“I’d make sure you were in front of me.” She tried to joke.
“It’s no joke,” he told her, his lean features taut.
“I’ll have you know I’m serious.” She looked directly at him, feeling on her mettle. “What is it, Ross? Have you written me off as a bimbo? Someone who’ll turn into a quivering liability?”
“I have to tell you I wouldn’t be happy to take you,” he said bluntly.
“Samantha,” she prompted. “That’s my name. Sam, if you like.”
“Sam is just too quaint.” Anyone less like a Sam he had yet to see. He gazed into her dark doe eyes, bright with little golden motes.
She could have hit him. Damaged her hand. Herself. “Actually I was hoping your sister, Isabelle—she’s so beautiful—might be persuaded to come along with us. Station bred she’d be an enormous help to me.”
He could only warn her off. “Belle wouldn’t be interested, I’m afraid. She lost her husband not so long ago.”
Samantha dipped her head, her nerves tightening. “Jessica told me. I’m so very sorry. She’s so young. Mightn’t it help her to get out though, don’t you think? Nature is a great healer.”
Very deliberately he cut off that line of thinking. “Thank you for sharing that with me, Samantha.”
The effect of her name on his lips was extraordinary. How strange it was to be excited by a man and thoroughly disconcerted at the same time. “Don’t be like that,” she pleaded.
“Like what?” He was sizzling with sexual energy. A male aggression that appeared to possess him in her presence. Chaos threatened when he liked order.
“Arrogant, actually,” she told him quietly, feeling a twist of desire deep inside her and nothing she could do about it. “Unpleasant as well when Cy thinks you’re the greatest guy in the world.”
“Maybe I’m a lot more used to dealing with men than women. I’m sorry. I apologise.”
His sudden smile made her suck in her breath. It bathed his rather severe handsome features in dazzling light. “That’s not what I’ve heard either,” she found herself saying.
“Meaning what?” He shrugged, a surprisingly elegant movement.
“There are a lot of girls hung up on you I was told. I suppose that’s a good sign. Then again a lot of women are attracted to men who have little use for them.”
“And you’re assuming I’m that kind of man?”
The colour of his remarkable eyes was a source of wonder. “Aren’t you?” Her every instinct had warned her this man was trouble yet she plunged ahead angered by his resistance, almost dismissal. It wasn’t something she was used to.
“I love my sister,” he pointed out.
“You certainly should. You had to stick together.”
His expression tightened. “Cy told you my life story?”
“What’s wrong with that? I was interested. He filled me in a little way. I know your parents divorced when you were twelve and your sister a few years younger. Don’t feel overly bad about that. Our mother and father split up when I was still at school and David had already left home. Both of them are re-married. David and I have two stepbrothers—my dad’s. Things like that.”
He was surprised. He had thought her the most cosseted of creatures. Daddy’s little princess. A most beautiful little girl. But there was a sudden haunting in her eyes. “You can’t quite cover up the fact you’d been praying they’d stay together?”
“Absolutely, but they’d hit a very bumpy ride. In fact it’s put me off marriage.”
“True?” He let his smile loose again.
Another thrill. That alone shouted a warning. “I’ve already decided you have a lot against it.”
“Really?” He looked down his straight nose at her. “You don’t know me.” Even if you are trying to lead me on.
Her heart gave a wild flutter. She couldn’t believe the arrogance of his manner could be a seduction. But it was. “I’d like to know you better,” she said, something she’d discovered the moment she’d laid eyes on him.
“So you can dig out my weaknesses?” He willed his blood to stop racing. There was a tremendous exhilaration in this sparring. It was like being caught up in an electrical storm when at any moment danger could be inflicted on a man.
“I didn’t imagine for a moment you had any,” she answered with faintly bitter sweetness.
“As many as the next man.” He shrugged. “But I work hard to keep them under control. I had the impression you and your brother’s assistant were close?”
A flare of something, was it anger? deepened the apricot colour in her cheeks. “Now how on earth did you arrive at that conclusion?”
“Are you telling me it’s not true?” Sad if he was giving himself away.
“I’m not telling you anything,” she said crisply, knowing with every passing minute getting involved with this intoxicating man would be a terrible mistake. “I’d like to see you less sure of yourself and your opinions.”
“And you’re the one hoping we can be friends?” he scoffed.
Think, Sam. Try to clear your head.
Yet all her pulses were drumming in double time. “Not friends so much,” she successfully mustered her poise. “I don’t believe we could ever be friends, not unless you undergo a radical change, but colleagues of sorts. I know you’d prefer Men Only, women being such nuisances, but I’d endeavour to keep out of your way.”
“Fine,” he drawled, staring down at her mouth with her small teeth like prize pearls. Her lips were full, luscious, incredibly tempting. He’d like to crush their cushiony softness beneath his. Teach her a lesson. “But not exactly easy if we had to share a tent?”
She battled the shock wave. “We wouldn’t have to do that. Would we?”
For the first time there was genuine amusement in his jewelled eyes. “Not your idea of fun? It could get worse.”
She was still seeing them sharing a tent. “Like dodging crocs and pythons that devour you at a gulp?”
“Lady, there’s so much I’m not telling you.” It came out with a flicker of contempt.
Use your head. Go!
She had to make her escape before she said something she would regret. Ross Sunderland was dynamite. Exciting yes, but one of the dangerous men of this world. He drew her so much it was scaring her badly. “Anything to put me off,” she managed lightly. “I think I’ll have a word with Isabelle if I can find her. You’re a terrible man.” She half turned away.
“Knowing
