'If it would help to convince you, someone might be grateful.'
So he was speaking generally. She should be relieved, but she knew a sharp hurting flicker of rejection.
To hide it she laughed lightly. 'Was that all part of the plan, last night?'
He echoed her laughter, but his was much harsher. I don't think we plan those kind of interludes but you were very responsive.'
The plane tipped a little. The sun was warm, the air slumbrous with heat and the dry arid scent of the plains below. Alex pushed back her heavy fair hair, feeling stifled. 'Can't you forget it?'
'I only forget what doesn't relate to the future,' he rejoined enigmatically.
'You can be sure I don't.' She shuddered as her eyes were drawn to his broad shoulders, the proud dark set of his head. 'I won't be here,' she said it in the manner of a prayer.' Soon I'll be going home.'
'You won't be going anywhere for quite a while. Neither will I. I thought I'd already told you.'
Alex shrugged. It would be wonderful to stay here, a real experience, but she would have felt happier had Chase been planning to leave. When he was around she couldn't relax. Somehow he spelled danger.
Obscurely she asked, If you stay at Coolabra, what about your girl-friend?'
'Girl-friend?' His voice was immediately cooler.
'The the film actress. Ruby mentioned her.'
'Ah, Davina?'
'Not Davina Wilde?'
'The same,' he drawled, making no comment on the ring of awe in Alex's voice. 'But that's over.'
'How-how long did it last?'
Regretting having asked, since she expected to hear him telling her to shut up, Alex was surprised when he answered calmly, 'A few months. We parted on the best of terms.'
Sharply, it had been on the tip of her tongue to ask what terms Davina had demanded, but, horrified, she stopped herself in time, not knowing what possessed her. Chase would be a generous lover, probably he could afford to be. The lady of his choice wouldn't have to demand. Alex didn't know why the thought of Davina and him being lovers should make her go hot all over, but it did. A streak of something very like jealousy tore through her, and she was startled by it.
Coldly she said, 'I expect you're busy looking around for someone else?'
He turned his head, his eyes glinting, calculating the heat in her cheeks. 'I'm no celibate, at my age, Alex. I've a normal male need of a woman, but I can do without.'
'I don't suppose your powers of resistance are very great,' she scoffed, remembering a certain look and recklessly returning frankness with frankness. 'Why don't you marry one of these women you sleep with?'
'Alex!' he groaned wryly. I haven't a harem, and if ever I made up my mind to marry whether we went to bed before or afterwards wouldn't be important.'
'But you wouldn't want a girl who'd been to bed with another man?'
'Oh, God… No, I would not!' suddenly he exploded with cold savagery. 'And don't start trotting out all that worn-out twaddle about what's sauce for the gander, etc. I've heard it all before and I'm not in the mood to listen.'
'Well!' she drew a deeply offended breath, 'I suppose a man like you thinks he's entitled to the best that he can afford it?'
'You little vix…' Suddenly he stopped and laughed, brushing his hand around the back of his neck.
'Alex, please! Don't you think the conversation's getting a bit out of hand? We're going to help celebrate a happy occasion. We don't want to arrive looking as though we've been to a funeral or battle!'
Alex was relieved when the Brett station came in sight. While she sat, apparently pale and subdued, inside she smouldered with resentment. Her resentment was not so much against Chase as fate. It was frightening to feel attracted to a man who found her boring, and whom she didn't even like!
Henry Brett was there to meet them and drove them quickly to the house. The homestead wasn't quite as grand as Coolabra but was extremely comfortable, all the same. Ruby was lucky, Alex decided. She would be well looked after here.
It turned out that Henry's parents were retiring to the original family station when Henry married. It was in New South Wales and much smaller than this one. They had only been waiting for Ruby and Henry to name the day. The surprising news about Ruby going off on holiday with another man had alarmed them, but now they could afford to laugh. It really was amusing that Alex had turned out to be a girl, a very attractive one at that! Alex being here certainly settled any lingering apprehension on that score. It was reassuring to know she was a friend of the Marshalls, from down south. According to Chase, who was never far from her side, she was going to be one of Ruby's bridesmaids. It certainly was going to be a wedding to remember!
Dinner that evening proved a very gay affair. They ate early and afterwards the lounge was crowded with neighbours dropping in to offer their congratulations to the happy pair. It wasn't, of course, the official engagement party. This would come later at Coolabra, Chase explained, and would take a few days to arrange. When people in the Outback had something to celebrate, they liked to make a good job of it.
It still astonished Alex that Ruby was so content after all her protesting in Melbourne. Now she was like a sleek, purring cat, replete after catching her quarry. She gave the impression she never wished to stray another inch from Henry's side.
There were more surprises in store, apart from Ruby. Startled, Alex glanced across the room to see a particularly beautiful woman coming through the door. This charming apparition was looking straight at Chase. Alex noticed the surprise on his face, but her own eyes were blank as he glanced at her sharply.
She was glad she had managed to appear indifferent as his gaze lingered on her for only a moment before returning to the new arrival. The woman made a beeline for him, after congratulating Ruby and Henry. Alex wasn't near enough to catch her name.
'Hello, darling! Aren't you pleased to see me?' As if in no doubt that he would be, the vision placed both hands on Chase's shoulders and kissed him warmly on the mouth. Nor did she hurry. Lightly he held her by the waist, kissing her back, giving every appearance of thoroughly enjoying himself. 'Oh, Chase!' the woman gushed, 'I have missed you. In fact I missed you so much, I took up Mary's invitation to visit. The play in New. York folded up and it's three weeks yet before I start filming again.' Alex went suddenly cold. This must be Chase's girlfriend? Ex-girlfriend, hadn't he said, but this woman was enticing enough to rekindle any man's interest. Seductively lovely and charming, she hung on Chase's arm, glowing up at him. Uncertainly, Alex turned away. Later she saw them talking closely together. Davina Wilde had her hand on Chase's muscular thigh, and she didn't keep it still. A peculiar sickness rose in Alex's throat. Davina was making no attempt to disguise what she was after! When Chase went out, after midnight, to see Davina off, Alex slipped up to bed. Outside her bedroom door she met Ruby.
The other girl paused, her eyes sharp on Alex's pale face. 'I wondered why Chase wasn't in a hurry to get back to the big city. What do you think of Davina?'
Feeling she was being got at, Alex suggested evenly, 'He must have been surprised to see her.' I can't think why he should be.' Ruby smiled knowingly. It was all over the air this morning. I'm sure that's why he made it his business to be here.'
In her room, Alex found she was trembling, and hated Chase Marshall afresh that he could affect her like this. The feelings he had aroused in her so far hadn't been comfortable, but this sense of desolation was the worst yet. It made her all the more determined to escape as soon as she could. The next day she returned with Chase to Coolabra where preparations for the engagement party, proper were already under way. Miss Marshall had everything under control, but was obviously in need of help. Alex, having spent the last hour or so enduring Chase's light but taunting conversation, was glad of the chance to forget it. Why should it matter to her what he had been up to the night before? Why should he be so interested in her reactions? The fact that she wasn't sophisticated enough to listen to his occasional remarks abou
t women and sex without blushing had appeared to amuse him. Why, Alex wondered angrily, when he apparently had never done without sex himself, was he so dryly critical of the women who supplied it?
When Miss Marshall almost begged for her assistance, Alex was only too willing to give it. Anything would be better than just sitting around the house thinking of Chase, with a mind too eager to concentrate on his dark attraction! She threw herself at the task of helping Miss Marshall unstintedly, in order to alleviate the peculiar restlessness that invaded her. If Chase had set out deliberately to arouse dormant feelings, she decided bitterly, he shouldn't have the satisfaction of knowing how well he had succeeded…
'I hope you aren't wearing yourself out?' he said, when, a few nights before the party , he came across her by the pool. The swimming pool was beautiful, in keeping with everything else around the station homestead, but he eyed both it and Alex grimly. 'Should you be swimming alone when you're tired?' Alex didn't see why not. She had just been in the pool and felt better for it. Glancing at the water, she saw it was still, and wished her heart would be, when he approached her. As she put her hand over it nervously, the beat quickened even more as his eyes rested on her uneasy fingers. She was aware, from the way his eyes glinted, that he knew very well what she was trying to hide.
Quickly she reached for her towelling jacket, uncaring that mockery now joined the interest in his gaze as she slipped into it. This accomplished, she sat back with what she hoped was dignity on the luxurious lounger where she had been lying. 'I am a little tired,' she admitted, 'but then so is everyone. All except you,' she added, resigned to his energy, which never diminished. She was just beginning to fully realise the strength of him. Coolabra and his other stations in the chain might have excellent managers, but he was the power behind them. Very definitely! Before, she had had a vague idea this was so, and the last few days had confirmed this irrefutably. Chase's was the word that carried. He ruled and overruled with ruthless authority, in absolute control of just about everything. The weather, she thought wryly, might be one of the few exceptions. And herself, she hoped!
Coolabra itself was a small empire, not so isolated in some ways as she had imagined. The office was an eyeopener. She had heard Chase dictating. Some of the more important members of his staff flew in and out regularly. He knew exactly what was going on everywhere. If he didn't it was a situation that was soon rectified. He had a cool command that she envied, even if it made him seem very often something less than human. She found Drew Blake and some of the other men much easier to be with.
Yes, these past few days had certainly opened her eyes! Flicking the damp hair back from her face, she wished they hadn't. Now her entire vision was filled by a man who unconsciously frightened her, his total strength seeming to reduce her feminine weakness to nothing.
The air was till warm. She loved this time of night, after dinner, with the heat of the day gone with the light but the stars overhead supplying sufficient to see by. This was only the second time she had bathed as normally she stayed in the drawing room with Miss Marshall and those members of the staff who joined them for dinner. This evening, for one reason or another, everyone had dispersed and Miss Marshall had gone to bed.
'I suppose it might be foolish of me to swim alone,' she said, when Chase didn't speak, 'but I haven't come to any harm.'
'You might have done.' His lancing glance penetrated the darkness. 'You look breakable. Are you eating properly?'
Of course. I'm naturally thin.' Some water ran from her hair down her cheek and she brushed it off, looking around for something to dry it with. She found a handkerchief in her pocket. 'Where's your towel?' he asked. She shrugged. I usually wring my hair out and dry off naturally.'
Go ahead,' he said evenly. Don't mind me.'
Her heart began racing, knowing she did. Patiently, giving herself time to recover, she explained, 'I didn't do anything about my hair because I was going in again.'
'Fine.' Chase sounded amused, lazily so. 'I'll join you. No need to deny yourself the pleasure because I'm here. I feel like a swim myself.'
Turning, he disappeared into one of the changing rooms, leaving her frowning and hesitating. It was his pool. On those grounds alone she couldn't very well object, but she had no wish to share the intimacy of moonlight bathing with him. She would rather have kept the remainder of any time they must spend together on a more businesslike footing. Nor had she any particular desire to see him stripped, as he had been when they had swum off the beach in Victoria.
An idea came to her suddenly. Quickly she slipped out of her jacket and slid into the pool. Like a slender fish, she swam silently to the other side, coming up where the branches of an overhanging tree cast protective shadows. Here she would wait until Chase entered the water, then she could immediately climb out. That way he need never guess she was nervous of being alone with him. She was sure it was nervousness, the feeling which had never left her since she had fallen from her horse and he had kissed her. The rustling silence mocked her as the night breeze moved through the branches of the trees. A bird chirped above her head, so near she was startled, and unconsciously she reacted; tossing back her star-silvered hair, a habitual movement which must have betrayed her. Before she could take another breath, Chase was there. He had slipped around the back of the changing rooms, reaching her side of the pool while she had been watching the other.
Her eyes widened in alarm as his feet touched the pool bottom. Although the night was warm she shivered.
'Your hair is distinctive,' he smiled down at her, 'like a sheet of silver floating behind you. You could never escape unnoticed in the dark with hair like that.'
Had he known what she was doing? She stared up at him, seeing again the width of his bare shoulders. She had seen him before like this, but it hadn't affected her breathing as it did now. 'Come on,' he grinned, apparently unaware she was shaking, 'what are we waiting for, my small water nymph? You're a very good swimmer. I'll race you.'
The challenge, thrown with idle amusement, was one she swiftly took up. Feeling safer, she nodded, striking away from him to the other end of the pool. Chase would win easily, but as soon as he passed her she would leave him and scramble out. Unfortunately she acted too soon. When he drew ahead by a couple of lengths, she turned, but managed no more than a few strokes in the opposite direction before he caught up with her.
'Where do you think you're going?' he asked, his eyes glinting, as silver as her hair in the eerie half-light. 'Out!' She tried to speak lightly, hoping her obvious breathlessness would convince him she had had enough.
'Just because you weren't winning?' he laughed. 'You can't always, you know.'
'It's not that,' she was trying to decide the best way to get round him. 'I've been in long enough. I didn't think you would mind if I packed in before you did:'
'I mind.' His hands came out to catch her suddenly to him. 'Not about the race but being deprived of your company. How can we get to know each other better if you run off every time I try to get near you?' 'I don't,' she protested, while guiltily aware he might be speaking the truth. She did her best to avoid him, perhaps unconsciously, but hadn't guessed he had noticed.
'Yes, you do.' His voice altered. He sounded preoccupied, playing with the strap of her bikini as though not aware of what he was doing. Lean and dark, he towered above her, the water dripping down his strong neck to glisten on the thick fuzz below. I'll have to make sure you aren't so inclined to run away in future.'
The threat in his voice was light, but she stiffened, receiving the impression that he wasn't simply amusing himself any more. He was like a man with an objective in view and, for reasons she didn't understand, deadly serious. When he wanted something badly he might let nothing stand in his way. 'You're joking, of course,' she breathed. 'Not where you're concerned. Not now.'
In nervous bewilderment, as she stared up at the stark lines of his face, she scarcely realised his hands had moved until the narrow straps were being pushed from he
r shoulders. As the brief bikini top slid down to her waist he pulled her swiftly against him.
'Chase!' she gasped, only to have her apprehensive protest smothered underneath his descending mouth. His chest hurt her. It was rough against her bare skin and she had never been as close as this to a man before. She wanted to cry out, to struggle. She managed to do this until, as if ignitable fluid ran through her veins and he put a match to it, flames began searing mercilessly through her.
As he felt her half-naked body go limp, his mouth became more urgent, probing her parted lips sensuously. Helplessly, Alex seemed unable to prevent him. Shaping the back of her head, he held her quite still until she ceased struggling and began to respond. Before she could control them, her fingers traced a path up his broad back to bury themselves in the thickness of his dark hair.
With a smothered groan he lifted her in his arms, carrying her from the pool to the lounger. Laying her on it, he came down beside her, still holding her tightly. 'You're beautiful,' he muttered, staring at her.
'You have a beautiful body.'
Again he began kissing her, his mouth sliding over her face and throat, his hands curving her hips to the strength of his limbs, leaving her in no doubt of the urgency of his desire. Her senses swam as she wriggled in an attempt to draw away, which only seemed to incite him further.
'Alex,' he demanded thickly, 'have you ever belonged to a man?'
'No!' She was too dazed and incredibly excited to answer with anything but the truth. Chase overwhelmed her. She couldn't move or think.
'I want to marry you,' his voice was pitched low, but she heard, every syllable hitting her like shock. 'I want to give Coolabra a girl like you, someone untouched. Someone to give me the children I need.'
'Marry you?' Frightened indescribably, she went rigid. 'For Coolabra?'
'That's what I said.' He took no notice of her wide startled eyes, his mouth turning to touch the inside of her arm as she withdrew it stiffly from around his neck. His movement was almost lazy. Obviously he considered the battle more than half won and didn't take her protesting too seriously. His mouth lingered on the sensitive area of skin, assessing the nerve beat, feeling her quiver. In another moment she would become fully alive, both to him and the honour he was bestowing.
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