She dragged in a deep breath, clamped her fingers together in front of her, and prepared to deliver the polite yet firm response she’d been refining all afternoon. Only to have her throat clamp around the words and her mind drift back to the Big House, the family who’d practically adopted her, the man who’d turned her inside out, and the sister she’d be hugging good-bye for God knew how long in just a few days.
“I strongly advise you not to sign anything this shifty old woman shoves in front of you.” Jarrah strode through reception and leaned in the doorway before glaring at Helen.
Helen didn’t even flinch while effortlessly slipping into her fairy godmother disguise. “Your girl was just helping me figure out what was needed to get this place going again.”
Olivia couldn’t help smiling at Helen’s unapologetic grin. Yet the your girl Helen had casually thrown into the deflection snuck through Olivia’s guard and caught her square on the chin. When had she become his girl, and more importantly, why had her stomach melted at the thought? The woman was diabolical and therefore the perfect person to run this crazy town.
Helen stabbed an arthritic finger at him. “Plus, you’ve been stuffing around for the last few weeks, and we’ve only got a few days left to show her the perks of Outback doctoring before she gets bored with you and flies back to La-La Land.”
There were so many emotions churning inside her, but boredom definitely wasn’t one. She seriously doubted it ever would because the more she got to know him the more intriguing and terrifying he became.
Jarrah forced a chuckle while scanning the examination room. “You mean perks such as the heat, dust, flies, isolation, ancient facilities, shit pay, busy-body patients, and being on call twenty-four-seven?”
Helen waved Jarrah away with a disgusted huff. “Ignore him, honey. He’s just too stubborn to admit he should’ve moved back here years ago.”
Olivia closed Helen’s folder and stacked it neatly on top of the pile already sitting on the desk while forcing herself to be grateful for the three days she had left. There’d be plenty of time for Ben and Jerry’s Peanut Buttah Cookie Core ice cream and Pretty Woman pity parties when she returned to her real life. Now wasn’t the time for feeling sorry for herself and getting all weepy. And if she couldn’t brighten her mood by mauling the man leaning in the doorway looking all sweaty and sexy as hell, teasing him would have to do. “I’m no expert, but I’m guessing all it’d take was the price of a used super car and this place would be up and running in no time.”
Jarrah loved that stupid Aston Martin almost as much as he cherished his weather-beaten Akubra and the luxurious life waiting for him back in Brisbane. His sly grin never faltered as he shrugged and glanced between Helen and her. “So I guess all this place needs then is a doctor.”
Olivia was playing with fire, but taunting him was almost as much fun as kissing him. “Helen just mentioned you’ll be taking over as mayor. You probably should start using your”—she paused and slowly ran her gaze over every filthy inch of him before clearing her throat—“resources to lure a talented doctor down here.”
The air seemed to get sucked from the room as Olivia’s challenge echoed through the silence. Helen had felt it. And there was no doubt Jarrah had experienced the same disturbance in the Force. But neither of the professional manipulators acknowledged the foot she’d firmly lodged down her throat.
“So it’s settled then.” Helen shoved out of her chair with the exuberance of a break-dancer. “You leave lonely L.A. and all those plastic reality TV stars to live down here with your big sister and begin a fulfilling career you obviously love.” Helen spun on Jarrah. “You give up that fake life you’re living in the city, move back home where you belong, and start looking after the people you were destined to watch over.” With a wave of her hand, Helen fixed both of them in her sights and raised one enhanced eyebrow. “You two get the chance to turn that lust crackling between you into something more permanent. This town gets a damn fine doctor and the second-best mayor in its history. And I finally get to take the break I deserve. Everyone wins.” Helen waved her hand in the air as she barreled toward the door. “I’ll let you two kids work out the details. No need to thank me. I’m a problem-solver, it’s what I do.”
After blowing her a kiss and smacking one on Jarrah’s frozen face, Helen spun out of the clinic while the debris from her reign of terror clattered around them.
Endless seconds dragged by as Olivia fidgeted in her chair, rearranged the already collated files, and did everything other than return the gaze of the man staring at her. Had his thoughts wandered off into the same alternate reality as hers, or was he scrambling to figure out just how quickly he could ditch the crazy doctor he was flinging around and return to the real world?
He ground out a curse and sighed. “I’m sorry you got dragged into this. I came as soon as I heard you were abducted.”
Guilt joined the emotional cocktail swirling in her stomach. He sounded dead on his feet, yet he’d come galloping into town to rescue her from the clutches of a supervillain. Only to be thrown under a voluptuous bus by the woman he’d tried to save.
She snatched up the files and hugged them to her chest before she’d even realized what she’d done. With each heartbeat, realization settled over and soothed the ache in her chest. The manila folders, hand-scribbled notes, dog-eared charts, and printouts weren’t files; they weren’t numbers in a patient database. They were real people, people she’d helped, people who’d become friends. Desperate for a distraction, she jerked out of her chair and rounded the desk. “I must be suffering Stockholm syndrome, because I was a willing hostage.”
He shot out his arm and trapped her in the office before she could escape into reception. “You planning on looking at me anytime soon?”
His scent washed over her as she sucked in a breath and skidded to a stop. Sweat, dust, leather, denim…she breathed him in and slowly lifted her gaze to his. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have encouraged her. You must be sick of everyone’s meddling.”
He didn’t move, yet his eyes swallowed her whole. “I don’t know. It’s kind of nice being needed.” He shrugged but didn’t lower his arm. “So, what do you think?”
“About what?” She knew damn well what, and she needed time to drag herself out of his eyes and think.
He raised an eyebrow and leaned in until all that separated them was the sweat glistening on his forehead and the dirt caked into his stubble. She stared helplessly back as the high-definition future she’d been marching toward for so long flickered in the depths of his eyes before slowly being replaced by a hazy image of what could be.
A sister she’d never have to say good-bye to. A crazy family she hadn’t realized she’d craved so badly. A thriving practice in a vibrant Outback town where she knew everyone’s name. A converted machinery shed of her very own on the banks of the Big Pond. And endless magical days and even more enchanted nights with a man who satisfied every addiction she’d ever had and created a few more along the way.
The very same man who’d eventually realize that making major life decisions based on a few lust-filled weeks with someone he barely knew was about as smart as giving up his playboy lifestyle to spend his days alternating between sweating his ass off on horseback and running an Outback town. A protective man she cared way too much for to hurt chasing a fairy tale even she hadn’t even dreamed of until a few days ago.
She rose up on her toes and pecked his chin. “I was thinking that since this isn’t technically a doctor’s office. And I’m here purely in an unofficial capacity. That they’d be no harm in throwing you down onto the floor and fucking your brains out.”
For a terrifying instant she feared he’d call her on her deflection. Instead of forcing the discussion they’d been avoiding for weeks, he grinned and did some pecking of his own. “If I didn’t smell like a herd of cattle and have half the desert sticking to my body, I’d lock the door and let you do whatever the hell you wanted with me.”
“Lock the door, cowboy.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jarrah ignored the incoming message flashing on his phone and inhaled the predawn breeze drifting through their hideaway. Two days left. Forty-eight hours. Two thousand eight hundred and eighty minutes before he had to return to his real life and try to forget the craziest month of his life.
“You getting that?”
Closing his eyes, he savored the contented sigh carrying the sleepy words into his ears and gave thanks to the universe. Olivia’s voice reminded him of so many things that he’d be hearing her in his dreams long after she’d boarded that freaking plane and disappeared over the horizon. “I’ll get back to them later.”
With each day, his clients grew even more cranky and in need of attention. Charlie could well and truly cope with their needs. Hell, the woman had the power to have even the most uptight executive dribbling on his oxfords, yet even his office manager’s superpowers could only buy him so much freedom. With each year and every new client, the price of freedom grew higher and higher.
“And here I was thinking you worked hard.” She wiggled her finger in front of his face and bit him before resting her head on his chest.
The older he got, the harder he seemed to work. And he only had himself to blame. If he’d listened to Charlie and hired the associates he knew they needed, he wouldn’t have to be available twenty-four hours a day. But with great power comes great responsibility. And if he wanted to retain clients willing to pay small ransoms for good old-fashioned personal service, he had to suck it up and smile despite the pain. The problem was he’d never had anything, or, more accurately, anyone else he’d rather be doing.
He pecked her forehead and squeezed her butt. “You’re killing me, woman.”
She patted his chest. “You’re right. I should probably sneak back into the Big House and let you get some rest.”
He growled and pulled the evil creature with the potential to destroy not only his sanity but the business he’d taken the last decade to build tighter against him and breathed her in. Honey, vanilla, and the faintest hint of sex lingered on her skin from the nighttime swag-tangling session that’d become as critical to his well-being as waking up with her curled around him.
She cursed and pretended to struggle before pinching his stomach and nuzzling back into him. The thin sliver of his brain that hadn’t been infected by her voodoo planned how to rebuild the bridges damaged by his radio silence while the rest of his mind scrambled to come up with something, anything to extend the insanity.
The fingers that’d been playing with his chest hair stilled as his phone illuminated their private, rustic escape from reality. The damned thing had been pinging, popping, and shivering so much he’d had to turn off the vibrate feature to prevent it skittering off the wooden crate serving as their bedside table. He steeled himself and glanced at the blinding screen only to see Charlie grinning back at him while flipping him the bird. No matter how many times he deleted her photo, the harpy always managed to update it with something even more obscene.
With a curse, he swiped right and brought it to his ear. “You better either be in jail or the emergency ward.”
“We got trouble.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Dawn sliced through the horizon and signaled the end of Olivia’s time in wonderland. She drew the dust-tainted air into her lungs and scanned the desert that’d grabbed hold of her heart despite her desperate attempts to convince herself the last four weeks had been simple infatuation.
Wingarra stretched out beneath the escarpment she and Abi had ridden up like the cover of a romance novel. Olivia eased her grip on Delores’s reins and slowly shook her head. No matter how many times she lost herself in the eucalypts’ emerald canopies, the Big Pond’s cobalt depths, or the hard-packed dirt courtyard, it’d never be enough. Yet it would be the raucous meals, playful teasing, and late-night get-togethers inside the Big House she’d never forget.
“For Christ’s sake, it’s not like you’re leaving forever.”
She turned to find her big sister studying her from atop Jeeves, the geriatric, half horse, half donkey Abi had abducted from one of the stockman. Apart from her sister’s adorable if slightly agricultural mount, there was no way to distinguish Abi from the two dozen stockwomen and men crowding Wingarra’s stables as they prepared for another day’s mustering.
It wasn’t just the way Abi’s clothes and Akubra belonged on her; it was the way she blended into the landscape. Olivia hadn’t noticed it when she and Abi had tagged along with the Harper girls during the mustering. She’d been too focused on not falling off Delores and too awestruck by the effortless grace with which Jeddah, Maddie, and Kira went about their work. With her big sister sitting proud in the saddle beside her, Olivia couldn’t hide the pride and bone-deep loneliness chewing her out.
Abi’s features softened as the scowl she’d worn since saddling up slowly faded and her shoulders sagged. Muttering a curse, her sister straightened and jabbed a finger at her. “You promised. No blubbering.”
Yeah, right. The longer Olivia’s last ride went, the surer she became there was no way she was leaving with her dignity intact. She dragged in a ragged breath and watched her sister guide Jeeves down the craggy trail leading back down to Wingarra for the very last time. With each step the teasing she and Abi had distracted each other with on the trip up surrendered to silence and the real world looming beyond the horizon.
Sunlight washed across the scrub and carried the ominous warmth of another unforgettable day. How long would it be before she could exchange insults with her tribe again, or share that magical part of the day when the work was done and all that remained was to enjoy the luxury of hanging out with the people you loved? Her body stiffened and her fingers clamped around Delores’s reins.
“You all set to go when you get back?” The tension constricting Abi’s voice was a dead giveaway her sister had sensed where Olivia’s thoughts had drifted.
Olivia smiled to herself and absently combed her fingers through Delores’s mane. The almost psychic bond she and Abi had shared their entire lives had survived the months they’d been apart. Her fingers froze and the warmth that had seeped into her frigid muscles chilled. Would their link span the ocean separating them? Would their bond survive the year they’d be apart, or the decades to come?
Olivia swallowed despite the dryness in her mouth. “Three days to get over my jet lag, scrub the sweat and dust from my clothes, and lose the Aussie twang that’s infected my accent. And two days to buy some decent office clothes, brush up on my corporate bingo, and remember all the lies I told in my interview.”
She’d been concerned five days wasn’t enough to prepare for the most challenging phase of her career. Now she worried it was too much. Too much time to dwell on the homesickness she already felt for a place that wasn’t really her home. And way too much time to wallow in the mansickness she’d contracted for a man who wasn’t really hers.
The prospect of calling her boss and asking to start early was looking more and more appealing. There was only one cure for self-pity, and that was work. And what better way to get over her first-world problems than to dive head first into the Medical Disneyland that was Cedars-Sinai’s Neurocritical Cancer Research Unit.
Abi nodded before shifting her focus back to the barely there trail meandering through the rock and scrub toward the Big House. Olivia sank back into her saddle and scanned the endless nothingness. The dry heat, the cloudless sky, the ochre dust, the unspoiled, infinite silence, there were so many facets to this ancient landscape that made it unforgettable. Ignoring the futility of her efforts, she widened her eyes, stilled in the
saddle as best she could, and inhaled until she almost passed out in a desperate attempt to soak up as much of this paradise as possible.
“You okay for money?”
Olivia forced a scowl and glared at Abi. “Stop worrying. I’ve got money tucked away.”
Olivia had known leaving the only family she had was going to break her heart despite her big sister being an overprotective mother hen. But that didn’t prevent the ache in her chest from cranking up to eleven.
Abi shot her a glare of her own before rounding a small outcrop of rock and guiding Jeeves onto Wingarra’s fifty-mile-long dirt driveway.
It wasn’t a complete lie. Olivia did have a few hundred dollars drowning in the sludge at the bottom of her savings account. She wouldn’t be dining on chocolate-covered strawberries, but she had enough to get her through until the big bucks rolled in and she could finally start living like an adult.
“I’d hate to think how much it cost to ship the Camaro over here, so let me know if you run short.”
Abi had finally given up trying to squeeze the shipping costs out of her, but Olivia wouldn’t be surprised to find a wad of cash tucked into the toe of a sock or the cup of a bra when she got back to L.A. Olivia shook her head and pulled Delores in behind Abi and Jeeves to avoid her sister’s searching gaze.
Abi knew something other than leaving, new-job nerves, and the prospect of a seven-thousand-mile economy-class trip gnawed at her. For once her sister held her tongue, which scared her even more.
A Choice of Fate Page 20
