He adjusted his hat to further shade his eyes from a brilliant chink of sunlight that fell through the green canopy. ‘I told you, Allegra, I can’t go back. My home is lost to me.’
‘You couldn’t find a suitable property in your own region?’
He gave a humourless laugh. ‘I could find one, maybe, but I couldn’t pay for one. No way! We’re talking two entirely different levels here. Our cattle stations—kingdoms are what they’re called and it’s not so fanciful—dwarf the runs in this area. I have to start more or less around the middle and work my way up.’
Her brows were a question mark. ‘But are you going to be happy doing it?’
‘Okay, I understand you.’ He shrugged. ‘The Channel Country is the place of my dreaming. It speaks to my soul like Naroom speaks to yours. This is beautiful country, don’t get me wrong. Maybe it hasn’t got the haunting quality of the desert, or its incredible charisma, but I’ll settle here. I have to.’
‘I don’t think I’d count on it,’ Allegra said, shrugging wryly. ‘Your love for your desert home won’t be shaken off any more than my father’s love for my dead mother. Some loves go so deep nothing and no one can approach them.’
‘Thinking twice about selling then?’ he asked, filling his eyes with her. Her lissom body was clad in a navy and white top and close fitting jeans No makeup again, save for a pink gloss on her mouth. Her thick hair was woven into a rope like plait. He’d never seen a woman look better.
‘Valerie and Chloe, when they return, will demand Naroom be sold,’ she answered. ‘I don’t think we could ask for anyone better than you to take it on. You’re an astute, ambitious man. I haven’t the slightest doubt you’ll make a big success of Naroom. And then you’ll move on.’ She spoke with a lowered head and saddened eyes.
‘Hey, that’s quite a few years down the line!’ He tried to reassure her. ‘But isn’t that the way of it, Allegra? One expands, not stands still. Which doesn’t mean to say Naroom couldn’t and wouldn’t remain a valuable link in a chain.’
‘How good a cattleman is your brother?’ she asked abruptly, moving a step nearer the top of the grassy slope to check it was a log that had smashed into one of the creek boulders and not a lost little calf.
‘Jay got pushed into it,’ he answered. ‘He works as hard as any man. Harder, but—’
‘He wasn’t born to the job,’ she cut in gently.
‘I told you he wanted to be a doctor. It’s a bit late but he could still be. I wouldn’t know but he was a straight A student. Jay has a more sensitive side to him than I have.’
She gazed at him out of her black fringed eyes. ‘I don’t know if that’s exactly right. I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Jay, but I would describe you as pretty deep, Rory Compton. You display your sensitivities in many ways.’
‘As when?’ he asked the question, then broke off abruptly, seized by a mild panic. ‘Don’t move,’ he ordered. ‘You could take a tumble.’
Even as he spoke the ground shifted beneath Allegra’s feet. ‘Oh … hell!’ She threw out an arm. He grabbed it strongly, but the soles of her riding boots were slick with grass and mud. She slipped further down the bank with Rory straining to hold her. Allegra almost righted herself, about to thank him for his help, but in the next second a section of rain impacted earth gave way and the two of them began to roll over and over down the wet grassy slope, gathering momentum as they went. Their bodies crushed the multitude of unidentifiable little flowers that grew there in abundance, releasing a sweet musky smell.
Allegra, though powerfully shocked by their tumble, was experiencing a rush of emotions that included exhilaration and a blazing excitement. They were going to go into the stream. She knew that even if she couldn’t look. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d found herself in deep, fast running water. She was a strong swimmer. He would be, too. She didn’t even have to consider it. His powerful arms were around her. What did she care if they had to fight the torrent? They were together. She felt like a woman is supposed to feel when she was with one particular man. A man who walked like he owned the earth.
Rory was taking the brunt of it, trying to protect her body from any hurt along the way. They were to an extent cushioned by the thick grasses that gave up a wonderfully pure, herbal aroma. As they careened towards the rushing creek he crushed her to him. He couldn’t risk flinging out an arm. That meant taking one from her, but he was straining to gain purchase with his boots. Finally he hooked into something—a tight web of vines—that slowed their mad descent.
Another four feet and he was able to slam a brake on their rough tumble. They rolled in slow motion to a complete stop, finding they were almost at the bottom with the roar of the creek in their ears and the near overwhelming scent of crushed vegetation in their nostrils.
‘Bloody hell, woman!’ It was an eternity of seconds before Rory could speak. Then his words came out explosively. He was poised over her, staring down into her beautiful face vivid with exhilaration. ‘Just hold it right there!’ He held her captive, as if he believed her capable of jumping up and taking a header into the creek just for the hell of it!
She laughed with absolute delight. The sound was crystal clear. Transparent like an excited child’s.
‘Why did you stop us?’ she wailed. ‘I wanted to take a swim.’
‘More likely bash your head against a rock,’ he told her sternly.’ The current is too strong.’
‘Still I enjoyed it, didn’t you?’ She stared into his glittering eyes. ‘I’ll remember it for always.’ The great thing was, she meant it. She raised her hand and very slowly caressed his bronze cheek, taking exquisite pleasure in the fine rasp of his beard on her skin. She fancied she saw little rays of light around his head. An energy that held her within his magnetic field?
‘So what are you trying to do to me?’ Rory stared down at her, equally bedazzled. ‘What a repertoire of alluring little spells you have!’
‘All called up with you in mind.’
‘Then there’s only one thing left to do.’ The last tight coils of his self-control broke free. He was so hungry for her he didn’t know how he was going to assuage it. He lowered his head, intent on capturing her mouth, only to see with a flame of wonder her lovely mouth ready itself to receive his.
What would he do to her if she let him?
He kissed her very slowly and gently at first until he had her whimpering and moving her head from side to side in agitation. Then his kisses strengthened in pressure and intensity as his passion for her surged. What a fool he was thinking he had schooled himself to restraint. The reality was he was so powerfully attracted to her he had lost the capacity for rational thought.
Time stopped. The whole world stopped. Pain and old grief were forgotten. His weight pinioned her body into the thick, verdant grasses.
‘Am I hurting you?’
‘Don’t go way.’ She loved the weight of him. Her eyelids fluttered shut and she caught the back of his neck with her hand.
He kissed her until both of them were gasping and out of breath. His hands were sliding slowly, sensuously, over her body as though learning it. Sometimes she led his touch, the delicate contours of her breasts swelling at his caress. Her heart felt like it was going to break out from behind her rib cage. Never before in her life had she felt such sensual excitement. Being with him had increased her every perception one hundredfold.
The breeze shook leaves from the trees. They flew down to them, golden-green, purple backed, landing gently in the glowing garnet coils of her hair. If ever a man could take a woman with his eyes he was guilty of taking her now Rory thought. In a minute she would lay her hand on his cheek again and tell him to stop.