‘I didn’t say that.’
‘You didn’t have to.’
Their eyes locked. He knew what she was saying. They both knew what was the underlying problem here. But there was no future in their attraction, and Karli was here and the whole thing was impossible.
‘Okay.’ He appeared to regroup and Jenna eyed him with suspicion. Suddenly there was laughter lurking behind his dark eyes. The man was like a chameleon, changing moods on the instant.
‘If I keep you here, how about you do the bedrooms while I do the outside work?’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘If I seal them on the outside, will you clean them on the inside?’
If he could pretend this thing between them wasn’t happening, so could she. ‘More dust! And I’m almost clean!’
‘Didn’t you pack overalls?’ he demanded, and sighed as Jenna shook her head. ‘Honestly. What tourists pack for this place is hopeless.’
‘This place didn’t come with a tourist brochure,’ Jenna said with dignity. ‘I was hoping for something more like a five-star hotel with swimming pool.’
‘There’s a dam three miles north of here where you can swim.’
‘Yeah, right. With sun lounges and fluffy towels and someone serving pina coladas?’
‘I could supply a beer.’
Jenna suddenly focussed. He was serious. ‘You mean you really can swim there?’
A swim. Water all over her without having to pump like crazy. It sounded…irresistible. ‘Are you serious? If we work all day, is there somewhere we can swim tonight?’
‘If you don’t mind sharing a waterhole with a few cattle,’ Riley told her, startled. ‘And the odd kangaroo and any other form of wildlife who depend on it. It’s not what you might call appealing.’
‘If I can swim, then it’s definitely appealing.’ She eyed him thoughtfully. ‘Let’s make a deal. Karli and I will work for you all day-I’ll even get my shorts dirty in the cause-as long as you take us for a swim tonight.’
‘I…’
‘It’s a great deal,’ she said hurriedly, aware that Riley’s instinct was to refuse. And she knew why he should refuse. For exactly the same reason she shouldn’t ask in the first place.
But there was something within-something growing by the moment-a nagging urgency, saying: Manipulate every second you can to be with this man. This man is important to you. You hardly know why, but your body is giving you all sorts of messages you’d be a fool to ignore.
To go calmly back to England without finding out what those messages could mean-without finding out what could happen-was unthinkable.
So she stood and watched his face and waited and didn’t let him off the hook.
‘It’s not exactly your tiled backyard swimming pool,’ he said uneasily. ‘We’re talking mud.’
‘With swimmable water in the middle of mud?’
‘Yeah, but…’
‘I like mud.’
‘You won’t.’
‘Do you want me to work or not?’ Jenna glared. ‘I really want a swim, Mr Jackson, and I’m willing to work to get one. I’ll forgo luxury towels and the pina colada. But the rest… All you have to do is say yes.’
Their eyes locked-and the message between them was a challenge on Jenna’s part, and something she couldn’t fathom on Riley’s. And finally, inevitably, Riley relented.
‘All right, Miss Svenson,’ he said slowly. ‘You win.’ He hesitated, as though already regretting his agreement. ‘Mind, I expect hard labour for the luxury of sun, mud and surf.’
‘Surf?’
‘The water snakes make the surf,’ Riley said in a voice that was mock serious. ‘When they writhe in unison as they attack your toes, you can almost hang ten in the foam they churn. Are you still sure you want a swim?’
She fixed him with a look. ‘Are they poisonous?’
He opened his mouth to say yes, but her look was a challenge and he relented. ‘No. But they bite.’
‘Have you ever been bitten?’
‘No, but I might have been.’
‘You mean they’re more afraid of us than we are of them.’
‘They might be.’
She grinned. She was right to trust this man, she thought. He couldn’t lie to save himself.
‘We’ll swim fast,’ Jenna retorted. ‘Karli can swim like a fish and so can I. If they do bite us, then we’ll die happy, and you wouldn’t have said a swim was possible if it wasn’t.’
Riley stared at her, baffled. The corners of his mouth were twitching as if he was trying not to laugh, but there was still that deep caution embedded in his eyes. He was like a big cat, Jenna thought, wary of everything, but, deep down, downright dangerous.
‘All right, then, Miss Svenson,’ he said at last. ‘If that’s the way you want it, then you’ll get your mud-bath. If you work for it.’
Jenna had enjoyed her two days’ work with Karli. She enjoyed the work even more now. The steady sound of Riley’s carpentry and the interested hum of Karli’s gossip was great. It made her feel…at peace? It was weird and inexplicable, but it was a feeling Jenna hadn’t experienced before and she was savouring it.
The bedrooms were disgusting. Once more Jenna tied up her hair and attacked the dust with a shovel. Riley came in to help her drag the furniture clear so she could clean without hindrance, and then he disappeared fast. You’ll do your work by yourself and I’ll do mine, his body language said. We’re separate.
Separate was fine by Jenna, she decided. But not very separate. Karli was staunchly with Riley, her allegiance to this wonderful man unswerving, and it was as if by having Karli by Riley’s side a little bit of Jenna was there as well.
In the breaks between Karli’s questions, Riley whistled a fractured rendition of ‘Misty’, and Jenna started humming along in her head. The tune stayed there, a comfort all on its own. All morning, down on her hands and knees, scrubbing, she hummed right along.
Towards midday she heaved a bucket of water outside, tripped on the doorstep and her bucket of water poured down her bare legs onto her toes.
She stared down at her dust-and-water-sloshed toes and made a discovery. She was happier doing this than she’d ever been before. What she was doing here was pure fun.
She giggled.
She looked up from her toe contemplation-and found Riley watching her with bemusement.
‘You’re nuts,’ he told her.
‘Yep.’ She grinned.
‘Is your sister always nuts?’ he asked Karli, and Karli considered.
‘She’s funny.’
‘She’s got really funny toes,’ Riley conceded.
Karli followed Riley’s gaze to stare down at Jenna’s toes. ‘Yuk.’
‘Yuk’s right,’ Jenna told them. ‘I’m dirtier than you guys. That means I’ve been working harder so I get to swim the longest.’
‘Will you go back to nursing when you leave here?’ Riley asked. The question was unexpected and Jenna’s smile faded.
‘Of course. What else could I do?’
‘I bet your patients think you’re terrific.’
‘Yeah, they love me to bits,’ she said dryly. ‘I walk toward them with a syringe or an enema and they fall into my arms. Such devotion.’
He grinned, but that quizzical look was back. As if he didn’t have a clue what to make of her.
Good. She liked it that he was off balance. He surely had her off balance and that made them quits. She met his look with a trace of defiance.
‘Anyway, that’s another world,’ she told him. ‘Another time. What’s more important now is that you’re shirking
