An Outback Affair/Runaway Wife/Outback Bridegroom/Outback Surrender/Home To Eden Read Online Free PDF Page A

rouse in him revulsion. All this she saw even as she registered he would be very difficult to know. Very complex.
    â€œIt’s not a crime, is it?”
    â€œIt is if you play pop music very loudly.” Unexpectedly he smiled, sunlight from behind storm clouds.”
    â€œI don’t know much about pop music at all,” she confessed, lulled by that smile. “I’m a classically trained pianist without a piano. I expect you’ll be grateful for that.”
    â€œNot at all. I grew up in a house of music. My mother is a cellist.”
    â€œWould I know of her?” she asked with genuine interest.
    â€œCould be.” He looked away.
    â€œI thought I might have a career as a pianist,” she found herself confiding.
    â€œSo what happened?”
    â€œIt didn’t work out.” She too changed the subject. “I’m a friend of Sarah Dempsey, by the way.” She said it as though Sarah’s name could offer safety and acceptance.
    â€œShe’s a very beautiful woman and a fine doctor. The town counts itself lucky to have her. I’ve met Dr Dempsey, most notably at her engagement party. I know her fiancé Kyall McQueen better. All in all they’re an extraordinarycouple. You and Sarah were at school together? No, what made me say that? You’d be some years younger…”
    â€œIt’s not how old you are, it’s how old you feel,” she found herself saying dangerously.
    â€œReally? And how do you feel, Miss Graham?”
    â€œAs though I’m being quietly interrogated.” She met the darkness of his eyes.
    â€œâ€˜Quietly’ and ‘interrogated’ are mutually exclusive.”
    â€œYou sound as if you know. Have you been in the Forces at some time? Secret Intelligence Service?” She was only half joking. Undeniably he had that sort of presence. Even standing perfectly still he give the impression he was at high alert, ready, engines running.
    â€œI wonder how you ever thought that?” he answered smoothly, though her observation had thrown him.
    â€œAm I right or wrong?”
    â€œYou couldn’t be more wrong.” He grimaced. “I’m a humble wood worker.”
    â€œYou surely don’t think yourself humble?” What was the matter with her? She was breaking all the rules.
    â€œAll right, then, you tell me?”
    â€œI think you’re a casualty of battle.” My God had she said that?
    He raised a large, sculpted hand. “Miss Graham, you’ve blown my cover.”
    â€œSometimes an emotional response can be quite unconnected to appearance or reason.”
    â€œI just happen to agree.” Out of nowhere a complex intimacy was taking hold. “If you think you know something of me, may I ask if in coming out here to the desert you’re making a fresh start?”
    His voice was deliberately bland, but it didn’t fool Laura. “I’ve made you angry.”
    â€œYou’ve thrown down a challenge. That’s different.” When she had cut through his barriers with frightening ease. Few people had ever done that. Even hardened professionals.
    â€œI won’t bother you, Mr Thompson, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
    â€œWhen you’re the sort of woman who would always bother a man?” His watchful eye caught her tremble. “Forgive me. I’m quite sure we’re going to be good neighbours as long as we keep to ‘good morning’ and ‘good evening’ over the fence. That’s if you’re going to stay?”
    â€œUnfortunately, yes.” She gave him a tiny smile.
    â€œI’m quite sure it’s not what you’re used to.”
    â€œNo more than you, in the old colonial next door. Actually, I was making some notes about what sort of furniture I’d need when you knocked.”
    â€œThere’s a good secondhand store in the main street,” he found himself telling her. “The