Page 35 of Cinderella and the Outback Billionaire

It really was the opportunity of a lifetime. ‘What happens if we have a very intense, very short-lived affair and discover we’re not that compatible after all?’

‘You’ll still have a company that has nothing to do with me and a lucrative, high-impact landscape-gardening project under way or completed. Your work will speak for itself, and you’ll have other projects lined up, none of them connected to me.’ His quiet words carried across the sound of bubbling warm water. ‘I’m trying to empower you, Ari. Place you in a position where, no matter what happens, you win.’

‘Even if you lose?’

‘I’ll have had my chance with you and taken my shot. How is that losing?’

Did he have no fear at all? What if he lost his heart to her and she trampled on it? What was he seeing when he gazed at her so steadily? ‘Aren’t you scared of giving your heart to the wrong person?’

‘You and I, we have a lot in common. We don’t trust easily. Stands out a mile. People have let us down. Which means that one of us has to blink first and say I trust you and I want you and I’m ready for whatever that brings. I don’t think you’ll let me down, and I sure as hell won’t let you down. It’s a good start to whatever kind of relationship we forge, don’t you think?’

Could she really walk away from Reid’s captivating confidence?

No.

No, she could not. ‘I’ll work my butt off until you’re happy with my work. Like that blasted exam, I’ll do it over and over until I get it right. I won’t let you down.’

‘I know you won’t.’

‘And we probably shouldn’t ruin my golden opportunity with...y’know...sex right now. Too soon. Like you said.’ But, oh, how she wanted to ruin it. ‘That’s very chivalrous of you.’

‘Long game, remember?’ And then he was looking straight at her, with a glint of challenge in his eyes. ‘Swimming lesson number one. Push off the edge of the seat section with your feet, arms out in front of you and let your body glide through the water towards me. I’ll catch you.’

‘But it’s all bubbly in the middle.’

‘So it’ll tickle. Believe me, your body can do it. Don’t overthink it. Push off and glide. Believe.’

It was so easy to believe around him.

Moments later her hands hit his chest and she tried very hard not to scramble for purchase and cling to him like a vine. She found her feet and blushed as she snatched her hands away. ‘You just wanted my hands on your hot bod.’

‘Former hot bod,’ he countered dryly. But you’re right in thinking I like your hands on me. ‘Now turn around and push off again and glide back to the other side. Don’t put your feet down until your hands touch the wall.’

Pretty soon she was gliding all over the place while Reid drawled lazy suggestions to go faster, slower, and change direction midway across without putting her feet down.

‘Taking control is addictive,’ he said at last, when she’d settled into her spa seat with a great deal more confidence than she’d had to begin with. ‘Whether it’s taking control of something you’re doing, or directing others, it can be a buzz. After a while it becomes second nature, and you start to think you know more and make better choices than anyone else. It’s rubbish, of course, but no one tells you that to your face because you’re the boss with the endless line of credit. Eventually that way of thinking bleeds into every part of your life, romance included.’

‘So you’re...bossy in bed?’

‘Would you like me to be?’ He had a wicked grin.

She eased lower, up to her chin in bubbly water because maybe then he wouldn’t see the blush that felt as if it went all the way from her cheeks to her chest.

‘I like teasing you,’ he said next. ‘You take the bait so beautifully.’

She retaliated by splashing water in his face, and she really should have thought that through because moments later they were both splashing each other for all they were worth, as if they were twelve.

Fifteen at the most.

It ended with a drenching and Reid pinning her against the side of the pool, with his arms beneath her shoulders, holding her up, and her body bumping against his and finding all sorts of interesting developments.

‘You see, this is what I don’t get from the women I date,’ he murmured.

‘Told off?’

‘Scolded. Taken to task. Given a tongue-lashing,’ he added.

‘Are you sure you don’t get that last one?’

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