by Loretta Hill
‘Don’t worry about it,’ he assured her. ‘It’s ancient history.’
‘Ancient history.’ She repeated it more to convince herself than him. If it was that much in the past, then why did she feel awareness spreading through her chest? Why did watching his hand gently stroking Elsa’s coat put a lump in her throat and a restlessness in her bones?
‘There’s a lot of water under the bridge,’ Jack began. He seemed nervous for some reason and she couldn’t fathom it. ‘A lot of messed-up stuff that went on five years ago. Dad’s not the only person I need to apologise to. I treated you pretty badly too, Bron. When I think back on how much I teased you.’
‘Yeah,’ she pushed his shoulder, ‘you did. You were hell to be around sometimes.’
He pushed her back. ‘Because you were so easy to rile.’
‘Well, I got over that.’ She looked away.
‘You did. And I need to tell you something.’ He didn’t meet her eyes. ‘Remember that time I kissed you?’
She licked her dry lips, and didn’t look up either. ‘Yes.’
How could I forget?
‘It was your first kiss,’ he said softly. ‘And I was a dick and I ruined it and I didn’t apologise.’
‘Yes.’ She wasn’t going to help him out at all.
‘Well, I want to apologise now. And I want to tell you why I did it.’
This time when he spoke he turned towards her, pinning her eyes with his so she couldn’t look away. He reached out and grabbed her hand, sending her blood pressure through the roof.
‘The first kiss is one of those milestone moments in life. It’s like one of those things that stays with you for good. You always know who it was with, what time of day it was, where it was. It’s like, twenty years from now you could be sitting around a table at a party somewhere and someone asks you, “So who was your first kiss,” and just like that,’ he snapped his fingers, ‘you’re right back in that moment, no matter where you are. I guess I wanted to be that guy. I wanted to be that person that your mind flies straight to whenever you think about your first kiss. No matter where you were or who you were with. I … I wanted to stay with you forever.’
Bronwyn’s jaw slowly dropped open. Of all the things anyone had ever said to her, in her entire life, that was top ten. No! It was simply number one. The most gorgeous, sweet, romantic thing anyone had, hands down, ever confided in her.
‘Say something.’ His shoulders slumped.
Elsa grunted, her stiffening leg caught Bronwyn’s eye and she turned her head just in time to see the dog’s vulva dilate. A glistening package was only just visible at the opening. She gasped. ‘Shit and biscuits! We’re having a baby!’
They both turned to Elsa, who whimpered gratefully and then turned her head to lick at herself before pushing again.
‘It’s coming!’ Bronwyn cried.
‘Come on, girl,’ Jack encouraged. ‘You’re doing good. Keeping going.’
It was now absolutely clear that the first puppy was on its way out, the fluid-filled amniotic sack beginning to protrude as the pup’s head emerged. A couple of pushes later the puppy, still wrapped in placenta, rolled onto the towels.
‘What do we do now?’ Bronwyn asked, quickly shoving her hands in some gloves.
‘No, wait!’ Jack put a hand on her shoulder. ‘You have to let Elsa do her thing. This is the way she first bonds with her pups. We can’t interfere yet.’
‘Right.’ Bronwyn held her breath.
They watched in fascination as Elsa bit the umbilical cord off and began to lick her puppy clean of its sack, actually eating some of the afterbirth to get it off. It wasn’t the easiest thing to watch but it was so natural. The baby curled up under this rough licking but submitted to it, its eyes still firmly shut, its little black paws up protectively around its face as it took its first breaths.
‘It’s so cute,’ Bronwyn exclaimed.
Elsa nudged it with her nose towards her nipples. The wayward pup didn’t seem to understand.
‘I think we can help out here,’ said Jack and carefully knelt, picking up the pup. ‘Come on, little guy.’ He moved its face against its mother’s nipples. As soon as it felt Elsa’s straining teat, it immediately latched on.
‘Oh, Elsa.’ Bronwyn patted her dog’s head. ‘You did so well. That was amazing!’
‘She’s not done yet.’ Jack grinned at her.
‘How many more, do you think?’
‘I don’t know,’ he shrugged. ‘Could be as many as fifteen!’
Bronwyn gasped, feeling vaguely sick. ‘Seriously? Elsa.’ She turned to her canine friend again. ‘I want you to know, I have so much respect for you.’
Elsa whined.
‘I think number two is on its way,’ said Jack.
After that, Elsa birthed a pup every half hour or so until she had nine miniature dogs in varying shades of black, brown and tawny fighting for an available nipple. Bronwyn had since washed the first one by dabbing it gently with a towel wet with warm water. She picked him up, stroking his velvety fur as Jack cleaned another.
‘I can’t believe all these little guys were inside her. She sure carried them well. What should we name them?’
‘Oh,’ Jack raised his eyebrows, ‘so I get a say, do I?’
‘If you want one,’ she responded shyly.
‘I’d name him Shiraz.’ He indicated the one she was holding.
She rolled her eyes. ‘Let me guess, these others are Merlot, Pinot and Cabernet.’
‘How’d you guess?’ He lifted the one he was washing so she could see its wrinkled little face. ‘Don’t forget about sweet little Chardy here. Bright, zesty and the colour of French oak.’
She laughed. ‘All right, you’ve convinced me. But we’ve still got to come up with another four grape varieties for the others.’
‘That shouldn’t be too hard.’
She picked up another puppy and nuzzled it. Its rough little tongue tentatively licked her cheek. Her eyes flew to Jack’s. ‘Did you see that?’
‘Yeah,’ his lips twitched, ‘we’ll call him Champagne. Looks like he’s a flirt already.’
She laughed. ‘Thanks for doing this with me, Jack. I know we haven’t seen eye to eye lately with the whole buying into Oak Hills thing.’
He gave a deep sigh and put the puppy down. ‘It’s not that I don’t want you to be part of all this. It’s just that …’
‘What?’
He raised his eyebrows at her. ‘What do you think is going to happen if I stick around and you stick around and we all work together as one big happy family?’
‘I don’t know.’ Bronwyn shrugged, standing up, dusting her hands against the sides of her jeans. ‘Maybe we’ll pull Oak Hills out of trouble and back into the limelight. You’re good at the creative side and I’m good at the organisation side. Chris and your mum have the rest covered. Your dad won’t have to worry anymore.’
‘No, Bron,’ Jack also stood up, ‘that’s not the sort of complication I’m talking about.’
‘Then what?’
He reached over and took her face between his palms. His mouth took hers in a kiss so sweet her body literally melted. It was like sailing into a harbour after decades at sea.
Is this really happening?
She lifted her hands to place them on his firm shoulders as his arms wrapped more firmly around her, his lips a bruising crush under the strength of his feeling.
Yep, he’s real.
She kissed him back with all the pent-up angst of years of wanting. Not really caring, in the moment, how it ended.
And then it did.
A cough in the room caused them to break apart.
‘Well,’ smiled Lydia, hands on hips. ‘About bloody time!’
Chapter 26
If there was one way to give yourself a reputation as a slut around the office, showing up every morning in Sebastian Rowlands’s car and leaving with him every night would have to be up there.
It didn’t matter that Juliet had put
it around that Claudia’s home was under siege. Criminal gang lord Leon McCall was after her bacon and a little organisation called the police had been called in to do a full-blown investigation.
Ha!
The investigation, full blown as it was, had led absolutely nowhere. The police had combed Bronwyn’s ransacked apartment for fingerprints and found none. They’d interviewed Peter Goldman and elicited no more information from him than Claudia had.
They did manage to contact his ex-wife, Freya Goldman, in Melbourne.
But the only thing she had to add was, ‘Peter Goldman is a lying, gambling, manipulative bastard who deserves what’s coming to him,’ which, frankly, Claudia had known already.
With Claudia and Sebastian’s help, the police did manage to secure a search warrant for The Quiet Gentleman. A couple of days after the break-in at Claudia’s apartment they searched the property, including the shed out the back. They found floodlights on stands and pieces of temporary fencing; the kind of equipment that might be used to light up an arena in the middle of the bush for a dog fight. However, much to Claudia’s disgust, they made no arrests because apparently the evidence was not solid enough.
‘You’re not thinking rationally,’ Sebastian had explained to her. ‘Lights like that can be used for other things. They said they used them for when they had functions that spilled into the back car park.’
‘And the fencing?’
‘For the same thing.’
‘When did they last have a function like that there?’ Claudia scoffed. ‘Believe me, the pub is not that popular.’
‘Maybe that’s something we can look into,’ Sebastian had agreed. ‘But in the meantime you need to be more objective about this and less emotional.’
It was difficult not to be with the smears against her name at work. Anna Mavis was having a field day. And the problem was, she wasn’t actually completely off base.
The tension at her place of residence was … well … tense.
Sebastian owned a two-storey townhouse in Leederville. It was stylishly masculine and sparsely furnished. His bedroom was on the top floor while he had given her the guest one on the ground level. She had her own bathroom and toilet so there was absolutely no danger of them running into each other naked, no matter what her work colleagues might think.
What they did share was the kitchen. And that was more than enough.
At work she could exile Sebastian to the business side of her life. He made no entrances into her personal world except in fantasy, which of late she had managed to curtail quite firmly. However, that first night when they’d walked into his home, he’d shrugged off his jacket and pulled off his tie, tossing them both on the couch in front of the kitchen. Sebastian was always so neat and precise, to see him even in slight disarray made her mouth immediately dry. He didn’t seem to notice her discomfort and walked straight into the kitchen, pulling a couple of takeaway menus from on top of the microwave.
‘So what do you want for dinner?’
‘Really?’ She wrinkled her nose. ‘Haven’t you got any real food we can work with?’
Automatically, she went over and opened his fridge. He stepped forward as though to stop her and then halted, obviously realising it was too late.
His fridge contained five items.
A bottle of Oak Hills Chardonnay.
A bottle of Oak Hills Semillion Sauvignon Blanc.
A bottle of Oak Hills Pinot Gris.
A bottle of milk.
A tub of margarine.
Her eyes widened and flew to his. She was both surprised and pleased to see something that looked suspiciously like a flush emerging from the base of his neck and moving up his throat.
She smiled. ‘I think we’re going to need more than that.’
He coughed. ‘Yes, I believe so.’ She swiped his keys off the counter where he had dropped them and passed them to him. ‘Come on, we’re going out again.’
‘What?’ his eyes narrowed. ‘Where?’
‘Grocery shopping. You may be able to live on that but I can’t.’
‘But it’s already seven o’clock. What about dinner?’
‘I’ll rustle something up when we get back.’
‘Is this absolutely necessary?’ he demanded. He pushed one of the menus forward. It was for an Italian restaurant that did home delivery. ‘This place is very good.’
‘I’m sure it is. But then we’ll have today’s problem tomorrow. Besides, what will I have for breakfast in the morning?’
He opened his mouth and then shut it again. ‘All right. You win. Let’s go.’
They found themselves back in his car. He had not put either his jacket or his tie back on and had run a hand through his black hair, leaving some strands sticking up slightly. She smiled secretly out the window. It was nice having the upper hand for a change.
He took her to his local, a small independent store with quality, fresh produce. At least he had good taste. The one thing Claudia couldn’t get over with city folk was their complete lack of care for their digestive system. No matter how rushed she was, she always made time for a good breakfast. Snagging a trolley on their way in, she started in the fruit aisle, immediately hovering around the berries. The brightly coloured fruit, so plump and juicy, smelled like home. Her interest in them was clearly shared by the woman beside her, who was examining a punnet of strawberries.
‘They look so good, don’t they? Like they were just picked this morning.’ Her child, a little boy, who was sitting in the front section of the trolley, noisily blew bubbles into a juice box.
‘They do, don’t they?’ Claudia agreed, her hand hovering between the raspberries and the blueberries. Sebastian had walked on to the apples. He’d placed three pink ladies in a bag and then returned to place them in Claudia’s trolley.
‘How about some berries?’ she said brightly.
‘I don’t need any.’ He shook his head. ‘But feel free to get some for yourself.’
She frowned. ‘Yeah, but I kind of wanted to get a selection.’
‘What are we going to do with a whole bunch of berries?’
Good point.
She brightened. ‘We could have smoothies for breakfast. With yogurt and milk. You’ll love it. Totally healthy. Berries are a superfood.’
He gave her a long look. ‘Are you sure we have time before work? I think a bowl of cereal is just fine.’
‘Where’s your sense of adventure?’
As if to punctuate this question, the toddler in the trolley giggled and squirted Sebastian with his apple juice.
‘Oh no!’ cried his mother. ‘I’m so sorry.’ She reached into her handbag for two tissues and passed them to Sebastian, who quickly began to wipe his now soiled designer shirt.
‘That’s all right,’ he said with a sigh.
‘Kids are so unpredictable,’ she confided to Claudia, and then said with a wink, ‘but I’m sure you two will work that out when you have your own.’
Sebastian choked, dropped the tissues he’d been using and hastily bent to pick them up. As he did so the kid kicked him in the face.
‘Ow!’ His hand went to his eye.
‘Oh, shoot!’ said the boy’s mother. ‘Wasn’t I just saying. Felix! Naughty!’ Felix giggled as Sebastian stumbled back in pain.
Claudia covered the laugh that fought to escape her mouth. ‘Are you okay?’ She reached out and grabbed Sebastian’s face, drawing it towards her.
‘I’m fine,’ he muttered.
‘Let me see.’
He took his hand away from his eye and she noted there was no damage. It looked a little red and watery but otherwise perfectly fine. Both eyes were now trained on her face and then her lips. She was finding it a little difficult to look away. He reached up and warm hands tightened around her wrists, drawing her hands down.
‘Perfectly fine.’
‘Yes. So I see.’ She cleared her throat and finally managed to break eye contact.
‘Oh good,’ said the woman besid
e them. Her voice somehow seemed far too loud and bright for the moment. ‘I better leave you two to get on with it before I do any more damage.’
As she rolled on, Sebastian regarded her steadily. ‘Let’s just get this over with, okay?’
Claudia picked up a punnet of raspberries and put them in the trolley. They moved around the store and managed to buy a selection of meat and veg without further spills or violence. They got to the checkout and Claudia was beginning to think they were home and hosed until the lady with the little boy moved into the line behind them.
She grinned. ‘Don’t worry, Felix has finished his juice box.’
All the same, Sebastian took one look at her and pushed past Claudia. ‘I’ll pay,’ he said, but before he presented his credit card to the assistant, her till started beeping loudly. While they were all trying to figure out what was going on, the manager and assistant manager appeared from nowhere. One of them was carrying a giant hamper, which they placed in front of Sebastian.
‘Congratulations!’ they announced grandly. ‘You are our one thousandth customer!’
‘We are?’ Claudia’s eyes rounded.
‘Can you get in closer to your partner for the photo?’ The assistant manager was holding a camera.
‘No photos please,’ said Sebastian, just as Felix’s mother shoved Claudia into him and the assistant manager snapped the shot.
‘Oh, that’s just lovely,’ the mother exclaimed. ‘A nice end to your day, wouldn’t you say?’
‘Wonderful,’ Sebastian responded dryly, shoving the giant hamper none too gently into the trolley and heading straight to the car park without watching to see if Claudia was following.
‘So that was fun,’ Claudia began tentatively as they hopped into his car.
‘Like getting a tooth pulled.’
She turned her face to the window so he wouldn’t see her smiling. ‘Can’t wait to see what’s in that hamper.’
When they got back to his townhouse, Sebastian went straight upstairs to have a shower. She didn’t blame him for wanting to change out of his juice-stained shirt. However, when he came downstairs for dinner afterwards, she had to do a double take.
Sebastian Rowlands in a suit was eye catching, powerful and incredibly charismatic. However, Seb in a T-shirt and jeans made her weak at the knees. It was like meeting the man for the first time. With all his armour off, he actually looked approachable – vulnerable even.