Life just wasn't fair.
"Did you just work that out?" Jay was laughing at her again.
Damn. She must have said that last bit out loud. She bit her lip and hoped that was the only thought she'd voiced.
"For once, you're right. Here we are, in one of the most gorgeous, untouched wildernesses in the world, with our own private helicopter and lunch laid on, while there are people who don't have enough food and water to make it through the day. Or money to pay their rent. Or time to take a day out here and really appreciate what we have. Yep, life is awesome this week, so live it up while it lasts, because next week, you could be back to looking for rent money you just don't have."
Once again, he didn't understand. Scrabbling for the money to live wasn't part of her plan.
"Incredible!" Jay breathed, pointing, and Gaia's gaze followed his finger.
The river and the whole plateau just...ended. And they were flying toward the void.
Jay cheered as they flew over the falls, no, four individual waterfalls, staggered like steps down the cliffs. Each cascade ended in its own pool, which spilled into a bigger one until the river continued on at the base of the plateau. They followed the river for a little way, before the pilot turned them around to get a better look at the spectacle that was Mitchell Falls.
Gaia had to admit it was impressive, but that only made her more miserable. Another of nature's wonders she couldn't hope to compete with. Her company mined more of this state than any other and it was barely a drop in the ocean...or a pebble on a mountain, in a mountain range that stretched forever.
"Tell me we're landing. I need to swim in that." The desire in Jay's voice was unmistakeable. Desire for a damn waterfall?
Gaia shook her head. She felt awe and insignificance, while this madman felt lust. She'd never understand him at all. Never.
THIRTY-SIX
The pilot set them down on the permanent helipad on top of the plateau. Gaia could hear the roar of the falls the moment she stuck her head out of the helicopter.
"Mitchell River and the top of the falls is a short walk that way." Shou pointed. "But the lookout and the best way to the pools is down that trail." A signpost beside a rock cairn confirmed it.
"What do you recommend first?" Jay asked.
Shou shrugged, pulling a cloth-wrapped bundle from under the seat. "See the top first, seeing as it's closer. That'll give me some time to make sure the trail's clear." He threw the cloth back into the helicopter and Gaia's eyes widened as she saw what it had covered. It looked like an old-fashioned sword belt, with a sheath and the handle of something sticking out it.
"What do you need a sword for?" she said.
Shou laughed and pulled out the blade. It looked short for a sword, and not as shiny. "It's a machete, and I'll need it to fight my way through." He slid it back into its sheath, before slinging the belt over his head, so the blade sat diagonally across his back.
Gaia backed toward the helicopter. "I didn't come here to fight people. It's too dangerous. Take me back to the resort right now."
Now both men were laughing. Shou held up his hands and attempted to explain, "No, no. Not people. Plants. It's the end of the wet season and the national park's just opened to the public this week. No one's taken this path for months, and the scrub will have tried to reclaim it. After record rains like this year, everything will have grown wild. It'll be slow going without it. And it's a steep climb back up, but I look like a bloody fool carrying that when I might need both hands to climb, so the sheath keeps it out of my way."
"I don't know why you don't get a samurai sword, like Baz suggested. The tourists would love it," Jay said.
Shou shrugged. "Perhaps. I like this blade better, though. Samurai fought people, not Australian hardwoods. A samurai blade might not be equal to one Aussie tree."
Gaia still didn't want to let go of the helicopter. The steel was a comforting piece of civilisation under her hand. Once she let go...she truly would be in the wilderness. Could she trust these men to take care of her?
"C'mon, baby. I want to stand on the top of the falls and see if I can get an echo going." Jay offered his hand.
She wanted to go home. Not just the resort, but home in Perth, where everything was familiar and not frightening.
But that would disappoint Jay, who she'd invited on this adventure. She owed it to him to at least see it through.
"I'll protect you from the plants, baby. I didn't let the mud crabs get you on the beach, though I couldn't save your shoe." Jay's grin was surprisingly reassuring. He was right, she realised. He'd carried her off the beach in the rain when she was stuck.
Reluctantly, she wrapped her fingers around his, tightening her grip as she relinquished her hold on the helicopter.
Jay hurried along the track, which ran right to the edge of the river. The cliff where it ended was frighteningly close, but Jay didn't hesitate. He waded into the water up to his knees and stood a few short metres from the edge. Cupping his hands to his mouth, he let loose a deafening, "Coo-ee!"
When no sound bounced back, he tried it again, louder still. The man sure had a decent set of lungs on him. Gaia wished she'd seen him belt out one of his songs, but Mother had always dismissed concerts as uncouth, so she'd never been to one. Now, she wished she'd flouted Mother's rules just once so she could see him perform. The gorge before him didn't faze him in the least. Gaia wondered if anything did. Not for the first time that day, she felt a pang of jealousy for the charmed life that belonged to Jay Felix.
THIRTY-SEVEN
When they returned to the landing area, they found Shou rummaging around in the back of the helicopter, no longer wearing his machete.
"That was quick," Jay remarked. "I thought you said you had to hack a path to the bottom of the falls for us. Did the trees all take one look at your mighty sword and quiver in fear?"
The pilot emerged with a picnic basket cradled in his arms. "Maybe. It wasn't anywhere near as overgrown as I'd expected. Maybe we're not the first tourists out here this season, or perhaps the park rangers decided to do their job for once and clear the track a bit for the first time in forever. I don't know. What I do know is it's a decent hike down there, but worth it. You two head on down to the lookout while I grab your lunch. I'll set it up so you'll have a good view while you eat."
"C'mon." Jay grabbed Gaia's hand again. This time she didn't hesitate when he pulled her toward the track. After all, the pilot had said it was all clear. It couldn't be that difficult a walk, surely.
Their impromptu bushwalk wasn't as hard as Gaia had expected, but she still breathed a sigh of relief when they reached the lookout. She wouldn't have put it past Jay to get lost in the surprisingly dense vegetation. It had looked so sparse from the air.
"Now this was worth it," Jay said, standing at the edge of the lookout platform and spreading his arms to encompass the view. "Almost as pretty as the view from the air."
Gaia agreed with him. From her vantage point, she could see all four waterfalls, with what looked like an offshoot stream that was far enough from the others to be considered a fifth. She felt dizzy. She'd stood at the top of that, mere metres from the lip of the uppermost cascade, but now she could see that the drop down any one of those could easily kill her.
Too big. Too dangerous. Life out here was too much for her.
"Where's your phone? Don't you want a picture of yourself standing here?" Jay demanded. "Even you have to admit this beats Lorikeet Island and you took heaps of pictures while we were out there."
Gaia fumbled for her phone and handed it to him, trying to hide the chill in heart as she realised he'd noticed her need for photographs on Lorikeet Island. What else had he noticed?
He switched places with her, taking the time to position her perfectly before he lifted the camera to take a shot. "Smile, baby. Think of the awesome sex we're going to have later," he said.
"What?" Gaia's mouth dropped open. What had happened to being boring and bested by his own hand
?
Jay waved his hands around. "Why else would you go to all this trouble, unless you wanted to try to seduce me again? It's working so far, baby. And nothing says a perfect day like sex at the end of it. Or even the middle. Not the beginning so much, because then there's really no point getting out of bed in the first place." He grinned. "Hey, tell you what. You should get a shot of us together so you'll have something else to remember me by."
Before Gaia could protest, he pulled her close with one arm as he lifted the phone with the other. "Say sex, baby," he whispered, thumbing the button on the phone.
Her blood started to simmer, rushing to her cheeks in a brilliant blush that even she could see on the phone screen. "Oh no, I look terrible!"
Jay shrugged. "Let's take a few more, then, and you work out which one's the best later."
Numbly, she nodded, then arranged her expression into a smile.
Jay clicked maybe half a dozen more shots before he grew tired and handed her phone back to her. "Looks like Shou's nearly got lunch ready. We should go get some before he eats it all."
THIRTY-EIGHT
Gaia ate mechanically, not tasting a bite of it. She couldn't have said whether she'd eaten steak or spam sandwiches. She washed it down with a cup of whatever the pilot handed to her, but she didn't taste that, either.
She stole glances at Jay, who evidently enjoyed his lunch as much as everything else they'd done today. Like everything he did in life. The man was too happy by half.
Was that why she was so attracted to him? Not just his hot body, though that was definitely enough to tempt her. It was his effortless joy at even the slightest thing, without a worry in the world. She wanted a tiny part of that.
And he'd thrown the offer of sex out so casually. She couldn't take it seriously, no matter how much she wanted to.
For all his insouciance, Jay wasn't stupid. He had noticed the photos she and the pilot had taken on Lorikeet Island. Had he also put all the pieces together and realised why she'd wanted them?
All the more reason to keep him happy today, and make sure he enjoyed every moment. Whatever he wanted to do this afternoon, she'd be there, because she couldn't seem to stay away from him. And she didn't want to.
Jay popped an entire cake in his mouth, his cheeks bulging obscenely as he grinned. "You finished? I feel so hot, I'm dying for a swim."
Gaia rose, dusting any stray crumbs from her shirt, and nodded.
"Grab a bottle of water to take with you," Shou advised, nodding at the cooler box. "And don't swim below the bottom of the falls. Someone saw a crocodile once, so now there's signs saying it's not safe."
Crocodiles? Gaia halted. She knew they lived up here, in muddy rivers and such, but she'd never seen a wild one. Never wanted to, either.
"Is it safe to walk down there, then?" she asked. Crocodiles didn't just swim – she'd seen them sitting on riverbanks on TV.
Shou waved away her worries. "Sure. I've never seen anything bigger than a goanna here, so you should be fine. Like I said, someone thought they saw one once. If that's even true, it was probably lost, and no one's seen it since."
"Don't worry, baby," Jay added. "I'll go all Mick Dundee on you if we see one. I've wanted to wrestle a crocodile since I was a kid."
Only marginally reassured, Gaia followed Jay down the trail. And down was the predominant direction. Unlike the track from the helipad to the lookout, this one was hard going. She had to climb around or slide down rocks to keep to the path. More than once, it was on the tip of her tongue to ask Jay if they were lost, but another rock cairn would appear beside the next steep slope, marking the way, so she stayed silent. Silent except for puffing and panting, at least, and the smack of flesh every time she was forced to grab Jay's hand to steady herself or she slammed into him, breaking what would otherwise have been a bad fall. She was certainly getting a workout today, and she'd have the bruises tomorrow to prove it.
Gaia wondered if Shou would be willing to bring the helicopter down to the bottom for them, instead of making her climb all the way back up. Sliding down rocks was one thing, but climbing? Didn't you need ropes and special equipment for that sort of thing? Not to mention gloves and all sorts of protective gear. If it weren't so hot, she'd want a padded suit to protect her from the rocks right now. And gloves. She'd broken two nails already, and a third was threatening to snap. She'd have to get a manicure tomorrow for sure.
After what felt like forever, she heard Jay whooping and cheering. He must have reached the bottom. Sure enough, when she dragged her aching limbs around the bend, the trail widened out into a rock platform that ended in a murky green pool. She wanted nothing more than to immerse her body in what she hoped was cool water, but the pilot's warning echoed in her head. Crocodiles – just like the sign said. So much for a swim. She'd have a dip at the beach when they returned to the resort. And tomorrow, definitely a massage after the manicure. Even better: before the manicure.
At least she could feel the splash of the falls here. Gaia closed her eyes, letting the spray mist her skin with welcome coolness. Maybe it wasn't so bad out here after all.
"You coming for a swim, or what?"
Wait...was Jay crazy enough to swim in a river where there might be crocodiles? Gaia scanned the expanse of water before her, but he was nowhere to be seen. Had a crocodile dragged him under to his death?
Jay's laughter echoed through the gorge. "Ha! I knew I'd get decent acoustics somewhere. Would've been more fun up the top, though. You have to see this."
She finally spotted him, at the top of the final set of falls. "What are you doing up there?"
"I'm going to be swimming, unless you have a better offer." Jay disappeared from view. A moment later, he emitted a groan. Gaia wasn't sure whether the sound signified pleasure or pain.
She crossed to a ledge that looked like she might be able to step onto, and started the laborious climb. It wasn't until her shoulders were level with the top of the falls that she caught sight of Jay's head, floating on top of the pool.
He grinned at the sight of her. "I thought you'd never come. Check this place out. It's like a perfect, natural hot tub. Not too hot, not too cold, and just the right depth for incredible sex. Aren't you just dying to try it out?"
Gaia's face grew red. "Out here? Where anyone could be watching?"
Jay laughed. "Anyone? There isn't another person for miles, except for Shou, and he's busy packing up the lunch gear. After that, he'll probably watch ecchi anime under a tree on his phone, if I know him."
She was sorely tempted. The water looked cool and inviting, Jay looked hot while doing the inviting...
"Are you sure it's safe? No crocodiles?" she asked.
He shrugged. "Not certain. Let me check." He rose to his full height and Gaia realised the water was only waist deep and Jay...wasn't wearing anything below the waist. Jay sauntered across the pool, turned, and crossed it again. He did a full search pattern, wading through the water from one end to the other until he reached the bottom of the falls from the next pool up. "I'm pretty sure there's a few fish in here, but that's it," he shouted as he lifted his face to the spray.
She barely heard him, because she was too busy watching. She'd never observed a naked man in the flesh for so long before. The adult films she'd watched this week didn't count – not a single man in them looked as hot as Jay Felix did right now. With every step, the muscles in his butt flexed...and she could watch him walk all day.
"Come on up, baby. I know you want me – I can see it in your eyes."
Gaia didn't doubt it. She'd never felt so hot for a man in her life. For a few minutes, while she was in Jay's arms, the world wouldn't feel so overwhelming. She really needed that right now. All she had to do was find a way up from her current ledge to the one level with Jay's pool. Gaia surveyed the cliff, then caught a glimpse of movement below her.
She dropped her gaze to the water, where a pair of beady eyes regarded her. Eyes, snout...oh God, the monster's mouth was big enough
for her to fit inside, she was sure of it.
"Crocodile!" she screamed, arms flailing as she tried to point at it.
"Cool, really?" Jay appeared on the ledge above her, peering out. "Where? I don't see it."
Gaia glanced at the water again. The beast had disappeared. She hadn't imagined it. There was a huge crocodile lurking in the water, waiting for her to fall in so it could catch her and kill her and eat her and... She didn't want to die out here. She couldn't die out here.
She scrambled down to the rocky riverbank, her eyes never leaving the water, but the murky depths concealed the monster. Gaia sprinted across the flat and hotfooted up the trail. She scraped her shins on rocks, slid and bumped and scratched herself, but she didn't dare stop. She needed to be safe. Safe inside something man-made, where the crocodile couldn't get to her.
Her arms ached and her legs burned, but still she scrambled up the slope until the blessed helicopter came into sight. She staggered over to it and reached up to open the door. Only then did she see her hand. Every nail was broken, with only a few shreds of polish left, and it was hard to tell if those really were polish or dried blood. There was plenty of fresh blood, too, where she'd torn her nails or scraped her palms on the rocks.
"What happened to you?" The pilot rose from his seat under a shady tree, staring. "Did you fall over one of the falls? Or did Jay do that?" His expression darkened.
The Rock Star and the Billionaire Page 10
