Page 40 of Return of the Outback Billionaire

‘You’re kind of remote this morning. I’m not sure what I was expecting.’ But it wasn’t this level of awkwardness. ‘Hugs?’ She was rewarded with a blank stare, but soldiered on regardless. Last night she’d asked for what she wanted and received it. The strategy bore repeating. ‘Kisses?’

His gaze dropped to her fingers, her wedding-ring finger in particular, and he frowned.

Oh. The ring. Right. ‘It’s not as if I’m suddenly expecting our engagement to become real,’ she sought to assure him. ‘We still have a plan to end it, and I know it’s not real and there’ll come a time when...oh!’ Man, she was so stupid. ‘Last night at the gallery when we argued in public... Do you want to use it to set the scene for our break-up? Because that makes sense.’ Of course it did. And here she was, begging for good-morning kisses.

The melon on her plate lost all appeal, nothing but slimy squares of food she doubted she’d be able to swallow. ‘When do you want to do it? Today?’ She reached for the engagement ring on her finger. Why was she even wearing it when she wasn’t in public? It hadn’t been genuinely given. Judah definitely didn’t want to spend the rest of his days with her—he could barely manage a weekend. One night had been enough for him. A night out of time. No repeats. ‘I’m sorry.’ It wouldn’t come off.

‘Bridie—’

‘It does come off, bear with. I don’t want to damage it.’ Her clammy hands and fumbling fingers weren’t co-operating.

‘Bridie.’ She’d given him the perfect excuse to pull back, so why did he reach out to cover her hands and stop her from removing his ring? Why did her panic soothe him? Make him feel even more tuned into her than he had been last night? Did he feel better for knowing she was even more vulnerable than him? What kind of person did that make him?

The way out of this crazy engagement was right there in front of him. He had his land back and had paid Bridie fair market price for it. The Conrad place was his. He’d been there for her when she’d launched her new career. He’d made a mistake and had done his best to limit the fallout for them both. He could end this farce of an engagement here and now and finish this. Minimise the damage he was doing to her. So, why didn’t he just let her take the ring off and give it back to him?

It wasn’t chivalry that made him reach out and close his hand over hers. He just wanted that ring to stay right where it was. ‘Stop,’ he ordered gently. ‘Let’s not do that today. We’ll get around to it eventually, and when we do we’ll be ready with press statements, business goals in place and a story about how we make much better business partners than lovers.’

She stilled and searched his face as if testing his sincerity, so he gave it to her and to hell with the consequences.

‘As for last night...’ She bit her lip and let him continue. ‘I didn’t do right by you last night.’

‘By all means, make it up to me.’

Her enthusiasm was so good for his ego. ‘I intend to. What kind of jewellery do you like?’

‘Are you going to buy your way out of a hole every time you think you don’t measure up?’

Was that what he was doing? ‘It’s an option.’

‘No, it’s not.’ She seemed adamant. ‘Not with me. If you want to put last night behind us and never do it again, just say so. I’m tough. I can take it.’

So not tough. He remained terrified he would do something wrong by accident and break her. ‘I do want to continue having sex with you. That’s a given. But I’m also expecting you to give up on me eventually, and I don’t blame you. Until then have at me.’

She sat back, eyes narrowed. What had he done now? No split-second decision-making here—he was thinking hard about how a relationship between them would eventually play out.

‘No hard feelings,’ he added.

‘That’s not the point, Judah. The point is to have all the feelings! You walked out here this morning and you’ve shut all yours back down!’

‘Not all of them.’ Frustration was riding him pretty hard at the moment. ‘If you want an open, fun-loving guy who’s in touch with his emotions, that’s not me. It might never be me. This is the real me. Take a good long look.’

Who could blame her if she walked away?

She pulled her hand out from beneath his and aimed a smile at him that missed by a mile. ‘You’re such an ass. And if you think I’m ever going to give up on you, you don’t know me. Lovers or not.’

They glared at one another across the table. Bridie was the first to break. ‘I’m going button shopping.’

Buttons. This whole conversation had started with buttons. It was enough to make a zip man out of him. ‘Let’s meet for lunch. Fresh seafood. Outdoors.’

She stood. ‘Is it a date or am I back to being your neighbour and fake fiancée again?’

‘It’s a date.’

‘Good.’

She was almost to her bedroom door. ‘Bridie—’

Make that through the bedroom door and out of sight. ‘The sex was good. Better than good.’ He’d damn near torn his hands from his wrists with the force of his ecstasy, and practically passed out afterwards. ‘Thank you for putting up with me. For keeping us safe.’

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