Page 28 of Cinderella and the Outback Billionaire

For some people, that came easily.

His smile came easily too. ‘Celebrate with me tonight. You finished your course. That’s a big deal.’

‘Not in your world.’

He pushed his hat back and now she could see his eyes more clearly. Hazel-green with a scar that cut one eyebrow in two and ran in shredded ribbons towards his hairline. ‘I live here in Brisbane for part of each year. I’d like to show you my world here if you want to see it. But there is a catch. I need to get a lift back to my place with you.’ He gestured towards his eyes. ‘I can’t drive. They’re not ready yet.’

‘Will they ever be?’

He shrugged and his engaging smile turned wry. ‘No one knows. My eyesight’s still in flux. I’m taking that as a win, and if it stops short of where I want it to be, at least I have the resources to work around it. But enough about that. Haven’t you ever wanted to have dinner with a slightly damaged billionaire? We could do the whole Pretty Woman playlist.’

‘You mean you flash your credit card around while buying me clothes, arrange for me to wear stunning jewels, take me to all the special places and then your friends call me a whore?’

‘We could cut some of that out,’ he assured her. ‘I can’t play the piano. And I’m not afraid of heights. That guy was a mess. Daddy issues.’

‘Don’t you have daddy issues too?’

‘Nah. My father was a gambler and apparently a womaniser, although I never saw the womaniser part until after my mother died, when he went off the rails. I put it down to grief. When she was alive, my father treated my mother like the princess she was. Displays of affection between them were rarer than dolphins in the desert, now I come to think of it, but I chalked it up to aristocratic reserve.’

‘You don’t seem to have much. Aristocratic reserve, I mean.’ Oh, hell. Was that an insult? ‘I didn’t mean that as an insult.’

He smiled. ‘Thanks for clarifying. I won’t take it as one.’

She’d never realised just how sexy confidence could be. ‘Any luck finding your half-sister?’

‘Not yet. Plenty of charlatans though. We did turn up something interesting. My father gave your mother a lump sum of cash around about the time you were born.’

Ari opened her mouth to reply, and then shut it again so she wouldn’t catch a fly. She felt hot then cold. She didn’t want to be the missing Blake heiress. The thought of Reid being her half-brother made her feel ill.

She’d kissed him.

With feelings unbecoming to a sibling. ‘My father was a stockman from the north.’

‘That’s what Gert says. She says she and your mother were housekeeping at Jeddah Creek station for a party of half a dozen high rollers—this was years ago—and my father was losing badly. He was about to bet Jeddah Creek station in its entirety when your mother fell to the ground while pouring them all more drinks. She told them her water just broke. It hadn’t. You didn’t arrive for another two weeks, according to Gert, but it did get my father away from the gambling table long enough to come to his senses. Your mother told him she’d overheard his guests discussing winning strategies. They were all in it together—against him.’

‘Nasty.’

‘He asked her what she wanted by way of thanks and she said, “Security for my baby.” So he gave her enough money to buy a house. That’s one story, anyway. I have others if you want to hear them. None of them suggest that we’re related.’

‘That’s a relief.’

‘You don’t want to be the missing Blake heiress?’

‘No. All the no.’

‘We’re not that bad.’

‘We kissed.’

‘There is that,’ he murmured. ‘Having to conjure up brotherly feelings for you would be difficult, given our smouldering connection.’

‘It’s not smouldering.’

‘Incendiary?’ He brightened. ‘Explosive?’

‘Reid.’

‘Don’t you want to hear the other stories about why my father gave your mother two hundred and fifty thousand dollars twenty-three years ago? I think you do.’

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