The Outback Bridal Rescue Read Online Free PDF Page A

eyes which were quite strikingly complemented by tanned skin and toffee-coloured hair, and, of course, the wide mouthful of white teeth that flashed winning smiles everywhere, not to mention the mil ion-dol ar voice.
    Which suddenly crooned, ‘I think this is the time for me to make you a cup of tea, Evelyn.’
    The weeping had stopped.
    With a choked little laugh, Evelyn lifted her head. ‘No…
    no…’ she said chidingly, reaching up to pat his cheek as he gently released her from his embrace. ‘Thank you for letting me unburden my sorrows, but don’t be taking away my pleasures now. You sit yourself down and let me get busy.’
    Megan hadn’t gathered wits enough to effect a swift retreat before the two of them moved apart and Johnny’s swinging gaze caught her in the open doorway. Her stomach lurched as their eyes locked and she felt the sympathy he’d given to Evelyn being transmitted to her.
    She didn’t want it from him. Didn’t need anything from him.
    And be damned if she’d cry on his shoulder!
    ‘Megan…come on in,’ he invited, his hand beckoning her forward, taking charge, assuming control!
    Not of me! Never! Megan silently and savagely vowed.
    ‘Evelyn was just tel ing me about your father…how he’d been clutching your mother’s photograph from the bedside table in his hand when you found him,’ he went on softly, sadly. ‘I guess—’
    ‘Yes.’ She cut him off, feeling tears wel ing up again. ‘I hope he’s with my mother now. He missed her very much.’
    Fighting her way out of a storm of emotion, she waspishly added, ‘I wonder if you’l ever know that kind of love, Johnny?’
    His face tightened as though she had slapped him.
    Evelyn gave a shocked gasp.
    Acutely aware that the personal remark had slipped out of her previous thoughts and was total y inexcusable, Megan almost bit her tongue in chagrin. She had to deal with this man. That was best done by keeping as much impersonal distance from him as possible.
    ‘I think finding that kind of love is rather rare in today’s world,’ Johnny answered in a measured tone.
    ‘Especial y yours,’ flew out of her mouth before she could stop it.
    ‘Miss Megan…’
    Evelyn’s reproof faded into a heavy sigh.
    Megan gritted her teeth, refusing to take back what she believed. She glared defiance at the man who’d probably slept with thousands of women without giving any one of them any serious commitment. Her words had clearly struck a nerve and she took fierce satisfaction in the way his eyes glittered at her. No sympathy now.
    ‘Rare in your world, too, Megan,’ he countered, using his voice like a silky whip. ‘Unless you’ve met the man of your dreams since Christmas.’
    ‘Too busy,’ she loftily retorted.
    ‘Which reminds me…’
    ‘We need to talk,’ she leapt in before he could take charge of their business meeting. ‘When you’ve finished your breakfast, perhaps you wouldn’t mind coming to the office.’
    ‘Whatever suits you,’ he returned obligingly.
    ‘That wil be most appropriate. You’l find me there.’
    She quickly closed the door and strode outside, marching off a mountain of turbulent energy as she headed for the front entrance of the homestead and the steps leading up to the verandah which skirted the huge house—
    a verandah that welcomed people out of the sun that could too often be pitiless in the Australian Outback.
    She hadn’t welcomed Johnny El is.
    Couldn’t welcome him.
    Having reached the top of the steps she turned, her gaze skating around al the outbuildings that made Gundamurra look like a smal township from the air; the big maintenance and shearing sheds, the prize rams’ enclosure attached to the lab, the cottages for the long-term staff, the bunkhouse for jackaroos, the cook’s quarters, the supplies store, the schoolhouse.
    She was twenty-eight years old and this was her life—
    the life she’d chosen—the life she loved.
    She didn’t need a man.
    Certainly not a man who