* * *
Blake stared at her, horrified when the sound coming from her throat turned from laughter to a strangled gurgle. He jumped out of his chair and pulled Delilah up, wrapping his arms around her chest before he could give it a thought. When his hands met in the curve under her breasts, he lifted her up and squeezed.
A piece of half chewed lamb flew onto the table and Royce cheered.
“You did it, Dad, you saved her.”
Delilah groaned and Blake turned her around to face him. When he saw the pallor on her face, he pulled her into his chest. “It's okay, just breathe.”
She gripped a handful of his shirt and sank against him, her body heat meeting his through the thin cotton. His body reacted with a mind of its own and his arms tightened around her, holding her close. Damn Sue and her ability to find the one woman who could make him forget his loneliness, and let him think he could be whole again. This time though, he doubted she had it right, even though his body was telling him otherwise. Not a slick city girl with a career too high-powered for this country boy. She was way out of his league, sad but he knew it as plain as day. He would be asking for trouble if he tried to start up anything with Delilah.
As the blood rushed to his groin, stirring up long dead memories, Blake pushed her away, hoping to slow his body’s reaction to her. “Feeling better now?”
He gripped her by the shoulders and looked down into her green eyes. He wished they were anywhere but in his messy family kitchen in the middle of the Outback with two interested sets of eyes watching their every move. The tip of her pink tongue skimmed across her bottom lip and the pulse in his throat jumped. “Delilah, are you alright?” He swallowed and leaned down slightly to stare into her face.
She lifted her hand and wiped a small trail of spittle from her chin, frowning before looking up to. “Um, yeah, I guess. Sorry about that.” She took a deep breath and gave a shaky laugh, a blush racing up her cheeks. “Way to make a great impression, isn't it?”
“You don't have to worry about that. We don't stand on ceremony here. You’ll get that sooner or later, I guess.” He squeezed her shoulder before dropping his hands and walking back to his chair. Blake sat down and picked up his fork. “Sit and eat before it gets cold.”
A red tinge was still high on her cheeks when Delilah took her seat again. She reached over and picked the offending piece of meat from the table and with a look of distaste on her face, placed it on the edge of her plate.
“Sorry about that. It would seem I can't giggle, snort, and swallow at the same time. My apologies.” She smiled at the surrounding family and picked up her knife and fork and began eating.
Blake smiled. “So, tell us about your job. It sounds pretty exciting if you like the city life and that kind of rush and bustle.”
“Swallow first.” Bluey winked at her.
“Right. Well, I write Bondi Beauties for Pacific Television and have done for the last six years. It’s a top rating show and we have such great reviews for it, and so many dedicated followers. I enjoy it, really I do. It's just that for some reason I've been struggling a bit to come up with new ideas for my characters.” She gave a bitter laugh and Blake's heart went out to her. “The studio thought it would be a good idea for me to take a break and recharge the batteries—go figure—and here I am, stuck in the big wide desert, hoping inspiration will strike at any minute.”
A dark shadow crossed her face, and Blake experienced a twinge of sadness for her. She was hiding pain and he wondered if he could do anything to push that away.
She beamed him a huge smile, but couldn't mask the bitter disappointment in her eyes. Why would someone with what seemed like the dream job end up out here? Filling in for a nanny he couldn't possibly hope to keep didn’t sound quite right. This required some more digging to find out the real story of why she was here in his kitchen doing something obviously very foreign to her normal lifestyle.
“How do you feel about that, Delilah?”
“Call me Del please. Well, it's either take a break or lose my contract, simple as that.” She speared a piece of meat on her fork and lifted it for inspection, twirling it before looking back to Blake. “I love writing. It suits me and my lifestyle. I don't know what else to do so, here I am.”
“At least you’ll get to see how the other half lives anyway.” Bluey winked in her direction and she smiled at him. Trust his offsider to get the smiles.
“Yes, there is that. Now I'm here, it doesn't feel too bad being chased out of Sydney. I probably did need the break, but I had something like a few weeks sunning myself in the Maldives drinking cocktails in mind, not Outback Australia.” Blake could imagine her there too, sunning herself in a tiny string bikini with a glass in her hand, a waiter on standby for whatever she desired. Instead she was sitting in his kitchen.
“So why didn't you go there then?” Blake took a piece of bread and tore it in two before wiping it over the edge of his plate to soak
