The Maverick Millionaire

by Alison Roberts

  ‘Yeah...’

  ‘And speaking of feelings, I’m kind of hungry.’

  ‘Me, too.’

  ‘Shall we go back and see if there’s any food left?’

  ‘Sure.’ Jake got to his feet and offered Ellie his hand to help her up. He held onto it for a moment longer. ‘Friends again?’ he asked softly. ‘Am I forgiven?’

  ‘Of course. And thank you for trusting me. I won’t let you down.’

  ‘I know that.’

  He did. And the knowledge gave him the feeling of finding something very rare and precious.

  Trust was a good foundation for friendship. Better than good. The fizzing sensation of unexpected happiness was magic. A bit like being drunk. Maybe that was why he opened his mouth and kept talking as they entered the darkness of the bush track that led back to the camping ground.

  ‘I hope tomorrow’s not such a long day. I couldn’t believe how many times I stuffed up that last scene.’

  Ellie’s voice was a little tight. ‘I heard the director say that it was perfect in the end, though.’

  ‘You want to know why?’

  They were almost back at the barbecue area. They could hear the sound of voices and laughter. Their private time was almost over.

  And Ellie was looking up at him, her eyes wary.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I stopped being aware that you were watching me.’

  ‘I was putting you off?’ Ellie sounded horrified. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be on set, then.’

  ‘No. It was good that you were there. That’s how I got it right in the end.’

  She was puzzled again now. Jake felt like he might be stepping over a precipice right now, but he’d gone this far. He couldn’t stop now.

  And maybe it was a cheesy thing to say and Ellie would think it was some kind of line, but Jake realised he’d been needing to do more than apologise. He needed to let Ellie know that the time they’d had together had been special. That he wished he had kissed her back in that beach house. Before she’d known who he was. When he’d just been being himself.

  ‘I just had to take myself back in time a bit,’ he said softly. ‘I imagined that we’d never heard that radio message. And that Amber was you.’

  * * *

  Once again, Ellie had been stopped in her tracks by something Jake had said.

  She didn’t have the wash of sea water around her ankles this time and she wasn’t at all puzzled by these words. There was no mistaking the meaning this time.

  Jake was telling her that he’d wanted to kiss her when he’d had the opportunity. As much as she had wanted him to?

  He hadn’t forgotten the moment anyway. Any more than she had.

  Beyond Jake, she could see the lights and movement of the large group of people they were about to rejoin. She could smell the tantalising aroma of roasted meat, but her hunger for food had evaporated. Here, on this unlit track through the trees, she and Jake were still alone. Unseen.

  On her first day on this job, Ellie had achieved what she’d hoped she might. Time with Jake Logan that had eliminated any sense of being deceived or betrayed.

  Was she just being gullible, falling for that idea that she’d given him some kind of precious gift by allowing him to be simply himself and not a household name or the son of famous people?

  How could she not believe it? Especially when he’d gone on to share what had gone wrong in his relationship with his brother. That was the kind of story a journalist would kill for and Jake had trusted her with that information.

  That was enough to give her the closure she’d wanted, wasn’t it? To turn that experience into something positive that she could remember with pleasure in years to come.

  But...Jake was looking at her now, the way he had in all those secret fantasies she’d indulged in during some of the long nights in the last few weeks. As if every word he’d uttered this evening had come straight from the heart and she was special to him.

  Special enough to want to be more than friends.

  And, heaven help her, Ellie knew without a shadow of doubt in that moment that she was in love with Jake. She had been, ever since that moment he’d gone into the hole beneath the tree roots to rescue a kiwi egg for her. She might have buried the realisation because of what had come next, but she had nothing to bury it with now.

  There it was. Newly hatched and exposed. Making Ellie feel vulnerable in a way she’d sworn never to let herself feel again. So vulnerable she could actually feel herself trembling. Had she really told him that she’d trusted him?

  And meant it?

  Yes... She’d not only reclaimed that step forward in her life, there was a part of her doing a victory dance on the new patch of ground.

  Even if nothing was showing on her face, it was going to be a mission to try and disguise that trembling. Unless she said something about how cold it was getting?

  She had to say something. She couldn’t stand here all night staring at Jake as though the world had stopped spinning.

  But it was Jake who moved. Stepping closer without breaking the eye contact that was holding Ellie prisoner.

  That on-screen kiss must have been merely a practice session because this one was a thousand percent better. The way he touched her face with reverent fingers, still holding her gaze as if reading something printed on her soul. The infinite slowness with which he lowered his head. The sweet torture of his lips hovering so close to her own she could feel the warmth of them and a buzz of sensation that went through every cell of her body.

  And then his fingers slid into her hair and cradled the back of her head as the whisper of touch danced and then settled. As her lips parted beneath his and she felt the first, intimate touch of his tongue, Ellie knew she was lost.

  The world really had stopped spinning.

  CHAPTER NINE

  BY TACIT AGREEMENT, no direct mention was made about whatever was growing between Ellie and Jake. They both knew it was there and it was getting bigger every day. Perhaps trying to confine it to words would put it at risk of being caged and stunt its growth. Or maybe, by acknowledging it, it would somehow make it visible to others. This was theirs alone and it was too fragile and precious to put at risk.

  Keeping it secret became a game that only added excitement to the stakes as they went about the jobs they were paid to do. Jake had to spend hours in makeup and costume, learning his lines and filming scene after scene as the movie inched towards the major finale of the shipwreck. Ellie treated people for minor and sometimes moderate injuries and illnesses. A cameraman needed a night in hospital to check that his chest pain wasn’t cardiac related. One of the catering crew got a nasty burn and someone else had an asthma attack that kept her busy for some time.

  She’d never known that an ignition point of sexual tension could be stretched so far. One day led to another and then another where nothing happened other than an apparently innocent conversation over a meal, a lingering glance during the hours of a working day or, at best, a stolen moment of physical contact that was unlikely to arouse anyone’s suspicion—like the brush of hands as Jake passed her a plate of food or a drink.

  The movie’s star didn’t really need the skills of a highly qualified paramedic to tend to the small scratch he received after a fight scene. It wasn’t very professional of Ellie either to spend quite so much time assessing and cleaning the insignificant wound but the time in the caravan set aside as an on-set clinic was as private as they’d been since that walk on the beach and that seemed so long ago it was getting shrouded in the same mists of fantasy that Ellie’s dreams were.

  As she used a piece of gauze to dry the skin on Jake’s neck that she’d cleaned so thoroughly, the swiftness of his movement when he caught her wrist startled her.

  ‘I’m going mad,’ he said softly. ‘I need some time with you. Away from this crowd. Or any of those nosy reporters.’

  Oh...my... Ellie knew exactly what would happen if they were really alone again. Like they had been i
n the beach house.

  Did she want that, too?

  Oh...yeah... With every fibre of her being.

  Even if a part of her knew perfectly well it couldn’t last? That her world was so different from Jake’s she knew she could never fit in and that, if she allowed herself to go any further down this alluring path, it had to end in tears?

  Her tears?

  But it was so easy to blot out the future and live in the moment. To view this interlude in her life as a one-off and that, if this was the only time she would ever have to be with Jake, it would be worth it. Yes. If the invitation was there, she could no more stop herself going down that path than stop breathing for a week.

  The time it had taken to reach that conclusion had been no more than the time it had taken Ellie to suck in a long breath, but it was enough for wariness to cloud Jake’s eyes. He kept his voice low enough for no one to overhear, even if they were right outside the slightly open door of the caravan.

  ‘Do you want that, too, Ellie? Is it only me that’s going crazy, here? Would you rather—?’

  Ellie stilled his words with her finger on his lips. She looked over her shoulder to ensure they were alone and then she used the tip of her finger to trace the outline of Jake’s lips. When she felt the touch of his tongue against her fingertip she had to close her eyes. Stifle the tiny cry that escaped her own lips.

  It was the only answer Jake needed.

  ‘I’m overdue for a bit of down time. A day off. We could go somewhere. I’ve got a chopper available. We could go anywhere we liked.’

  ‘Wouldn’t it be rather obvious what we were doing?’

  The media had been trying to link Jake romantically with Amber and it hadn’t stuck. They’d have a field day if he took off to an unknown destination with the on-set paramedic, who just happened to be the mysterious woman he’d been confined in a remote cabin with for two days.

  Unless...

  ‘What if we went to visit Pēpe? That would be a legitimate reason to go somewhere together. A photo op for you, even. I’m sure Jillian would love the publicity that it would give the bird-rearing centre.’

  ‘And then...?’ Jake was smiling. He loved the idea. Excitement had Ellie’s blood fizzing like champagne and a million butterflies were dancing in her stomach.

  ‘If we’ve got the use of a chopper we could go anywhere.’ She was on a roll here. ‘We could buy some cans of spaghetti and restock the pantry at the beach house.’

  You couldn’t get more private than that. Especially if they sent the chopper away for an hour or three.

  ‘You...’ Jake was still holding the wrist he’d caught. He pulled Ellie’s hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to the palm of her hand. ‘...are brilliant. I’ll talk to Steve today. We’re going to make this happen. Soon.’

  ‘You almost done in there, Jake?’ A crew member didn’t bother knocking as he stuck his head in the door. ‘Makeup’s waiting to make you beautiful again.’

  ‘All good.’ Jake dropped Ellie’s hand as if it was red hot. ‘On my way.’

  She hid her face by dropping to pick up the piece of gauze that had fallen, unnoticed, to the floor but looked up as Jake reached the door. The glance he sent over his shoulder said it all.

  ‘Soon’ couldn’t be soon enough.

  * * *

  It was Kirsty who persuaded Steve that the publicity the visit would engender would make it more than worthwhile to give Jake a day off.

  Unfortunately, she also insisted that she go too.

  ‘I’m organising the coverage,’ she told him. ‘Setting up the interviews. I have to be there.’

  ‘Look...’ Jake tried to keep a note of desperation out of his voice. ‘I was planning a little surprise for Ellie. The place we were when she rescued me is close to an island where her grandfather used to be the lighthouse keeper. I wanted to use the chopper to take her there to see it again. As a...a thank-you, I guess, for what she did for me. I hadn’t planned on having a...a...’

  ‘Chaperone?’ Kirsty’s glance was amused. And knowing.

  ‘It’s not like that.’ Good grief... He was good at this acting lark. He could channel his frustration into injecting just the right note of irritation here to put Kirsty off the track. ‘Would you want to swap your stilettos for trainers so you could go tramping around on an uninhabited island for a few hours, looking for native birds?’

  ‘Heavens, no.’ Kirsty was horrified. ‘But I do need to do the media wrangling.’ She raised an eyebrow. ‘And wouldn’t that make it seem more like what it is? Just a visit to somewhere that you both happen to have an interest in visiting?’

  She was right. The more official it was, the less likely it would be that Ellie would start getting hounded by reporters or chased by the paparazzi. He had to protect her from that at all costs because, if anything was going to kill what was happening between them, it would be the relentless intrusion of the media and the way they could blow things up out of all proportion and offer their own twisted motivations for whatever was happening in a relationship. Ellie would hate that even more than Ben did and it would undoubtedly be a deal-breaker.

  Maybe it could still work. He just had to come up with a way of making sure it did.

  * * *

  It was hard to tell whether Jillian was more thrilled by the attention the centre was receiving or by meeting Jake Logan. Everybody, including Kirsty, was delighted with how the morning went.

  Jillian got to talk about the centre.

  ‘Captive rearing centres like this are vital to the survival of our iconic native kiwis. Especially the endangered ones like Pēpe, who’s a rare brown kiwi. Out in the wild, a chick has about a five percent chance of making it to adulthood. The ones we hatch and rear here have more like a sixty-five percent chance. We need support to do our work, though. We rely on public contributions as much as government funding.’

  The small army of photographers and television crews loved the shots of Jake holding Pēpe. Having been told what a rare privilege it was, Jake was loving it too. His smile had camera shutters clicking madly and the reporter interviewing him couldn’t help the occasional coo of appreciation.

  ‘So he’s due to be released soon? Will you want to be a part of that occasion, too?’

  ‘If it’s possible, I would consider it an honour.’

  Ellie was more than happy to stay in the background. She was the link between the film star and the new poster bird for the centre and that was enough.

  Having coached Jake on how to hold the bird by the legs with one hand so he wasn’t in danger of being scratched and cradling the bird’s body in the crook of his other arm, Jillian stood aside with her friend as they watched Jake being interviewed.

  ‘You’re right,’ Jillian whispered. ‘Too much hair.’

  ‘He gets to cut it all off after they do the big shipwreck scene. He says he can’t wait.’

  ‘Does he, now?’ Jillian’s voice was a murmur. ‘And what’s with this threesome business on your day off? Did he have anything to say about that?’

  ‘Apparently he has a plan.’

  Something in her tone must have revealed more than Ellie had intended because Jillian’s eyes widened.

  ‘Oh...my...’ she whispered. Then a shadow dimmed her smile. ‘Be careful, won’t you, hon?’

  ‘Maybe I need to stop being so careful,’ Ellie whispered back. ‘This is too good to lose and...and I think I can trust him.’

  ‘I hope so.’ But there was concern in Jillian’s eyes now. ‘I don’t want you getting hurt again.’

  * * *

  Ellie didn’t know what Jake’s plan was, any more than she knew what was in the basket that the caterers had given Jake to store in the helicopter. When they took off and headed north of Auckland after the visit to Pēpe, her heart sank. She assumed the basket was full of tinned food for the beach house and it looked as if Kirsty was coming with them. But as they got close the helicopter veered away from the shore and began to lose altitude.
<
br />   ‘Oh, look...’ Kirsty said. ‘It’s the lighthouse. And there’s another house, too. Is that where we’re going to land?’

  Nobody answered her. Ellie was still too astonished to speak when the chopper touched down on the long grass of a small clearing between the lighthouse and the keeper’s cottage. She didn’t need the instruction to keep her head down as Jake helped her out but she did wonder why the engine wasn’t being shut down. Jake followed her, carrying the basket and then he raised an arm and the helicopter took off again.

  With Kirsty still inside it.

  ‘He’ll be back by four p.m.,’ Jake told her. ‘He’s going to drop Kirsty off and refuel and have some lunch.’ He raised the basket. ‘This is our lunch. I hope the champagne’s still cold.’

  Ellie’s jaw dropped. ‘I thought it was full of cans of spaghetti.’

  ‘Spaghetti’s strictly for emergencies,’ Jake told her. ‘This was carefully planned.’ His smile faded and he looked solemn. ‘This is just for us, Ellie. Kirsty’s job would be on the line if she said anything and the pilot’s too well paid not to be trusted. We can restock the beach house another time.’

  He was already planning another time? Ellie’s joy—and her smile—expanded another notch. ‘I can’t believe I’m here. Standing on Half Moon Island. I haven’t been here since...for ever. Are you sure it’s okay? Did you check with the owners?’

  ‘Owners? I thought it was government property.’

  ‘I’m not sure now. It was put up for sale a few years ago, but I never heard whether anyone bought it.’

  ‘It was for sale?’

  Ellie smiled. ‘A snip at only a few million. Pretty pricey for a holiday house with no amenities, don’t you think?’

  ‘And you didn’t find out whether someone bought it?’

  ‘I didn’t want to know.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘I just didn’t.’ But, as her gaze was drawn back to her beloved lighthouse, she knew that wasn’t enough of an answer. She’d never really thought about her reason herself but standing here was like being on a bridge to the past.

  Old ground on one side. New ground on the other because Jake was there. The past and the future? For whatever reason, it felt important to say more.