by Joss Wood
You have no idea, Clem silently grumbled, her hands flat on Nick’s muscled chest. She’d move but she wasn’t sure if her legs would hold her yet. And whilst her libido was screaming for some more action, her head and her heart were on bended knees yelling, Thank God you stopped! We’re not ready!
‘What do you want, Jabu?’ Nick muttered, his fingers dipping into the small gap between the band of her shorts and her warm skin, skimming over the T of her panties. His mouth dropped and he touched her lips with his.
‘Nicholas!’ Jabu’s voice had Nick jerking back and scowling. ‘Can you stop doing whatever you’re doing for a minute and concentrate? This is important.’
Nick pulled his hand from her back and scratched his forehead. Clem, realizing that the moment was over, lifted her hands from his chest in a gesture of surrender and took a step back.
‘What is it, Jabu?’
‘Poachers dehorned a rhino cow on the reserve up north last night. One of ours.’
Nick’s eyes flattened with fury and she immediately stepped back. He swore viciously and dropped to his haunches, his finger and thumb gripping the bridge of his nose.
‘We’re getting the rest of those rhinos off that property this week.’ His voice was hard and Clem doubted that anyone, anywhere, would have the guts to disagree with him at that moment.
‘That’s the plan.’ Jabu’s voice sounded weary.
Nick stood up and placed his fist on his hip. ‘Book the transport, the vet, the capture specialists. Mfo, we need to get those rhinos out of there.’
‘The money? They’ll all want some money upfront.’
‘Hold on, I’ll check.’
Nick looked at her and Clem nodded sombrely. ‘I’ll check with Jason, see that he’s done the transfer. Do you … do you need more?’
Nick shook his head. ‘The money won’t be a problem, Jabu. Just get the ball rolling.’
‘You got it,’ Jabu replied, signing off.
Clem watched as a shudder passed through his body, then another and saw the turbulent emotions in his eyes. He looked past her and she knew that his brain was running at warp speed, fury and sadness bubbling under the surface.
Nick heaved in a huge breath and rubbed his temple before glancing at his watch and grimacing. ‘The worst way to start the day. We’ve got to get going.’
He pulled open the front passenger door and gestured her to climb inside. ‘I’m going to do my pre-flight checks. I won’t be too long.’
Clem watched him walk around the plane and squirmed in her seat. He was such a fascinating mix of hard male strength and capability but, when it came to his land or his animals, he had a kernel of vulnerability that touched her. And whenever he physically laid hands on her he made her blood sing.
This could become very complicated, she thought ruefully.
The sky was a beautiful concoction of blues and the sun a broad golden band on the horizon when Nick pulled into the air and cleared the trees at the end of the runway. Clem watched as he fiddled with the controls as the plane gained altitude and speed. When, she presumed, he was at the right altitude and on course for the airport at the regional capital of Mbombela, he leaned back in his seat and turned his head to look at her. ‘You OK?’ he asked.
His voice was warm and sexy in her ears, deep and dark through the headset. She felt as if he was speaking directly to her soul.
‘I’m fine.’ Clem turned in her seat and rested her head on the back of her seat. ‘We need to talk about the filming. Jason sent me an e-mail confirming that they are doing a run-and-gun shoot with us, partly because you said that there’s no space for a big crew.’
‘Two people, that’s it. What is a run-and-gun shoot?’
‘Basically, it’s them following the action. They won’t have a coverage plan, they just want interesting, fun stuff and it’s up to us to provide it for them.’
‘Define interesting or fun,’ Nick said.
Clem shrugged. ‘It could be lots of things. Conflict and fights provides a lot of entertainment. So does sex and intrigue. None of that will work for us, so I’ve been thinking about how to give them what they want so that they don’t have to splice and dice and make a story.’
‘Uh huh?’
‘As much as I hate to admit this, the audience will enjoy seeing me in situations that I feel uncomfortable in. The dirtier and yuckier the better.’
Nick’s white teeth flashed. ‘Back to recycling for you, Princess.’
‘Ha ha … no. Every morning you and I have to work out a bit of a schedule, what I’m going to do, how I’m going to do it. We’ve got to control what they see and hear so you’ve got to remember that we’re on camera so you can’t say anything stupid. They will not edit it out.’ Clem lifted a warning finger. ‘And no touching or kissing or anything like that. They’ll lap that up.’
‘Dang, here I thought we were going to get all hot and heavy on screen.’ Nick’s irreverent reply was accompanied by a wicked grin.
Clem thought he was taking this whole concept a lot better than she’d expected so she ploughed on. ‘And then we’ve got to remember that we’re trying to raise money for your foundation so we need to get footage of me working in the sanctuary, on game drives, on horseback …’
Clem dropped a hand into the cooler between the seats to pull out a bottle of water. Nick’s hand brushed hers as he took the bottle from her grasp, cracked the top and handed it back to her. Clem sipped and lubricated her dry mouth and throat. She was so close to him she could feel the heat of his body, with every breath she inhaled his scent … Citrusy with something masculine and indefinable—primal—beneath.
Clem’s riotous thoughts were interrupted by Nick swearing. She leaned forward in her seat. ‘What’s wrong; why are you saying that?’
Nick pointed to a massive build-up of clouds in the distance. ‘Sorry, no need to panic. Nothing is wrong with the plane. I’m looking at those clouds. They are too far away from Two-B … We need the rain.’
Clem relaxed back into her seat as Nick spoke again. ‘At this rate, Jabu and I are going to have to do our rain dance.’
Clem lifted one eyebrow. ‘Your what?’
Nick grinned. ‘We used to do it when we were kids, thought that the Rain Goddess would listen if we pranced naked around a fire.’
‘I would pay good money to see that.’
‘Well, you got a preview this morning. And she blushes again! Your face, neck, shoulders …’ Nick turned, leaned forward and with one finger pulled her shirt away from her chest. ‘Yep, right down to your bra.’
Clem slapped his hand away, groaned and dropped her head to her knees. ‘Am I ever going to live this down?’
‘Not in this lifetime.’
‘Red? You OK?’ Nick pushed open the door to Clem’s room, wondering if she was sleeping through this humdinger of a storm, dead to the world. The lights had gone out a while ago and lightning zzzed and jabbed all around them and thunder rolled and roared.
Waiting for the next lightning strike to light up the room, he frowned when he saw her bed was empty.
‘Clem?’
Nick stepped into the room and his heart clenched when he saw her on the floor, knees to her chest and her arms over her head. Crouching down in front of her, he placed a hand on her head and another on her shoulder. ‘It’s just a storm, Clem.’
Terrified eyes looked at him from a pale, bloodless face. She was scared down to her soul, Nick realized. Lifting her hands off her head, he pulled her arms around his neck and scooped her up.
‘Let’s go to my room, I’ve got a lamp burning.’
Another flash of lightning had Clem jumping in his arms as he maneuvred her into the passage and, pushing open his door with his foot, walked with her into his room.
He pulled back the sheet and thin bedspread on the other side of his bed and placed her inside the covers, pulling the sheet over her shoulders when he noticed the fine tremors running through her body. He looked at the curtains bill
owing in the wind and shook his head … Thunder and lightning was one thing but they needed the heavy drops, the pounding fury of a violent summer storm.
He looked over to Clem, curled up in his bed, her eyes screwed shut.
Why was he so focused on this woman? Normal women were difficult enough to figure out, but this one was the biggest, craziest complication he’d ever come across. She was his chief investor’s darling daughter, lived a life that kept magazines and tabloid newspapers churning and was, basically, a royal pain in his butt.
He hated the fact that he found Clem intriguing … but there was something about her that made him want to scratch below the surface. Why was she so terrified of thunderstorms? What was it like growing up with an icon for a mother? Did she have a good relationship with her father? He understood that she’d just come out of a long term relationship but he sensed that the lost, desperate look in her eyes had been there for a long, long time.
Thinking like this was dangerous, Nick reminded himself. It made it harder to be sensible, to stay mentally uninvolved, to keep his barriers impenetrable.
He’d made the right decision years ago to keep his relationships with women—hell, with people, family—devoid of emotion. He’d been surrounded by passionate, emotional people all his life and, even when he’d—subconsciously—chosen a self-reliant, undramatic and seemingly dispassionate woman for a wife, his marriage had ended in a mess of all the seething, complicated feelings he’d tried to run away from.
Yet, for some weird reason, Clem’s arrival had put those unwelcome feelings back on to simmer.
She flung her arms over her head and screamed into the mattress as another lightning strike hit the hill behind them. Sighing, Nick walked to the bed and lay behind her, his arm protectively wrapped around her waist.
It wasn’t until the thunder faded and heavy raindrops bounced off the roof that Clem slept, with her hand holding his hand against her heart.
For once, Clem woke up before Nick. She slipped out from under that broad hand on her hip and, after she’d returned from the bathroom, she curled up into his easy chair and watched him sleep.
She’d made a grave error by assuming that he wouldn’t check on her during the storm and she was mortified that he’d found her, whimpering like a fool, huddled in a corner. She should’ve known that he was a protector, he did it so naturally and his basic instinct was to look after the well being of all living creatures on his land.
That seemed to include her.
She hated storms. She didn’t know if she’d have been able to get through it without Nick—literally—having her back. But she’d revealed too much of herself and, while he hadn’t asked for any explanations, she knew he’d be curious about her phobia. And, strangely, she felt herself wanting to tell him, to explain why she associated lightning and thunder with the most devastating time of her life.
He’d understand, she was sure of it. She suspected that he had a well tuned emotional antenna beneath that obvious I-am-happy-alone personality. He was, Clem admitted, the most self-sufficient person she’d ever come across and she found that trait of his personality deeply attractive.
Possibly because she was such a tangle of insecurity herself, not being sure if she’d ever been unconditionally loved, even by her parents. Clem winced. That reeked of self-pity but it didn’t make it less true. They had been few, if any, words of love and their actions had spoken loudly.
Her mum’s litany of broken promises ranged from missing dinners to dance recitals and graduation ceremonies. There had always been something so much more important to do—a story to cover, a discussion in parliament to attend, a report to write.
Her father hadn’t been any better. How nice if would’ve been if he’d arrived with the jet to take her from New York to Nick’s, providing physical and mental support instead of just a means of transport and a place to hide out. But he’d been in sensitive negotiations and couldn’t leave.
There were always sensitive negotiations on a deal that couldn’t be left.
Maybe that was why she so badly wanted a child. Someone to give her unconditional love to, someone to love her back. Maybe then the emptiness inside would go away.
‘You’re a bed hogger,’ Nick said and she snapped her head up. How long had he been leaning on his elbows, watching her?
‘A what?’
‘You hog the bed like a starfish. Good thing we’re not sleeping together because that would be a deal breaker.’
‘Hey guys, where are you?’ Mdu shouted and Clem bolted upright.
‘Are they supposed to be filming so early? How did they get here?’ She kept her voice low. ‘What are we going to do? If they find me in here they are going to think that I’m sleeping with you!’
Nick looked from her to the bed and back again and she threw a pillow at his head, secretly grateful for an excuse to avoid any awkward morning-after discussions. ‘Nick!’
‘Thinking, thinking …’
CHAPTER SIX
Luella Dawson’s blog:
OMG, did you enjoy the first episode of Clem’s crazy adventure as much as I did? Love her hair, by the way, and do you think she’s picked a smidgeon of weight?
But double OMG, what do you think about the luscious Nick? Two words: Yum and Mee! Beneath their snappy conversation, sparks are leaping; did you notice him checking out her legs? And she sends him these little sidelong glances when she thinks he’s not looking. I think something is cooking, folks!
THIRTY minutes later, after boosting Clem over the wall that separated their outdoor showers, Nick was scrambling eggs for breakfast. He swallowed when Clem walked into the kitchen, dressed in a pair of khaki shorts, a Two-B golf shirt and the dusty hiking boots he’d found for her in the uniform store.
He thought he’d never seen anything sexier in his life. She looked fresh and young, less like the cosmopolitan heiress than ever, and a far cry from the vulnerable girl of last night. Because his heart stumbled and fell over his feet, his voice came out clipped. ‘Boots fit?’
Clem looked down and shook her head in horror. ‘Yes, but have you ever seen anything uglier? Good grief, if there was an award for ugly shoes, these would win.’
Nick tugged her hair as she walked past. ‘You’ll think they are great if you get tagged on the foot by a puff adder.’
Nick narrowed his eyes as he noticed Mdu trailing the camera down and then up Clem’s legs.
‘OK, you win the “reason to wear ugly boots” argument.’ Clem grabbed a cup from above the kettle and rammed it under the spout of his coffee machine. While she waited for it to dispense, she looked around Nick at the eggs in the pan.
Nick’s mobile rang and Clem picked it up and waved it in his direction. ‘Your mother.’
Nick shook his head. ‘Let it go to message.’
Clem frowned. ‘You don’t take calls from your mother? Why not?’
‘I do take calls from her,’ Nick protested and, seeing her disbelieving look, shrugged. ‘Sometimes, OK … rarely. She’s …’
‘Mmm?’
Nick pushed the eggs around in the pan. ‘I have four siblings and everyone in my family is excitable and loud and feels the need to know the intimate details of my life.’
‘And you are reticent and reserved and independent.’
‘Sometimes living with them felt like I was living in a soap opera. Drama, drama, drama.’
Mdu bumped a chair and Nick grimaced, suddenly reminded of the cameras in the room. He sent Mdu a measured glance. ‘Erase that, please.’
Mdu nodded at the command in his voice. ‘Sure. No problem.’
Clem nodded at the stove. ‘Why are you cooking breakfast? Why aren’t we eating at the canteen?’
Nick stirred the eggs and put bread in the toaster. ‘No time. I need to get you to work at the animal sanctuary and then I have to get back to take a conference call about the ball.’
Clem perked up. ‘Ball? What ball?’
Nick took her cup from her han
ds, took a sip and asked her to make him one. As Clem reached for another cup, he filled her in. ‘It’s a fund-raising event for my foundation. My marketing company got a multinational to sponsor the event so all the money from ticket sales goes to the foundation. There’s also an auction at the end of it.’
‘When’s the ball?’
‘A few weeks’ time. Want to go?’
‘Seriously?’
Nick shrugged. ‘I should take a partner and you’re as good as any.’ He flashed a smile at her. ‘Being marginally attractive and all that.’
Clem’s fingers fluttered above her heart. ‘I don’t think I’ve had a more gracious invitation in my life. Thank you so much!’ she gushed.
Nick’s lips lifted. ‘Wiseass.’
He dished the eggs up onto plates. ‘On a related subject, Andy—one of my senior game rangers—is having his birthday party at The Pit tonight. He’s from America’s Mid-west and he’s determined to teach everyone line dancing. Do you line dance?’
‘I took dance lessons from the age of three to fifteen. There’s not much I can’t do,’ Clem replied as she put sugar into Nick’s cup of black coffee and stirred it for him. ‘Oh, that sounds like so much fun. Can we go?’
‘Thanks.’ Nick took the cup she held out, sipped and sighed with pleasure. ‘Well, you can, I need to eat up at the Lodge with the guests tonight. I’ll meet you at The Pit later.’
Clem grinned as she took Nick’s coffee cup to the dining table for him, while he handed Liam and Mdu their plates. ‘Woo-hoo. A party! And I cleaned The Pit yesterday so I know I don’t need a tetanus shot!’
Nick got to The Pit around eleven and the party was in full swing. He noticed that about a dozen dancers were doing something very complicated on the far side of the room, which had been turned into a dance floor for the evening. He couldn’t see Clem and lifted his eyebrows at Jabu, who had his elbow on the bar and a beer in his hand.
‘Hey.’ Jabu lifted his bottle and signalled the bartender for another for Nick.
‘Hey back.’ Nick stood next to him and looked over the crowded bar. ‘Looks like a great party!’