Nobody But Him

by Victoria Purman

‘No,’ Julia replied, beaming up at him. ‘Life’s just perfect.’

  CHAPTER

  32

  ‘Wow. That’s a lot of zeros.’ Julia couldn’t quite believe how much money was sitting in her bank account. She was curled up on one of the chamois-soft white leather sofas in Ry’s house, which was also her house now, her legs crossed in front of her, studying the screen of her iPad. The sale of her mother’s place was finally complete and settled. It was official. The Kinsella place was sold.

  Ry moved in next to her, two glistening flutes of pale-yellow champagne in his hands.

  ‘To celebrate,’ he said and then met her eyes with the sexy smile she loved. ‘Our very best Australian bubbles for you, Julia Jones. None of that inferior French plonk.’

  She laughed at the memory of the second time they’d met.

  Julia and Ry clinked their glasses and when he kissed her, she could taste the wet sweetness and the bubbles on his lips.

  ‘You okay?’ he asked.

  Julia nodded and rested her head on his shoulder. She pondered the question and was surprised when she didn’t feel quite as despondent about selling the house as she thought she might. The place was most definitely going to stay in the family and someone she’d grown to care about would soon be moving in. It would always be the place she grew up in, the house in which she’d been so loved by her parents.

  But were all her memories within those four walls? She realised they weren’t. They were on the burning hot, white sand of Middle Point on a sizzling summer’s day. They were in the relentless grey-blue waves that scooped her up and catapulted her bodyboard to the sand as she squealed with glee. They were in the winter winds that howled and buffeted the cliffs and the coast. And they lived on in the gigantic blue Australian skies that brought rain and sun and light to her life.

  ‘Yeah, I’m okay. I’m really happy for Dan.’

  Dan had teased Ry by claiming he was going to keep the house exactly as it was. Not for him a glassed palace. He wanted it pure and simple, a beach shack. A no-bullshit house, he’d called it.

  Ry rested a hand on her thigh and she covered it with hers. ‘It’ll be nice to have him next door. Although I bet he’ll be in here all the time drinking my wine.’

  Julia took another sip of champagne and let the chilled bubbles tickle her tongue. She looked up to find Ry gazing at her and her heart skipped. Ry loved her and she loved him with everything she had. There was no greater feeling in the world, she decided, than loving and being loved in return.

  Being loved in Middle Point was simply the icing on the cake.

  ‘I must be the luckiest woman in the world.’ She didn’t want to move, ever, from the warmth and love of his embrace.

  ‘You most definitely are. I’ve seen the size of your bank account.’

  Julia felt the laughter rise up inside her chest and then it exploded out of her. She collapsed with giggles and Ry loosened his hold on her just long enough for her to dig her fingers into his ribs.

  Ry quickly got rid of the two flutes and sprang into action, gripping her wrists and pushing her back down on the sofa. He nipped at her neck and kissed his way to her lips, while effortlessly forcing her hands above her head. He half lay on top of her, his strong thighs urging her legs apart.

  ‘Something’s digging into me, Ry,’ she murmured.

  ‘Yeah, baby.’ He was already hard and thrust towards her.

  She laughed again. ‘No, not that.’ She wriggled underneath him and Ry grinned, reluctantly releasing her hands. Julia splayed her fingers on his chest, revelling in the strong muscles under her hands, and searched for it, taking the chance to feel every muscle, every sinew, every rock hard ab in her quest.

  ‘There, that’s it. What’s that?’ Something hard and square in his breast pocket. Ry pushed himself off her and sat up, a sly smile lighting up his face. He reached into his pocket.

  ‘You mean this?’ Ry’s fingers slowly unfurled and there it was. A small, white box. Julia gasped and simply stared. Her heart couldn’t take much more of Ry Blackburn. It was about to explode from happiness and love. His eyes were full of hope.

  ‘So you’ve finally got me a ring.’ She narrowed her eyes and smiled.

  He laughed. ‘What do you mean finally?’

  ‘Well, you did ask me to marry you four whole weeks ago. I was wondering when you were going to get around to getting me some bling.’

  ‘You want it?’ He held out his palm, the white box balancing on it. Julia reached over to grab it but he snatched his hand away.

  ‘Ry! Let me see!’ He held his arm high away from her, holding her back with this other hand. Julia giggled and tried to climb over him, half on the sofa, half on his lap.

  ‘You’re going to have to work for it, sweetheart.’ Julia recognised the teasing tone in his voice. He wanted to play and she was going to give him her best game.

  She slowly eased herself next to him, taking time to graze her breasts across his chest as she slid across his lap. With one leg rested across the zip of his jeans, she lay back, flipping her hair out from under her so it created a curly pattern around her head. Arching her back, Julia smoothed her hands across her breasts and reached slowly for the trim of her red cashmere cardigan. Ry’s eyes flamed as she reached for the first button.

  She pushed the shimmering pearl through the first buttonhole and eased the edges apart. His eyes widened and his hand came to rest on her knee, his grip tightening. When she popped the second button, the milky white curve of her breasts was revealed and his eyes moved there. As the third button was freed, Ry feasted his eyes on her silky red bra and groaned.

  ‘God, I love you, Julia Jones.’ His eyes glistened and she saw the crooked smile she loved so much. She believed him with all her heart.

  ‘You’re too easy, you know that?’

  ‘Only with you, JJ.’ He handed the box to her and waited.

  Julia pushed herself up and took the box from his hand. She popped it open and just stared. Snuggled in a red velvet lining sat a gold band inset with small diamonds on either side of a sizeable rectangular centre stone. Julia blinked at it, looked at him.

  ‘Oh my God, Ry.’ Tears welled in her eyes as she stared at it. ‘I … I don’t know what to say.’

  ‘You could say you like it.’

  ‘It’s … it’s stunning.’

  Ry lifted the ring out of its box and turned it in his fingers, holding it up to the light from the windows. ‘Lizzie said you’d like it.’

  ‘You mean she got to see it before I did?’

  ‘What do you think? I wasn’t going to buy you any old ring. What if I got it wrong and you made me pay for it for the rest of my life?’

  ‘The rest of our lives,’ Julia said, and felt that maybe, just then, her heart did explode. How she kept breathing was a mystery. Ry reached for her hand and slowly slid the ring on to her finger. She felt its weight, knowing what it represented, conscious of how far they’d come to make it to this point. Julia raised her hand up, so the light streaming in from outside, from her beloved sky, caught the stones. They sparkled and shimmered.

  ‘It’s flawless.’

  Ry touched her cheek, wiping her tears away with gentle fingers. ‘I’ve had it for a week, but I wanted it to be right. Just you and me, here.’

  Julia sighed against him and looked at the ring again. He took her hand in his, admiring the stone on her finger.

  ‘It’s right, Ry. It’s perfect.’

  ‘It suits you.’

  ‘Ry, I’m so lucky I got a second chance.’ She leaned up to kiss him tenderly. He kissed her right back.

  ‘I think we’re both lucky.’ They squeezed their hands together tight. ‘We’re going to make memories here, you and me. In this home.’

  Home. It had nothing to do with the designer kitchen or the glass palace or the million dollar views. It had everything to do with the man who was holding her in his arms, whose voice still made her tremble, who looked at her with a heat and d
esire that no one else had ever felt for her. It had everything to do with where her heart and soul felt safe and protected and loved.

  Julia looked up into Ry’s face and saw her happiness reflected right back at her. Her new chapter had begun. She twisted her fingers around Ry’s and pulled him to his feet. He steadied himself, looking down at her with a question in his eyes.

  ‘Where are we going?’

  ‘Come with me,’ she grinned.

  Ten minutes later, Julia and Ry stood hand-in-hand at the outlook from Middle Point, the great white sandy beach and the magnificent, pulsing Southern Ocean spread out before them like nature’s banquet. Julia’s heart swelled as she took in her childhood playground. It was a clear spring day and great puffs of white clouds hovered in the southern sky to the horizon and beyond. The water was a light grey, a mirror of the sky, and Julia took in the coastline that led all the way to Goolwa and the northern tip of the Coorong wetlands. There were a few people on the beach, their dogs scampering after soggy tennis balls, and below them a handful of surfers were sitting astride their boards, a hundred metres out, waiting for the next wave.

  Julia leaned into Ry, breathing in the fresh air. The wind teased her curls around her face and serenity seeped back into her bones.

  ‘It looks busy today.’

  Julia glanced over her shoulder. Behind them, with only a road in between, was the Middle Point Pub. For more than a hundred years, the old stone building had been the centre of life in Julia’s hometown. It had a lot more life left in it now, under Ry’s careful ownership. The pub was a lot like its new owner, she decided. Filled with character, proud if its place and determined to make a lasting mark.

  ‘I love it here. I love you too, Ry.’

  He brought her hands to his mouth, his soft lips a warm caress on her cold skin, his sapphire eyes shining, his heart all hers.

  ‘Welcome home, Julia.’

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  ISBN: 978-1-74364-493-5

  Title: Nobody But Him

  First Australian Publication 2013

  Copyright © 2013 by Victoria Purman

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilisation of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the permission of the publisher:

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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