by Sarah Barrie
Clare beamed. “Well, you’re most welcome, Ella. I’ll leave you to it.”
When Clare wandered out, Ryan got to his feet and moved to the tray. “That’s not what you were going to say, so don’t give me that look.”
“Don’t presume to have the first clue what I was going to say.” Realising she was snapping at him, Ella put her hand to her forehead and took a deep breath. “I’ll make the coffees,” she offered shortly, then moved out of the way when he approached the tray to open the biscuits.
“Not from over there you won’t.”
“You’re in the way.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Anyone would think I made you nervous.”
“Only if they were delusional and conceited,” she replied with admirable speed.
He smirked. “I suppose you don’t like Tim Tams?”
“Everyone likes Tim Tams.”
“And even if you didn’t…” he surmised, making her smile, “you might want to take a couple now. Hannah’s asked the TV crew to make an appearance to get them up to speed on what’s going to be happening. Once they arrive, these babies will be gone in a heartbeat.
“I’m not concerned about the Tim Tams, Ryan,” she said, stepping up to fill the mugs, “I just need coffee.”
“How many cups of that stuff do you drink in a day?”
Ella considered that a moment. Decided it was best no to air it. “A lot. Is there any chance of getting me up to speed before everyone arrives? I missed a fair bit of this while I was still finishing up with the magazine.”
“Of course.” He took his mug and went back to his seat, raised his eyebrows when she remained standing at the other end of the table. “Ella, I’m not going to jump you. Come and sit over here.”
She huffed, decided to get this out of the way. “Look, while we’re on the subject. That can’t happen again.”
He put down his coffee, relaxed into his chair and put his hands behind his head. “What can’t?”
She pulled a ‘you know exactly what’ look but replied, “You…kissing me like that.”
His eyebrows shot up. “How would you prefer I kiss you?”
He said it loudly enough that Ella automatically turned to check no one was around. “That’s not what I…” she saw the humour dancing in his eyes and rolled her own. “We need to focus on what we’re doing.”
“Ella, you’re gonna have to believe me when I tell you, it’s not physically possible to be any more focused than I was on you at that particular moment.”
She pursed her lips down hard on her smile. She absolutely would not encourage him. “I don’t sleep with people I work with.”
“A good rule to live by.”
“I think so.”
“And I’ll just bet that before you sleep with anyone, you make a rational and well-thought out decision about all the whys and wherefores, then you plan, consider and debate. Correct?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but something like that.”
He nodded. “No wonder I scare you.”
She gaped at him in disbelief. “I’m not scared of you.”
“You can chalk this opinion up to my ‘unfathomable ego’ if you like, but the last thing you were doing in my arms on Friday night was making plans. If we hadn’t been in a public place things would have gone a whole lot further, without a whole lot of thought at all. And that scares the hell out of you.”
“You’re wrong,” she replied. Because even though he was right, she thought it was incredibly rude of him to point it out. “We were just acting for Charlie Francis’ benefit.”
He scowled at that. “Hide behind your rules all you like, Ella. But don’t lie to me unless you want me to come over there right now and prove my point.”
The absolute intensity in his eyes left her in no doubt whatsoever that he meant it. Nerves danced along her skin and a wave of primal female anticipation crashed through her system. It took her a moment to catch her breath. She needed to shut this down fast. “Drop it, Ryan,” she snapped, pulling herself together with effort. “I can’t work with you like this.”
“You want to work? Come down here and work, but I’m not going to yell at you from the other end of the table.”
With another deep breath, Ella moved to the chair near Ryan’s and waited.
With one last, long look that had her toes curling, Ryan turned his attention to his paperwork and pulled out an itinerary. “As you know, generally you’ll get a say in where we go, but on this occasion it’s already been planned and we’re doing a feature on the Northern Territory. I’m guessing you want details?”
“Of course,” she replied, slightly thrown by his quick turn-around. “We’re not camel trekking through the desert are we?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of a luxury, three-day, transcontinental adventure, offering unsurpassed views of Australia from Adelaide to Darwin.”
“The Ghan? We’re going on the train?”
“Full marks. Ever done it? Want to?”
“No and yes,” she replied, carefully refocusing her mind on the job at hand. “I hear they’ve added a platinum class.”
“Trust you to know. We may even try it out.”
“Wait…that doesn’t sound very adventurous. There’s got to be a catch.”
“No catch. We’ll tour around during the stops. I’ll cover all the ‘adventurous’ elements; you can stick to the easy stuff – towns, shopping, general sightseeing. How’s that?”
“Too good to be true.”
“Right, then I’ll give you this.” He dumped a file to rival an encyclopaedia in front of her. “Here’s all you need to know. I’ve already had most of the research done. I like to make notes, write some draft scripts that I tweak as I go. Some I’ll use, some I’ll end up tossing. You work however you like, but a few segments we’ll shoot together, so we’ll obviously need to consult on those. Hannah will want to see our ideas before we leave.”
“When is that?”
“Sunday. We’ll work in-office through this week, figure out how we’re going to show it, then fly to Adelaide early – get on the train at lunchtime. Here’s a list of what we can potentially cover.” He handed it to her and Ella studied it. “I’ll let you pick which one’s you want, I’ll take some others. There’s not a lot of time at each stop, so we’ll be on a tight schedule.”
The door opened and a procession of people piled in. Ryan got to his feet. “Ella, you know Hannah and Jill, then we have our cameramen – Steve and Marco, soundies are Lexi and Phil, and Gav there is our general dogsbody – no offence Gav. There’s a couple more you may or may not meet in Darwin – Caitlyn and Matt – they’re already in the Territory, checking out motels and tours and negotiating deals for our viewers.”
“Hello,” Ella exchanged greetings.
“Right,” Hannah clapped her hands then rubbed them together, “now that we all know each other, let’s get started.”
* * * * * *
After getting home, taking a long, hot shower and enjoying a glass of wine in front of the television, Ella decided she couldn’t put it off any longer and mentally prepared herself for her phone call to her grandfather. She knew full well what she was in for. He hadn’t spoken to her since that last memorable conversation when he’d called her an ‘ungrateful child’ and after having all this time to stew about it, she could only imagine what he’d come up with this time. Reluctantly she dialled his number.
“Ella.”
“Good evening, grandfather.”
“Well, it’s about time you called. Have you come to your senses yet?”
“Everything’s going very well here. I’m enjoying my new position.”
“A career is not a holiday!” he immediately snapped, “When this all comes crashing down around you, how do you think that will reflect on me?”
“You won’t be brought into it.”
“Everything you do reflects on me. Don’t you forget it. You don’t know anything about tele
vision and that fool Montague and his unprofessional ‘blog writing’ partner Edwards don’t have the first idea about how to properly manage a project of this magnitude.”
Blog writing, in her grandfather’s opinion, was the trashiest form of journalism ever created. “Montague Enterprises is already a highly successful, diverse – wait. What did you say?”
“I said they don’t know…”
“No – back up.”
“Excuse me?”
“Sorry grandfather, I didn’t mean to cut you off, I meant about Ben and Ryan.”
“Ben and Ryan? Honestly, that’s unprofessional. Benjamin Montague and Ryan Edwards own Travel. Edwards wanted a platform from which to launch a television series and Montague’s specialty, as I hope you know, is in advertising, so they brainstormed this as a way of combining their two talents.”
“Ryan Edwards is a part-owner in Travel?”
“Are your ears painted on? Ryan Edwards owns a fifty percent share in Travel. Why?”
“He didn’t say. I’ve been working with him and he didn’t tell me.”
“Ella, you can’t expect to be able to trust the man. I’ve been telling you all along that Edwards is nothing more than an unprofessional womaniser. You simply can’t have your name associated with that. It’s going to be an embarrassing failure.”
“I’ve signed a contract…”
“I’ll get you out of it.”
“No, thank you. There’s no reason this can’t be a success. I’ve seen the outlines, had a hand in what’s going to happen. The mock-up of the website is incredible. Businesses are already lining up to be involved. It will work, grandfather.”
“I tell you I don’t like it Ella.”
“I understand that and I appreciate you’re trying to help. But I’m doing this.”
“You’re so stubborn!”
“And you’re not?”
“Be careful how you speak to me, young lady.”
“I have to go grandfather. I’ll call you in a few days.”
“See that you do.”
“Goodbye.”
She’d heard the stiffness in his tone, knew he was just about out of patience with her. He wanted her in Melbourne, married into some suitable family. She knew he genuinely couldn’t understand her, but tolerating his moods and meanness was harder some times than others. Tonight was harder. Probably to some degree because of what she’d learnt about Ryan.
And as for that; her grandfather’s explanation certainly explained a lot. Ryan had lied to her – at least, he’d deliberately misled her. She’d stood there and asked him to be honest with her and he’d hedged, omitted. But why? Well, she wouldn’t acknowledge she was hurt. No, this was simply business. A timely reminder she should forget about any possible romantic interludes with Ryan Edwards. Her instincts had been right; she couldn’t trust him as far as she could throw him.
Chapter Six
Ok, so this was entirely her own fault. She’d flown into Adelaide at the very last minute because there’d been a mix-up with the cat boarding facility and she hadn’t been able to drop off Nemo until seven o’clock this morning. She’d had to forfeit her ticket on her original flight and pick up a last-minute seat on a flight that had landed thirty minutes before the train was due to depart. Now she was rushing, bags in hand, through the crowds of commuters, looking for a platform she couldn’t find. She shuffled awkwardly past an old lady with a carton of hot chips and all the time in the world, through a large group of chatting hikers complete with backpacks and big boots and finally, thankfully, she spotted her station.
Ella could have cried with relief when she saw her team standing around waiting, the train sitting peacefully in place. Hannah was looking particularly concerned and slowing her pace to a respectable stride, Ella handed over her ticket and found luggage check-in, then with less than three minutes to spare, forced a calm expression on her face and sought them out.
“Hello,” she greeted the crew at large.
Hannah’s sigh of relief was audible. “You’re here! We have to hurry, where are the rest of your bags?”
“Checked in.”
“How did you even get on the platform – you were supposed to call, I have your ticket.”
“I had Clare email an electronic copy when I knew I’d be cutting it fine this morning. It’s all taken care of,” Ella explained, much more calmly than she felt.
“You never make a mistake, do you?” Hannah replied in astonishment. Ella’s gaze slid to Ryan, who caught it and smirked. “Let’s board.”
“We’re really going with Platinum?” Ella asked.
“Oh yes. A private, spacious cabin, ensuite – with full-size shower – oversized window for taking in the unsurpassed views…” Hannah sighed blissfully. “On-call cabin steward, full room service, every little luxury extra you can imagine and then some.”
Ella smiled. “If they live up to all that, I’m going to make this trip very, very popular.”
Her cabin was as wonderful as advertised and Ella relaxed on her bed to read over her notes, her only disruption being the cabin steward’s arrival with a light snack. “Heaven,’ she murmured. This was exactly the sort of assignment she’d been hoping for and she intended on doing a perfect job of it. With that in mind, she got to work.
The train flew along smoothly; the landscape out the oversized window was the sweeping Adelaide Plains. She needed to meet with the crew in a few minutes. They were filming the introduction with a backdrop of the Flinders Ranges, the first stage of the journey. She glanced outside again; they’d barely begun and already the scenery was moving into spectacular.
“Ready Ella?” Ryan’s voice at the door had her getting to her feet.
“Of course.” With one last check in the mirror, she opened the door.
“Suitably amazing,” he commented looking her up and down.
“You’re wearing that?”
Ryan glanced down at his clothing and asked, “What’s wrong with this?”
“Nothing if you’re planning on pulling an enormous knife from your belt and scaring off some LA muggers.”
He sent her a broad grin. “I thought I was Indiana Jones not Crocodile Dundee.”
“Same theme, different country.”
He leant against the doorframe and folded his arms. “You’re offended by my wardroom choice?”
No, Ella was not the least offended, that wasn’t the problem at all. The well-worn moleskins hugged his hard thighs comfortably, the loose plaid shirt with the rolled sleeves showed off lean, muscular arms and a decent hint of broad chest through the undone top button. The big boots, akubra hat and the casual way he wore ‘rugged’ were just too smack-you-in-the-gut hot for her peace of mind. This was Ryan Edwards: Adventure Traveller, the real deal. It was a shock to the system she wasn’t at all sure she knew what to do about and the last thing she needed was this frustrating attraction to the man interfering with her resolution to keep him at arms-length.
She’d managed to be in his close company all week and had to admit he was an incredibly professional person to work with. When they’d been elbow deep in paperwork and debating locations or schedules or working on scripts, she’d enjoyed bouncing ideas off him. If nothing else, they worked very well together. But since her discussion with her grandfather, she couldn’t deny she wanted an explanation for his behaviour. He’d had a perfect opportunity to be straight with her over his position at Travel and he hadn’t taken it. No matter how often the logical part of her brain reminded her he wasn’t under any obligation to, she pushed that point aside. Because the why was burning her and somehow or other, she intended on finding out.
“Ella?”
Her gaze moved back to his face and she noted that now-familiar look of curious amusement. She swallowed, scrambled for something to say to brush the moment off. “I guess you’re aiming for the seasoned adventurer, helpless female angle after all.”
“You don’t look helpless, Sweetheart. You look like a man-kil
ler. Let’s go.” Ella followed him without comment as he led the way. “The conditions are good so we’re going ahead with shooting the introduction open air, on the caboose car they’ve added on for us. The chopper’s ready to follow us, film us up close then back off and pan as the train shoots across the countryside. It’ll be spectacular.”
“If I can keep my hair from blowing all over my face and into my eyes long enough to see.”
“You’ll be fine. Besides, I’m doing most of the hard work. You only have a few lines to say, after that you can just stand there and look gorgeous.”
“Hmmm.” She looked outside. The landscape was astonishingly beautiful. The hills were brick red with baked soil; the bright, cloudless sky bluer against their intense colour. Mountain ranges rose up in the background with breathtakingly majestic pride.
“Ella…is everything alright?”
“Of course. Why?”
“You’re annoyed with me about something.”
“Usually.”
He laughed out a sigh. “You want to tell me about this latest one?”
“Oh, you have no idea.”
“I’m all ears.”
“Not the time or place.”
“Ready guys?” Hannah appeared and handed them their earpieces, then moved away to talk to Lexi.
Ryan looked as though he was going to continue their conversation, then shook his head. “Alright well…later. Right now I need you happy, friendly and engaging for the camera.”
“Yes Ryan, I fully understand how it works.”
His lips twisted, biting back a grin at her sharp response. “You need to exude enthusiasm, radiate excitement.”
She levelled him an unimpressed stare. “I’m not a cheerleader, but I think I can handle it.”
“Ready when you are,” Steven said through their earpieces, “Chopper’s in place.”
Ryan stayed where he was, watching her so intently she snapped, “What?”
“You’ll be fine, you look great.”
“Why thank you Ryan, I’m sure you’ll be fine too.”
“Of course… You wouldn’t admit it, would you? If you were nervous?”