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“You must have known how much I wanted things to work out between us.”
She let a sigh whisper past her lips. “I hoped you would learn something about your own strengths, as well. Isn’t that why people undertake these survival-type challenges?”
“I’ve learned all I needed to. Not only that I don’t want to be around man-eating crocodiles, but that I don’t want to be molded into something I’m not.”
“I never tried to mold you into anything.”
“No? Then why didn’t you listen when I said I thought this project was a bad idea?”
He was right. She hadn’t listened. She’d been too fixated on satisfying Karen. At least that had been the reason Jo had given herself. Now she wondered if Nigel wasn’t right. Saving Lauren’s home had been Jo’s justification for agreeing to undertake the assignment, but she wasn’t the reason Jo was here. At least not the whole reason. “I’ll miss your help,” she conceded.
He didn’t relent. “You know where to find me if you change your mind.” His tone said he wouldn’t hold out much hope.
The snap of a dry twig outside brought her head up. “Someone’s out there.”
His head swung around. “What now, rampaging buffalo?”
“It sounded more like a footstep.” Perhaps Blake had come to check on their progress. The flood of relief accompanying this thought was something she’d have to think about later.
Right now, she wanted to check on the source of the noise. She flung the tent flap aside and strode out.
“Jo, wait for me. You don’t know what’s out there.”
She got outside in time to see a man disappearing into the bushes. From force of journalistic habit, she noted that he had dark skin, a stocky build and was about her height. He was dressed like the stockmen who worked the cattle on Diamond Downs. “Odd that he didn’t stop to say hello,” she said to Nigel, who’d followed her outside. Everyone they’d met so far had gone out of their way to be friendly.
“He could be from a tribe that doesn’t belong here,” Nigel suggested. “Or maybe he’s wary of strangers.”
“He must have seen or heard the croc attack. Wonder why he didn’t show himself before or try to help.”
“The crocodile could hold some cultural significance for him. We could speculate all day and be none the wiser.”
“You’re right.” Shock at Nigel’s near miss was taking a toll on her, too. The thought of someone spying on them didn’t help. Suddenly, she became aware that she would be on her own once Nigel left. Bile rose in her throat, threatening to choke her. She had to fight the urge to pack up and go with him.
He seemed to sense her ambivalence. “Sure you don’t want to come with me?”
No, she wasn’t sure, but she shook her head. “I can’t.”
Can’t or won’t? his expression asked. Just as well he didn’t voice the question, because she didn’t know what her answer would have been.
“I’ll get one of the men at the Logan homestead to drive me to town and bring the rental car back here for you,” he said.
Impulsively, she wrapped her arms around his neck, stung when he made no move to respond. What did she expect? “Thanks for giving it your best shot,” she said.
His mouth found hers, hot and hard, the way he knew she liked to be kissed. Normally the touch would have ignited her passion; now, there was only deep regret for what might have been. She kissed him back out of that regret.
A cough made her spring back. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
The laconic tone made her blood boil. “How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough to be sure the crocodile didn’t snap off anything vital,” Blake drawled. Another man followed Blake into the clearing. For a moment, she thought it was the man who’d been watching them from the bushes until she realized that this man was taller and had a lighter complexion. The only thing Blake and his companion had in common with the spy was the khaki shirt, pants and battered Akubra hat that seemed to be the uniform for outback males. She couldn’t help noticing how ruggedly appealing it looked on Blake.
“One of the stockmen was across the river when he heard a commotion and saw the crocodile attacking. Evidently, it was greatly exaggerated.” Blake spoke softly to his companion. The other man nodded and moved off toward the water hole. Looking for the crocodile, she assumed. She was about to mention the man she’d glimpsed moments after the event, but Nigel spoke first.
“There was an attack all right, Stirton.” Nigel’s tone was the classic one of alpha male meeting another of his kind in his territory. The fact that he’d been about to relinquish that territory didn’t matter for the moment. Instinct won out.
Jo resisted the urge to step between them, struck again by how much at home Blake was in this environment. He could take care of himself. “Nigel was getting water from the creek when a crocodile lunged out of the water at him,” she said.
“Luckily it only snapped off my canteen, not my head,” Nigel contributed.
Blake frowned. “From the look of you, it was a close call. If you want my advice…”
Nigel gestured dismissively. “Thanks, but no thanks.”
Jo felt the beginnings of a headache. “Nigel, please. Blake’s only trying to help.”
“If he wants to help, he or his stockman will grab the rifle and blast that man-eating monster out of the water before someone gets killed.”
She saw Blake’s jaw tighten. Nigel was reacting out of shock and she could hardly blame him, but attacking a man who’d come to help them wasn’t the answer.
“The crocodile isn’t responsible for human stupidity,” Blake said. “And Andy Wandarra is a tribal elder, so you’ll show some respect.”
She winced, wishing he had chosen his words more tactfully. She had a feeling tact wasn’t Blake Stirton’s strong suit.
Nigel wasn’t a small man but Blake was half a head taller, with a cowboy’s rangy build, most of which looked to be solid muscle. He stood with his feet apart, at home in the bush, although she imagined he’d look equally good wearing black tie in a ballroom. Longish hair the color of antique brass, turned up slightly at the collar, gave him a bad-boy aura. His warm hazel eyes were deep-set and creases radiating from them suggested he spent a lot of time staring across vast distances. Right now, his gaze was narrowed on Nigel, and what she saw in his expression wasn’t approval.
She hoped Nigel’s adrenaline-charged state wouldn’t drive him to challenge Blake physically. No amount of loyalty to Nigel could convince her he was a match for Blake in a fight.
Nigel balled his hands into fists. “When the truth about this experience comes out, we’ll see who your readers think is stupid, won’t we, Jo?”
Blake fixed her with a glare that could have melted stone. She was proud of not quailing beneath his scrutiny, but it took some effort. “We were warned not to get water from the same place every day,” she said with scrupulous fairness.
A glimmer of something like surprise flashed in Blake’s hazel gaze. She didn’t like the answering shiver that shook her.
“Crocs are cunning creatures. They wait and watch until they judge they can grab an easy meal,” Blake said in a tone that suggested that this explanation was part of a much-repeated lecture. “You might get away with it the first or second time, but try it a third and you’re history.”
He illustrated the point by extending his arms and crashing his hands together like the jaws of a crocodile, and she saw Nigel flinch.
Instinctively, she moved closer to offer the comfort of her nearness, but he remained coldly aloof. His pride was stung, she thought in amazement. Not only by his brush with death, but by the fact that Blake was right and he was wrong.
“Are you okay?” she asked, pitching her voice low.
Wrong question, she saw as Nigel’s jaw hardened. “I’m fine for someone who was almost eaten.”
“Maybe you should see a doctor,” Blake suggested. “One of our people can drive you to Halls Creek.”
“There’s nothing wrong with me that the sight of a dead crocodile won’t fix. If you can’t handle it, I’ll do something about it myself.”
Nigel turned toward the tent but in a move so fast she barely registered it, Blake put himself between Nigel and the equipment. “There are penalties for killing protected species out here.”
Halted in his tracks, Nigel curled his lip into a sneer. “Oh, yeah. Your brother is a ranger, isn’t he? Between you, you’ve got the Kimberley sewn up. If one Logan doesn’t get me, the other will. Oh, I forgot. You’re not Logans, either of you. You’re a bunch of mongrels Des Logan took in and tried to civilize, without much success evidently.”
Blake didn’t move. “You’re going the right way to get yourself thrown off this land, Wylie.”
“He doesn’t mean it. It’s the shock of the attack.”
Both men turned hard glares on her, but Jo wasn’t about to back down. This was her show, whether Nigel accepted it or not. She needed this assignment. From her research into Des Logan’s situation, he suffered from a heart complaint and was having trouble keeping Diamond Downs going. The discovery of the ancient rock art on the land had started to bring in tourist dollars, but he also needed the substantial fee her magazine was paying to use the site.
Without quite knowing how she knew, she saw the knowledge reflected in Blake’s gaze. He shifted his attention to her. The ferocity of it sent shafts of heat through her, surprisingly difficult to ignore. “I’ll overlook the personal insults this time.” His tone made it clear there would be no second chance. “I still think this is a damn fool stunt. If you were really surviving, you wouldn’t have so many frills. You have no business coming to the outback for the titillation of a few magazine readers.”
She anchored her palms on her hips. “A moment ago, you mentioned respect. Yet you’re not willing to accord us the same privilege even though those magazine readers you dismiss so readily number in the thousands. And my editor is paying your foster father a lot of money for us to be here, correct?”
“Correct.”
She ignored the grudging tone. It was enough that he accepted her right to be here. “Our inexperience in the outback is the whole point of the exercise—to see how well we cope, also correct?”
He nodded tautly. “True enough.”
“Then I don’t see a problem. This isn’t your land. You might have grown up here, but you live at your crocodile farm, don’t you?”
“While we’re playing twenty questions, I have one for you.”
He was entitled. “Go ahead.”
“Why the hell is this so important to you? Surely there are other subjects you can write about without risking your neck?”
Not subjects her editor was passionate about, she thought. She still wasn’t sure why Karen had been so determined to send her on this assignment. Jo knew why she herself wanted to be here, but Blake didn’t need to know. “I have my reasons,” she said evenly.
Blake jerked his head toward Nigel, standing at Jo’s shoulder, fuming but, for the moment, having the sense to keep quiet. “And your friend here?”
“I’m here because I refused to let her carry out this crazy assignment alone,” he supplied.
So much for keeping quiet. “Our motivations are none of Blake’s business,” she demurred, not wanting to argue with Nigel in front of the crocodile man. “Part of the deal is for Blake to teach us how to survive in the outback, not to interfere.”
The reminder didn’t sit well with Blake, she saw, as his gaze darkened. He must feel strongly loyal to his foster father to have agreed to be part of a scheme he plainly opposed. “There’s not much point in me giving you advice unless you have enough sense to take it.”
The gibe was clearly aimed at Nigel and she felt him bristle at her side. “You can stop worrying, Stirton. I’ve had it up to here with this insane project. When you turned up, I was packing to leave.”
“It didn’t look like that to me.”
Blake’s reminder that Nigel had been kissing her when he’d arrived brought heat surging into her cheeks. “Again, none of your business,” she insisted. “Nigel, I know the attack was a shock, but you can’t mean to throw in the towel? It’s only been three days.” Two, if she didn’t count the orientation day spent with Blake.
“Three days when I’ve been bitten to death by mosquitoes, sunburned gathering materials to build a stupid shelter when there’s a perfectly good tent standing there and had my life threatened by a man-eater that Stirton thinks has more right to live than I do.”
Blake’s mouth thinned. “The crocodile was only defending its territory.”
Was something similar going on between him and Nigel? “Why did you recommend we set up camp here if you knew it was dangerous?” she asked.
“I didn’t know,” he said surprising her. “We’ve had no problems with crocodiles in this area for years. I don’t know why it happened now.”
“So you admit you don’t know everything,” Nigel gibed, ignoring the warning pressure of the hand she placed on his arm.
“I never said I did,” Blake responded mildly, but his hazel eyes flashed fire. “I assume after what’s happened, you’re both leaving?”
She moved a few feet away from Nigel in what she recognized was a symbolic gesture. “You assume wrong. Until the agreed-upon month is up, I’m not going anywhere.”
Nigel flashed her a look of disbelief. Had his packing been an attempt to manipulate her into going with him? “You can’t stay here alone,” he said, reinforcing her suspicion.
Blake settled his hands on his hips. “She can’t stay here at all. This wasn’t part of the deal between Des and the magazine.”
She folded her arms. “As I recall, neither were you, except as technical consultant.”
Blake’s eyes flashed fire. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“You have no authority to throw me out if I choose to remain.”
“Des Logan does, and he will if I recommend it for your safety.”
“For my safety or for your convenience? From the moment I arrived, you’ve made it clear you don’t want me here.”
“Surviving in the outback is not a game.”
She nodded. “It won’t be reported as such. My editor wants me to faithfully record our experiences for our readers.”
“To achieve what, exactly?”
“If even one person is stranded in the outback and applies something they’ve learned from my articles, the series will have served a purpose.”
Nigel pulled the straps of his backpack tight and looked around the camp. “Are you two going to argue the point all day? I have everything of mine. The rest of the gear belongs to the magazine. Can I get a ride to Halls Creek with you, Stirton? I don’t want to leave Jo without a vehicle.”
“You don’t have to leave at all,” she said. “Why not give yourself a little more time before you decide?”
“I have decided. I only agreed because I thought this wouldn’t last more than a couple of days, then you’d see sense and we could get back to civilization.”
Her mouth dropped. “You expected me to fail?”
Blake gave a humorless smile. “Charming.”
Nigel shot him a look of irritation. “Of course not. Damn it, Jo, the only reason I agreed to be part of this is because I care about you. It’s important to you, so it was important to me until I found myself staring death in the face.” He jerked his thumb toward the now-tranquil creek. “We don’t belong in that monster’s territory, and I’m getting out while I still can.”
She shuddered involuntarily, having no comeback. If the same thing had happened to her, would she feel like bailing, too? But it hadn’t and she couldn’t give up now, even though the memory of the crocodile leaping out of the water would haunt her for a long time. “I’m sorry.”
Nigel’s hand rested on his backpack. “Me, too. Look, I’ll stay if you agree to my condition.”
Her hopes rose but with them, a quiver of uncertainty as she guessed what he was about to say. “Nigel, don’t. And besides, I don’t need a caretaker,” she said, annoyed that both men seemed determined to cast her in the role of a dependent. She was the youngest in her family, and her two older brothers had tried to do the same. Had she jumped at this assignment as much to prove them all wrong as for any other reason? At the same time, she knew there was more to her reluctance to accept Nigel’s proposal, but this wasn’t the right time for self-analysis. “I’ll be fine on my own,” she insisted.
“You won’t be on your own,” Blake intervened. He actually sounded pleased that she hadn’t accepted Nigel’s offer. Was that because he hoped it would get rid of her sooner? She couldn’t imagine that his interest was in the least personal. “I may not be able to insist that you leave, but I can stick around and make sure you get through this in one piece,” he said.
“Even if I don’t want your protection?”
