Outback bride - Hart Jessica (читать книги без регистрации полные TXT) 📗

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said Copper tightly, and tried to snatch back the nightdress.

‘Oh, no!’ said Mal, chucking it out of reach and sweeping her up into his arms to carry her over to the bed, where he dumped her unceremoniously.

The electric shock of his bare flesh against hers had momentarily deprived Copper of speech, and she could only sprawl there as she struggled for breath. Before she could roll away, Mal had pinned her beneath him, her arms outstretched and her green eyes stormy.

‘You’re the one who wants to be normal,’ he reminded her. ‘I’ll start, shall I?’

The feel of his flesh was indescribably exciting, and Copper’s feeble attempts to wriggle out from underneath him only snarled her further in a treacherous tangle of desire. Mal must have felt the instant response of her body, for he released her arms and lifted one of her hands to his mouth instead.

‘A normal husband would apologise with a kiss,’ he murmured, planting a warm kiss in her palm and then letting his lips move lovingly to her wrist. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t consult you about employing a new housekeeper,’ he went on as his mouth traced a delicious path over the soft skin of her inner arm, nuzzling into the shadow of her elbow before drifting on along her shoulder, lingering at the wildly beating pulse at the base of her throat and reaching her lips at last. ‘I’m very sorry,’ he breathed against them, and then he had captured her mouth with his own and there was no more need for words as everything exploded into intoxicating delight.

Copper had forgotten that she had meant to resist. She had forgotten the anger and the jealousy and the terrible tension of the last few weeks. Nothing mattered now but the fire that sparked along her veins and gathered into a flame that melted her bones and ravished her senses, consuming everything but the hunger. She wound her arms around Mal’s neck and her lips opened to the sinfully seductive exploration of his tongue as she stretched voluptuously beneath him.

‘Now it’s your turn,’ Mal whispered, smiling against her skin.

It was so wonderful to be able to touch him again, to ran her hands over the powerful muscles and luxuriate in the warm, taut flesh. Copper’s eyes gleamed greenly and she rolled onto him, exhilarated by her own power over the lean, brown body that lay deceptively quiescent beneath her. ‘I’m sorry for being so grumpy and ungrateful,’ she said obediently as she began to tease kisses along his jaw.

‘How sorry?’ said Mal indistinctly.

Her lips moved lower and she smiled. ‘I’ll show you.’

CHAPTER NINE

Copper shaded her eyes with her hand and squinted across the yard. Yes, there they were, Megan bobbing up and down beside her father, her small face animated, and Mal, head bent to listen to her, slowing his rangy stride to her short little legs. His expression was hidden beneath his hat but, as if sensing Copper’s presence, he glanced up and saw her standing there, and their eyes met with an instinctive smile. He was too far away for Copper to hear what he said, but he must have pointed her out to Megan, who spotted her with a cry of pleasure and came running towards her. Mal followed, still smiling, and Copper’s heart turned over as she caught the little girl in a hug.

The last few days had been good ones. The terrible tension between her and Mal had crumbled in the face of the mutual need that had set them afire the night he had brought Georgia home. By day, Mal was as coolly self-contained as ever, but something in him had relaxed and, although he rarely touched Copper in front of the others, when the door closed behind them at night the quiet reserve dropped and he would pull her into his arms and make love to her with a tenderness and a passion that left her vibrant and glowing with joy.

He hadn’t said that he loved her, but for the time being Copper was content to leave things as they were. It was hard to believe that Mal could make love to her like that without feeling anything, and she saw no need to force a commitment out of him that he was not ready to give. He had three years to fall in love with her, after all, and if the nights passed as the last ten had done, then he must surely find it hard to resist. Copper was still tingling with the memory of the previous night and her mouth curved in a reminiscent smile as she set Megan down.

‘You look very pleased with yourself,’ said Mal with mock suspicion. ‘What are you thinking about?’

Copper’s eyes shone warm and green as she smiled at him. ‘Tonight,’ she said honestly, and rejoiced to see the blaze of response in his face.

‘You’re a bad woman,’ he said softly, but he smiled too as he drew her towards him for a kiss that was warm and sweet with promise.

It was such a natural gesture that Copper’s heart cracked with love for him. Could he be coming to love her already? She felt almost giddy with happiness. Everything was working out perfectly. Mal might not love her yet, but he would, and Megan was blooming into a happy, loving child.

Even Georgia was enjoying her new life. The resentment that Copper had felt at the other girl’s arrival had been quickly replaced by real liking. Georgia was natural and friendly and a hard worker. She cheerfully took on the cooking and the more humdrum household tasks, which left Copper more time to spend with Megan or working in the office. She still had plenty to do on the project, but she was waiting for the contractors to set a date, and in the meantime she had taken on more and more of Mal’s paperwork. Her business experience stood her in good stead and at least she felt that she was being useful.

Only Brett seemed discontented. Oddly, he had made no attempt to flirt with Georgia, and even seemed to actively dislike her. ‘She’s too perfect,’ he told Copper a few days later when she found him sitting moodily alone on the verandah.

‘I thought you’d like her,’ said Copper, trying to cajole him out of his mood. ‘We’re worried about you, Brett! A pretty girl with no attachments and you’ve hardly said a word to her!’

Brett hunched a shoulder. ‘She’s not that pretty,’ he said sullenly. ‘I don’t like those cool, competent types.’

‘Georgia may be competent, but nobody could call her cool,’ Copper objected. ‘She’s a nice, warm, friendly girl, and I wouldn’t blame her if she felt hurt at the way you ignore her. It’s not as if there are lots of other people out here for her to talk to.’

‘She’s the one who’s ignoring me,’ said Brett. ‘She always makes me feel as if I’ve crawled out from under a stone.’ He brooded silently for a moment. ‘I don’t want her approval anyway,’ he went on unconvincingly, but with a flicker of his old self. ‘She’s not nearly as much fun as you, Copper. And have you noticed how chummy she and Mal are?’

After that, of course, Copper did notice. Georgia behaved quite naturally, but Copper’s jealous eye discerned rather too much approval in Mal’s expression when he looked at the other girl. Georgia’s knowledge of station life meant that she always knew what Mal was talking about, too, and she could discuss station matters and breaking horses. She knew about musters and how to make billy tea. She could castrate a calf and rope a cow as easily as she could cook a perfect roast, and it wasn’t long before Copper began to feel excluded from their conversations. All she could talk about was settling invoices and checking accounts, and nobody was interested in that.

Unable to compete when it came to discussing the day, Copper turned more and more to Brett, who kept pointedly aloof from such station conversation and was more than willing to flirt outrageously with Copper instead. Once or twice Copper caught him watching Georgia with an expression that made her suspect that he had been protesting too much about his dislike of the other girl. She was pretty sure that Brett was harder hit than he wanted to admit. His flirting had a desperate edge that she recognised from her own doomed attempts to disguise how she felt about Mal, and a sense of fellow feeling drew them increasingly together.