by Sarah Barrie
“No, I wouldn’t.” she replied impatiently, though her stomach was churning, her legs had gone to jelly and she wasn’t sure she remembered what she was supposed to say. Fighting back panic she gestured to the door. “You know, the chopper’s in place…”
“Right.”
It was hot; it was remarkably, breathtakingly windy. It was just so exhilarating, standing in the open on the back of a speeding train, a helicopter keeping pace. Ella didn’t have to fake the excitement in her voice, on her face. She forgot the nerves she wouldn’t have admitted, forgot to worry about forgetting her lines, and thoroughly enjoyed herself.
When they pushed back through the door and into the train, the first thing Ella noted was the lack of wind and noise. The second was the expressions on the crew’s faces that ranged from small smirks to outright disbelief.
“That was great!” Hannah exclaimed to both Ella and Ryan. “Perfect first time. Steve’s getting choppered to Alice Springs so we’ll take another look at the footage later, but from the feed I’d say the pair of you are going to be the perfect team for this.”
Ella was both taken aback by the gushing praise and relieved at the same time. “It was fun. I’m going to change.”
“Then meet us in the Outback Explorer lounge for drinks,” Hannah ordered. “We’ll celebrate a great start.”
Ella headed back to her cabin, showered, and changed into some comfortable black silk pants and a pretty blue halter top. Suitable, she thought, for evening, pre-dinner drinks. A look out her window revealed the sun was beginning to set and the previously red and blue canvas outside her window was turning vivid shades of pink and orange. She stood there a minute, enjoying the show. She smiled when she saw a large group of kangaroos reclining under what she suspected were mulga trees and saltbush, her smile widening as a large flock of pink and grey galahs flew overhead. She hadn’t seen a lot of wildlife yet, so this was a treat.
Picking up her purse, she started out towards the lounge car with a smile on her face. If she’d had any doubts left in her mind as to what she was doing here, that blustery, exhilarating moment at the back of the train had blown them away.
The team were seated at the far end of the carriage and didn’t immediately notice her in the crowded area. Ryan was with them, she noted, engaged in some sort of animated conversation with Marco. She heard part of it as she appeared behind him. “…so pay up!”
“Fair enough,” Marco grumbled. “But seriously, who’d have thought she could have pulled it off?” Marco slapped a fifty in Ryan’s hand.
“Me.” Ryan smirked. “Because that’s Ella.”
“Little Miss Perfect, you mean,” Lexi muttered and earned a couple of chuckles.
“We’re lucky to have her,” Hannah replied. “So would you all just – Ella!”
“Hannah,” she replied, her previously carefree mood diving into a pit of negativity.
“Shit…” Lexi cleared her throat and stared at the table.
Ella’s accusing eye’s turned straight on Ryan, before moving onto Marco. “Wagering on my ability to do my job?”
“It wasn’t that, exactly,” Marco muttered in embarrassment.
“Ok good, because I only had to say three sentences and not fall off a train,” she replied with cold control, “so thank you for your faith thus far. What then?”
“It wasn’t what you did it was how,” Lexi supplied, obviously figuring she was already sprung and had nothing to lose. “You came across so nice and normal.”
“Nice and normal?” Ella repeated, now turning that glare on Lexi. “As opposed to…?”
Lexi gestured with her hands as though struggling to find some acceptable response.
“Go on,” Ella invited.
“She won’t,” Hannah snapped with a threatening glare at Lexi, “or she’ll be out of a job.”
Lexi looked as though she wanted to sink through the floor. Ella felt like she’d been slapped in the face. Score one grandfather – they didn’t hire her because they knew she could do this job, far from it – they hired her to keep her away from Global and hoped she could do it.
She’d perfected the art of holding a professional façade, knew its benefits and kept that in mind now, as she was tempted to lose it. They didn’t think she could be nice? She wasn’t normal? How did they see her? She’d never set out to win any popularity contests, but that didn’t mean this didn’t sting.
She turned her eyes back to Ryan, leaving him under no illusions as to what she thought about his bet, before addressing Hannah, “Are we still shooting in the restaurant car tonight?”
“Yes – eight-thirty.”
“Alright then.” She walked to the door, left them all looking uncomfortable.
“Ella, wait.” Ryan got to his feet. She heard him swear and knew he was coming after her. Embarrassment flooded her, tears threatened. Tears? She didn’t cry. Never. And she wasn’t going to start now. But just in case… she made it to her cabin in record time and locked the door.
Feeling safer she sat heavily, sighed and closed her eyes, forcing herself to gather back some composure. Why should it bother her what they thought, or why she was hired?
It must have something to do with the newfound camaraderie between everyone. Everyone but her. It was a new experience, being on the road with other people, working with and relying on them instead of doing your own thing, being responsible for yourself. At Travel she’d been in charge of a group, but not part of it. This was different. Her team were all on a first name basis. She, on the other hand, was still Ms Jameson. She didn’t fit in here anymore than she had anywhere else.
It was so easy at times to hate her parents, to blame them for her inability to form relationships with anyone, for turning her into the introverted, reserved child that had found it so difficult to make friends – still did. But did she really want to start thinking about all that? She kept her past well and truly locked in her own inner vault. She’d thought she could put it all behind her once – when she’d met Connor, then Reece Bailey had come into her life and reminded her why it didn’t pay to get too close to anyone, why so much of what her grandfather taught her made sense.
A knock on the door broke her line of thought. “Ella, open the door!”
And then there was Ryan. She hadn’t felt like herself since meeting Ryan Edwards. He had her feelings all over the place. In all likelihood this sudden emotional setback was his fault. She had to pull herself together, feeling sorry for herself and bringing up the past wasn’t going to achieve anything. Letting anyone know they’d upset her was unthinkable and completely unprofessional.
She took a couple of steadying breaths, hoping her voice would come out properly, and asked, “Am I needed for something?”
“No.”
“Then I’d appreciate it if you could come back later, Ryan. I’m busy.”
“They didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Shouldn’t that be ‘we’?”
“Hey, it was a sure bet. I knew you’d kick ass.”
“Thank you for your confidence. Enjoy your winnings.”
“Ella, for crying out loud, don’t be…” Ella heard a couple excuse themselves, assumed they were squeezing past him. A few seconds later, he knocked again. “I’d rather not have this conversation from out here.”
“I’d rather not have it at all, so why don’t you make us both a lot happier and go spend that fifty buying your friends a drink?”
“Ella! Open the damn door!”
Ella flinched. She’d angered him – she wasn’t sure how the door hadn’t just opened itself with the way he’d just pounded on it. She’d wondered from those small glimpses she’d caught of it what sort of a temper he had and it looked like she was about to find out because she hadn’t hidden behind a door since she was a seven years old and she’d be damned if she was going to now.
She got up, opened the door. “Don’t speak,” she ordered, refusing to let him in. Instead she stood her ground and focus
ed her full attention on keeping her voice low, controlled. “I can only say the reason you and your partner Ben hired me for this is your business, but knowing what that reason is, boss, I’m not impressed. You should know that if you think you’re going to string me along just long enough to make sure I don’t get the position at Global, I’ll just find another job and you can bet your ass I’ll take a large chunk of your market. I’ll make it my mission.
“As for that other issue; you can all attack me personally as much as you like, but there was a lounge full of people in that carriage and I won’t have anyone screwing with my professional reputation!” So much for not losing her cool, she thought as her voice rose and she slammed the door shut.
Before she could turn the lock, it flew open again, sending her stumbling backwards. Ryan closed it quietly behind him and took a deep, steadying breath. “Never slam a door on me, Ella,” he warned quietly.
“I don’t remember inviting you in,” she replied much more bravely than she felt.
“Sit down. We need to talk about this.”
“I don’t particularly feel like talking to you.”
“Then don’t. But you’ve had your say, I’m not leaving without mine. So sit, stand – whatever, but here it is. Yes, Ben and I are partners in Travel. I probably should have told you straight away but I didn’t want you feeling like you were working with your boss – it tends to change the dynamics. I would have told you once we were comfortable working together and once it was made official. And as to that – no-one knows those details. How the hell do you?”
“I hate to burst your bubble but it’s just not that big a secret.”
“That didn’t answer my question.”
“I don’t plan on answering your question.”
His eyes narrowed. “So we’ll come back to that one. Next, you seem to believe the only reason you were offered this contract was to keep Global from poaching you. That was one reason we moved on this so quickly, yes. We didn’t want to lose you to a rival. So sue us. It’s not the only reason. I happen to know how good you are at what you do, what you’ve done. So does Ben. We were always going to want to keep you on in some capacity, but we were out of time to figure out exactly how. There were three options: keep you heading up the magazine, which when you saw the changes to the contract you undoubtedly would have declined; ask you to put your talents into the website; or take a chance and put you in this position.”
“Right, so without so much as an audition you decided I could be a television reporter.”
“It was a gamble I was prepared to take initially, with the idea that if my instincts were off we’d renegotiate on the website position. Ella – believe me – I wouldn’t have put you on this if you were going to make it flop. I’ve waited too long for this opportunity to sabotage it.”
“Hmmm.”
“What else…the contract. The one-year contract is, as we stated, to make sure we can iron out any kinks in the arrangement once the show is up and running and not, as you suggested, as a means of dumping you. I wouldn’t let you out of this without a fight if you wanted to go. And as for the bet, Lexi and Marco were mouthing off a bit earlier, I overheard and saw an opportunity to sit them on their asses. Probably shouldn’t have, so sorry. Lexi shouldn’t have said what she did just now but she’s not malicious; if anything she’s insecure and a little in awe of you. Marco only joined in with her because he’s secretly got a thing for her. Hannah, who by the way is currently sprouting off you’re God’s gift to her career, has raked her over the coals for it and if she’s not down here at some stage before dinner to apologise I’d be shocked and she’ll be fired.”
“I see.”
There were a few seconds of tense silence while Ryan studied her face. “Ella…do you think you could stop with the whole personification of composure thing and give me some clue as to whether anything I’m saying is making a difference here?”
She studied him back, decided he was telling the truth. So she released a long breath, nodded slowly. “I could, I’m considering it.”
“A little faster?” he asked when she didn’t immediately offer anything else.
Unwillingly, her lips twitched and she saw his eyes flicker in response, then he smiled and she found herself weakening. “Damn it,” she muttered. The guy had her emotions climbing and diving like a rollercoaster. “Go away. I’ll see you at dinner.”
Ryan paused in the doorway. “You know, you may as well just admit you find me irresistible and get it over and done with.”
“Now I know you’re trying to make me laugh,” she muttered.
His expression turned less playful, more intimate. “You weren’t laughing when I kissed you.”
She was more than a little mad at him, and still she swallowed hard as she felt a buzz of electricity between them. Before she could think of a single thing to say to that he was out the door with a “Wear something sexy tonight.”
She flopped onto her bed and shook her head in a vain attempt to clear it. She needed a moment, just a moment, to rebalance herself. How had the conversation gone from virtual all-out war to wearing something sexy to dinner? The guy was impossible. And she wasn’t going to spend another moment thinking about him. Or Lexi, or the stupid bet. She had work to do.
She picked up her notes, attempted to concentrate on what needed to be done for the dinner shoot and found her thoughts drifting straight back to Ryan. She was rarely lost for words and could generally come up with some clever retort or other. She could think of a dozen right now to his outrageous comments but when he looked at her with what she was coming to think of as his signature, heart-stopping smile she couldn’t think at all. “Oh, what’s the point?” she asked herself, dumping her script on her bed. She wasn’t going to get anything done.
Looking at the time, she decided to get dressed for dinner and opened up her small wardrobe. She pulled out the only two dresses she’d brought and examined them. Tonight they were shooting, so she’d wear the chocolate-coloured Italian crepe maxi, she decided. The delicate cowl neck was flattering without showing too much neckline and the colour brought out the darkness of her eyes. It was one of her favourites.
“Let’s see what you think of this, Mr ‘wear something sexy’,” she murmured, and stopped dead. She didn’t play games, yet she found herself considering doing just that. “Not smart, Ella,” she murmured. But just for a moment she let herself consider giving in and taking what she wanted. She smiled, shook her head. Take what she wanted? From Ryan Edwards? A shiver ran along her spine. She instinctively knew it would be Ryan that would be doing the taking; he was too virulently male to be a passive partner, to let her lead for very long. She liked to be in control but he’d already proven he only needed to touch her to make her lose it.
Too dangerous, she told herself, even without her rule on dating co-workers. And yet she was tempted…if just for the possibility of releasing some of this incessant tension between them. Maybe she could flirt with the idea a little bit. Sensibly, of course. Maybe.
Just as she finished the last of her makeup, there was another knock on her door and Ella opened it to find Lexi standing sheepishly on the other side. “Can I help you?” Ella asked, her tone sub-arctic.
Lexi took a quick step back, didn’t meet her eyes. “Wow, you look…I’ve come to apologise.”
Ella didn’t immediately say anything. She simply considered the woman a moment, noted the lack of any real sincerity behind the words and nodded. “And you have. You can go now.”
Lexi gasped, a startled expression on her face. “Look, I said I was sorry.”
“Lexi, it’s not an apology when someone has to threaten to fire you to make you give it. I’m not sure how intelligent you consider me to be but a blind idiot could see you don’t mean it. So how’s this – I don’t expect you to apologise for not liking me. Right now I don’t particularly like you either. What I do expect is that you’ll keep your opinions to yourself because if you damage my professional reput
ation I’ll take your career apart and wipe the floor with it. Are we clear?”
Lexi’s mouth had fallen open, but shut now with definite click, before nodding.
“Good.” Ella closed the door and went back to what she was doing. “Guess I’ve really got a shot at team member of the month now,” she told herself, pulling a face in the mirror. But at least she was reasonably confident Lexi wouldn’t be spouting off too carelessly again in the near future. And that’s what was important. Wasn’t it?
Chapter Seven
Ella sailed into the Queen Adelaide Restaurant car at two minutes to eight. Ryan stood when he spotted her coming and Ella wryly noted more than a few female appraisals from other guests as he smiled warmly in greeting. And oh hell, she thought in response to the look of appreciation on his face; how was she supposed to be sensible when he looked at her like that?
Ignoring a low whistle aimed at her from one of a group of men seated at the other end of the carriage, she moved forward to meet him. Lexi and Marco were nearby, equipment at the ready, not quite meeting her gaze.
“You get an A on the sexy wardrobe,” Ryan murmured, “that dress is designed to make a man want to take it off you.”
“It can make him want to,” she replied just as quietly, “but I dare him to try.”
Ryan grinned cheekily as they sat. “Got to love these little gauntlets of yours.”
“You pick up that particular gauntlet and I’ll smack you over the head with it,” she murmured.
“It could be worth it.”
“It would be.” Careful, she reminded herself, when his eyes widened, burned. “But nevertheless – no.”
He sighed unhappily. “Still mad?”
“Not especially,” she admitted. “You were on my side.”
“Unlike Lexi,” he dropped his voice again conspiratorially. “What did you say to her? I know Hannah told her to apologise and she was white as a sheet when she came in here.”
“Then she needs to toughen up.”
This time Ryan raised his eyebrows. “Living up to your reputation?”