by Miranda Lee
Zoe’s heart lurched. “I…I didn’t know you knew that…”
His eyes carried admission, and true remorse. “Once again, I pretended I didn’t notice. Men are good at that. Pretending not to notice the things they don’t want to face. But I knew she was unhappy, just as I knew you were unhappy.”
“She still loved you, Dad. And so do I.”
“I know that, daughter. And that’s what makes me feel even lousier. But hopefully, it’s never too late to turn things around. So I just want to say that I am proud of you for the success you’ve made of your life. I wish I had your courage. And your willpower. And your selflessness. What you did, dropping everything and driving down here in the middle of the night, puts me to shame. Not once, in the five years you’ve lived in Sydney have I driven up and visited you. Not once. All I’ve done is complain and criticize. I don’t know why you still bother with me at all.”
Tears welled up in Zoe’s eyes again. “Oh, Dad… Thank you so much for saying that, but I’m not such a great success. Not with men, anyway. Did Betty tell you Drake did the dirty on me and I had to dump him?”
“Yes. And good riddance to bad rubbish. You’ve got yourself a much nicer bloke sitting out there in the kitchen, my girl. He makes ten of that Drake.”
“You like Aiden?” Zoe shouldn’t have been surprised. She liked him, didn’t she?
“I sure do. He’s a real nice lad. So easy to talk to. And no airs and graces about him, either, despite all his successes. He really likes you too, Zoe. And not because you’re done up like a dog’s dinner all the time, either. I know you told Betty you were just good friends, but you mark my words. No man would drive you all the way down here because he just wants to be good friends with you.”
“Really,” she said, trying not to smile. But it was kind of funny.
“Yes, really, I’m a man. I know. I can see the signs.”
“Speaking of signs, Dad, I’ve been seeing a few signs myself between you and Betty. Am I right or am I wrong or are you two more than just good friends these days?”
He blushed. He actually blushed.
“No need to feel embarrassed, Dad,” Zoe raced on. “I’m not shocked,” she lied. “You’re a grown man just as she’s a grown woman. You can do exactly as you please behind closed doors. But if you want my daughterly advice I think you should sell the farm, move into Moss Vale and marry Betty.”
“You think she’d actually marry me?” It was rather touching that he looked so unsure.
Zoe looked her dad over and tried to see him through Betty’s older eyes. He’d once been a handsome man and would still be, if he lost some weight, bought himself some new clothes and had his hair cut. There was nothing worse than a man who was going bald who grew what was left of his hair longer, thinking that made up for it.
“I think she might,” Zoe said. “But she’s a very attractive woman, Dad. Now don’t get me wrong, you’re still a fine figure of a man but you have let yourself go a bit. If I were you, I’d try to lose a few pounds, get your hair cut in one of those shorter more modern styles and invest in some new clothes, especially for when you take Betty down to the club. You have been taking her down to the club, haven’t you?”
He nodded. “And you think that would work?” he asked, looking as eager as a schoolboy trying to wangle a date with the beauty of the class.
“It can’t hurt. Go for it, Dad. You only have the one life to live.”
He drew himself up taller with her encouraging words. “You’re right. But none of this to Betty now. I want to do this all by myself.”
15
AIDEN SAT WITH ARMS folded in the passenger seat, irritated that Zoe had insisted on driving. Like most men, he hated not being the driver.
“For pity’s sake, stop sulking,” she threw over at him as they wound their way down through cow-dotted fields toward the main road. “It is my car. Which reminds me. Where is that chick-pulling yellow truck you usually drive? Or is that just part of the beach-bum role you adopt at Hideaway Beach? You leave it behind when you head for Sydney and put on your millionaire’s hat again.”
Aiden slanted a thoughtful glance over at her. She really had it all wrong about him. Understandable, of course, given what she’d been told and what she’d been through with Drake this last week. Lies and betrayals always affected a person deeply. You automatically turned cynical and, yes, bitter.
Aiden had been there, done that, and he knew what Zoe was going through. All he could do was be patient and play for time, time for her to discover the real him.
“It’s at the hotel I booked into in Sydney. But no sweat, it can stay there for this week. I’ll give them a call and explain the situation.”
“Oh, really? You’ll tell them that you’re off for some serious sex with a chick with her own wheels so you won’t be needing your own?”
Aiden smiled at her sarcasm. When women got sarcastic, it was often because underneath, they cared. Zoe might think she only wanted sex from him, but he was bargaining she actually wanted more, but was afraid of being hurt. She’d said as much.
For his part, he was sure now that he wanted more from Zoe than just sex. The incident yesterday morning in the milking shed had proved that. If it had been just lust driving him, he would have undoubtedly done something they’d both have regretted afterward.
But he hadn’t. He’d stayed in control, wanting to give rather than take.
Okay, so he’d been a bit naughty, using her wildly turned-on state to coerce that promise from her. But as they say, all’s fair in love and war.
Aiden was beginning to suspect this could develop into a bit of both.
Whatever, he knew he’d never felt this strongly about any girl before, and he wasn’t about to be fobbed off with one week of sex. He aimed to have a real relationship with Zoe. She was going to become his girlfriend, come hell or high water.
In the meantime, he would give her what she wanted, or thought she wanted.
“My, aren’t we in a touchy mood this morning?” he said lightly. “What’s up?”
“You know very well what’s up! Last night, over dinner, you let Betty and Dad think you were already my new boyfriend.”
“Is that a crime?”
“It’s a lie. You are not, and are never going to be, my new boyfriend. You’re going to be my sexual partner. For one week and one week only. That was the deal. If you think you can change my mind on that, then think again, lover.”
“Fine. Don’t get uptight.”
“I have every reason to get uptight. As it is, I’ll be fielding off questions from Betty and Dad for ages after this is over. They liked you. Though of course I can understand why. You went out of your way to be so darned nice to them. Sitting there all yesterday afternoon, watching the football with Dad and drinking that awful beer he likes! Then playing Scrabble with Betty ‘til all hours of the night! And letting her win!”
“I didn’t let her win,” Aiden said truthfully. “She beat me fair and square. I guess I’m a bit rusty. I haven’t been my hometown Scrabble champion for some few years.”
“And that’s another thing. You are such a blabbermouth, telling everyone everything all about yourself. I told you I didn’t want to know any of that stuff and now I do. Not that it makes any difference. Betty and Dad might have been impressed at what a success you’ve made of your life after starting out as the poor under-privileged son of a single mom, but you didn’t fool me with your sob stories. Amongst other things, what sensible woman would refuse to take welfare, then scratch out some wretched existence selling painted scarves and sarongs to tourists?”
“My mom would,” he said ruefully. “Wait ‘til you meet her. You’ll believe me, then.”
“I have no intention of meeting your mother,” she said stiffly. “I told you. I don’t want to get to know you or your family. All I want is for you to…to… You know what I want you to do!” she finished, flushing prettily.
He never said a word. But he started planning a lot. She
thought she knew what she was doing keeping their relationship strictly sexual, but she didn’t. She was being naive again.
“Look, I don’t mean to be rude,” she went on, perhaps reading offense into his silence. “I like you. I really do. You’re a very likable person. But we had a deal. We were not supposed to have any getting-to-know-you conversations.”
“You started it, complaining about my talking to your folks back at the farm.”
“Which reminds me. Exactly what did you and Betty talk about after I went to bed last night? You didn’t go asking her personal questions about me, did you?”
“Absolutely not,” Aiden denied, and it wasn’t a lie. He’d asked all those questions earlier in the day, after she’d run off crying to her room and her father had finally followed her.
And what an enlightenment that conversation had proved to be!
He’d already discovered for himself at Drake’s party that Zoe was not some kind of cold-blooded gold digger, that she was as sweet and sincere as she’d seemed the previous weekend. But it was good to hear some solid details about Zoe’s earlier life, and to work out just what had made her so susceptible to the likes of Drake Carson. Betty hadn’t needed much prodding to tell Aiden everything he wanted to know about this girl who’d turned his life upside down.
He’d been saddened to hear of her mother’s premature death of uterine cancer when Zoe had only been thirteen, then sympathetic when Betty explained that Zoe had spent the rest of her teenage years being “mother” around the house because her father couldn’t afford help. She did all the cooking and cleaning whilst still at school, then after leaving school as well. He understood a great deal when he heard about her comfort eating which resulted in her weight ballooning out, thereby undermining her self-esteem. More pennies dropped for Aiden when Betty told him Zoe had retreated from reality into the world of women’s magazines where all successful women were slim and perfectly groomed, had interesting careers and handsome boyfriends.
Two events eventually stopped the rot. Zoe contracted mononucleosis, just after her father inherited a wad of cash from an uncle who died. With it, he was able to employ Betty to look after the house and a slowly recovering Zoe.
Aiden didn’t have to read between the lines to realize that Betty had brought new life into that once-depressed household. Betty had a vibrant and optimistic personality, and was so full of the joy of living, with a passion for lots of things besides Scrabble. With her encouragement, Zoe had watched her diet, started exercising, taken a secretarial course and finally applied for some jobs, not locally, but in Sydney. Successful women didn’t work in the country. They had glamorous jobs in the city.
She’d taken a while but she’d finally landed a position as a clerk in an insurance company where unfortunately, some pig of a man—Betty didn’t know the sordid details—hurt her rather badly. Zoe had still been a bit plump at the time so who knew what emotional scars had been inflicted on her still-vulnerable self-esteem. Quite a lot apparently, because after that, she’d steered clear of men for a good few years, choosing instead to work her way up in the world by going to more night schools and trimming off every excess pound from her figure with many more hours spent in gyms, ‘til she landed her present job last year.
It had been shortly after she started her job as assistant to Fran Phillips that Drake Carson had come into her life with all his false charm and self-centered ambition.
Aiden knew exactly why Drake had targeted Zoe.
Because he saw in her the perfect wife for a man like him. She was attractive, well-groomed, hardworking. But more importantly, slightly naive, lonely and needy. Not yet life smart, despite all she’d achieved. She stood no chance against him, once he went to work with all those age-old romantic ploys designed to fool women.
Zoe herself had revealed exactly what Drake had used to suck her in when she’d told Aiden what she didn’t want from him. Flowers. Five-star restaurants. Perfume. Poetry. Gifts of any kind.
No doubt dear old Drake had lavished all these on her at every opportunity.
There was one thing, however, which Drake had never been able to give Zoe, because it couldn’t be bought, or fabricated. And that was the sort of sexual pleasure she’d experienced with him.
Aiden aimed to take full advantage of that. He aimed to bind Zoe to him through sex, to take her to places she’d never been before, to use physical intimacy to draw her into an emotional intimacy. There would be no taboos this coming week. No nos of any kind. He was going to make her his. Totally.
Zoe’s head abruptly whipped ‘round to glare over at him. “You’re being very quiet, all of a sudden,” she said accusingly.
“Isn’t that what you want?” he returned, doing his best not to look like a man making a mental list of various wicked activities. “No talking?”
“Huh. Don’t play the innocent with me.”
He laughed. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Hey, watch the road, would you? Or let me drive.”
Zoe jerked the car back from where it had drifted toward the center line.
“Speaking of driving,” she said. “I think it best you take your own vehicle back up to Hideaway Beach, so I’ll drop you off at your hotel in Sydney on the way through.”
“Oh, no, no, no,” he said, sitting up straight. “That’s not on. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“But I have to go to my place and pick up some things.”
“Then I’ll come with you.”
“But I don’t want you to. Mel might be there.”
“So?”
“I don’t want her to know about you.”
His eyes narrowed and his fists clenched. “Then I’ll sit outside in your car and wait.”
“No,” she said stubbornly. “We’ll do this my way. You’ll just have to trust me. I promised to come and I will.”
Aiden gritted his teeth. He supposed he had no other alternative. But this was the last time she’d treat him this shabbily. Come the end of the week, he aimed to have her eating out his hand.
“I guess I’ll just have to take your word for it,” he said grudgingly.
“I guess you will.”
Aiden didn’t like the smug tone in her voice. Maybe he’d miscalculated a little here. Maybe her earlier sarcasm hadn’t been a sign of secret caring. Maybe all she did want from him was just sex.
The thought rattled him. Then turned him on.
He’d thought he’d worked her out there. He’d thought he’d worked himself out, too.
Now he didn’t know where he was going or what he was doing, except for one thing. He was going to screw that girl’s brains out this week. And she was going to love every single second!
16
ZOE WAS SMILING to herself as she slipped her key into her front door. She hadn’t realized the satisfaction which came from taking control of one’s life, in making your own decisions and then not making any excuses for them.
She’d always been so accommodating with Drake, pandering to his ego and doing everything to please him. Even when she’d refused to move in with him, she’d been apologetic about it.
Did he respect her for that? Heck, no! He’d still thought her a pushover. And a fool. She was never going to be like that again. She was going to be more like a man in future, doing exactly what she wanted to do without saying sorry all the time.
Aiden hadn’t been happy with her decision about the cars. But when she’d stood firm, he’d accepted it. She vowed to remember that in all her dealings with him. To stay firm.
“You home, Mel?” she called out, hoping her roommate wasn’t in. “It’s Zoe!”
“I’m in the bathroom!” Mel shouted back, putting paid to that hope. “Won’t be long. Can’t talk. I’m cleaning my teeth. I’ll be out soon.”
At which point she would no doubt ask some sticky questions. Like, what was she doing here? Where was she going? And why?
Zoe would have to be very inventive with her answers.
Sighi
ng, she hurried into her room and stripped off the track suit Betty had found for her to wear that morning and which had only been bearable because of her car’s air-conditioning. The weather was remaining hot and dry, despite the fact that March—and the Australian Fall—had arrived. It looked like they were in for an Indian summer.
She pulled on some loose lemon crinkle slacks which traveled well, and matched them with a white short-sleeved shirt, not tucked in. She popped her feet into strappy white sandals, and bundled her hair up into a tiny ponytail, leaving a few tendrils to soften the rounded outline of her face. Her makeup was nothing but a dash of coral lipstick.
It was not a bad look. Not one she’d wear to work but it would do for today. And for the rest of the week. Aiden was attracted to her, as her dad had noticed, whether she was dolled up or not. So why bother? It would be silly to spend hours every morning doing a full face makeup and blow-dry when she’d wasn’t intending to go outside the door. For the same reason, she didn’t intend to take up many clothes. She would have no call for them.
Zoe’s mouth went dry as she thought of not wearing any clothes at all. All week. Of walking around in the nude all the time. Of always being accessible to him.
A violently erotic shiver ran down her spine.
“So what are you doing home?” Mel demanded to know as soon as she walked into the room. “I thought after your phone call last night you were going to be spending the whole week down at the farm.”
Zoe did her best to look calm and carefree, whilst every nerve ending she owned felt electrified. “I thought so, too,” she said, not looking at Mel as she went about collecting underwear from her drawers. “But Betty came up with a local chap who was happy to come in and do the milking ‘til Dad’s on his feet again. Provided he was paid, of course. So I wasn’t needed anymore.”
“I would have thought you’d still have stayed home for a while after what happened with Drake. Moral support and all that. You must have been very upset. What a creep! You did right to dump him. One slip could be forgiven, but twice? No way. So why are you dressed like that?” she asked, flopping down on the side of Zoe’s bed. “You’re obviously not going back to work.”