laughed. ‘Don’t go thinking that makes you special. My father is always warning me about men.’
He cocked his head and quirked one eyebrow. This was even better. He had never been one to back away from a challenge.
‘Don’t make me regret hiring you.’ George eyeballed them both. ‘Either of you.’
Oliver laughed; he was used to being told off, but he was surprised to see that Kat was blushing. She looked even more delightful now.
‘I mean it, Oliver—don’t mess with Kat.’ George looked him straight in the eye. ‘There aren’t too many places left for you to run to and if you hurt her you’ll want to start running, believe me.’
So now they were both going to put a challenge to him. Of course, that only served to entice him even more. George could warn him all he liked but Oliver had never been one to steer clear of a challenge. But he knew he had to tread carefully. He couldn’t afford any more scandals.
‘Go and find something to do,’ George told him. ‘I need to talk to Kat.’
Oliver left but he knew it wouldn’t be the last he saw of Kat Angelis. He was glad now that she hadn’t admitted that she recognised him, that she hadn’t said his reputation preceded him. Perhaps she’d have no preconceived ideas about him and he could try to impress her without any rumours or innuendo getting in the way.
He was still none the wiser as to her actual reason for being on set but, if George was hiring her, he’d make sure their paths crossed again. If he was going to be stuck in this town for the next few weeks he might as well have some fun. He knew it was his choice, almost, to be here—George had made him an offer that his publicist thought was too good to refuse—and timing was everything. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy himself. He wouldn’t misbehave, but even if he did he doubted anyone would ever hear about what went on out here. Coober Pedy and the Australian outback seemed to exist in its own little time capsule. It really was a whole other world.
Kat watched on as George shooed Oliver out of his office. Of course she’d recognised him—Oliver Harding was a star of multiple Hollywood blockbusters. He had been the lead actor in several recent box office hits and he played action heroes just as well as he carried romantic leads. He was in the news regularly, if not for his movies then for his off-screen exploits with his leading ladies or other Hollywood ‘It’ girls. Kat may be a small-town girl, living out in the desert in the middle of nowhere, but she had television, magazines, the internet and the local drive-in movie theatre, which showed new movies every Saturday night. Oliver Harding was famous and she would have to be living under a rock not to know who he was. The thought made her smile. She did actually live underground, like so many of the local residents, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know what went on in the rest of the world. Oliver Harding appeared in a new movie every six months, and with a new woman far more frequently. Having met him now, she could understand why. He was handsome on the silver screen but incredibly gorgeous in real life. He had charm, charisma and a twinkle in his bright blue eyes that had made her lose her train of thought on more than one occasion already.
‘I’m serious, Kat,’ George cautioned her again. Had he mistaken her smile to mean she wasn’t paying attention to his warning? ‘I’ve seen that look in his eye before. You really don’t want him to set his sights on you. Stronger women than you have fallen for his charms. He loves the thrill of the chase and he hates to let a pretty girl go unappreciated, but he has a tendency to leave a trail of broken hearts behind him.’
He had a cheeky appeal and amazing eyes and his smile made her stomach tumble, but Kat wasn’t about to succumb to his charm. She’d met charming men before and didn’t intend to be another notch on his bedpost. And she hadn’t been kidding when she’d said she knew how to handle herself. There was no denying Oliver Harding was gorgeous and charming but she was not the type to fall for charming and handsome. Well, that wasn’t technically true but she wasn’t the type to have flings with famous men who were just visiting. That was something irresponsible people did. Spontaneous people. And she’d learnt not to be either of those.
‘Don’t worry about me, George. I really can handle myself.’
‘He has a reputation for seducing women, but, in his defence, don’t believe everything you read or hear. He’s a nice guy but still a flirt and definitely incorrigible.’
‘I’m here to work, not fool around with the staff,’ Kat stated, reminding herself of her obligations as much as she was reminding George. ‘So, what exactly did you want to see me about?’
George sighed. ‘Oliver has it written into his contract that he gets to do a proportion of his own stunt work. A large proportion. But yesterday things didn’t go quite to plan. He was involved in an accident. The vehicle he was driving was supposed to crash but instead of going into a controlled sideways tip it flipped at speed and ended up on its roof. He seems to be fine.’
Kat thought back—she hadn’t noticed a limp or any bruising or protective postures, but she hadn’t been looking for signs of injury. She’d been too focused on his mesmerising blue eyes and on trying not to act like a star-struck fan.
‘But,’ George continued, ‘since the incident our first-aid officer is refusing to be responsible for Oliver’s safety and I must say she has a point. We have a stunt coordinator who is also Oliver’s double but…sometimes things go wrong. I think it would be prudent to have someone on set who has more experience than just a first-aid qualification. Not full-time, just when we’re doing the stunts. Do you think, if I gave you the filming schedule, you might be able to work with us? Would you be interested?’
‘I think so.’ George had outlined his thoughts on the phone to her last night but she needed more details. ‘Can you give me a basic idea of what would be required, mainly how much time?’
She listened as George ran through the filming schedule with her.
‘I’d still need to be available for ambulance shifts—even with the volunteers we don’t have enough staff to allow me to give those up,’ Kat said. Getting qualified paramedics to work in rural and remote areas was always tough and Kat knew she would have to make sure she didn’t put her colleagues under any additional pressure by requesting time off in order to do something that was purely to satisfy her own desires. As tempting and exciting as it was to think of working on a movie set, not to mention with Oliver Harding, her commitment to her career had to be her priority.
‘We could work around your schedule to a certain degree. As long as you could be on set when we’re doing the stunt work. Would that be possible? I don’t want to wear you out.’
From what George had described to her last night, the movie wasn’t really her cup of tea—she preferred drama and thrillers to science fiction—but she had to admit it would be exciting to work on a film set, and getting to work with Oliver would be an added bonus.
‘I reckon I can work something out. I’ll see if I can swap some of my day shifts for nights. We’re on call overnight. With a resident population of just over two thousand people there’s not usually a lot to keep us busy. It’s tourists that swell our numbers and keep us occupied.’
‘That’s great. I’ll get a contract drawn up; you’ll be fairly paid for your time.’
‘I don’t need—’
‘Don’t argue,’ George
