The Outback Bridal Rescue Read Online Free PDF

peddled charm.
    What she needed was this whole area to be an oasis of green again. Even the foliage on the pepper trees looked brown, coated with dust. Al the land to the horizon was brown, and above it the sky was a blaze of blue, no clouds, no chance of rain.

    no chance of rain.
    If only the Big Wet had come this year, breaking the drought, her father might not have decided to write that wil , making Johnny El is a permanent fixture in her life. The pressing question now was…how was she going to pry him out of it? Or at least, minimise his presence to next to nothing.
    He didn’t belong here.
    With this thought firmly entrenched in her mind, Megan went inside, passing through the great hal that bisected this section of the homestead, moving onto the verandah that skirted the inner quadrangle, heading straight for her father’s office.
    Once there, she found herself drawn to the chess table by the window, remembering what Mitch had said, that her father thought through his strategies very careful y. The black and white pieces were set up ready to play, which had to mean his last game with Mitch—played by e-mail—
    had been completed.
    Game over, she thought, and on a deep wave of sadness, laid the black king down. She stared at the white knight, fretting further over why her father had thought Johnny El is was the right man to ride in to the rescue, then gave up on trying to figure it out and moved on to sit in the large leather chair behind the desk.
    It was a big chair made for a big man. Physical y she didn’t fit it, never would, but at least her father had granted her the right to sit here in his place, and no way in the world was she going to let Johnny El is occupy it while they talked.
    He was ten years her senior but that didn’t give him any He was ten years her senior but that didn’t give him any authority over her or what was to be decided in this room. It was she who owned fifty-one percent of Gundamurra…she who had the whip hand…and al the mil ions he’d made as a pop-star could not change that!

CHAPTER THREE
    DEAL kindly with her…
    Ric’s admonition was playing through Johnny’s mind as he approached Patrick’s office, but Megan’s attitude towards him made it damned difficult to keep it fixed there.
    Icy politeness from her last night and the least possible amount of contact. This morning, rejecting his sympathy point-blank, actual y turning it into one of her snide hits on him, not even caring that Evelyn heard it, too.
    Al the same, he shouldn’t have let himself be goaded into hitting back. Especial y about the lack of any special love in her life. That was a low blow, especial y when she’d just lost her father. Johnny grimaced over the insensitive lapse in his control. He had to do better in this meeting, not let Megan get under his skin. He was older than she was, had more people skil s. It was up to him to… deal kindly with her.
    At least he didn’t have to worry about Jessie’s and Emily’s feelings. The two older sisters had welcomed him warmly last night, making it clear that their only concern was Megan’s future on Gundamurra. The situation on the sheep station was grim. Like Patrick, they were counting on him to ensure there was a future here for her.
    And he’d do it.
    Even against Megan’s prickly opposition he’d do it.
    Though he hoped she’d be reasonable.

    The situation demanded she be reasonable.
    He paused at the office door, took a deep, calming breath, gave a courtesy knock to warn of his imminent entry, al owed Megan a few seconds to get her mind into appropriate gear, then moved in with every intention of being at his diplomatic best.
    But he wasn’t prepared for the scene Megan had set and his sense of rightness was instantly jolted. She was sitting in Patrick’s chair, taking Patrick’s place before he was even buried. It was too soon. It was…
    Johnny checked himself, took stock of the woman he had to deal with.
    The defiance in her eyes