LITMIR.BIZ

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rather than what he lacked. Her father had been more of an influence over Ryan than he knew.

      Finishing the steak, she pushed the plate away. “I’d like the marinade recipe one day, if the price comes down.”

      His expression said it wouldn’t where she was concerned. Then he said, surprising her, “You can have the secret for free. It’s wasabi, Japanese mustard. Just a touch makes all the difference.”

      She should have known. His home was in Broome, where the Japanese influence had been strong for a couple of centuries. The town even held a Japanese pearl festival each year, the Shinju Matsuri. “Wasabi, I’ll remember,” she said.

      “I’ll bring you some next time I visit,” he promised.

      She placed her knife and fork side by side on the plate. “Maybe you shouldn’t.”

      Steel settled in his gaze. “Shouldn’t bring wasabi, or shouldn’t come?”

      “Both. Having an affair might work for you, but it isn’t what I want. I only wanted you to come back because you’re part of the family.”

      He leaned closer. “What are you afraid of? If it’s my prospects, I’m a better catch than I’ve let you believe.”

      She stood up and started to pace, her movements constrained by the small room. “Your prospects aren’t the problem.” It was his overwhelming effect on her.

      “You can’t say you don’t feel anything for me.”

      She swung around, wrapping her arms around herself. She couldn’t lie. But she didn’t have to tell the whole truth. “There’s a complication.”

      His mouth thinned. “As in another man?”

      “I’m seeing Max Horvath.”

      Ryan looked thunderstruck. “You can’t be serious. I know he had a thing for you a few years back, but I thought you’d made it clear you weren’t interested in this or any other lifetime.”

      “I did. Then I—changed my mind. I shouldn’t even be here with you tonight. I broke a date with Max because I wanted this chance for us to talk privately.”

      Looking as if he’d rather shatter them to bits, Ryan gathered the plates and glasses with exaggerated care, but stayed standing at the table. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this. Max is the one with designs on your land and your legendary diamonds. Is this some kind of crazy self-sacrifice thing? Marrying him so he’ll let your father keep the land? Is that your bride price, Judy?”

      “No.” In fact, she had started seeing Max again against her family’s better judgment so she could keep an eye on his activities. They were all convinced Max was behind a string of suspicious incidents on Diamond Downs, but the police couldn’t pin anything on him without proof. She was hoping if he let his guard down with her, she could obtain the proof.

      The list of grievances was long and getting longer. No sooner had Tom and Shara discovered a cave of valuable rock art on the land than a crocodile attack had attracted negative publicity, threatening the income from tourism Des had hoped to bring in.

      Journalist Jo Francis had arrived to write a series of stories about surviving in the outback, her editor paying well for the access. Then Blake, an expert on crocodile behavior, had caught Max’s henchman Eddy Gilgai luring the crocodile dangerously close to Jo’s camp.

      The scheme had backfired when Eddy himself had been taken by a crocodile, but the resulting media coverage hadn’t done Diamond Downs’s fledgling tourism venture much good. With the wet season approaching, fewer tourists were visiting the Kimberley anyway. By the time the dry season came around again—assuming they could hang on that long—Judy hoped the fuss over the crocodile attacks would have subsided, and they could focus attention on the rock art caves again.

      She couldn’t tell Ryan what she hoped to achieve by dating Max, without letting him think she was available for a romantic fling with him. The very thought sent needs she didn’t want to acknowledge coiling through her. Right now he looked angry enough to break something, but the fire in his expression ignited an answering one inside her. What would it be like to feel his strong arms around her and his mouth hungry on hers?

      Since she couldn’t find out and keep faith with herself, she tore her gaze away. “I didn’t want to talk about this, Ryan. You don’t control me.”

      “I’m not going to stand back and let you barter yourself for a creep like Max Horvarth,” he said. “If finding that mine will keep you away from him, I’ll find it for you.”

      She had hoped to convince him to help, but not like this. “Are you offering to help so I’ll have an affair with you? If so, the price is too high.”

      “The price is the same as it’s always been—your body and soul. And the chance to get this…thing…between us worked out once and for all.”

      “Damn you, Ryan. Don’t do this to me.”

      “It’s done. All I did was up the ante. Unless you want me to go back to Broome and forget about helping you look for the mine.”

      Careful to avoid touching him, she took the plates from him and carried them to the kitchen, where she started to run hot water into the sink. Mechanically, she began to wash the plates.

      He came up beside her and picked up a dish towel, drying the plates as if the two of them were a couple doing their nightly chores. The image had more appeal than she wanted it to.

      “What’s it to be?” he asked as he put the plates away.

      She lifted dripping hands out of the water to gesture futilely. “You ask the impossible. I need your help if I’m to have any chance of finding the mine before the wet season cuts off access, but I can’t agree to…your terms.”

      He flicked the kettle on and lifted two coffee mugs down from a shelf. “What can you agree to?”

      Her voice struggled to rise above a whisper. “To think about your offer?”

      “Not good enough. Thinking’s too intangible.”

      Ryan knew he’d done enough thinking about her to drive a man crazy. Already he was regretting tonight. Arranging dinner in the isolated cottage had seemed like a good idea when he’d devised it. He hadn’t allowed for her effect on him. Seated across the table, knowing how easily he could carry her to the bedroom, had made this the most uncomfortable meal of his life. Before he’d known it, he’d suggested an affair in exchange for his help. Judy’s presence made him forget all gentlemanly behavior—forget everything but how badly he wanted her.

      “I’m sure Dad would agree to give you a share of the mine.”

      He slammed the coffee mugs onto the timber counter hard enough to startle them both. “I don’t want a share of the bloody mine.”

      “Then I’ll go looking alone.”

      “Am I so offensive to you that you’d risk your life, rather than consider a relationship with me?” he demanded.

      “Oh, Ryan, no. I could make love to you far too easily if I let myself.” Or fall in love with you.

      His hopes, almost throttled, began to rise. “Then if I’m not the problem, what is? You can’t tell me you’re in love with Max Horvath.”

      “I have my own reasons. If you really care about me, you’ll respect them and leave me alone.”

      He ran his hands up and down her arms, feeling the shivers of response. “What do you think I’ve been doing the last few years?”

      Caught by surprise, she turned, right into his embrace. “Is that why you come back so seldom?”

      He smoothed out the furrow in her brow with his lips. Her skin tasted of sun and heat. She rarely used perfume, but her natural scent swirled through his brain, dazzling him. He took her mouth much harder than he’d meant

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