True Love Down Under_A BWWM Romance

by Kendra Riley

  “Where’s Sara?” he asked.

  “The intern? Fourth floor, I think. She’s okay. Needed a few stitches to her head, you needed twenty-five on your leg alone.”

  “They killed the croc. Put it out of its misery,” Cara said. “The knife was still lodged in its eye when they found it.”

  “Did you do that?”

  He shook his head. “She did.”

  “The intern?”

  “Yes, Sara.”

  “Wait, wait. She was tiny, and it looked like she couldn’t hurt anything, let alone a fly,” Caroline said. “I went to see her, well I checked up on her while you were in surgery.”

  “How is she?” he asked.

  “What is with you and that lady?”

  “We were together on that little piece of ground in the middle of a river for more than ten hours. Of course, I’d be concerned.”

  “So, she tells me you pushed her to swim for shore, after being stuck there with the least pleasant alternatives. But she doesn’t want to talk about saving you from that croc. It will take a while for you to recover, Zac. Your IV drip has a cocktail of antibiotics, and you’ll need at least one more surgery.”

  “I didn’t lose my leg,” he said, “that’s what counts.”

  “You almost died,” Caroline said with a sigh.

  “Almost.”

  “God, you and your overconfidence,” Caroline told him.

  “It’s why I’m still alive,” he told his sisters.

  “No more tagging along with foundation activities, alright? We want you alive and well to handle Turner Corp.”

  “Ah, a croc can’t kill me, but this corporation can,” he joked. “When can I move around?”

  “How can you? You just got stitched up,” Cara said to him wryly. “Eager to get back into business, or eager for another adventure?”

  “Working is already an adventure,” Zac replied. “Can I get some painkillers, here? You two are just plain annoying.”

  Caroline and Cara smiled at each other, knowing Zac was going to be okay.

  Chapter15

  Sara walked into the room, her dextrose drip on wheels standing beside her. She was to be discharged tomorrow. Her parents had been notified, and they were ready to take the first flight out of Los Angeles, were it not for her insistence that she was alright. Nothing but a scratch, she said. Besides, the Turner Foundation had taken care of everything, much to the relief of her and her parents.

  He was asleep, she thought, like she had expected him to be. She hadn’t seen him in over twenty-five hours—yes, she counted, which signaled something terrible. It signaled her attachment to him.

  Zac looked pale, she remarked. She walked closer to him, wondering how he was. She had only asked about him once, to his sister, someone named Caroline. Caroline had said he was okay, but that he was in surgery. The word surgery made her worry, but she said nothing and just nodded.

  His leg was propped up, his lower leg bandaged completely. He also had a few bruises on his cheek and eye. The extent of their fight with the saltie was evident in the way he looked. She hadn’t even looked at herself yet, she realized. What for? To see how damn awful I’ll look? The machines around him hissed and beeped, as if telling her that he was alive.

  “You’re up early,” a voice broke the silence.

  Her head shot up to his face. He was half smiling as he lay in the bed, one eye barely opening.

  “You’re awake.”

  “Painkiller’s about to wear off,” he said.

  She hobbled for the chair beside him. “You want me to call a nurse? Or doctor?”

  “Not just yet,” he said, “I’d like to talk to you without that sweet relief the painkillers bring.”

  “You need to rest,” she said, about to get up.

  “Stay with me for a few minutes, will you?” he asked her. “I haven’t talked to anyone since my family came to see me.”

  “You don’t need to talk, you need sleep,” she told him. “How are you feeling?”

  “Like a train full of crocs just hit me,” he said with a weak grin. “How are you?

  “I’m fine. They said I could get discharged tomorrow.”

  “I guess you can’t wait for me.”

  “I’ll see you at work?”

  “Uh, yeah, well, we’ll see.”

  “Some other place you have to be in? Or is this some sick leave?”

  “Could get reassigned leave,” he said, “but it doesn’t mean I won’t get to see you anymore.”

  “Oh.” Some part of her felt weird. She had gotten too attached to him while on the research trip, gotten too dependent on him while they were stuck on that islet. She didn’t want to be separated from him. “You’re not resigning, are you?”

  He gave a small laugh. “Reassigned is the best word. But seriously, I’ll make it a point to see you, in honor of our first date.”

  “Hardly romantic,” Sara told him.

  “I’ll make it up to you, soon.”

  “I really was afraid we were going to die,” she suddenly said. “I was afraid you were going to die…”

  “It’ll take more than that to kill me,” he told her. “Besides, I couldn’t die, not with all the work I have to do…” he stopped. “How are you?”

  “I’m fine, just a few stitches, some cuts and bruises… I lost the knife, by the way.”

  “My sister said they found it, in the croc’s eye. You packed a mean punch…er, stab.”

  Sara made a face, signaling disgust. “I can’t believe I did that.”

  “Neither can I, but if you didn’t, I’d be dead by now, or missing a limb.”

  “The croc…”

  “They shot it. Apparently, we weren’t the only boat that got attacked. Another one happened last week. The saltie hated boats. It was one of the bigger males they’d seen in a few years, nearly five and a half meters.”

  She closed her eyes, shuddering at the memory of it. It hadn’t fully dawned on her that she had survived a crocodile attack, and the croc didn’t even mean it. She wanted to look at the croc, just for good measure, and feel that sense of satisfaction that she one-upped the beast.

  “You did great.”

  “You already told me that.”

  “I’m saying it again to tell you how much I appreciated you coming back to fight that croc for me. It wasn’t easy.”

  She gave a shrug. “It was on instinct.”

  “Instinct is to run away,” he said. “That was a conscious effort.”

  “I couldn’t leave you.”

  He smiled. “So you have grown attached to me.”

  She shook her head. “Whatever.”

  He smiled at her. “Thank you.”

  She took a deep breath, not knowing what else to say.

  “You can always say you’re welcome you know,” he told her.

  “You’re welcome,” she found herself saying, almost smiling. Well, at least she tried not to.

  “You’re smiling,” he said.

  “Just glad you still have all your limbs.”

  He smiled and nodded, and he looked outside the window, his face turning serious. “For a moment there, I really thought I was a goner. You did something you weren’t even supposed to do…”

  “It was my judgment call,” she told him, “Besides, we still haven’t had a proper date.”

  “I want you to remember that I wanted you out of there safe and sound. I need you in my life, Sara,” he suddenly said, closing his eyes. “And I want you to remember that I’m falling in love with you.”

  *

  He had said it sober. He had said it with all of the lucidity he had, despite the pain that had begun to weave its way into his body once more. “I want you to remember that I’m falling in love with you.”

  It was the present, falling in love, with her. He looked at her face, and he saw her eyes—what he said surprised her. She held his hand gently.

  “Zac,” she began, “You need those painkillers.”

>   He burst out laughing for a moment. “Ow, ow… god that hurts. I don’t, actually. And I can see you’re still in denial, huh? What is wrong with something as simple as this? The whole falling in love thing?”

  “I’m not sure if this came all natural, unforced—”

  “Unforced? What? The croc forced this on me?” he laughed again, softer this time, and he clutched his side, surprised there was a large, mottling bruise by his rib cage. “All natural? What? You want it organic just because you’re vegetarian?”

  He saw her try to hide a smile. Zac took breath. “Look, Sara, I know this isn’t the best place to say it, but it’s true. It happened way before the whole Kakadu thing. It happened on an airplane.”

  “Airplane? What airplane? To Darwin?”

  He shook his head. “You were on a plane, heading here. I was on the same plane. I was walking around, and you were asleep, hoarding all three seats.”

  She closed her eyes, embarrassed. “Well, no one was beside me.”

  “Yeah, I saw your lips. Never forgot them. Not to sound creepy or anything, but you do have very attractive lips.”

  Nope, can’t forget those lips, he thought. Sensual was the perfect word for it.

  “It would’ve been creepy if you told me that when we met the first time,” Sara said.

  “And now you know the embarrassing story behind that declaration,” Zac said, looking sideways, well, as sideways as he could. He took another deep breath. “So yeah, there you go.”

  “I think it’s cute,” Sara said.

  “Cute? Is that all you can say? I just declared something really personal here,” he said with half a laugh.

  Sara laughed as well. “Sorry, I’m bad at this.”

  “But really, I wanted you to know. I want you to remember what I just said.”

  “I’ll do my best. Lots to remember, you know,” Sara teased him as she held onto her dextrose grip.

  “Need to sit down?” he asked her, patting on the space beside his hand.

  She nodded. “Yeah, feeling a little light-headed here. I didn’t get to get out of bed until this morning.”

  She sat down slowly beside him. “Where were we? Well, lots to remember, but yeah, I’ll do my best.”

  He grinned. “You mean this isn’t worth remembering?”

  “You want me to embarrass myself?” she laughed a little. “I don’t think I can—”

  “Of course you can afford it. No one else is here, no one else but you and me.”

  “If you’re asking for me to admit something right now, I don’t think I can give you the answer you want to hear.”

  “I’m not,” he said gently. “I’m just telling you what I feel. You’re not obligated to feel the same way, just because that entire thing happened. Man, am I actually hearing myself now? This isn’t like me.” He gave a nervous laugh.

  “What were you before you met me?”

  He shook his head. “A lot of things. For one thing, you probably found me annoying.”

  Sara looked up for a moment. “Annoying, yet charming, yes.”

  He looked up to her. “You find me charming?”

  She smiled, a crooked smile he found endearing. “Yes, I found you annoyingly charming. If there isn’t such a thing, there is now.”

  “Well, I’ll be,” he laughed. “Thank you?”

  “Was that a compliment?”

  “I don’t know,” he shrugged with a laugh, “was it?”

  She smiled. “You’ll need painkillers soon.”

  “I need them now, actually.”

  “Alright,” she said, “I’ll call them now.”

  She pressed a button by his bedside, and in a few moments, a nurse came in with a tray.

  “Hello,” the nurse greeted, “I’m here to give you medications.”

  “About time,” he groaned. He looked at Sara. “I’ll see you when I wake up?”

  Sara nodded, and Zac closed his eyes, feeling numbness steal through him, and finally, beautiful sleep.

  *

  She wasn’t required to be back at the zoo or the research facility or the university she interned at for at least a week, but on day two of doing nothing, she found herself walking around familiar paths, heading for the zoo. It was barely nine in the morning when she saw a crowd gathering by the entrance. Was there some activity she didn’t know about? Some discounted city pass, perhaps?

  Sara decided to walk away. There was a second entrance, and even if that was a good walk away, it was better than a horde of eager zoo goers.

  “That’s her!” someone shouted out.

  Sara looked around in alarm, wondering if something had happened to someone. Then she realized she was alone, and they were all looking at her. They were all looking at her!

  She took two steps backward, ready to turn. In a heartbeat, they were all over her.

  “You’re Sara Wright, aren’t you?”

  “From the Melbourne Daily, Sara Wright, tell us what happened!”

  “Sara, what was it like to survive a crocodile attack?”

  “How is Zachary Turner? Have you heard from him?”

  “Are you and Mr. Turner a couple?”

  What? What in the hell was going on? Couple? Zachary Turner? Zac was Turner? Like the Turner? Is that why these people were here? To know more about Zac? She had slept with a frickin’ Turner, the founders of the zoo, a scion to one of the richest people in Australia, heck, even the world!

  Horror dawned on her, wild-eyed and confused on how to escape the media. Cameras clicked and recorded, and for a moment, she thought she was going to faint. All of a sudden, she heard a familiar, warm voice. Danny!

  He grabbed her by the arm and placed his arm around her shoulder, shielding her from the insistent reporters. “Alright, she needs some space folks, please,” Danny kept repeating. “Give the Sheila some breathing room, yeah?”

  His voice dropped lower. “Come on this way, Sara.”

  The moment they got into the admin office, Sara shakily took a seat. “What in the hell was that?”

  “First things first, how are you feeling?”

  “Confused,” she said, looking at him, blinking. “Oh, you mean the stitches? Right, I’m okay. I was bored, slept the whole day yesterday.”

  “I was going to ask what you were doing here. You were given a one week sick leave, but never mind.”

  “Danny, what was that?”

  “Something you shouldn’t have been subjected to,” he replied.

  “So Zac… is he…” she stopped.

  “Whatever they asked you, don’t get affected.”

  “He’s a Turner? He was my boss all along?”

  “Technically, he’s not your direct boss,” Danny began. “He’s the son of the one who started one of the foundations.”

  “You mean, he owns it all?”

  “You saved his arse. That’s what matters.”

  “He saved mine.”

  “You both saved each other. Is that fair enough?”

  She fell silent for a moment. “He, he didn’t tell me that he was that Turner.”

  “He normally doesn’t. He’s always been mum about his family background.”

  “But you know.”

  “He’s my cousin,” Danny said matter-of-factly. “Of course I would know. Zac doesn’t like the idea of using his family name for a lot of things.”

  “The media sure knew about him. They even asked if we were in a relationship,” she almost choked saying that.

  “Oh, you aren’t?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Zac being a slowpoke now? It’s obvious he likes you,” he chuckled.

  He likes me? Of course, he said that… but to hear it from someone else… she felt that tiniest bit of elation.

  “Well you can’t blame the kid for being slow. He almost lost a leg.”

  She nearly laughed aloud, but the fact that Zac was Zachary Turner made her stop. Zachary was way out of her zone. The guy was practically a billionai
re, effectively her boss! Was that why he didn’t want to share much about himself? Instead, he pried into her life, to distract her.

  What was going to become of them? Of her growing emotions? She was in no position to demand anything from him. Sure, he liked her, but maybe he was still sedated…

  “Reassigned is the best word. But seriously, I’ll make it a point to see you, in honor of our first date.”

  He was making light of it, but he intended for a first date to happen. Shouldn’t she feel thrilled? This was something new. This was her chance… their chance?

  “Don’t go home alone. I’ll take you back to the building in a few. That bandage looks like it needs changing. Let me just open the zoo.”

  “You really don’t have to,” she said. “Work is work.”

  “And I’m supposed to take care of my employees, interns go along with that. Give me an hour.”

  “Right.” It was all she could say.

  Sara said nothing more as Danny walked away. He was right, but he masked the reason as to why she didn’t need to go alone. The media would wait. And she would research on who Zachary Turner truly was now.

  She found he was the youngest and only son, heir to the Turner Corporation, family owned. No wonder he was family oriented. No wonder he was so well-adjusted… well, damn, she was praising him now, wasn’t she?

  Don’t get way too ahead of yourself. When would she see him again? How? Especially now that she had just found out he was no ordinary Zac. She wanted to brace herself for it, feeling that they had been suddenly, cruelly separated. There was nothing romantic about being stuck on that islet, and yet, it brought them together. A news report flashed on screen. His face was shown, along with his family.

  “Zachary Turner had also dated supermodel Miranda Sweeting for four years, before officially calling it quits.”

  Sara closed her eyes, not wanting to see any more photos of him or Miranda, who was breathtakingly beautiful. She remembered what Zac had said, about her, about them, and what he felt for her. She forced herself to be calm, even if she wanted to scream.

  Chapter 16

  It had been a week since he had been discharged and a week since he had seen her. He was healing nicely, according to his doctors, and despite his insistence on working, his sisters and his father denied him a work week. In fact, they denied him work for two weeks, to heal nicely, according to them.