Australian Quinns. Kate Hoffmann

“When you left to take the phone call. I figured we wouldn’t have any privacy in the bunkhouse with Gemma there.”

      “And what do you plan to do with me once you’ve lured me inside?” he teased.

      “I think we should get to know each other a little better,” she said. She caught the front of his shirt and pulled him toward her. “There’s so much I don’t know about you. So many questions I have to ask.”

      “You want to talk?”

      She nodded.

      “I don’t know anything about you,” he said, smiling down at her. “Tell me something. Anything”

      “My birthday is August tenth,” she said. “I’m going to be twenty-six.”

      “Something more interesting,” he demanded, his breath warm against her mouth.

      “I broke my arm when I fell off my horse. I was seventeen. I had to have surgery.” She pointed to her elbow. “I have a scar.”

      He ran his fingers through her hair and she closed her eyes and tipped her head back. “Something more intimate,” he urged, pressing his lips to her throat.

      “I lost my virginity in a stable. The Grand Prix in 2001. A month before I broke my arm. I was seduced by a Brazilian stable hand with the most beautiful blue eyes.”

      “Funny,” Brody replied. “I lost mine in the back of my mother’s car after footy practice. I was fifteen and she was older. Eighteen, if I recall.”

      Payton worked at the buttons of his shirt and when they were all undone, she looked up at him. “What else?”

      Brody chuckled. “I think we can leave the questions until later.”

      “So you know what you’re doing?” she whispered.

      Somehow, he found her question incredibly intriguing. “Yes,” he replied as she slid his shirt over his shoulders. “I know exactly what I’m doing. Do you?”

      She nodded. “Close the door.”

      Brody moved to do as she asked, then froze. Hell, he didn’t know what he was doing. He hadn’t even bothered to bring along protection. “Sorry,” he said, turning to face her. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

      He tugged his shirt back on, then took the torch from her hand. He jogged back to the house and when he got to the kitchen, he found Mary sitting alone at the table, reading a magazine and sipping a cup of coffee.

      “Back so soon?” she asked.

      “It’s a little chilly out. I need to get a jacket for Payton. Wouldn’t want her to catch a cold.”

      “You’re a gentleman,” she said, glancing up. “And I hope you’ll use a condom. Safe sex and all.”

      Brody stopped short. Mary had slipped into the role of mother to Callum and Teague after their own mother had moved off the station. And now that Brody had returned, she’d welcomed him as a surrogate son and was equally as protective. “Yes, I won’t forget that. Not that it’s any of your business.”

      After retrieving the condoms and a jacket from his room, Brody jogged back out to the stables. He found Payton standing at the stable door waiting.

      “What was so impor—” She stopped when he held up the string of three condoms. “Oh. Well, that’s probably a good idea.”

      He drew her into his arms and they stumbled toward the stall. After they stepped inside, Payton pulled the door closed. The light from the torch, when reflected off the walls of the stable, was just enough to see by. Suddenly, he felt nervous, just as he had the first time he’d been with a girl.

      This was silly. There had been plenty of women in his life since then. But none of them had ever affected him the way Payton did. Was it because she was still a stranger? That couldn’t be it. Or was it because she seemed more exotic, different from the women he usually took to his bed?

      She was well educated, he knew that much about her. Though she chose to work in a stable, Brody suspected that she’d probably never done a hard day’s work in her life before arriving at the station. And there was the sense that Payton Harwell was the kind of woman who wouldn’t give a guy like him a second glance out in the real world. She was seriously out of his league.

      So why was she here, trying to seduce him? What did she really want from him beyond having a shag? Brody stood in front of her and cupped her cheek in his hand. was it just an undeniable sexual attraction they shared? Or was it more?

      He’d find some of his answers in her touch, in the feel of her body. And the rest, he’d leave for later. Spanning her waist with his hands, he pulled her body against his, then reached down and drew her leg up along his hip.

      Her breath caught in her throat as he stared down into her eyes. Burying her fingers in his hair, she fixed her gaze on his mouth. “Well, then,” she murmured, “I guess we’re both ready now.”

      PAYTON ARCHED against the stable wall, reveling in the feel of Brody’s hands on her body. It was so simple to want him. She didn’t even think before falling into his arms. Maybe there was something in the water here in Australia. Or maybe it was just the man, Payton mused.

      Something had changed inside her. For such a long time, she’d tiptoed through life, afraid to make a mistake, fearful that she might disappoint her parents. She’d been their only child, her difficult birth the cause of her mother’s inability to have another baby. So there’d been a lot of pressure for her to be perfect.

      But from the moment she’d hopped on that flight in Fiji, she’d felt a burden lift from her shoulders. Her parents would never forgive her, so there was no use trying to appease them. She could be whoever she wanted to be now. And she wanted to be wild and passionate, a woman who took chances and lived life.

      She looked up into Brody’s eyes. This was what she wanted, and not just his gorgeous face or his beautiful body, his penetrating gaze or his playful smile. He was what a real man was supposed to be—strong, confident and just a little bit dangerous. His muscles were hard and his hands rough.

      Was that what she’d been looking for? Payton wondered. A man who had the power to possess her completely? Except for that very first time, she’d never made love outside the confines of a bedroom. But here she was, in a stable again, anxious to shed her clothes and feel him move inside her.

      Here, everything seemed so much more real, more intense. She didn’t feel sheltered and protected anymore. Instead, she’d become wild and uninhibited, like this land and the people around her, taking pleasure in the simplicity of everyday life—and everyday desires. This was her chance to start again. The ties to her past were gradually fraying.

      Drawing a deep breath, Payton kissed him, this time making certain he understood her need. She slowly let her leg drop down along his hip, until she stood squarely in front of him. Then she tore at the buttons of his shirt.

      He was as anxious as she was to get rid of the garment and a moment later, it lay on the straw at their feet. Payton ran her trembling hands from his shoulders to his belly and back up again. Then, she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his warm skin, just below his shoulder.

      What began gently gradually turned desperate. With every kiss, every caress, Payton wanted him more. He found the hem of her shirt and tugged it up, the fabric bunched in his fists as his hips pinned hers against the side of the stall. Slowly, Brody sank lower until his mouth was on her bare belly.

      Payton’s fingers furrowed through his hair and his lips trailed higher. He pulled at the lacy bra she wore and when his mouth captured her nipple, Payton cried out in surprise. A wave of sensation washed over her and for a moment, she wasn’t sure she could stand.

      Holding her tight, Brody tumbled them onto the blankets, pulling her on top of him. His fingers worked at the elastic that held her hair in check, freeing it to fall like a curtain around them both, and then he yanked