Page 31 of Betrayal

“Not yet, but I would have.”She grinned.“Are you responsible for the mature trees across the back of the property?”

“Most of them are in the neighbours’ backyards.They wanted screening from this place when it was a service station.Now, we all get the benefit of privacy.Although I, or rather, my landscaping friend, is responsible for the deck plants and discreet external lighting.”Hunter wandered through to the kitchen, returning with plates, cutlery and some table mats.

“You like light, and you like nature.”She’d been staring through the glass doors onto the deck—closed tonight to keep out the chill—but she turned when he reappeared.

“Don’t you?”

One night over a TV basketball game, after Cas and he had downed enough pizza and beer to fell a bull, Hunter had confessed he loved this place.Liked what he’d created, liked what he’d established, especially liked his office being nestled in the middle of a suburban backwater with windows that opened, kids screaming in the background as they dangled from climbing bars, and local shop owners who knew his name.

Now he discovered he liked the way Anna looked in his home.

* * *

“Aquestion,” Anna said, smiling into her drink.“I’m impressed.I like nature and light in this form.”She turned a circle to encompass the apartment.“I’m a city kid.Born and bred in Melbourne.Followed my sister to Sydney for university at eighteen.”Right after the disaster with Helen and the party.When she was young and stupid and thought Helen was recovering.

Not tonight, Anna.

“I’ve had more exposure to the country in the last few years.My brother-in-law and his twin started their lives on a farm up in the northern rivers area.”

“Started?Did they move because of the big floods and bushfires in the last few years?”His phone beeped.“Hold that thought.Roberto’s downstairs with the pizza.”

Anna heard muffled voices from the stairwell, the sound of a door being closed, then Hunter reappeared with a large box.He set it on a table mat in the centre of the table and arranged two places beside each other, looking onto the deck.

“Please, sit down.”

Anna sat and continued her story.“The farm belonged to their mother’s family.Ultimately, her siblings wanted it sold so they could get their inheritance.Niall and Liam moved to Newcastle with their parents.”

“And now they live in Sydney?”He transferred a slice of pizza to her plate.

“Yum.I love melted cheese.”Holding the slice high above her plate, she nibbled the bottom tip, then saw him watching her.Her pulse picked up.“What?”

“For a moment, I had the weirdest fantasy.I was a slice of pizza, and you were nibbling at my edges.”The heat in his gaze held her spellbound.“It’s okay.Gone now.Keep eating.”

My giddy aunt—the images he created.She couldn’t stop thinking about kissing him, nibbling around his edges, swallowing him whole.Rattled, she lowered the remainder of the pizza slice to the plate.“I’m not sure I can.”

“Good.Now you know how I feel.”He picked up his slice.“Keep talking then.”

“Liam and Kate are in Newtown.”She cut her slice into mouth-size bites.“Niall’s currently in an old warehouse in Concord.”

“What do they do?”

“Liam’s in environmental law.Kate’s a researcher and a romance novelist.Niall’s the resident artist—a woodworker extraordinaire.”

“How’d you meet?”He smiled at her over his wine glass.

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing.”

“What am I doing?”

Innocence be damned.

“I’m not fooled by the bashful smile after the sexy-mow-me-down smoulder.”Anna popped a mouthful of pizza into her mouth, chewed it until it was dead, then swallowed.“You’re asking me heaps of questions.”

“I thought you wanted conversation and some food.”

“If you want a good night kiss, you have to share.”

“I’m an only child.No cousins.I met Casildo at school.We’ve been friends and blood brothers since we were eight, when we came off our bikes at the bottom of a hill.We were bloody.Cas said that was a good moment.He’s squeamish, wouldn’t subject himself to a random cut, even to become blood brothers.”He toasted her with a piece of pizza, and she smiled at the sweetness of the memory he shared.

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