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‘I have food at my house. Take me home, please.’ The tightness in her whole body seeped out through her words.
He slowed the car to the side of the track and dropped it back to a quiet idle. He turned in the seat and pinned her with his eyes, a deep frown cutting over them. ‘Romy, I’m talking about a simple meal between colleagues. Nothing loaded.’
She stared at him boldly. ‘Simple? I bet you’ve never shared a meal at home with a colleague in your life.’
His gaze fell away briefly. ‘All the more reason to break the cycle. We’ll just eat together. I don’t know…talk.’ He gestured helplessly. ‘I can work on my people skills.’
The reluctance in his expression helped her to relax. It seemed entirely genuine. Could two people want to spend time together less? Her lips quirked slightly. ‘You’ll make something normal to eat?’
He laid his large hand over the left side of his chest in a pledge. ‘No extreme cooking.’
Her breath caught at the intensity in his eyes, despite his light manner. Colleagues. Someone needed to remind her body of that, the way it was straining to lean closer to him. ‘Okay. Sorry to have overreacted.’
He looked at her seriously. ‘You weren’t wrong about my people skills—I am out of practice. I should have asked. Again.’
‘You should have, yes.’
His burning gaze threatened to flame right over her. ‘Romy Carvell, would you like to have a meal with me? See my house? No strings attached?’
Amazingly, the answer, now he was actually asking instead of telling, was yes. She nodded.
‘Thank you.’ He cranked the ute into gear and bumped off along the track.
In less than two minutes, they were there. Her breath caught high in her chest at the first sight of his infamous tree house. It was aptly named.
Built around majestic tree trunks, the timber-and-glass house seemed to grow out of the forest surrounding it. Light glowed invitingly inside and he parked the ute right beneath its sprawling supports. Moments later she climbed the timber staircase leading into the house.
‘This is amazing. You built it?’ Since when did military training encompass this level of construction skill?
‘It’s part kit home and part architect modified. I got assistance in as I needed it, but otherwise I constructed it myself.’
‘It took two years?’ He’d said something about living in her cottage for that long.
‘I wanted to get it right.’
She looked around at the open-plan sensation as he swung the entry door inwards. The two enormous tree trunks seemed to push through the floor and extend way up to a high-pitched roof. The entire front wall was glass, framed by more timber. It looked out onto the same view as Leighton’s window but from the other end of the gully.
She was almost speechless. ‘You did get it right. This is beautiful.’
The place oozed sanctuary. The mix of natural materials, space and light was healing all in itself. She turned to look at him. ‘You should be really proud of this.’
The tiniest hint of colour formed where the hard angle of his jaw started. When he flipped a light switch, huge floodlights came on outside, illuminating the trees that surrounded them. Romy gasped. Two dozen glowing eyes blinked back at them, reminding her of pink Christmas lights.
‘Can we turn it off?’ She crossed to the glass doors opening onto the deck, loath to disturb the possums’ nocturnal wanderings. ‘I love the darkness at WildSprings.’
Were there even more stars visible from this side of the gully? Impossible, of course, but they seemed to blanket the sky. She tucked her arms in against the coolness of the night and tipped her face to the twinkling brilliance.
He followed her outside, stood chest to shoulder with her. Silent. Strong. The darkness and silence were his friends, too, she remembered.
Just colleagues. The words echoed in her brain, demanding to be heeded. But as the warmth from his body reached out to her and the fragrance of the night bush mingled with his scent, she had to fight to keep them in focus.
Colleagues. She swallowed and stepped away. ‘Do you mind if I look around?’
‘Help yourself. I’ll get something cooking. Spaghetti bolognaise pedestrian enough for you?’
She sighed on a smile. Leighton didn’t like pasta so she hardly ever made it. The chance to enjoy real bolognaise on a dinner plate instead of on toast from a tin was hard to knock back. ‘It sounds wonderful. Thank you.’
Clint busied himself in the kitchen and Romy took the opportunity to put some distance between them. She padded up the sweeping timber steps to the second storey and tiptoed along the corridor. Immediately on her right was the master bedroom. She averted her gaze and pushed past, not ready to intrude into his personal space but not able to say why. She started at the far end of the hall.
The first door she tried was a bathroom, simply but tastefully decorated with an oversize glass shower recess. No bath. That didn’t surprise her in the slightest. Clint McLeish didn’t strike her as a soaker. He was all business. Get in dirty, get out clean. Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am. She, on the other hand, liked nothing better as a rare treat than to light a bunch of candles after Leighton had gone to bed and soak until the water turned cold in her old claw-foot bath. The getting clean part was an incidental bonus.
Mind you, they probably didn’t make baths big enough that could comfortably contain a man Clint’s size. The impromptu thought was too close to imagining him in her claw-foot bath, and so she shut the thought away with a firm click of the bathroom door behind her.
The next room was a small study, significantly less tidy than the rest of the house. Computer, desk, wall-to-ceiling bookshelves, mixed art pieces, stuff everywhere. Much more like most of the rooms at her place.
Across the hall, a spare room with a single bed and simple decoration. Some basic weight-training gear leaned against the wall. A distant part of her wondered why a man who never had visitors bothered to hide his clutter away in the study.
Romy returned to the first door she’d encountered. The master bedroom. She froze. It’s only a room…Stick your head in and then head downstairs. Simple!
Right. But, oh, she was curious. You could tell a lot about a person by their bedroom. If you had questions…
She nudged the door with her shoulder, glancing selfconsciously behind her. The sounds of occupied clanking from the kitchen encouraged her to continue. By far the most dominant feature in the room was a low-profile, king-size bed with a rich charcoal bedspread. Entirely practical for a man of Clint’s height but there was something so…decadent…about the size and shape of it. Any bed she could sleep in lengthways, widthways or diagonally was all right in her book. It was far too easy to imagine herself stretched out on it.
And not necessarily alone.
She spun around, her feet moving silently on the woollen rug. A bank of built-in wardrobes lined one wall and Clint had positioned a couple of oversize armchairs in the corner for good measure. Everything was just…big. Romy suddenly felt like tiny Jack in the beanstalk story, sneaking through the giant’s palace in search of the golden goose.
As she had the thought, a golden glint on the far wall caught her eye. A small, framed curiosity was perfectly mounted in a prominent position. On the left, a silver sword flanked by two snakes with the motto Morte prima di disonore scrolled across the bottom. Death before dishonour. The symbol of Strike Force Taipan. That’s where she’d recognised his tattoo from. The insignia and others like it had practically wallpapered the Colonel’s living room wall.
Mounted to the right of the badge was a red ribbon with a gold star embedded in flames. Her breath died. Not Australia’s highest military honour, but it was one of its rarest.
‘It’s a Commendation for Gallantry.’
At the deep voice right behind her, she spun around, embarrassed to be caught snooping. But Clint’s attention was on the flaming star, not on her.
‘I know,’ she whispered. ‘For acts of conspicuous gallantry in action, in circumstances of great peril.’ Her mumbled words won his attention back. Instead of times tables, the Colonel had forced her to learn all of Australia’s medals, awards and commendations by rote.
He spoke just as she did. ‘How do you know this stuff?’
‘What did you do to earn this?’
Neither wanted to answer. They stared at each other in silence. Clint finally broke it, opening his mouth with a terse, ‘Spaghetti’s ready.’
She let herself be led out and down the stairs until her feet floated on the heavenly fragrance of real Italian sauce. She drifted towards the set table and searched around for something to say as they tucked into the pasta. Something to end the awkward silence.
‘So what’s Justin Long’s story?’
Clint eyed her over an enormous forkful of pasta, paused halfway to his mouth. ‘What do you mean?’
‘He’s young, to be managing a place like this.’
‘This coming from you?’ It wasn’t unfriendly. In fact, there was something decidedly warming about being gently teased. It created a charged kind of friction. It felt good.
‘I have good instincts about people. He doesn’t seem entirely…comfortable…in his role. Like a suit that doesn’t fit.’
Clint stared at her. ‘Interesting. What else?’
Romy shrugged. ‘He doesn’t like me.’
It was only a mouthful of food that prevented him bursting into laughter. After a moment he mumbled, ‘Half the staff don’t like you, according to you.’
‘He genuinely doesn’t. Since day one. It practically oozes from his pores.’
Clint shrugged. ‘It’s because I hired you. His nose is out of joint.’
‘You’re the boss. You can hire whoever you want, can’t you?’
Dark eyes studied her. ‘It’s complicated.’
Romy sighed. ‘If I’m going to be able to do my job well I need to know where the skeletons are. You know that.’
He placed his fork down with meticulous care. Took an age, he dabbed his napkin to his lips. ‘Justin is my brother.’
It was Romy’s turn to splutter. Heat roared up her cheeks. ‘What? Since when?’
‘Pretty much since birth.’
‘Ha-ha. Were you planning on telling me or were you just going to let me keep talking about him.’
‘I’m telling you now.’
There was no way a man with his training could possibly miss her simmering expression. Which mean she was being managed again. Romy took a deep breath. ‘Why have you not mentioned this before?’
‘It’s not pertinent.’
‘It most certainly is. Familial relationships in workplaces increase the likelihood of crime statistically, did you know that? Second only to romantic ones.’
He looked unimpressed. ‘Thanks for the intel. But this is a family business. He’s the last person I’d be concerned about ripping me off.’
‘How long has he worked for you?’
‘Is this a social question or a professional one?’ His careless tone screamed a warning. He kept his eyes artificially lowered.
Romy took a breath. Backed down. ‘Social.’ Gut instinct or not. ‘I’m interested.’
His grunt wasn’t convinced. ‘Mum took Justin to the US when she left. He lived there until he was nineteen. Then he…wanted to come home.’
Romy frowned. ‘He left your mum?’
‘We grow up, Romy. We all move away from our mothers eventually. Even Leighton will.’
He was changing the subject. Romy’s sensed it instantly.
‘Back to Justin…So he came home to WildSprings and you made him business manager?’
‘He’d been an assistant concierge in a big hotel in Chicago. He had the right skills and I wasn’t interested in running the place then. I’d just got back. I asked him to stay on.’
The word then struck her hard. She filed it away. ‘What hotel?’
‘I don’t know. I don’t care. Something French. Something big.’
‘You must trust him a lot. To give him the job on face value.’
Dark eyes burned into hers. ‘You don’t?’
No-one messes with my family. The warning echoed in her mind. She shrugged and made her expression nonchalant. ‘I’m just making conversation.’
‘He really bothers you, doesn’t he?’ He pushed his half-empty plate away. ‘He’s my brother, Romy. Of course I trust him. And I owe him—’
If he hadn’t cut himself off so sharply, Romy might have let it go. ‘Owe him how?’
His face closed down right in front of her. Starting with his eyes and ending with the tightening of his mouth. ‘I can’t see how that has any bearing on park security.’
Romy’s heart banged painfully on her chest wall. She sat back. Dark eyes glared at her and he tipped his head. Subject closed.
For the next ten minutes they ate in silence, a thousand uncomfortable miles apart. So much for a civilised meal between colleagues. Romy’s mind worked overtime. Brothers. Oh, joy, that wasn’t going to be any fun to get in the middle of. She had no personal experience with siblings but she’d seen them at school, swinging between fiercely fighting and fiercely defending one another. Obviously a complicated relationship, growing up with someone.
How long would it take for the family issue to raise its head? The vibes she was getting off Justin Long guaranteed it would be coming up sooner or later. And she’d be square in the middle of it.
Romy caught Clint’s gaze on her a number of times but she dropped hers quickly to mask her thoughts. He was as efficient an eater as he was in everything else and he wiped his plate clean long before Romy did. She realised the error almost immediately. He’d finished and had nothing to do but stare. She was still eating and could hardly hint at going home while food sat on her plate.
Steady eyes considered her. ‘Who was he?’
She lifted her eyes, swallowing carefully. ‘Who?’
‘The man in your life who taught you to—’ he changed tack ‘—who taught you so much about the Defence Force.’
Romy stiffened. ‘Why does there have to be a man? Perhaps I’m really interested in Australia’s military history.’
‘Are you?’
She sighed. She couldn’t lie to those eyes. ‘No.’
‘How long were you together?’
It would be so easy to let him go on thinking it was some other man who had been in the military. It would probably be smart. But those eyes, again…
‘It was my father.’
