by Rosie Miller
Then she pulled her eyes away and tried to concentrate on the scenery. But there wasn’t any. She knew they were going up and down hills and round corners—but all she could see was a big brown cloud of dust.
“How long until we get to town?” she asked Jackson, wondering how he could tell where they were—or even where the road was. She hoped he wasn’t just guessing. Dying in some SUV rollover in the back of beyond wasn’t part of the plan.
“About half an hour now. But we’ll shoot straight through and out to the hunting lodge. No point stopping.”
She wanted to stop. She wanted to look around and do some Nancy Drew-type girl detective work.
“I need to stop there. I need to get some things.”
She saw him frowning.
“Why? I told you to bring everything. There are no fancy stores out here.”
“I don’t need a fancy store,” she said, a little snappily. “I just need a store. I forgot to bring something that I need.”
They didn’t speak again. She stared at the dust and he stared at the road.
In her score-card of romantic getaways, this one was scraping along the bottom so far. She was in a place that barely merited a dot on the map. It was hot, dusty, and she just knew she’d be eaten alive the minute she stepped outside—the windshield was already covered with bugs almost the size of her fist. And she was with a man who couldn’t decide if he liked her or not, and she had her boss and his sidekick with her. All the ingredients for a truly terrible forty-eight hours.
Time crawled by, but at last they stopped. Jackson turned off the engine and the dust began to settle. It revealed a one-street town with two or three faded store-fronts, a mechanic’s shop and a few houses. It looked awful. There had to be something pretty good here for Jackson to keep coming back.
She jumped down from the vehicle. “I won’t be long,” she shouted.
“I’ll come with you.”
“No. It’s okay. I don’t think I’ll get lost!”
She went into the general store. The door creaked closed behind her. She gazed at the shelves, trying to take in as much as she could.
There were dusty canned goods and packets of foods she didn’t recognize. At the end of the row there was a stand of make-up. It looked like it had been there for twenty years or more, but it was good sign. Clearly the women round weren’t forbidden from wearing it—although looking at some of the quality and the colors—perhaps they should be. In fact, she realized, there were a lot of beauty products. There was Nair, razors and a whole shelf of hair-removing products. There must be a lot of hairy people around here.
There were condoms openly on sale too—another good sign that she wasn’t in a community where sex was completely frowned upon. And she could see plenty of cigarettes and alcohol behind the counter. So far—so normal.
The man at the counter hadn’t taken his eyes off her yet. He was staring at her like he’d never seen a human being before—and he wasn’t altogether sure if he liked it.
“Hi,” she said. “How are you?”
He didn’t speak. He just nodded slowly at her, like she had asked him a complex or trick question and he was trying hard not to be caught out. Finally, he ventured a few words. “Who are you?”
“I’m Justine. I’m down here with Jackson.”
“Our Jackson?”
She nodded. “Just looking around. We’ll probably go to meet his wife soon.”
“He aint got no wife,” the man replied looking bemused.
“I meant his parents.”
“No—not none of them neither—not here—not no more.”
Her brain struggled to untangle all the negatives. But she was fairly sure it meant Jackson didn’t have parents here either. Nancy Drew—eat your heart out! This detecting work was easy.
“You might get to meet his brother though.”
She turned at the strange voice.
Someone was standing right behind her.
She stared in shock.
It was the man from the bar—the one Jackson had warned her against.
“Well, hello again,” he said softly. “I was hoping I’d see you soon. But I didn’t think you would be here.” He grinned at her. “Shall we can pick up where we left off?”
His eyes were fixed on her. She saw bruises on his face and a cut on his cheek. He looked much rougher and wilder than he had in the bar−still sexy but altogether more threatening. Jackson had been right. He did look dangerous—but hot too. She felt a flicker of desire, but shook her head.
“Does Jackson know you’re here, asking questions?”
“Yes,” she said defiantly. “Of course he does.”
He took a step closer to her and she tried to back away, but felt the shelf unit dig into her shoulder blades behind her.
He stood over her, looking down. He ran a finger down the side of her face, pushing her hair behind her ear and then stroking the side of her neck.
She couldn’t seem to move. She shivered under his touch, unable to take her eyes off him. He leaned in as if he was going to kiss her.
Then the shop bell rang. She came back to life and lurched to the side. She pushed past the woman in the doorway, escaping back out into the light.
“Off you go—run back to Jackson. But I’ll catch up with you soon.” His voice followed her out. Was that a promise – or a threat?
She walked back to the car, feeling oddly shaky. The SUV was empty. Where was Jackson when she needed him? He couldn’t have gone far. There were only two other places he could be—a butchers and a bar.
She peered inside the butchers. There were animals—or what had once been animals—hanging from hooks on the ceiling. She could see the flies from here. There was a counter stacked high with steaks and other red meat. How much meat could one small town eat?
And against the wall were cages with live rabbits and possums in. Was it an unusual combo of a pet-shop and a butchers? Or did people around here just like their meat really fresh? Either way, Ellie and Colin wouldn’t like it.
She grabbed her camera and took a few shots of the butchers, the general store and the empty street. All this was useful background. Then she saw them coming out of the bar.
“They needed to use the facilities. I thought I’d better go in with them. People round here aren’t entirely used to strangers.”
Justine remembered the wary, uncomprehending stare of the man in the store. Jackson was right about that.
“Have you been all right? Did you get what you needed?” he continued.
She nodded. She should tell him about that guy, but Colin was right there, and she didn’t want him to hear about it—any of it. She’d tell Jackson later, when she got him on his own.
She climbed back into the SUV. At least she knew now that this wasn’t some kind of religious fundamentalist backwater. And, more importantly it seemed that Jackson wasn’t married. So what did he see in this place? And was that guy really his brother? Why hadn’t Jackson said so?
Chapter Seven
She had plenty of time to think about it over the next few hours.
Jackson had driven them out of town and down even smaller roads until he’d reached a small clearing. There was the hunting lodge where they would sleep that night. Jackson unlocked it and they carried their bags in.
Justine was hoping for time for a drink, a coffee maybe, or even a shower—but Jackson hustled them out again and back into the vehicle. “We have to make the most of the time we have here,” he said.
Ellie directed him to a very specific place on the map, where she suspected there might be something interesting.
Justine sighed. If it wasn’t a shopping mall or a swimming pool, it wasn’t going to be very interesting to her. Perhaps Jackson had been right. Perhaps she should have stayed behind and left the eco-warriors to do their stuff on their own. But that wasn’t the way she worked. Fighting a case like this was as much about getting the media and the campaign groups on side as it was about contracts
law and the legal side. And it was hard to talk with much conviction about a place you’d only ever seen on Google Earth.
After another twenty minutes in the car, Jackson parked up and they’d got out.
Justine looked around at the endless trees with the sunlight filtering down through the leaves. She immediately felt on edge. She’d avoided places like this for years. Something about being out in a forest made her nervous. Part of her wanted to be there, but at the same time she felt she was doing something wrong.
She tried to pin the strange feeling down as they marched off through the thick undergrowth. But she just kept remembering her adoptive mother’s face looking disapproving and disappointed—scolding her—telling her to stay indoors and play nicely. Perhaps that was all it was—her adoptive parents had hated the outdoor life, and they’d passed that on to her. And they might have been right.
After an hour hiking through the bush she was ready to sit down in an air-conditioned bar with a nice cool mimosa, brought to her on a silver tray by a handsome young man in a crisp white jacket.
After two hours she was footsore and her new boots were giving her blisters. She could feel the sweat running down her back. She didn’t dare think about how she looked—red faced and perspiring was never attractive.
Ellie and Colin were skipping along, chatting happily. Ellie stopped every so often to look around and declare how wonderful everything was and what a fantastic time she was having.
“If she says she’s having a fantastic time once more I’m going to punch her,” muttered Justine. “If I’ve got the strength.”
Jackson looked at her and grinned. He was loping easily through the undergrowth, looking cool and calm and relaxed and as if he could do this all day. She was limping along behind cursing at every branch that seemed to deliberately hit her in the face and every mosquito that tried to have her for dinner.
“Aren’t you having a fantastic time?” Jackson asked, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
She looked at him. Could she explain the somehow guilt-ridden urge to get out here and run free, to feel the city melt away—when she could barely put one foot in front of the other? Whatever urges her brain had—it clearly hadn’t got the rest of her body on board. She shrugged. “If I have to walk much further I’m going to pay for them to flood it myself.”
His face darkened.
“I’m joking. I’m just tired. Sorry, I’m being a grump.”
“I know. It’s just—this place means a lot to us, to me.”
“Yeah, you said—hunting, shooting, getting back to nature.”
Perhaps they were all naturists. Was that what drew him back here—the urge to get his clothes off and frolic in the great outdoors as nature intended? She smiled at the thought. But there were prickly plants and thorny bushes and creatures that tried to sting you and bite you and eat you. You’d have to be mad to even wear a pair of shorts here let alone run around completely naked. But the thought was intriguing. Imagining Jackson in the nude passed the time quite pleasantly as she hiked on through the endless undergrowth.
Finally Ellie declared they could stop. She’d seen some plants she wanted to gather samples of.
Jackson found a clearing in the bushes and laid out a waterproof blanket. They put their bags down and Ellie skittered off with her specimen collecting equipment, with Colin following her like a well-trained puppy.
Justine eased off her boots and lay flat on her back. She stretched out on the blanket and groaned loudly at the feel of her tendons and joints relaxing, finally.
Jackson laughed at her discomfort. “Can I join you?” he said. “I think they’ll be a while.”
“Yes, help yourself. I haven’t got the strength to stop you anyway.”
She felt Jackson sitting beside her but she was too tired to even open her eyes. She could feel the sweat drying on her face and hoped he wasn’t looking at her too closely.
“So—if Ellie’s the ecologist and Colin’s the boss—why are you here?”
“I don’t know—I really don’t. It was a stupid idea.”
“Really?” He was being serious.
Justine reminded herself he was a client and sat up, brushing her hair out of her eyes. “I’ll put the whole case together. I could just look at the photos Ellie and Colin bring back and read their reports but it’s not the same as coming here. If I’m going to win the case—and I am—I need to see this place like you see it. I need to feel your passion.” She meant it honestly.
But he looked at her with that hint of a cheeky grin. “My passion?”
“Yes. I need to feel it.” She smiled back and half-wondered how she had the gall to flirt when she looked like she had been dragged through a hedge backwards—which was just about exactly what had happened. But he didn’t seem to mind.
He held her gaze. “I want you to feel it,” he said.
“Then show me.”
He leaned forward and kissed her. His arms were on her shoulders pushing her back down and his body was half on top of hers. His tongue pressed between her lips, seeking out hers. She responded hungrily her arms round his neck, her tongue pushing back into his mouth.
Then she heard branches cracking and Ellie’s giggle.
Jackson moved off her and turned away.
She lay still, as if she was sleeping.
“Oh Justine, you’re missing all the fun,” Ellie called out. “I’ve found some really interesting specimens. And there’s a fungus down there I want a closer look at.”
Colin was at her shoulder. “Amazing place, Jackson. Justine, I hope you’re not napping on the job.”
She sat up slowly, not looking at Jackson. “I was meditating,” she said solemnly. “I was trying to get in touch with the spirit of the place.” She looked at Colin like he should have known that, and like he’d disturbed her.
“Oh, meditating, yeah—great idea. Good one, Justine. Hey, don’t let us disturb you. We’ve got a fungus to find.”
Justine wondered if Colin would get up close and personal with some horrible slimy growth and realize he’d found his true home. He might never leave.
They marched off again.
She half-opened her eyes, checking they were gone.
“Meditating?” Jackson asked.
She smiled. “Always do! Aren’t you helping to find their fungus?”
“Maybe I’d better. If I stay here with you…” his voice trailed off.
“You’ll do something you’ll regret?”
“Yes.”
She shook her head. “You need to make your mind up what you want Jackson. Anyway, I might not be interested.”
“You felt interested.”
“So did you.”
He leaned in again and kissed her, pushing her back down on to the blanket again. His mouth was on hers, hard and forceful, and his hand roamed her body. He found the mound of her breast and held it, squeezing softly.
She felt the heat rising between her legs. She wanted him to kiss her more, to touch her all over.
But she wasn’t doing this. Not until he could make up his mind what he really wanted. She pushed him off her.
“Sorry, I’ve gone too far—again.” He gave her a rueful smile. “I thought you wanted me to…”
“I did—I do. But you need to decide if you really want to or not. You keep blowing hot and cold. One minute you’re all over me—the next you can barely look at me. You need to make your mind up.” She held his gaze, not backing down.
Before he could answer, Colin and Ellie came rustling back through the undergrowth. Ellie was more excited about the fungus than Justine would ever have believed possible.
The rest of the afternoon passed in a drudge of hiking about from one place to another, all exactly the same except each one seemed to be hotter with even more insects than the last. Throughout it all, she kept wondering—what would he say?
Finally, they rested again. They sat by the river. Justine took off her boots and socks and bathed her fee
t. Her nail polish was chipped and she had a blister on each heel. More proof—if proof were needed—that these were feet designed for city streets, or at the very least gold sandals in some exclusive beach resort.
Jackson watched her warily, like she was a dog that might bite.
She was pleased. He needed a taste of his own medicine. He needed to know how it felt to have some interested one minute then refusing to engage the next. If only she looked better—it was difficult playing hard to get when you looked a mess. She was dirty, hot and tired. Her hair was slowly going curly in the humidity. The makeup she’d applied that morning had long since dissolved in the heat and the dust.
But in her mind, she was cool and calm—the picture of unattainable perfection. She wasn’t going to ask him for his answer. She could wait until he’d made up his mind. And until then, he was getting any more encouragement.
After staring at her for a while, Jackson turned away and lay back on the blanket and closed his eyes.
She watched him for a while, wondering if he was really asleep. Then she heard his breathing slow and saw his chest rise and fall more slowly.
She picked up her camera and took some pictures of him. She bent down so she could capture his profile and focused in tightly. Then she stood up and took some more from a different angle, the powerful zoom lens letting her see every detail of his face. He didn’t stir at all.
He was a handsome man, even with his eyes closed. Now at least she’d be able to keep a memory of him, even if nothing else ever happened between them.
She sat back on the river bank and scrolled through the file of images on her camera. Jackson looked as good in the pictures as he did in real life. She deleted some of the images of the valley, just keeping those that looked like they might be useful for her presentation. The ones of the town looked okay and she kept those.
Ellie would have the detailed botanical portraits to record the ecosystem and of anything unusual—and Justine’s shots would be useful for the overview and background.
She clicked back and back through the images. She drew in her breath, startled. There was a picture of her—looking up at the camera—with what was clearly a large cock in her mouth. She clicked back again. In the next one she was sticking out her tongue and licking the underside of the head. In another her eyes were watering as she took in a huge mouthful. She grinned, not sure if she was ashamed or excited. These were from one of her ‘afternoon meetings’ with Alistair, months ago. He turned out to be a cheating, lying bastard—but they did have some fun together. She’d barely used her camera since Alistair had taken these pictures of her with it, and she’d forgotten all about them.
