by Mandy Magro
‘Holy shit, Renee. Thank God you’re okay.’ Dylan hugged her closer, his solid arms enveloping her. He stroked the back of her hair to calm her. ‘I really don’t think you have anything to worry about when it comes to Billy, though. His bark is worse than his bite. The bloke’s pretty harmless.’
‘That’s what people say, but I’m not so sure,’ Renee replied, her voice still shaking.
‘Well, whoever it is will be very sorry if they show their ugly face right now—the sick bastard trying to scare you like that,’ Dylan said sternly, and loudly enough for anyone who may have been nearby to hear.
Renee pushed the hair from her face and wiped her tears. ‘Do you really think this might just be some sick prank?’
Dylan shrugged, keeping her close to him. ‘There’s a big possibility. I reckon this would be the last place someone would try something serious. There’s too many people about for that.’
‘Maybe you’re right,’ Renee said as she huddled closer into his arms, still not sure what to believe. At least no-one would dare hurt her with Dylan here—he was known as a man not to mess with, thanks to his father’s bad reputation. He wasn’t as volatile as his father, but he definitely knew how to handle himself.
Pulling his mobile phone from his pocket, Dylan switched on the torch and shone the beam all around them. Renee stayed silent while he did so, her breath held once again as she rested her head against his chest. She was terrified they would see eyes staring back at them. But there was nobody there, nobody watching them.
She began to think a little more rationally. Wouldn’t Dylan have seen whoever it was chasing her, seeing he arrived at the Land Cruiser less than a minute after her? The thought made her feel a little stupid. Maybe she had imagined it all. Maybe Billy had put the wind up her, and then some people were out getting it off in the bushes and she’d thought they were laughing at her, and maybe she’d imagined the footsteps. So many bloody maybes, she just couldn’t be certain of anything right now.
‘Are you sure someone was chasing you?’ Dylan said as he tucked his mobile back in his jeans pocket.
Sniffling, Renee wiped her red-raw eyes. ‘I don’t know now—it felt so real at the time. I’m not that drunk that I would be imagining things, am I?’
Dylan smiled sadly. ‘You are pretty drunk, sweetheart, but we better get you to the cop station so you can report it, hey. Just to be sure. You never know.’
Renee shook her head. ‘Report what? I’m not even certain of what happened. I didn’t see who it was, so what are the cops going to do about it? Besides, you and I are both over the limit—and I’m not going to annoy Craig on his night off.’ She looked around them, staring into the darkness. ‘And you were here less than a minute after whoever it was started chasing me, and you didn’t see anyone.’ She dropped her head in her hands, sobbing once again. ‘I don’t know, maybe I did imagine it.’ She looked up at Dylan, completely devastated. ‘Or maybe it was someone playing a horrible trick on me. After the way I was throwing accusations around after Scarlet’s disappearance, I can understand there might be a few people out there that want to teach me a lesson…and I probably deserve it.’ She looked into his eyes. ‘I’m so deeply sorry I accused your father. I was way out of line saying that when you’d simply come to me for comfort after finding your mum in such a bad way.’
Dylan shook his head as he looked down at the ground, sighing. ‘Renee, you were desperate at the time, and after what Dad did to Mum that night, I understand how you might have thought he was capable of hurting Scarlet too. My father is a bad man, but he’s not capable of murder. It just hurt so much that you would think that, because in a way it tarred me with the same brush.’
Renee reached out and gently rested her hand on Dylan’s arm, feeling completely ashamed. ‘I’m so sorry I made you feel like that.’
Dylan touched her hand with his. ‘Thanks. Your apology means the world to me. And I owe you one too, really. I didn’t mean it when I said we were over and that I didn’t love you anymore. I was just mad at the time, that’s all.’
‘I understand, Dylan. You had every right to feel like that.’ Renee broke down, her emotions getting the better of her.
He cupped her cheeks, his thumbs wiping her tears as they continued to fall. ‘It was so long ago, and we were both hurt, but can we just accept each other’s apologies now and let it go—so we can stop being so narky with each other?’
Renee nodded. ‘Okay, I’d like that.’
Dylan kissed her cheek, his lips catching her tears, and then he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. ‘And please know that if someone was following you tonight, and I find out who it was, I will make them pay for scaring you.’
Renee returned his kiss by placing one on his cheek. ‘Thank you, Dylan. That means the world. I feel safe here with you.’ She closed her eyes, drawing in a deep breath then letting it go slowly. ‘Would you mind if we kept this to ourselves? I don’t want to go worrying my grandparents over nothing, if that’s what it was—and the entire town for that matter. News travels fast here, as you know.’
Dylan eyed her thoughtfully. ‘I understand you not wanting to say anything, when you’re so unsure. But please make sure you watch your back from now on, and don’t go wandering around in the dark on your own, anywhere. Okay? I mean, I know you don’t need a babysitter and all, but can you at least promise me that?’
‘You have my word,’ Renee said, smiling softly as she gazed into his beautiful blue eyes. In that moment, everything faded away, leaving just her and Dylan. Here. Now. Together. Alone. It was time to ask some of the questions she’d been dying to know the answers to.
‘Dylan, please can you tell me what happened to your wife? I’m sorry, but I need to know.’
Pain flashed across Dylan’s face, his easy smile fading as he looked downwards. ‘She died, Renee, in an accident at home, and my beautiful little Annie was the one who found her.’ Dylan’s voice broke as he covered his face with his hands. ‘I wasn’t there to protect my two girls, like I should have been, and I beat myself up over that every single day.’
Renee’s heart squeezed, the devastation Dylan had been through tearing her to shreds. ‘Oh, Dylan, I’m so very sorry.’ Tears filled her eyes and she tried to blink them away as she gently touched his cheek. ‘I can’t even begin to understand the heartache that would have caused you, and your daughter.’
Dylan looked up to meet her sympathetic eyes. ‘That’s not exactly true—I think you do understand, Renee, completely. You’ve lost your parents and your sister.’ He reached out and slipped his hand behind her ear, stroking her cheek with his thumb. ‘And that’s just so typical of you, to always be thinking of everyone else before yourself. You’ve felt my agony, sweetheart, three times over. But thank you for caring as much as you do. Your beautiful kind heart is why I fell so deeply in love with you in the first place.’
As Dylan’s words hit home, Renee felt a rush of mixed emotions, as though the floodgates had finally been opened with his profound understanding of her rocky life path. Compassion, devastation, sadness and loss swirled in her heart, and most of all, soul-deep love for this amazing man standing before her. She nodded. ‘Now you put it that way I s’pose I can honestly say I do understand your pain. Completely.’ She reached out and rested both her hands on his chest. ‘Your big beautiful heart is why I fell in love with you so deeply, too, and it’s also why I still love you as deeply as I do.’
‘You still love me? But I thought…’ Dylan said, his voice trailing off.
Renee smiled wispily. ‘Of course I do, I’ve never stopped loving you. I’ve thought about you every single day since leaving here all those years ago, and no man has ever been able to come close to how you could make me feel with a single look, or a single touch.’
Dylan looked bewildered. ‘Then why did you leave town, without even trying to sort things out between us?’
‘Because my life was in danger, Dylan, and my grandparents wanted me to m
ake a clean break and go somewhere I could be anonymous. After everything they’d been through, and done for me, I couldn’t go against their word…as much as it killed me to leave you high and dry like that.’
Dylan took a few moments before answering, his eyes searching hers, as if trying to judge whether she was telling him the truth. ‘I can appreciate you respecting their wishes, but how was your life in such grave danger?’
‘I found a note under my windscreen wiper, Dylan, telling me I was next on the list to be—you know—killed.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Dylan took a step back, shaking his head in disbelief. ‘Holy shit, no wonder you skipped town. I never knew… I’m so sorry.’ In four hurried steps Dylan stepped into her space once again and slid his hands around her waist, pulling her close to him. ‘Over my dead body would anyone lay their hands on you, Renee, I can promise you that. I’d never let anything happen to you, ever.’
Her welling emotions making it impossible to speak, Renee placed her head against Dylan’s chest, the sound of his beating heart the most beautiful sound in the world. It transported her back to the days when they would enjoy a picnic by the creek near the hunter’s shack and then both lie back on a blanket in the sunshine, her head resting on his chest as they both drifted in and out of slumber. It was the simple things that had meant so much back then, to both of them. If only they could get those days back.
Tilting her head up, she warily placed her lips softly on his, waiting for him to respond, praying for him to give in to his feelings for her. And respond he did, as he lifted her from the ground and kissed her with so much passion she felt as light as a feather in his arms. Wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms tighter around his back, she melted into him as they kissed for what felt like forever. With their bodies pressed hard against one another’s, and the passion and hunger building between them, Renee finally begged him to make love to her.
‘Did you bring a swag?’ Dylan whispered in her ear, sending pleasurable shivers all over her.
‘Yeah, it’s in the back of the Land Cruiser. I just got to roll it out,’ she replied breathlessly, remembering that Mick had asked her to leave his swag on the bonnet. She was fairly certain he wouldn’t need it until just before dawn, which gave her and Dylan a few more hours yet. She hoped to God she wasn’t wrong with her hunch. It’d make for a very embarrassing situation, for all of them, if he suddenly rocked up now.
Without another word, Dylan carried her over to the back of the ute and placed her down so she was sitting at the end of the tray, her legs still wrapped tightly around his waist.
Capturing her eyes with his, Dylan slowly ran his hands up her sides, stopping to run his fingertips teasingly over her hard nipples that were pressing through her thin top. Renee’s soft moans filled the silence as he brought his lips to hers once again, his tongue flicking over hers suggestively. Pulling back, he cupped her face. ‘Are you sure we should be doing this? What if whoever was following you is watching us.’
‘They’d be long gone now you’re here. Please, just make love to me,’ Renee said as she ravenously pulled him into another kiss.
Finally, she was going to get her wish. She was going to make love to Dylan Anderson once again. And this time, she knew, it would leave her wanting him more than ever before. She just hoped it did the same for him, because it would be devastating if it didn’t. Dangerous ground for an already volatile relationship, but she didn’t care. The rest, whatever that was, would just have to come later.
***
With her lash-framed gaze even more poignant in the moonlight, Dylan seized the moment and slipped the thin strap from Renee’s shoulder, her silky smooth skin blooming with goosebumps beneath his fingertips. God, she was beyond beautiful—how on earth could he keep resisting such a gorgeous creature?
Looking into her chocolate brown eyes, her lips poised between silence and a whisper, he felt all his resentment drain away, only to be replaced by the soul-deep love that had always been there, lying dormant, until this very moment. He thought he’d rid himself of the hold Renee Wildwood had over him all those years ago, but clearly, a love like theirs could never be forgotten. She reached out and stroked the side of his cheek, her eyes filling with tears, her lips trembling. She went to speak, but he placed his hand gently over her mouth, shaking his head.
Instead, she spoke to him in silence, both her hands now caressing his face, down his neck and then over his chest. And at that very second he swore he could feel her soul surge towards him and join with his. This was love, in its purest of forms. This feeling within him, the fire within her eyes, needed no explanation. With their eyes locked onto one another’s, the past and future seemed so unimportant, and this moment meant everything. Leaning into her, he let his kiss dissolve the silence, and he knew as her lips touched his once again that he wanted to be able to kiss this beautiful woman every day for the rest of his life. An overwhelming need to be at one with her filled him and he manoeuvred himself up and onto the back of the ute, so he was sitting beside her, their lips still united. As he ran his fingers through her silken hair, her hands fumbled with the buttons on his shirt, and with each one she opened, she would lean in and kiss his chest, her warm breath and lingering lips inducing a deep hunger from within him, a hunger he’d only ever experienced once before—with her.
What about Shelley? How would she feel if she saw me doing this?
Trying to ignore the voice in his head, Dylan immersed himself in the moment, his feelings for Renee now flooding him like warm whiskey sliding down his throat on a cold winter’s night. His mind flashed back to the night they had first made love, in the swag at the hut. They’d torn each other’s clothes off breathlessly, the passion between them unfathomable.
But as poignant as the recollection was, as tempting as it was to repeat, the memory unexpectedly sent him hurtling down a path filled with guilt and uncertainty. As much as he wanted to devour every inch of Renee right here, right now, and to feel them join on the most intimate of levels, hesitation filled him. This situation was a lot more serious than just two people having a bit of fun on a night out. He had a daughter to consider now, and the effect it might have on her if another woman came into their lives. He wasn’t sure if it would be a good or bad thing, and until he was one hundred and ten per cent certain either way, this had to stop, right now.
Begrudgingly, he put the brakes on. He couldn’t do this. They couldn’t do this. It just didn’t feel right. Renee deserved so much more from him than simply getting it off in the back of a ute. She also deserved his full commitment, and at the moment he couldn’t give her that. It wasn’t as simple as making love and then living happily ever after. Their lives were a lot more complicated now that they were adults—and adults with nine years of history that neither of them knew much about. They needed to spend a little more time together, as friends.
When he looked into Renee’s eyes he saw a mixture of longing, love and fear. She looked so damned vulnerable. He took her hands in his and slowly shook his head. ‘We can’t do this. Not here, not like this, and especially after we’ve both had a bit to drink. We need to take things one very steady step at a time.’
Renee stared at him pleadingly. ‘But Dylan, I want this, I want you.’ Her voice was shaky. ‘Please, I’ve waited so long…’
‘I know. Believe me, I want you too. But you mean more to me than just a shag in the back of a ute, so I won’t let our first time together again be like this. If it’s destined to happen in the future, it needs to be special—memorable for all the right reasons. And we need to make absolutely certain this is what we both want, without any doubts whatsoever, and without alcohol clouding our judgement. I mean, you don’t even live here anymore, so that’s quite a big hurdle to get over if we decide to make a go of things again.’
Sighing, Renee looked away, as if searching for answers in the darkness. She dropped her head and closed her eyes. ‘So what do we do now? Just pretend this didn’t hap
pen, like when we almost kissed the other day?’
‘How about we just climb into your swag and hold each other while we fall asleep?’
Renee nodded, her smile now reaching from ear to ear. ‘Now that sounds perfect.’
Dylan rolled the swag out in the back of the Land Cruiser while Renee grabbed Mick’s swag and went to put it on the bonnet. Unable to keep his eyes off her, Dylan watched as Renee walked towards the front of the four-wheel drive, wishing they could both just give in to the moment with reckless abandon, like they had all those years ago.
But they couldn’t. He still had to work on getting rid of the guilt he harboured at having feelings for a woman other than Shelley, and he also needed to introduce Annie to Renee, to see for himself how his darling daughter might react to her. Because as much as he wanted to have Renee back in his life as more than just a friend, Annie came first, and if the two didn’t gel, then he couldn’t see a future for them beyond friendship, no matter what he wanted. And on top of all that, a long-distance relationship was going to be extremely challenging.
When Renee jumped back up onto the tray of the Land Cruiser, they both took off their boots and then crawled into the swag still fully clothed. Cuddling into one another, their bodies melted into one, as if they were both made from the same mould.
Renee spoke first. ‘As much as I hate to admit it, you were right in stopping us from making love. Not living here poses a big challenge, and we need to think of Annie too. We shouldn’t be jumping into bed straight away. We have a lot of catching up to do before that, and a lot to consider.’
Dylan hugged her tighter. ‘Trust me, I want nothing more than to make love to you, but yup, we need to take things slow. I’ve got a lot of stuff to deal with at the moment, and I don’t want my stresses affecting us in any way.’
