Storms Over Blackpeak Read Online Free PDF Page A

to offset her student loan.
    Turning her back on the bed, she began setting out her toiletries on the Fergussons’ antique dresser.
    So, then: phone, boots, six-year-old laptop … what would be next in the table of her gross worth? Her moisturiser, probably. Which — dammit — she’d left in the bathroom. Not wanting to litter the house with her stuff on day one, Cally hurried back across the hall.
    ‘Oh! Sorry!’ She froze, the handle of the open bathroom door in her hand.
    Stripped to the waist, his face covered in shaving foam, Ash met her eyes in the mirror above the sink. ‘That’s okay.’ Cally watched, fascinated, as he finished drawing the razor down his cheek, revealing a stripe of golden skin. ‘Don’t worry about it.’
    ‘I — I forgot something,’ Cally explained. She glanced around the bathroom, trying not to let her eyes dwell on Ash’s upper body; not an easy task, given how much space it was taking up. She blushed. So much hard, naked muscle in one room seemed like it ought to defy some law of physics.
    ‘There was something on the sink,’ he said helpfully. ‘I put it in the cupboard.’
    Boy, those were some scars he had on his shoulder.
    ‘Oh.’ Cally gave herself a small shake. ‘Well. Sorry. I’ll come back for it later.’ She took a step backwards.
    ‘Grab it now, if you want.’ Knocking foam from his razor, Ash stood aside slightly, holding his wet hands up over the sink.
    ‘Oh,’ she repeated. Jesus, she needed to get a grip. But not on that … ‘Right,’ she added, after some thought. ‘Okay. Thanks.’ Conscious of how little fabric there was between her skin and his, she leaned around the curve of his bicep, opened the cabinet door and reached in.
    ‘Um … I think that’s the toothpaste you’ve got there.’
    So it was. ‘Right. Sorry.’ Seizing the correct tube this time, Cally fled.
    ‘Goodnight,’ Ash said, as she closed the door.
    Oh — yeah. ‘Goodnight,’ she called.
    Back in the safety of her own room, Cally leaned for a second against the door, looking down at the tube in her hand. For dull, tired skin, prone to blemishes , she read. Well, that was quite an endorsement. Hearing the shower start upacross the hall, she tried not to think about Ash slipping out of his jeans.
    She put the moisturiser down on the dresser with the rest of her things, turned off the standard lamp, then, on second thought, went back and transferred the moisturiser to a drawer. With a final look around, she climbed into bed and, in search of distraction, opened the Lonely Planet where its pages had been turned down. Five minutes later, an expert on Things To Do in Omarama, she pulled the ceiling cord dangling above her head and, in the total darkness that followed, fell almost instantly asleep.
     
    Cally woke to the sound of flushing. And birds. Getting up, she pushed half a tonne of curtain aside to look out on her very first Glencairn morning. Her windows bristled with hills as pink as a china shepherdess’s skirt, but rather more rugged. The tips of the gum trees around the homestead were just catching the sun; below them, the lawn lay grey and shadowy with dew.
    Shivering, she listened. Footsteps passed her door, continuing down the stairs. Well, it seemed like everyone was up. Cally pulled yesterday’s cardigan on over her T-shirt and headed for the shower.
    When she made it down to the kitchen, she found Carr at the stove, watching over a pot of coffee.
    ‘You want one?’ he asked, glancing back at her. He’d thrown on some clothes, but he looked as though he’d just got out of bed and had immediate plans to head back there.
    Cally shook her head, not wanting to be a nuisance. ‘I’m okay.’
    ‘You sure? There’s plenty going.’
    Lizzie breezed through the door in a red silk robe, herglossy hair more than usually tousled. ‘I meant to say—’ Seeing Cally, she stopped. ‘Good morning,’ she smiled, surreptitiously pulling the robe a little tighter.