“That house is, but I also own a condo on the beach. That’s where we’re staying while we’re here. Do you have a problem with that, Gemma?”
Gemma forced herself to breathe when it became clear that she and Callum would be sharing living space while she was here. Why did the thought of that bother her?
She had to admit for the first time she was noticing things about him she’d never noticed before. And she was experiencing things around him that she hadn’t experienced before. Like the way she was swept up in heated desire and the sensuous tickling in the pit of her stomach whenever he was within a few feet of her, like now…
“Gemma?”
She swallowed again as she met his gaze and the green eyes were holding hers with an intensity that she wasn’t used to. She gave her head a mental shake. His family had to be wondering why they were still outside. She had to get real. She was here to do a job and she would do it without having these crazy thoughts that Callum was after her body, just because she’d begun having crazy fantasies about him.
“No, I don’t have a problem with that.” She pulled away from him and smiled. “Come on, your parents are probably wondering why we’re still out here,” she said, moving ahead and making an attempt to walk up the steps again.
She succeeded and kept walking toward the door, fully aware that he was watching every step she took.
* * *
Callum glanced around his parents’ kitchen and drew in a deep breath. So far, things were going just as he’d hoped. From the masked smiles and nods he’d gotten from his family, he knew they agreed with his assessment of Gemma—that she was a precious gem. Even his three nephews, ages six, eight and ten, who were usually shy with strangers, had warmed up to her.
He knew that, for a brief moment, she had been confused as to why his family had taken so readily to her. What he’d told her hadn’t been a lie. They knew the reason she was here and decorating that house he had built was only part of it. In fact, a minor part.
“When are you getting a haircut?”
Callum turned and smiled at his father. “I could ask you the same thing.” Todd Austell’s hair was just as long as his son’s and Callum couldn’t remember him ever getting his hair cut. In fact, it appeared longer now than the last time he’d seen it.
“Don’t hold your breath for that to happen,” his father said with joking amusement in his green gaze. “I love my golden locks. The only thing I love more is your mother.”
Callum leaned against the kitchen counter. His mother, sister and sisters-in-law had Gemma in a corner and from their expressions he knew they were making his woman feel right at home. His brother and brothers-in-law were outside manning the grills, and his nephews were somewhere playing ball. His parents had decided to have a family cookout to welcome him and Gemma home.
“Gemma is a nice girl, Callum. Le’Claire and Shaun like her.”
He could tell. He glanced up at his father. “And you?”
A smile crossed Todd Austell’s lips. “I like her.”
As if she felt Callum’s gaze, she glanced over in his direction and smiled. His muscles tightened in desire for her.
“Dad?”
“Yes?”
“After you met Mom and knew she was the woman for you, how long did it take you to convince her of it?”
“Too long.”
Callum chuckled. “How long was too long?”
“A few months. Remember, I had an engagement to break off and then your mother assumed that flying was her life. I had to convince her that she was sorely mistaken about that, and that I was her life.”
Callum shook his head. His father was something else. Callum’s was one of the wealthiest families in Sydney; the Austells had made their millions not only in sheep farming but also in the hotel industry. The hotel where he and Gemma had stayed last night was part of just one of several hotel chains that Colin was in charge of. Morris was vice president of the sheep-farm operation.
When Callum was home, he worked wherever he was needed, but he enjoyed sheep farming more. In fact, he was CEO of his own ranching firm, which operated several sheep ranches in Australia. Each was run by an efficient staff. He also owned a vast amount of land in Australia. He’d never been one to flaunt his wealth, although in his younger days he’d been well aware money was what had driven a lot of women to him. He had frustrated a number of them by being an elusive catch.
He glanced again at the group of women together and then at his father. “I guess it worked.”
The older man lifted a brow. “What worked?”
“You were able to convince Mom that you were her life.”
A deep smile touched his father’s lips. “Four kids and three grandsons later, what can I say?”
A smile just as deep touched Callum’s lips. “You can say that in the end Mom became your life as well. Because I think it’s obvious that she has.”
Six
The moment Gemma snapped her seat belt in place, a bright smile curved her lips. “Your family is simply wonderful, Callum, and I especially like your mom. She’s super.”
“Yes, she is,” Callum agreed as he started the car’s engine to leave his parents’ home.
“And your dad adores her.”
Callum chuckled. “You can tell?”
“How could I not? I think it’s wonderful.”
She was quiet for a moment. “I recall my parents being that way, having a close relationship and all. As I got older, although I missed them both, I couldn’t imagine one living without the other, so I figured that if they had to die, I was glad they at least went together,” she said.
Gemma forced back the sadness that wanted to cloud what had been a great day. She glanced over at Callum. “And I love your parents’ home. It’s beautiful. Your mother mentioned that she did all the decorating.”
“She did.”
“Then why didn’t you get her to decorate yours?”
“Mine?”
“Yes, the one you’ve hired me to do. I’m grateful that you thought of me, mind you, but your mother could have done it.”
“Yes, she could have, but she doesn’t have the time. Taking care of my dad is a full-time job. She spoils him rotten.”
Gemma laughed. “Appears he likes spoiling her as well.”
She had enjoyed watching the older couple displaying such a warm, loving attitude toward each other. It was obvious that their children were used to seeing them that way. Gemma also thought Callum’s three nephews were little cuties.
“Is it far to the condo where you live?” she asked him, settling back against the car seat. When they walked out of Callum’s parents’ house, she noted that the evening temperature had dropped and it was cool. It reminded her of Denver just weeks before the first snowfall in late September. She then remembered that Australia’s seasons were opposite the ones in North America.
“No, we’ll be there in around twenty minutes. Are you tired?”
“Umm. Jet lag I think.”
“Probably is. Go ahead and rest your eyes for a while.”
Gemma took him up on his offer and closed her eyes for a moment. Callum was right, the reason she wanted to rest had to do with jet lag. She would probably feel this way until she adjusted to the change in time zone.
She tried to clear her mind of any thoughts, but found it impossible to do when she was drawn back to the time she had spent at Callum’s parents’ home. What she’d told him was true. She had enjoyed herself and thought his family was wonderful. They reminded her of her siblings.
She was close to her siblings and cousins, and they teased each other a lot. She’d picked up on the love between Callum and his siblings. He was the youngest and it was obvious that they cared deeply about him and were protective of him.
More than once, while talking to Callum’s mom, she had felt his eyes on her and had glanced across the room to have her gaze snagged by his. Had she imagined it or had she seen male interest lurking in their green depths?
There had been times when the perfection of Callum’s features had nearly stopped her in her tracks and she found herself at several standstills today. Both of his brothers were handsome, but in her book, Callum was gorgeous, and was even more so for some reason today. She could understand the likes of Meredith trying to come on to him. Back in Denver on the ranch, he exuded the air of a hardworking roughneck, but here in Sydney, dressed in a pair of slacks and a dress shirt and driving a sports car, he passed the test as the hot, sexy and sophisticated man that he was. If only all those women back in Denver could see him now.
She slowly opened her eyes and studied his profile over semi-lowered lashes as he drove the car. Sitting in a perfect posture, he radiated the kind of a strength most men couldn’t fabricate, even on their best days. His hair appeared chestnut in color in the evening light and hung around his shoulders in fluid waves.
There was something about him that infused a degree of warmth all through her. Why hadn’t she felt it before? Maybe she had, but had forced herself to ignore it. And then there was the difference in their ages. He was ten years her senior. The thought of dating a man in close proximity to her age was bad enough; to consider one older, she’d thought, would be asking for trouble, definitely way out of her league.
Her gaze moved to his hands. She recalled on more than one occasion seeing those hands that were now gripping the steering wheel handle the sheep on her brother’s ranch. There was an innate strength about them that extended all the way to his clean and short fingernails.
According to Megan, you could tell a lot about a man by his hands. That might be true, but Gemma didn’t have a clue what she should be looking for. It was at times like this that her innocence bothered her. For once—maybe twice—she wouldn’t mind knowing how it felt to get lost in the depth of a male’s embrace, kissed by him in a way that could curl her toes and shoot sparks of pleasure all threw her. She wanted to be made love to by a man who knew what he was doing. A man who would make her first time special, something she would remember for the rest of her life and not forget when the encounter was over.
She closed her eyes again and remembered that moment on the plane when Callum had awakened and found her there, close to his face and staring at him. She remembered how he had stared back, how she had actually felt a degree of lust she hadn’t thought she could feel and a swell of desire that had nearly shaken her to the core. She had felt mesmerized by his gaze, had felt frozen in a trance, and the only thing that would break it would be a kiss. And they had come seconds, inches from sharing one.
She knew it would have to be one of those kisses she’d always dreamed of sharing with a man. The kind that for some reason she believed only Callum Austell could deliver. Yes, the mind-blowing, toe-curling kind. A ripple of excitement sent shivers up her spine at the thought of being swept up in Callum’s embrace, kissed by him, made love to by him.
She sucked in a quick breath, wondering what was making her think such things. What was causing her to have such lurid thoughts? And then she knew. She was attracted to her brother’s best friend in the worst possible way. And as the sound of the car’s powerful engine continued to roar under Callum’s skillful maneuvering on the roadway, she felt herself fall deeper and deeper into a deep sleep with thoughts of Callum Austell getting embedded thoroughly into her mind.
* * *
Callum settled comfortably in the driver’s seat as he drove the road with the power and ease he had missed over the years. Three in fact. Although he had returned home on occasion and had taken the car on the road for good measure whenever he did, there was something different about it this time. Because he had his future wife sitting beside him.
He smiled when he quickly glanced at her before returning his gaze to the road. She was sleeping beside him. He couldn’t wait for the time when she would be sleeping with him. The thought of having her in his arms, making love to every inch of her body, filled him with a desire he didn’t know it was possible to feel. But then Gemma had always done that to him, even when she hadn’t known she was doing it.
Over the years he’d schooled himself well, and very few knew how he felt. Ramsey and Dillon knew, of course, and he figured Zane and Derringer suspected something as well. What had probably given Callum away was his penchant for watching Gemma the way a fox watched the henhouse, with his eye on one unsuspecting hen. It wasn’t surprising that Gemma was totally clueless.
So far things were going as planned, although there had been a few close calls with his family when he thought one of them would slip and give something away. He wanted Gemma to feel comfortable around him and his family, and the last thing he wanted was for her to feel as if she’d deliberately been set up in any way. He wanted her to feel a sense of freedom here that he believed she wouldn’t feel back in Denver.
For her to want to try new and different things, to embrace herself as a woman, topped his list. And for the first time, he would encourage her to indulge all her desires with a man. But not just any man. With him. He wanted her to see that not all men had only one thing in mind when it came to a woman, and for two people to desire each other wasn’t a bad thing.
He wanted her to understand and accept that no matter what happened between them, it would be okay because nothing they shared would be for the short term. He intended to make this forever.
Callum pulled into the gated condo community and drove directly to his home, which sat on a secluded stretch of beach, prized for the privacy he preferred. He planned to keep this place even after their home was fully decorated and ready to move in. But first he had to convince Gemma that he was worth it for her to leave the country where she’d been born, the country in which her family resided, and move here with him, to his side of the world.
He brought his car to a stop and killed the ignition. It was then that he turned toward her, keeping one hand on the steering wheel and draping the other across the back of the passenger seat. She looked beautiful, sleeping as if she didn’t have a care in the world—and in a way she didn’t. He would shoulder whatever problems she had from here on out.
With an analytical eye he studied her features. She was smiling while she slept and he wondered why. What pleasing thoughts were going through her mind? It had gotten dark, and the lights from the fixtures in front of his home cast a glow on her face at an angle that made it look even more beautiful. He could imagine having a little girl with her mouth and cheekbones, or a son with her ears and jaw. He thought she had cute ears.
With a tentative hand he reached out and brushed his fingers gently across her cheeks. She shifted and began mumbling something. He leaned closer to catch what she was saying and his gut tightened in a ball of ravenous desire when she murmured in her sleep, “Kiss me, Callum.”
* * *
Gemma felt herself drowning in a sea of desire she’d never felt before. She and Callum were not on the ranch in Denver, but were back on the plane. This time the entire plane was empty. They were the only two people onboard.
He had adjusted their seats to pull her into his arms, but instead of kissing her he was torturing her mouth inside, nibbling from corner to corner, then taking his tongue and licking around the lines of her lips.
She moaned deep in her throat. She was ready for him to take her mouth and stop toying with it. She needed to feel his tongue sucking on hers, tasting it instead of teasing it, and then she wanted their tongues to tangle in a delirious and sensual duel.
She began mumbling words, telling him to stop toying with her and asking that he finish what he’d started. She wanted the kiss she’d almost gotten before—a kiss to lose herself in sensual pleasure. Close to her ear she heard a masculine growl, sensed the passion of a man wanting to mate and breathed in the scent of a hot male.
Then suddenly she felt herself being gently shaken. “Gemma. Wake up, Gemma.”
She lifted drowsy lids only to find Callum’s face right there in front of hers. Just as it had been on the plane. Just as it ha
d been moments earlier in her dream. “Callum?”
“Yes,” he replied in a warm voice that sent delicious shivers up her spine. His mouth was so close she could taste his breath on her lips. “Do you really want me to kiss you, Gemma? You are one Westmoreland that I’ll give whatever you want.”
Seven
Gemma forced the realization into her mind that she wasn’t dreaming. This was the real deal. She was awake in Callum’s car and he was leaning over her with his face close to hers and there wasn’t a flight attendant to interrupt them if he decided to inch his mouth even closer. Would he?
That brought her back to his question. Did she want him to kiss her? Evidently, she had moaned out the request in her sleep and he’d heard it. From the look in the depth of his green eyes, he was ready to act on it. Is that what she wanted? He did say he would give her whatever she wanted.
More than anything, she wanted to be kissed by him. Although it wouldn’t be her first kiss, she believed it would be the first one she received with a semblance of passion and desire on both sides. Before guys had wanted to kiss her, but she hadn’t really cared if she kissed them or not.
This time she would act first and worry about the consequences of her actions later.
Holding his gaze, she whispered against his lips, “Yes, I want you to kiss me.” She saw him smiling and giving a small nod of satisfaction before he leaned in closer. Before she could catch her next breath, he seized her mouth with his.
The first thing he did was seek out her tongue and the moment he captured it in his, she was a goner. He started off slow, plying her with a deep, thorough kiss as if he wanted to get acquainted with the taste and texture of her mouth, flicking the tip of his tongue all over the place, touching places she hadn’t known a tongue could reach, while stirring up even more passion buried deep within her bones.
For a timeless moment, heat flooded her body in a way it had never done before, triggering her breasts to suddenly feel tender and the area between her thighs to throb. How could one man’s kiss deliver so much pleasure? Elicit things from her she never knew existed?
Brenda Jackson The Westmoreland Series Books 16-20 Page 34