Page 50 of Return of the Outback Billionaire

Bridie snorted at his utter bull.

‘I wouldn’t demand that of you,’ he murmured, the thought of her flawless skin covered in bites not at all to his liking. ‘I’m working my way in.’

‘My bedroom has big screen doors out onto the veranda. You can’t see the sky from the bed, but you could be outside in an instant. I’m inviting you in.’

He set his empty bowl down and waited with gentlemanly patience while she finished the last of her lemon dessert. They still hadn’t finished the wine, but he’d long since stopped drinking it and Bridie’s glass was still mostly full. Nothing they decided to do next could be blamed on alcohol.

He stood and held out his hand again, and she flowed into his embrace as if she belonged there. ‘Where’s your bedroom?’

He followed her to it and stepped into a world of lamp-lit linen and soft-looking pillows. Jarrah floorboards grounded the room and floor rugs added touches of silver, pink and saltbush-green. The big old four-poster bed looked so inviting with its fluffy pillows and pale blue bedspread and ivory sheets. Bridie’s bedroom was classy, feminine and soothing. He loved it.

‘Is this all right?’ she asked, and he could tell she was waiting for him to bolt.

‘It’s you.’

‘If I do anything wrong, you’ll tell me, right?’

He had to laugh. ‘That’s my line.’

‘See, I thought your line might have been strip.’

Oh, hell, yes. ‘Good line. Great line. Inspired. Do that.’

She made a meal out of removing her clothes. The outer layer first, and whoever had designed her lingerie needed a medal, because it made his brain shut down completely. Lace, and plenty of it, cut just so to accentuate precisely how different her body was from his. So perfect. Practically untouchable.

‘Hey.’ She sought and held his gaze. ‘It’s only me.’

So not helping.

She reached for him with greedy hands and he responded in kind. He could be needy and greedy and reverent and tender all at the same time, couldn’t he? He wanted to please. Willpower was everything. It had seen him through more than seven years of hell. Surely he could appreciate those itty-bitty scraps of lace she’d worn just for him without losing his mind?

‘Just touch me,’ she whispered. ‘I want your hands on me. Any argument that I’m pure and virginal is rubbish now. I’m a woman of vast experience.’

No, she was the woman he couldn’t resist. Not when she gave him so much encouragement. He toppled her onto that cloud of a bed and followed her down, the soft warmth of her skin intoxicating.

‘Take a chance on me,’ she murmured. ‘I’m right here and I want everything you’re prepared to give.’

Bridie felt the tremble in his fingers and the ragged tenderness of his hands on her skin, as she in turn took her fill. She couldn’t get enough of the hard muscle that defined him, or the aching tenderness of his kisses. If this was his version of ruining her, being too much for her to handle, she could almost understand his logic.

He was absolutely ruining her for all other men.

He took forever to prepare her, with his fingers and his lips, and this time when he entered her, she welcomed him with laughing enthusiasm. Her laughter seemed to set something free in him, and he smiled as he set up a rhythm that had her shooting past the Milky Way and out into orbit within minutes.

Self-consciousness never stood a chance as she rode every pulsing, ecstasy-ridden moment, and just when she thought she couldn’t go again, he snaked his hand between her legs and drew one last ripple from her as he found his own release.

She needed to tell the silent Judah with the heaving chest just how good that had been. Just as soon as she regained the power of speech.

It took a few minutes, but finally she had the voice for it. ‘Judah?’ She snugged up into him, leaving little room for daylight, and his arms came around her, the fingers of one of his hands twining through her hair to rest at the nape of her neck.

‘Mmm?’

‘Let’s do that again.’

CHAPTER ELEVEN

TOM STARR DEFINITELY didn’t want to talk to him, thought Judah grimly, as he left yet another message for the older man to call him. The couple of times Tom had responded to his questions, Bridie had been her father’s spokesperson.

Yes, to putting a portion of Devil’s Kiss station into the conservation trust Judah had set up.

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