Australia's Maverick Millionaire

by Margaret Way

  “Listen, Clio didn’t mean anything.” Jimmy attempted appeasement, thoroughly intimidated by Josh’s sheer size.

  “Of course she did.” Josh swept Jimmy’s excuse aside. “I’m the obligatory bad guy in town. Every town has to have one.” Josh turned his blazing gaze on Jimmy. “Do you want a ride back into town?”

  Jimmy looked like he very much feared to decline. “If it’s no trouble, Josh. I don’t have my car.”

  “Trade it in,” Josh advised.

  “It doesn’t belong to me anyway,” Jimmy confided. “Dad leases our cars.”

  Clio made a grab for Josh’s arm, feeling the taut muscles clench. “What’s going on here, Josh?”

  “Why, Clio, you’re manhandling me.” He stared down at her detaining hand. “I’ll stop short of calling the police.”

  She stared at him, well aware of those dark places in Josh. Hate for the system that had failed him. Being a virtual prisoner through his formative years had left Josh with a legacy of pain and repressed fury. But despite everything he had managed to beat the odds. Nevertheless, there was still aggression in him, no matter how tightly he controlled it. She was fearful of him tangling with the Crowleys. Paddy Crowley made her skin crawl. No one made an enemy out of Crowley without paying a heavy price. “I’ve made you angry, haven’t I?” she said, her dark eyes moving over his taut face.

  He answered at once. “You love it, Clio.”

  “At least I can get some emotion out of you.” A ridiculous statement, considering the emotions he could unleash in her at will.

  “I don’t think we need to go there. Come along, Jimmy. I’ll go ahead so you can say your goodnights.”

  “Don’t you walk away from me, Josh.” Her voice spiked. His manner was unbearably autocratic. This was her house.

  He made a sound, halfway between a laugh and a groan. He turned back to her, blue eyes blazing. Powerful emotions emanated from him, bewilderingly complex. With one swift movement he pulled her to him one-armed. His spread hand almost covered her slender, arched back. “’Night, Clio,” he said tauntingly. “Sleep well.”

  Clio managed a muffled exclamation, as though expecting him to turn nuclear within seconds. The tension between them was phenomenal. She had the odd sensation she was falling.

  Before his kiss came, she felt it. The effect was immediate and total. It was a hard, punishing, thrillingly voluptuous kiss. Excitement flooded her body, followed by a perverse sense of shame, even womanly rage that he could so easily call up this frantic response in her. Damn him. Damn him!

  Jimmy had to clutch the back of his chair for support while shock waves broke over him, nearly knocking him to his knees. God, Hart had just kissed Clio as though he owned her. It was a moment so intimate, so full of raw passion Jimmy felt he shouldn’t be watching it.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  KEELEY TEMPLETON moved through the Templeton law offices like an express train. Her husband had taken an early flight to the state capital. He had left her a note on the refrigerator, of all places.

  Meeting up with one of our most valued clients in Brisbane. Not sure when I’ll be returning.

  A scrawled L and some squiggles. Whatever had happened to proper writing? The more educated the person, the worse the writing. Hers, thankfully, was perfectly legible. She snatched it furiously, ripping the note into tiny pieces and flinging it around like confetti. Let the cleaning woman pick the pieces up and throw them in the bin. She and Lyle had had a furious argument the night before. Well, she’d been the furious one. True to form he had played the po-faced lawyer. She had known he wanted out but she still found it astounding. He wanted to get rid of her! It was outrageous. He’d never have found the guts to make a move only for that interfering little bitch, his daughter. The most sickening thing was the hunch that Clio’s involvement with Josh Hart was escalating, however much they tried to hide it. Only there was no Leo any more to stand like a bulwark between them.

  Clio and Josh Hart!

  Just what the town needed! Princess Clio and a guy well and truly from the wrong side of the tracks. Lyle, like his father, was dead against it. The town would take sides. Well, she knew what side she was on! The same side she’d always been on.

  Her own.

  Clio’s assistant, Peter Sommerville, knew the instant he set eyes on Mrs Templeton that there were going to be fireworks. Clio’s door was open, making it easy for him to bring in files, like an overwhelming tide, so she could make herself familiar with a wider range of firm business. Losing that poisonous, pompous prat Vince Crowley had lightened up the office atmosphere to no end. Mr Templeton still kept to the old master/employee dynamic, but Clio had an outstanding talent for getting on with everyone.

  Peter strode down the corridor, thinking how best to protect her. One couldn’t exactly whip an apprehended violence order under the nose of a formidable Mrs Templeton—no way a lady—on the warpath.

  “Mrs Templeton, may I help you?” Peter called with urgency, envisioning how she might turn on him. He’d heard a few hair-raising tales about Keeley Templeton before her advantageous marriage.

  Clio, hearing Peter’s upraised voice, came to the open door, her expression calm. “Keeley, come in.” She looked beyond her stepmother, ordering coffee as though this was a routine courtesy call.

  Peter hurried away to find Ellie Sharp, one of the junior secretaries. In her own time Ellie wore a silver stud in her nose and several piercings elsewhere. She even had the boxing kangaroo tattooed at the base of her spine. He saw it whenever her T-shirts rode up.

  Keeley charged into the office as if it were a prize fight arena instead of an office. “What is it this time, Keeley?” Clio asked.

  Keeley responded savagely. “Your father has gone to Brisbane, did you know that?’

  “Of course. We all know. Didn’t you?”

  “I damned well didn’t,” Keeley snapped. “We had a fight. Your father wants a divorce.”

  “About time, wouldn’t you say, Keeley? Please sit down.” Clio walked around her desk to resume her chair. “The marriage hasn’t been a happy one.”

  “Because your father is a head case.” Keeley was inhaling and exhaling deeply in her fury. “He’s still in love with a dead woman.”

  “Of course he is,” Clio agreed with faint melancholy. “We can’t change the way we are. Seven years isn’t all that long to grieve, is it? They say the older we get, the harder it is. I’d feel for you if you’d ever had any genuine affection for Dad. But you weren’t bitten by the love bug, Keeley. It was the money bug.”

  Keeley threw back her head and laughed. “Congrats! Please don’t tell anybody else.”

  “No need. Everyone knows. I take it you’re looking for some kind of confrontation?”

  “The whole point of coming here,” Keeley confirmed.

  “Then tell me and please don’t raise your voice. I don’t want to have to ask you to leave.”

  “Oh, boy!” Keeley jeered. “Haven’t you grown inches! You’ll be six foot in no time.”

  “It might help you to remember that. Why exactly are you here?”

  There was a furious light in Keeley’s hazel eyes. She felt like jumping up and slapping her stepdaughter hard. Instead, she saw wisdom and modified her tone. “It was you who talked your father into it. He’s never had the guts before.”

  “I wouldn’t call it guts, precisely,” Clio said. “Dad didn’t believe in divorce. I may have been instrumental in helping him come round.”

  “You bet you did! I’m going to clean him out, you know.”

  Clio stared back at her stepmother. “You wish! You’ll be handsomely compensated, but I have read the prenup, Keeley. Leo knew this was going to happen one day. He never believed you fell pregnant before the marriage.”

  “Sure. It suited him to doubt me. He never liked me. Thought I was a real bimbo.”

  It was true Leo had not been kind to Keeley. Courteous. Not kind. “Keeley, you and Dad are both better off apart. There
are no children to cause major concerns. You’ll have money. You can move on. Start a new life.”

  Keeley’s face suddenly lit up. “I know just the guy I’d like to share it with.”

  “Well, you’ve known plenty of guys in the past.”

  “Yeah? No one like Josh Hart!” Keeley crowed. “He’s dynamite! The charisma, you can’t escape it. He might be a real complex guy—he’s sure not one to encourage friendships—but I’ve never struck anyone near as good in bed.”

  Clio regarded her stepmother coolly. “Get real, Keeley. We both know you’ve never had sex with Josh Hart.”

  Keeley’s smirked. “Told you that, did he?” She brought up a hand to smooth her newly groomed hair. “Men are such liars. I bet most of them are still lying on their deathbeds.”

  “Let’s get off the subject of Josh Hart.”

  “You’re hot for him, aren’t you?” Keeley narrowed her eyes. “Not that I blame you. It makes me jealous. It even makes me a little crazy. Josh does that to women. But better to go a little crazy over a guy than never know what’s it like. Josh has had a dozen affairs I know about. I could provide you with some very interesting information about him. He’s violent, you know. He’s even put the wind up Paddy Crowley.”

  “So you heard that? Good!” Clio held up her hand as a knock came on her door. She called, “Come in,” and a moment later Ellie Sharp, whose brain matched her name, wheeled a trolley into the room. The rich aroma of freshly brewed espresso coffee permeated the air.

  “Thank you, Ellie.” Clio gave the girl a smile. She liked Ellie. A very positive young lady of unusual intelligence. Could do with a bit of help with her dressing.

  Ellie returned the smile, shyly for her, then shifted her cropped raven head to look Keeley over. “Shall I pour?” she asked Clio, still keeping her remarkable green cat’s eyes on Keeley.

  “No, that’s fine, Ellie.”

  “Right, then.” Ellie gave Keeley another straight look.

  Keeley waited until the girl had shut the door before turning back to Clio in amazement. “Who is that creature? Eyeing me off! The cheek of her! She should be sacked. And what sort of an ensemble has she got on? She looks like a hooker.”

  “Ellie favours black,” Clio offered lightly. Ellie was wearing her everyday uniform—black blouse, short black skirt, black stockings even in the heat, Doc Martens or something very much like them on her small feet. Ellie was on probation but she had already proved she was way too smart for the job and had considerable computer skills. Clio had been playing around with the idea of offering Ellie Sharp a full scholarship to go to university. The Templeton family had always had a social conscience. She wanted to up the ante.

  Clio poured the coffee. Keeley took a sip, frowned as though the brew wasn’t up to her high standards. “There’s a rumour Josh assaulted one of his girlfriends but it was all hushed up. Poor thing was probably too frightened to bring charges.”

  Clio felt the surge of blood to her face. “I’d be happy to bring a few charges against you, Keeley. You can’t go around making damning allegations.”

  “Gee, I wouldn’t think of it.” Keeley was out to rattle her stepdaughter any way she could.

  “Give me a name and I’ll run a check. Or is it back to she said, he said?”

  Keeley was backpedalling now. “You’d have to dig deep. And don’t go around accusing me of anything. I’m trying to protect you as an older, wiser woman. Your father told me Josh had beaten up a minder or a foster-parent in the past. One or the other. You talk about making accusations! Your father put the rumour around Josh had something to do with Leo’s fatal heart attack. Pot calling the kettle black? There are sordid things in Josh’s past,” Keeley maintained, knowingly.

  Clio tried to remain calm. “On his own admission, Josh grew up with violence. It’s a tragic fact of life that people in positions of responsibility regularly prey on the most vulnerable in society—the young, the old, the sick, the disabled, physically and mentally. Anyone who is vulnerable to attack. There are the good guys and the bad guys, but I’m happy to think the good guys are still in front. I choose to believe Josh was driven to defend himself from further assault.”

  “I bet there were other episodes,” Keeley warned darkly, in reality turned on by Josh Hart’s splendid male toughness. “We’ve all seen how fit Josh is. I hear he has a black belt in karate.”

  “Keeley, Josh Hart has lived in this town since he was thirteen years old. There’s no disputing he was very difficult then, trying to flout authority at every turn, but once my grandfather got himself involved Josh calmed down appreciably. Leo was out to save him and save him he did. Josh enjoys an excellent reputation as a citizen and businessman. There is no record whatever of him having causing anyone any physical injury. In fact, he’s held in high regard in the wider community.”

  “Just don’t forget the carer,” Keeley said like a mantra. “There are quite a few in this town who won’t go within a foot of him. He radiates—”

  “Authority,” Clio cut in. “Sounds like Josh put you straight and you’re mad about it. Hell hath no fury, etcetera.”

  Keeley flushed. “You’ve got it wrong. Josh sure breaks the tedium of living with your father.”

  “So the divorce shouldn’t be a problem, then,” Clio said briskly. “You’ll get your money. Start afresh.”

  Moments later, Keeley stormed out of Clio’s office, missing the Goth creature’s “Cheers!” The meeting had not gone as planned. Time to formulate another strategy. She wasn’t such a fool that she didn’t know she had no chance with Josh. She had gone to his apartment that night thinking she might have a chance at seducing him, but he had warded her off as if she were a female vampire. She was dammed if she was going to let him fall under Princess Clio’s spell. She never had suffered much remorse for any damage she had done in her life. Maybe she was devoid of the finer feelings?

  Clio had to chase Josh to his car. Not all that easy in high heels. A few weeks ago she would have thought it madness. She was known to everyone in town. She was supposed to be a highly responsible and thus conservative lawyer. But how could that be? She was chasing Josh Hart and she wasn’t about to give up. Anyway, who said lawyers were sane? The arrogant son of a gun had seen her, but it was obvious he was going to ignore her. Only she had to apologize to him for seeming to doubt him, even implying in a mad moment he might have drawn the police to her door. No excuses about being intensely worried about him, which she had been. That wouldn’t work. And it had to be said she wasn’t absolutely certain Josh wouldn’t resort to violence if he felt the situation demanded it. There was rage in him. She knew it and understood it. Josh had experienced things she knew nothing whatever about.

  Heads in the street were turning as she dashed after him. All showed amazement. She caught up as he was climbing behind the wheel. Nearly breathless, she opened the passenger door and threw herself in.

  “Thanks a lot!” She blew out a gasping breath.

  “I could have locked you out,” he retorted quite calmly.

  She could have socked him. “So why didn’t you?” She looked him full in his drop-dead handsome face. No show of emotion there.

  “I really don’t know.”

  “Okay, we have a problem,” she admitted. “You have the problem, Clio,” he said. “I did advise you to stay away from me.”

  “Well, I’m not going to do that, Josh,” she told him sharply. “What’s with you anyway? One minute you’re warning me off, the next you’re hauling me into your arms and kissing me senseless. How dare you do that? You’re so madly contrary. It’s like I said, you’re two people.”

  For the first time his expression relaxed into his beautiful smile. “Take my word for it, I am. The torment of it! I can’t bear to be with you. I can’t bear to be away from you. In many ways it’s like playing with fire.”

  “Please let me speak, Josh. I want to—I need to apologize to you for some of the things I said the other night.”

/>   He turned his head, his blue eyes sizzling over her. She was wearing a lovely sunshine-yellow dress with a wide black patent leather belt that showed off her tiny waist. It was an outfit both elegant and sexy. “What exactly did you say? I’ve forgotten.”

  “Of course you haven’t,” she retorted impatiently. “Can you blame me for worrying about you when you tangle with Paddy Crowley’s unholy bunch of bouncers?”

  “Does tangling mean having a chat?” he asked suavely.

  “Chat? I thought one of them tried to attack you?”

  Josh shrugged a careless wide shoulder. “He wasn’t very professional. Look, Clio, I appreciate your concern, but I’ve been looking after myself for a very long time. I’ve tangled, as you put it, with far worse characters than Paddy Crowley and, what was it, his unholy bunch of bouncers? I couldn’t have said it better myself. But you know nothing about that side of life.”

  “Then I have much to be grateful for,” she said with a faint shudder. “But I do know this. I care very much about you, Josh. You appear to be finding that disturbing. Is it a responsibility you don’t need, or think you don’t need? Either way, you can’t talk me out of it. We forged an unbreakable bond that day you dived into Paradise Lagoon to save Ella. She was asking about you only last week. We all cling to that bond, Josh. You were our hero.”

  He gave a brief laugh. “You just might be able to claim that about Lisa and her family, but it didn’t make your father any more friendly towards me. He’s heaped all sorts of names on my head. C-r-i-m-i-n-a-l, for instance.” Josh measured out the word.

  Clio bowed her head and stared at her bare knees. Her short skirt showed a lot of leg. “I’ve talked to you about that. Dad felt Leo had more time for you than him. That would have hurt any son. You have to consider Dad’s feelings.”

  “I have considered them, Clio, except your father’s response to me is paranoid. He would never accept me as your friend, God forbid as a lover. I understand you wouldn’t like me to criticize your father or Leo, but I’m pretty sure both of them would come under the category of elitists.”