True Love Down Under_A BWWM Romance

by Kendra Riley

  “We’re dropping you off first, Miss Wright,” Danny said.

  “You can call me Sahara,” she told him.

  “Sahara sounds too long,” Zac chimed in. “We’ll call you Sara.”

  “My family calls me Sara,” she began, not wanting someone to use the nickname reserved for those closest to her.

  “Great, we’re your family while you’re here,” Zac said.

  She was about to say something, but she stopped herself when he flashed a smile. Their talk consisted of how things were at the zoo, and Danny told Zac that the zoo had recently loaned a giant panda while he was away.

  “You mean it fell through?” Zac said with relish. “That took exactly two years, huh?”

  The news about the giant panda made her feel happier, though. She had been given the opportunity to observe and even hold them, but she was here for animals endemic to Australia, and she had minimal chance to study them back on American soil.

  “What was your line of expertise again, Sara?”

  It’s Sahara to you, she thought. “Line of expertise? I don’t know what you mean.”

  “You’re here to study something, right?”

  Was he for real? It seemed like he didn’t even know what she did, exactly. Was he even a biologist? “Yes, I’m here to study animals endemic to Kakadu.”

  “Well, they’re not exactly endemic, they just don’t want to leave,” Zac joked, and he and Danny broke into laughter.

  She frowned.

  “You’re a serious Sheila, aren’t you?” Zac teased her. “I was just kidding, hope you know that.”

  She forced a smile and breathed out. “Not all the time, actually.”

  “By the way, Sara,” Danny began, “I’m supposed to drop you off your flat. It’s in a building where we house our out-of-town interns or transients.”

  “I was told about that,” Sara said. “Thank you.”

  “You’ve got your schedule with you, I reckon?” Danny asked her. “Tomorrow’s a big day. You’ll be initiated into the Met Zoo.”

  “Initiated? Should I be worried?” Sara said, a frisson of alarm running through her. They were joking, she comprehended, a second later.

  Danny and Zac laughed again, just as she realized it.

  “You’ll know about it soon enough,” Zac told her.

  She didn’t like the Zac guy, not one bit, but she wanted to remain professional. What if this guy turned out to be her superior at the zoo? He didn’t seem like it. He seemed too childish. Childish—that was the word. He was easy-going, but he was childish. It also seemed like he had ADHD, the man just wouldn’t stop chattering, like some monkey on a socializing spree. He was the first Australian guy she couldn’t find herself liking. They had all been nice, and this Zac guy was nice too, but he was annoying.

  They passed by building after building, and she found out that the city of Melbourne was lovely, way prettier than her suburb. This was one conscious decision she didn’t regret making, this whole study and internship on Australian fauna.

  Sara knew she had to make a bit of small talk, lest she be thought of as that snooty American. Just as she opened her mouth, Danny spoke up.

  “You okay? Or you’re just the quiet type?” Danny queried, looking at the mirror to check on her.

  “Jetlag,” she replied. At least that wasn’t a lie now, was it?

  “You’ll be fine tomorrow. Make sure to have some of that TimTam coffee,” Danny said helpfully.

  “Thanks, I’ll try that,” she said.

  “She got food in the apartment, Dan?” Zac asked with a grin.

  “Yup, unless you can’t cook, Sara?” Danny said. “The company stocked up the apartment with food and what else you need.”

  “I don’t remember that being in the fine print…” her voice trailed off.

  Shee saw Zac smile in the front seat, reflected by the mirror. “So you read the fine print?” he laughed. “Nothing to be ashamed of, really. But isn’t that a good thing?”

  “She won the scholarship, Zac,” Danny said proudly.

  “So we have some smarty-pants in the back seat, huh?” Zac told her. “Congratulations. I’m guessing that took a near perfect GPA and supreme dedication to this whole thing.”

  “As a matter of fact, yes,” she said, tight-lipped on her achievements. “I worked hard for it.”

  “And it looks like that’s all you’re going to say about it,” Zac said, blasting the air conditioner to full settings.

  “Well, I’m still far from being at the top of our field,” she said carefully, wanting the conversation to end.

  She didn’t want people to know of her scholastic achievements, unless they were for scholarships and the like. Zac had no say in this. He was merely an employee. The Met Zoo’s mother company, Turner Industries Ltd., had been gracious with their rewards to her. Twenty-five thousand dollars was no mere feat. She was glad her IQ was above average and that she enjoyed reading.

  “After this internship, I think you will be,” Zac said.

  “After you,” she murmured, looking out the window once more. Danny made another right turn, and they came into a small, gated compound with a two story building painted in a light peach finish. The building looked old, but it was well-maintained. There was a little courtyard beyond the small parking lot, devoid of people. Danny parked the van, and then he headed for the luggage compartment, taking out her bag. Leaving Zac behind (thank God), they walked for the second floor, two doors down from the staircase. The door had the number eight on it, in rusty looking brass.

  “This is where you’ll stay for the duration of the internship, but it really is up to you if you want to move out and be a bit more private. You did win a scholarship, after all,” Danny told her. Then he handed her a manila envelope. “This here contains a few important documents, the key, some reminders, the bus stops and schedules, the works. We’ll see you tomorrow at the Met Zoo?”

  She nodded. “Thank you.”

  “If you get lost, my number is there, so is everyone else’s,” Danny added. He tipped his hat, “See you.”

  “Danny,” she called out.

  He spun around.

  “What is it that you do exactly?” she asked him, curious.

  He grinned. “I’m the director of the zoo.”

  Her eyes widened. “Why didn’t you tell me?” It didn’t matter that she could have been extra nice, she was pleasant to him anyway, but perhaps her displeasure showed with Zac’s comments.

  “Figured it would break too much of the ice,” Danny grinned.

  “There was no mention of you, it was just the curator’s name on it…” she stopped, feeling her voice raise a notch higher. She shook her head. “Sorry, it really is the jet lag.”

  “No worries, Sheila… er Sara. It is okay if we call you Sara, right?”

  “Yeah, yeah, not a problem at all,” she said, flustered.

  “Good. Sometimes that Zac kid just makes names up for people. He’s named most of the animals in the zoo,” he added with a laugh. “I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”

  She nodded, thanking him again. Moments later, the van pulled away from the building, and she was left alone, in the quiet of the morning. Birds chirped from a tree in the courtyard, and a few leaves fell to the ground.

  She opened the door that led to her temporary home for the next six months. It was a quaint apartment, filled with light. There was a single bed, a fridge, a small kitchen complete with an electric cooking range, a dining table good for two people, and a couch that doubled as a sofa bed. She opened the wooden cabinet, and she found that it had been recently aired out, and it smelled faintly of a lemon cleaner.

  The restroom was tiny but serviceable. The tiles looked newly cleaned, and she smiled, happy that she needn’t clean anything for her first day in Australia. She decided to call her family later. She was dead tired, and she needed to wake up to cook dinner at least.

  Heading for the bed with its freshly laundered bed sheets, she ploppe
d down and fell into a weird sleep. Her dreams were filled with Zac’s face, and of all things, a giant panda.

  Chapter3

  He got dropped off at the company’s satellite office, a cool and imposing looking seven story building, clad in steel and glass. Security smiled at him and tipped their hats as he walked in.

  “How are you?” he greeted.

  He liked saying hello to everyone. Everyone did their best in the company, at least, almost everyone. According to his father, he was the only one who didn’t do his best, something that irked him, and it was something he had tried to ignore.

  Zac had no qualms about making friends with even the janitor. He didn’t care that his father was chief executive officer. He didn’t care that he was the child of the chief executive officer. People were equals, unless they threw in airs. That was when he got a bit vindictive, for fun of course, and not for anything else. He sometimes liked putting people in their places. No one was the master of anyone.

  The newcomer, Sahara, or Sara, as he liked to call her… it seemed like she was putting on airs. He didn’t mind at first, but it wasn’t jetlag, he knew. It was clear she didn’t quite like him. He didn’t mean to bump into her. He had recognized her solely from the lips. So that was the passenger who had fallen asleep on all seats. Nope, can’t forget those lips, he thought. Sensual was the perfect word for them.

  She wasn’t bad looking, either. She was clearly a mix of something, biracial to say the least, which only made him stare at her even longer. Her hair was a coordinated mess, if that was even possible, a bit big and unruly, but it suited her heart-shaped face just fine. She had the loveliest eyes, a startling hazel-green mix against her seemingly languid eyelashes. Her skin had a lovely sheen to it, almost like a deep sort of bronze and an umber undertone, something that struck him as the sun glinted against her skin while he waited in the car…

  “Sir?” a voice broke his reverie.

  “Hmm?” he said, blinking, and then realized he was just standing in the elevator.

  “Your floor was the fifth, right?” the middle-aged woman said.

  “Right,” he laughed, “sorry, I spaced out.” He excused himself, apologized to the rest for making them all wait, and then he stepped out, heading to his sister’s office, his eldest sister, Caroline. There was a brass sign on the oak doors that said “Caroline Turner-Irvine”, and at the bottom, smaller letters that spelled out “VP- external affairs”. She had been adamant to keep the Turner name; in fact, all his sisters had these on their doors. Keep the family name afloat, they swore. He was the only son after all, and they joked Zac wouldn’t be fully responsible for the company even if he turned fifty already.

  He saw his sister’s secretary on the phone, and he signaled that he was coming in, but the secretary waved her hand, quickly whispering that he wait for just a second.

  “She busy?” he began, as soon as the secretary put down her phone.

  “Just a few calls.”

  “I did tell her I was dropping by,” Zac told her.

  “She knows, of course, you have an open schedule,” the secretary smiled. “Ah, there, you may go in now.”

  He knew his sister was cranky the moment he stepped inside. She huffed and blew hair away from her face. Her once well-coiffed hair was in a bit of disarray.

  “Did I come at a bad time?”

  “You always come at a bad time,” Caroline said. She took another deep breath. “How was your trip?”

  “What happened to your hair?”

  “I asked you an even more important question,” Caroline said, testily.

  “I’ve expressed my intent. It was a good deal. I’ll finalize these by the end of the month.”

  “How many hectares are we talking about?”

  “Just two.”

  “Is two—”

  “Enough for the factory dad wants? It’s a satellite office in the heart of California. Well, technically, a good hour drive from the city, but it is within city limits.”

  Caroline pursed her lips. “My baby sitter called in late, so I had to bring the kids here,” she finally said. “But they’re back home now, just in time for their cartoons.”

  “Shouldn’t they be in school?”

  “You forget, school’s out. Besides, they’re all in nursery,” she laughed. “You eating lunch with me? No? You should.”

  “I should be reporting to the boss,” Zac told her.

  “He’s not expecting you until tomorrow, actually.”

  “Where’s Cara? And Lily, by the way?” he asked. His four older sisters were closely knit, and they fawned on him incessantly, something he disliked yet tolerated, all for the love of them.

  “Cara is on the fourth floor in a meeting, Lily is at home, called for a sick leave.”

  “Morning sickness”?

  “Highly unlikely. She is entering her third trimester,” she said. “So, lunch?”

  He nodded, and they walked out together. They had lunch at a small bistro just a few blocks away from their office. It was his sister’s favorite French restaurant, and he couldn’t help but order another glass of wine.

  “Isn’t it too early for that?” Caroline asked him, raising a brow.

  “Jet lag,” he reasoned with a grin.

  “Are you off to the zoo tomorrow?”

  “You know me best.”

  “It is your baby project.”

  “It was mom’s, you know that,” Zac said, “I’m just continuing the whole thing.”

  “The zoo is expensive,” Caroline said. “Conservationism is expensive, you know we’ve been spending a lot on the mines alone—”

  “The zoo is both public and private property, and any expenses are half and half. I know it doesn’t make a lot of money on our end, but the animals are well taken care of, and the people who come watch them, they leave happy-“

  “Spoken like mom,” Caroline sighed.

  “I can do business,” he said, “You know that.”

  “It’s just that you don’t want to.”

  “What more do I have to do to prove my worth?” he asked her, smiling. “I think I’ve been doing okay since the year I stepped in—”

  “You came in last year,” Caroline interrupted.

  “And what a year it has been.”

  “We all wanted you to be the COO of Turner Mining.”

  “Wanted? Past tense?”

  “We know you don’t want it. We don’t want to force you to take it.”

  “When have I ever shunned designated responsibility?” he told his eldest sister. “Besides, I voluntarily asked to be in the corporation, right? No one forced me.”

  “If you and Miranda didn’t break up, you’d never have thought of it, otherwise.” There was a quiet moment, and Caroline saw his eyes narrow for a second. “Look, you have to put your heart into this. This isn’t a game,” she sighed once more.

  “I know it’s not.”

  “And dad’s not getting any younger.”

  “I know he isn’t,” he said, taking a large gulp of his wine. “Whatever happened to equality and feminism, huh?”

  “I took a course in International Management, a far cry from rocks—”

  “Which was what dad intended for you to take. Look how far you’ve come,” Zac teased.

  “You’re straying from the subject,” Caroline told him testily. “I need your commitment on this. You know that every CEO was a Turner. You were meant to be here for a reason.”

  “You mean I was supposedly the fifth Turner daughter, who turned out to be male?” he laughed, and then he sobered up, seeing his sister frown. “Look, I want nothing more than this company’s secured future, and our family’s. What makes you think I won’t take this seriously?”

  “You’re really doing this? I don’t want you to do it because of us, I want you to do it for yourself.”

  “Frankly, I’m amazed with the work ethics you all have,” he said to her. “You clearly love the company, and I… I’m getting there.�
��

  Caroline shook her head. “Mom loved working with Turner Industries.”

  “That’s because she was an advocate and not a direct employee.”

  “You’re not an employee—”

  “I serve you all,” he responded. “Besides, mom was with the Turner Foundation, but she was with Turner Wildlife, too.”

  “And you want to be there?” Caroline asked him, her brow rising. “I wanted Lara to spearhead the foundations, before and after she gives birth.”

  “She can have it.”

  Caroline studied her brother carefully, pausing from her salad. “You want one more vacation before things start to get really serious?”

  Zac’s eyes smiled. He cleared his throat. “It’s not a vacation. I already told you I want to oversee the mines.”

  “In Darwin. You know you’ll be far away from the parties and the comforts here…” she paused. “But you’ll be nearer Kakadu and the Great Barrier.”

  He smiled. “Exacto. And when did I ever enjoy partying? You know I like my solitude better than strobe lights and loud, drunken company.”

  She smiled at her youngest, and only brother. “Zac, don’t you ever get tired of it?”

  “Of what?”

  “All this responsibility.”

  He shrugged. “C’est la vie.”

  She nodded. “Of course it is.”

  “Why? Are you?”

  “Sometimes, I wanna throw up,” Caroline admitted. “It wouldn’t be fair to dad or to our grandfather, or our great-grandfather.”

  Zac knew the story well enough. His great-grandfather had been the son of an exiled criminal from England, a former baronet, defamed for refusal to pay land taxes and abuse of authority. Whatever his true crime was, their Australian lineage began with his long voyage to the colony. He had done his time and was released after a few years, marrying an impoverished woman (she had been the daughter of a fellow detainee). Upon his release, he did the only thing he had been doing since arriving in Australia, and that was to dig. The rest was history.

  The Turner legacy wasn’t squeaky clean, but his great-great grandfather earned his money fair and square while on exile. They never regained their family titles, but they instead became world renown for their ore. They expanded further during the 1960s, investing in real estate and food products.