick to seize his chance and usher them all to a fine table in the dining room. Rob and Amie followed, with Amie still chattering.

Daniel seated Cate without fuss and for the first time she noticed her surroundings. Immediately she realised just how tensely emotional she’d been. In normal circumstances, Salsa’s made itself known.

Because Salsa’s was glorious. It occupied a renovated 1930s building and its Art Deco styling had been meticulously recreated throughout. Off-white walls, grey polished granite with black flecks and shining chromium predominated. Splashes of magenta added colour, presented in the form of orchids on the linen-draped tables, and on the walls in stylised magenta, black and silver prints.

“Do you like it?” Amie asked.

“It looks like a movie set.” Cate craned her neck to see more. “It’s fantastic. I’m waiting for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers to appear.”

“You were always a romantic,” Rob said.

“It’s my favourite place.” Amie looked around expectantly. “And the food is luscious.”

“Talking of food.” Daniel indicated the hovering waiter, but his attention was on Cate.

“I’m not really a romantic.” She felt she had to deny the charge. “Not anymore.”

Daniel’s eyes darkened. “Something will have to be done about that.”

“Cate, you have to try the French onion soup. It’s to die for.” Amie busily organised the table.

Cate watched Rob withstand the mini-cyclone he was engaged to, as he ordered his old favourite, tomato soup. Their mum had always made it with basil. Cate had never found a recipe that tasted as good.

“But Rob.” Amie was happily scolding. “You’re not to have whitebait. Imagine eating those itty-bitty fish whole.” She shuddered.

“Yes, Rob. Try to be civilised,” Cate teased. Their mum used to say something very similar to their dad, who had introduced Rob to the tiny whole fish and passed on his addiction.

“They serve their whitebait with paprika, here.” But Rob shrugged and accepted the women’s dictum. “I’ll have the fisherman’s pie.”

Cate followed Amie’s advice and ordered poached salmon.

“It comes with a gorgeous orangey sauce.”

Daniel joined Rob in ordering the fisherman’s pie.

When it came to the main course, there was no discussion. Apparently ham smoked over wine barrel shavings and glazed in a sweet spicy red sauce, was the house specialty. Amie ordered for them all.

“And we’ll sort out dessert when we come to it,” Rob said and dismissed the waiter with a request for champagne. “Champagne for celebrations.” He addressed Cate. “Remember your twenty first birthday?”

“And you bought the whole bar champagne?” Cate sparkled with the memory. Impulsively she turned to Daniel and Amie. “It was brilliant. Rob flew into Sydney especially for my birthday and we went to the Opera House for the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, The Pirates of Penzance. I love Gilbert and Sullivan. Afterwards, we bumped into people I knew from work and we ended up in a small bar. Rob shouted champagne for everyone to celebrate my birthday. We had so much fun.”

“So did I at my twenty first,” Amie said. “Daniel paid for the most lavish party. We had an Arabian Nights theme and it was huge. Fiona Ulton was green with envy—do you remember Fiona, Cate? Never mind. It was the hugest party. Everyone looked amazing.”

Cate smiled at her old friend’s enthusiasm. Actually, she could imagine Daniel as a golden sheik.

“I went as an eunuch, a harem guard,” he said.

Cate choked on her champagne.

Amie laughed. “Daniel said he was sick of women chasing him and maybe they’d take a hint. But of course, they didn’t listen.”

“I went as a court scribe,” Rob said. “No one chased me.”

Cate waited.

Now was the time for Amie—if she was in love—to reassure him. Instead, she beamed at Daniel. “It was the best party. Everyone was there.”

Everyone but Cate.

She saw Rob realise, and look anxiously at her. She smiled. “I think our soups are arriving.” The serving of their soup gave Cate a breathing space to assess the evening so far.

Amie was much as she remembered her: petite, blonde, bubbly and totally unlike Daniel. Rob, however, seemed different.

Was it only her worry influencing her perception? He looked healthy, and he smiled when he caught Cate’s eye, but where was his smile for Amie? Even with the return of the prodigal sister, shouldn’t a newly engaged man be absorbed in his fiancée?—if the engagement was a real love match.

“How’s the soup?” Amie asked.

Cate had been eating without noticing. She concentrated. “Sweet.”

It seemed unlikely, but Amie nodded. “They caramelise the onions here. And there’s a hint of thyme.”

“You’re really into cooking, Amie. Have you studied it?”

The animation fled Amie’s face and she shot Daniel an indecipherable glance. “Not really,” she said in answer to Cate’s question.

“Amie volunteers with an animal rescue service,” Rob said.

Amie regained her enthusiasm as she described the sweethearts of cats, dogs and pet birds rescued and re-housed. “I like happy endings.”

“And now you’re going to live your own happy ever after,” Cate said with intent. “When and where did Rob propose?”

“It wasn’t anything exciting.” Amie’s offhand manner didn’t quite hide her disappointment.

Cate looked at Rob, and couldn’t read his expression.

He watched Amie.

“We were having dinner in a small restaurant in the hills and Rob popped the question.”

“Did you make him wait or did you answer straight away?”

“You know me. Open mouth and out come the words. I accepted before Rob could change his mind.”

Rob smiled. “I wouldn’t do that.” But he didn’t reach for Amie’s hand. Perhaps it was only a question of timing. It wouldn’t be easy to romantically hold hands while a waiter served the fish course.

“Just wait till you taste the salmon.” Amie eagerly changed the subject. “You’ll be asking for a second helping.”

“Maybe Cate has some self-restraint,” Daniel said. It was an unexpectedly blighting comment.

Amie, though, shrugged it off. She laughed. “Daniel’s been rescuing me from my enthusiasm since I was a toddler. Big brothers are wonderful, but they’re bossy.” She grinned at Cate, sharing a joke.

“I can imagine it of Daniel.” Cate tasted the salmon and found Amie was right. The light citrus sauce was divine. “But Rob’s never thrown his weight around.”

“You make me sound like a wuss.” Rob stabbed at his fisherman’s pie.

Cate blinked. Rob was usually easy-going. “No, just a nice guy.”

He didn’t answer and Cate felt her appetite shrivel. What was the use of delicious food when your only brother was poking moodily and uncharacteristically at his food? She had been right to fly to Perth. Rob wasn’t happy about his forthcoming marriage.

She looked at Daniel and found him observing her.

“How’s your salmon, Cate? Or is it too early to judge?” The comment was pointed.

Her chin lifted. “The salmon is delicious. I am happy about the salmon.” But not happy about the state of affairs between Rob and Amie.

She saw Daniel got the message.

Amie’s forehead wrinkled. “What a strange thing to say. Happy about the salmon.”

Amie’s expression reminded Cate of how she’d looked through high school—continually bemused. Amie was enthusiastic and compassionate, but she wasn’t a brain.

Not that intelligence matters compared to a loving heart, Cate thought. If only she knew that Rob and Amie truly loved one another, she’d be happy for them. But she couldn’t see any signs of devotion.

“Don’t you think food should make you feel happy?” she said at random. “Certain foods match certain emotions. Like champagne is for celebrations and chicken noodle soup is for comfort.”

“So is chocolate.” Amie giggled, evidently intrigued by the notion of emotional dining. “Oysters for seduction and porridge for when you’re feeling stodgy.”

“What would you serve if you were feeling angry?” Daniel asked idly.

“Squid served in its own ink. The dish is all black. It’s disgusting.”

“Take note, Rob,” Cate teased gently. “Don’t make Amie angry.”

“I’ll remember.” He didn’t look up from his fisherman’s pie.

The joke fell flat and a small silence descended. Cate listened to the hum of conversation and chink of china from surrounding tables. Amie, despite her professed enjoyment of Salsa’s food, toyed with her salmon rather than ate it.

Daniel rescued the conversation by launching into a tale about airport delays and missed flights on his last trip to China. It was a topic all four could relate to and it drew Rob into the conversation.

“Heathrow is the worst,” he said. “Even after all the changes, I still dread it.”

“Yeah. People get cranky and cross and it becomes a nightmare.” Amie shuddered. “I prefer to fly to Charles de Gaulle Airport in France. Then if I want anything in London, I just take the train.”

Cate smiled ruefully. Her experience of international flights was limited to Africa and South America. In the glamour stakes, she wasn’t even a starter.

But Daniel had also travelled to some remote areas. Cate tended to forget he’d been a geologist before turning businessman.

“Small Third World airports are the worst.” He pushed away his plate. “Pickpockets and the need for bribery. And when there’s a delay with your flight—and there always is—you have to sleep wrapped around your belongings to prevent them being stolen.”

“But the people are friendly,” Cate argued. “They’re philosophers. Most of them accept the delays. I’ve had some great conversations in tin shed airports.”

“That’s because people like you,” Rob said.

She smiled. “What a lovely compliment. Thank you.”

Daniel chuckled. “And the inference is that I have a miserable time because people don’t like me.”

Rob flushed. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Cate allowed a naughty smile to dawn. “If the shoe fits…”

“Thank you, Caty.” Daniel toasted her. “Maybe we should stick to a safer topic, like politics?”

They did so through the main course, cheerfully arguing over the tax and welfare systems.

“And the government doesn’t invest enough in higher education.” Caty’s face was flushed. “It’s a crime. Education is an essential investment in the future.”

“Hey, pax.” Rob laughed and waved his white serviette in surrender.

Abruptly she recalled where she was. “Sorry.” She had been arguing with both Rob and Daniel, and only now realised Amie had fallen silent.

“I didn’t mind,” Daniel said. “I like to see you passionate.”

She was grateful her cheeks were already flushed. She shook her head and turned to Amie. “Sorry I got carried away. I never even asked what the seasoning was on the new potatoes.”

Amie threw her serviette onto the table. “You don’t have to talk down to me.”

“I wasn’t.” But she had chosen a topic she’d thought would interest Amie more than politics.

“You were. You’re like Rob. You think I’m stupid.” She stormed out of the restaurant, leaving Cate blinking.

“Rob?” She looked to her brother for an explanation.

“Sorry, sis. You copped the backlash meant for me. If you’ll excuse me, I drove Amie here. I’d better catch up with her.” He dropped a quick kiss on her cheek and hurried out.

He left Cate bewildered, but with her worst fears confirmed.

Chapter Three

“Amie’s unhappy.” Cate stared at the empty doorway through which first Amie, and then, Rob had vanished. From high school she remembered Amie as confident and outgoing, the last person to take offence at anything a friend said, or to imagine herself excluded.

Did the wild swing in her mood from initial exuberance to tears mean Amie regretted her engagement to Rob? A happily engaged girl didn’t accuse her fiancé of thinking her stupid. Nor did Rob’s exasperation suggest a devoted lover.

“Should we go after her?”

“Amie—despite her display of bad manners just now—is an adult. She has to sort out her own problems. So does Rob.” Daniel picked up a menu. “What would you like for dessert?”

“Dessert? Daniel, your sister’s just run out in tears. Doesn’t that bother you?”

It bothered Cate, and not because of the other diners’ humming curiosity.

“Rob went after her, and I’m not so insensitive as to intrude on their private quarrel or their reconciliation. Amie does tend to get wound up. Now, would you like dessert?” Very clearly, he didn’t want to discuss Amie or her behaviour.

“No.”

He closed the dessert menu. “Then I suspect you don’t want coffee either. Shall we leave?”

“Please.” She felt choked with shock at Amie’s unexpected accusation of condescension mingled with renewed worry that her dad had manoeuvred Rob’s engagement. If only Daniel would see the situation as she did. If he could be convinced of Amie’s unhappiness, surely he would help Cate to unravel this tangle and minimise the hurt for everyone involved.

She looked up at him as he held her chair. A trick of the restaurant’s subdued discreet lighting showed his eyes darkened with concern.

“I’m sorry Amie spoiled your evening.” His hand rested lightly at her elbow as they threaded their way through the tables.

“I wanted to know the truth.”

His hand tightened. “Amie’s temper tantrum wasn’t proof of anything except immaturity. Certainly not proof of a relationship breakdown.”

“Daniel, you must have felt the tension between Rob and Amie.” She appealed to him.

“Real life isn’t a fairy-tale with a guaranteed happy ever after. Amie and Rob have to work out their changing relationship.”

He stopped at the front desk.

She walked on a few steps, putting some space between them. She could agree with him to some extent. Most couples did benefit from premarital counselling, but the tension between Rob and Amie seemed more than commitment jitters. Were they both feeling trapped?

She studied Daniel as he spoke with the maître de.

Rob had already paid the restaurant bill. Daniel added a substantial tip to the jar, then took her arm again.

“Maybe Rob and Amie are still out front,” she said.

“I hope not.” Daniel met her reproachful look. “Joining in another couple’s squabbles helps no one.”

“Maybe not.” But she worried about Rob and about Amie.

They were gone when she and Daniel stepped outside.

Cate sighed, and he put an arm around her as they waited for the car to be brought around. The night was cool. She shivered and tucked herself closer to him. She might resent his attitude, but his strength was reassuring amid the evening’s battering emotions.

The valet drove up with the Ferrari.

“In you hop.” Daniel had to have felt her shiver. “We’ll be home in a minute, and then you can have a brandy to warm up.”

“I don’t like brandy.”

“You’ve had a shock. You think Amie’s behaviour proves all your suspicions about her and Rob’s engagement, and although you came racing to Perth determined to find Machiavellian manipulation by your dad and me, you didn’t really expect it.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” She straightened in her seat. “Why else would I drop everything to fly home?”

“I think you came home,” he stressed the word. “Hoping to patch up your relationship with your dad.”

She inhaled angrily. “I came home to protect Rob, and tonight, I saw I was right to do so.”

Daniel shook his head in silent disagreement.

Her hands fisted. “If I wanted to talk to Dad, I wouldn’t hide behind Rob.”

“Maybe not consciously, but subconsciously all our motives are tangled.”

“Spare me the psychobabble.”

“All right.” He swung into the penthouse car park and killed the engine. He turned to her. “If you want the unvarnished truth: stay out of Amie and Rob’s business, and deal with your own issues.”

She scrambled out of the car, slammed the door and stalked to the lift.

Silently, he followed and set the lift in motion.

She tapped her foot and stared at the control panel, defying herself to feel hurt at his harshness. The lift button pinged and the doors opened.

Daniel opened the penthouse door. “Now would you like a brandy?” His tone held humour and sympathy.

She hesitated just inside the door. She was hurt, angry and on her dignity. She’d been tempted to rely on his strength, and he’d pulled it away from her.

He dropped his keys on the hall table. “I know you’re angry with me and think I have no right to judge you or anyone. I’d be a worse friend if I let you endanger your relationship with your brother by interfering between him and Amie. And I want us to be friends.”

“Friends?” She considered the idea. She had friends, but none, other than Sister Lucy, would have challenged her so directly. “There’s no reason we should be friends.”

“No?” His smile twisted. “Think about it, Cate, while I pour the brandy.”

Did he mean he believed Amie and Rob would marry, and therefore, they’d be related? Or was it more personal?

He dropped his jacket over a chair in passing and loosened his tie on the way to the discreet built-in bar.

She observed the evidence of a man at home and comfortable in his own skin, comfortable with her presence in his life. And how did she feel? She registered a protest. “I don’t drink brandy.”

“Tonight, you will. Treat it as medicine. And don’t tell me about mixing drinks; you barely touched your champagne.”

They had all been abstemious at dinner, celebrating cautiously, or—as Cate thought with hindsight—not celebrating at all. Suddenly she was tired, with no energy left to fight.

“Okay.” She slipped off her shoes and curled up on the leather sofa.

He poured their brandies and sat beside her.

The balloon glass with its tiny puddle of brandy in the base felt surprisingly comfortable to hold. She cupped it with two hands, warming the liqueur in the approved fashion.

Daniel held his glass loosely in one hand, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. The posture drew his trousers tight across powerful thighs.

She took a cautious sip of brandy and looked away. The lights of the city were reflected in the river, and the scene looked charming and distant from the penthouse. She tasted the fire of brandy on her tongue, and let her thoughts slip away.

“When my dad died I was twenty five.”

She turned. She knew his family’s history from her friendship with Amie, but the note in his voice was unexpected and difficult to identify.

He shifted, hooking one knee up so his body angled towards her and he sat crossways on the sofa. “I never respected him. As a kid, I’d loved the sense of fun he brought with him. Amie inherited her enthusiasm from Dad. But as I grew older, I saw Mum couldn’t rely on him. No one could.” He swirled the brandy in his glass, then sipped it.

“Grandad, Dad’s dad, was the opposite. It was like he was carved out of granite, and everything he did turned out successfully. He was the one who started the mining company. He was rambling around north west Australia when the iron ore discoveries were made, and Grandad staked out mining leases and raised sufficient capital to get started. His was one of the astonishing success stories—from younger son with no place on the family cattle station, to mining mogul.”

Cate filled the small silence. “It would have been hard for your dad to measure up.”

“He tried.” Daniel stared into his brandy. “He ran the family company to the edge of bankruptcy, trying. We didn’t find out how close disaster was until Dad died. The stress and his failure undoubtedly killed him. He had a heart attack.” Daniel’s chest heaved in a huge sigh. “Mum was devastated. She never stopped loving him, no matter what foolish things he did.”

Cate put her empty glass down and wrapped her arms around her knees. “Love like that is a reason to get married.” A better reason than whatever caused the tension between Rob and Amie. A lifelong love should be treasured.

Daniel agreed in his own way. “Love is awfully hard to kill. I knew Dad’s weaknesses and I spent years cleaning up his disasters, making the future secure for Mum and Amie and everyone who depended on the company, but I still love the memory of him. He was fallible, but he was my dad.”

Carefully, he untucked Cate from her defensive tangle and pulled her into his arms.

She felt the warmth of his chest at her back, the strength of the arms holding her, and the gentle weight of his cheek against her hair.

“We have to love our families as they are, warts and all.”

“Even when they break our hearts?” she whispered.

His arms tightened around her. “Is that how you felt when your dad organised for you to marry me?”

“Angry, disbelieving, betrayed. I couldn’t believe Dad could change into such a stereotypical Sicilian patriarch and order me to marry you. He told me it was for my own good and that if I loved him I would do this.”

“Emotional blackmail.”

“Yeah.” Her sigh shifted her breasts against his arms. She noticed peripherally, but her attention was on old and still painful emotions. “I told Dad that if he loved me, he wouldn’t shuffle me off on a stranger. I asked him if I didn’t have a right to follow my own dreams, my own heart. I was as emotional as an eighteen year old can be.”

“What did he say?”

Her short laugh was sad. “He said I was too young to understand. When I couldn’t get through to him, I ran away.”

“That took courage.”

“More than I thought I had. It was only desperation that got me out of the house. Dad said if I left, I could never come back.”

Daniel swore in shock.

She wriggled around so she faced him. She tried to explain. “Dad’s a proud man, and he never thought I’d actually defy him.”

His hand ran restlessly along her back. “What did Rob do while this was going on?”

Her mouth tightened. “Rob’s easy-going. He did try to get Dad to see sense, but Dad wouldn’t listen.”

“Did Rob help you run away?”

“No. I didn’t want Dad blaming Rob. Besides, Rob tried to make me see that marrying you wouldn’t be so bad.”

“You’re kidding.”

She half-smiled. “Rob suggested you’d be so busy working, I’d be free to do what I wanted.” That was Rob, always looking to make the best of a bad situation, without rocking the boat.

“No way.”

Her smile became real. “I didn’t think so either. I knew you for a tyrant from the first time I saw you.”

“A tyrant? I thought I was a rat?”

She laughed that he’d heard her muttered insults at the airport, and smoothed his shirt with one hand, then unthinkingly, snuggled closer.

“Am I a tyrant?”

“You always seemed older brother bossy with Amie.” Then she sobered. “I was young, remember, Daniel. I didn’t understand how hard you were fighting to save your company or to protect your mum and Amie. I didn’t suspect your devastation with your dad’s death. At least when my mum died I could miss her whole-heartedly. There were no lurking resentments, only grief that she’d gone. You were so much older, and stressed. To me you were unapproachable.”

“And now?”

“Since I’m currently falling asleep in your arms, I doubt an argument of unapproachability would hold water.”

“Probably not.” He lifted her so she sat fully in his lap. “Are you falling asleep?”

“Mmmhmm.”

“Cate, do you understand what a temptation you are to me?”

But emotional exhaustion had crept up on her, and she was beyond understanding anything more. “No.”

He groaned and rested his forehead against hers. His breath was warm with brandy.

She tilted back her head, and her lips slid and found Daniel’s. Drowsily, she kissed him, enjoying the flavour and hard silkiness of his lips.

Three, four heartbeats passed, then he kissed her back. Hunger, passion and tenderness melded in a breath-taking manner.

Blissfully floating, she fell into the kiss.

Daniel edged her scoop-necked dress down her shoulder. “You’re not wearing a bra.”

“The strap would have shown. Doesn’t matter. No one noticed.”

But he was noticing now. A coral pink tip riveted his attention.

She followed his gaze. A small part of her brain was shocked at her brazenness, but mostly she felt a drifting satisfaction at his interest. She took his hand and placed it on her breast.

“Caty.” Colour burnt his cheekbones. “You’re half asleep.”

“Mmm. Dreaming lovely dreams.” She moved slightly, and his hand tightened on her breast. “Good.”

“I promised you’d be safe with me.”

“Aren’t I?”

“No.”

But she was, because at that moment, Cate fell asleep.

She woke in the morning to find herself in bed, but still wearing her dress. She didn’t have a hangover, but she was confused. Why had she worn her dress to bed?

Memory filtered back. First a lazy feeling of pleasure, and then, a shock of recollection.

Cate pulled the bed clothes over her head. Had she really encouraged Daniel to touch her, and then, fallen asleep? He, at least, had been a gentleman, both resisting her advances and putting her to bed fully clothed. But she—What does he think of me?

Would he be offended? No. Daniel’s sense of self was too secure to be insulted by a sleepy non-rejection. But would he expect her to carry on from where she’d dropped off?

No, again. He’d promised she would be safe with him. He wouldn’t seduce a guest in his apartment.

So, why did she feel disappointed?

Because Daniel had been kind, and in doing so, had opened a long-closed door to emotional closeness, which in turn had seduced her into wanting physical closeness, a natural continuation of intimacy.

He’d cared enough to challenge her on her reasons for returning to Perth. He was wrong. She hadn’t returned to the city hoping for a reconciliation with her dad, but she did miss him—even if her dad’s attempt to marry her off had felt like betrayal. Daniel had recognised how important a sense of family and belonging was to her. More than that, having challenged her, he’d trusted her with his own ambivalent feelings regarding his dad.

She remembered those old feelings vividly. At eighteen she’d been quietly confident and eager to embrace life. Her dad’s decision to marry her off had been a slap to that confidence. Her self-esteem had plummeted.

“Thank God for Sister Lucy.” The African nun had recognised Cate’s hurt and lovingly rebuilt her sense of self. She’d given Cate tasks and responsibilities that stretched and strengthened her, and the children’s love and confidence had renewed her. Instead of sinking into being less than her potential, she’d been challenged and encouraged to grow. When she’d returned to Australia, Rob had seen the difference. He’d said their mum would have been proud of her.

Rob! Cate sat up and threw back the bed clothes.

There was definitely something wrong between Rob and Amie. If they were as fundamentally different as they appeared, then there was no way they had freely chosen each other. Maybe Daniel hadn’t manipulated Amie into the marriage, but Cate’s dad had a history of it.

Something would have to be done, beginning with an honest discussion with Rob. Whatever he decided he wanted in life, she would help him one hundred percent to achieve it.

But first she had to face Daniel.

Embarrassment, eagerness and trepidation mixed wildly and sent a shiver down her spine. Cate took it as a warning. Being foolish last night could be forgiven. Opening herself to wanting Daniel would plant the seeds of her own devastation. His strength and competence threatened her independence, and she had to be strong and self-reliant. She would never again let herself be vulnerable, through love, to manipulation. She’d learnt that lesson at eighteen.

Having talked herself into a sane state of mind, she dressed in black trousers, fresh white shirt and pulled her hair back in a plain ponytail, trying to negate last night’s image of wantonness. She touched the soft fullness of her lips doubtfully, scrubbed off the lipstick and substituted a light lip balm.

Today, she would be a sensible person, a concerned sister, and not a woman with needs and dreams.

Nonetheless, her heart fell when she followed the aroma of fresh coffee to the kitchen and found the coffee machine perking, but no Daniel.

He’d left a scrawled note by the coffeemaker. “Sorry. Business called. Will never give you brandy again. Don’t do anything stupid. D.”

She crumpled the note. What did he mean by “stupid”?

Worrying about her brother and doing something about that worry, was not stupid, no matter what Daniel thought. Or by “stupid” did he mean something more personal, like packing her bag and leaving the penthouse? Only that would be sane, not stupid.

On the other hand, it was kind of him to attribute her late night behaviour to the brandy. She had a lurking suspicion that the brandy had only revealed her real desires—but she wasn’t willing to face that suspicion yet.

She poured herself a mug of coffee and wandered out of the kitchen.

What was Daniel really like? He was successful in business and protective of his family, but who was he as a person?

Last night, sharing confidences with him, she’d felt the attraction of companionship. The feeling undermined the pride in her independence which had carried her through difficult years. Sexual desire was frightening enough, but this desire to know Daniel as a whole person, terrified her.

But where was the danger in curiosity? As a journalist, wasn’t it her job to ask questions? And then, there was that famous advice: know your enemy.

Cate smiled as she leaned against the window and looked down at the city below.

Daniel wasn’t her enemy. She’d had suspicions of him interfering in Rob and Amie’s lives, but that was because of events six years ago, and she’d misjudged him. He’d been honestly appalled to learn of the consequences of the marriage he’d agreed to with her teenage self. She’d run, but she hadn’t needed to run from him.

Not then. And if she ran now, would it be from him or from her own emotions?

Daniel was an honourable man, kind in his own ruthless way. How did you unravel the complexities of such a man?

She turned her back on the stunning view and concentrated on what the apartment revealed of its owner.

Architecturally, the large space had a relaxed open feel and the furniture suited Daniel’s height and size. Wooden furniture predominated, mainly of local West Australian woods. The floorboards were a golden karri throughout, as were the desk and chairs of the study. In the dining room, the table had the deeper, darker red tinge of jarrah. The coffee table in the living room was a marri stump, cross cut and polished to a high gloss. Everything was solid, expensive and comfortable.

A waist-high statue of a lion guarded a corner of the living area where an elaborate sound system revealed one of his interests: music.

But the glory of the apartment was its display of Australian Aboriginal paintings. Huge canvases hung on the walls, telling stories of the artists’ landscapes and Dreamtime myths. Cate had written a series of articles on the booming Aboriginal art market internationally and she recognised the beauty and quality of his collection. It couldn’t have been amassed by accident. It seemed she’d identified one of his passions.

She stopped in front of a desert painting. She liked what it revealed about Daniel. Like her, he felt a kinship and connection to the land. He valued a sense of belonging, and respected ties of family and obligation.

The whole apartment proclaimed that Daniel knew who he was, what he wanted, and how to achieve his goals.

“I wish I did.” In Sydney she felt confident and in control of her life, but returning to Perth seemed to have rattled all her insecurities. Maybe it was this vulnerability of returning home that made her so aware of Daniel? He was the handsome prince who solved all Cinderella’s problems.

“This Cinderella solves her own problems.”

It would have sounded better if her voice hadn’t drifted thin and lonely in the empty apartment. She winced. Time to phone Rob and get things sorted so she could return to Sydney and a life too busy to acknowledge loneliness.

Cate battled through two secretaries and a five minute pause before her phone call reached Rob.

His voice warmed when he recognised her, but he sounded harassed. “No. I can’t do lunch, nor dinner, tonight. Sorry. I’m entertaining a Middle Eastern group. But they leave tomorrow afternoon. How about dinner tomorrow night?”

She looked around the penthouse. It meant staying another day and night. If she moved out now, Daniel would know her to be a coward.

She agreed to dinner the next night.

“Oh. Good.” Rob muttered something to someone in his office. “Look, Cate, we’ll talk tomorrow. Take care.” And he hung up.

“Now what?” she asked the buzzing phone. How would she fill in the day?

A quick check of the kitchen’s stainless steel fridge and expensive timber cupboards showed one possibility. The cupboards were bare.

“Haven’t you heard of a supermarket, Daniel?” Her tummy rumbled in protest. She slammed shut the cupboards, collected her purse, and headed out, glad of the excuse to escape. She would breakfast at the cafe on the corner, then go grocery shopping. Probably Daniel managed by always eating out, but her budget didn’t stretch to such extravagance.

Cate returned with three bags of shopping, heard the ringing phone, and dropped them to race for it. Her hand hovered over it a second, but the thought that it could be Daniel decided her to answer the phone in someone else’s home.

“Hello?” She flexed her fingers where the heavy grocery bags carried from the bus stop had threatened to cut off her circulation.

“Cate?”

“Amie?”

“Whew. I thought, maybe, you weren’t talking to me. I’m so sorry I was rude last night. Sorry, sorry. Daniel’s blistered me about it, but I was already sorry. I know you were being friendly. I’m not interested in politics, so it’s my own fault I wasn’t part of the conversation. I ruined your welcome home dinner. Will you forgive me?”

“It’s okay, Amie. I’m too old a friend to take offence, and we all have off days.”

“Thank you, Cate-sweetie.”

“However.” Cate gripped the phone and continued determinedly, taking the chance offered to her. “I’m concerned that you’re unhappy. Is everything okay with you and Rob?”

But for once Amie wasn’t going to babble, possibly because Cate was Rob’s sister. “We’re fine. And now you and I are fine. So everything’s blue skies and butterflies.”

The metaphor surprised Cate into laughter. “Blue skies and butterflies—that’s cute.”

“Use it in a book some time. I haven’t been a good friend. I never even told you how much I liked your book. I’ve read it.”

“Thanks, Amie.” Cate was touched.

“So.” Amie bounced back into an exuberant mood. “What are your plans for the rest of the day?”

Cate glanced at the grocery bags. “Actually, I planned to do some cooking. It helps me to think.”

“Ooh. Me, too.”

“Do you want to come over and concoct something?”

“I’d love to, but I’m on roster at the animal rescue shelter this afternoon. I know.” Amie’s voice brightened. “How about you and Daniel come to dinner at my flat, tomorrow? I’ll have time to cook something special.”

“Rob said something about dinner…” Cate began. She could hardly talk candidly with her brother about his romance in Amie’s presence. On the other hand, it could be enlightening to see how he and Amie interacted on her home territory.

“I’ll make lamb curry. Rob likes that. And I’ll tell Daniel. See you tomorrow, Cate.”

“Amie—” Too late.

Amie had blithely made her plans and hung up, convinced that the world would fall into line.

Cate shrugged. What couldn’t be changed—like Amie’s impulsive nature—would have to be endured.

She made a green salad and ate it while flicking through a magazine she’d bought. A strawberry yoghurt was dessert, and then, it was time for serious distraction. She found a radio, tuned it to a popular music station, turned it up loud and began cooking.

Three hours later she had a chocolate cake cooling on a wire rack (Daniel’s kitchen was incredibly well stocked with unused kitchenalia, probably courtesy of Amie), a chicken casserole in the oven, and a plan of action for tomorrow night. The tensions and ambiguities of Rob and Amie’s relationship had to be brought into the daylight. It would be heartbreaking if two such lovely people ruined their happiness by hitching themselves together if they didn’t belong as a couple.

Cate studied the control panel on the high-tech dishwasher and decided she’d rather wash the cake pan and other cooking detritus by hand. So she turned the radio up louder still and gyrated in time to the music while she washed the dishes.

She was singing along to an old favourite when warm hands encircled her waist and a smacking kiss was delivered on her cheek.

“Hi, honey. I’m home.” Daniel grinned at her.

She spun round, and he stepped back hastily from her sudsy hands.

He raised his own hands in a surrender gesture. “Sorry. I couldn’t resist. You looked so much ‘the little woman’.” He reached over and switched off the radio, and in the sudden silence, smiled winningly. “Something smells good.”

Her mouth twitched. “As it happens.” She tried to pretend to be firm and offended, but her pulse showed a disconcerting tendency to race. “I wasn’t cooking for you. I was cooking because it helps me think.”

“Uh huh.” He continued staring at the chocolate cake. “And did you?”

“Yes.”

“Ah.” He looked at her. “You sound very definite.”

“I hope so.” She finished rinsing the dishes and left them to drain. A tea towel was the one thing the kitchen lacked. She tore off a paper towel to dry her hands.

“I go for a drive when I need to think. But your strategy seems much more rewarding.” Again, he looked at the cake.

A smile escaped her. “Would you like a cup of tea and slice of cake? Dinner will be in a couple of hours—if you’ll be home for it?”

“Wild horses couldn’t drag me out of here.”

She grinned and filled the kettle.

He got out mugs and a knife to cut the cake; a man who never lost sight of priorities.

“Cake plates, too.” She bit the inside of her mouth when he looked blank. “You’re not Hansel to leave a trail of crumbs to mark your path.”

He laughed. “You’ll be a great mum, Cate. But frankly, I don’t know if I have cake plates.”

He did. She’d already found them, and now she bent and took two from a low cupboard. When she turned to present them to Daniel, his boyish expression had changed into something older and more challenging. He’d been enjoying the sight of her derriere.

His look flustered her, reminding her of last night. She didn’t know whether to apologise, explain or feign amnesia.

He took the cake plates out of her hands, and the decision. “You’re an attractive woman, but just now I want cake more.”

She laughed, not minding this once that he’d read her mind. “Have at it then.” And she poured the hot water into their mugs, dangling tea bags, while he cut the cake.

He had generous ideas about the size of servings, but she didn’t argue. It was her belief that cooking burned enough calories for the end result to be indulged in.

They carried their afternoon tea to the living area and sat down.

“Wonderful cake,” he said after the first mouthful.

It was an old reliable recipe for a rich chocolate cake, and just now, warm from the oven, it tasted like pudding.

“It’s my favourite.”

There was a friendly silence while they finished their cake, then she studied him over the rim of her mug.

Even allowing for the smidgin of truth in the old saying, “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”, he was looking pleased with himself. Happier even than the best chocolate cake warranted.

“Have you pulled a brilliant business move or something?”

“A bit of both.” He stretched widely and grinned a Cheshire Cat grin. “You are looking at a free man.”

“Explain.”

“I’m handing over the day-to-day responsibility for the company to Tim Radjik. It took a while to find the right person and then to negotiate their package, but as of next month, Tim will be CEO and I’ll be free.” Daniel was too honest not to modify his statement somewhat. “Well, I’ll be Chairman, but that’s not as heavy a commitment in terms of time and physical presence.”

She stared at him. “I thought the company was your baby. You built it into a success. You gave everything to it.”

“Because I had to. I never dreamed of being a businessman. All I ever wanted was to dig up rocks. Mum says I never dug in the sandpit like a normal child, I excavated.”

She smiled, imagining him as a serious blonde-haired toddler. But she shook her head, not understanding how he could give up the success he’d earned. “You’re good at business.”

“I can be ruthless when I have to be, and I was lucky that my take-over of the company coincided with the mining boom, but I don’t get the same satisfaction from business that your dad and Rob do. They enjoy the competition and the details of a balance sheet.”

“Rob doesn’t.”

Daniel raised a dissenting eyebrow. “He does, you know. Maybe he didn’t in the past, but he’s grown into it.”

Cate disagreed. Kind Rob couldn’t be like their dad.

“Forget Rob.” Daniel set his mug on the coffee table. “We should be celebrating with champagne.” He grinned at her shudder. “Or brandy?”

“Beast,” she responded to his teasing. Then, less certainly. “If you want to celebrate, don’t feel you have to stay in and have dinner with me.”

“Oh no, Cinderella. You don’t get rid of me so easily.” He caught a curl that had escaped her tidy ponytail and tugged it, winding it round his finger so her face came closer and closer. “I intend to enjoy exactly what I want.” His tongue darted out and captured a cake crumb at the corner of her mouth. “Which is more chocolate cake.”

Cate found herself released and breathless.

He stood. “But first I need a shower.” He strode off, whistling.

She collapsed back against the sofa. In his present exhilarated mood, Daniel was irresistible. If she were smart, she’d hightail it to a hotel. But she wouldn’t. She would just remember that despite his interest in her, he wasn’t about to start an affair with a woman he saw as his future brother-in-law’s sister. He might enjoy teasing her, but he’d drawn a line in the sand.

“And I won’t cross it,” she promised herself. The closest relationship they could have was friendship. “Which suits me fine,” she lied. Maybe in a hundred years, her body could learn not to respond to him.

Cate took a quick shower to remove the smell of cooking, and dressed in the stretch pants and soft angora top she’d bought that afternoon. She hesitated over shoes, and with a feeling of freedom, decided to go barefoot.

“Pretty in pink.” Daniel was appreciative of the picture she made. He was barefoot, too, in old jeans and a casual shirt, standing at the bar. “What would you like to drink?”

“Mineral water.”

He grinned at her fervour, but refrained from further comment. He handed her a glass and raised his own beer in a toast. “To the future.”

“To the future,” she echoed, bewildered by his meaning, but willing to go along.

“And may all our dreams come true.”

She drank before asking curiously. “Do you dream?”

His mouth quirked. “You mean, I look too tough to indulge in wishful thinking?”

“Well, yes.”

“You’re right. But I do dream. I just call them plans. I don’t think any well-balanced person can live without dreams, even if it’s simply a wish for current happiness to continue. Dreams are an expression of hope, and they challenge us to be true to ourselves, and to grow.”

Cate forgot to drink. She stared at him. “You’re a philosopher.”

“No.” He shrugged away the label. “But I’m old enough to have thought about life and what I want from it.”

“What do you want? What will you do with your freedom from the company?”

“Go bush,” he said promptly. “Western Australia is huge and we’ve barely scraped the surface of its mineral wealth. It’s not just metals like gold and iron ore, there are nickel and lead, diamonds and beryllium. We mightn’t have expensive deposits of ruby and emeralds, but lower grade beryllium is used in the manufacture of space materials, and there’ll be a growing need for it. I want to be one of the people who further opens up our State’s potential.

“Besides, I like the outback. The peace, the space, the feeling that you can touch the stars and sink your feet into the red dirt.”

She nodded. “Africa has the same sense of space. You can feel that it’s an ancient continent, but at the same time the future is waiting. We just have to find the key to open the door.”

“Exactly.”

They looked at each other in mutual approval and understanding.

She glanced at the clock. “Time to stir the casserole and add the rice.”

“Need a hand?”

“No, thanks.”

But he followed her into the kitchen and leaned against a bench, watching. “I have other plans, too.”

“Oh?” She looked up from stirring the casserole.

“Amie is about to become Rob’s problem.”

“That’s not a nice thing to say about your sister.”

“You’ve forgotten what she’s like. Didn’t last night remind you? Fortunately, Rob seems willing to cope with her enthusiasms.”

Darkly, Cate wondered just how willing Rob really was. Had their dad pushed him into it, sensing Daniel’s eagerness to have Amie settled into a happy-ever-after scenario?

“And I think Mum’s about to accept her long term suitor.”

“Your mum has a boyfriend?”

“Eric Charlesworth. He’s a retired botany professor and Mum’s mad on roses. They’re currently on a garden tour through Europe. Eric intends to propose to Mum in Monet’s garden in France.”

“That’s so romantic, but don’t tell me he asked your permission?”

“No.” Daniel grinned. “He’s so excited he had to show me the engagement ring he’d bought Mum. I think she’s guessed what he’s planning, but she’s not letting on. They’ll be happy together.”

“Which leaves you free to concentrate on yourself.” Cate added the rice, gave the casserole a final stir, then placed it back in the oven. When he didn’t answer, she looked at him. “Isn’t that what going bush is about, having time for yourself?”

He straightened away from the bench. “I’m beginning to think that time to myself would be awfully lonely.”

Chapter Four

“I’m beginning to think that time to myself would be awfully lonely.”

Cate stared at Daniel while his words echoed between them.

Lonely?

Standing four square in the kitchen, he looked entirely self-sufficient. He was young, healthy, rich, gorgeous—and lonely?

For her, recognition of loneliness had come from appreciation of his nearness. After this time together, she wondered if without him, she’d feel quite so confident of her self-sufficiency. With him, she felt comforted, excited, glad, in a way she couldn’t remember feeling before.

Was it possible he felt the same?

“Would you like a refill? Mineral water or juice?” He indicated her empty glass, and her foolish, unsettling dreams burst. She was a passing stranger in his life. Freed from old commitments, he didn’t need or want new ones.

And nor did she. She was independent. She didn’t need anyone. “No, thanks.”

He walked out of the kitchen into the living room and sank down into a leather recliner.

Uncertain and curious, she followed, and sat on the sofa opposite.

“Tell me about your work in Sydney.”

“We-ell.” In her experience, people were disappointed to hear that journalism was as much routine grind as any other job. “It’s not glamorous.”

“Nor is big business. People think it sounds wonderful—flying around the world, negotiating million dollar contracts, wining and dining wealthy and influential people—but it’s simply sustained stress and, sometimes, mixing with people you despise.”

“You handle the responsibility well.” She thought of the hundreds of people his company employed either directly or indirectly. He’d feel responsible for them. More ties. With freedom in sight, he wouldn’t commit himself to a new relationship.

“No grey hairs yet,” he said dismissively.

“How do you know?” She shook off her unreasonable disappointment and teased. “You blondies can hide the silver in the gold. It’s us brunettes who have to use hair dye.”

He grinned, his gaze dwelling appreciatively on her. “You can’t convince me you’ve ever dyed your hair. I’ve seen it in the sun. It has too many shades of bronze and wine in its darkness to be dyed.”

“You’d be surprised what hairdressers can do now. But you’re right. I’m too lazy to dye my hair.”

“Lazy?”

“And busy. I don’t seem to have factored indulgence time into my schedule.”

“Which brings us back to my question: tell me about your work.”

Cate tucked her feet under her on the sofa as she considered the request. She felt a need to convince him that she valued her independence as much as he desired his freedom. She didn’t want him thinking of her with even a shadow of the dependent daughter he’d viewed her as six years before. She was her own woman now, and proud of her achievements. She’d built a life clear of the sort of emotional entanglements that brought the risk of heartbreak.

“I began working for the paper two years ago, after I finished my degree. My blog, and the book, gave me something to put in my CV. I cover general interest stories and sometimes a feature article or series. I work long hours, but maybe more from choice than necessity.” When the silence and solitude ceased to be a refuge and became a threat of loneliness, she went into the busy newspaper office.

“And where is home?”

“Banksia, just south of Sydney. I rent a one bedroom flat. It’s convenient, and close to a train station, not that the trains run on time.”

He nodded, as if he’d ever been dependent on public transport. “And social life?”

“I made some good friends at university, and we keep in touch—coffee, drinks, baby showers. At the office, journalists are gregarious, so there’s always someone willing to try anything, especially when promoters send in free concert and theatre tickets.” She smiled at the thought of her colleagues’ parsimony. They could be incredibly generous, but like everyone trying to live in Sydney, budgets got stretched. “I’ve been bungie jumping and kayaking. A bunch of us play volleyball, but not seriously.”

She looked out the window. It was pleasant to sit above the world with Daniel and watch the evening darken, the shine of the city lights and the streaming exodus of cars taking busy people home to Perth’s comfortable suburbs.

“Sometimes I think the most important part of being a journalist, and being happy in the job, is an interest in people. One of the great things about working on the paper is the people I meet.” She smiled. “A couple of weeks ago I interviewed a self-proclaimed psychic about a New Age festival. She was the nicest old lady. She made me a cup of tea, then insisted on reading the tea leaves.”

“What did she see?”

“A wedding ring and a warning.”

Daniel sighed, loudly. “So when you heard Rob and Amie’s news, you immediately put two and two together and made seven.”

“A tea leaf reading was not the reason I worried,” Cate said with dignity.

“Didn’t you think the wedding ring could be for you?”

“Me? But I’m not involved with anyone.”

He slumped back in the recliner, his irritation past. “Is your work so all-important to you?”

“I’ve been establishing my career, I like meeting people, and I like my independence.” She drove the point home. “Six years ago I learned how important independence is. I wouldn’t give mine up for anything, for anyone.”

Instead of agreeing, he looked regretful. “Cate, the damage your dad and I—”

“Forget it.” Talking about the trusting girl she’d been, hurt. Nor did she want him regretting the past and seeing her as his responsibility, a debt owed. She retreated to the safety of her work. “The only problem I have with my job, is sometimes the superficial nature of the stories gets to me.”

“Superficial?” He let her retreat, but his searching look showed he recognised her evasion.

“We’re told to give the facts, but there’s almost no room for discussing motives, and there’s no space at all for discussing grey areas. The reporting is all black and white, no shades of grey. The editor says the starkness encourages readers’ response, and hence, loyalty. Apparently there’s nothing like a colourful exchange of letters to the editor to sell papers.”

“You don’t agree?”

“He’s probably right.” She corrected herself, her fundamental honesty surfacing. “No, the editor is right. People don’t want a newspaper to debate everything. They just want the story, and an occasional feeling of outrage or sentiment.”

“And what do you want, Cate?” He leaned forward. “I’ve started reading your book. I can’t imagine its impassioned author being satisfied with routine journalism.”

“I was younger then.”

But he showed a disconcerting ability to remember her confidences. “You said Sister Lucy wanted you to write another book. I agree.”

“There are enough books in the world.”

“There is never too much hope. Your book is very appealing. It reaches out to the dreams and daily fears of the reader. I’d hate to think of your empathy being ground away at a newspaper.”

The sincere insight, praise and encouragement seduced her into sharing a secret ambition. “I’ve thought of collecting people’s stories around Australia about what makes a home.” Shyness gripped her. Trusting someone with your dreams was a huge risk. She glanced at Daniel’s absorbed, interested face and continued. “Home defines who we are and what we dream. It’s where we belong.”

“Home,” he drawled the world.

She wondered if, like her, he thought of all the connotations, happy and sad, that went with the notion of home. It was a place of refuge, and also of challenge. Family and close friends were more likely to challenge you than strangers. They were the ones to speak up when you were going astray.

“I like the idea. People should consider what makes a home.”

“Exactly,” she said eagerly. “Is it a place, a collection of people, memories? Can we have more than one home, and how do our homes shape who we are?”

He smiled at her enthusiasm, but his eyes were serious. “What does home mean for you?”

“Me?”

The question threw her off stride. Where was home? Not her flat. Maybe her job? Or maybe the idea lurking in her since this morning, and even earlier, needed to be acknowledged. Home was Perth—if she had the courage to reclaim it.

“Is it people, or a place?” he prompted.

The strident buzz of the entrance intercom broke their conversation. It crackled into speech. “Daniel? Are you there? Daniel, please be there.”

“Damn.” He moved quickly to the intercom and punched the open button. “Come on up, Amie.”

Cate uncurled herself from the sofa and headed for the kitchen. It sounded as if Amie needed to speak privately with her brother—and Amie had first claim on him.

He caught her arm. “I want to continue this discussion when Amie’s gone.”

“What discussion?”

“About dreams, about the future. Yours, mine,—”

The penthouse door opened.

“Oh, Daniel, it’s awful.” Amie raced straight to him and began sobbing.

He looked ruefully at Cate and patted his sister’s back. “What’s so awful?” He guided Amie to a chair.

“Rob,” she wailed.

Cate halted her discreet vanishing act and turned back from the kitchen. “What’s happened to Rob?”

“Nothing. Nothing ever happens to Rob. That’s what’s so awful. He won’t do anything exciting. All he can think about is business.”

Daniel stopped patting Amie’s shoulder and pushed her into a chair.

Cate looked at him. So much for sympathy.

He caught her eye and his next words were half a reminder for Amie and half explanation for Cate. “Rob did say he was entertaining a Middle Eastern delegation today and tomorrow.”

Ah. A big business delegation does have a certain priority. Cate’s automatic sympathy for Amie’s tears faltered. If she couldn’t, or wouldn’t, understand Rob’s concerns, marriage between them would be a disaster.

“I found the perfect house for us, and he said he was too busy to look at it.”

Unbelievably, Cate saw Daniel turn away to hide a grin. He’d just agreed with her about how important was the notion of home. Honestly, men!

He caught her accusing glare and winked. “Amie, how many houses has Rob looked at with you?”

“Not many.”

“Twenty? Thirty?”

“Maybe a few more.”

Now, Cate understood his unwilling amusement. An answering smile tugged at her mouth. Refusing to see one house was hardly the end of the world.

“That’s not the point.” Amie knew when she’d lost her audience’s sympathy. “Rob’s being totally unreasonable about what sort of house we should buy.”

“Unreasonable how?” Cate sat down opposite her.

“He said he won’t live any further than a fifteen minute drive from the city centre.”

Cate stared at Amie’s tear-streaked, tragic face. “What’s so unreasonable about that?” Houses in that radius were expensive, but Rob could afford it.

“I can’t keep animals in an inner suburb.”

Cate blinked. Since when had local councils banned people from keeping a dog or cat? It would be unAustralian.

Daniel elucidated. “Amie means the councils have limits. One or two dogs. One or two cats. Amie wants to bring home the strays from the rescue shelter.”

“Someone has to love them!” Amie sat bolt upright with indignation.

“How many do you have at the moment?” Cate asked.

“I live in a flat,” Amie mumbled.

“None,” Daniel said. “Pets are a long term commitment. Amie couldn’t flit off here, there and everywhere if she had to feed and walk a dog every day.”

Amie glowered at him. “It will be different when I’m married. I’ll have made a long term commitment.”

“Does Rob want pets?” Cate couldn’t remember her brother as an animal lover.

“He says one dog, one cat.”

“Sensible man.”

Amie glared at Daniel for his contribution.

He stared back calmly. “Amie, you know my feelings on the subject. Your work at the animal shelter is good and worthwhile, but you can’t single-handedly save every animal. You have to control and focus your enthusiasm.”

She rolled her eyes.

The intercom buzzed. “Daniel, it’s Rob. Is Amie there?”

“Don’t tell him!”

Daniel’s mouth compressed and he hit the open button. “Come on up.” Then he looked at Amie. “I’m not participating in a soap opera drama.”

“Just because I have feelings.”

The sibling argument was interrupted by Rob’s arrival. He saw Amie immediately. “I knew you’d run to Daniel. You drag me out of an important dinner conference, and then you don’t even have the decency to be at home.”

“Uh-oh.” Cate had never seen Rob so angry. He looked like their dad, right down to the nerve pulsing at his left temple.

“Why would I be?” Amie flashed. “You told me you were too busy to listen.”

“I told you I wasn’t re-hashing old arguments while I had important guests.”

“And why wasn’t I allowed to meet them? Am I too stupid to introduce as your fiancée? I bet if I was like Cate, all business and no heart, then you’d introduce me.”

“Leave Cate out of this,” Rob ground out. “For your information, the Middle Eastern delegation had no women. They would have been uncomfortable if I’d brought you, or any woman, to the dinner. And Cate does have a heart.”

“Oh, yeah? So why did she leave Daniel standing at the altar?”

Cate shot Daniel a horrified look. “It wasn’t the altar.”

He merely raised an amused eyebrow.

“Close enough,” Amie said. “The embarrassment was excruciating. Poor Daniel had to run away to China.”

Daniel lost his amused look. “Amie—”

But Rob spoke over him. “Poor Daniel! He went to China on business. Cate’s disappearance didn’t affect him one bit, not after Dad gave him the loan he wanted. It was Cate who suffered. Cate lost her home. And I lost my sister.”

“That’s typical.” Amie swiped at an angry tear. “It’s all about you.”

Rob’s fists clenched. “No. It’s you who tries to make everything about you. You started this by attacking Cate. You’re jealous because Cate has more courage than you. She’s made something of her life. You just hide behind your brother. Poor little Amie. You’re not even a grown up.”

“If I’m so immature, why are you marrying me?”

“God knows!”

“Fine.” Amie struggled with her engagement ring and finally wrenched it off her finger. She threw it at Rob. “Don’t marry me. Then we’ll both be happy.”

“Fine!” Rob stormed out of the penthouse, slamming the door.

Amie turned her face into the back of the chair and sobbed loudly.

Daniel picked up the discarded engagement ring and slipped it into a pocket. He crossed to Cate and put an arm around her.

“Don’t look so worried. It’s soap opera dramatics,” he murmured.

Unthinkingly, she wrapped an arm around his waist, clinging to him as if they were survivors of a disaster. “Shouldn’t we do something?”

“Soft-hearted Cate. Amie really maligned you. She resents intelligence in others, but doesn’t want to use her own.”

“I heard that.” The words were muffled but furious.

“And I knew your tears were anger not heartbreak, and half-feigned.”

“I hate you.” Amie bounced up from her chair.

“And Rob, and the whole world. What did you do to lead Rob to abandon his business obligations and come racing after you?” Daniel sounded curious rather than alarmed by the swirling emotions.

“I said I’d smash his guitar.”

Cate gasped.

Amie’s gaze slid to her. She sat down again, looking defiant and shame-faced.

Daniel was sharp. “I take it the guitar is more than a guitar?”

“Mum gave it to Rob. He played it in his first teenage band, and at her funeral. He wrote his own song for the first anniversary of her death. The guitar is special.”

Amie couldn’t have sunk any lower in her chair. “I knew it was wrong.” Her shoulders hunched.

But Cate’s anger died stillborn. She’d been struck by a sudden, paralysing insight. To hurt someone as deeply as Amie had with her threat to Rob’s guitar, you had to know the person well. You had to love them. “You really love Rob.”

This time Amie’s tears were genuine. They spilled down her face. She gulped and snivelled.

“Tissues?” Cate demanded of Daniel.

He released her and fetched a tissue box from the kitchen, dropping it into Amie’s lap and crouching down beside her. He waited till she’d recovered herself enough to blow her nose and wipe her eyes, then said. “Looks like you’ve some apologising to do.”

“I know. But Rob doesn’t listen to me. I was desperate.”

Daniel looked like he wanted to argue, but now wasn’t the time to point out to Amie the immaturity of her behaviour. Rob had already, devastatingly, done so.

“And I’m sorry, Cate, about what I said. I know you have a heart. You’re braver and kinder than me. I was so angry that Rob respects you in a way he doesn’t respect me. You heard him: he thinks I’m a little girl.”

“So prove him wrong,” Daniel said.

“He won’t even want to see me. I threw my b-b-beautiful ring at him.”

Daniel hooked the ring out of his pocket.

Amie fumbled and slid it back on her finger. She sniffed. “Do you think Rob will forgive me?”

Neither Cate nor Daniel answered.

Amie attempted a wobbly smile. “I guess I should ask him.”

“In the morning,” Cate advised. Rob in a rare rage wouldn’t listen now.

Amie nodded. “Yeah, and after the Middle Eastern delegation has gone home.”

“You’re learning,” Daniel said.

Her smile steadied. “You would say that. Whatever you do, Cate, don’t marry a businessman. They have their priorities mixed.”

Cate glanced at Daniel, but he didn’t mention to Amie his change of status to ex-CEO. Did she already know his plans, or wouldn’t she care? Probably she was too emotionally battered to take in the information now.

“I think I’ll go home and work on what I’ll say to Rob.”

“I’ll drive you.” Daniel rocked back on his heels and straightened. “You can’t drive in the state you’re in. You’ll be a danger to others.”

“But that’ll leave me without a car in the morning.”

“Amie,” Daniel chided.

“Grow up and stop being selfish,” she filled in the blanks.

Cate gave her a quick hug. “How about I follow Daniel to your flat, and then he’ll have a lift home? I have a driver’s license and no speeding tickets.”

“Thanks, Cate.”

“Good plan. Ferrari or four wheel drive?” Daniel asked.

“Oh.” She had forgotten how expensive his cars were.

“Ferrari.” He collected the keys and gave them to her. “And thanks.”

Peak hour had ended, and the drive to Amie’s flat only took ten minutes. Cate could have done with a longer drive to straighten out her thoughts.

Amie truly loved Rob. Daniel hadn’t manipulated her into the match. Now the question was, did Rob love Amie? And if he did, how was such a combustible relationship to survive?

“That is not your business,” Cate lectured herself. She was here solely to be sure in her own mind that Rob freely chose marriage. “And if he’s not?” If he stuck fast to Amie’s impulsive breaking of the engagement, how would Amie cope?

Cate followed Daniel and Amie into the car park of her apartment block, and watched Amie hug Daniel, then wave to her. As she vanished through the front doors, Daniel opened the Ferrari passenger door.

“Would you prefer to drive?”

He sunk back against the seat. “No.”

“Is Amie okay?”

“No and yes. She doesn’t want me to phone Mum. I think she’ll have a private cry before sitting down to plot her reconciliation. I don’t think she expected Rob to blow up the way he did, and now she feels singed.”

“Me too,” Cate said wryly.

Daniel agreed. “Not quite the evening I hoped for.”

There was a moment’s silence as she negotiated a busy roundabout. “I was wrong. Amie definitely loves Rob.”

“Umm. But does Rob love Amie?”

Cate shot him a swift glance. “I thought you were sure he did?”

“Second thoughts—Rob’s not mine. Maybe he’s decided he’d like marriage to be more of a partnership than a drama.”

She recalled his earlier words. “Soap opera emotions.” She defended her old friend. “But Amie’s underlying emotions are real. She exaggerates for effect.”

“Rob might decide he can live without the drama.” It was a pessimistic, possibly realistic, assessment. Daniel scrubbed his hands over his face. “It’s partly my fault.”

“Did you encourage Amie and Rob into the engagement?”

“For crying out loud, I thought you’d realised your suspicions were crazy.” He scowled at her.

“Oops.” She grimaced, acknowledging her fault. “Habit. But then, how are you at fault?”

“Amie is the baby of the family. Dad was unreliable, so I encouraged her to look to me for support. Maybe I did too good a job of the encouragement. At twenty four she should be standing on her own two feet. Rob’s right to be disgusted. After stirring up a hornets’ nest with her threat to his guitar, Amie ran to me for protection instead of standing and fighting.”

“Not everyone’s a warrior.”

“No,” he agreed. “You’re not.”

“Of course I am,” Cate contradicted. “I cope.”

“Because you’re self-reliant, not because you enjoy the fight.”

“I fight for what I believe in.”

“But a warrior fights for the joy of the fight. You care too much to fight without counting the cost. If you hurt anyone, you’d cry along with them.”

She parked the Ferrari neatly in its bay, then turned to him.

He was a warrior who counted costs, too; but then he paid them. He protected his mum, sister and all the people in his company. Now he had a chance of freedom. He’d loosened the ties of business, but family ties stayed strong. He wouldn’t indulge himself at the cost of those he loved.

“You’re a fine one to talk,” she said affectionately. She handed him the car keys, adding without thinking. “I’m glad to be…back.” She had almost said, “home”. She walked quickly to the lift to hide her embarrassment and stabbed at the call button.

“I’m glad to be home, too,” he said.

She glanced at him, then jumped as the lift doors pinged open.

He put a hand at her waist to move her forward.

Her skin tingled and burned through the soft layer of angora wool.

“Home is a good place to be.” His hand dropped away as he punched the penthouse button. “We’ll pull up the modern equivalent of a drawbridge—this lift—and steal some peace.”

Could there be peace between them? Her senses were hyperaware of him and her emotions still in turmoil from Amie and Rob’s dramatic clash. Half of her wanted to reach out to Daniel, and the other half wanted to run.

The savoury aroma of chicken casserole greeted them at the door, but it didn’t inspire Cate with hunger. She found herself plucking at a sleeve of her top and stopped, irritated by the habit which revealed her fraying nerves.

Daniel smiled lopsidedly at her. “You look like I feel.”

“How’s that?” She couldn’t have said how she felt. Confused, maybe. Perhaps aware that she stood on the edge of change?

“In need of a hug.”

The hug comforted. She absorbed his warmth and strength, and inhaled the scent of him. Her agitated pulse slowed. She found herself matching her breathing to his. Her arms tightened a moment in gratitude before she pulled away. “We should eat.”

“That would be sensible.”

She glanced at him, unsure of his meaning. “I guess you’re hungry?”

“You could say so.” Amusement coloured his voice, but desire intensified the blue of his irises and widened his pupils.

Her pulse skipped. Her gaze dropped to the relaxed line of his mouth. She knew his taste and the intoxicating effect on her senses. If she—

Her courage broke and she fled to the kitchen.

She noticed the fine tremor in her hands as she picked up a pair of pot holders, and took a steadying breath. The casserole was hot and ready. She scooped it onto two plates, then collected cutlery and carried the plates to the dining table. This wasn’t the time for the elegancies of fine dining.

Daniel turned back from the window. “Casserole? It looks good and smells even better.”

“Thanks.”

He waited till she sat, then pulled out his own chair. “I should learn how to cook.”

“Everyone should.” She seized the unexceptional topic of conversation, and mentally thanked him for it. “Cooking is easy and it saves money.”

“That would be handy,” he said politely.

She relaxed into a grin. “I guess that’s not a consideration for you. When I was a student we traded ideas for cheap meals. Do you know how many things you can make with brown rice?”

He checked out his meal. “Uh, casserole?”

“Some habits aren’t easily undone,” she admitted. “Brown rice is nutritious and filling. But you could start with easy meals like spaghetti bolognaise and curries, using a bottled sauce, of course.”

“Of course,” he echoed with mock solemnity.

The light conversation enabled Cate to eat her small serving of casserole, although she couldn’t shake her awareness of Daniel and the tension running between them.

They cleared the table and kitchen together, and she wondered how they could fill in the remainder of the evening.

“We could watch TV,” he suggested.

She laughed.

“It wasn’t that funny.”

“I just thought what a weird evening you’ve had to celebrate your freedom from running the mining company. Someone should make it up to you.”

“Who would do that?” A gleam in his blue eyes indicated he had some ideas. “Would you, Caty?”

She glanced at him and couldn’t look away. She hadn’t meant an invitation, but now he’d suggested it, the chance tempted her. “I could try.”

They stood in the middle of the living area. She put one hand against his chest and the other cradled his face, inclining him within reach. She stretched up and set her lips on his.

He made no effort to help her with their kiss, only parted his lips and waited.

Cate took her time. She traced the outline of his mouth with her tongue, then delved deeper, learning the flavour of him. Her hands ceased to lie lightly against him, and slid to his shirt, unbuttoning it. The skin of his chest was satin over hot, hard muscle.

“Yes.” She breathed her approval.

He trembled.

Her straying hands found and teased flat male nipples.

He groaned and pulled her hard against him. His arousal pressed into her stomach.

She lifted onto tiptoe to better fit him.

“Caty.” He took her with him, falling onto the sofa with her on top, straddling him. His fierce kiss held none of her gentle building of anticipation. It was raw promise. His tongue thrust into her mouth, claiming and demanding more. His hands slid under her sweater, unclasped her bra and moulded her breasts.

It felt wonderful, but in another second, she wanted more. She sat up and stripped off sweater and bra.

Beneath her, Daniel’s hips bucked in involuntary response.

She smiled, shy, daring and loving. Slowly, she stretched out again, brushing her breasts against his chest.

His hand, clumsy with need, ran over her hair. “Are we celebrating, or are you killing me?”

“Both?”

Their shared laughter was absorbed by their kiss. He kissed and touched her with careful devotion to her pleasure.

“Caty-love.”

Cate, lost in the feelings aroused by his lips at her breast and the warmth of his hand at the juncture of her thighs, rubbing restlessly against the barrier of her stretch trousers, opened desire-drugged eyes.

“I don’t have any condoms, unless…?” he ended hopefully.

She breathed again. “Not me. I don’t…I’ve never done this before.” She slid her hands over his shoulders. It felt so good to rub her body against his, to come alive in her openness to him.

“You’ve never…”. He looked at her with a stunned expression. “Cate, are you a virgin?”

“Don’t make it sound a crime.”

His arms tightened around her. “No crime. A surprise.” He lay tensely beneath her. “Why?”

She shrugged. He wanted a discussion, now? She struggled to breathe, to think. “I never had a serious boyfriend while I was at school. Then working with AIDS orphans…Africa taught me the importance of safe sex.”

“And in between you had the trauma of evading a forced marriage.”

“That wasn’t your fault.” She stroked him, protectively. Her tongue flicked out and tasted the skin of his throat. It was salty with perspiration. “Mmm.”

He inhaled sharply. “But there must have been other men. You must have wanted…”

“Wanted maybe. Trusted? No.” The truth escaped her without thought.

He shuddered once, as if absorbing a blow.

“Daniel?” She drew back to look at him, and her hand skimmed his body, brushing against his nipples and lingering caressingly.

“No, Cate, don’t touch me. The bit that needs kissing and making better would explode if you did.”

She blushed.

He smile was tight as he lifted her off him. “I need a cold shower.”

She picked up her bra and sweater absently. She was feverish with desire, and Daniel’s body was obviously ready for her. His arousal bulged against his jeans and his mouth was a taut, passionate line.

“I could buy condoms?” She saw his chest heave.

“No.”

Chapter Five

Bare-chested and all male in the well-worn jeans that contained his arousal, Daniel stood in front of Cate as she curled in the corner of the sofa, looking up at him and wanting.

Her body pulsed and she touched her tongue to her full, kiss-dampened lips. His flavour lingered there and she savoured it.

“Cate,” he protested. “You must see that I can’t…”. He couldn’t find the words, and thrust an agitated hand through his hair. “You’ve never…”.

“Had sex? Yes, I know.” She smiled. Despite frustrated desire, she found him adorable as he lost his cool and controlled manner.

Muscles rippled as he gestured in frustration. “So, why now?”

“Why not?” She shrugged.

He groaned. “Put your top on.”

She glanced down at her bare breasts. Another time she would have felt embarrassed. They were swollen, the nipples pointed and sensitive to the cool air and his stare. She couldn’t be embarrassed, not with him looking agonised and hungry.

“Where is my top?” she asked carelessly, more concerned with the tension between them.

“Here.” He picked it up from the coffee table, dropped it in her lap and stepped back.

“Thank you.” Slowly, she pulled her top on, feeling the soft brush of angora against her sensitised breasts. It didn’t soothe, it excited. She smoothed the top down.

His gaze followed the movement of her hands before coming back up, locking with her eyes. “Why now, Cate? Why make love with me?”

She tipped her head back against the sofa and considered. “You’re gorgeous, but so are other men.” Each breath rubbed the angora against her breasts, and she wanted Daniel to touch her there. It was hard to think. She wanted…“Your wealth doesn’t do anything for me. You make me feel good. I laugh with you. You’re kind. Decent. I trust you.” She paused, brought to consider seriously the reasons for her desire. She wasn’t normally so sexual. Usually, she seldom allowed herself to enjoy even the sensual delights of innocent pleasures, such as smoothly melting chocolate, crackling open fires, or long bubble baths.

“Maybe it’s nothing to do with you. Maybe coming back to Perth has stirred up my emotions.” It was a scary thought, making her emotionally vulnerable. Cate tried to reject it, resorting to flippancy. “Could be you’re my delayed adolescent fling?”

He didn’t like that. He swore and turned away, pacing to the window.

“I’m sorry. I was joking. I’m not a kid. I’m an adult, all grown up and free to choose with whom I share my body.” She uncurled from the sofa and walked across to him. She touched his back, flattening her palms against the muscle. “Does it matter why, Daniel? My first time has to be with someone.”

The muscles went rigid and his hands fisted. “Are you doing this because you think I owe you?”

“What?” She stepped back, confused by the suggestion and his anger.

“Six years ago I was part of the destruction of your youth and dreams. Maybe you think I owe you recompense—that you lost everything in running away from me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

He spun around and caught her wrist. He jerked her against him and locked an arm around her. “Am I being ridiculous? You came here hating me, distrusting me and your dad.”

“I had every reason.” She struggled against his hold. “Let me go.”

“In a minute.” His free hand traced the delicate curve of her face and slid into her hair. “You’re beautiful. Other men would have loved you, if you’d let them. So, why me?”

“You asked that before.” She tried to shut her mind to the devastating effect of his touch. The scent of arousal was still on his skin, making her dizzy, making her ache. “What do you want me to say?”

His mouth went harsh and tight, and his arms dropped away. “Nothing.”

She stared at him, trying to read the thoughts locked behind the fierce male arrogance of his face. “There must be something, else why ask?”

“I’m going out. Going for a drive.” He scooped up his shirt from the floor and pulled it on.

She heard the rattle of keys, and then, the slam of the front door.

“Hell.” Alone, frustrated and confused, she picked up a sofa cushion and threw it after him. She tingled, she ached and she was mad as hell that he’d left her in this state.

What did he want from her?

Not sex. Not with a virgin.

She stomped off to her room, stripped off her clothes and stood under a stinging cold shower. If the laws of physics had obeyed the laws of emotion, the water would have steamed as it hit her skin. She was passionately angry and passionately aroused.

“That man!” How dare he question her sexuality, her desire? Was it a crime to be a virgin? A crime to surrender that virginity?

“If I want to make love, it’s my decision.”

Daniel stirred her hormones. So what if there might be an element of teenage experimentation six years overdue? He had wanted her, still wanted her unless his body was a liar. She wanted him. They were consenting adults, without commitments to anyone else.

“He doesn’t have to protect me from myself.” Six years ago she’d been little more than a child and unable to fight for what she wanted. But times had changed. She had changed. These days she took what she wanted from life.

“I’m not vulnerable any more. I’ll never be vulnerable again.” It was her deepest vow. Never again would she let someone use her love against her, as her dad had tried to do. Her independence kept Cate safe.

And if she wanted sex, she would have it. Just because she hadn’t wanted to share her body before, was no reason to make a big deal of it now.

How dare Daniel make decisions for her! If she wanted to lose her virginity, then she would.

Even if he continues to say no? Do you want to make love with someone else? whispered a sly voice in her mind.

No! The rejection was immediate, visceral. She wanted to make love with Daniel.

“But that’s reasonable.” She turned off the shower and began towelling herself dry. “My hormones are imprinted with him. He’s unfinished business.” And being with him felt wonderful.

She dragged on her pyjamas and crawled into bed, snapping off the light. Then she cuddled a pillow and wished it was him.

In the darkness she could admit that his rejection hurt.

What sort of man suspected her desire for him to be an attempt to extract a sexual revenge for a six year old hurt?

A man with vulnerabilities and sensitivities hidden from the world?

“As if!” Cate rejected the rational voice whispering in her heart. “I’m not that petty.”

But when he’d asked why she wanted to have sex with him, why hadn’t she simply said, because I want you?

Coward. When he’d pulled away, she hadn’t wanted to put into her words her need for him. Instead, she’d used words to hide that basic truth: woman to man, she wanted him.

In the morning…in the morning she’d take responsibility for that desire.

She heard him return at one o’clock.

He walked quietly down the corridor, his footsteps slowing by her door but not stopping.

Was he regretting his decision? Sleepily, Cate hoped it ate at him all night. Let him burn for her. In the morning, she’d apply the match.

Cate brushed her teeth vigorously and looked at her bright-eyed image in the mirror. If Daniel thought that last night he’d seen sex used as revenge, wait until he saw her now.

He wouldn’t ignore her, or walk away from her, this time.

She combed out her hair, and left it free and curling around her shoulders. Then she took off her pyjamas and shrugged on her satin robe, belting it loosely. Deliberately, she mussed her hair.

The kitchen was dark and empty. She put on coffee to perk and waited.

The coffee was ready when Daniel showed up, shaved and suited and on his way to work. The bright morning sunlight showed lines of strain at the corner of his eyes.

“Coffee?” she offered and smiled.

“Thank you.” He watched her warily as he took the cup. “About last night.”

“Hmm?” She sipped her coffee. How do you seduce a man over breakfast?

He put down his cup. “Learning you were a virgin, it startled me. I didn’t respond very well.”

“It doesn’t matter.” She hoped she sounded blasé. Her fingers shook. Maybe she wasn’t a natural seductress? She felt the sexy irresponsibility of last night slip away at the concerned expression on his face.

“It does.” He took the cup out of her hands. His expression gentled, beguiled. “A woman’s virginity is a gift and a responsibility. Her first time should be special. I want your first time to be special, Caty.”

“So do I.” She shivered as his hands slid up her arms under the wide satin sleeves of her robe. She gathered her dignity, remembering his rejection. “You were right, last night, to say no. I need to find a man who will enjoy my virginity with me. One who wants to share my discovery of my body and its pleasure.”

“Cate.” His blue eyes darkened and his hands slid back down her arms.

“I wouldn’t want him to think the gift of my body was revenge.” Her voice shook.

“I apologised. I’m an idiot to have thought it.”

“And I’d be an idiot to ignore what you really think of me.” She pulled her hands out of his hold and folded her arms defensively. Now she was so muddled, she didn’t know what she thought or wanted.

“I think you are beautiful, courageous, generous and loving. I think you’re perfect, and you terrify me. Why do you think I was so inept and stumbling last night?”

The admission shocked her. Her arms dropped. “You’re scared of me?”

“Of what you make me feel, of how fragile the tie between us is.” He reached out and traced the neckline of her robe, following it down, his fingers trailing against her skin. “Women aren’t the only ones who need reassurance. Last night I needed to know you wanted me, that I was more than the man on the spot when you desired one.”

She tried to assimilate the amazing fact that he could be vulnerable and acknowledge his vulnerability. His hand, poised at the V of her robe, didn’t help her to think clearly.

“I wanted you,” she said.

His hand didn’t move. “And now?”

Tell the truth and shame the devil. “I want you.” She smiled ruefully. “Why do you think I dressed this way?”

“To torture me.”

She gasped as his hand slid beneath the satin and cupped her breast.

His mouth captured her gasp, captured her. His tongue plunged into her warm, wet mouth and stroked her tongue into playing.

The belt knot gave way and her slippery satin robe slid off her body, pooling at their feet.

He groaned and tore his mouth from hers. He looked the length of her body. “Beautiful.”

“Looks like you’re over-dressed,” she murmured. The protest lacked strength. She felt incredibly sexy to be naked against his business-suited body. She wrapped her arms around his neck and stretched against him.

The sheer, wicked decadence excited her, and Daniel.

He took her mouth with ruthless need and she answered from her own feverish burn. He lifted her and carried her through the penthouse to his bedroom, tumbling her down on the unmade bed.

“Am I over-dressed?” He leaned over her, nuzzling the tender curve of her neck.

“Yes!” She wanted skin on skin.

He rolled them over, so that her nakedness straddled him. “Then do something about it.”

She felt pagan and powerful, kneeling over him. The burning urgency in his eyes reassured her. She was wanted, her desire returned.

“Tie first.” She unknotted it and draped the ends down his chest, then began on his shirt buttons, moving down. She adjusted her hips so that she rode over the hard ridge of his desire that pressed against his trousers.

The sensation was addictive.

He thrust uncontrollably beneath her. “Have mercy.”

But she couldn’t. She needed him and the completion he could bring her.

He moved suddenly, pinning her beneath him.

She welcomed the weight of him, her legs gripping him instinctively.

“We need…to go…slow.”

“No.” She wanted fast. She wanted him. Her legs tightened.

“Yes.”

Cate could have bitten him, but then his hand found her moist and swollen and waiting for him, and he entered her. One finger, two. She pressed against his hand, and he rubbed her, coaxing her body into pleasurable surrender.

“Yes, Caty.” He watched her face. “Come. Come for me.”

She gripped his shoulders, arched and shattered.

“Daniel.” Her voice slurred as she drifted back to earth and felt the tension humming through his body. Her own felt boneless. She had melted into him. “You didn’t…”

“Soon.” Gentle kisses eased her from satiated to desirous. She felt the fire ignite from smoulder to flame and reached for his belt buckle. “Take off your clothes. I want to see you.”

His response to her words and hands jerked through his body. “Not a good idea,” he said unsteadily. He caught her hands and lifted them above her head. Her breasts lifted with the motion, brushing his chest.

“Please.” Already need was building again, and this time she wanted to shatter with him.

He groaned, his eyes slitting with pleasure as he rubbed his chest against her breasts. “I still don’t have condoms.”

Her eyes widened. “Then why did you bring me to bed?”

“Because I wanted you. Want you.” He released her wrists and swept a possessive hand over her body. “Because you’re so responsive. You wrap around me like honey. I couldn’t wait.”

“But you haven’t…come.”

“Tonight. When we have time. When I can love you until you scream.”

Her toes curled at the words and his husky tone. “Do we have to wait?”

He kissed her deeply and she answered the demand freely. She gave and enticed.

When Daniel broke the kiss, he was breathing heavily. He sat up, his expression tense and hungry. “I told Tim Radjick, the new CEO, that I’d be in the office early. The announcement of the handover is tomorrow and we have details to settle before the press conference. I have to go.”

“Oh.”

“Just, oh?” He watched her carefully. “I don’t want to leave you.”

Intellectually, she knew he had other commitments, huge commitments. Daniel was too important a man to drop everything for her. For sex, she said toughly to herself, denying the caring concern in his blue eyes. Mentally, she withdrew behind her usual defences, closing herself off.

For the first time, her nakedness bothered her.

“We’ll have tonight.”

Tonight. A shudder rippled through her. One night, maybe two. She hadn’t thought this through. She was embarking on a short term affair with a man who might become her brother’s brother-in-law. He’d be in her life forever, but only in her bed for a couple of days.

How dangerous, how potentially devastating. Was she willing to pay the price?

She looked at his taut expression, and the male strength and hunger of his body.

“Caty?”

“Remember to buy condoms.”

Relief lightened his expression. He leaned over her, and kissed her hard and fast. “I won’t forget.”

He re-dressed quickly while she lay on the bed and watched, a sheet covering her. There was an unfamiliar intimacy in watching his deft knotting of the tie, the automatic shake and smoothing of his suit sleeves.

How many women had watched him dress and leave them? The thought hurt, although she didn’t expect the world to be virgins, like her.

“I’ve never brought a woman home to my bed,” he said into the silence. “If sex was casual for me, I’d have condoms on hand.”

“Your past is your business,” she answered instantly. She hated that he might have read and responded to her insecurity. Her hands curled around the edge of the sheet.

He ignored her defensive tone. “For the record, if we had married six years ago, I’d have been faithful.”

It came out of nowhere, this reference to their shared past.

For an instant, she stared at him, then nodded.

“Good.” He bent and kissed her, a passionate, tender promise. “I want to love you, tonight, Caty, but if you have second thoughts, if you change your mind, that’s okay.”

“I won’t.” She said it in defiance of her own growing nervousness, but also because she saw a hint of uncharacteristic caution, even wistfulness, in his eyes. He didn’t have to be the strong one, protecting her from herself. Hadn’t she argued this out with herself last night?

“I won’t.” This time she whispered her promise. “I want you.” She stroked his face, and he turned his head to kiss the centre of her palm.

“I’ll try to be home early.”

He left, and she lay a while longer in his bed, inhaling the scent of him and remembering his touch and her response.

Tonight she’d make love, fully and completely, with Daniel. Would it change her?

Deep in her body, she quivered. Whether she admitted it or not, trusting him with her body was a huge step. If he hadn’t shown her how much pleasure there could be, would she have risked this intimacy?

Always before she had defended her independence, held herself aloof from the men who wanted to share her life. This blazing sexual attraction to Daniel had blindsided her, but more than that, she’d been lonely, and letting him close eased that loneliness.

“Just don’t go thinking you’re in love.”

Love was for Amie and Rob—fingers crossed. If they could work out last night’s argument.

Could she help?

She half-rose from Daniel’s bed, then hesitated. No, now was not the time for even well-meant interference. Amie had to heal the hurt between herself and Rob.

But if Cate couldn’t help Rob and Amie, what would she do with her day?

“I can’t just lie here and wait for Daniel.” Although the notion of waiting naked in his bed had a sneaking appeal.

She pushed aside temptation and returned to her room to dress for the day. If she wanted to maintain her independence and self-respect, she had to act. She wasn’t a mistress, to wait in Daniel’s penthouse for his return. She had her own life, her own needs and responsibilities.

She needed to reaffirm her identity as a woman in charge of her life. She wasn’t immature, vulnerable or running scared.

Over a second cup of coffee, Cate knew what she had to do.

It was a matter of moving forward, and that meant dealing with the past.

Daniel had challenged her with it, and her own common sense said it was time and past to heal old wounds. She would contact her dad.

“Not by phone.” That was too easy to put someone off. No, if she was going to prove her courage, then she’d go to her dad’s office. “Tackle him in his lair.” The wry humour didn’t help.

She realised she was trembling. If her dad rejected her this time, it would be utterly final.

Her throat ached with tension as she caught a bus across town. Her mind scurried, searching for excuses.

Maybe this isn’t a good time? Rob had mentioned something about a visiting Middle Eastern group. Her dad would be busy and dismissive of all that wasn’t business.

Coward.

She got off the bus and drew a deep breath. In her black trousers and jacket with her white shirt and jaunty red scarf, she looked like any other office worker. No one walking past would guess her emotional turmoil.

The sun came out from behind a cloud and she clung to the good omen.

One final try. She would risk her heart, and hope.

The office layout was familiar from her childhood, although the decor had been updated. Now, it was teal and beige. The receptionist was busy with a courier and his sign-sheet, and Cate slipped past.

Her dad’s secretary was new since Cate’s last visit, but her eyes behind tortoiseshell-framed glasses widened as if in recognition.

“Cate?” The middle aged woman blushed. “Oh, I am sorry, but I recognise you from the photo on Matt’s desk.”

“My photo?” Cate was equally stunned. She actually stepped back a pace.

The woman rose from her chair. Her hand went out as if to grasp Cate. “Would you like to see him?”

“More to the point, will he see me?” Cate tried to sound wryly amused, but knew she failed.

“Of course he will.” The woman started for the closed door to Matt Trapani’s office. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“I thought he might be too busy to see me.” Cate retreated another step.

“Not for you.” The secretary knocked and opened the door. “Matt, your daughter Cate is here.”

“Cate? Caterina?”

Be calm. Talk rationally. Cate noticed her hands were shaking.

The door opened wide. She saw her dad and burst into tears.

Matt Trapani gathered her up, bustled them inside and began the soothing litany she’d heard in childhood, when he’d promised to make her world safe and perfect.

When he reached “rain today, sunshine tomorrow” she hiccoughed and wiped her eyes with a tissue.

His secretary had vanished discreetly.

“Sorry.” But her tears had carried them over the awkwardness of meeting. She could add, sincerely and easily. “I missed you, Dad.”

“I missed you, Caterina.” Matt was broader, greyer, but still vigorous. He blew his nose loudly. “You have grown into a beautiful woman, a strong woman. Not my little girl.”

“But always your daughter.”

“Yes.” Matt smiled. He tucked away his handkerchief. “Always my daughter.”

They talked then, sharing six years of growth and change.

“Are you happy in Sydney? Is your work satisfying? I have read your book, Cate. It is good. After I read it, I nearly phoned you, but I had hurt you so much.”

“Oh, Dad. Don’t make me start crying again.” She blinked rapidly. So much wasted time, so many regrets. She should have tried for a reunion earlier, should have taken the risk.

Rob had urged her to, but she’d refused, vehemently.

Matt nodded and changed the subject. “Have you heard Rob is engaged?”

“Yes.” She didn’t say the news of his engagement was the reason she’d flown to Perth. She could hardly admit to Matt that she’d feared he’d been meddling.

Besides, it emerged that contrary to her initial suspicions of him brokering the marriage, Matt had reservations about Rob marrying Amie.

“She is a spoiled girl.”

“Maybe. But she’s kind and generous, and she loves Rob.”

Matt sighed. “I hope all will be well. I don’t interfere anymore.”

“Good.”

“You have forgiven me, though, for insisting on marriage to Daniel Garren?”

“I forgave you a long time ago. Only you’d said I wasn’t your daughter.”

Matt looked old and stricken. His shoulders slumped. “I was stupid, stupid and wrong. And after, I was ashamed. I didn’t think you would forgive me.”

“It’s all behind us. We are a family again.”

The trace of sorrow disappeared from his dark eyes, so like her own. “I am glad.” He fidgeted with his tie, then plunged on. “I am thinking of marrying, again.”

Cate’s chill was irrational but undeniable. She said nothing, only her gaze flew to the photo of her mum hanging on the wall.

“Do you remember Olivia Channing, our old neighbour?”

“Aunt Ollie? Yes.” She’d been more than a neighbour. She’d been their mum’s friend. “She was a nurse and she cared for her younger brother. He had…?”

“Downs Syndrome,” Matt supplied. “Johnny died three years ago. I met Olivia at a garden centre. She was buying herbs. I was buying roses. We got talking, and one thing led to another.”

“You’re marrying Aunt Ollie? Wonderful.” Cate hugged him, all chill gone. “She’s lovely.”

Her dad adjusted his tie, embarrassed but happy. “When I told Olivia of my attempt to marry you off and how you’d run away, she said you should have gone to her. She’d have boxed my ears.”

Cate laughed. “It sounds like she has your measure.”

“Yes. She is a good woman, a smart woman.” He swallowed. “When Patricia died, I was so scared I’d fail you. Even more than Rob, I wondered how I would look after you. Daughters need their mums. It’s why I tried to marry you off. I wanted you safe. Instead, I failed you, and your mum’s memory.”

“I understand, Dad, and although I’ve missed you, maybe this had its upside. I’ve learned about life. I don’t think anyone could accuse me of being a spoiled rich girl.”

“No.” Matt looked outraged at the mere idea. “You are beautiful and intelligent and compassionate.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“It is true, but ‘rich’ reminds me. There is money for you in a bank account. Everything I have given Rob, I have put equal in this bank account. It is yours.”

“But—”

“Yours.” Matt dropped his thundering tone and appealed to her. “Please, let me do this for you. You are my daughter. Money can’t substitute for love and caring, but it can give freedom and security, a chance to follow dreams. I want to give this to you. It is not a guilt payment for six years ago and the dreams I stole from you then. It is a gift for the future.”

She couldn’t resist his concern and entreaty. Did she really want to assert her independence by rejecting his caring? “Thank you, Dad.”

He sighed. “That is good. You must meet Olivia. She will be happy we are reconciled.”

“Tonight?” Cate shook her head, then blushed. She had instinctively protected her time with Daniel, but it wasn’t a prior appointment she cared to explain to her dad! “Tonight is fine. I’ll be glad to see Olivia again.”

“You have plans?” Matt smiled. “If you have plans, you must keep them. No, I insist. I must learn not to demand too much. It is your life. Olivia and I will see you tomorrow, yes?”

“Yes.” Cate smiled, although tears pricked her eyes. Her dad wanted this reunion to work as much as she did. If only Rob and Amie could sort out their differences, then they would all be happy. They would be a family.

“Are you staying with Rob?”

She hesitated. She didn’t want to tell her dad she was staying with Daniel, but nor would she lie. Fortunately, sometimes one truth could hide another.

“Rob and Amie had a fight last night. I’m hoping they clear things up, today, so I’m staying out of their way.”

“So that is why Rob is bad-tempered.” Matt struck the desk with an open palm. “That girl is no good. Today is important for Rob’s business, for his future. She should have understood.”

Cate smiled wryly. Of course her dad saw Rob’s side. Their own mum had been totally supportive of Matt’s career. Cate would have liked to point out that it takes two to argue, but her innate fairness acknowledged that Amie had directly challenged Rob’s business responsibilities—and had admitted she’d been unfair to do so.

“I’ll give you my mobile number.” Cate wrote it on a notebook from Matt’s desk. “Then we can always keep in touch.”

“That is good.” Her dad took one of his business cards and scrawled his home address and phone number on the back. “And any time you can call me. I have missed you so much, Cate. Any time you need me, you call. Call just to say, hi.”

“I will, Dad.” She blinked away tears. It felt so good not to be alone any longer.

The secretary knocked at the door. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but the Middle Eastern delegation will be here in five minutes.”

Matt looked at Cate.

“It’s okay, Dad. I’ll see you and Olivia tomorrow night.” She hugged him. “I’m so happy.”

She had learned that the courage to risk emotional vulnerability could bring a sweet reward.

Tonight, she hoped it would bring her Daniel.

Chapter Six

Cate laid out the few clothes she’d brought with her or bought in Perth, and couldn’t see anything suitable for a seduction scene, although her satin robe had worked brilliantly this morning. But it wouldn’t do to repeat herself.

She smiled, half in disbelief. Had it really been her who stood naked in Daniel’s kitchen?

Her flesh tingled at the memory of his business suit abrading her tenderness. She’d been wanton.

He hadn’t minded.

She smoothed her fingers over the satin robe. It had slipped so easily from her body. It would slide as easily if he pushed it aside with kisses, discovering and revealing her desire.

But wearing it tonight might be a mistake.

What if Daniel didn’t intend a seduction scene? If he got home tired and aggravated would he really want to be confronted by a bed-ready woman? Maybe he intended to take things slower, to book a table at a romantic restaurant, to woo her?

“I hope not,” she whispered. She’d be too nervous to eat. Already her tummy tightened with tension. She wanted him, but the longer she waited, the more doubts crept in.

Her fingers tightened on the satin robe, creasing it as her warm, trembling excitement was pushed aside by the coldness of nerves.

She was such a novice at seduction, what if she did something wrong? What if having sex for the first time hurt? What if this was a huge mistake?

What if…what if Daniel intended to make love to her because he felt guilty about six years ago? Had that been why he’d suspected her of wanting to use him for revenge last night?

The dark thought stabbed her. She sat down on the bed, heedless of the clothes she crushed.

What if he thought that her virginity was the result of the trauma of the attempted arranged marriage six years ago? Now that he knew the truth of her running away, did he feel responsible? Did he feel he had to make things right, heal some sexual hang-up he thought she had?

No. She wouldn’t believe it.

But he had believed she might be using him for revenge, using him to regain her sexual freedom. Was that how he saw sex between them, as a way for her to move on?

He was wrong, if he did. Sex wouldn’t be so casual for her. She was old enough, and had seen enough, to know that sex wasn’t a game.

So why was she so eager to try it with Daniel?

“Because it’s time,” she said out loud. She was dealing with all her demons.

The satin robe twisted between her hands.

The issue wasn’t Daniel. The issue was her.

She said she was brave and independent. Well, now was the time to prove it. She could handle an adult relationship, couldn’t she?

Her reunion with her dad had exceeded all her expectations. She had a family again. Slowly, her trust and commitment to them would rebuild. Already she was happy at the thought of meeting Olivia, her future stepmother.

Having sex with Daniel would signal her willingness to accept and surrender to healthy, natural desire. She would know that she was strong enough to take anything life offered.

“And I am.”

So, did it matter if Daniel was simply being kind in having sex with her, and not overcome with desire?

Yes. Just the idea of it shrivelled her confidence. She released the robe and it slid to the floor. She remembered how twice he’d brought her to climax, without taking his own pleasure. It undermined her belief in her own feminine desirability.

“But Daniel wanted me.” She had seen and felt the evidence of his arousal. That couldn’t be faked.

“Tonight, he won’t stop,” she vowed. She would watch him shatter. She would hold him.

How would it feel to have him inside her?

Cate trembled as her body reacted to the question. It would be wonderful, terrifying, life changing.

She pressed her hands over her tummy, finally acknowledging that she was scared.

Intimacy, whether physical or emotional, was terrifying. It was such a huge risk. How did anyone dare it? Was it hormones or loneliness that gave them the impetus to jump?

If only Daniel were here. Illogical or not, when he touched her, her doubts and fears vanished. She wished he could be here to hug her, kiss her, soothe her. She needed him to chase away her thoughts. Too much thinking might drive a woman mad.

The entry intercom buzzed.

“Ms Trapani?”

“Yes?” She stood alertly. Who beyond her family knew she was here?

“Could you come down and sign? I have flowers for you.”

Flowers? Daniel!

She raced for the elevator, and stabbed its call button impatiently.

“Come on, come on.” She tapped the side of the lift as it travelled slowly down. Flowers! No one had sent her flowers before.

The young florist delivery agent smiled at Cate, his dark eyes admiring. “We were asked to deliver this at three o’clock exactly.”

“This” was a bouquet of wildflowers. White daisies and blush pink carnations, starred with blue cornflowers, stirred Cate’s heart as more traditional red roses never would. She inhaled the delicate scent of the carnations and loved the feathery delicacy of baby’s breath.

It wasn’t an empty romantic gesture, but a salute to new beginnings.

“Thank you.” She smiled at the courier as she signed his delivery gizmo.

“Have a nice day,” he said in reply. Then he grinned. “And night.”

It was cheeky, but she laughed and returned to the penthouse with the lovely floral arrangement. Happiness bubbled inside her. How had Daniel guessed she’d be suffering from mid-afternoon anxieties?

And how wonderful of him to give this reassurance.

She placed the flowers on the low coffee table in the living area and stood for ten minutes staring at it and letting her thoughts drift. Daniel’s love making would be as tender and personal as this gift.

He would treasure and delight in her beauty as she treasured these flowers.

Suddenly, happy anticipation outweighed her doubts. She took a long, hot bath and then smoothed body lotion into her skin. Vanilla scented. She wanted him to feast on her.

For her clothes, she settled on jeans and a chambray shirt, deeply unbuttoned and worn without a bra. That way she wouldn’t embarrass herself by looking as if she was trying too hard, but he could guess at how much she wanted his touch. She wanted the support of his hand, not a bra. Her hair she wore loose, and kept her make up to a simple berry lip gloss. Excitement gave her all the colour she needed.

She tried to concentrate on reading a magazine, but kept glancing compulsively at the clock. Finally, she simply put a collection of classical music on, and lay back on the sofa to listen to it. The dreamy notes flowed over her like a lover’s touch.

She stretched and smiled. She knew now how a lover’s touch felt. It felt good. It gave and took and completed.

“Cate?” Daniel stood a few metres away.

“I didn’t hear you come in.” She glimpsed a fleeting uncertainty in his expression.

He wasn’t sure of her decision, of her. He waited for a sign if she had changed her mind, or if she still wanted…him.

His uncertainty gave her the confidence to shed her own inhibitions. She scrambled up and flung herself at him, and he caught and held her close. She tilted her face for his kiss, and he took her mouth with fierce possessiveness.

Under her hand, his heart beat fast and hard. The heat of him scalded her, branding her with his desire. She pressed into him. She’d waited for him all day and his hunger satisfied some of that pain.

“I have to shower, change,” he muttered. He rubbed his beard-roughened cheek against her temple. “You smell like heaven.”

“Vanilla.” She smiled against his throat as she cuddled into him. “I thought you’d like the taste.” She tipped her head back and saw the smile that tilted the corners of his mouth.

“I’ve been thinking of the taste of you all day. All day.” His hands moved over her, caressing her denim-covered butt. “You feel like heaven.” He sighed and slowly let her go. “I have to shower.”

“Okay.” She wet her lips, swollen from the pressure of their shared hunger.

He groaned. “I’ll hurry.”

He did, but he also took enough time to shave before returning to the living area. Like her, he wore jeans and a cotton shirt, but the shirt hung unbuttoned from his broad shoulders and the tab of his jeans gaped unsnapped.

Cate followed the vanishing line of his dark blonde body hair, then looked back up to his face.

He was waiting, enjoying her appreciation of him.

She walked forward and ran her hand over his smooth-shaven cheek. “For me?”

“I didn’t want to scratch you.” His blue eyes blazed. “You’ll be tender some places.”

She took a deep breath. “Show me.”

“Here.” He touched the faintly flushed skin at the base of her throat. His hand drifted downwards, dismissing buttons. “And here. I’m glad you’re not wearing a bra.”

“Me, too.” She loved the feeling of his hands cupping and shaping her breasts.

“So tender.” He brushed aside her unbuttoned shirt and stared at her breasts as they filled his hands and displayed her arousal. He rubbed his thumbs meditatively over her nipples. “But not the tenderest place.”

She curled her hands into his shirt as his hands drifted lower yet.

He unzipped her jeans. “Do you know where I want to taste you, Caty?”

“Ye-es.” She trembled at the thought, her legs losing all muscular strength.

He scooped her up. “In bed for your first time.”

“I want to taste you, too,” she said, desperate that he know her as his equal in desire, if not experience.

His arms tightened. “You will.”

In his room, he slowly lowered her to her feet, sliding her down his body.

The friction of his chest hair against her bare breasts was agonising. She wound her arms around his neck and tugged him down for a raw, desperate kiss.

He shrugged off his shirt.

She ran her hands over the hard muscle of his back while his lips traced a burning, nerve-tingling path from her mouth to the tender skin under her jaw and down her throat. She shifted restlessly, and he thrust a leg between hers and rocked, giving her the friction she needed, but it only fuelled the flames.

“I want…” She gasped as his hand slid into her jeans. “Yes. No.” She caught his hand. “I want you.”

He breathed in roughly. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

She watched as he shoved down his jeans and kicked them away. “Will you fit?” Her hand indicated but didn’t touch the proof of his need for her.

“We’ll go slow,” he promised. “You’ll take all of me inside you, and I’ll take you to heaven.” The cliché didn’t sound clichéd with his voice raw.

“Promises, promises.” Her teasing faltered under the burning sincerity in his eyes and her own throbbing response. She gripped the waistband of her jeans and began pushing them down her thighs.

“Let me.” He knelt on one knee to assist her. He kissed her tummy and then lower as her jeans slid down.

She balanced a hand on his shoulder and stepped out of them.

He’d left her knickers on.

She caught a finger in their waistband. “Shouldn’t I…?”

“I’ll take them off, later.”

Red silk and lace, they appeared to fascinate him. He traced the outline of them, and Cate trembled. He parted her legs enough that he could brushed his fingers over the silk covered heart of her, and she wilted.

Daniel caught her and laid her out on the bed.

“No more teasing,” she pleaded. “Just you.”

“Yes.”

She sighed at his promise, lifting her hips as he slid off her knickers.

“You are so beautiful.” His eyes adored her.

She smiled up at him and held out her arms. “Love me.”

He groaned and came down on her, settling his weight with care but feasting on her mouth. “I want you to be ready.”

“Any more and I’ll explode,” she panted as he teased her breasts and toyed with the hard, aching nipples.

“I love your explosions.” He licked a nipple, then sucked delicately.

She writhed beneath him. For a moment she felt the hard tip of him against her and her thighs tightened to grip him, but he pulled away.

“Condom.”

She was vaguely comforted to see that his hands shook as he tore the packet.

Then the entry intercom buzzed.

“Daniel? It’s Amie.”

He swore. “Ignore her.”

No problem there, Cate thought. All she wanted was Daniel. The rest of the world could whirl away without them.

“Rob’s with me,” Amie’s insistent electronic voice continued. “And his dad. And Olivia.”

Cate sat up suddenly and ungracefully. “Dad?”

“It’s lucky Cate’s with you,” Amie burbled on. “We want you both to hear our good news.”

Daniel swore again, then hit the intercom switch by his bed. “Door’s open, Amie. I’ll be out in two minutes.” He looked at Cate and her frown. “What choice did I have? There’s a night porter. He’d have told Amie I’m here, we’re here.”

“But one look at us and they’ll know what we’ve been doing,” she wailed. She covered her face. “I can’t do this.”

“I know this isn’t the best time to make peace with your dad,” he began as he slid out of bed and searched for their clothes.

“I’ve done that,” she interrupted. “This afternoon.”

“Good girl.” He leaned over and kissed her briefly.

It was lovely, but not enough to distract her from her worries. “But now when he sees us looking like this…Dad’s old-fashioned. There’ll be more trouble.”

“Hope for the best,” Daniel advised. He pulled on his jeans and zipped them up with difficulty. A long shirt from his wardrobe disguised the nature of his problem and he buttoned it hastily. “I’ll go stall them.”

“For three weeks?” she asked the empty room. She felt she’d need that long to recover from the unexpected interruption of their passion. Despite her family-related panic, she still ached for Daniel.

But there was no time to waste on frustration. She scrambled into her clothes, buttoned the chambray shirt high and tucked it into her jeans. She found a comb in Daniel’s bathroom and dragged it ruthlessly through her hair. There was nothing she could do about her high colour or her swollen lips.

She looked like a woman ready to make love.

“Oh, frak.” Not what she wanted her dad and brother to see.

From the living area she heard the murmur of voices, happy and excited.

“I can do this. I can do this.” She would pretend everything was normal. She would concentrate on what must be Amie and Rob’s good news.

“Hello,” she said from the doorway.

Everyone swung around.

“There you are, Cate.” Amie burst through the exchange of greetings. “Now, we can tell Daniel.”

Cate looked at him, and read the warmth and encouragement in his eyes. The situation was nerve-wracking, but she wasn’t facing it alone. She walked forward. “Is it good news?”

“The best.” Amie wrapped an arm around Rob’s waist and he immediately returned the favour. “Rob and I have sorted out our problems, and we’re going to move up the date of our marriage. We’ll be married next month!”

“Congratulations.” Cate hugged them both. But she was uneasily aware that both Rob and her dad were looking suspiciously from her to Daniel. “Tell me more about the wedding,” she invited. “How can I help?”

“I would like to help, too, if I may?” Olivia smiled and joined the two younger women, sweeping them towards a sofa. “Family is important.” She shot a warning frown at Matt, who was openly scowling at Daniel. “I’m so happy to be joining Matt’s family.”

“We’re happy to have you,” Cate said sincerely. “I am glad you’re marrying Dad, Aunt Olivia.”

“Just Olivia.” She lowered her voice. “Matt is so glad you’ve forgiven him.” She hesitated. “All he’s ever wanted is the best for you.”

“Sounds like Daniel.” Amie giggled. “He’s always been protective of me.”

“Maybe he should have extended that protection to other men’s little sisters,” Rob said in a hard voice.

Amie blinked.

Daniel straightened from his lazy slouch.

“So, you see it, too,” Matt growled.

“Matt, it’s none of your business. Don’t interfere.” Olivia put a protective hand on Cate’s arm.

Cate blushed. Had they all realised what they’d interrupted?

“Oh-ooh.” Amie clapped her hands. “That’s wonderful.”

“Amie,” Daniel snapped. He strode forward and stopped in front of Cate.

She looked up at him, mesmerised by the determination glittering in his blue eyes.

“Cate and I wanted to tell our news in our own time, and certainly not to steal Amie and Rob’s thunder.” He looked across at Matt. “We’re getting married.”

“Married?” Amie squealed.

From either side Olivia and Amie squeezed Cate in enthusiastic hugs.

“Well, now.” Matt’s frown dissolved. “No wonder Caterina wanted to make her peace with me.” He shook hands with Daniel. “She saw I was right all along.”

“Oh, dear,” Olivia whispered.

“It’s okay,” Cate whispered back. She knew how her dad thought and acted. “It’s not Dad I’m mad with.”

Daniel, on the other hand, with his lying announcements. Him, she wanted to boil in oil. Getting married!

“You have made me very happy, Caterina.” Matt hugged her.

Then Rob engulfed her in a bear’s hug. “So this is why Daniel met you at the airport and brought you home. When did you two get together?”

“I often go to Sydney on business.” Daniel detached her from Rob and wrapped a constraining arm around her. “Cate and I found we had a lot in common.”

Huh, she thought indignantly. All they had in common was sexual attraction, and that was now finished. No way would she give her virginity to a liar.

“She’s grown into quite a woman.” He squeezed her waist and put his mouth against her ear. “Smile.”

She smiled fixedly, while her brain spun.

If she denounced him as a liar, what then? At a minimum, relations between their families would hit a new low. Rob and Amie’s newly healed relationship could even be threatened. Her dad would be mad and disappointed, which wouldn’t be the best note on which to cement their family reunion.

For now, it looked as if she’d have to go along with the lie. But after everyone left, she’d tell him what she thought of his deception. Even if it had been well-meant, it made her feel…odd.

“A double celebration,” Matt said exuberantly. “We must go out to dinner. Champagne.”

“Have you phoned Mum with your new wedding date, Amie?” Daniel cut across Matt’s plans.

“Not yet. I couldn’t get hold of her.”

Olivia looked at Cate’s pale face. “You should tell your mum, Amie,” she agreed. “And Matt, I think dinner tomorrow night would be better. I already planned to have roast lamb for Cate. I’ll just make it a larger roast and we can have Amie and Rob over, too. And Daniel, of course.” She smiled at him, and received a smile in return.

Sneak, Cate fumed silently.

“A family dinner.” Amie sighed happily and cuddled against Rob. “I’ll bring dessert.”

“That would be lovely,” Olivia said. “Thank you, Amie.” She reached across and gripped Cate’s hand. “Just bring yourself,” she told her.

Cate looked into the older woman’s sympathetic eyes and managed a smile.

Olivia, at least, realised that the situation was awkward and was offering unconditional support.

“I’ll bring her,” Daniel said.

Cate’s smile died.

“Time we were going,” Olivia said brightly. She murmured something to Matt.

His resistant scowl dissolved. “We will see you tomorrow night.” He kissed Cate and shook Daniel’s hand. “Amie, Rob, you must go and phone her mum. Daniel is right. Mothers need to know about their daughters’ weddings.”

“Daughters should know about them, too,” Cate said vengefully under her breath.

Daniel clamped her to his side and made a show of waving good-bye to their families.

Finally, the lift doors closed, and Cate and Daniel were alone.

She wrenched herself out of his hold. “How could you tell such a huge lie?”

“It calmed things down.” He closed the front door and leaned against it. “Your dad would not have been happy if we’d confirmed his suspicions that we’re having an affair.”

“We’re not having an affair,” she shouted.

“What are we having?” He sounded amused, polite. Only the blue blaze of his eyes hinted at more turbulent emotions. “A fight?”

“Yes.” She gritted her teeth and stormed into the living area. She flung herself down on the sofa and hugged a cushion tightly. If it had been his neck, she’d have strangled him.

“What do you want to fight about? The fact that I saved you embarrassment and your reunion with your dad? The fact that we didn’t endanger Amie and Rob’s relationship? What else could I have said?”

“How about nothing?”

“It wouldn’t have worked.” He closed the space between them and pulled the cushion out of her hold. “You were all pouty lips and bedroom eyes. Even the way you walked was an invitation to bed.”

“It was not.”

“It was. You looked like a woman who’d just left her lover’s bed and for the very good reason that it’s the truth.”

“I am not your lover.”

“No?”

“No!” She screamed it in frustration and fear of emotional entanglement. Just hearing him utter the lie about marriage had locked her into a cold panic. “I am nothing to you.”

“Then prove it.” His mouth came down hard and predatory. Without compassion for her inexperience, he demanded her surrender.

She fought him, not in rejection, but to deny her feelings. Yet every wriggle and every breath re-awakened the desire smouldering between them. She craved him.

He tore off his shirt and hers, and pushed her back on the sofa.

She sobbed as he rubbed his body along hers and her nipples caught in the tangle of his chest hair.

“I am your lover, Cate. Your body knows me and wants me.”

She wanted to deny it, but everything in her surged to his touch. She turned her face into the curve of his shoulder and bit.

“That’s it. Mark me.” The gentle nip excited him.

She felt it in the answering thrust of his body and the acceleration of his breathing. She licked the tiny mark, then tilted her head and licked the strong line of his throat. She went dizzy absorbing the taste and scent of him, then realised part of her dizziness came from his movement.

He’d lifted her into his arms and was carrying her back to the bedroom.

She stretched till she reached his ear, then sucked at the lobe, tugging it with her teeth.

“Caty.” He followed her down onto the bed.

She released his ear to claim his mouth. Her whole body arched to the invasion of his tongue and the wicked rhythm of his lower body against her jeans clad heat.

He rolled off her long enough to strip off their jeans, then came back to her, and his fingers found her slick and swollen. “Do you want me?”

Physically, the answer was obvious.

She looked at the colour burning along his cheekbones, felt the hardness of him against her hip and looked down to wear his fingers compelled the pulse of her body. The sight was erotic. “I want you.”

“Thank God.” He kissed her passionately before rolling on a condom and settling between her legs. He braced himself above her. “We’ll do this at your speed.” But his arms trembled.

He kissed her, teased her, and used words, too, to seduce her. “Gorgeous, beautiful Caty.”

As careful as he was, there was still a moment’s pain. She tensed and he froze.

Her hands stroked his back. “No. Don’t leave. I want…” She wrapped her legs around him and had her answer in his uncontrollable surge inward.

“Caty?”

She smiled at him, feeling cherished and cherishing. “Perfect.”

He studied her smile for a moment, then rested his forehead against hers. “Perfect.” But his chest heaved and his muscles were tense with control.

“Almost perfect.” Feeling wicked and empowered, she tightened internal muscles, and his whole body jerked. “Finish the job.”

“No choice, now.” His control broke and he loved her powerfully until she shattered and he found his own completion.

Recovering, she lay half over him, smoothing his chest hair. Pleasure so intense and then this sense of closeness bemused her. “Is it always like this? So…miraculous?”

“Miraculous?” He considered the word, one hand stroking her hip. “No, I’ve never felt this before. This rightness.”

“Mmm.” She luxuriated in his touch. “Maybe it’s making love with a virgin?”

“Could be.” His mouth quirked. “What if we test the theory later, now that you’re no longer a virgin?”

“For the sake of science?” Her exploring fingers discovered a flat male nipple and she bent and licked it, twirling her tongue tip around it.

“For the sake of my sanity.” His stroking became more insistent. “Ah, Cate.”

She raised her head and their lips met. She settled over him.

“You’ll be sore,” he warned.

“Just a little stretched.” She loved this freedom to explore his body, to discover its hardness and his gentleness.

“Do you know what’s good for sore muscles?” he asked.

“No. What?” She played along, relishing the drifting pleasure of his hands against her skin.

“A hot shower.”

“Alone?”

“Not likely.”

Cate felt a little shy with the bright bathroom light on. But after a short time, the steam muted the light, and she didn’t care anyway because Daniel was worshiping her body.

With a washcloth he wiped away the evidence of her virginity, then he put away the cloth, soaped his hands, and began to learn her anew. He reduced her to incoherent whimpers.

“You have to tell me what you want.” His voice teased along her senses, rough with desire and tenderly amused.

“You…me…us.”

“I agree, sweetheart. Us. One hundred percent.”

Her head fell back as he lifted her, wrapping her legs around his waist and pressing her against the cool glass shower screen. She felt his slow invasion, overwhelmed by sensation. It ought to have been awkward in the slippery shower cubicle, but it was amazing.

“Miraculous,” she murmured, drooping against him after he’d disposed of the condom.

He laughed quietly. “You’re like a rag doll.”

“Nice.” There was no bite to her complaint.

“It’s quite a compliment,” he said.

She managed to lift her head and saw the satisfaction in his expression. She smiled and let him dry her quickly before bundling her into bed. In blissful exhaustion she fell asleep cuddled against him.

Chapter Seven

“You know, we haven’t worked out how to get out of your marriage announcement.” Cate sipped her coffee and watched Daniel over the rim of her cup.

In his business suit and sober, striped tie, he looked too expensive and powerful to be making toast, too remote to be the man who’d made her whimper and plead last night. Then he looked at her and smiled. “Strawberry jam or honey?”

Her breath hitched and her voice came out husky. “Honey, please.”

He spread butter and honey on four slices of toast, then put the plate on the breakfast bench that separated the kitchen from the living area and sat on the stool beside Cate.

Following his gaze, she saw that the towelling robe she’d borrowed from him had fallen open from ankle to thigh.

His hand covered the bare skin of her thigh, stopping her instinctive covering movement. His thumb circled lazily.

Her lips parted. His slightest touch stirred her sensitised body. His freshly showered scent affected her like alcohol.

“I’ve been thinking about our marriage announcement.” He crunched a piece of toast.

She picked up her coffee, waiting impatiently for him to chew and swallow.

“I think I’ll buy you an engagement ring.”

“What?” She set the cup down. “An engagement ring is not a solution.”

“Temporarily it is. Think of it as a prop for play-acting. We can’t make everyone uncomfortable by announcing our break-up until after Amie and Rob are safely married. Then we can say that the strain of you living in Sydney and me living here…” He shrugged and began eating a second slice of toast. “Long distance relationships do fall apart.”

“Oh.” She wasn’t sure why she felt a niggle of disappointment. His plan was a good one. It was just that she’d forgotten she’d be returning to Sydney. She picked up a piece of toast and ate it thoughtfully. Just when had the job she’d worked so hard for lost its importance?

“Until we do break-up,” he continued. “Your dad will expect you to wear my ring.”

“I guess so.” She finished her toast and licked a buttery-honey finger. She noticed Daniel’s gaze lock onto her flicking tongue, and purposely slowed and exaggerated the action. “Mmm.”

“My turn,” he growled and presented his finger to her lips.

She gripped his wrist and licked her tongue the length of his finger then sucked it into her mouth. When she released him, his eyes were dark with passion and the hand covering her thigh had climbed high.

“If I had more time.” He sounded frustrated.

She felt wonderful, floating on desire satisfied and renewed. She laughed, a low gurgle of sheer pleasure.

His grim expression softened. “I have the press conference announcing my retirement and Tim as the new CEO this morning, but then we can have lunch and shop for a ring. Will you meet me at the office?”

“If we’re play-acting, I don’t really need to choose the ring. Maybe you can lease one?”

“And have that titbit all over town the same day? You have to wear it, Cate, so you choose it.”

“Okay.” But she capitulated more because she didn’t want to wait until tonight to see him again, than because she wanted to choose the make-believe engagement ring.

“Great. I look forward to being collected for lunch by a beautiful woman.”

“You don’t make a habit of it?” She made the question light and teasing.

But he answered seriously. “No, Cate, I don’t.” He kissed her with heart-stopping thoroughness, snagged his jacket and vanished. “Twelve o’clock for lunch” floated back from the hallway, then the door slammed and he was gone.

She smiled and reached for the last piece of toast. She rinsed the breakfast dishes, changed the sheets on Daniel’s bed—with a blush and a smile for their mussed state—then went to soak her sore muscles in a hot bath.

“Aah.” She sighed with bliss as the water caressed her body. All her senses were heightened to a new awareness and appreciation of sensual stimuli. “I could get used to this.”

Except, as Daniel had reminded her over breakfast, she had to return to Sydney.

She frowned and smoothed a bath sponge over her shoulder. After tonight’s family dinner, she really had no reason—no excuse—for remaining in Perth. Rob and Amie were happy. Her dad and her were reconciled. She would have to book a flight back to Sydney, back to ordinary life, work and loneliness.

“No more Daniel.”

She had only one more night to enjoy his love-play. Then celibacy loomed. Right now, she couldn’t imagine sharing her body with any other man. She trusted Daniel. She loved the response he could draw from her body, and the heaven they shared.

Impelled by a sense of urgency not to lose any of the time they could spend together, she finished her bath and dressed quickly in her work uniform of black trousers and white shirt. She pinned her hair back in a French twist and discreetly applied makeup to her glowing skin.

She had her press card with her and could blend in with the media attending Daniel’s press conference to announce his retirement and the new CEO, Tim Radjick.

He won’t even notice I’m there. But she’d be able to watch him and store a memory of how he looked at work; his power and style.

Daniel’s mining company headquarters flaunted its multinational success with a gleaming display of wealth. Glass and steel climbed upwards according to an architect’s futuristic design, its harsh statement of power minimally softened in front by a three-jet water fountain shooting from a pool framed by black marble.

Cate walked around the pool and into a foyer dominated by polished red granite and giving the impression of endless space. On a side wall a massive Aboriginal painting fought back against the sterility of the business setting. The ochre painted canvas showed an emu and two chicks.

She smiled, recognising Daniel’s influence in the choice of painting, and took a step toward it.

A security guard standing at the reception desk intervened. “Forget the painting. You’re late.”

She blinked. “I am?”

“The press conference is almost over.”

She smiled. “Am I so obviously a journalist?” She fished in her handbag for her press card.

The guard glanced at it without returning her smile. “Seventh floor.”

“Thanks.”

The lift shot skyward. Her stomach lurched and she grabbed the handrail. When the doors opened, she hurried out before the aggressive lift could plunge back down, carrying her with it.

From the vestibule, she heard and recognised the babble of noise that signalled the end of a successful press conference. She’d missed her chance to hear Daniel speak.

Too long dreaming in the bath.

In a large room at the end of the corridor, her media colleagues were making the most of a lavish morning tea and a chance to question both the old and new CEOs.

Her heart kicked as she saw Daniel. His blonde head was inclined as he listened to something a short, older man said. After a minute, they shook hands and the other man headed for the coffee. Daniel turned and saw Cate.

He smiled.

She couldn’t have stopped her answering smile if her life depended on it. She only hoped it didn’t look too sappy.

He crossed the room towards her, drawing one or two curious glances. It was obvious he was moving with a purpose.

“I hope you don’t mind me gate-crashing.” After all, he’d specified meeting him at midday.

“I’m glad.” He clasped her hand.

For two heartbeats they simply looked at each other, then he cleared his throat. “Come and meet the new CEO.”

“You don’t have to entertain me. I’ll wait in a corner, or your office…”

His hand tightened. “I like having you with me.”

Her uncertainty melted like ice in summer and she walked beside him to where a tall, intense man spoke reservedly with a couple of middle-aged men, too expensively dressed to be journalists. Behind wire-framed glasses his light brown eyes were sharp as he watched Cate and Daniel approach. He had a narrow, wedge-shaped face, but when he smiled he changed completely from a powerful executive to a shy charmer.

“A special guest?” he asked Daniel. The two men were obviously friends.

“Cate Trapani, meet Tim Radjick.”

One of the men standing beside Tim caught his breath sharply. The name Trapani was well-known in business circles and someone would soon remember the old gossip of her and Daniel’s broken engagement.

Cate winced. What would the gossips say when they broke another engagement?

“Nice to meet you, Cate.”

Tim’s light, kind voice brought her back to the present.

“Same here. Are you looking forward to your new job?”

“Very much. Almost as much as Daniel is anticipating his freedom.” Tim grinned at his friend.

Daniel took the jab easily. “Everyone needs new challenges.” He glanced at the crowd who were watching them with greater or lesser subtlety. “Shall we call this conference over?”

“Yes,” Tim said with the deep feeling of a shy man forced into social stardom. He put down his coffee cup. “Let’s get out of this feeding zoo.”

A couple of people tried to stop Daniel with questions, but he put them aside with polite determination. They separated from Tim just outside the door. With a cheerful “see you around” he went to his new office, while Daniel ushered Cate into the Chairman’s office.

He shut the door with a decisive click, while she looked around.

Boxes of material showed the recency of his move here. They balanced one atop another on the wide desk and on the floor. Apart from the boxes, the room suffered from a beige blandness. Hotel rooms were less impersonal.

At least the floor length window had a view of the river, although it wasn’t as impressive as the one from his penthouse.

“Come here.” Daniel leaned against the edge of his desk. He looked strong and dangerous, totally intent on her. Irresistible.

He brought her into the V of his legs.

She breathed in the warm scent of him and felt the strength of his thighs. “I couldn’t wait any longer to see you.”

“That’s how I feel.” He unbuttoned her jacket and rested one hand in the small of her back. His other hand ran up her arm and stopped at the curve of her jaw. He rubbed his thumb along her lower lip.

She gave in to the temptation to wet her lips, to touch her tongue to his thumb, to taste the saltiness and draw it into her mouth. She wanted to suckle on him. “No,” she whispered when he withdrew his hand.

“Daniel?” She moaned as his hand closed over her breast.

“I want to strip you, lay you out on this desk, and love you.”

The mental image excited her. Her nipples peaked and strained against the lace of her bra. Her fingers dug into the smooth wool of his jacket. “Do it.”

He groaned. “We have to walk out of this door some time and I don’t want everyone knowing what we were doing in here.”

“They’ve probably guessed,” she said wryly, but the reminder cooled her fever a little. She could think despite the impact of his hand shaping her breast. “Do you have a desk at your penthouse?”

“Yes.”

“Where do you want to have lunch?” Her daring strengthened as the heat in his eyes burned. She touched the top of his thigh.

“I had planned on eating out, but…” He stole a kiss. “Let’s go home.”

He buttoned her back up and they acted like decorous strangers as they crossed the lobby and rode the lift down to the parking garage where the Ferrari waited.

Cate buckled into the passenger seat and felt desire revving in her body like the roar of the car’s engine.

As Daniel drove, she admired the male lines of his face and body, and imagined the strong hands on the steering wheel touching her, giving her pleasure.

They stopped at a traffic light and the dark tint of the Ferrari gave them privacy. He placed a hand on her thigh, slid it down to her knee and then, achingly high.

Her breath trembled as her responsive body prepared for love making. She wanted to melt into the slow rhythm of his hand rubbing up and down her thigh.

The traffic lights changed and he withdrew his hand.

She breathed shallowly. He’d shed his jacket and she saw the bulge of his suit trousers, and wished he weren’t driving or that she was less responsible. She wanted to tease him, as he’d teased her, to caress and cup him through the expensive cloth.

She looked at the straight line of his mouth, taut with desire, and remembered last night. She thought of his lips tormenting her, kissing, sucking, biting, teaching her the delights of the flesh.

“I can hear your breathing, Caty. Are you imagining us together?”

“Yes.” A single, husky syllable.

He stopped the car sharply in the penthouse car park, undid his seatbelt and kissed her hard.

She welcomed the almost bruising pressure, responding from her own violent need.

“Let’s get inside.” He undid her seatbelt, came around to her door and reached for her.

“That’s what I like to see,” an elderly voice said. “Old-fashioned good manners.”

Daniel’s hands dropped. He groaned under his breath. “Mrs Muller.”

Cate giggled at his frustrated expression before he turned and politely greeted his neighbour.

Mrs Muller was in her eighties, white haired and chatty. She inquired about Daniel’s mines. “Have you dug anymore?” and peered inquisitively, but short-sightedly at Cate, who Daniel positioned in front of him.

She knew why. His arousal was too obvious for public view.

The lift ride was an exercise in frustration, with Mrs Muller chatting happily. “I’ve just been to the library. I do like a good romance, don’t you? Of course, men won’t admit such a thing, but they like a happy ending as much as anyone.”

Finally, they arrived at her floor and Daniel held the lift doors open for his neighbour. She tottered through, then looked back with a twinkle. “Be good, children. And if you can’t be good, have fun.”

His stunned expression as the lift doors closed proved too much for Cate. She doubled over with laughter, and after a second, he joined her. They were still laughing when they reached the penthouse.

They stripped each other between kisses and laughter, leaving a trail of clothing on the way to the bedroom.

Much later, she managed a mock-complaint. “I thought we were going to use your desk here.”

“Do you have boss and secretary fantasies?” he asked, intrigued.

“Hmm. Maybe.” She’d never considered her fantasies before. It could be fun. “Do you have any fantasies?”

“Definitely, Caty.”

“So tell me.” She pouted when he paused.

“After lunch I’ll show you.”

She lifted herself onto an elbow to study his face. “Don’t you have to go back into the office?”

“Not if I don’t want to, and I don’t want to.”

They shrugged on robes, then ate sandwiches made from whatever they found in the fridge.

“A good thing I went grocery shopping,” she said as he ate enthusiastically.

“A very good thing.” He kissed her fingers. “I’d hate to have to dress and go out.”

“We have to go out, tonight,” she reminded him.

“I know. I don’t mind sharing you at a family dinner.”

“That’s generous of you.”

“I’m a generous kind of guy. So generous, that I’m going to share my fantasy with you.”

“Oh, yes?” She let him lead her back to the bedroom.

He took off his robe and dropped it on a chair, then lay down in the middle of the bed. He smiled up at her.

“Now what?” she asked, bewildered.

“Now I lie still and you make love to me.” His smile dared her, but a flicker of vulnerability in his eyes suggested this was a real fantasy he was sharing with her.

It was the flicker of vulnerability that decided Cate.

She let her satin robe slide off her body. “Do you promise not to move?”

“I will try my very best.” But already his body was responding to the sight of her. “This time you’re in charge.”

“I like the sound of that.” Although it was also daunting. She took a deep breath for courage, and to cast off the last of her shyness, then crawled up the bed and over him.

She kissed his mouth, his throat, his flat male nipples. The stubs pointed and hardened, and she sucked them.

He growled low in his throat, and his hands fisted by his sides as he struggled not to touch her.

“Be good, Daniel. You promised.”

“This fantasy is killing me. You’re killing me.”

“And me. My breasts are aching for you.” She stretched out over him and brushed her breasts through his chest hair. The abrasion couldn’t satisfy her.

“You could offer them to me.”

“How?” She considered the problem. Daniel was flat on his back. If he was to suckle and relieve her throbbing breasts, she would need to…She knelt over him, and he sucked strongly, spinning her into pleasure so deep she thought she’d die. “Enough!”

She slid down and for the first time wrapped her hand around the hard proof of his desire.

His hips bucked.

“Wait,” she instructed. She was exploring male strength and vulnerability.

He groaned, and if anything, grew harder.

She looked at his face and knew he couldn’t last much longer. Nor could she. She fumbled for a condom and rolled it on and down the length of him. She straddled him and took him deep, rising and falling until he thrust upward, his control breaking. Then she rode him, finding the rhythm he’d taught her, and they shattered together in a powerful climax. It was altogether too much. The sort of thing romantic movies promised and life wasn’t meant to be able to deliver.

She curled against him as he idly tracing the line of her spine. “Did you like your fantasy?”

His mouth softened in a way that made her ache. “Absolutely, Caty. I adore you.”

“I liked your fantasy, too.” She nestled back against him. His fantasy had been a smart way of learning her pleasures, and challenging her to learn his body and pleasures. She smiled. Daniel was very clever. It made leaving him all the harder. He’d be impossible to forget.

Then again, did any woman forget her first lover?

She shivered, suddenly scared of the future, a Daniel-less future. It seemed bleak and unsatisfying, and she struck out at her fear. She had to remember her independence. Relying on someone else for pleasure, or anything else, made you vulnerable. “I’ve booked a ticket to Sydney for tomorrow.”

“What?” He tensed beside her.

“Well, Rob and Amie are okay, and they’re the reason I came here. I can’t stay forever, not on urgent personal leave from my job.”

“Your job,” he said flatly.

“Not all of us are newly retired,” she tried to tease him.

“No,” he said it slowly, reluctantly. Then he moved with sudden decision. “If we’re to make Matt and Olivia’s dinner, we’d better hustle. Do you want to shower first, or should I?”

“You.” She huddled up, feeling faintly chilled as she listened to the water run. Last night, they had showered together.

She gathered up her robe and retreated to her own room to shower. Time to be sensible and return to real life. She had told Daniel of her ticket to Sydney; how could she complain when he’d acted on her reminder that what was between them was only a passing interlude?

“Stop looking so stricken,” she muttered to her reflection and smoothed on some lip gloss. She dressed in jeans and her soft angora top. With her hair pulled back in a ponytail, she looked young and free, feminine yet practical. Independent.

Daniel wore casual trousers and a cotton rugby shirt in white with a blue strip the colour of his eyes. He waited for her in the living area. “You’re beautiful.” He stretched out a hand to her, and a faint scowl drew his eyebrows together when she ignored it. “Your family will expect us to act like we’re in love.”

“We don’t have to be over the top.” Cate made herself smile. “We never did get that engagement ring.”

A stunned expression spread over his face. “I forgot.” Clearly, he didn’t forget many things.

A case of wishful thinking? If you can’t see the ring, then this confused situation doesn’t exist?

She shrugged. “We’ll tell them I’m being fussy and can’t find anything I like.”

“No. You need a ring.”

“I’m leaving, tomorrow. This way you’re saved the expense of a ring.”

“And what about when you return for Amie and Rob’s wedding?”

“I’ll borrow one,” she said flippantly.

He scowled.

She wasn’t happy either, but how could she admit she’d suddenly wondered what Amie and Rob’s wedding would mean. Would she be expected to act the loving fiancée and stay with Daniel in the penthouse? If she did, would they make love again? Would she survive it? Or worse, what if he was no longer interested in her? He was starting a new life, one without her.

“I’ll buy you a ring.” His mouth set grimly. “Shall we go?”

They took the four wheel drive, sitting high above other traffic on the road and hardly talking.

Her dad had moved since Cate left six years ago, so she left the navigating to Daniel. She half-feared her dad would have bought one of the soulless new executive residences for the single wealthy, all hard angles and gloss paint without a plant in sight. Instead, and to her relief, he’d bought an old worker’s cottage, renovated into new charm and set in a well-maintained garden. A magpie sat on the white picket fence and regarded them with the beady eyes of ownership. They apparently passed muster since it offered a short carol before spreading sleek black and white wings and gliding a few metres to a neighbour’s front lawn.

“It’s lovely,” Cate exclaimed, unwilling to examine how much of her enthusiasm came from the chance to escape the oppressive tension that had filled the car. “I love old houses that have been brought back to life. This one has so much character and charm. I’m glad Dad bought it.”

Daniel walked silently beside her.

Matt Trapani met them at the front door. “Come in. Come in. Olivia is in the kitchen.”

“Hi, Dad.” She gave him a quick hug. “Something smells wonderful.”

They trooped down the narrow hall to the kitchen at the back of the house.

Olivia looked up from stirring a pot of soup and smiled. Although this wasn’t yet her home, she was very comfortable in it, very much mistress of the kitchen and her whole world.

“Can I help?” Cate offered.

“All under control.”

Matt popped a bottle of champagne. “I’m not waiting for Rob and Amie before we begin celebrating.”

“I wouldn’t either,” Daniel said. “Amie’s usually late.” He placed a box of expensive chocolates on the bench, out of Olivia’s way. “I’d present these to the chef, but you look busy, Olivia.”

“Not too busy for chocolate.” She abandoned the soup and studied the chocolates. “Lovely. Thank you, Daniel.” She kissed his cheek and accepted a glass of champagne from Matt.

When they all had their glasses, Matt raised his in toast. “To Cate, for coming home.”

She smiled and blushed as they all drank and Daniel put a casually possessive arm around her.

“To Cate,” he echoed.

“Are you starting without us?” Rob hadn’t waited for an invitation, but barged in, towing Amie with him. She balanced a covered dish carefully, only relaxing when she’d slid it safely into the fridge.

“More champagne.” Matt poured and handed Amie a glass with a smile that suggested that on this happy day, he could accept even a spoilt rich girl as a daughter-in-law.

Cate and Olivia exchanged glances and smiles, sharing their relief at Matt’s new attitude.

“To family,” he toasted and they all stood in the crowded kitchen and shared the thankfulness and joy.

“To family!”

Tears pricked Cate’s eyes and she leant into Daniel. His arm tightened around her. They both knew the importance of family. She looked up, expecting to see him watching Amie as she settled in with her new family.

Instead, he was watching her. “I’m glad you’re home, Caty.”

“Me, too.” She put her arm around his waist and his watchful expression eased. He clinked his champagne glass with hers.

“Now, scoot,” Olivia said. “I don’t need help, but I do need space. Matt, can you settle everyone in the dining room?”

Obediently, they followed him into the dining room, finding the table beautifully laid with gilt-edged white china, gleaming cutlery and a low centre arrangement of apricot blush roses.

“Olivia must have spent all day preparing,” Cate exclaimed.

“She has,” Matt said. “It’s her way of saying she’s happy to be joining our family.”

“We’re happy to have her,” Rob said.

Amie beamed approval and pride at him.

Daniel pulled out Cate’s chair, seated her, then sat beside her.

With Matt’s assistance, Olivia carried in a golden spring vegetable soup. He brought a basket of small bread rolls.

When they were all served, Matt began. “I don’t usually say grace, but today I have so much to be grateful for that it comes from my full heart. God, we thank you for the abundance of love and good things which you have given us. Watch over us, always. Amen.”

He wiped his eyes as they echoed, “Amen.”

“Homemade stock,” Amie said after her first spoonful. “Delicious.”

“Thank you, Amie.” Olivia smiled at her future step-daughter-in-law.

“Rob, how’s the house hunting going?” Matt asked.

Some of Amie’s bright happiness faded and Rob’s shoulders hunched.

“Not brilliantly,” he said. “We’re still looking. It’s hard to find something we both like. There’s the question of location, size, whether we want a garden, or even room for a dog.”

Unexpectedly, it was Daniel who nodded understanding. “Buying a house together is more than buying a place to live, it involves lifestyle decisions, like pet ownership.”

Cate wondered when he’d considered such matters. She’d thought he’d been too busy building his business to consider…well, domestic matters. Did men dream of a home?

“Finding a house is hard,” Amie said fervently. She smiled at Rob. “But we’re getting there.”

Talk became general then and light-hearted. Cate relaxed into it, feeling her heart fill and overflow with joy. It was so good to be home, to be gently teased by Rob, to share a joke with Daniel, to see her dad sit happy and proud at the head of the table.

“Have you shown Amie your baby photos, Rob,” she teased.

“Have you shown Daniel yours?” he shot back.

“I will get them,” Matt said, immediately. He rose.

Cate and Rob howled him down.

“Now you’ve done it, sis.”

“I would like to see them,” Daniel said.

Amie seconded him.

“Later.” Olivia quelled the squabble. She glowed in her new role of almost-stepmother.

Over the lamb roast, attention focussed on Amie and Rob’s brought-forward wedding.

“Have you spoken with your mum?” Matt asked Amie.

“Yes. She’s just gotten engaged herself, to Eric.”

“Wonderful.”

“Amazing.”

“Brilliant.”

“An orgy of marriages,” Rob said. “Do you think there’s something in the water?”

“Since I’m drinking champagne.” Cate took an illustrative sip. “No.” But her eyes caught Daniel’s and she flushed.

“Everyone is happy and that is good.” Matt smiled down the table at Olivia. “We are very lucky to have all found our love.”

Cate glanced down at her champagne glass, her sparkling mood dimmed. She hadn’t found love and she didn’t intend to. Love made you vulnerable. What she had found was lust and physical satisfaction, and lies. She was living a lie in the middle of her family.

“I…Daniel and I—”

But he spoke over her. “So, what did Mum say about your new wedding date?”

Amie threw her hands in the air. “She said I’d need help, and she’s coming home just as soon as she can…but not until she and Eric have seen Venice together.”

“How romantic,” Olivia breathed.

“We will go there on our honeymoon,” Matt said instantly.

“Oh, darling.”

They exchanged a loving look.

Rob cleared his throat. “I know I’m only a mere male and not an expert on weddings, but I think Amie will need help—and I know I will—in setting up the wedding for a month’s time. So, Cate, we’ll take up your offer of help and Olivia’s, too.”

“Of course,” Olivia said. “I’ve looked into a few things for my own wedding. Venues and catering, even string quartets.”

“I don’t know how much I can do from Sydney,” Cate said, hesitantly.

Everyone stopped and stared at her, except Daniel who continued eating with every sign of enjoyment.

She looked back at her family helplessly. “I have a job in Sydney.”

“A job?” Matt, who lived and breathed dedication to work, sounded outraged. “A job? Your brother is getting married. The man you love lives here. Your family wants and needs you. And you talk of returning to Sydney.”

“I have a plane ticket.”

“Bah.”

“Matt,” Olivia said, low and warning. “Cate has her own life and decisions to make. She has responsibilities we don’t know about.”

“I understand,” Amie said in a small voice. “I was being selfish hoping…I mean, I thought, since we’d be sister-in-laws twice, marrying each other’s brothers…I wanted to share…”

“Can’t you take holidays?” Rob demanded.

Then they all, except Olivia, turned to Daniel. “Can’t you tell her?”

He looked calmly back. “I’ve already told Cate how important family is. She knows I want her here.”

In bed! she thought, indignantly. She looked at her family. She loved them so much.

“In fact,” Daniel continued. “Cate has plans to write a second book. I think she could resign from her current job and concentrate on research and writing here in Perth. It would be nice if she stayed close to those who love her.”

“Another book? Cate, that’s wonderful.” The encouragement came from Olivia.

“See? Stay,” Rob said.

Amie simply looked imploring.

But it was her dad, visibly reminding himself not to interfere, and yet, bracing for rejection, that decided her.

“All right. I’ll stay.”

Chapter Eight

“But where will I stay?” Cate demanded of Daniel when, having kissed and hugged everyone good-bye, they climbed into the four wheel drive and he put it into reverse. “You know if I stay in Perth they’ll all expect me to stay with you in your apartment.”

“Is that such a problem?” He pulled onto the road. Streetlights cast dim puddles of illumination and a prowling cat stared a moment, its green eyes reflective, until it dashed for the safety of a low-growing shrub.

“Well, it’s your space I’m invading.” Even to hear own ears she sounded sulky, someone lost, unhappy and determined to find something to pin her unhappiness to. Hadn’t she been half-dreaming of coming home to Perth? She ought to be happy. Instead, she folded her arms and slumped in her seat. “I’m a space invader.”

“I don’t mind.”

For a second she saw Daniel’s expression in the orange glow of a streetlight. He looked amused.

“It’s not funny.” The protest burst out of her. “And what happens when the rest of the world finds out—and they will. People will be curious about why you’ve quit as CEO. They’ll be prying into your life, and they’ll find me there. A secret, romantic engagement. They’ll think I had something to do with the decision.” Ramifications unfolded. “When we split up, they’ll think you’ll want your old job back. Tim Radjick will feel insecure.”

“Not Tim. And no one pries into my life.”

“Huh.” She thrust out her chin, stubbornly clinging to her grievance. “Journalists pry into everyone’s lives. I know. I am one. Rob and Dad, not to mention Amie, won’t keep our supposed engagement secret. It’ll be common knowledge. What do you think people will say when we break up a second time?”

“Do you care what people say?”

She hesitated.

“You’re like me.” He stopped at a red traffic light and turned to face her. “We live our lives on our own terms. Other people’s judgement is less important than knowing that we’re being true to ourselves.”

Rats, but it annoyed her he was right. She refused to explicitly agree. “But I’m not being true to myself. Nor are you. We’re lying to our families.”

“To save them pain. How do you think they’d feel if we’d simply said we were having an affair? We’ve been over this ground.”

She didn’t want to admit it, didn’t want to admit the confusion of her emotions. Her dad and Rob were so happy in their new relationships. They were moving on, trusting in love, committing themselves to someone else. She was only pretending commitment.

“The light’s green,” she said.

He put the four wheel drive in gear. “Do you want to change your mind and go back to Sydney?”

Cate drew a shuddering breath. “No.” If she did, it would be like abandoning her family. “How can I after everything Dad, Rob and Amie said? They want me here and I said I’d stay.” She exhaled unevenly. “Love is so manipulative.”

“Pardon?” Daniel sounded honestly startled.

“When you love someone, you know what buttons to push. Like Amie with Rob and threatening his guitar. You know how to get the person’s attention, and how to argue or guilt them into doing what you want.”

“That is a remarkably cynical attitude.”

“Honest.” She leaned her head back against the car seat and closed her eyes. “Dad tried it six years ago. I’ve learned to be wary, but sometimes you can’t fight it. Love makes its own demands.”

“Cate—”

She opened her eyes. “I guess putting up with me until Amie’s wedding is worth it to you for her peace of mind.”

“I’m not ‘putting up with you’,” he said violently. He parked the four wheel drive beside the Ferrari and switched off the engine. In the silence he touched her face. “I thought what we have between us was more than ‘putting up’ with one another. Isn’t there pleasure between us?”

“Pleasure?” The drifting stroke of his fingers set her nerves tingling. The confused jangle of her emotions was pushed aside by desire. Her breath shuddered. “A great deal of pleasure.”

She lifted heavy eyelids to study his face in the shadows of the car park. He looked stern, but she’d learnt that the taut line of his mouth spoke of passion. She turned her face so her lips caught a finger, caressed and released it. With desire building, she let go of her reservations, the nagging swarm of ifs and buts. “Are you reminding me we have a month of loving until Rob and Amie’s wedding?”

“If you want it. My bed or your own room—your choice.”

“Your bed.” She watched the flare of emotion in his eyes.

This time the lift to the penthouse was empty. Cate was glad. She wanted to melt into Daniel’s heat, to forget everything but the merging of their bodies and the explosion of their senses. She hooked an ankle around his calf and leaned up and into his kiss. He tasted of chocolate, coffee and champagne. He tasted of Daniel.

He untied her hair and ran his fingers through it, massaging her scalp in an erotic stimulation that brought a whimper to her lips and a desperate edge to her kisses. She curled her tongue around his and only reluctantly acknowledged the opening of the lift doors.

While he unlocked the door to the penthouse, she unbuttoned his shirt.

“I love how you feel, how you smell.” She rubbed her face against his chest.

His chest heaved and he slammed the door shut behind them.

She reached for his belt buckle. While she fumbled, he slipped his hands under her top, undid the catch of her bra and claimed her breasts.

“How can I concentrate when you…ah.” Her protest faded.

They kissed and groped their way to the bedroom where he kicked off the last of his clothes and stood naked. “Your turn.”

She wriggled out of her jeans, less self-conscious now than last night. She liked the compliment of the hot colour that stained his cheekbones as he watched her undress. She liked, too, the other unmistakeable responses of his body to her nakedness.

He touched her face, the fullness of her mouth, ran down her throat and his fingers circled her breast. Then he took two steps forward so their bodies just brushed one another as they breathed and his hand fell away from her breast.

They stood like that, tantalising one another with their nearness. Her thighs started to tremble. His hardness nudged her belly.

“Daniel.” It was a cry from the depth of her need. She took the half step that closed the distance between them and leaned against him. She felt as pliable as melting chocolate. “Please.” She kissed his skin. Tiny, nipping kisses to feed her hunger and his. “Please.”

“What do you want, Caty? Do you want me to touch you? Show me.”

“I want.” She brought his hands to her breasts. “I want to feel my breasts in your hands.” She looked down at his hands cupping and forming her breasts, and below his hands, to the pressure of his desire as it nudged and excited her body. “I feel pagan.”

“Why?” He tugged at a nipple.

She arched responsively, gripping the muscles of his upper arms. Thought and speech were becoming harder. “Flaunting our bodies.”

But he understood what she meant. “Enjoying what they will mean for one another. How perfectly we’ll fit. Do you like it, imagining me inside you?”

“Yes,” she groaned.

“I like imagining myself inside you. You’re hot and tight, so sweet.”

She moaned, incredibly aroused by his words and touch. She wanted him now. She bent her head and flicked a tight male nipple with her tongue.

He reacted promisingly. His hands closed at her waist and he lifted her to the middle of the bed. She reached for him, but he laced his fingers through hers and raised their joined hands above her head. “Patience, sweetheart.”

She arched up, unafraid of her body’s openness to him. He knelt over her, one knee between her thighs and she wriggled the heat of her against him and pressed.

His breath hissed. He took her mouth, claiming possession with the thrust of his tongue. She answered each thrust by rubbing her heat against him. So he shifted, removing his knee and leaving her aching. She’d have protested, but his hand found her and she followed its directions, striving for the pleasure he’d taught her.

But maddeningly, he brought her to the brink again and again, only to retreat.

She panted, her eyes burning up at him, her body wild. “Daniel.” She watched him deal with protection. When he entered her, she took no chances, but gripped him with legs and internal muscles and brought him deep inside.

She screamed his name.

When she drifted back, he was waiting, and she found she couldn’t look away from his eyes as he took her again, deeper, harder, faster to the place where only they existed. He broke her and made her whole, and by the burning intensity of his eyes, she did the same for him.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

In the morning, the business pages of the newspaper reported their engagement.

“Now, we’ll have to get you that ring,” Daniel said. In jeans and T shirt, he looked supremely male. He poured her a second cup of coffee.

Cate dropped the newspaper, aware she’d crumpled it. “Who told them?”

“Your dad? Rob?” He shrugged. “Maybe they guessed at the press conference? Forget it. There are other things to worry about.”

“Like what?” She looked up at him, suddenly wary. Her muscles ached pleasantly from last night’s loving, but daylight brought complications.

He slid onto a bar stool beside her at the kitchen bench. “Like your resignation from the Sydney paper. I’ve been thinking about it, and Matt and I rather pushed you into it. Could you get a month’s leave of absence instead?”

“With this story going around?” She flicked the paper and the report of their engagement. “My editor would definitely ask questions. An engagement with a time limit? Keep my job for a month, I’ll be back. Or should I tell him you’re planning to move to Sydney?”

Daniel nodded. “You can, if you want.”

Her eyes widened. “But you plan to go outback, return to your geology.”

He raised his coffee cup. “Your editor doesn’t need to know that. Besides, Sydney is as good a base as any.”

“Except that your family and responsibilities are here,” she reminded him.

“So? That’s true for you, too.” He finished his coffee. “All I’m saying is, don’t give up your job because Matt and I pushed you. Do what’s right for you.” He hesitated. “Last night you said love meant manipulation. It shouldn’t, Cate. True love gives freedom. It’s unconditional.”

She stared at him, feeling her heart pick up a jittery, panicked rhythm, and not from the caffeine she’d just drunk. What was he saying?

“You’re forming a new, adult relationship with your dad. Don’t fall into old habits of trying to please him. Do what’s right for you.”

Her heartbeat steadied. Daniel was worried about her relationship with her dad. He wasn’t talking about love, not personally. She took a sip of coffee and forced herself to concentrate on the question.

What’s right for me? Did she even know any more?

Forget the wider issue and concentrate on the question of your job. She recalled the leap of excitement inside her when Daniel had mentioned tackling her idea for a second book. Working as a journalist at the paper had ceased to give her that sense of anticipation and satisfaction. Why not pursue her dream?

Her dad’s monetary gift meant she could afford a year researching and writing her book. She would interview Australians about what they called home. Rich people, poor people, immigrants, country, city, even those who carried their homes with them by caravanning. She would find out what made a home, where they gave their hearts, and by what gift they found a sense of belonging.

“I’ll do it.”

“Does that mean you’re requesting a leave of absence, or resigning?” Daniel observed her closely.

She smiled. “It means I’m resigning. I mightn’t have if you hadn’t suggested it.” And since when had she gotten stuck in such a rut? been so scared of daring something new? “But now that you have suggested it, I can’t resist. I want to write this book about ‘home’ and what it means for Australians.”

“I’m glad. I think you have a talent for writing from the heart which it would be a crime to waste.” He glanced down, then back at her, a flicker of uncertainty breaking through his warm approval. “If you need some money to live on while you write…”

“Dad’s insisted on a gift,” she broke in before he could offer her money. She knew it would be well meant, but she couldn’t accept money from him. It wasn’t simply pride. She didn’t want to complicate their already tangled relationship. She wanted to be acknowledged as an equal.

“I’d have offered a loan.” He seemed to read her mind. “My part in your brilliance. I don’t have a creative talent, but I respect it in others.”

She thought of his collection of Aboriginal art and nodded.

He smiled. “I’m glad you didn’t let pride stop you accepting Matt’s gift.”

“I realised that rejecting the money would have been rejecting Dad, in a sense. It’s his way of offering caring.”

“Money can protect those we love.”

The understanding in his voice took her back six years. He’d agreed to marry her for the money to save his company and through the company, to provide his mum and sister with security and comfort.

Back then, he hadn’t asked what she’d wanted. Her dreams would have been sacrificed to his mum and sister’s comfort.

Really, when she thought about it, this pretend engagement between them was yet another example of sacrificing her freedom to Amie’s dreams, in this case, her wedding.

She had to pretend a tie to Daniel just so—

Be fair. Cate pulled up her thoughts. She’d agreed to the pretence because it also protected Rob and her dad. Daniel wasn’t using her. They were both protecting those they loved from disillusionment and conflict. They were co-conspirators. And lovers.

Old hurts ought to be forgotten. Cate was ashamed of her unfair thoughts. Daniel was a good man. He would never knowingly hurt her. Look how careful of her he was in bed. She smiled at him. “You have a strong protective streak.”

“I can’t help how I’m made.” A hint of colour flushed his skin.

“I’m not complaining.” She liked that he used his strength, of mind, body and spirit, to help others. She liked what he shared of himself with her. She reached out and touched his thigh, feeling the muscles flex under her hand. “But I’m glad that you’re free of some of your business responsibilities and can follow your own dreams.”

And with Amie and his mum both marrying, he really would be free. He had a new life waiting him.

“Will you go outback after Amie’s wedding?”

“Possibly.”

“Only possibly.” She grinned, teasing. “I think heading outback and avoiding the gossip of our second broken engagement sounds great.”

“You could come with me,” he offered casually.

For a moment she was stunned into silence. She withdrew her hand, and laughed, a little uncertainly. “I don’t think that would fit our story of a broken engagement.”

“We could delay the story.” He didn’t sound as if he cared either way. “See how your book outline unfolds, but if you want stories of outback homes, I wouldn’t mind company on a road trip.”

She struggled to digest the offer. She’d thought he would cut the ties between them after Rob and Amie’s wedding, that she would have to adjust to an uncomfortable ex-lover/distant friendship relationship. Instead, he seemed to be leaving the door open.

“I’ll think about it,” she said, striving to sound equally casual. But her blood pulsed. She had a sudden, disturbing vision of them making love under a star bright sky. Their skin would be cool from the desert night, except where they touched.

He nodded and stood. “You can use the phone in my study if you want to call your editor and resign. Will they accept that you don’t want to work out your notice?”

With an effort, she shook off the sensuous fantasy and brought her mind to practicalities. “My work’s either up to date or easily re-assigned, and there are a tonne of new journalist graduates who would slit throats for my job. I don’t think Patrick will mind my resignation. He’s probably read about our engagement and expects my phone call.”

She was right.

Patrick accepted her decision philosophically. “You can write like a journalist, but you’re too soft-hearted. When your book’s published, let me know and we’ll review it in the paper.”

It was a lovely vote of confidence. Cate thanked him, and typed up her formal resignation letter. She emailed it and stared a long moment at the screen.

Her bridges were burning behind her. She found she liked the heat.

“All okay?” Daniel stuck his head around the study door. At her smile, he walked in.

“Everything’s brilliant.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and kissed him with leisurely satisfaction.

He responded enthusiastically.

Enthusiastically enough that she whispered in his ear. “Remember my desk fantasy?”

He groaned. “I have the world’s worst timing.”

“What?” She pulled back to look at him.

“I’ve been speaking with a real estate agent. You know how Amie and Rob are having problems finding a house they both like?”

“Yes.” Cate definitely remembered the discussion at dinner last night. Even billing and cooing, the tension of house hunting had introduced a note of strain between Rob and Amie.

“I think I may have found the perfect house, but I want to see it before I pass on the address to Amie.”

“Fair enough.” She understood and shared his desire not to add any possible fuel to the sparks between Rob and Amie. “Are you telling me you’ve set up a viewing time for this morning?”

“Mmhmm. I hoped you’d come with me.”

She cast a mock-regretful glance at the desk behind them. “I guess I will, unless I can change your mind?”

“All too easily,” he said. “So be good.”

They collected a key from the real estate agency and drove out of the city centre, heading west.

Cate kept one eye on the clock, since one of Rob’s requirements was a house no further than fifteen minutes from his work.

At the very limit of that criterion, Daniel said. “Nearly there. Next street.”

She relaxed and looked around. The suburb was old and lovely even on a grey day. In one front yard she saw a young boy romping with a golden retriever that alternately licked him and beat him with its plumy tail. Both were in paroxysms of joy rolling in a sodden pile of raked leaves. She grinned. Wait till his mum saw the state of his clothes.

“Here we are.” Daniel stopped the car outside a rambling, red brick house. It looked to be a century old, built in the Federation style and beautifully presented. Around it tall trees were losing their leaves, spilling bright autumn colour into the surrounding cottage garden. “We can go inside. The owners have moved out, so the place is empty. We can take our time looking.”

“Especially since you shook off the real estate agent.” She grinned. She hadn’t liked the agent.

He’d been Daniel’s age, but pudgy with soft living and self-indulgence. He had recognised Daniel and slotted Cate into place as the newly announced fiancée, but it hadn’t stopped his sly gaze sliding over her. He’d been assessing her availability as much as he’d coveted Daniel’s wealth. Icky.

“The house isn’t listed with that guy.” Daniel apparently shared her opinion of him. “It’s with Jack Bronte, but he had another appointment and left the key for me. I said we’d be happy to show ourselves around since it’s empty. I think a house is better seen without strangers. Don’t you agree?”

He stopped and on the small front veranda swivelled her around so that she looked back down the front path.

Her breath caught. She could see the ocean. Under the grey clouds it looked sullen, but she could imagine the deep blue of its summer colours, its wild grandeur on stormy days, and the glory of watching the sun set over its endless horizon.

“Next stop, Africa.” She leaned back against him and ran her hands along his forearms. “I’ve always wanted a sea view.”

“This is a good one.” He rested his cheek against her hair, his warm breath curling around her ear. “You can just see Rottnest Island on a clear day—or so Jack assured me.”

He unlocked the front door and they went in.

The house was spacious, welcoming and expensively appointed. It had been extended and renovated, but so sensitively that the house retained its period charm. Cate particularly loved the master bedroom with its bow window, fireplace and an ensuite with a bathtub big enough for two people.

“Hedonistic.”

Daniel chuckled in lazy masculine appreciation. “Hedonism can be enjoyable, with the right person.” He didn’t touch her, but his heated glance stroked her body with the same effect.

For her, he was definitely the right person with whom to indulge. She could see herself lounging in the tub with him. Their bodies would be sleek and wet, slippery and heated with desire.

“Caty, you’re flushed.”

She didn’t risk answering, but skedaddled for the safety of the country-style kitchen. The sound of his laughter pursued her and she laughed too. Perhaps her sudden attack of shyness was ridiculous, but there was no disparagement, only indulgence and enjoyment in his laughter.

He followed her to the kitchen and leaned comfortably against an island bench. Despite the absence of furniture, she easily imagined the room filled with a family, laughter and love. In her mind’s eye she saw two blonde boys competing with one another, and banding together to tease and protect a little sister. Strangely, none of them looked like Rob or Amie.

“Do you like the house?”

“It’s beautiful. Anyone living here would be happy.” She touched the smooth marble of the bench top. It was a family home, designed to shelter a loving, laughing family. The sort of family she’d belonged to before her mum died. Was that when I gave up my dreams of happy ever after?

“I hope so,” he said, responding to her comment. He opened the back door. “Have you seen the garden?” He ushered her out and kept his hand at her waist.

The sun came out from behind its curtain of clouds and they saw the garden at its best. Raindrops glimmered on roses and dripped from pink petunias. Drifts of white alyssum added to the romantic feel.

He tipped his head back and looked up at a tall jacaranda tree. “I always wanted a tree house.”

She looked at his distant, dreaming expression and made a discovery. “You want kids!”

“Some day.” He glanced at her. “I’d like to watch my son play football and my daughter learn to pirouette—or vice versa.” He grinned “I like kids. How about you?”

“I like them. I’ve not really thought about having them myself.” Except that lunchtime in the city when she’d wondered if she and he would have had kids if they’d married six years ago. “You’d have time for kids, now. You’re not driven to prove anything in business.”

“I’d always have time for my kids, and my wife.” He snapped off a stalk of lavender and gave it to her.

“Thank you.” She inhaled the old-fashioned romantic scent. Her muscles weakened as she recognised the desire in his expression. “Daniel?”

He smoothed her hair behind her ears and tilted up her face. He kissed the corner of her mouth, the other corner, and brushed his lips lightly back and forth, slowly deepening the kiss until their mouths fused. One large hand ran caressingly down her spine to rest at her hip, before he reluctantly pulled away. “It’s raining.”

She blinked as a raindrop landed on her nose. “I don’t care.” She tangled one hand in his hair and pulled him back down to her, stretching on tiptoe to arch and align her hips to his heat.

It was raining, but the sun continued to shine. The sun-shower dampened their hair and trickled down their faces. Cate wondered if it was possible to die of pleasure as she tasted the cool contrast of the rain against Daniel’s skin. She followed a trickle of rain down his throat.

“We have to stop.” His voice rasped. He trapped her hands. “Where this is going, isn’t possible in a suburban yard.”

Shaken and blurry with passion, she had to agree. She smiled crookedly. “We should be steaming.”

“Speak for yourself. I am.”

She laughed.

He handed her his car keys and gave her a gentle push. “Come on. You get in the car while I lock up. I don’t want to trail our wet bodies through the house.”

She followed the narrow brick path around the house, brushing against a rosemary bush which added its own share of water to her damp jeans. She decided she was so wet a little more didn’t matter and stood at the front gate, looking back at the house and then at its sea view.

Daniel wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “You’ll catch a cold.”

“From a little bit of rain? No way. It’s a beautiful house, everything a home should be.”

“Come into the car and tell me what a home should be. What will you write in your book?”

They sat in the four wheel drive with the rain curtaining them from the world.

She wiped her face with a tissue, while he used the sleeve of his shirt. “We’re making your car wet.”

“It’s built for it.” He turned towards her in his seat. “Tell me what home means to you.”

She looked at the house in front of them and tried to banish a feeling of wistfulness. “Home is where the heart finds healing, hope, comfort and joy. It is made by love. Otherwise, it’s just a place where you live.”

“Like my penthouse.”

“What? No.” She turned and looked at him. “Your penthouse is lovely.”

He shrugged. “It’s just a place to come back to. It gives me privacy and somewhere to store my gear, but I wouldn’t call it a home by your definition.”

“By my definition, my flat in Sydney isn’t a home either.”

“Maybe it’s time for us both to move on?” He stared at the rain running down the windscreen. “How do I build a home, Cate?”

She looked at his profile. He was strong and successful. Who would guess he had these dreams, wanted children and a wife, a happy home? The muscles in her stomach clenched.

When their affair finished, would he look for a permanent lover?

It wasn’t any of her business.

Her hands clenched and she consciously relaxed them, smoothing them over the damp denim of her jeans. “I don’t know how you build a home. It’s what Rob and Amie are trying to work out. Maybe it includes compromise, commitment? My mum built a home. Olivia’s doing the same with Dad’s house. Maybe all it needs is love.”

“And is love so simple?” His voice was low and rough.

She turned and looked at the rain. “No,” she said slowly. “Love isn’t simple at all.”

Chapter Nine

Cate and Daniel rode up in the lift to the penthouse in a thoughtful silence, with their wet clothes sticking to them.

“I think I overlooked a couple of things on my list of what makes a home,” she said as they hurried into the apartment. “It should be warm and dry.”

He pulled her close for a quick, warm hug and touched his mouth to hers. “Even your lips are cold.”

“Mmm.” She snuggled into his warmth. “Yours aren’t.”

His phone rang.

He hesitated.

“Go on. I need to dry off anyway.” She headed for her room and a hot shower.

“Hi, Amie. Yes, Cate’s here.”

She stopped.

“No, she can’t come to the phone. No. No, that’s not the reason. She’s wet and needs to change.”

Cate came back and held her hand out.

He pulled a face, but passed her the phone.

“Hi, Amie. I’m fine. I just got caught in the rain.” She watched him give an unwilling shrug, accepting her right to stand and talk while she grew steadily colder. He stripped off his shirt, heading for the bathroom. His muscles flexed, and she had to bring her attention sternly back to the phone conversation. It was easier if she didn’t look at him. “Daniel and I were looking at a lovely old house—”

“Ugh,” Amie interrupted. “I hate old houses.”

“You do?” Cate blinked. She looked around, but Daniel had vanished. She shivered in her damp clothes.

“I prefer new houses. Old houses are yuck. What if someone had died in one? Anyway, why I called, I was thinking about bridesmaid dresses.”

Cate hunched her shoulders and listened absently as Amie rambled.

Mostly Amie wanted an audience to share her excitement. She had decided on a garden wedding. “Beautiful photographs and less hassle about booking a venue, which is important given we’ve only got a month to organise things.”

And then there was the question of clothes. “Buy something you like,” Amie said earnestly. “You’ll be my only bridesmaid, just as Daniel will be Rob’s best man. It’ll be an intimate wedding.”

“I think a garden wedding sounds lovely,” Cate said and rang off with a promise to look for a suitable bridesmaid’s dress.

“Daniel.” She put down the phone and went looking for him. She found him stepping out of the bathroom wearing clean jeans and towelling his hair dry. She folded her arms for warmth and tried not to sound accusing as she said. “Amie says she hates old houses.”

“Does she?” The towel hid his face for a second, then he dropped it round his shoulders and looked at her. “If the house is lovely enough, she’ll change her mind. Amie has enthusiasms.”

“Enthusiasm” could be Amie’s middle name. Despite her extravagant claims of not liking old houses, Daniel could be right and she’d change her mind when presented with one as perfect as the one they’d seen that morning. After all, he’d know his sister’s behaviour better than Cate would.

He reached for a shirt and pulled it on, buttoning it casually.

Cate automatically picked up the towel that had slipped to the floor.

He took it from her hand. “I am house trained.” He draped the wet towel over a bathroom rail. “You’re cold. Have a hot shower. I’ll make sandwiches. Then after lunch, we can buy you a ring.”

The hot shower drove the chill from Cate’s flesh, and over a lunch of cheese and tomato grilled sandwiches, Daniel looked so normal that she felt embarrassed by her own suspicions.

How had she thought he’d tricked her into looking at a house more suitable for them, than for modern-minded Amie and Rob?

There is no “us”, she reminded herself fiercely. She didn’t want an “us”. She was comfortable and safe being independent. Her relationship with Daniel was a temporary affair. They would both move on to new lives.

Though her stomach knotted when she thought of him marrying an unknown woman and having children with her. He would have children, and she’d have a book and her independence.

“Not hungry?” He cleared away their plates.

“Not really.” She managed to smile. “I think I need more exercise.” She caught Daniel’s eye and blushed. “Not in bed, or at least, not now.”

He grinned. “How about we walk down to the jeweller’s? It’s stopped raining.”

She glanced out the window, concentrating on the view rather than her own thoughts. The clouds had cleared away. A weak sun shone, glittering on the river far below. “A walk sounds good.”

They walked hand in hand, strolling along and stopping to look in shop windows.

“I thought you’d be more impatient, an A to B man with no time for meanderings,” she said as they looked in a bookshop window.

“Sometimes. But I find I like meandering with you.” His thumb moved caressingly against her wrist.

Fleetingly, she leant her head against her shoulder. “You’re a sweet-talker.”

He smiled down at her. “Can I sweet-talk you into a ring?”

“Very probably,” she said, and loved how the smile creases in his lean face deepened.

They walked on a few steps and he pushed open the door to the exclusive jewellery store.

An elderly man looked up from his study of a morning newspaper. He had a fringe of white hair around a bald patch which shone in the store’s elegant lighting. Silver-rimmed spectacles perched on his nose, giving him a comically inquisitive expression as he peered over them.

Daniel introduced himself and Cate, and the jeweller brightened. He glanced betrayingly at a paper lying on the counter. “You are, perhaps, after an engagement ring?”

“Yes.” Daniel glanced down at her. “Though I’m not sure what style we want.”

“Something fairly traditional. Not ostentatious.”

The jeweller beamed his approval and studied Cate’s slender fingers a moment. “I would suggest a gold band with your skin tone. As for the stone, were you thinking diamonds? Some ladies prefer a coloured stone like a ruby, or a mixture? We could design something.”

“No, we’d like something today.” Daniel was uncompromising.

“Of course. And do you have any preferences?

“A diamond, I guess. I don’t want it snagging in things.” She’d hate to lose a loose stone in the month she wore the ring.

“A low setting,” the jeweller murmured. “Ah.” He dived into his back room and returned carrying a small tray.

“Oh.” Cate stared at the ring displayed on a square of black velvet. A pink diamond glowed in its simple setting.

“You like it.” Daniel picked up the ring and her hand, and slid the ring into place. He looked into her eyes.

“A perfect fit,” the jeweller said.

Cate and Daniel simply stared at one another. The cool gold band warmed fast, seeming to scorch her skin.

Six years ago, he hadn’t bought her a ring. There hadn’t been even a pretence of romance in their arranged marriage. But now, her fingers trembled in his hold, and she had to force her gaze away from the blue intensity of his eyes.

“The ring is beautiful.” She tilted her hand and the diamond sparkled as it caught the light. It was a ring of celebration and promise. Far too good for a pretence. She wanted to hand it back to the jeweller and ask for something less beautiful.

“We’ll take it.” Daniel took a credit card out of his wallet. “Thank you.”

While the jeweller processed the payment, Daniel raised Cate’s hand to his lips and kissed it. Then he kissed her lips.

Dazedly, she tried to hold onto the fact that this was all for show, like the ring itself. But her body knew that the passion between them was real.

“Ahem.” The jeweller handed Daniel the receipt and a box for the ring. He smiled discreetly, brown eyes twinkling behind his spectacles. “I can design a matching wedding ring. Something to keep in mind.”

Daniel slipped the box and receipt into his pocket. “I’ll keep it in mind. Good-bye.”

“Good-bye,” Cate echoed faintly. She waited till they were outside the jewellery store, then the words burst out. “Don’t you dare buy a wedding ring. That’s taking pretence too far.”

“Well, when I start something, I like to finish it, but I’ll try to control my urge to complete the set.”

She glanced up from studying the ring to protest, and realised she was being teased. All her confused emotions and expectations whooshed out in a loud breath.

He laughed. “What should we do now?” He took her hand and ran his thumb over the ring.

“I don’t know.” She looked down at their joined hands. “I really don’t know. I guess I promised Amie I’d look for a bridesmaid’s dress.”

“Perfect. I’ll help.”

“You?” She stared at him.

He looked triumphant and vitally masculine, not a perfect fit for a dress shop.

“You model, and I’ll give you my opinion, on the dress.”

“Won’t you be bored?”

A wolfish grin slashed his face. “Not likely. I like looking at you, Caty.”

She fought her blush and shook her head. “I don’t know what shops to try. I should have asked Amie for a recommendation.”

“Never mind.” He put her hand at his waist, then slipped his own arm around her. “We’ll wander along and see what we find.”

They found an expensive boutique where the sales assistant swayed forward on three inch heels that had Cate wincing at the thought of standing in them all day.

The woman’s blonde hair was cut short and styled to dramatic sleekness, and contrasted smartly with her flattering little black dress.

Cate was uneasily reminded of the utilitarian nature of her own clothes.

“I’m Moira. How may I help you?” The sales woman recognised the value of Cate’s engagement ring instantly, sighed once in Daniel’s direction, then gave herself totally to the task of fitting Cate with a stunning, and stunningly expensive, gown.

“But it’s not a bridesmaid’s dress,” Cate wailed as the woman ruthlessly zipped her into a figure-hugging, cleavage-displaying, thigh-baring firecracker red dress. “It’s not appropriate.”

“With a man like yours waiting for me out front. I’d forget about appropriate.” She gave Cate a push. “Don’t be shy. With your figure, you’ll knock him dead.”

“Shy? There’d be more fabric in a corset,” Cate muttered.

“We sell those too.”

Cate hurried out of the change room, pretending not to hear.

It didn’t matter that Daniel had seen her nude, she felt naked in this dress. She walked up to him hurriedly. “I know it’s not a bridesmaid’s dress. The sales lady here is pushy. There’s a frothy peach silk and lace dress which will suit a garden wedding better. It’s more—”

“You’re gorgeous.”

“Daniel!” The heated look in his eyes peaked her nipples.

Of course he noticed and smiled. “We’ll buy this one for fun. Go try on the other dress.”

The sales assistant refrained from saying, “I told you so”, but her eyes were eloquent. She held up the garden party frock.

Cate took it thankfully. She felt raw and exposed. It was natural that her body responded to Daniel’s interest and she felt comfortable enjoying the sexual tension between them. But when she’d raced out of the changing room to assure him she wasn’t looking to buy something inappropriate for Amie’s bridesmaid, she hadn’t been thinking of sexual tension. She’d been worried about his approval.

Since when do I need someone else’s approval?

Her emotions scared Cate. Hadn’t she learned her lesson six years ago? She’d spent her teen years striving to earn her dad’s approval. She’d squashed her own dreams and the daring, independent side of her nature to reassure her dad that all was well with her. She’d done everything to earn his infrequent, sad smile after her mum’s death. And her uncertain, teenage search for approval had been met with the stunning bluntness of an attempted arranged marriage and the destruction of her dreams.

She’d forgiven her dad, but she wouldn’t forget the lesson: a strong woman, a survivor, lived by self-validation, not by the approval of another.

To find herself weakening into fearing Daniel’s disapproval and trying to avoid it, horrified her. She’d been seduced by the day’s romantic false dreams: house-hunting as part of a couple, buying an engagement ring, and now, modelling for a lover.

Cate looked down at the dress. At least this feminine creation wouldn’t bring the heated look to Daniel’s eyes. It was a dress for a wedding, a charming dress to celebrate love and happy-ever-after. It didn’t seduce, it promised.

Amie would love it.

Cate shook out the folds of the peach dress and checked the scooped neckline, its modesty protected with lace. In the mirror, she looked elegant and summery, and as she walked, the silk skirt flirted about her ankles.

Daniel stood as she walked towards him.

She kept her eyes steady on his face, trying to blank her own expression. She didn’t want to care what he thought.

His gaze swept the length of her and returned to her face. At his sides, his hands clenched, and he thrust them into his pockets.

“It’s almost bridal, isn’t it? Perfect for a bridesmaid,” the sale assistant said. “Truly lovely.”

“Yes.” Daniel cleared his throat.

“I think Amie will like it.” Cate glanced down at the dress, glad to look away from him. She didn’t trust the way her heart thumped, reading messages in his silence. Despite her embarrassment in the daring red dress, she preferred his heated, teasing approval to this unnamed tension.

The sales assistant broke the silence. “You can bring your friend in tomorrow, if you like. Is she the bride?”

“Yes.” Cate smoothed a lace frill. “Amie’s marrying my brother in a month.”

“That doesn’t allow much time.” The other woman frowned. “Definitely bring your friend in as soon as you can. I don’t think the dress needs much alteration, if she approves it. But you’ll need to think of matching accessories. Maybe a hat?”

“I’ll bring Amie in, tomorrow.” Cate was glad of the sales assistant’s spate of words, and the reminder of their real purpose in the shop. “Excuse me, I’ll change back into my everyday clothes.”

And my everyday mind, she added silently.

She stripped off the peach silk and hung it carefully before pulling on the familiar practicality of her chambray shirt and trousers.

Daniel bought the red dress while Cate changed.

She saw the white and gold bag he held, but didn’t challenge him. She felt too unsettled. A lover could buy such things, and enjoy the giving and receiving. If she protested, how could she explain the protest? Unless she wanted to call a halt to their love-making?

She cuddled herself around his arm. “Let’s go home.”

“Will you model the red dress again?”

The tension between them eased; shifted into the less stressful realm of desire.

“I could be convinced,” she said.

“So do we take a taxi or walk?”

She saw the teasing in his eyes. “For that, I’ll make you wait and walk.” She released his arm and he slipped it around her waist.

“You’re punishing yourself, too.” He caressed her hip a moment, then pulled her closer. “You don’t have to model the dress.”

“I wouldn’t mind.” She wet her lips and looked up at him from under lowered lashes. “But someone promised me an office fantasy. There was mention of a desk…”

“Promises should always be kept,” he agreed solemnly. “Tell me, what did the fantasy include?”

She glanced around, but no one was close enough to hear their murmured exchange. “Well, I thought I’d be a journalist interviewing a sexy businessman, and each time I get an answer I like, I undo a button, maybe take off a piece of clothing.”

“What questions will you be asking?” Daniel’s voice went husky.

It bolstered her confidence with the sexual game. She put her arm around his waist and angled her body so the side of her breast brushed him as they walked.

“Questions?” She sounded demure. “I thought I’d ask what you like. What sounds do you like a woman to make in love-making, whimpers or words, sighs or screams? Where do you like to touch her? How do you like her to touch you? If I like your answers, we’ll move on to a practical demonstration.”

She felt the tension in his body and the faster rhythm of his breathing. Her own body was heating and melting. Words, just words, but they seduced them both.

“Tell me,” he said.

“For the practical demonstration, you’ll be sitting in your chair. It’s large and solid and leather. I’ll be naked. I’ll slide onto your lap and help you undress. I’ll touch you the way you tell me to, and then, you’ll touch me, until we’re both so hot and desperate for one another that you stretch me out across your desk and plunge into me.”

He shifted the shopping bag so it covered the evidence of his arousal.

“And I’ll take you so deep and so strong that you scream my name, and I’ll explode like a firecracker from the pleasure of you thrusting into me on the wide, smooth, wooden desk,” She finished triumphantly as they walked into the lobby of the apartment building.

He punched the lift button. The doors opened and he pulled Cate inside and hit the penthouse button. He pushed her back against the wall, lifting her to cradle his hardness, and thrust against her. “You, torment.”

He thrust again, and she rode the strength of his need. She ached for the reality of his possession. His mouth came down on her, and she answered from her own hunger. Lips and tongues mated, and demanded more.

The lift doors opened, and he stumbled out, carrying her wrapped around him. He groaned with the agonising friction of each step.

Somehow they got the penthouse door open, themselves inside, and the door shut again against the outside world.

“Cate. Caty.”

She felt the door at her back, bracing her weight, and brought his hands to her breasts. She sobbed as his fingers dug and massaged. Pleasure broke over her like surf on a summer day.

“My turn.” He stripped off her trousers and his jeans, and fitted protection. Then he came up into her with a passionate intensity that had her shattering a second time. “Caty…I like all the sounds you make…but mostly…I like my name.”

He thrust a final time, and she screamed it. “Daniel!”

They rested against one another, recovering breath and identity.

“I feel ravished.” Her breath sighed against his throat. She licked a glistening of sweat beading there. “It feels wonderful.”

“It sure does.” He smoothed her hair. “You seduced me.”

“I know.” She smiled, feeling smug.

“I like it.” He hugged her tightly before allowing her to slide down his body.

They re-dressed and straightened their clothes.

“Daniel, where’s my red dress?”

“Oh.” Unexpected colour stained his face. He’d forgotten it. He went out and retrieved it from a corner of the lift.

She laughed. “Thank you, sir.” She accepted the shopping bag and stretched up to kiss his cheek. “You’re cute when you’re embarrassed. And thank you for buying me a beautiful dress.”

“You’re very welcome.”

“I think I should call Amie about the bridesmaid’s dress.”

“Okay. I’ll make some coffee while you call her.”

Cate watched him walk into the kitchen, and tingled from their recent encounter. He was a gorgeous man.

Sternly, she brought her mind back to business.

Amie was delighted Cate might have found a bridesmaid’s dress, and promised to meet her tomorrow to view it.

“I’m so excited. I’ve booked a photographer and a caterer, and tonight, Rob and I will write our vows. A garden wedding suits me so much better than a formal church affair. Have you thought where you and Daniel will marry?” Fortunately, Amie didn’t wait for a response. “He’s pretty traditional. No bungee-jumping wedding for my brother. Still, you’re tall enough to look beautiful in a traditional wedding gown.”

Cate took advantage of Amie’s pause for breath to redirect the conversation away from a tummy-churning discussion of her mythical wedding. “Have you decided on your style of wedding dress?”

“Al-most,” Amie drew out the word. “I can’t have anything too frilly. Being short, I’d look like a frothy meringue. I think I will wear white. It shows up against a green garden and blue sky. Do you think I could get away with a mini-skirted wedding dress?”

“If anyone can, it’s you, Amie.”

She giggled. “I don’t think I’ll risk it, though. Mum would have a fit. Did Daniel tell you how pleased Mum is to hear you’re marrying him?”

Cate’s heart sank. “Did you tell her?”

“Me?” Amie’s voice rose in astonishment. “Daniel phoned her.”

“Oh.” Cate’s hand tightened around the phone. How could he? “I have to go, Amie. I’ll see you tomorrow about the dress.” She hung up and flexed her tense fingers.

“Daniel.” She tracked him to the kitchen. “You told your mum we’re engaged.”

He looked at her cautiously, probably picking up the note of strain in her voice. “I had to. It’s not the sort of secret a son keeps from his mum.”

She collapsed onto a bar stool. “But it’s such a lie, and it just seems to be spreading and spreading. Amie asked where we’d be married.”

“A church.”

“We’re not getting married.” She took a deep breath. No need to shriek. “Amie said you’d be traditional.”

“See.” He handed her a cup of coffee and slid a packet of chocolate biscuits along the counter. “We’re just doing what people expect. We can break reality to them after Amie and Rob are safely married.”

“I guess.” She took a chocolate biscuit and ate it moodily.

Daniel sat on the stool next to her and nudged her knee. “I was going to suggest we go out to dinner, tonight, to show off your engagement ring and the red dress, but with you worried about our engagement—”

“Our fake engagement.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to go out and pretend to be happy.”

He went still. “Are you unhappy, truly unhappy?”

“I…I’m uncomfortable lying to people.” She looked at his concerned expression, his doubt. She reached out her hand and touched his arm. “I’m not unhappy about us. I like this time with you.”

“I’m glad.” He covered her hand with his.

“So.” She took a sip of coffee. “Dinner. What about a romantic picnic dinner here above the crowds?”

“You and me and candlelight? You could convince me.”

They drove down to a gourmet deli to buy the makings of their picnic dinner: salads of Thai beef, Greek and char-grilled vegetables, smoked meats and roast chicken, crusty bread rolls, cheeses and olives, and strawberry tarts for dessert.

Used to solitary grocery shopping, Cate enjoyed the novelty of shopping with a partner. You could consult, share likes and dislikes, and simply enjoy a sense of belonging. It was seductive.

Daniel appeared to enjoy the shopping, too, though he protested she’d only brought him along to carry the bags. “You only want me for my muscles,” he said as the penthouse lift carried them up.

“I did offer to take a bag.” She winked. “Though you’re right. I adore your muscles.”

“Do you, Caty?” He smiled slowly, as lazy and satisfied as a basking lion. “You’ll have to show me.”

A shiver slid down her spine.

The lift doors opened.

He swung a shopping bag to keep the doors open. “After you.”

She stepped past him, aware of his height and width. Because he was always gentle with her, tempering his strength to their pleasure, she had never considered his potential for physical dominance.

His self-control spoke of caring. He was a gentleman, in the true, literal sense of the word.

She used the security card he’d given her to open the door, then stretched up and kissed him while his hands were occupied holding the grocery bags.

It was a very good kiss, even if she said so herself. Sexy, hungry and full of promise.

He blinked when she retreated. “Well, now.”

“Uh huh.” She shook a finger. “Groceries to the kitchen while I find us a picnic blanket.”

She chose a hunter green blanket from the linen closet and spread it on the floor in front of the floor length windows, over-looking the river. Evening shadows were drawing in, tracing patterns across the river and parkland. Soon the streetlights would go on. Far above the world, she and Daniel could watch and dream.

“A picnic is a great idea.” He popped a strawberry in her mouth as she entered the kitchen. “We can eat the food we want, in the way we want.”

“Mmm.” She savoured the flavour of the strawberry, her tongue licking the juice from her lower lip.

He bent and shared the treat, his tongue stroking slowly into her mouth.

Desire coiled through her.

He drew back, his eyes full of the knowledge of her response. “Champagne?”

“Lovely”

While he opened the bottle, she transferred their food to plates for later serving, and brought the platter of fruit to the picnic blanket.

He detoured to the sound system and put on a sultry Blues collection, then he handed her a glass of champagne and stretched out beside her.

Dry and smooth, the champagne sparkled on her tongue. She took a second sip, then set the glass aside. She met his smiling eyes, and slid down so her posture mirrored his, lying on one side, supported by an elbow. She took the glass from his hand, and put it safely out of the way.

“A private picnic has certain benefits beyond food,” she murmured.

“Such as?”

She gave him a gentle push onto his back. He went willingly. Her finger traced the line of his open collar. “Such as dress standards. You’re much too over-dressed.”

“You’ll have to do something about that.” His gaze locked with hers, challenging and demanding.

“I intend to.” She straddled his hips and bent to the task of unbuttoning first his shirt, then hers. She felt the contrast of his crisp chest hair and her own soft skin against her fingers. Male to female. Beneath her, his body stirred, and she rocked gently in answer.

His mouth tightened and she bent to soften it with kisses. He caught her, brushing off her shirt and unclasping her bra, dragging it from her so that the heated friction of skin against skin had no barrier. She teased him with the hard points of her nipples, before pushing upwards, breaking contact long enough to undress completely.

He breathed out unevenly as she stretched out over him again. “I think I’m definitely over-dressed.” Still in his jeans, his desire strained against them.

“Shall I help?” She unzipped his jeans and found him. She licked her lips.

He groaned.

She grinned, and fell on him, kissing his mouth in a seductive taunt, sucking his tongue in the way he wanted her to take him.

He retaliated, cupping the naked heat of her and torturing her with pleasure.

She broke their kiss to gasp his name.

“Any more teasing or is it time for the main course?” he asked.

“I’m starving.”

Afterwards he pulled on his jeans and she wore his shirt while they ate. Then they abandoned the food to shower together before collapsing onto his bed.

“I’m exhausted.” She was a body of satisfied jelly.

“In a good way?” He pulled the covers over them and shifted her into the curve of his body.

“In a brilliant way.” She cuddled his arm against her, enjoying the snuggling. She yawned, her eyes closed and she slept.

A delicious tension in her breasts woke her. She stretched and arched, the blurriness of sleep easing into recognition of Daniel’s touch. She opened her eyes and saw his intent face as his fingers shaped and tugged and teased her breasts.

The moonlight showed the tender line of his mouth.

She traced it with an idle finger and felt his smile.

He bent and his mouth replaced his hands. He licked one nipple, blew it gently as one might cool a coffee, then suckled its tension.

“Don’t stop.” Her breathing became ragged.

Her other breast received the same treatment.

She wove her fingers in his hair, massaging his scalp. He sucked hard, and she shook with reaction.

“So beautiful.” He kissed her mouth, her eyes, the tender skin of her throat, saluted her breasts again, and finally, entered her. She cried out as he tantalised them both, withdrawing only to thrust deeper. “I could lie with you forever, Caty. To see and feel your response to me.” He thrust in slowly, his expression fierce with passion.

“Daniel.” She caught his face, brought his mouth to hers and tasted the moment when his self-discipline broke and the primitive rhythm of loving controlled them both. She surrendered to it, gloried in it, but at the moment of completion, she heard his cry.

“Caty, I love you.”

Her heart froze.

He didn’t notice, but slid from her into sleep, vulnerable and unaware when she quietly left the bed.

Chapter Ten

Cate sat on the grass by the edge of the river. A pair of black swans glided majestically past, as silent as she. The river was glass-still, showing the swans’ reflection and the warming, golden light of dawn.

A sulphur-crested cockatoo screeched a comment, its yellow crest flaring, and was answered by its companionable, raucous mate. They took flight, just ahead of two runners whose sneakered feet hit the pavement in familiar unison.

Even the early morning exercise enthusiasts were out in pairs.

Cate hunched her knees under her chin, huddling more against an emotional coldness than against the cool dawn air. It hurt to breathe and her throat was tight with unshed tears.

Daniel would be angry she’d run.

Would he remember his confession of love? In vino veritas. But apparently truth lurked in sex as well as wine. Its pleasure and intimacy lowered your guards and surrendered you to the other person.

But perhaps all Daniel’s actions had shown his love? She just hadn’t wanted to see it.

From his respect for her virginity, to his stunning introduction to making love.

From his challenge to reconnect with her family, to his protection of her reputation with her family.

“I didn’t ask him to love me.”

The swans drifted out of her line of sight. She looked at the empty river. “I didn’t want commitment.” Only pleasure in today. She was too scared to reach for anything more.

She’d thought she could have an affair, indulge her physical attraction to Daniel, and retain her independence. Other people managed to have casual affairs, but perhaps they didn’t have passionate Sicilian blood in their veins? Maybe they were smarter at drawing limits and sticking to them.

She’d come home to Perth to save her brother from an arranged marriage, and stayed to help him to a true love wedding. So much for a flying visit.

But I have my family back. Her reunion with her dad was a pure joy, and Olivia would keep Matt’s meddling tendencies under control.

Still, was that sufficient reason to impulsively surrender her job and her life in Sydney? If Daniel hadn’t challenged her, would she have dared to throw away the security of an everyday job to follow her dream of writing a second book?

With him, she forgot to be cautious, and now, the consequences of her openness haunted her. She’d agreed to hide their affair with the pretence of an engagement.

She’d been living a lie, pretending to be engaged, pretending to be in love.

And now he had said the words for real. “Caty, I love you.” Cried out when passion had driven him beyond his customary defences.

Four words, and her cocoon of desire and pleasure fell apart.

Daniel wasn’t playing games. He wanted a home and a shared future.

She couldn’t give them to him.

I love you. The words made her feel trapped. They asked too much.

“Stay independent, stay safe.” She repeated her mantra of the last six years, then wiped her eyes and stood. In jeans and black jacket she felt solitary and remote. She’d braided her curling hair uncompromisingly back from her face and her mouth was compressed into a controlled line.

She turned her back on the river and headed for the city and a payphone. She’d let her phone charge rundown, an uncharacteristic forgetfulness, in her preoccupation with Daniel. With him she’d forgotten the fundamental rules of her life.

“Rob?” Phone against her ear, she turned her back to the early office workers striding past. “I haven’t seen much of you. I hoped we might have breakfast.”

He assented with a note of surprise in his voice and named a cafe, offering brief directions. “I’ll see you in twenty minutes.”

Cate replaced the phone, aware that Rob had picked up the tension in her voice. She strolled down to the cafe near her dad’s office, and waited by the florist shop on the corner for him.

“Cate, you should have gone in and had a coffee.” He greeted her with a brotherly kiss. “You look frozen.”

“Yeah, well.” She pushed her hands into the pockets of her jeans. “I’ve been out walking.”

“Walking and thinking?” He held the door of the cafe open for her, his expression concerned as he studied her face.

“Something like that.”

The cafe was cheerfully busy with a white, blue and yellow colour scheme and pine tables and chairs. A middle-aged waitress took their order, greeting Rob by name and smiling when he introduced Cate.

Cate forced an answering smile. “Nice to meet you.” She fidgeted with a sugar packet as the waitress departed with their order.

“All right. What’s wrong?”

She hesitated, not sure what to tell him, not even sure why she had phoned him. Did she intend to tell him her engagement was a fake?

“You know, Dad’s been gloating that he always knew Daniel was the right man for you.”

“Has he?” The sugar packet crumpled. She dropped it onto the table.

“So, the problem is Daniel.” Rob leaned back in his chair.

“No…at least…” Her voice trailed off and she was grateful for the arrival of their breakfasts. “Thank you,” she said to the waitress.

“Sis.”

Reluctantly, she looked at him. Why had she thought phoning him would help?

“Being engaged isn’t easy. I know that. Amie and I nearly broke up. You realise how much your life will change and no matter how much you love the other person, you’re a bit afraid.”

“You were scared?”

Her brother smiled wryly. “Terrified. I was scared I was too dull for Amie, that she would stop loving me—that she’d never really loved me. I resented how she ran to Daniel to fix her world. She should look to me to do that or do it herself. I was scared neither Amie nor I were brave enough for marriage. We could and did hurt each other, lashing out at one another from our own fears and insecurities. Our love meant we had the weapons of knowledge and understanding to tear each other apart.”

Rob’s shoulders lifted as he took a deep breath. “Most of all I was scared Amie would die, like Mum. Her death destroyed Dad. I was scared to risk that hurt of Amie leaving me.”

“Oh, Rob.” She touched his hand in sympathy. Death scarred everyone. “But you’re still engaged, you’re getting married.”

“Yeah. Finally, I sat down and talked with Amie. You see, I realised that giving in to my fear meant living without her, and that was worse than any nightmare. You have to hold onto your courage and—”

“I don’t love Daniel. Our engagement is a fake. We’re just having an affair.” She said it defiantly and sat back, waiting for Rob’s questions and condemnations.

Instead, he shook his head and started eating his bacon and eggs. “You’re only kidding yourself.”

“What?” Where was his older brother outrage?

“If you didn’t have feelings for Daniel, you wouldn’t be this upset.”

“He said he loved me!”

“Told you so,” Rob mumbled.

“You don’t understand.” She gripped the edge of the table. “He can’t love me. He intended to change his life, that’s why he quit as CEO. He’s going to return to the geology work he trained for, and he’s going outback.”

She didn’t want him to change his plans. She wanted him to be free to follow his dreams. Having had her dreams stolen six years ago, she couldn’t and wouldn’t, steal his now.

But Rob didn’t understand. “Well, you went to Africa. Going outback should suit you fine.”

“Yes, but that’s not the point.” She struggled to make sense of her confused thoughts and emotions. It had all seemed so clear down at the river: she was protecting Daniel from his own vulnerability even as she protected herself. If he thought he was in love with her, he’d lose his chance to follow his own dreams.

But here was Rob pointing out that Daniel’s dreams could coincide with hers. Daniel had hinted the same: that she could research Australians’ different concepts of “home” by travelling outback with him.

She shuddered and surrendered the last of her defences to admit the truth. “I can’t love him, Rob.”

Her brother put down his knife and fork. “What you really mean is, you’re scared to admit that you’re head over heels.”

“I think I know my own mind.” Her gaze slid away from Rob’s as she uttered the defiance.

He shook his head. “But do you know your own heart?”

Cate strode along, head down, feet stomping the city pavement. She should never have confided in Rob. The conversation had only tangled her up further. She wanted life to be simple, painless. Instead she felt as if she were choking on emotion.

But she wasn’t in love. Her hands fisted. She couldn’t be.

If she’d had anywhere else to go, she wouldn’t have returned to Daniel’s penthouse. However, her dad would only ask questions, Rob was on Daniel’s side, and Amie was a romantic and Daniel’s sister. She had to retrieve her belongings, herself.

Cate walked into the lobby of the building, and realised she’d left her security entry card in the penthouse. “Hell.” She hesitated a full minute at the intercom switch before reluctantly pressing the button. She didn’t know if she hoped he was there, or not. “Daniel? It’s Cate. I left my card—”

“The door’s open.”

She shivered as she walked into the lift. She didn’t know what to say to him.

How did you refuse a man’s love and show him it was for the best?

Daniel propped his shoulders against the doorframe to the penthouse. He wore dark casual trousers and a raw silk shirt the colour of faded denim. The sleeves were rolled back, showing his powerful forearms, the golden hairs gleaming.

“Runaway Cate,” he said in a low, rough voice.

She eyed him warily, while her heart thudded and her mouth dried. “I needed to think.”

“About me daring to love you?” He straightened, unfolding his arms. “Love isn’t a crime, Cate. You didn’t have to run away.”

“It wasn’t in our deal.” She avoided meeting his eyes. His face could hide expression, but his blue eyes gave him away. In them she could read his pain. It echoed in her heart.

She didn’t love him, not in that give-up-the-world-for-him sense of romantic love, but she cared. As a compassionate person, his pain hurt her.

Liar, whispered a voice. A stranger’s pain doesn’t hurt like this. A stranger’s pain didn’t hurt with every breath. It didn’t pull at your body or ambush your heart.

“Our deal.” He moved out of the doorway. “Come in, Cate. We need to talk.”

She walked past him, careful not to let her arm brush against him, but she inhaled the clean, male scent he exuded and her tummy quivered. In the living area, she turned to face him.

“Our deal was never casual on my part,” he said.

Her world flipped upside down.

“I could see you didn’t trust love, and after the way your dad tried to manipulate you—with my unwitting assistance—six years ago, I understand why. But I fell in love with you at the airport. So tired and cross, and beautiful. Defying me with every breath you took.

“Why do you think I brought you back to my apartment? I could have easily delivered you to a hotel, but I couldn’t let you go. I wanted you close. I wanted to see what sort of woman you’d grown into.

“And then you told me how I’d misjudged you six years ago, how I’d hurt you.” He took a deep breath. “God, Caty, I’m sorry. I didn’t know if you could ever forgive me, could ever see beyond my carelessness to the man I am, now.”

She felt compelled to interrupt. “You never meant to hurt me.”

“No. No, I didn’t. But you still don’t trust me, do you? That’s why you won’t accept that I love you, that you love me.”

She shook her head.

“You do, Cate.” He gripped her upper arms. “At first, I thought it was just physical awareness on your part, and I despised myself for using that. But not to respond to your attraction would have required a saint, not a human, fallible man. And I am a man.”

She was all too aware of that fact—and of the desperation in his voice as he continued.

“You’ve shared more than your body with me. You can try to retreat, but I know your dreams, your hurts, your fears and the joy that makes you tremble. I know that you love passionately and forever. Love me, Cate.”

“I can’t.” The words tore from her.

“Why not?” He spoke to her bent head. “I’ll never hurt you.”

“I wouldn’t let you.” Her head jerked up. Her eyes blazed. “I look after myself.”

He sighed. His grip on her gentled, sliding down her arms to her hands. “That’s the problem, isn’t it? You’re scared to rely on anyone else. You’re scared to make yourself vulnerable through love. I thought, when you forgave your dad…” He released her hands, took a step back. “That leap of faith, you must make yourself.”

The morning light lit the gold fairness of his hair and emphasised his size and strength. He could compel her response—physically, at least—but he wouldn’t. He asked for her free surrender.

“I can’t,” Cate choked and ran to her room.

She packed her bag haphazardly, wiping away a tear with the back of her hand.

Rob and Daniel didn’t understand. They had never had their hearts torn by someone trying to manipulate their love.

Love delivered your happiness into someone else’s hands.

“I’m safer alone.” Safer, colder. Her satin robe slid through her hands and she picked it up from the floor and threw it onto a chair. She wouldn’t take it with her. Already she carried too many memories.

She zipped the backpack closed. In the silent room, she heard the ragged sound of her breathing. She had to get out before she broke.

Daniel waited in the living area. The lines on his face deepened when he saw the backpack. “Where will you go?”

“A hotel.” Anywhere to escape the pain in her heart when she looked at him.

“I’ll drive you.”

She shook her head. “Please, don’t.” She took the engagement ring off her finger and stared at it a moment. Then she held it out to him.

His jaw thrust forward, firming against emotion. “I meant it to be forever. Keep the ring, Cate.”

Her lip trembled and she bit it. She didn’t notice the pain. “Daniel—”

“You have my heart, too, but you don’t want it.”

She shuddered. “I have to go.”

He reached for her backpack, but she swung away.

“I’ll manage.”

His fists clenched.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. It seemed even her self-protective defence of independence, he took as rejection. The stiff line of her shoulders crumpled and she walked out without another word.

Don’t cry. Don’t you dare cry. She sniffed, then held her eyes wide open, denying her tears. “Hurry up.” She tapped the lift button repeatedly, agonisingly aware that she hadn’t heard the penthouse door close behind her.

What if he were watching?

She wanted to turn around, to look at him. But that was madness. If she was making this break, she had to make it clean.

Clean? A weeping voice inside her, sobbed. This hurt won’t heal. You’ll miss him, forever.

The lift doors finally opened and as she stepped in and faced forward, she saw him watching from the penthouse doorway.

Their eyes locked and held until the lift doors shut between them.

“Oh God.” She tilted her head up, trying to force back a hot tear. Her hand curled tight around his ring, and it cut into her soft palm.

The physical pain reminded her of what she held. Her fingers uncurled, and she studied the flawless stone and its simple, elegant setting.

I meant it to be forever. His words echoed. I love you.

The lift doors opened to the lobby, but she couldn’t move. She stared at the ring. It was a symbol of so much: of hope, promises, commitment, trust…love.

Daniel had made the leap of faith. He trusted her with his heart.

The lift doors shut, but the lift remained stationary with Cate locked inside.

She rubbed her thumb over the diamond. She ignored the tears running down her face.

Daniel had trusted her with his strength and his vulnerability. He’d proclaimed to the world that they belonged together. He hadn’t been sure she would, or could, love him back, but he’d committed himself anyway.

“He’s braver than me.”

Or more realistic?

What joy would there be in a life without him? The truest happiness was here, waiting for her, if only she had the courage to claim it.

Her hand shifted and the diamond caught the light. The bright sparkle dared her.

Cate’s breath came short and shallow.

What are you losing by loving? Daniel gives you more, makes you more, than you could ever be by yourself.”

“Oh no.” She hit the penthouse lift button. “What have I done?”

Love didn’t rob you of individuality and independence, but made you stronger and more truly yourself. Love gave life sparkle.

She’d let cowardice ruin everything.

Rob had tried to warn her.

Cate dropped her backpack and hammered on the door to the penthouse. “Daniel!”

He opened the door.

“I’m an idiot, but you have to forgive me.”

“Cate?”

“I love you.”

“Oh Caty.” He gathered her into a rib-bruising hug.

She clung tight, not caring that she cried.

Their kiss tasted of tears and desperation.

“Wait.” She wriggled a little space between them.

A painful wariness entered his eyes, and she cried out against it.

“It’s okay.” She rubbed her free hand against his chest. “But I need a tissue, and then, I want you to put our engagement ring on my finger, for real…for forever…this time.”

She dropped the ring into the palm of his hand, then blew her nose. “Not romantic,” she muttered.

“But real.” He passed her a second tissue and waited as she dried her eyes. “If you only know how glad I am to be trusted with your emotions.” He rubbed her back, his own eyes bright with tears.

“I trust you with my heart. It might have taken me a while to realise it, but I know now that loving you gives me more than six years of cold independence ever did.” She dropped the tissues in a bin. “Cowardice can grow to be a habit. Thank you for being patient.”

“I’m not feeling patient now.” He took her hand. “I love you, my brave Caty. Caterina Trapani, will you marry me?”

“Yes.” She sniffed. “Oh no, I’m going to cry again.”

“No, you’re not.” He slid the ring on her finger and kissed her.

His kiss gave and demanded freely, and she fell into it. This time it was hearts as well as bodies meeting.

Cate trembled. Emotion poured through her like a tidal wave. She wanted to show Daniel her total commitment and complete trust. She twined her fingers with his. “Come to bed.”

They undressed slowly, learning one another’s bodies anew. Eyes, hands, mouths, traced lines of delight.

She lay back on the bed, naked and as vulnerable as a woman could be. She smiled up at him. “I want you. I love you.”

He kissed the words from her lips. “How much do you want me? How much do you love me?”

She wrapped her arms around him. “More than I want to breathe.”

“Breathing…is over-rated.” He slid slowly into her. “I love you.”

“Forever and ever.”

They moved in unison to a shared climax, a union beyond words, and Daniel kissed away the tears of joy that leaked from her eyes.

“I can’t believe I nearly walked away from this,” she murmured later. “I was so scared of love.”

“Me, too.”

“What?” She sat up to look at him.

“Hmm.” He circled her breast with one hand. “Love shakes our certainties. I thought I could control my life—my business, my family. I’ve worked hard, Cate, but I’ve achieved everything I wanted. When I fell in love with you, suddenly there were no guarantees of success. I could only hope and love you, and trust that the feeling between us was too strong to be denied.”

He bent his head and kissed her. “When will you marry me?”

“Soon.” She looked into his blue eyes and the love blazing there. “As soon as possible.”

“A church wedding?”

“Mmm. But quiet. Just family.”

“I’ll arrange it.”

“We’ll arrange it,” she corrected.

“Together.” He kissed her, again, lingering. “Partners?”

“Partners.” And she pushed him onto his back. “Equal partners.”

“I like equality,” he said earnestly, laughter indenting the hint of a dimple in his right cheek.

“So do I.” She moved against him in a full body caress.

He groaned

She smiled. “I have a question to ask.”

“Ask,” he growled.

She took teasing bites along his throat line. “About the house you showed me.” She broke off to nip at his lower lip, then lick and suck it. “Did you mean it to be for us?”

“I thought you’d like it.” He kissed her as she wriggled over him. “Do you?” His hand found her warm and slick.

“Ye-es.” She felt his smile against her lips. She knew now that he took pleasure in her pleasure.

“We’ll buy it.”

“What about…your dream…of going outback?” She flexed and tightened around his fingers.

“With you,” he said.

She shattered, only to drift back to his hands stroking her.

“The house will wait for us,” he said

“And children?”

He stilled.

She lifted herself so they could see each other’s eyes, and the dreams they’d hidden from each other. “I don’t want to wait.” Having admitted her love for this man, she wanted their family. She felt suddenly greedy for life.

She saw his joy before he put it into words.

“I love you, Caty.” His hand shook as he caressed her face. “I’d love to see your body rounded with my baby.”

“I love you.” She kissed him, tasting tenderness and passion. “Love me, Daniel.”

“Forever.”

Note from the Author

I hope you enjoyed Ran From Him. I’ve read category romances for years, and love these emotional stories of women finding true love and lives of happiness with gorgeous heroes who know how to value the woman of their dreams. So it was natural for me to write just such a story set in my hometown of Perth, Australia.

In fact, Australia has provided me with a lot of inspiration.

You can find a list of my other romances, including short stories perfect for a stolen hour of relaxation, on my Amazon page —and while you’re there, click “Add Favorite” and Amazon will notify you of my new releases. Alternatively, you can sign up to my New Releases newsletter on my Facebook page. I hope to see you there!

Happy reading!

Jenny