ready.
With a pang, she realised she wanted something more solid and lasting than flirtation. She wanted to be wooed.
Like some Victorian maiden with a head stuffed full of unrealistic dreams, she scoffed. It didn’t happen in her world, where people responded to strong attraction by embarking on an affair. Sometimes they married, but once the glamour became tarnished they called everything off, often to repeat the whole process with someone else.
Love was a temporary aberration, and marriage an alliance made for other, infinitely more practical reasons.
Except for rare, fortunate exceptions like Rosie and Gerd, of course. And, although she wished them every good thing in their life together, she couldn’t help wondering how long Rosie’s incandescent joy would last.
She looked up. Alex was watching her, and something about his waiting silence made her heart flip madly so that when she spoke her voice was husky and soft.
‘What is it? Do I have lanolin on my face?’
Colour tinged her skin when he inspected her even more closely, but she held her gaze steady when he drawled, ‘Not a speck on that exquisite skin. I was just admiring the way the sun strikes blue sparks off your hair. But I’ll give you a hat when we get home—the sun can burn even in winter here.’
She swallowed. ‘Thank you.’
‘And it would be a crime to singe that exquisite skin.’ Taking her by surprise, he bent his head and kissed the tip of her nose.
Eyes enormous in her face, Serina held her breath and froze. The sun suddenly seemed brighter, the colours more vivid, the unseen birds more piercingly musical. A wave of heat broke over her.
Until he straightened and said, ‘We’ll see if this old girl can stand up by herself now. Let her go and step slowly away.’
Fighting a fierce, foolish disappointment, Serina obeyed. The ewe lurched, but as Alex moved back she stood more firmly. After a few seconds she dropped her head and, ignoring them, began to crop the grass eagerly.
‘She should be all right,’ Alex said.
Serina didn’t dare speak until they were well away, then she said, ‘What will happen if she falls again?’
‘I’ll tell Caroline’s husband and he’ll make sure someone keeps an eye on this mob.’
He reached out and took her hand. Serina almost stumbled, heart pounding as they finished the walk back to the Land Rover.
The fence negotiated, Alex leant past her to open the door but, before she could get in, he slid an arm around her and held her loosely, his eyes intent.
Serina’s breath locked in her throat. Mutely, wondering how on earth other women signalled that they’d decided they were ready for an affair, she followed the instinct that prompted a sigh, then turned her head into the strong tanned column of his throat, unconsciously letting her lips linger on his skin.
Alex’s big frame hardened, sending fierce little shivers through her, but he made no attempt to tighten his embrace. In a voice that alerted every nerve, he said, ‘Sure, Serina?’
‘Absolutely.’ The word sounded faint and faraway, so to make sure there could be no doubt she lifted her head, her lips curving in a smile that hinted at a sultry promise when her smoky gaze met the narrowed, glittering intensity of Alex’s. ‘Are you always going to ask me if I’m sure?’
‘Until I’m sure of you.’
Her stomach dropped several inches, but it was too late for any second thoughts. He bent his head and kissed her.
The kiss was everything she’d been secretly craving, a passionate seal on their almost wordless pact. Her tumbling thoughts vanished under the barely leashed sensuality of his mouth as he showed her just what his kiss could do.
The arm across her back slid downwards, catching her hips and pulling them against him. His fierce response to the erotic pressure made her gasp, and he immediately took advantage, claiming more than her lips, his deep, deep kisses carrying her into some unknown world of the senses where all she could feel was the rising urgency of her own needs and a fierce, unbelievable hunger.
Abandoning herself to desire, she pressed against him, some unknown part of her relishing the unchained compulsion to lose herself entirely in this dazzling, sensuous world.
It came as a shock when he lifted his head and said in a voice that rasped with a blend of passion and frustration, ‘Someone’s coming.’
Sure enough, when he let her go Serina registered the sound of an engine. Another vehicle was heading towards them along the track.
Alex held her for a moment as she struggled for balance—just like the ewe, she thought half-hysteri-cally. He frowned as he looked above her head and let his hands drop. ‘Lindy.’
Taking what tiny comfort she could from the narrow frown between his brows, Serina realised she wasn’t surprised. With the intuition of a woman in an equivocal situation, she’d realised that Lindy wanted Alex. They might have been brought up as brother and sister, but that wasn’t how Lindy saw him.
Serina tried to feel sorry for her, but she couldn’t prevent a cold prickle of foreboding when she met the other woman’s flat stare as she drew up beside them in a sleek, only slightly dusty ute.
‘What on earth are you two up to?’ Lindy asked through the window.
Alex nodded towards the sheep, all watching them. ‘One of them was cast,’ he said. ‘We got her on her feet, but she’s still shaky.’
‘Oh, poor Serina,’ Lindy said with a glittery smile. ‘What an introduction to the place! Smelly old sheep aren’t in the least romantic, are they? Never mind—get Alex to take you out to dinner.’
She waved an airy hand and shot off, scattering stones.
Alex said, ‘Would you like to go out to dinner?’
Not at Lindy’s behest she wouldn’t!
‘I don’t think that would be a good idea,’ Serina hedged. ‘Although I slept like a top last night, I’m feeling a bit washed out right now.’
The glint in his eyes told her he was amused, but he said soberly, ‘Then we’ll have a quiet meal at home tonight and see how you feel tomorrow.’
But the other woman’s arrival had somehow cast a cloud over the afternoon.
Back at the homestead, Serina thanked him, then said, ‘I’d like to try my camera out in your garden, if that’s all right with you?’
‘I don’t want you writing about my garden,’ he said crisply.
‘I know, and I won’t, but I’ll want to take photographs when I visit other gardens, and the light here, especially during the middle of the day, is very clear and stark. I’d like to work out what settings are best.’
He held her eyes a second longer than necessary, then nodded. ‘Have you always taken your own photographs?’
‘Not
