Australia's Maverick Millionaire

by Margaret Way

  Josh’s handsome face was drawn incredibly taut, indicating the high level of emotion inside him. “I dare say his wife and kid hit the ground many a time.” There was a dangerous edge to his voice. “Crowley, the big man! The street good guy, the home monster. How do they get away with it? She could have gone to the police. Maybe she would have had he ruined her face. As for poor Jimmy!” He couldn’t hide his pity. “It was Jimmy who was waiting for me. He led me here. So I guess he passed some sort of a test.” “Jimmy isn’t you, Josh. Your early life would have killed him or set him on a self-destructive path.”

  “Poor old Jimmy!” Josh released a slow breath of tension. “Look at this guy.” Vince was conscious and moaning, with Josh’s boot in the small of his back. “It’s possible he’d like to see me charged for assault.”

  “Not if I have anything to do with it!” Meg’s voice rang out. She rushed into the living room, still holding the golf iron.

  Josh turned on her. “Meg, how could you have been so foolish as to let him in?”

  “Wretched man! I thought it was Jimmy, you see. Jimmy’s harmless. The security man is here, my dears, and Sergeant McMannus, thank God.”

  “Is he dead?” Meg asked, taking a speculative look at the man on the carpet.

  “Dead men don’t groan, Meg,” Josh pointed out dryly as Crowley tried to speak. “Don’t say a word, Vince,” he warned.

  “Let McMannus take care of it, Josh,” Clio cautioned him again.

  It seemed like an eternity before Josh nodded.

  McMannus had taken charge. Vince Crowley was cuffed, read his rights. He was taken away, protesting at the top of his lungs they would all pay.

  “Get Don Burchell down to the station, you idiot,” he snarled over his shoulder at his son.

  “Might take a bit of time, Dad,” Jimmy called back. “Burchell is holidaying in Thailand.”

  “Use your head, then, you idiot. Get Stewart.”

  “Make the phone call yourself, Dad. I’m pressing charges. So is Mum. So is Clio.”

  “Traitor!” Crowley yelled.

  “I’m sorry, Jimmy,” Clio said, as they watched the police car move slowly down the drive towards the open front gates.

  Jimmy actually smiled through his injuries. “No worries! This is absolutely the best it gets. Should have happened long ago.”

  “Maybe we should get you to a hospital?” Clio voiced her concern. Poor bruised and battered Jimmy was swaying on his feet.

  “I’ll take him.” Josh moved to support the young man. “Come on, Jimmy. We’ll swing by and pick up your mother.”

  Jimmy’s swollen face lit up. “Oh, great!” he cried. “You’re a top bloke, Josh. A real friend.”

  “Count on it,” said Josh.

  It was getting on towards dusk before Tom Palmer returned with his catch after a very rewarding day fishing the rich Coral Sea waters. Meg told him the whole story while Tom looked on with an expression of deep concern. “I often wondered about Crowley,” he said. “You have to wonder why Mrs Crowley didn’t step forward.”

  “He’d broken her spirit, Tom,” Clio answered.

  “You’re not going to let it slide, are you, Clio? I mean the Crowleys and all? I couldn’t count the number of times Crowley has been to the house.”

  “In Leo’s day,” Clio pointed out. “Not that Leo had any idea what kind of a monster Vince was at home. A browbeater, yes, physical abuse, no. I won’t let it drop, Tom. Crowley can get much-needed therapy in prison.”

  Tom grinned. “I don’t doubt he’ll cop the odd punch from a person or persons unknown when they find out what he’s in for.”

  “Serve him right!” said Meg. “I despise wife beaters.”

  Josh had told her he would come back. It was well after 7 p.m. and he still hadn’t returned. She was feeling very jumpy. God knew what would have happened to her without Josh. Meg had gone off with her husband, looking thoroughly chastened. Clio felt she had to take some responsibility. Although she had explained a number of times to Meg how the security system worked, she knew Meg only listened with half an ear. It had taken Meg ages before she had mastered sending e-mails. She was glad her father was in New Zealand. He had rung her twice to say everything was going really well.

  “Nothing like a reunion! Louise looks marvellous! Hasn’t aged in twenty years. Good-looking woman that! We’re all getting along as splendidly as we did in our student days.”

  Clio had understood from a few teasing remarks her mother had made from time to time that her father and Louise Cartwright might have enjoyed a brief affair. Louise had never married, perhaps concentrating on her career. Clio couldn’t help hoping Louise and her father might pick up where they’d left off, because no one on earth had the power to separate her from Josh.

  Josh arrived back less than half an hour later. Clio greeted him anxiously at the door. “I was getting worried.”

  “No need.” He didn’t attempt to kiss her. Her heart sank. “But everything takes time. Susan and Jimmy received treatment at the hospital. I dropped them back home. Crowley is spending a night in the cells. Sunday, not a lawyer in sight. Isn’t that great? Even Paddy didn’t show up. Crowley will be held on remand until the case comes before the magistrate, probably at the end of next week. Give him time to think. Meanwhile, Susan and Jimmy will be taking sanctuary with Susan’s sister in Sydney while they sort out their lives.”

  “What a scandal!” Clio said.

  “I don’t think anyone will be surprised.”

  “Is there something wrong, Josh?” She stared up into his give-nothing-away face.

  “Why should there be?” He met her gaze. “Case close. Or almost.”

  “I’m talking about you and me. You’re distressed about something. I can feel it. You haven’t been in contact. It has nothing to do with the Crowleys. There’s something else hanging between us.”

  “And here I was thinking I had mastered inscrutable.”

  “Not from me.”

  “Seems not.” He met her searching eyes.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Fine.”

  “You wouldn’t let me beat him up, even though he was about to attack you.”

  “Only you were there,” she said with a faint shudder.

  “Thank God for that!” He spoke with great fervour, staring down at her.

  “My hero!”

  “I’d like to think I am.”

  She was wearing a turquoise tank top with a longish floral skirt that picked up the colour. The top was embroidered with gold sparkles around the oval neck. The silk clung to the small perfectly shaped mounds of her breasts. He wanted to reach out to her, smooth the shining length of her hair that had such a heavy silken look to it. But he held off until he could get things straight. “Meg gone off?” he asked.

  She nodded. “She was terribly upset with herself. The security system is beyond her. Technology is a foreign country and Meg can’t speak a word.”

  “I can teach her,” Josh said with easy confidence. “She has to put her mind to it. Not let it go in one ear and out the other. Could I get a sandwich and a cup of coffee?”

  “Of course you can!” Her anxiety faded a little. “Come through to the kitchen.”

  “Sure you can handle it?”

  “I won’t deign to reply to that. I haven’t had anything to eat myself. Didn’t feel like it. There’ll be plenty of food. Always is. Have you been over to the island?”

  “How did you guess?”

  She turned to face him. “Your tan is even deeper, and your hair is all tousled. I thought you wanted me to go with you?” She had dreamed of it. The two of them alone on a coral island.

  “That was the plan, but something always gets in the way.” Josh swept an uncaring hand over his springing blond hair. “Remember asking me if I knew a Philippa—Flippa Jones?” He gave her a very straight look.

  The one thing she hadn’t considered. “Oh, my God, so that’s it!” Clio said with a wail. “Dad spoke
to you about her?”

  “I’m not interested in what your dad had to say, Clio.”

  “He shouldn’t have said it.” The faintest sob escaped her. “Sometimes my father is a complete mystery to me.”

  “He’s a difficult man, but you, Clio! Why did you have to drop in that careless little question? Do you happen to know anyone by the name of Philippa Jones?” His tone mimicked hers exactly. “It seems to me I might never earn your total trust.”

  She felt a powerful wash of remorse. “Josh I regret more than I can say mentioning it to you.” “But you did say it, Clio. Nothing can change that.”

  He was looking at her so critically she burst out, “Why are you so judgmental? Haven’t you made mistakes? Said things you later regretted?”

  His burned gaze whipped over her. “Maybe I regret telling you how badly I want you.” Out of nowhere his demons were suddenly let loose. “Maybe I regret having anything to do with you at all.” He turned as though he intended leaving.

  “Josh, you come back here,” Clio cried. “Don’t run away. That’s not going to solve anything. If you care about me at all, and you do, you’ll listen. Dad upset me terribly. Turn around, Josh.” She prayed he would. He didn’t. “It wasn’t because I believed one word of what he was telling me, but the fact that he could say it at all. Keeley set it up. Dad is as gullible as they come. I believed in you, Josh. Don’t hold one stupid mistake against me. You’re the best man I’ve ever known.”

  “I’d better go while I still have strength,” Josh rasped. “I need to cool down. I’ll fix myself something at home.”

  “It’s easier to go, isn’t it?” she challenged, driven to running after him. Yet again. She who had never run after any man. “You turn my life upside down, this way, that—”

  “Okay, so you know your compass.” He turned, speaking in a cool, satirical voice, but there was a fierce look in his eyes.

  “Sarcasm noted, Josh. After all you do to me, for me, you think you can stalk off into the sunset. What makes you tick, Josh?” she cried, fire and sorrow in her eyes. “Have you been hurt so badly you can’t let anyone into every corner of your heart? Or don’t you have a heart? If saying something stupid is the worst thing I can do—”

  “Stop it, Clio.” His handsome face was taut. “Just stop it.” He had to clench his hands to stop their trembling. He was aching, in pain, his jaw tense, as it always was when he was holding on tight. He knew if he touched her he would forget everything. He would pick her up in his arms and have her, the incredible sweetness and beauty of her. “Let me go home. We can talk again.” His voice sounded agitated even to his own ears.

  “I damned well won’t let you go.” Clio gripped his arm. “What are you trying to do?” She spoke in bewilderment, reacting to something she saw in the depths of his eyes. “Protect me in some strange way?”

  He threw up his blond head. The gesture was so imperious it had to be in his DNA. “I see it as my job to protect you, Clio. Even against yourself.”

  “You feel my love for you might falter if put to the test? You still feel Leo, your benefactor, would have been totally against us?”

  “You know he would,” he said bluntly.

  “So you’re going to punish us both because of Leo?” she asked in an impassioned voice.

  “Forget Leo. But Leo was the Big Man, Clio. God knows what would have happened to me without his patronage.”

  “He made you pay, though, didn’t he? He made us both pay. Leo was close to being the world’s biggest snob. And on the basis of what? What did he have to be snobbish about anyway? Does having a great deal of money turn a man into a prince? I don’t think so. You could be a prince for all we know. You certainly look like one.”

  “Oh, Clio, don’t be ridiculous,” he groaned. “Born a pauper.”

  “What’s that got to do with it? Don’t you ever feel you’d like to know who your father was?” She broached that fraught subject again, but with great urgency, wondering if she was a bit crazy to start this.

  “I don’t want to have this conversation, Clio,” Josh told her with finality.

  It was time to back off, but she persisted. “But think. Dwell on it if you have to. You know nothing about him. It’s more than possible he may not have known about you. He could even have been killed. Accidents happen all the time. There were no photos? Nothing you were allowed to keep with you when they took you away?”

  A darkly sardonic expression crossed his face. “A koala,” he said. “Satisfied? My mother bought it for me when I was about three. I loved it. I took it with me everywhere. Slept with it. In the home I got into some furious fights holding onto it. I felt no pain even when I was taking one hell of a beating and they had to pull me off much older kids. But it was a point of honour, you see. My only link with my mother. I still have it, believe it or not. KoKo, the koala. He looks pretty terrible these days. Lost most of his fur. There’s a dark part of my life I try to overcome, Clio, but it keeps popping up from time to time. That’s memory for you.”

  “Oh, Josh!” Tears sprang into her lustrous eyes.

  “I told you not to cry for me.”

  His expression tore the heart out of her. She could see beyond the big handsome man to the abandoned small boy. She moved into him, laying her head against his chest, hearing the steady thud of his heart. “Bad things have happened to you, Josh, but good things are going to happen to you from now on. I’ll give you as much time as you want.”

  “You’ll give me time?” Josh grasped a handful of her long hair, turning her face up to him, amazed how the sadness and feelings of disillusionment gave way to forgiveness. He had his demons, but Clio had the power to exorcize them. Her love had taken him captive, offered redemption. He had been so severe with himself, holding off even when she had allowed him the chance, and she thought he needed time?

  “We’re meant to be together, Josh.” Her beautiful dark eyes caught the light. “I love you. Love never lets go. You remember your love for your mother? How do you know she’s not watching you at this very minute, wondering what you’re doing, trying to fend off a woman who loves you.”

  There was wild confusion yet enormous elation in ceding control. He simply couldn’t control his feelings for Clio. Never would. He wanted her and he was going to have her. But he wanted to go slowly, gently. For her sake.

  “How many lovers have you had?” he asked quietly.

  “About ninety,” she said without a moment’s reflection.

  “I’d say two. How would that be?”

  “Well, I haven’t gone down your road with dozens of affairs.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t remember any dozens.”

  “I’ll have to take your word for that.”

  “It was at university?” Josh was certain he was correct.

  “No big deal,” she sighed. “All my friends were in some kind of a relationship. It all comes down to couples, doesn’t it, Josh? Singles are the odd ones out.”

  “You made your own choices?”

  “Of course I did, Josh,” she said with a tiny touch of heat. “I was treated with gentleness and respect. I went to Simon’s wedding a year ago. Michael is happily engaged. We all talk to one another. What about you? Still talk to the old girlfriends?”

  He gave a twisted smile. “They all went into the convent.”

  “Terrific, lives put on ice. What are you really getting at, Josh?”

  “Simon and Michael would stop whenever you wanted?”

  She stared up at him, wondering what he was getting at. “Josh, you think I can’t do intense? I didn’t fall apart when you kissed me, did I?’

  “It was more me falling apart, Clio,” he answered with grim humour. “I’ve had such a different life from you. I fear with you that my emotions might get out of hand. I mightn’t even hear you if you cried for me to stop. Love can be very fierce, Clio, passionately erotic as well as tender. I want to burn into your beautiful body. I want to burn out the good respectful g
uys, burn your every memory of them. I do admit to a fear that what I feel for you will get the better of me. That might be difficult for you to understand.”

  There was no doubt he was still seeing himself through the eyes of his past. “I do understand it, Josh. I understand how our early environment shapes us. It’s a tragedy you knew little of the warmth and affection, the friendships most of us take for granted. But there’s so much strength in you. There’s all the evidence to prove it. You saved my father, who has done everything in his power to make a strong case against you in this very town. You’re a fine man. I’m the woman who loves you. Not a nine-year-old girl. Sometimes I think that image you have of me overtakes the reality. You break my heart. You’re so frantic not to hurt me. But don’t you realize that’s an aspect that proves your love?” She picked up one of his hands and kissed it.

  “Clio!” Every nerve ending in his body ignited.

  “Come with me.” Her voice was husky with emotion.

  He made an instinctive movement to resist. “Josh, I insist!”

  “Do you just?” He had never felt such liberation. He swooped her up, holding her without effort against his chest. “Insist is a pretty strong word.”

  She threw her arms around his neck, exulting in the fact they were at long last to come together. She was fully aware she was leaving behind the young woman she had been. She was turning over her body and soul to a man who in many ways would master her. Josh was no ordinary man. Her mind was clear on that. But she wasn’t about to be outmatched. She wasn’t so ordinary either. Her soul flew from her body, soared like a bird.

  In the end she wanted everything he wanted. He didn’t have to coax her. They were perfectly matched in their roles of lovers. Her body fitted his perfectly. She responded to every skilful caress of his hand as his hard-muscled body, tapering waist, sculpted hips, firm buttocks, long splendid legs did to hers. She had never known such pleasure of discovery. She could only marvel at it. He kissed her from the top of her forehead, right down her body, pausing at her breasts with their peaked nipples and finally reaching her arched insteps, holding her narrow feet in his hands.