Her Outback Knight

MILLS & BOON

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To an old friend, whose life taught her that never trusting, never giving in or forgiving would keep her safe from hurt. I hope life has been kind to you. To Helen, my beautiful friend: I still wish you had been the one driving on that country road ten years ago…then you’d be here to share the joys and heartaches of life with me. And finally to Justin: a true hero in his ability to reach out to others, and keep giving even when life hurts you. You’re my inspiration for Jim, my darling son.

Special thanks to my own romantic hero. 24 years together, and still happy. I have the words; you have the actions. Thanks to Rachel and Mia, as always.

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

EPILOGUE

PROLOGUE

University Graduation Hall, Charles Sturt University, New South Wales

“I’D LOVE TO GUIDE YOU to becoming the best veterinary surgeon you can be, Danielle. Your marks and practical experiences speak for themselves. I know you’d be a terrific asset to the practice.” His hand ran slowly up her arm.

Danni Morrison barely kept the shudder of distaste inside. A few vets had come to this graduation looking for talent to add to their surgeries, and this man had just offered her a dream job—a beautiful purple plum tossed right in her lap. A practice in inner Sydney, tending to the pampered pooches and kitties, with the added bonus of the Wildlife Rescue she’d always wanted to do as a free service thrown in.

A shame the price for the experience was far too revolting to contemplate.

At least ten retorts rose to her lips—but which one to use? The one where she’d like to decorate him…with a red-hot poker? The one on how, if she needed a father figure, she’d call her dad? That she only played doctors and vets with men with a full head of hair? Hmmm…so many good lines, so little intelligence to waste them on…

“Hey, Danni-girl, I’ve been looking for you.”

An arm was around her waist before the words, spoken in a warm, rough voice sank into her mind. No man with self-preservation instincts would ever call her Danni-girl, let alone touch her. At least none that knew her, anyway. She knew her delicate looks fooled a lot of guys into thinking she’d melt under their macho male protective instincts.

Even as she opened her mouth, something happened. Confused, she looked up at the man whose touch hadn’t inspired the usual urge to dismember him, but the most unexpected rush of sweetness….

It was Jim Haskell.

Shock held her in place. Jim had his arm around her? Jim, who had never looked at any woman but her best friend Laila in the past seven years, and never looked at her at all?

Was the world spinning the right way?

As she stared up at him, lost in uncertainty for the first time in years, Jim grinned, brushed his lips over hers as if it were an everyday thing—oh, God help me if he unleashed that on me every day—and glanced at the older man. He seemed unfazed by the older man’s perfect grooming compared to his own askew cap over unbrushed black curls, the crumpled graduation gown covering tattered jeans and runners that were as ready for retirement as the half-dead Valiant he drove, its ancient engine held together with paper clips and elastic bands. “G’day, sir. I’m Jim Haskell, Danni’s boyfriend.” He put out his free hand to shake the other man’s.

The man had already moved his hand from her arm, and Danni couldn’t blame him. With six-four of dark, pulsing masculine youth before him, he looked pale, overdressed, old and—short. “Ron Guildhall.”

“You won’t go wrong offering Danni a position, sir,” Jim assured him earnestly. “She topped the year in almost all subjects, and gets near-perfect scores in work experience. She’s a fantastic vet. Easily the best of all the candidates here today, sir.”

The man almost cringed every time Jim used the word sir, relegating him to the older generation with the simple term of respect.

He’d crushed the other man without a single word of abuse spoken.

And to think she’d always thought of Jim as gentle and unable to fight! He had more weapons than she’d ever dreamed—and he made no enemies in the battle.

“I—I’m still scouting,” the man offered, sounding weak. Beaten.

“Well, as I say, you won’t find better than Danni. I don’t suppose you have two positions? We’d really like to stay together…though I can work in a surgery nearby, huh, baby?” Jim smiled at her with the warm, intimate look of a longtime lover, wrinkled his nose and kissed her again…a touch deeper, infinitely sweeter. “Where Danni goes, I follow.”

Danni opened her mouth, and closed it. Her mind was blank. Where were all her good retorts when she needed them? She couldn’t think of any; she just couldn’t think, lost in the rush of sweetness, of gladness filling her. Jim’s touch was so right, so perfect.

For the first time in her life, a man’s touch made her feel beautiful…and it was Jim Haskell who inspired this wild, sweet aching? Yeah, sure, he was gorgeous in that open, sunny way—she’d always thought so—but—but—

Laila’s married now, a mother, and mad about her husband. Jim’s free…

“Slimeball,” Jim murmured in her ear with his customary cheerfulness, when the other man backed off to find another, more willing candidate. “He won’t bother you again.”

“I was handling it, you know,” she remarked, but with little of her normal acerbity.

Even so, his smile faded a little. He shrugged. “I knew you’d annihilate him—but I didn’t want your rep to suffer. At least if he takes you on now, it’s for your skills alone.”

She opened her mouth, but somehow only two words came out. “Thank you.” Her voice sounded odd. Husky. Feminine. Her gaze remained glued to him, and she felt so—breathless. “That was…good of you.” What did you say when someone helped you out? It had happened so rarely for her, she had no idea.

After a moment, his smile returned, and it was warm, intimate again. “You’re welcome, Danni. Just consider it my good deed for the day.”

“The original boy scout.” But again, she didn’t sound sarcastic; she sounded—ack—breathless. Feminine. Where had all her clever lines disappeared to? “I owe you one.”

Why had she said that? It was a blatant invitation for the usual male sleaze to head her way as he came onto her….

Oh, get real, this is Jim Haskell! He wouldn’t know how to be sleazy.

As if on cue, he grinned, those big, chocolate eyes of his filled with the smile no woman could ever think of as insinuating. “Don’t get your knickers in a twist. You’ll find a way to give back one day. You couldn’t stand to be in anyone’s debt for long.”

She gasped in a short breath, and choked on a laugh, but she didn’t know if it was because he hadn’t hit on her, or in amazement that he’d read her like a book. And the honesty she rarely showed with men came out of hiding. “You’re right. How about—” Oh, man, was she really going to say this? Without even knowing she did it, she’d reached for his hand, her fingers twining through his. “How about dinner tonight?”

She held her breath, waiting…her mind spinning. Had she really asked a man out? Asked Jim out?

Please don’t say no. Look at me and see this is a never-before event for me….

The rush of exhilaration filled her, just thinking he might say yes. She didn’t question why it was so important to her, knew only that it was. Staring up at him, she saw the change. The tiny frown gathered on his brow; backing off before she released his hand, he unintentionally jerked her toward him. “Sorry, but my family’s here—” waving at the sea of people off to the left “—and we’re heading out for a family celebration. First alma mater in the family, and all that. I’m sure your family’s here, too. Bad timing. Maybe another time, eh? You have a good one, Danni.”

With a grin and a wave he walked away, leaving Danni staring after him.

CHAPTER ONE

Thommo’s Steak House, Bathurst, two years later

FINALLY, TWO YEARS AFTER the rest of her class, his best friend had graduated—and all her friends and family, including her husband and daughter, were here to celebrate the event.

After years of thinking Laila was the woman for him, Jim had wondered how he’d feel, seeing her as another man’s wife, a mother, and pregnant again.

Now he knew.

The last flare of useless wishes and longings had ended three years ago, when he’d met Jake Sutherland, and known he was the man for her—so he’d helped them come together. His smile tonight was one of genuine joy for her happiness. He wished Laila the best in life, as he did for his sisters—and he knew she had it.

If he wondered when it’d be his turn, when he’d find a woman he truly cared for from the heart, who could love him back…well, that was natural, right? He was from a big, happy family, and he’d always wanted that kind of love and stability for himself.

A shame all he’d got the past few years was the kind of fun-time girls who filled hours, not his life or heart. Why was it that the women who chased him were lightweights, and the women he really wanted, the kind of girls he could take home to meet the family, always saw him as a brother?

“I’m out. I’m getting some real action.”

With a tiny start, he remembered he’d brought Shana tonight. He almost rolled his eyes at her terminology—Shana was twenty-two, but had an addiction to Hollywood teen flicks. He’d only brought her because she’d never been to Bathurst, and she’d begged to come.

Nice kid, but a lightweight, as always.

“Sorry, Shana. I guess it’s rough when you don’t know anyone,” he offered, knowing it sounded lame.

Her pretty, over-made-up face was pouting. “Even rougher when your date can’t take his eyes off another girl,” she muttered, for his ears alone.

Jim frowned. “It’s her night. She’s my best friend, and graduated two years after the rest of us. It’s only right she gets the attention. For Pete’s sake, she’s a married woman!”

Shana’s brows lifted. “Who, the brunette across from you?”

A lightning-fast streak ran through him, a frisson of something—he didn’t know what. Slowly, almost disbelieving, he turned around.

Danni Morrison was sitting across from him.

He’d been looking at Danni? Danni with the smart mouth and the bitter disgust of all men? Why on earth would he be looking at her?

Funny, but now he was looking, it felt natural—as if he’d been watching her so long that she’d slid into his comfort zone.

No. He could never call anything about Danni comfortable. Especially not the reaction his body was having to her soft, haunting face. More than pretty, not quite lovely, but delicate, dark and wistful, he knew if he ever had to describe her to an artist, he could have recalled each feature. He could have done so any time in the past ten years.

Why, he didn’t know; she’d never treated him with anything but disdain and sarcasm. After ten years he knew almost nothing about her—she’d never let any guy close enough to her to know her. What he did know of her made him certain she wasn’t the sort of woman he’d want in his life. He’d always hated the kind of mordant sarcasm she used as a protective shell around her.

Yet, he could drink in her face all night and never tire of it.

Had he been staring at her all night without being aware of it? It seemed ridiculous to him, yet he was doing it now, and it didn’t feel like the first time.

“Yeah, good luck with that,” came the quiet, mocking voice in his ear. “I’d never have thought a human battlefield was your type. I’m off to find a nightclub. I’ll get my own way back home.”

Shana picked up her bag and walked out. Jim knew he should call her back, or at least offer to drive her somewhere, but his manners had deserted him. He was too stunned by the fact that he couldn’t stop staring at the woman across from him.

Danni shifted on her seat and frowned at her plate of baked vegetables as if she sensed his gaze, or his inner disquiet. Or maybe it was the steak house getting to her…if she was still a strict vegetarian as she’d been during their university days.

She was as ethereal as she’d always been. He’d have thought almost two years in Europe, working, touring and visiting her German relatives would have fattened her up a bit, but she still had that waiflike look to her—the touch of faerie. Dark hair like a waving river down her back, fathomless caramel-brown eyes and restless hands; her features so delicate she seemed lost inside her gentle prettiness.

Until she opened her mouth, that is. Then the notion that she was a delicate woman in need of male protection was blasted apart. She could give an armoured tank lessons on keeping up protective shells. She scared the living daylights out of any man who ventured near her without their defensive weapons raised and ready.

Don’t patronise me had been her favourite phrase, among a hundred lines designed to keep the barbed-wire fence around her space from being breached.

“Have I got gravy on my nose, Haskell?”

Jim snapped out of his reverie with Danni’s withering tone. “No, just the usual ice around your heart,” he said without thinking—and he could have cut out his tongue, when he saw her reaction. Not that she paled, or flinched; nothing so obvious for the iron maiden. Her eyelids flickered, that was all; but in that moment, a flash of vulnerability shone in her eyes.

Hurt.

Then he remembered, knew why he couldn’t stop watching her tonight—and why she was so aware of his attention, instead of ignoring him as she always had before.

Two years ago, at their graduation celebration. Even in the midst of his family’s joy at his gaining the cap and scroll—the first alumni in his poor country family—he’d missed his best friend like crazy, and wandered around the hall as if he’d somehow be able to find Laila. Knowing it was stupid, he’d been unable to stop, feeling more and more lost and alone. He’d missed having someone to talk to, to laugh with. He could have taken a date—one of several, he’d always been popular—but none of them were Laila, and that day had been too important to waste on what he privately termed a “fluffy girl.”

Then he’d seen Danni in the middle of a conversation with one of the many veterinary surgeons who’d come looking for new talent. The man, at least twenty years older than Danni, had been sending out signals impossible to ignore…and Danni’s wistful, pretty face had grown more derisive by the moment.

He didn’t doubt her ability to handle the jerk; but by the look on her face, he’d known whatever she’d been about to say would have destroyed her career chances for years to come.

And the dirty slimebag was touching her.

Why, he still had no idea, but before he knew it, he’d strolled up as if she’d been the one he’d been looking for all night, wrapped his arm around her waist and claimed her as his woman with a cheerful grin. He’d kissed her with the casualness of long-term intimacy—a kiss that seemed to reroute his brain circuits for a few seconds—and then he’d pulled himself together, and extolled her talents as a veterinary surgeon. Within seconds, he’d got the man back onto the strictly professional path.

He’d expected no thanks for his intervention—maybe perhaps more of a verbal assault about how “sisters are doing it for themselves” from miniature Sherman tank Danni Morrison—but instead of either, she’d given him an amazed, sweet, wondering look…the look of a woman who had finally seen him as a man.

An attractive man, a man whose touch had made her feel something.

He’d never dreamed of getting that kind of look from Danni, had never wanted it from her, either. At least, he hadn’t realised how amazing it was to be a man wanted by a woman like Danni until that moment. Seeing her battle-weary face soften into radiance so strong it was terrifying…and it was because of him.

Why had he kissed her a second time? He still had no good answer—except that the first kiss had been so good. And to his disbelief, it had been even more amazing. Scary, addictive stuff….

And then, she’d asked him out. And taken his hand in hers, looking up at him as if he was something wonderful….

The kind of look Laila had given him the first time he’d rescued her. A warning shout had reverberated in his head, Get out of here! You’ll only get hurt again.

And he’d made a hurried excuse and walked away. What else could he have done?

He came back to the present, and saw the change. Danni’s chin was up, her eyes glittering defence, her mouth opening to give him the broad side of her smart tongue.

He’d be willing to bet she had another few hundred attacking lines by now, and in a few different languages…and he’d deserve it.

“I’m sorry, Danni, that was a rude and unnecessary thing to say,” he said with quiet sincerity. She deserved the apology—both for now, and for two years ago. He’d walked off on the strength of the look in her eyes, when it had probably been simple gratitude. Danni wasn’t used to anyone doing anything for her…or maybe she wasn’t used to being kissed. He’d never seen her with a guy in all the years they’d been in the same group.

Her half-open mouth stopped there. He should have been glad he’d routed the attack for once, but all he could think was how pretty her mouth was like that—how kissable. She was so lovely when she didn’t use her mouth to destroy the opposition. If he could just keep her mouth busy with other things, such as soft and pliant beneath his…

He swore beneath his breath. She’d been through more than enough pain with her parents’ crazy Hundred Years’ War. He’d be damned if he’d add to it, no matter how lovely she was, or how lost. How tempting.

Hardening his will, he turned his head, forcing his gaze elsewhere.

And saw Laila’s little, knowing grin before it vanished. He narrowed his eyes at her in warning not to go there, but all she did was wink and whisper to Jake. Jake’s sudden grin and discreet thumbs-up told Jim his best friend had relayed the news to her husband.

Laila knew him too well. The vision had been planted now, the seed taken flower. He wanted Danni, and only distance—and another willing woman or three—would supplant it. And that was only if he was very lucky; it only worked with the women who didn’t matter.

And Danni mattered from the time Laila had told him why she had so many barricades around herself. He might not wander into her line of fire, but he’d never hurt her, either.

Fantastic. Another woman he wanted so much it hurt, and he couldn’t do a thing about it. If he followed his normal pattern, he’d be hopelessly lusting after Danni for years—just as he had with Laila, and before that with Maddy Carlson throughout high school. What was it about him that made him so attractive to every woman except the ones he truly liked?

Except that this time, Danni wants you, too. You saw it two years ago, you saw it again tonight. You can have her, and get her out of your system—but there’s something vulnerable about her. Don’t hurt her.

With a savage curse, Jim jerked to his feet and stalked out of the restaurant.

Two amused grins followed him—and one confused frown. Danni didn’t know what to make of it. She turned to Laila. “What’s going on with Jim? He’s normally so easygoing, but tonight he’s like a hissing cat on hot bricks.” His face—he had always been gorgeous, in his cheerful, uncomplicated way—had been filled with quiet storms, soulful and yet hot, drawing her gaze to him over and over. And the way he’d kept staring at her—what was that about?

Her dearest friend in the world chuckled, breaking into her thoughts. “I’m guessing you’ll soon find out, Danni. Don’t forget to give me the goss. I’d like to see my two best friends happy.” Laila patted her hand and squeezed it.

She forced a frown to quell the direction of Laila’s thoughts. “You’re out of your tree, Laila. Haskell and I have known and disliked each other too many years to change now.”

Laila had known her too long to be put off by the belligerent tone. “Tell it to yourself, babe. The heated looks between you have been flying thick and fast all night.” She sighed and rubbed her belly. “Junior’s very active tonight. It’s all his father’s fault.”

“His father?” Jake and Danni asked at the same moment, with sly smiles. It was a regular joke after the birth of her very feminine daughter Ally, whom tomboy Laila had been so certain would be a boy.

Laila mock-glared at them each in turn. “Yeah, yeah, rub it in, both of you. Have your fun, while I suffer under the kick zone here.”

Danni dragged in a quiet sigh of relief that Laila dropped the Jim-topic. After the moment of unbearable sweetness two years ago and his sudden abandonment, she knew better than to think of how Jim had just been looking at her.

Except that she was thinking of it.

Beneath the table, she clenched her fists. What was it with her? She should know better than to hope—so why did she? He’d rescued her once—so what? It was in Jim’s nature to rescue people. And if for a short time she’d felt something for him…hoped, as she’d never done before with any man…that moment had shattered when he’d made his excuses and bolted at a gazillion miles an hour, as if she’d threatened him with slow torture.

It was no big deal. If nothing in her life had prepared her for Jim’s brand of kindness without agenda, or the unexpected hot sweetness that burst through her at his touch, she could handle it now. Over eighteen months of distance—crossing the world to get that distance—might not have replaced him, but at least she could see the truth right in front of her.

Some people were born for love and happy endings. It was not for her. She’d known that from the age of eight, when she’d tried to play Barbie and Ken with the other girls. Her dolls had always got embroiled in sarcasm matches and screaming rows. Her friends had thought it hilarious, but even at that tender age, some deep-buried part of her had known she wasn’t normal. She didn’t know how to give or receive love like the other girls. She didn’t know how to be happy, or to trust in any rare moments of joy lasting. Not for her.

It wasn’t in the genetics. She and Laila couldn’t be more opposite, let alone she and Jim—and that was leaving out all the things they did differently, like their work methods and their diets. Laila and Jake’s entire clan was here, singing family celebration songs, vying for the privilege of holding little Ally. Jim’s family was big, noisy and loving, and they all made the trek down here to celebrate Jim’s every achievement, coming over four hundred kilometres from the back of beyond to be with him.

Danni had chosen this university because it was three hundred kilometres from Sydney—and her home. Her parents had come to every one of her milestones, but had sat at opposite ends of the room and competed with icy precision for her attention.