Page 40 of Cinderella and the Outback Billionaire

She was treating him like the client he was, with a progress report at the end of her first week, but he wanted to be so much more.

Just knowing she was out here made him want to be here too. Sure as hell, that had never happened to him before, although he’d seen it before in Judah when it came to wanting to be where Bridie was.

Reid wasn’t quite ready to admit to being head over heels for Ari, but he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

She’d had to get the plant cuttings she’d taken from channel country earlier that day out of her ute, she’d said awkwardly once Bridie had left. Did she need to plant them as well? Put their stems in water? He hadn’t asked. He’d been too busy trying to ignore the spiking pain behind his eyes.

An hour later she still hadn’t returned and his vision was shot and his leg ached so much that he was seriously reconsidering his flat-out refusal to use a walking aid, and... Dammit, why was he so weak?

A knock sounded on the screen door between kitchen and deck. ‘Can I come in?’ Ari asked.

‘Of course.’

She’d changed her clothes and now wore a yellow T-shirt and a plum-coloured skirt instead of khaki work trousers and shirt. She’d pulled her hair back into a ponytail and wore a colourful chunky bracelet on her slender wrist.

The fact that she’d changed clothes and added jewellery had to mean she was glad to see him, surely?

‘Come in.’ She hadn’t found him flat on his back, and his ego liked that. Granted, he was only filling the ceramic water dispenser that sat next to the sink. The tap hose was one of those stretchy ones, so it wasn’t exactly difficult. All he’d had to do was remove the lid, point and shoot.

‘They’re good, aren’t they? Those water-filter set-ups,’ she said as she entered the room.

‘You want a glass?’

‘No, I’m good.’ She came closer, resting her pert behind against the side of the counter on his other side. ‘You didn’t tell me you were coming. I’d have baked a cake.’

‘Are you pleased to see me?’ If he couldn’t rely on his sight for information, he’d have to get it some other way.

‘I am extremely pleased to see you. But I do have a confession to make.’

‘Tell me.’

She smiled in his direction. ‘I hurt my shoulder this morning, trying to pull out a—um, probably not a great idea to tell you I don’t know the name of the plant. The point is it took a lot of pulling and I have a sore shoulder.’

He wasn’t sure where this conversation was going but he tried to pre-empt her, nonetheless. ‘You want a massage?’

‘No, the hot shower did a world of good but now I want to lie down on a bed and move my arm around and find my shoulder’s happy place. I used to dislocate it all the time as a kid.’

‘You have a dislocated shoulder?’

‘No, but it’s about to pop, I can feel it, and I’d rather it didn’t. You could lie next to me while I see to it. We could hold hands, just like old times. And if need be, you can grab my arm above the elbow and pull.’

It sure as hell sounded like a dislocated shoulder, but he was up for it. ‘Whatever you need.’

They ended up side by side on their backs on the bed, with the window shutters closed to the heat of the day, and at last he could close his eyes and drop the pretence of being able to function normally. He could feel her moving her arm about but she didn’t encroach on his space, and he didn’t reach for her hand.

He wasn’t needy.

Not like before.

He didn’t want Ari to think him weak.

But her hand—presumably the one attached to her good arm—reached for his and chivalry demanded he reciprocate. That was what he told himself as simple contentment invaded his body. For all the many ideas and projects that had consumed him over the years, all his restless travelling, he’d never felt so at peace as he did with Ari’s hand wrapped in his. ‘How’s your shoulder?’ he murmured. ‘Do I need to pull?’

‘I think it’s okay. How’s your headache?’

He made a feeble attempt to muster his defences, but he was too far down the contentment hole to rally more than a mental shrug. ‘How did you know?’

‘It’s written on your face.’

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