and very dead tree nearby. Apart from the dead tree, all that was in sight was a line of underfed cattle, staring out over the swimmers with bovine nonchalance.
Plus two small kangaroos, approaching the water with caution for an evening drink.
This place was the ends of the earth, she thought. She should welcome the thought of getting out of here. Of leaving.
Instead Jenna turned back toward Riley and knew that in leaving it’d be as if she were tearing her heart from her body.
So do something, Jenna, her inner self told her.
Show him how you feel.
Jenna froze, horrified. She couldn’t.
Could she?
But suddenly she couldn’t bear not to. After all, what did she have to lose?
Riley?
She was losing him anyway. He wasn’t hers-except in her heart.
And if, somehow, she could find the courage to show him…
So Jenna Svenson, quiet, diminutive Jenna, who’d held herself to herself for the whole of her life, whose only gambles had led to disaster, took a deep breath, counted to three-and duck-dived under the water straight towards him.
She got it right. Years of visits to unwelcoming parents in five-star resorts, stuck with bored child-minders who’d had the choice of caring for their charge in a hotel room or at the hotel pool-those years had taught both her and Karli to swim like fish. She aimed herself beautifully. There was no way Riley could see her coming.
So Riley knew nothing until Jenna surfaced right underneath him. He jerked sideways in shock. Her breasts slid up against his naked chest and her hands came out to grasp his body, as if to steady herself.
Accidentally maybe, but how carefully planned!
‘Hey.’ He jerked away and she was forced to release him. ‘A whole dam and you crash into me?’ he spluttered.
‘Sorry.’
He looked at her oddly and she gazed back with nonchalance.
He turned back to his floating.
‘You’re being incredibly lazy,’ she told him. ‘You’ve hardly swum.’
‘I’ve swum enough.’
‘You’re hardly even wet,’ she teased-and she dived straight under him. She grabbed his feet and he was so stunned that Jenna succeeded in pulling him right under. He surfaced, choking and gasping, to find Jenna laughing from two feet away.
‘You don’t hold your breath very well,’ she told him, considering. ‘Are you not a good swimmer?’
‘You little…’
She eyed him with hope. This man held himself under such rigid control. What she wanted-desperately-was for that control to snap.
‘Maybe it’s time for us to head back to the house,’ Riley said flatly and he turned away.
Was he made of iron?
One last try.
‘When you’ve had a good soaking,’ she told him. She duck-dived again, grabbing his feet and hauling him down once more, but this time instead of releasing him she clung like a limpet-holding him under so that he had to twist and grab her and haul her to the surface with him.
It was never a contest. Riley’s strength so far outweighed hers that there was no way Jenna could hold him down-but now as they surfaced he was holding her, and she wasn’t pushing away. Not when she was so close to him. Not when her body was against his and she knew that she was absolutely right to fight for this. What this man made her feel…
Even if Riley never touched her again, Jenna would remember how it was to touch him like this, she decided. There was a feeling running through her that seemed like an electric charge. But instead of pain, the current was forming colours, so that all the hues of the rainbow were swirling inside her head as Jenna clung to the man she loved as if she’d never let go.
Over and over a tiny prayer repeated itself. Please let him feel it. Please let me not be imagining this. This man is my other half. Let him recognise it. Let him want me just as much as I want him. Tomorrow can take care of itself, if only I can hold this man right now.
She looked up into his wet and streaming face-her body still huddled where he’d hauled her into his arms in self defence.
Please.
And Riley looked down into Jenna’s pleading eyes-and she saw his defences crumble absolutely.
Who could resist this? Who could hold themselves apart from this lovely wisp of a girl-this elf, who one moment was a laughing, teasing wanton-and the next a bereft and frightened girl?
Not a girl. No. The woman in his arms was every bit a woman. He felt her soft, voluptuous curves yielding to the hardness of his body and he felt a piercing of new life surging through his veins. Of hope. Of a sudden trust that life could once again hold warmth and intimacy and love.
Crazy thought. Crazy.
Yet who could doubt it? Certainly not Riley. Not here. Not now. He held her, and Jenna looked up, and he knew by her eyes that she was expecting to be pushed away.
Somewhere in his inner consciousness he knew that this was no wanton action on Jenna’s part. He knew that she would do this for no other man.
He was under no illusions. No matter how sweet love could be, it wasn’t for him. Not for ever.
But for now…
Treading water in his muddy dam, with his cattle watching in silent approval, with Karli calmly playing on the opposite bank, there was no way Riley could reject what Jenna was offering. He stared down into her lovely face and there were no defences. No defences at all.
Jenna. His love?
His love for now.
But maybe now was all that mattered. With infinite gentleness he gathered her closer, willing her body to nestle into his, and he felt her joyful submission with a shard of pure, piercing joy.
It was crazy to feel like this. Yet a man would have to be superhuman to resist-to not want her-to push away what she was offering.
He wanted her so much. He wanted her as a starving man wanted food. More. It was as if his soul had been starved for all these years, and somehow Jenna were feeding it, releasing his soul from its lonely, shrivelling self and letting it burst forth in an explosion of pure joy.
Her hands were on his shoulders, sliding round to hold his muscled body against her, and her breasts were moulding into his chest. He was totally supporting her now. If they sank, they sank together, and at one level a thought shot through him that that was just what they should do. Die now. Die happy.
Which was crazy. A hundred cattle were watching-dependent on him. His responsibility. Karli was making mud pies. Jenna’s responsibility. There could only be this one moment, snatched from reality.
But a moment was okay by him. If a moment was all they had, then so be it. He looked into Jenna’s face and found her eyes were glistening with something that wasn’t the muddy dam water. Tears? There was laughter, a boldness, echoes of the toughness that had kept her from going under for all those years as she’d fended for herself, but underneath she was soft and aching and as needful as he was.
He wasn’t needful.
Liar. Who wouldn’t be needful when this woman was in reach? When she was so close and so lovely.
He managed a fleeting glance across at Karli, almost hoping that she needed them. That she could stop what was starting to seem inevitable. But Karli had discovered the kangaroos. She was carrying one of her mud pies out of the water, as if to take it to the animals on the bank.
She was safe and she was occupied.
