The Shock Engagement. Ally Blake

still be out there somewhere, thinking of Harry, watching Harry, planning to hurt Harry. Her fists clenched in her lap as she thought what she would do to the woman if she ever got her hands on her. ‘Where is this woman now?’

      ‘The police arrested her in Alice Springs. It turned out she was a serial stalker. She had pulled a similar stunt with some football jock in New South Wales and was wanted for kidnapping the guy’s girlfriend. Now she is behind bars and those around me are safe from her attention.’

      He squeezed her hand and she knew he was making sure she realised she was safe. Emma felt a heady sense of relief. ‘And Rikki?’

      ‘She’s fine. All better. She’s even still working for me, believe it or not.’

      There was one more thing she had to know. ‘Was she…are you and Rikki…together?’

      He shook his head and her relief doubled. ‘Never. But it didn’t matter. This woman was so obsessed it didn’t matter.’

      ‘Harry, how can I not know this sort of stuff? You are supposed to be my best friend and yet you haven’t let me help you through any of the tough stuff.’

      ‘What good can it do burdening you, Em? I would rather that sweet mind of yours was filled with nice thoughts. Ignorance is bliss.’

      ‘Please!’ Emma scoffed. ‘I would much rather be in the know, to be able to help you and know you than to be in the dark.’

      Harry’s smile was full of sadness. ‘But that’s just it, Em. I don’t bring good luck to those who care for me.’

      ‘That woman didn’t care for you!’

      ‘No, she didn’t. But others have.’

      Emma knew exactly who he meant. Jamie. But that was ridiculous. He couldn’t possibly still be so defined by that experience, could he?

      ‘That’s half the reason I couldn’t come to your surprise party, Em. Keely had tracked me down and invited me. But when all this happened, I had to pull out. There was nothing that would have brought me back to you with that sort of danger following close behind.’

      She believed him. He hadn’t come to her party in order to protect her. How ironic. It was one of the many times he had broken her heart in the name of trying to look out for her best interests.

      ‘So now for my favour,’ he said. ‘You must know I have been nominated for this competition, this Australia’s Best Bachelor thing.’

      Emma grinned. Trust him to not even know the name of the biggest, most highly publicised event in the country.

      Harry caught her grin. ‘Hey,’ he said, ‘I have been told on the odd occasion that I can be quite hunky when the light is right.’

      Emma smiled. Harry didn’t need anything as transitory as light, nor something as subjective as a competition to make him look hunky. He made Emma’s heart race just by looking her in the eye.

      ‘Oh, it’s not that, Buchanan. I’m sure that under the right circumstances you can come across downright hunky to someone with the sun in their eyes. It’s just that WWW is heavily involved with that comp.’

      ‘I know, Em, and that’s why I am hoping that you can do something to get me out of it.’

      Emma opened her mouth but no words came out. She hadn’t seen that one coming at all. ‘Are you serious?’

      ‘Dead serious, Em,’ he said. ‘I haven’t done an interview since this whole business played itself out, and I don’t want to start now. Especially in a forum where I am to be held up as an object of…interest to women. Harold’s House will happily thrive without any focus on me, so if there is anything you can do to get me out of this thing, cleanly and quickly, I would appreciate it.’

      It seemed that Emma now had not only the future of WWW Designs weighing on her, but she was being called upon to jeopardise WWW’s involvement with Flirt magazine, the account for which nothing could go wrong. But what else could she do?

      ‘Of course I’ll help, Harry,’ Emma said, repeating his promise of moments before. ‘For you, anything.’