Outback Husband. Jessica Hart

unable to stop wondering what would have happened if Cal hadn’t dropped her when he had. He would have been lying in bed, his body where her hand smoothed over the sheet. Juliet’s palms had twitched at the thought. She’d felt as if her nerves were jumping just beneath her skin. She’d wished she could stop thinking about what it would be like to touch him, to taste him, to shiver at his hands drifting over her, at his hardness covering her…

      She had to stop this!

      If Cal thought she was going to make a big deal out of one crummy kiss, he would be disappointed. Juliet had spent too long coping with Hugo’s sudden whims and changes of mood. She was in charge now, she reminded herself, and she wasn’t going to go to pieces just because some man had kissed her.

      No, she had hired Cal to manage the station. He would just have to accept that she was his employer, not a convenient diversion for the empty outback evenings.

      ‘Sorry?’ Juliet suddenly realised that Natalie was talking to her and that she hadn’t heard a word. ‘What did you say?’

      ‘I said, the kettle’s boiled,’ said Natalie, evidently puzzled by Juliet’s abstracted air.

      As she drank her tea, Juliet wondered whether Natalie was upset at being abandoned by her father for the day, but she seemed to take it in her stride. She was happy to stay with Juliet and the twins, she told Juliet, adding conscientiously, ‘If you don’t mind.’

      The only thing Juliet minded was the way Cal had simply assumed she would be there to look after his daughter, but she could hardly say that to Natalie, and anyway, the little girl turned out to be very useful. It was much easier to get things done knowing that she was keeping an eye on the twins, who were liable to get into all sorts of mischief if they weren’t watched like a hawk.

      And Juliet had to admit that it was nice to have someone to talk to. It was just a pity that Cal wasn’t as open and friendly as his daughter.

      Later that afternoon, when the heat of the day began to cool, Juliet took Natalie and the boys down to the paddock to see the horses that were corralled there, waiting their turn to be taken out on a muster, or ridden through the scrub and termite hills where even four-wheel drives couldn’t go.

      Natalie’s eyes shone as she hung over the rail. ‘Dad’s going to get me a horse of my own, so I can go riding with him,’ she told Juliet proudly.

      Juliet patted the neck of a roan that had come in search of a titbit. ‘I’d like to get a couple of small ponies for the boys to learn on,’ she said.

      The twins had always loved watching the horses. They were standing on the rail next to Natalie, not at all afraid of the big mare tossing her head up and down. ‘The trouble is that I can’t leave one while I teach the other to ride, and I can’t control two ponies at once,’ she went on, half to herself. She had tried to work out a way round the difficulty many times since the boys had been old enough to walk, but the fact remained that she couldn’t teach two small boys to ride at the same time with only one pair of hands.

      ‘Dad could help you,’ Natalie offered, and Juliet smiled wryly.

      ‘I think Dad’s got more important things to do at the moment.’

      ‘He certainly has.’ Cal had come up behind them so quietly that when he spoke, Juliet jumped a mile. The man must move like a cat!

      ‘Where did you come from?’ she demanded, heart hammering. It was the shock, she told herself. Nothing to do with the sight of him, lean and strong and somehow immediate in the sharp outback light. Beneath his hat, his eyes were as cool and as impersonal as ever and his mouth—that mouth that she remembered so well from last night—was compressed in an angry line.

      ‘The stockyards,’ he said with an edge of impatience. What did it matter where he had come from? It wasn’t his fault she had nothing better to do than spend the afternoon leaning on the paddock rail and was so busy looking elegant in khaki trousers and a cream shirt that she hadn’t heard him coming.

      He turned to Natalie. ‘Nat, why don’t you take the twins back to the homestead?’ he said. ‘I need a word with Mrs Laing.’

      ‘I call her Juliet,’ said Natalie, but she climbed off the rail.

      Juliet bridled at the way Cal was ordering her sons around, but she didn’t want to start arguing in front of the children. ‘Yes, would you mind getting them a drink, Natalie?’ she said tightly. ‘I want to talk to your father.’

      She watched Natalie lead Kit and Andrew out of earshot, holding carefully onto two sticky hands, before rounding on Cal. ‘I’d be grateful if you’d let me decide where and when we talk!’ she hissed. ‘You’re here to manage the station and nothing else. You can leave my children to me!’