Page 33 of Cinderella and the Outback Billionaire

Who was she to deny him his fantasy? ‘So I go left, get changed, and meet you at the pool?’

‘We could do that.’ His eyes held so many smiles in them. She wondered what it would be like to be so full up with smiles that they tumbled out of her the way Reid’s seemed to. Maybe if she stuck around, she’d find out. ‘I’m sure you can figure out that there’s a door leading from your suite onto a patio and from there you can access the pool area. You put a tent up around a severely wounded pilot in the middle of a dust storm in the desert. I’m pretty sure you can find a door.’

‘You’re still harping on that?’ She didn’t know why. ‘You’d have done the same.’

‘I like to think so. Doesn’t make it any less impressive. I’m an awesome person. So are you.’

His confidence was contagious and he made her laugh. There were worse starts to an evening. ‘Is this a date?’ She needed to know. ‘Or is this just you feeling beholden and thinking Ari’s an awesome person?’

‘It’s a date. Although awesome Ari and grateful Reid are in play too. Do we need to overthink it? Because if we do, you should know that water helps. Have a problem? Have a shower. A heavy day? The spa pool is for you and don’t forget to pummel your shoulders beneath the waterfall spout. I’m a believer.’

‘I’m glad you don’t take water for granted,’ she said.

‘You know where I grew up. Three-minute showers, no waiting for the water to warm up. Water is life. Which is why your designs for my eco lodges went all in on it. For you, luxury means free-flowing water available to all.’ He tucked his hands into his trouser pockets. ‘I came across some garden diaries written by an Outback farmer in South Australia. I bought them for you. Thirty years’ worth. They’re on your bed.’

Her bed?

And what a gift.

‘Reid...’ She didn’t know what to say. This was what his money bought. Access to information that wasn’t readily available. A step up that wasn’t available to everyone. ‘I don’t know what to say.’

‘Say you’ll read them and resubmit your garden plans for my eco lodges. My north star is that we never stop learning and striving to respect the balance of nature.’

She was rapidly acquiring mad respect for this man, along with irresistible attraction, and she didn’t know what to do with either. ‘I’ll read them. Thank you. See you in the pool.’ She’d become a woman of choppy sentences. ‘I’ll be clinging to the edge or sitting on the step-in, if there is one.’ Time to admit another of her failings. ‘I can’t swim.’

He took it in his stride with barely a blink. He shrugged and smiled warm and wide. ‘Want to learn?’

Reid knew what women wanted him for. Access to his money and the high life, first and foremost. His name and nebulous ties to English aristocracy came second. His personality, his beliefs and values—too many women of his acquaintance didn’t care about any of that. They didn’t see him and never would.

That was why Ari was special.

She saw him—the boy who’d come looking for her whenever she strayed too far from the homestead. The one she’d sat next to at the kitchen table while Gert served up reprimand along with sweet biscuits and cold water. Those memories would compete with those from the tent and now he was showing her the meat of his world and he hoped she would layer them all together and come up with someone she liked, because he sure as sunrise liked her.

She knew where he came from. Same view when they travelled Outback roads. Same sunrises and sunsets and redgums and flash-flooding rivers cutting grooves through the earth.

He could teach her to swim, to soar, if she’d let him.

If she’d lower her guard and let him in.

CHAPTER NINE

THE BIKINI SHE’D chosen seemed far smaller now than in the shop, but the colours were ones she knew well. Burnt umber, sky blue, wattle yellow and the bright red of Lilli Pilli berries.

The swimwear emphasised her slight curves and made the most of her legs. Garden work had given her lean muscle, and her wavy hair reached the small of her back. She had no gloss that came from beauty treatments and skilfully applied make-up, but what she did have going for her was her health, youth, a heart-shaped face, and good teeth. And when she slipped on the silky robe that matched her swimsuit, Ari felt almost beautiful.

It was hard not to feel special in such expensive surroundings.

Her Cinderella moment came with bare feet, an infinity pool and Reid Blake in all his near naked glory. Board shorts couldn’t hide the scars that littered his body—he wasn’t even trying to cover them up as he sat on the edge of the spa pool and waited for her to join him, his gaze bright and admiring as she approached.

Was she little more than a colourful shape? What did he see when he looked her way?

Why did his shortcomings embolden her?

‘I usually start in the hot pool,’ he said as she joined him. ‘Seats and water jets are around the outside, it’s deeper in the middle but you’ll still be able to stand up and your head will be out of the water. All good? Feeling confident?’

‘Yes.’ She already loved the concept of spa baths. Now all she had to do was embrace the reality.

He eased into the water, and she shed her wrap and followed his lead and let the warm water lap at her skin.

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