Her Irresistible Protector. Michelle Douglas

in the doorway. Damn it! She hit delete and Rick’s number disappeared.

      His eyes could knife a lesser person. ‘Were you trying to ring Bradford?’

      ‘I’m ringing Mandy next door and leaving a message on her answer machine to tell her I’m letting some out of town friends stay. You know what this place is like. If strangers suddenly show up without explanation there’ll be all sorts of alarms raised.’

      He loomed in the doorway while she made the call. When she was done he held out his hand for the phone.

      She lifted her chin and went to put it in her pocket instead.

      ‘Don’t test me on this, Tash.’

      One glance at his face told her he’d take it by force if necessary. Steeling herself, she slapped it into his palm. ‘I can see the next few hours are going to be a whole barrel-load of laughs. Now, I’d like some privacy while I get dressed. Unless you mean to force your company on that head too.’

      Without a word, he turned and stalked off. Tash had to sit down on the edge of her bed and breathe in for several long moments. She pushed herself upright again to pull on her usual armour of jeans, work boots and a black T-shirt.

      * * *

      It wasn’t until they were driving over the Sydney Harbour Bridge with its comprehensive view of the Opera House and harbour that Tash realised how completely she drew Mitch’s scent into her lungs. She stared out of the passenger window, barely noticing the colourful yachts below or the way the light glinted on the harbour in perfect summer exuberance.

      Mitch’s scent hadn’t changed. Not one little bit. He still smelled of oranges and the tiniest hint of mint. Her lungs swelled to drink it in as if starved. With an abrupt movement she lowered the window, blasting her sinuses with warm summer air.

      Mitch glanced at her briefly and she met his gaze just to prove she could. What she saw in their depths, though, shook her to her core. She understood the concern. She was a citizen at risk and he was the officer charged with protecting her. Her lips twisted. And she knew how seriously he took that duty.

      But...regret?

      Like him, she turned her gaze back to the front and tried to ignore the pounding of her heart.

      ‘You will be safe, Tash, I promise. This will all be over before you know it.’

      She believed him. Still, the sooner he dropped her off at the ‘secret’ location and went on his merry way the better.

      Another ten minutes of bone-stretching tension crawled by.

      ‘How is Rick doing?’

      He spoke so softly she almost didn’t hear him. She wished she hadn’t.

      Her fingers curved into talons. It took an effort of will not to bare her teeth at him like some wild thing. Eight years ago he’d taken from her not only her best friend, but also her self-esteem and her conviction that good trumped evil. She pushed a laugh out of her throat, but it was harsh and guttural. ‘Do you really think I’m naïve enough to discuss him with you again? Or perhaps you think him stupid enough to discuss his comings and goings with me?’

      His knuckles whitened about the steering wheel. She dragged her gaze back to the front. She remembered those hands more than she remembered his eyes or his smile. She remembered how he’d held her hand in his and the way his thumb had rubbed back and forth across her wrist, making her blood quicken, making her wish he’d do so much more with those hands. She remembered how one of his fingers had trailed down her cheek, and how it had made her feel like the most beautiful girl in the world. She remembered how his hands had curved about her face the couple of times he’d kissed her, as if she were precious.

      Precious? She’d been nothing more than a means to an end.

      She could almost forgive him for arresting Rick. He was a police officer and it was his duty to uphold the law. And once he’d seen what was happening, Rick had made sure all the evidence had pointed to him. Rick had taken the blame and had sworn her to silence. She couldn’t blame Mitch for any of that. But she would never forgive him for using her to bring about that arrest, for lying to her, for betraying her so completely. For making her think he loved her. All in the line of duty.

      ‘I only meant that I’d heard he’d been doing some good work with troubled youths down in Melbourne. That’s a tough gig. I admire him for taking it on.’

      Back then she’d been utterly clueless.

      But not anymore. Seemingly innocuous questions or nicely worded flatteries would never draw her again. ‘Well, maybe you’d like to make a donation to that cause the next time you have your chequebook open, Officer King.’

      They didn’t speak again. They drove along in a silence that itched and burned and bristled for another hour. Tash didn’t say a word when he turned onto the freeway and headed north. He didn’t volunteer any information either. Now there was a surprise.

      Eventually he turned onto a small sealed road that wound effortlessly through bushland with only the odd farm dotted here and there to show any signs of habitation. Before they reached the road’s end Mitch swung the car onto an obscured bush track.

      ‘This isn’t the way to a nice resort,’ she growled.

      ‘What on earth gave you the idea I was taking you to a resort?’

      Her nose curled. ‘Wishful thinking.’

      He grinned and her heart sped up. Just like that. Idiot heart.

      ‘Then where on earth are you taking me?’ She made her voice tart. ‘Or do we have to wait for a Cone of Silence to descend before that’s to be revealed?’

      ‘I’m taking you to a cabin.’

      Her lip and nose curled this time. ‘Please tell me it has running water and electricity.’

      ‘It has both.’

      How gullible did he think she was? ‘I don’t see any powerlines.’

      ‘There’s a generator.’

      ‘Is there a flushing toilet?’

      He flashed her a grimace pregnant with apology.

      She huffed back in her seat and folded her arms. ‘Why can’t I go to a resort under an assumed name or something? I’ll pay out of my own pocket.’

      ‘It’s not a question of money, Tash. It’s a question of keeping you safe. The best way of doing that is to make you disappear, take you out of circulation.’

      ‘You can’t keep me here against my will.’ Though they both knew that, if he chose to, he could.

      ‘Do you really want to risk leaving?’

      She glared out at the ghost gums and banksia trees.

      He parked the car beneath a makeshift shelter that blended into the native Australian landscape. ‘We have to walk the rest of the way.’

      Oh, this was getting better and better.

      He held his hands up at her glare. ‘I swear it’s only three minutes of easy walking.’

      It would’ve been easy if it hadn’t been for the bull ants. She yelped the moment she saw the first one.

      Mitch spun around. ‘What’s wrong?’

      She pointed.

      ‘For heaven’s sake, you’re wearing work boots. They’re not going to hurt you.’

      ‘I hate them.’ She’d sat on a nest of them once when she’d been small and she’d never forgotten it. They’d injected so much venom she’d developed a fever that night and had ended up in the emergency room of the local hospital. Her father had clouted her at the time for being so stupid as to sit on an ant nest. Then he’d clouted her when they’d got home from hospital for the additional inconvenience.

      The