Their Baby Bargain

seemed to consider his options.

Wendy and Luke’s eyes met, and they held their collective breath.

Girl and dog were nose to nose. The puppy eyeballed his new mistress for a long, long moment-and then, very slowly, the tiny tail stirred and waved.

And one pink tongue came out for this final investigation. Tongue met nose. Bruce was meeting his new mistress. His…mummy? And Luke looked up at Wendy and grinned and grinned, as if he’d personally achieved a miracle.

Which, come to think of it, Wendy conceded, he had.

Despite his peculiar pyjamas.

And then, after that, they all sort of landed up in the bed. It was a big bed. Luke was already in it, Gabbie and Bruce were caught up in bedcovers and it seemed silly for Wendy to keep standing by the door when Gabbie was holding Bruce and telling Wendy to come and feel how soft his ears were… How wet his tongue was… How fat his tummy was…

So Wendy came and perched on the edge of the bed, staying as distant as she could from this pyjama-clad threat to her placidity! But then Bruce lunged at Grace. Grace toppled over in her delight at trying to reach this wonderful new toy, and Wendy had to separate them and she fell sideways…

And Grandma’s bump just fitted her exactly-and there was no use resisting. So she and Luke lay side by side, and she gave in and let her sensations have their sway and chuckled at the sight of this ill-assorted brood getting to know each other.

It felt just wonderful.

But it also felt…dangerous.

What was happening? Luke was holding Grace up in the air above his head, making her chortle with pleasure. Gabbie and Bruce were somewhere under the bedclothes-good grief!-any minute now there’d be a puddle and then there’d be trouble! The bed wasn’t big enough to lie too far apart, and the bumps wouldn’t allow it anyway. The soft cloth of Wendy’s nightgown was brushing those crazy flannelette sailing boats, and the warmth radiating out from his side of the bed was seductive in its charm…

‘Breakfast,’ Wendy said jerkily, and sat up fast. She was aware that her face was suffused with colour-which was silly. ‘And that puppy needs to go outside.’

‘No, he doesn’t,’ Luke said lazily, and grinned.

‘If you don’t know your puppies…’ Heavens, why was the man’s smile so…so darned irresistible?

‘It’s the very fact that I do know my puppies,’ he said, still watching Wendy with that strange, enigmatic smile that had the power to make her heart do all sorts of things it had no business doing. ‘Or rather, I know one puppy in particular. That puppy is very, very close to me and I also know that there’s a warm, wet puddle right under my left big toe. That tells me he no longer needs to go outside at all, and I do hope we now have a working washing machine, Miss Maher.’

‘We have a working washing machine.’ She tried to look disapproving but it didn’t quite come off. ‘Right…right under your left big toe?’

‘Actually right on my left big toe,’ he corrected himself. He held Grace high again and grinned his gorgeous smile at his baby sister. ‘And, unless I’m very much mistaken, there’s a certain moistness about you, too, Grace Grey. So I believe our Wendy’s right. We rise, we dry off, we have breakfast-and then we hit the day. Because there’s all sorts of things I want to do today. All sorts.’

‘Aren’t…aren’t you going back to Sydney?’ Wendy managed, trying not to look as if she cared. It didn’t quite come off.

‘No, Wendy, I’m not,’ he told her dryly. He reached under the bedclothes and retrieved Bruce, holding him high with his baby sister. One baby in one hand, one puppy in the other, and he eyed them both with misgivings. ‘Rightly or wrongly, I’ve decided a few days spent here are in order-for me to get to know my new family. My entire new family!’

And she could make of that what she would.

An hour later, Wendy was outside hanging freshly laundered sheets over the washing line and trying to come to terms with the fact that Luke had decided to stay on. He had the right, she guessed-but she badly didn’t want him to.

Why? It was important for him to get to know Grace. She knew that. Bonding was good. So what was the problem with him staying?

It was her, she thought crossly. It was the way her body responded to him. He made her feel like no one had ever made her feel before. Including Adam. Luke walked into the room and it sort of lit up.

He had the two children mesmerised-they were shrieking with laughter now as he rolled over and over on the south lawn, showing Gabbie how much faster she could roll downhill, teaching Grace to roll herself from one side to the other, and fending one puppy away from two baby noses. Gabbie, who normally held herself totally aloof, seemed besotted.

‘Which I’m not,’ Wendy told herself sternly. ‘I can’t afford to be. I’m the employee here.’

But still…

‘Wendy, we need help.’ Suddenly he was right beside her, handing her the next sheet, and holding one end so they could peg together.

‘We need help? I’m the one who’s doing the washing.’ She glared at him. ‘You didn’t leave the children alone with the dog, did you?’

‘Bruce is hardly going to eat them.’

‘No, but-’

‘And I’ve taught Gabbie the proper way to pick Bruce up so she won’t hurt him. She really is a very intelligent little girl. You need have no qualms, ma’am. Everything is in order.’

‘I-’

‘And now I’ve helped you hang the washing,’ he said virtuously. ‘So it’s your turn to help me. I need you.’

I need you… Three small words, but they had the power to twist her heart. Ha! Need! This man needed no one.

‘What for?’ She glowered with distrust but her distrust was ignored.

‘The canoe’s still under the house,’ he told her. ‘I checked. And there’s life jackets. I reckon there’s even one I can cut down to make a ring for Bruce. The morning’s gorgeous, Miss Maher. The urgent work is done, so forget the housework. Forget responsibilities. There’s places here that you’ve never imagined, and it’d be my very great privilege to show them to you.’

‘But-’

‘No argument. I’m your boss, remember.’ He put a finger on her lips, and he couldn’t have guessed just what sensations the touch engendered. She could hardly tell herself. ‘Just come and see. And prepare to be amazed!’

She was. There was no other word for it.

Wendy had never done anything like this in her life, and she could only sit in her end of the canoe, hold on to Grace and Bruce-and wonder!

They’d launched the canoe, with Luke pulling, Wendy and Gabbie pushing and Grace and Bruce inside as they’d hauled it down across the sloping paddock to the beach. Then Luke had secured them all in assorted life jackets, had looped Wendy to Bruce and Grace-‘So if you all go overboard you’ll bob around together like three really weird corks until I can fish you all out’-and they’d set sail. Or set paddle if you were being picky. Which Wendy was past being.

There was hardly any need for life jackets. The day was brilliant. The water was turquoise clear; it was shallow and as calm as a millpond, and Bruce and Grace and Gabbie were so amazed they hardly moved.

They just watched. And why not? To the left of the farm, the beach gave way to a series of shallow cliffs and it was here that Luke directed the canoe. He handled the canoe as if he’d spent a lifetime behind the paddle-‘Which I have,’ he told them. ‘A childhood of paddling and permanent calluses can’t easily be unlearned.’

Wendy had expected just a run along the cliff line, but to her astonishment as they neared the cliffs Luke