Outback Hearts (Beyond Reality Book 1)

by Stoker, Susan

  Henry suddenly reached out and grabbed her wrist.

  “Wha…” Sam got out as she flinched in surprise. What did she really know about this man after all?

  Alex watched Sammi out of the corner of his eye as the other women said their goodbyes. He didn’t know why it bothered him to see her smile at one of the jackaroos, but he knew he was irritated. His mood only grew worse when he saw the man throw his head back and laugh at something Sammi said. He’d just finished saying the correct meaningless goodbye words to Kiki when he saw the jackaroo grab Sammi by the wrist. Without a second thought, he was striding across the yard to where Sammi stood.

  “What in the hell did you do?” Henry rasped as he turned Sam’s hand over to look at her palm. Sam tried to tug her hand away from him.

  “Let me go,” Sam said firmly. Henry gripped her wrist even more firmly.

  “Not until you explain this,” Henry said gruffly, trying to pull her toward him so he could get a better look at her palm.

  “She said to let go of her,” a deep voice said from behind them. Henry dropped her wrist and they both turned to see Alex standing a few feet from them.

  “You okay?” he asked Sam, shifting forward so his body was between her and the other man. Alex didn’t know what was going on, but he wasn’t going to allow anyone to touch her without her permission. Alex didn’t even take the time to think about why he felt that way, he just did. He’d never been the possessive, alpha type, but Sammi somehow brought it out in him.

  Sam tucked her hand back in her jeans pocket and said, “Yup, I’ve got to get on the bus…”

  “You won’t until I find out what the hell just happened here,” Alex told her with a glare. He turned his eyes to Henry. “If you want to keep your job you’d better start explaining.”

  Henry answered immediately and calmly, “She’s hurt, I was trying to look at her hand.” He’d seen Alex around a bit and knew his bark was worse than his bite. Suppressing a smile, knowing the hardworking and genuine woman standing in front of them seemed to have gotten under his skin, he nodded toward Sam and said, “Look for yourself.”

  Both men turned to see Sam backing away from them, hands still out of sight. “They’re all waiting for me…I have to go,” she stammered, almost tripping over herself trying to get away. “It was nice to meet you, Henry,” Sam said, still backing away.

  Alex came toward her as if he was a predator stalking his prey. “Give me your hand,” he ordered, holding out his own.

  “It’s not a big deal, Al,” Sam tried to explain, “it’s just a blister from working today, I’m sure that all the others have them too…”

  Alex stepped close enough to take her by the upper arm and stop her retreat.

  “It’s a bit more than that, hon,” Henry said. “I’ll leave you to deal with her,” he told Al as he turned around to go back to the barn.

  “Damn,” Sam muttered under her breath, not believing how Henry had thrown her under the proverbial bus when it came to Alex.

  “You know you’re going to make my life miserable by giving me this attention, don’t you?” Sam tried to reason with Alex. “They’re okay, it’s not life threatening. Just let me go…please?”

  “I can’t let you go knowing you might be hurt,” Alex told her honestly. “What kind of man would I be if I just let you walk away right now knowing you were in pain and I didn’t do anything about it? It’s bad enough I couldn’t do anything the other day when you were cold.” Alex stared into Sammi’s eyes, trying desperately to make her understand that he wanted to help her, that he needed to help her.

  Sam somehow knew Al would stand there all night waiting if she didn’t just get it over with and show him. She pulled out her left hand, knowing it wasn’t as bad as the right one. “Fine, you want to see it, here,” and she shoved it under his face.

  “Holy shit, Sammi,” Alex muttered, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand while holding her palm up. It didn’t look good. There were blisters on the palm under each finger. She had what looked like a blister on top of a blister at the base of her thumb and one large blister right in the center of her palm.

  “What the hell happened? Why didn’t you use gloves?” Alex practically yelled at her, not able to hold back his concern about how she was hurt. While he sounded mad, the hand that was holding hers was gentle.

  Sam tried to yank her hand away from him, but he held firm.

  “I couldn’t find them this afternoon and I had to get the job done, so I did it. It’s not a big deal, Al. Really. Please, let me get on the bus, they’re all looking at us,” Sam said desperately. As much as she loved the feel of Al’s hands on hers she knew she’d pay for it. If she thought Courtnee and the others were playing the game before, they would really start on her now. She was enemy number one in every way.

  “Let me see the other one,” Alex said remorselessly, not giving into her pleas until he’d seen for himself how badly she was hurt.

  Sam sighed. She knew he wouldn’t let her go until he’d seen the other hand as well. Reluctantly, she pulled it out of her pocket and held it out.

  Alex didn’t say a word, just took a hold of her right hand and leaned over to see it closer to get a better look. It was a bit worse than the other one since she was right handed. Some of the blisters were really oozing and looked like they needed to be cleaned.

  “Let’s go,” Alex told her abruptly, trying to tow her toward the big house.

  “Where?” Sam asked, trying to pull back in the direction of the bus.

  “To the house where we can have these looked at by a doctor,” Alex answered determinately.

  “No way!” Sam said, yanking her hand out of his grasp and taking a large step backward and away from him. “I’m going back to the bus and leaving right now. I’ll clean it back at camp,” she promised somewhat desperately.

  Alex looked at her, then back to the bus. “Okay, I can understand you wouldn’t want the other women to think you were getting unfair attention from me, but you have to have this taken care of. It won’t wait.”

  Sam sighed and asked, “Can we compromise? Can Eddie have one of his people look at it back at camp?”

  Alex pondered her statement, not liking the entire situation at all. He wanted to be the one to take care of her. He wanted to be the one who made her feel better. He really wanted her to lean on him and to see him as able to take care of her. This situation was so messed up. There was no way in the “real world” he’d let her just go off into the night knowing she needed care. He sighed and finally said, “Okay, but the next time we get together I want to see for myself that they’re healing. And know that if we weren’t on this show I’d take you in and make sure you were cared for. I’d probably draw you a hot bubble bath, cook you a comforting dinner and make sure you took care of yourself. I have a feeling you take care of others more than you take care of yourself.”

  Sam couldn’t say anything at first. She allowed her eyes to say what her heart felt. She’d never had someone take care of her like that and there was nothing she wanted more than to let Al do what he just said he’d do if he could. But she knew she couldn’t, and for her own self-preservation, she had to get on that bus right now and get away from the most handsome and caring man she’d ever met. She gave him a wistful, but honest, smile and softly said, “Deal.” Then she turned her back on Al and walked toward the bus.

  Alex watched her go. He was pleased at the smile she’d bestowed on him. It lit up her face and was definitely not the kind of smile he was used to seeing on women. He was used to seeing a small fake curling of the lips, seldom did the women he was around show any teeth when they smiled. It was refreshing to see an unfettered smile, and even better that it had been aimed at him. Alex turned away to talk to Eddie before he left the station. He wanted to see the tapes from the doctor looking at her hands later that night. He just couldn’t let it go. He had to see for himself that Sammi was taken care of. It was a compulsion of sorts, a confusing one at
that.

  The bus was quiet on the way back to the camp. Sam fell asleep in the front seat as soon as they left the cattle station. When they pulled up to the camp it almost seemed as if they were back home, as much of a “home” as it could be. Eddie had obviously sent one of the camp doctors to meet the bus as there was a man in a white coat waiting when the bus pulled up. He called Sam over and had her sit on the truck bed he’d driven to the camp while he doctored her hands. It hurt, but Sam was so tired it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. The doctor bandaged up her hands and was on his way. He didn’t say much to her. Sam figured it was back to the “show” rules, but he did tell her to keep her hands dry that night and that they should be bandaged each night and covered with the salve to keep them moist and to help them heal.

  Sam went into the tent to lie down. She figured a shower could wait. Even though she was filthy, she couldn’t imagine being able to stand up for the amount of time it’d take. Besides, the doctor told her to keep her hands dry. The other women slowly filed into the tent after visiting the bathroom and shower.

  Kathi came to stand near Sam’s cot and said nastily, “So, did you plan that little interlude or what? You think you can outsmart us to get to spend more time with Al? Ain’t gonna happen, bitch. You don’t have a shot in hell at that man. Look at you, you’re pathetic. Your games aren’t going to work.”

  Sam looked up at Kathi and said quietly and honestly, “That wasn’t what I was trying to do. All I wanted was to leave. He was the one who insisted that he look at my hands. I don’t figure I’m going to win this game either.”

  “Damn straight,” piped up Cindee. By now most of the women who were living in the tent had wandered over.

  “It seems to me that Al is the kind of man who’d care about anyone that was hurt,” Sam continued. “It wasn’t as if he was showing me any extra affection or consideration. He’d have done the same thing if it’d been one of you that was hurt.” Sam looked at each woman. “Look at it this way, now that my hands aren’t in top shape, that leaves me more vulnerable to not being able to succeed in the future challenges.”

  The girls laughed.

  “That’s true,” said Brandi.

  They slowly all went back to their beds. It’d been a long two days and most of them were ready to get some sleep. Kathi was the last one standing near Sam’s bed.

  “You might have fooled them,” she said in a low furious voice, cocking her head toward the other women settling down into their beds for the night, “but Missy and Courtnee told me what you did today. You like to make others think you’re a saint, but you and I both know better. If you think he likes to help women that are hurt feel better, you’d better not egg him on.”

  Sam sighed and looked at Kathi. “Go to bed Kathi, I’m not going to fight with you. Did you see me cozying up to him? Did you see me go to him first? No. I wasn’t even going to tell him, so there’s fault in your logic. Remember too that this whole thing is Courtnee and Missy’s fault. If they hadn’t lied, I wouldn’t have been hurt in the first place and Al wouldn’t have had to be concerned about me. I don’t need him or any man to help me feel better, or to take care of me…I can do it myself. Don’t mess with me, Kathi. I’ll stay out of your way and you stay out of mine. We only have to be around each other for another week or two and then we won’t ever have to see each other again.”

  “I can’t wait,” Kathi hissed and walked away.

  Sam sighed. This wasn’t going well. She sure hoped the next week or two passed quickly, or that she was taken out of the show before things got really ugly.

  * * *

  Alex didn’t go straight back to the camp. He stayed back at the station to visit with his Aunt Nancy for a bit. He wasn’t sure when he’d get to see her again and he missed her. They talked a little about what had happened that day. Neither could understand what was going through Sammi’s head, and while they had a good idea about what went on in the barn, neither knew for sure. When Alex asked the producer about tapes from the barn, he’d told them the cameras had taped them while he was helping them out and stayed for a bit afterward, but hadn’t been back. That wasn’t going to help them figure out what happened.

  “You said her hands had blisters all over them?” Nancy asked her nephew with concern in her voice.

  “Yes, and they were bad. I don’t know how she was able to muck the barn out with them like that,” Alex told her, still concerned if she’d gotten help when she got back to her camp.

  “I’m sure they were fine when she was up at the water pump,” Nancy told him. “We shook hands and I didn’t see her flinch or feel anything out of the ordinary. In fact, I was impressed she actually shook my hand and didn’t give me a “limp fish” handshake. She couldn’t have done that if she’d been hurt then.”

  Alex agreed with his aunt. “She must not have used gloves when she went back to the barn. We could ask John about it,” Alex told her, getting ready to stand up to go and find John right that second. Anything to help get to the bottom of what happened to Sammi. He was having a hard time letting it go.

  “Let’s just forget about it. We don’t know what happened, but it doesn’t really matter now. Sammi was right, John made a judgment call. We might not like it, but we weren’t there either. She seems to be okay, tired but fine and she’ll get her hands looked at by a doctor back at camp.” Trying to change the subject, Nancy said, “Let’s talk about what they have planned for you for the upcoming week.” She settled in to speculate with Alex about what was going to happen next on the show.

  Alex and Nancy spent the next couple of hours catching up and talking about the show and the ladies. Before long, it was time for Alex to get back to the camp. He was anxious to see the tapes and see how Sammi’s hands were.

  After saying good-bye to his aunt and going back to the producer’s camping area, Alex sat in his tent with the tapes from that night. He was told all the women were sound asleep or at least in their tents for the night. He watched as the doctor cleaned and bandaged Sammi’s hands. Neither said much. Alex could tell the cleansing process was hurting Sammi. He could see her biting her bottom lip, but she didn’t say a word. He watched as she walked back to her tent. Eddie had also given him another tape. It was one from the inside of one of the women’s tents. The women knew the tent cameras were there, it was all a part of the show.

  Alex watched as the women settled down and got ready for bed. This camera was more of a “wide angle” lens, so he didn’t have any close up shots of anyone, but he saw Kathi walk up to Sammi’s bed as she was lying on it. He heard bits and pieces of the conversation, enough to know that Kathi was giving Sammi a hard time about the attention he’d given her.

  That’s what she was talking about, Alex thought to himself. No wonder she just wanted me to leave her alone.

  Alex watched as the other women gathered around to hear the conversation. Alex was amazed to hear Sammi peg him when she was defending his gallant tendencies and explain how he didn’t like to see women hurt. He was surprised she knew that about him already. They really hadn’t spent that much time together, but he’d hoped that perhaps she had some feelings toward him. Hearing her defend him made him realize the attraction wasn’t just on his side. It made him smile.

  Alex watched the conversation and saw the women drift off toward their own beds until it was only Kathi and Sammi left talking. He saw Kathi lean in toward Sammi. He couldn’t hear what she was saying, the camera only picked up bits and pieces of the conversation.

  I’ll have to tell Eddie to turn up the microphone. Alex thought as he strained to hear what was being said. He heard Kathi say something like, “saint, help women, and egg.” Alex wasn’t sure what to make of that. He couldn’t hear what Sammi said in response, but as she spoke her words got louder and he was able to hear the end of the conversation.

  “I don’t need him or any man to help me feel better, or to take care of me…I can do it myself.” He chuckled to himself. Alex never thought he
could be attracted to an independent woman, but he found he liked the thought of Sammi not needing him, but perhaps wanting him instead. Lord knew he wanted her. He was attracted to her. More than attracted. He was thrilled there was at least some reciprocation on Sammi’s behalf.

  Alex watched as Kathi stormed back to her bed. He was definitely glad for the opportunity to watch the tapes from camp. He was learning a lot about the personalities of the women, and what he was learning made him more and more cynical. He was amazed at how different the ladies were around him than they were around each other. He shuddered to think about having to make a decision without knowing the true personalities of the women. Thank God he was able to see the tapes. It was bad enough to feel like a piece of meat that dogs were fighting over.

  He felt as if with the tapes at least he could have a fighting chance of making the right decision at the end of the show. He might not like Eddie very much as a person, but as a producer, he certainly knew how to make a show exciting.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The next week went by fairly quickly for Sam. Her hands healed quickly, enough so that it no longer hurt to use them. Al was true to his word and checked them himself the first time they saw each other after the incident. It should’ve been awkward since they were still basically strangers, but instead it was awkward for Sam because of how she felt when Al had taken her hands in his and run his fingertips over her quickly healing palms.

  Sam wanted to grab him and never let go. She imagined his hands running over the rest of her body and it was all she could do to not fall in a puddle at his feet.

  The days at camp were lazy ones. Sam no longer took walks away from the camp, not because she didn’t want to, but because she didn’t want to put any of the camera operators in danger again. She still blamed herself for Kina almost being bitten and didn’t want to have a repeat.