Page 57 of A Chance to Believe

‘I’m an accredited Auslan interpreter.’ She moved her hands gracefully.

‘Your job was interpreting the announcer’s words for anyone watching with a hearing impairment?’

‘My brother Terry was born profoundly deaf, so it was a second language in our home. I wanted to use it after he died, and I can get work easily. Some I do as a volunteer, but I was getting paid for the show events like the fashion parades and awards presentations.’

‘They provided the accommodation?’

‘It was easier than travelling in every day, especially as some events went late at night.’

‘They didn’t mind you having a guest?’

‘They had told me I could bring a partner or family member if I wished. It made no difference to the room rate.’

His breath eased out. ‘That’s why you wouldn’t accept me paying my share of the room, only the fridge items.’

That small curl of the lip grew. ‘I hardly wanted to make a profit out of the best shag of my life.’

‘The best? I like the sound of that.’ He put his plate on the coffee table. ‘What a pity we can’t test it out, see if anything has changed.’

‘I could do something, only not anything that would get me overexcited.’

‘That leaves a tiny margin. I don’t think anything we did together wouldn’t overexcite me. How about you?’

‘Same same.’

‘A kiss?’ He leaned in, breathing in the scent of her, spiced with orange juice and salad dressing.

‘A very chaste kiss?’ She said it like she doubted it was possible.

Her head tilted up, bringing her lush mouth tantalisingly close.

A drop of his head and his lips brushed hers. They clung, and he deepened the kiss, stroking his mouth along her lips, tasting the softness with the tip of his tongue. Not pushing. He didn’t want to ask for more than she was prepared to give. Chaste wasn’t in his repertoire with women, but he could work on it. For Cassie, he was discovering he was willing to do a lot of things he’d been uninterested in before. This was about her. Her needs. Her health and keeping within the bounds of safety.

It was nice, in a good way. Sweet and tender, her response tentative but giving. His body was reacting, but he was a grown man. He could control himself.

She shuddered, and he pulled away. ‘Too much?’

‘Perhaps. I liked it though. It was different.’

Nothing like the athletic physicality of their time together. Tenderness had come to him unawares, getting to know her over these last weeks, even with all the interruptions of his work. There would always be some of that, but he was changing what he could to give himself more freedom to work on building this family, whatever shape it ended up b`eing.

‘I’m not going to ask you to decide now. You can take as long as you want. But I will ask that you stay here while you make up your mind. I need you to be safe and here there is always someone around. You going into labour on your own in a place in town is the stuff of my nightmares.’

‘I’ll stay. The way the rental market is, I’m unlikely to find anything closer than Bialga.’

His gut twisted and he rubbed his stomach as if that might ease the tension. ‘Too far away. I thought about moving into town with you, if you really wanted to get away, but it will make things tough with all my other responsibilities.’

‘Kimberley would not be impressed.’

‘You understand, don’t you?’

‘It would be ridiculous. There’s plenty of room here and I have my privacy.’

The knot eased. ‘You’re happy here?’

‘How could I be otherwise? Waited on hand and foot. Chef-cooked meals and never lonely.’

A catch in her voice at the last word told him that the company was as important as the cooking. ‘Have you lived alone since your fiancé passed away?’

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