The Australian Affairs Collection

CHAPTER FIVE

A MOMENTARY FLASH of pique had Jess’s hands tightening around the steering wheel. Just because she’d said she wasn’t school smart didn’t mean she was ignorant. Of course she knew of Kings College. It was one of the best private schools in Sydney. Despite it being located in the western suburbs, it was a far cry from the humble high school she’d gone to only a few miles away.

‘Yes. I know it,’ she said, thinking how way out of her league this man was. ‘It’s a very good school.’

‘That’s where I met Andy.’

‘Your best friend?’

‘Yes. We went on to study law together at Sydney Uni as well.’

Oh, Lord. Now he’d studied law at Sydney University, another prestigious establishment. Jess knew what it took to get into law. Which showed Ben was very school smart. But then, she’d guessed that already.

What next? she wondered. He probably wintered in the ski fields of Austria every year. And took his girlfriend to Paris for romantic weekends.

This last thought gave her a real jolt. Jess hadn’t thought of Ben as having a girlfriend, which was very stupid of her. Of course he must have, a man like him. Not a wife, though. When she’d asked him for a contact name and number yesterday he hadn’t mentioned a wife.

A fiancée was still on the cards, however.

‘And now your best friend is getting married,’ she said, trying to make her voice cool and conversational, not like she was dying of curiosity. ‘Are you married, Ben?’ she asked.

‘No,’ he said.

‘Engaged?’

‘No.’

She’d gone too far now to stop. ‘You must have a girlfriend back home.’

‘Not any more. I did have a girlfriend. But, like yours, that relationship has now gone by the board.’

‘She dumped you?’ Jess said with total disbelief in her voice.

‘Not exactly…’

‘Sorry. I’m prying again.’

‘I don’t mind,’ he said. ‘I enjoy talking to you. Actually, I’m the one who decided to call it quits. I just haven’t had the opportunity to tell Amber yet. I only decided last night.’

Amber, Jess thought with a curl of her top lip. A typical name for the type of girl he would date. She sounded beautiful. And rich. Jess hated her, till she remembered Ben was breaking up with her. Since that was the case, she could afford to be less bitchy. But she was still curious.

‘What went wrong?’

‘She wanted marriage and I didn’t.’

‘I see,’ she said. What was it with men these days that they shied away from commitment?

When Jess found herself surrendering to a sinking feeling, she decided a change of subject was called for. She thought of returning to the problems with Fab Fashions but for some strange reason her enthusiasm for that project had lost some of its appeal. It was probably a waste of time, anyway. So she turned to that old favourite to fill awkward moments in a conversation. The weather.

‘I’m so glad it’s a nice sunny day,’ she said with false brightness. ‘There’s nothing I hate more than driving in the rain. Though the recent rain was greatly appreciated. We had a terribly dry winter. Now everything’s lovely and green.’

Ben turned his head to gaze at the countryside. ‘It does look good. I can’t say the same for this road, though. It’s deplorable for a main highway. All cracked and patched up.’

‘That’s because it’s built over the top of coal mines,’ Jess explained. ‘It suffers from subsidence. Still, that’s Australia for you. We’re notorious for our dreadful roads.’

‘That’s because the country is too big for your population. Not enough taxes for proper infrastructure.’

‘Not enough taxes!’ Jess exclaimed, putting aside her uncharacteristic desire to please and giving vent to her usual outspokenness. ‘We’re one of the highest taxed countries in the world!’

‘Not quite. Australia’s only number ten. Most European countries pay higher taxes.’

‘Not America, though,’ Jess argued. ‘People can become rich in America. It’s hard to become rich in Australia unless you’re a crook or a drug dealer. Though, come to think of it, bankers are doing pretty well at the moment,’ she added a touch tartly. ‘My dad works his bum off and still only makes a living. Mum and Dad haven’t had a decent holiday in years.’ She didn’t call five days in Bali last year a decent holiday.

‘That’s a shame. Everyone must have holidays these days or stress will get you in the end.’

‘That’s what I keep telling them.’

‘How old are they?’

‘Dad’s sixty-three. Mum’s fifty-nine.’

‘Close to retirement age, then.’

‘Dad says he’d rather die than retire.’

‘My dad says the same thing,’ Ben said. ‘He loves working.’

Loves making money, you mean, Jess thought but didn’t say.

‘You mentioned brothers earlier,’ Ben said. ‘How many do you have?’

‘What? Oh…er…three.’

‘I always wanted a brother. So, Jess, tell me a bit about these brothers of yours.’

Jess shrugged. There seemed no point not telling him about her family. They had to talk about something, she supposed.

‘Connor’s the oldest,’ she said. ‘He’s thirty-six. Married with two boys. Then there’s Troy. He’s thirty-four and married too, with twin girls. They’re eight,’ she added, smiling as she thought of Amy and Emily, who were the sweetest girls. ‘Then there’s Peter, who’s closest to me at twenty-seven. He’s not long married and his wife is expecting a bub early next year.’

‘No sisters?’

‘No, no sisters.’

‘So you’re the baby of the family.’

‘Not a spoilt one, I can assure you,’ she said, though this was a lie. Her brothers had indulged her shamelessly. And had been very protective of her when the boys had started hanging around. They were the reason she hadn’t had a boyfriend till she’d left school. Because they kept frightening them off. Peter, especially. Jess had been a virgin till she was close to twenty.

‘I suppose you want kids as well. I saw you smiling when you talked about the twin girls.’

‘I’d love at least two children,’ Jess admitted. ‘But getting married and having children is not high on my list of wants right now. I’m only twenty-five. First, I’d like to travel all around Australia. That’s why I bought this little darling,’ she added, tapping the steering wheel. ‘Because it can cope with whatever terrible roads Australia can throw at me.

‘Oh look, there’s the turn-off to the Hunter Valley vineyards,’ she pointed out. ‘If you’re staying up on the Central Coast for a while after you get back from your friend’s wedding, then that’s one of the places you should visit. It’s lovely at this time of the year. Lots of great places to stay and terrific wine to taste. You can even go up in a balloon. Colin and I did that not long ago and it was fantastic.’

‘Had you been going out with this Colin fellow for long?’

‘Just over a year.’

‘And you were serious about him?’

‘Serious enough,’ she admitted. ‘To be honest, I thought I was in love with him. But I can see now that I wasn’t.’ How could she have been? Colin had been gone from her life less than a month and she already had the hots for another man.

‘For what it’s worth, Jess,’ that other man said, ‘I think this Colin was a total idiot, leaving a girl like you behind.’

Jess could not help glancing over at Ben. His head turned her way and their eyes would have met if they hadn’t both been wearing sunglasses. Even so, something zapped between them like a charge of electricity, taking Jess’s breath away. And suddenly she knew, as surely as she knew that she should get her eyes back on the road ahead quick smart, that Ben fancied her as much as she fancied him. And, whilst the realisation of his sexual interest was exciting and flattering, it also terrified the life out of her.

CHAPTER SIX

BEN COULD HARDLY CONTAIN the burst of triumph he experienced when he heard her sharply indrawn breath, then watched her reef her eyes back on the road like the hounds of hell were after her.

Perhaps they were, he thought darkly. Be damned with his conscience. Be damned with common sense! He had to have this girl. And soon.

* * *

Jess was annoyed with herself for feeling flattered by Ben’s interest. Why shouldn’t he fancy her? she reasoned with more of her usual self-confidence. She was an attractive girl, with a nice face and figure. And, yes, super legs. Okay, so she probably wasn’t a patch on this Amber female, but she was over in New York and Jess was right here. On top of that, he didn’t want Amber. No, no, be honest here, Jess, it wasn’t Amber he didn’t want, just marriage. No doubt he would have continued their sexual relationship if she hadn’t put the hard word on him. The truth was he was out here in Australia, probably feeling a bit lonely, and suddenly there she was, with no boyfriend and availability written all over her stupid face!

Jess was dragged out of her frustrating train of thought by the sudden end of the motorway. She hadn’t even seen the signs to slow down. Rolling her eyes at herself, she made a careful left at the roundabout onto the New England Highway and set sail for the Golden Highway. Thankfully, Ben had fallen silent. No doubt he was working out when to make a pass whilst she was working out how she was going to act when that happened.

As Jess drove on silently, she wondered why she couldn’t be like other girls—the ones who could sleep with guys on a first date, or even on meeting them for the first time at a pub, or club, or disco or whatever. She could never do that. She found the idea repulsive. And dangerous. She had to get to know the guy first. And like him. Had to see that he liked her too. Liked her enough to wait for her. Till she felt ready to go all the way.

She’d made Colin wait for weeks. Jess suspected Ben wouldn’t wait weeks for her.

Not that she wanted him to. Lord, what was happening to her here? This wasn’t like her at all! But Ben wasn’t like any man she’d ever met before. It wasn’t just a question of his movie-star looks, although they were hard to ignore. There was something else. A cloak of confidence which he wore without effort and which she found incredibly attractive. And very sexy. He would be a fantastic lover, she was sure. Very experienced. Very…knowledgeable. He would know exactly what to do and how to do it to make sure she always came.

A shiver rippled down her spine at this last thought. She didn’t always come during sex. But she would like to.

‘When are we going to make our first stop?’ Ben suddenly piped up. ‘I’ll need to have a coffee fairly soon.’

Jess suppressed a groan as she realised that she’d once again become distracted from her driving. It took an extreme effort of will to drag her overheated mind away from those corrupting thoughts and put it to the task of estimating exactly where they were, quickly realising that they couldn’t be far from the turn-off onto the Golden Highway.

‘Denman is about half an hour from here,’ she said, having studied the route and memorised all the towns and services on the way. ‘I checked it up on the Internet. It’s a small historic town down in a valley with a nice pub and a couple of cafés. If that’s too far off for you, we could drive into Singleton, but then we’d have to double back.’

‘No. No doubling back. Denman sounds fine. You wouldn’t happen to have any pain killers with you, would you? I should have taken a couple this morning but forgot.’

Jess only then remembered his bad shoulder. ‘There’s some in the glove box,’ she said. ‘And a bottle of water in your door, if you want to take the tablets straight away.’

‘Thanks.’

‘How bad is your shoulder?’ she asked, happy to have something safe to talk about.

‘It’s a bit stiff and sore this morning, but honestly it’s fine. I could have driven, but the doctor at the hospital said no. Not because of the shoulder—I had a mild concussion as well.’

‘Best you didn’t drive, then.’

‘I’m glad I couldn’t—I wouldn’t have met you.’

Jess could not stop her heart swelling with pleasure. Yet she knew what he was about. She’d seen how her brothers had acted with girls whose pants they wanted to get into. She’d watched them lay the compliments on thick and fast. And she’d watched those silly girls lap them up, then give her brothers what they wanted in no time at all.

Maybe that was why she’d acted differently with boys who came onto her. Or she had, till this handsome devil had come along.

He’d thrown a spanner in her works all right. Jess could not believe she was thinking of having a one-night stand with him. Or that just the thought of it made her heart race faster than a Formula One car on the starting blocks.

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘WHAT A LOVELY little town this is,’ Ben said.

They had stopped and were sitting at a table on the veranda of an old farmhouse which had been converted into a café, sipping their just-delivered coffee and looking out onto a quite lovely garden full of flowering shrubs. Ben knew nothing about gardening and plants but he knew what he liked. It was the same way with art. He never bought art on the so-called reputation of the artist. He only bought what he liked.

He glanced over the table at Jess and thought how much he liked her too. Maybe that was why his desire for her was so strong. During the last half-hour of the drive, he’d been thinking how he could be alone with her this weekend in a place suitable for seduction. And he’d finally come up with a plan which would work, provided she went along with the idea.

‘So, Jess,’ he said. ‘I think it’s about time you started telling me what’s wrong with Fab Fashions. I didn’t want to talk business during the drive; I just wanted to drink in the wonderful scenery. But now that we’ve stopped…’

She put down her cup, then looked up at him with those big brown eyes of hers, the kind of eyes a man could drown in. He almost wished she’d put her sunglasses back on. But she’d left them hooked over the sun visor in the four-wheel drive. Lord, but they were expressive eyes. He could only hope that his own didn’t give away his innermost thoughts, since he’d removed his sunglasses a couple of minutes earlier and popped them back into his shirt pocket.

‘You honestly want to hear my ideas?’ she said, sounding somewhat sceptical.

Not really, he conceded privately. They were a waste of time. But it was part of his plan.

‘But of course,’ he said.

Her face lit up and, yes, so did her eyes. Guilt threatened, but he pushed it firmly aside. Guilt, Ben conceded, was no match for lust.

‘Okay. Well, for starters there’s its name. “Fab Fashions” implies it caters for the young where in fact most of the stock in Fab Fashions is targeted towards the more mature woman. Either change the name or change the stock. I would suggest change the name; there are enough clothes around for teenagers.

‘Then you should change your buyers. Get people in who aren’t just buying to price. Someone who knows what’s in fashion and what is comfortable to wear. The more mature lady wants comfort as well as style. Also, it might be a good idea to stock more of the most common sizes instead of just buying across the board. Most women over forty are not size eight! And of course you should have an online store too. To fall behind the times is stupid.’

Ben was surprised and impressed. All her suggestions made sense. They might even work. ‘You really know your stuff, don’t you?’

‘I told you…fashion is a genuine passion with me. On top of that, I hate to think of all those people losing their jobs. If every owner shut their stores during a down-turn in the economy, the country would go to the wall. Surely it’s not always about profit, is it, Ben? I mean…everyone has to take the bad times with the good, especially big companies like yours.’

‘It’s not always quite as simple as that, Jess.’

She bristled. ‘I knew you’d say that.’

‘I didn’t say I wasn’t prepared to do what you suggested. What say we have a think over the weekend and see if we can find a fab new name which would lend itself to a successful marketing campaign?’

Jess’s frown was instant. ‘But we don’t have any spare time this weekend. You have to go to a stag party tonight and the wedding’s tomorrow. I suppose we could talk on the drive home.’

‘We could,’ he said. ‘But when I’m excited about something, I like to get straight to it,’ he added with considerable irony and another tweak to his conscience. ‘How about I give Andy a ring and organise for you to stay at the winery over the weekend instead of some motel in Mudgee? They have a small cottage on the property away from the main house which is very comfy. We could stay there together.’

‘Together!’

‘There’s two bedrooms, Jess. Of course, there won’t be much time for talking tonight, since I’ll be at Andy’s bachelor party. But the wedding’s not till four the next afternoon. That should give us plenty of time to talk. And, speaking of the wedding, I’m sure I could wangle you an invitation.’ If she didn’t have a suitable dress, he would take her into Mudgee and buy her one.

Wariness warred with temptation in her eyes. ‘Won’t Andy think it odd, you asking him to invite a virtual stranger to his wedding?’

‘But you’re not a stranger, Jess. I already know more about you than most of my past girlfriends. On top of that, we’re now business colleagues. I’ll tell Andy you’re a marketing consultant I’ve hired to help me with Fab Fashions and who kindly offered to drive me up here after I had that unfortunate car accident. There’s no need to mention anything about you working for a hire car company, is there?’

Jess shook her head. Did he honestly think she didn’t know what he was doing? She wasn’t a fool. But there was simply no saying no to him.

‘You do like to take over, Ben, don’t you?’

His smile was both charming and sexy at the same time. ‘What can I say? People tell me I’m bossy and controlling.’

Jess laughed. He was a clever devil. But totally irresistible.

‘I’m sure Andy’s folks will still think it odd, you asking for us to stay together in that cottage.’

‘In that case, I’ll say we’re dating.’

‘But we’re not!’

‘We will be, come Sunday. I have every intention of asking you out once we get back to the coast.’

‘I might say no.’

‘Will you?’

‘No.’

He grinned at her. ‘Great. No problems, then. I’ll tell Andy you’re my new girlfriend.’

Jess sighed. ‘You are incorrigible.’

‘I’m smitten, that’s what I am.’

She just stared at him. She was the one who was smitten. He just wanted to get into her pants.

‘I think you should know in advance, Ben, that I don’t sleep with a guy on a first date.’ Or she hadn’t, till he’d come along.

There was that hint of a smile again. ‘Who said anything about sleeping?’

‘Very funny. You know what I mean.’

‘Yes, of course I do. Let me assure you, Jess, that I would always be respectful of your wishes.’

Mmm…meaning he was very confident that he could seduce her in no time flat. Which he could, of course. But she had to make some kind of stand. Her pride demanded it.