Stranded with the Secret Billionaire

by Marion Lennox

  His horse was magnificent. He looked magnificent.

  If I were a Regency heroine I’d be reaching for my smelling salts right now, she thought, and she wanted to tell Maisie because Maisie was watching Nugget with exactly the same look of adoration.

  Wait, was she looking at Matt with adoration? She pulled herself up with a jolt.

  ‘You be careful of those saddlebags,’ she said, fighting for something prosaic to say. ‘I don’t want squashed cream puffs.’

  ‘You packed cream puffs?’ He’d loaded the cartons of food into his saddlebags without question.

  ‘Why wouldn’t I?’ she asked with insouciance.

  ‘Why indeed? I thought picnics were sandwiches and apples.’

  ‘Not in my world. Where are we going?’

  ‘We’re heading for the hills,’ he told her. ‘After this rain I’m betting the place we’re going will be amazing. I hope I’m right.’

  * * *

  This was his favourite place on the entire property. He’d seen it first the day he’d come to inspect the land. Donald had driven him over the paddocks, shown him the house, the shearing sheds, the outbuildings. He’d shown him the sheep and then he’d driven him here. Donald couldn’t make it down the last steep climb. He’d driven him to the top and said, ‘There’s something down there that’s worth a look, boy, if you have the energy to walk down.’

  When he did, he’d known that not only would he buy Jindalee, but Jindalee would be his home.

  This was his refuge. His quiet place. His place for just...being. Over the years, he and Nugget had forged a track through the undergrowth that was secure enough to get right down to the bottom. He led the way now, slowly and surely, with Maisie plodding behind. He glanced back to tell Penny to hold on tight but he didn’t need to. Penny’s knees were tight to the saddle. Her hands gripped the kneepads even though her fingers were still light on the reins. She wouldn’t take her fear out on Maisie. And now...fear or not, her face reflected pure awe.

  The country on this section of the river was so rough, so undermined by underground waterways that no farmer had ever tried to clear it. Now the massive gum trees towered over their heads. The vast, shading canopy meant the understory was an undulating carpet of ferns, a wondrous mat of green that flowed down to the water.

  They weren’t going all the way to the river. The Murray here was wide and wild, a vast expanse of water where the banks would still be covered with debris from the recent floods. This place was better.

  He remembered Donald describing it to him all those years ago.

  ‘There’s a place, boy, where one of the creeks flowing underground sneaks up and burbles up over the rocks,’ Donald had told him. ‘Then it falls and forms a pool bigger’n most swimming pools. You can swim there if you can cope with a bit of cold. It’s the cleanest water on God’s earth, I swear. And then it slithers through a bed of tumbled rocks and disappears back underground. The ground around is covered with moss. A man can lie on that moss and look up through the gums and see the sky. It’s like a slice of heaven.’

  Matt had come and seen and fallen in love, and now, as their horses turned into the final clearing, he saw Penny’s face and knew she saw it exactly the same way.

  ‘Oh,’ she breathed and then fell silent. Awed.

  ‘Not bad, huh?’ he said, trying to bite back pride and then he thought: Why not say it like it is? ‘Best place in the world.’

  ‘Oh, Matt.’ She slipped off Maisie and the horse turned to nibble her ear. Her hand automatically went to scratch Maisie’s nose. She was a natural horsewoman, Matt thought. He could buy another horse and...

  What was he thinking?

  The dogs were heading into the ferns, wild with excitement at the smell of rabbits, of something other than sheep, maybe simply at the day itself.

  Matt pretty much felt the same—although he surely wasn’t thinking of rabbits.

  ‘Can we swim?’ she breathed.

  ‘It’s icy.’

  ‘But there aren’t any...I don’t know...crocodiles?’

  He grinned. ‘No crocodiles.’

  ‘Then I’m in.’

  ‘Did you bring your swimmers?’

  ‘No,’ she said and suddenly she was glaring. ‘I did not because no one told me that swimming was an option.’ She looked again at the waterhole and he saw the moment she made a decision. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘you didn’t tell me so you need to face the consequences. My knickers and bra are respectable. You’re sure there isn’t a posse of photographers behind these trees?’

  What sort of world did she live in? ‘I’m sure.’

  ‘Don’t sound so cocky. They’d be onto you if you didn’t have such an ordinary name. You must have kept deliberately under the radar. Matt Fraser? No headlines and I bet you’ve fought hard to keep it that way. As squillionaire owner of Harriday Holdings, you’d be every women’s magazine’s Bachelor of the Year, no sweat.’

  ‘So you didn’t fight?’ he said curiously. ‘To keep under the radar?’

  ‘With my father? I was in front of a camera practically before they cut the cord. And with a name like Hindmarsh-Firth it’s impossible to duck.’

  ‘So change it.’

  ‘Right,’ she said grimly. ‘By deed poll? I don’t think so. I’d be splashed all over the dailies with Family Feud as the headline.’ She shrugged. ‘No matter. It’s all a long way from here and this place is magic. Can I swim?’

  ‘The water’s coming straight up from underground. Cold doesn’t begin to describe it.’

  ‘You swim here?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘But you never bother to pack your bathers when you come here?’ Her smile returned. ‘I get it. Every respectable squillionaire has his own private swimming pool and this is yours. Can I share?’

  ‘If you dare.’

  And she chuckled and tugged her T-shirt off, revealing a sliver of a pink lace bra. ‘Of course I dare,’ she told him. ‘But I’m not doing your naked thing. I happen to be wearing matching knickers and panties—isn’t that lucky? Will you join me?’

  ‘I...yes.’

  ‘Then are your boxers respectable, because we Hindmarsh-Firths have our standards?’

  He grinned. ‘I believe they are—although they’re not pink and they’re not lace.’

  ‘I don’t know what squillionaires are coming to,’ she said, mock serious. ‘But I can slum it. Swimming with a guy in cotton boxers? If I must.’

  And she turned her back on him, kicked off her shoes, tugged off her jeans—to reveal a pair of knickers that were just as scanty as her bra—and dived straight in.

  * * *

  He’d said it was cold, but this wasn’t just cold. This was half a degree above ice. She reached for the rock ledge and gasped and gasped.

  And Matt was beside her.

  He must have dived in almost as soon as she had. She hadn’t noticed him shedding his clothes. She’d been more than a bit embarrassed about the panty-bra thing and had turned her back but now he was beside her.

  His arm came out to support her. Maybe he thought her heart might stop.

  It felt as if it might stop.

  ‘I told you it was cold,’ he said, a trifle smugly, and the iciness of the water and the sudden sensation of his arm around the bare skin of her waist and the smugness in his tone made her want to retort—but how could a girl retort when she was gasping like a fish out of water?

  ‘Oh... Oh...’

  ‘You get used to it if you swim,’ he told her. Dammit, his voice wasn’t even quavering. Was the man immune?

  ‘This is like those winter plunge ceremonies in the Antarctic,’ she stammered and tried to tug herself up to the ledge.

  ‘Penny?’

  ‘Mmm?’ She couldn’t get a
handhold.

  ‘There’s a ledge over there that makes it easy to get out, but if you can bear it then try swimming. The cold eases and there’s something I want to show you.’

  Every nerve ending in her body was screaming for her to get out. But something else was cutting in, overriding the cold of the water.

  Matt’s arm was around her waist. He’d stripped to his boxers. His body was big and tanned and strong and he was holding her against him.

  Was it her imagination or was she warm where she was touching him?

  The initial shock was wearing off now—a little. She could breathe again, enough to take in her surroundings.

  The pool was magnificent. At one end was a waterfall, not high, maybe head height, but enough to send white water tumbling down over rocks to the pool below. The pool itself was clear and deep, but not so deep that she couldn’t see the sandy bottom. Now that she had her breath back she could see tiny slivers of darting fish.

  The canopy of trees had parted a little over the pool, so dappled sunlight was playing on the water. Moss covered the surrounding rocks, and beyond the moss the horses had started grazing. They were obviously appreciating the lush grass in the slice of land where the moss ended and the ferns began.

  The scene was idyllic. Enough to make her forget the ice?

  Or maybe that was because Matt was beside her. Holding her.

  What was a little ice compared to Matt?

  ‘Sh...show me,’ she managed through chattering teeth and he grinned.

  ‘Swim first,’ he told her. ‘Half a dozen fast laps to warm up. Can you do that?’

  ‘Of course. Bossy.’

  ‘I’m not bossy, I’m wise,’ he told her. ‘Swim or you’ll have to get out. Believe me.’

  So she swam. The pool was the length of the pool her parents had in their current mansion. She’d spent a lot of time in that pool since the night Brett and Felicity had made their announcement. Swimming was a way she could block out the world.

  But she had no intention of blocking the world now, for Matt swam beside her, matching her stroke for stroke. Maybe he wasn’t too sure of her ability, she thought. Maybe he thought she might drown if he didn’t stick close enough to save her.

  Saved by Matt... It was a silly thought but it did something to her insides. The water was still icy but she was warming up, and half of that warming process was Matt. Matt’s body inches from hers. Matt’s presence. Matt...

  They turned in unison and then turned again. Four lengths, five...and then six. She reached the end and grasped the ledge. Matt’s arm came around her and held again.

  He couldn’t think she was drowning now. He was holding her because...?

  ‘Game for the next bit?’ he asked and she thought: With your arm around me I’m game for anything.

  ‘I...yes.’ Her teeth weren’t chattering any more. She couldn’t say she was warm but the iciness had dropped a notch. The water felt amazing. You could drink this water, she thought, and took a tentative mouthful and it tasted wonderful.

  ‘If the bauxite mine ever fails I can put a bottling factory here and make a mint,’ Matt said smugly.

  ‘Don’t you dare.’

  ‘Don’t worry, I won’t,’ he told her and he smiled at her again. That smile... It was a caress all by itself.

  But he was a man on a mission. He had something to show her.

  ‘The waterfall,’ he told her. ‘We’re going behind it.’

  ‘We are?’

  ‘You can’t see anything from out here,’ he told her. ‘But if you aim to the left of centre, put your head down, hold your breath for thirty seconds and swim right through, you’ll find there’s a cave.’

  ‘Really?’ She stared at the innocent-looking waterfall. ‘There’s no way I can be trapped?’

  He grinned at her note of suspicion. ‘You guessed it. You’ll find forty-seven skeletons in there, the remains of every single maiden I’ve ever enticed into my secret lair.’

  And she thought suddenly: How do I know he’s not telling the truth? She’d known him for less than three weeks.

  She’d been a fool for Brett. How could she trust her judgement now?

  Except this was Matt. And Matt was smiling just a little, teasing.

  ‘I know you’re lying,’ she told him and he raised a quizzical brow.

  ‘How?’

  ‘Because you couldn’t possibly have persuaded forty-seven maidens to jump into this ice.’ And she turned towards the waterfall and swam.

  It was a weird feeling, to think of swimming through the wall. Instinct told her to reach the tumbling water and stop. She did for a moment, pausing to tread water, feeling the spray of the falls splash on her face.

  But Matt was beside her. She could scarcely see him through the mist but he touched her shoulder. ‘Here,’ he said. ‘Straight ahead. Put your head down and swim. It’s narrow—you’ll feel rocks on either side—but you’ll be through in seconds.’

  ‘I...is it dark in there?’

  ‘I promise it’s not,’ he told her. ‘It’s safe as houses.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Well, not a centrally heated house,’ he admitted. ‘But it’s worth it. Penny, trust me?’

  Did she trust him? She stared at him for a long moment. His face was blurred behind the mist of the waterfall but she could still see him. He’d ceased smiling. He was waiting for her to come to a decision—and suddenly it was about more than the trust required to swim through a waterfall.

  It was about total trust.

  It was about taking a step that felt momentous.

  He put out a hand and touched her face, making the rivulets of water stream across his hand rather than across her eyes. Her vision cleared and she saw him as he was.

  A loner. A man of strength and courage. Matt.

  And something shifted inside her. Something she couldn’t name. Something that had never been touched before.

  She put out her hand and touched his face back.

  ‘I trust you,’ she whispered and he smiled but it was a different kind of smile. It was a smile that said he was in the same unchartered territory as she was.

  ‘Then let’s go,’ he told her. ‘Come on, Penelope Hindmarsh-Firth. Let’s do it.’

  And he put his hands on her shoulders and twisted her around so she was facing the waterfall and gave her a slight push forward.

  ‘Through you go,’ he told her. ‘And know that I’m with you all the way.’

  * * *

  Okay, it was scary. The first bit did involve trust. The wash of tumbling water as she swam through was almost enough to push her under, and then she felt the rocks on either side.

  Matt had said to swim through. Just keep on going.

  She wasn’t completely enclosed. She could still surface and breathe if she needed to, though the mist from the falls made that hard. It was a narrow channel through the rocks, and it was getting narrower.

  But Matt was behind her. She held her breath and dived like a porpoise.

  The rocks on both sides touched her shoulders. She used them to pull herself the last little way.

  And emerged...to magic.

  It was an underground pool that must feed out somehow into the pool they’d just been in, but at the same level. She could hear the rush of water over her head. The creek must branch, above and below. This pool was roofed, and yet not. There were fissures where the sunlight glimmered through, shafts of golden light making the surface of the underground water glimmer in light and shade.

  She could see the canopy of the trees through the fissures, but only glimpses. In a couple of places the water course above was overflowing and spilling down, so rivulets of water splashed the surface of the water in the cavern. Some sort of tiny, pale green creeper was tra
iling downward, tendril after tendril of soft, lush vine.

  And at the edges were flat rock ledges. It was, as Matt had said, totally safe.

  It took her breath away.

  She trod water and turned and Matt was right behind her. Watching her. And the expression on his face... He loved this place, she thought.

  ‘Oh, Matt, it’s beautiful,’ she breathed, and he smiled, an odd little smile she’d never seen before.

  ‘Beautiful,’ he agreed, and the way he said it... It took her breath away all over again.

  ‘I...do you come here often?’ She sounded nervous, she thought, and maybe she was, but in a weird way. It was as if the world was holding its breath. Something seemed about to happen and she wasn’t sure what.

  ‘Just when I need to,’ he told her. ‘Even Donald doesn’t know about this secret place. Isn’t it great?’

  ‘It is,’ she breathed. ‘So...your forty-seven maidens?’

  ‘Okay, I made ’em up.’ They were treading water. If they swam a couple of yards further on they could stand, but for some reason that seemed dangerous. ‘The water above doesn’t run except in times of flooding, so the waterfall’s a rare thing. But this underground cavern’s always here. You’re the first person I’ve ever brought here.’

  ‘That sounds...momentous.’

  ‘I think it is,’ he said seriously. ‘Penny?’

  ‘Mmm?’ What else was a woman to say?

  ‘I’d like to kiss you.’

  And suddenly she wasn’t cold at all. She was exceedingly warm.

  Apart from her body.

  ‘I’m all for it,’ she told him. ‘Except that I can’t feel my toes and if I kiss you I might forget about them and I’ll get frostbite from the toes up.’

  ‘Ever the practical...’

  ‘Someone has to be,’ she told him and only she knew what a struggle it was to say it. ‘But I have a suggestion.’