Outback With The Boss. Barbara Hannay

to do with this. He’s mistaken if he thinks we’re still…friends.’

      ‘Indeed?’ He considered her response for another uncomfortably long moment. ‘You look terrified. What is there to be afraid of?’

      Mitch stepped forward and, with an assurance she was sure came from years of experience, reached out his hand to rest it lightly at the nape of her neck. Her skin grew hot beneath his touch and she fully intended to pull away. But, with the same ease that a bright flower attracts a giddy butterfly, he slowly drew her towards him and her good intentions melted. Her lips hovered just below his. ‘Is this what you’re frightened of, Grace?’

      Her heart fluttered frantically.

      There was no doubt he intended to kiss her.

      And Grace also sensed at that moment, that if she cried out, or tried to beat Mitch Wentworth off with her fists, he would certainly let her go. She might have asked him to stop if she hadn’t been having such difficulty with her breathing, but instead she allowed him to close that last short gap.

      As Mitch’s warm mouth settled over hers, a tiny sob escaped her and she felt him pull away slightly.

      But she was already under his spell.

      Her eyes were already closed and her face was tilted at a shamefully helpful angle. And, after that one brief touch of his lips, she was mentally begging him to taste her, to explore her mouth with his own. And when he did Grace sank against him as if she needed his strength.

      There was nothing arrogant or pigheaded about the way Mitch’s hands tenderly cradled her face, or the way his mouth lazily investigated hers. It was a journey of discovery beyond her wildest dreams. Wherever he touched her, her skin seemed to flare with delicious sensitivity. The way his mouth moved, slowly and seductively against hers, felt so-o-o good. Utterly spellbound, Grace’s lips opened, pleading for more. Mitch’s kiss deepened and, as if they had a mind of their own, her arms rose shyly to link themselves around his neck.

      There was nothing threatening about being in his embrace. Never before had she felt so womanly, so desirable, so eager for a man to explore more than her lips. When Mitch finally broke away, it took all her strength of will not to moan in soft protest.

      He looked down at her, his gaze smoky with emotion. ‘Another question answered,’ he murmured softly.

      And the spell was broken.

      Shocked, Grace staggered backwards, her hand at her mouth as if she couldn’t quite believe she’d allowed such a thing to happen.

      ‘What do you think you’re doing? You can’t just get your way by trying to seduce me,’ she cried, her voice shrill with self-recrimination.

      ‘Of course not,’ Mitch responded quickly. ‘I wasn’t using a kiss as a persuasive device. It was just—how shall I put it? An experiment. I needed to discover something.’

      Incensed, Grace grabbed a sofa cushion and hurled it at him. ‘How dare you? How could you experiment with me?’

      Mitch caught the cushion neatly and stood holding it in both hands. Hands which only minutes earlier had been caressing her. ‘I don’t know, Grace,’ he replied, a tiny smile playing at the corners of his mouth. ‘Can you explain how we seem to be such a great team when it comes to kissing?’

      Of course she couldn’t! It was the stupidest thing she’d ever done. Well, almost, she corrected as her memory replayed two other occasions this week when she’d made a first-class fool of herself in front of this man.

      ‘Don’t think a little kiss will make me want to go off travelling in the outback alone with you,’ she hissed.

      ‘What if I promise never to kiss you again?’

      ‘Oh?’ Grace gasped. Never? She hoped her reply held no echo of the ridiculous wave of regret that flooded right through her.

      ‘Boy scout’s honour,’ Mitch replied, tossing her a grin and a two fingered salute. Then he shot her a cheeky sideways glance and added, ‘Of course, I’d be prepared to build in an escape clause.’

      ‘Escape?’ she echoed faintly.

      ‘I’ll only kiss you if you want me to. The next time I take you in my arms will be when you ask me to, Ms Robbins.’

      That brought her to her senses. ‘In your dreams, Wentworth.’

      ‘I’m afraid I can’t promise what might happen in them.’

      Grace glared at him as she folded her arms across her chest and took several deep, fortifying breaths. The impact of that kiss was still reverberating through her body. Her heartbeats weren’t just racing, they were stampeding. Anybody would think she’d never been kissed before. She suppressed the recognition that she had never been kissed like that before. Roger the Rat had been nowhere near as good.

      To think she’d joked the other day about playing with the big boys. Clearly, Mitch’s kisses were in a league of their own.

      His businesslike tone cut through her wayward thoughts. ‘I really do need you to make this trip with me. You understand exactly what I want. You’ve already done all the groundwork. No one else will be nearly as useful. Give me some credit. I swear I’m not a boss who preys on his female staff. I want us to work together as a great business team.’

      Forget about the kiss, she chided. He means it. It’s not going to happen again. Concentrate on the job. ‘How many days would we be away?’ she asked softly.

      Mitch beamed at her. ‘I knew you wouldn’t let me down.’ He glanced again at the notes he’d made on the end of her report. ‘Five days should just about do the trick.’

      She nodded weakly.

      His answering nod of acceptance, as if he knew all along that she would capitulate, annoyed Grace, but she forced her mind to stay focused on practical business details. ‘Do we need to make any bookings?’

      ‘I’ll book for tomorrow night at Undara,’ he replied. ‘After that I’d like to be as flexible as possible. We’ll take my mobile phone and book ahead as we go.’ Mitch’s eyebrows rose and he jerked his head in the direction of her kitchen. ‘That curry of yours should be just about ready by now, shouldn’t it?’

      ‘Don’t push your luck, Mr Wentworth,’ Grace warned, pointing to her door. ‘If I have to spend the next five days with my boss, I need a little solitude tonight.’ More than anything else, she needed to think about how on earth she’d ever allowed that kiss to happen.

      Her very worst fears about Mitch had already proved well-founded. He was the kind of man who could charm a nun away from her prayers. And now she was going to be travelling alone with him! Grace believed he’d keep his promise about not kissing her again, but she needed to develop strategies to ensure her body didn’t come up with any silly ideas of its own.

      Mitch didn’t try to hide his disappointment that he wouldn’t taste her curry, but to her relief he had just enough manners not to push the matter. ‘I’ll have the vehicle ready for nine o’clock in the morning,’ he said as he went through her doorway. ‘I’ll pick you up from here.’

      Punctuality was not her boss’s strongest feature, Grace decided next morning when he eventually pulled up outside her flat a good thirty minutes late. He was driving a large, solid-looking off-road vehicle with a tray back.

      She had expected something more flashy and sporty—perhaps a shiny black and gold, city-style, four-wheel drive. This was a regular bush vehicle.

      When Mitch swung the driver’s door open and jumped down, flashing her a boyish grin, she was surprised by the way her own spirits lifted. She was hardly feeling her best after a long night tossing restlessly in her bed, worrying about spending five days rattling around the North Queensland outback side by side with her employer.

      But this morning, dressed in jeans and an army-green bush shirt, he was looking so genuinely excited, like a boy allowed off on his very