Page 6 of Return of the Outback Billionaire

‘I can’t waltz,’ she whispered, panicked. For all that Gert said her father had been quite the dancer in his day, he’d certainly never taken the time to teach his daughter that particular skill. ‘I never learned.’

‘Then we’ll sway from side to side like half the other couples on the floor. I don’t care.’ He drew her in and the scent of eucalyptus and something altogether masculine drifted with him. ‘Put your hand on my upper arm.’ He kept gentle hold of her other hand and she did as suggested, and his arm was warm too, beneath the fine fabric of his suit.

She squeezed just a little bit and he raised a wicked eyebrow in return. She was used to wiry men with plenty of muscle and not a lot of fat to be going on with, but Judah was built to a whole different level. ‘What have they been feeding you?’

‘Slop.’

He probably wasn’t joking. ‘Sorry, I—stupid comment. The food tonight is excellent.’

‘You haven’t eaten any.’

How did he know? ‘Well, it looks good.’

‘So do you.’ Words that made his lips curl in a whole different way from before, and if that was a smile, heaven help him. ‘But you already know that.’

‘I do know that. I dressed up in my best because I wanted to make sure I honoured your welcome home party by looking as put together as I can.’ She followed his dance lead, stepping slowly side to side, and fixed her gaze over his shoulder.

He added a slow turn to their swaying. ‘I liked the photos you sent.’

One a month, every month, since he’d gone away. She felt his gaze on her face but refused to look at him. ‘The first ones weren’t very good.’

She could feel his shrug. ‘They were to me.’

‘I almost stopped sending them. You never wrote back.’

‘What would you have had me say?’

And there was another question she had no answer to, but the music kept playing and their feet kept moving and maybe they didn’t need to say anything. She’d shown her face and accepted his command to dance—as if she’d had a choice—and she felt as if she held lightning and thunder in her arms. Why wouldn’t she feel that way? He was her ultimate protector and he’d paid mightily for taking on that role, sacrificing his freedom so she could survive hers.

‘You haven’t answered any of my calls,’ he said.

‘I...know.’

‘Too busy or too afraid of me?’

Another question she didn’t know how to answer without throwing every vulnerability she owned at his feet for him to tread on. She spared him a glance. Those eyes...some kind of mossy green, ringed with such a dark navy-grey around the edges. She’d always thought him fierce on account of those eyes. A force to be reckoned with and a perfect match for wild Jeddah Creek station.

He’d killed a man who’d been stalking her. Pulled her bound and shaking from the cramped, pitch-black car boot she’d been trapped in and delivered her safely into the arms of her father. He’d been locked away because of it, and she owed him her truth.

‘At first I was afraid of everything and everyone. Shadows made me jump. Other people made me cringe. I could barely leave my room. And then one day my father yelled at me from the other side of my bedroom door. He said, “Judah’s the one sitting in a prison room staring at the walls, Bridie, not you. How do you think he’d feel about squandering his freedom on someone who’s refusing to live?”’

‘Smart man, your father.’

She couldn’t look away from him. ‘A week later I went to the kitchen for breakfast. A few weeks after that I made it to the back door and stepped out onto the veranda. I took a picture and sent it to you.’ She’d kept right on sending them. ‘For seven years, six months and two days I’ve thought of you sacrificing your freedom for my life. It made me step out of my comfort zone and keep on walking. So, am I afraid of you? No. But I have been using you for years as a cattle prod to help me face my fears. My feelings for you are complicated.’

‘I’ll say,’ he muttered, after a very long stretch of silence.

She had nothing more to say. Nothing to do except fidget beneath that watchful, wary gaze.

‘What are you going to do now you’ve lost your cattle prod?’

‘Do you always ask such difficult questions?’

He shrugged. ‘I don’t usually ask personal questions at all. Like you said, whatever is between us is complicated.’

She looked around the glittering ballroom filled with Australia’s beautiful and wealthy and wondered if any of them walked with fear as a constant companion, like her. Or which of them had broken the law and paid the price, like Judah, and how hard they’d had to fight to come back from that. ‘I’m glad you’re back. I didn’t answer your calls because I wanted to tell you in person. Thank you in person for saving me.’

She felt the tension in him rather than saw it. A simmering waiting quality that burned. A heavy-lidded gaze that banked hard, but not before she’d seen the sudden flame of sexual interest in his eyes. Oh, she’d seen that before, but not from him, never from him.

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