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CHAPTER ONE SHE was wearing white, for crying out loud. Jack Lewis grimaced as the elegant figure stepped down from the tiny plane while clouds of red dust slowly settled on the airstrip. The same red dust covered his ute, his riding boots, and practically everything else in the outback, and yet Senator Elizabeth Green had chosen to arrive on Savannah cattle station dressed from head to toe in blinding, laundry-commercial white. Her elegant sandals were white, her crisply ironed trousers, her matching linen top and even her floppy-brimmed hat. The only non-white items were her accessories—swanky dark glasses and a pale green leather shoulder bag that clearly held a laptop. Where did she think she’d flown to? The flaming Italian Riviera? Jack muttered a soft oath, audible only to Cobber, the cattle dog at his heels. ‘I suppose we’d better go and say g’day.’ Shrugging off an uncomfortable sense of martyrdom, Jack set out across the stretch of dirt, moving with a deliberately easy amble,
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO ‘DO YOU do all your own cooking?’ Lizzie asked Jack, forcing her mind to practical matters. ‘Not usually. Most of the time there’s a station cook, but I sent him out with the mustering team.’ Jack poured boiling water into the teapot, replaced the lid and set the pot on the table with two blue striped mugs. ‘Is there a muster on at the moment?’ He nodded. ‘We always muster as soon as the wet season’s out of the way.’ ‘Does that mean I’ve inconvenienced you?’ His shrug was a beat too late. ‘The team can manage without me.’ ‘But you’re the manager. Are you supposed to be supervising?’ His back was to her now and he spoke as he reached for milk and sugar. ‘I have a satellite phone. I can stay in touch.’ He turned, and his green eyes regarded her steadily. ‘You should know that, Senator. After all, you’ll be running the whole country from here.’ It was a not-so-subtle dig—and she realised that Jack probably resented her sudden arrival. She said, ‘I suppose you’re wondering how
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE THE strident laughter of kookaburras woke Lizzie. Disoriented, she lay still, staring about her, taking in the soft grey morning light that crept through an unfamiliar window. Slowly, she remembered her arrival at Savannah yesterday, and why she’d come here. She smelled bacon frying, which meant Jack was up. Dismayed, she washed and dressed and hurried to the kitchen. It would be her turn to cook dinner this evening and already the task was looming in her mind as The Great Kitchen Challenge. She wanted to catch Jack before he took off for some far-flung corner of the property, to ask him about the contents of Savannah’s pantry. He was still at the stove, fortunately, tending to a frying pan, and looking far more appealing than any man had a right to look at such an early hour. He was wearing a blue cotton shirt, faded from much washing, and old jeans torn at the knee. His fair hair was backlit by the morning sun and his skin was brown and weather-beaten, and he looked ast
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR SHE’D almost let Jack kiss her. She’d wanted him to kiss her. She’d very nearly jumped into his arms. Lizzie stood at the doorway of her room, looking out across the front veranda to the quiet paddocks and the silvery trunks of gum trees, shocked by how close she’d come to wrecking her careful plans. She’d come to Savannah to escape the pressures of the city, mostly to escape the pressure of journalists who’d just love to discover her pregnancy and turn it into a scandal. Yet tonight she’d been on the brink of creating a hot, new scandal. With Jack. She could imagine the headlines. ‘Senator’s Outback Love Nest.’ ‘Senator Takes a Cowboy.’ She’d wanted Jack to kiss her. Heaven help her, she’d practically prayed for amnesia. She’d wanted to forget her political responsibilities, and to forget she was forty and off men, and that she always picked the wrong men anyway. She’d wanted to forget that she was only here for a few short weeks, forget that her focus was on becoming a m
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE THEY went through to the lounge room. To talk. Jack still couldn’t believe he was doing this, couldn’t believe he’d pulled back from the most sensational kiss he’d ever known. He’d been a lost man, on the very brink of taking an Australian federal senator. Right there. In the kitchen. Unless he was terribly mistaken, she’d been as swept away as he was. In another five seconds they might have been too lost in passion to stop. Now, it was hard to be grateful for the inner voice that had urged him to remember why Kate Burton had sent Lizzie Green to Savannah. She’d wanted Lizzie to be safe. Safe. In his care. She was in some kind of trouble and she’d been placed under his protection. He knew zero about her private life. Which meant he had no choice but to cool his heels, and his ardour, until he’d extracted satisfactory answers. So, yeah. He’d let Lizzie talk, and he’d listen, and then he’d kiss her senseless. As Lizzie took a seat in Jack’s lounge room, she was sure she’d
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX LIZZIE smiled into Jack’s surprised eyes. ‘There’s no champagne, but you looked so pleased with yourself for clearing that jump, and I thought you ought to be congratulated.’ ‘Well, thank you, Senator.’ Before she could slip away, he reached around her, gripping her low on her behind, trapping her against his denim thighs, and next moment, he was answering her kiss with a kiss of his own. And his kiss wasn’t a mere smack on the lips. His kiss was mesmerising, slow and thorough—a happy kiss, perfectly in tune with Lizzie’s mood and with the beauty and brightness of the morning. He tasted of the clean, crisp outdoors, wild and untamed. He hadn’t shaved, and his beard grazed her jaw, but she loved the maleness of it, just as she loved the faint hint of dust and saddle leather that clung to his clothing. The saddle slid to the ground, landing with a thump and a clink of buckles. Jack pulled her closer and deepened the kiss, and she felt her desire blossom like a flower opening
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN STANDING at the open doorway of her room, Lizzie looked at the sunburnt plains, while she applied herself to the extraordinarily difficult task of not missing Jack. He’d headed off somewhere to work, and she’d come here to her room—to work—but it was proving impossible. Jack was front, back and centre of her thoughts. No doubt he was puzzled and possibly upset after she’d rushed out to greet him with kisses, then retreated, and promptly delivered the news of her pregnancy. How could she have been so irresponsible? She prided herself on her prudence. She’d never been reckless around men. Well…not after she’d learned two very difficult lessons. But now, to her shame, she couldn’t stop thinking about Jack’s kiss. Even though she’d stopped it, and delivered a speech that ensured it would never be repeated, he’d ignited a craving in her. Lizzie knew it was wrong. Regret was such a useless emotion. She’d never been a thrill-seeker, had never been bothered by any kind of addicti
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT JACK stopped outside Lizzie’s bedroom door. He thought he’d heard crying, but that was impossible. Lizzie was so strong. He’d seen that with his own eyes, and he’d been reading on the Internet about her reputation for being a particularly tough senator. Apparently, Lizzie had rarely let the opposition break her down, and he couldn’t imagine her collapsing into a fit of weeping, but when he leaned closer to the door there could be no mistake. Lizzie was definitely crying. No, it was worse than that. She was sobbing uncontrollably, as if her heart would break. Alarmed, Jack tapped on her door, but she was crying so loudly she couldn’t hear him. He gave the door a gentle push, and it swung forward to reveal Lizzie sprawled on her bed, abandoned in misery, her face red, tear-stained, twisted with despair, her body shaking. The sight sliced into Jack. At first he was too shocked to think, but then he raced through possibilities. Was there a problem with the baby? A miscarriage
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE MIDNIGHT, and the moon shone so brightly it seemed to come right into bed with them. They were in Jack’s bed, a symphony in grey, black and silver, and Lizzie lay on her side, so she could see him in the moonlight, amazed that she felt utterly at peace with herself and with the world. Jack was a perfect lover and the loveliest man, and she didn’t want to analyse this moment, or to try to justify in her head exactly why she was lying here with him. She just wanted to drink in the memory, to save it for the future…this feeling of perfect happiness and safety, of being in the right place, with the right man…at the right time… Except…in the silver moonlight Jack’s eyes were too shiny. ‘Are you OK?’ she whispered. ‘Yes, of course.’ ‘You look sad.’ ‘Not sad, just thinking.’ ‘What about?’ He made a small sound of impatience, rolled onto his side, facing her, and lifted her fingers to his lips. He kissed them gently one by one. ‘It’s nothing,’ he said. ‘A bad memory. It’s gone.’ L
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN TWO mornings later, Jack gave up trying to stay away from Lizzie. He stuck his head through her doorway and found her sitting at her desk, concentrating as usual on her laptop screen, so he knocked. Her eyes lit up with pleasure when she saw him, and his heart skipped like a day-old colt. ‘How busy are you?’ he asked. ‘Why? Is something happening?’ ‘I thought you might like to get out of the office for a bit. We could go for a drive and I could show you the gorge.’ Her eyes widened. ‘What gorge?’ ‘Porcupine Gorge. It’s quite spectacular, and part of it runs through Savannah land.’ Frowning, she looked from him to her computer, then back to him again. The frown faded and colour rose in her cheeks. ‘I must say this work on the Senate Appropriations Bill is very tedious. I’m very tempted to take a break.’ ‘Great,’ Jack said, not giving her room for second thoughts. ‘How long do you need to be ready?’ ‘Five minutes?’ He grinned, and Lizzie smiled back at him, her eyes flashing
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN JACK chose a booth near the window in the Currawong café, so that he had a clear view across the street to the doctor’s surgery. He couldn’t believe how nervous he was, how much he cared about Lizzie and this baby of hers. When the surgery door opened and Lizzie appeared, his heart gave a painful thud. She looked beautiful, dressed for town in a sleeveless, aqua-blue dress, bare-legged and wearing sandals of woven brown and gold leather. His eyes feasted on her as she crossed the street, hips swaying seductively. She’d left her hair down for once, and it flowed about her shoulders as she moved, shining in the sunlight, dark as a raven’s wing. She reached the footpath and looked towards the café, and that was when Jack saw that her face was too pale and her eyes were glazed with shock. Instantly, he was on his feet, his chair scraping the tiles, his heart knocking against the wall of his chest. The doctor had given her bad news. There could be no other explanation. A rock
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE THE small plane was due to arrive at nine-fifteen. Jack rose early, skipping breakfast to clear the horses and flatten the anthills on the airstrip. Then he returned to the homestead to find Lizzie’s luggage at the bottom of the steps, waiting to be packed into the back of the ute. He’d been trying to stay numb ever since he’d read her note, and he loaded the suitcases like an automaton. It was the only way he would get through this. Lizzie had been in the kitchen saying goodbye to Bill, but now she appeared, dressed in Jack’s favourite soft blue jeans and the pale green top with the ruffles down the front. Last week, she’d joked that she wouldn’t be able to wear these clothes much longer, and they’d talked about ordering maternity clothes over the Internet. Now she was leaving, and Jack was stunned that it was all happening so fast. He’d failed. Again. If he’d been smarter, he would have found a sure-fire way to convince Lizzie that he loved her, that she belonged with
CHAPTER TWELVE
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