Man About The House

Thick black lashes blinked over surprised turquoise eyes. ‘Well, yes...I guess that’s one way of putting it,’ she conceded, her tone tinged with the same hint of doubt that was beginning to show in her wan-looking face.

Brett gave a sage nod and went on. ‘And I’d say the odds would be in the red that, despite the fact you’ve probably brushed your teeth three or four times now, your mouth still feels like it’s coated with old cotton wool that’s been dipped in vinegar and rolled in sand. Oh, and your stomach probably feels like it’s going to cave in too, but the mere thought of actually introducing food to it makes it start recoiling in dread.’

He raised an eyebrow at her ever-increasing frown. ‘How’s Dr Brett’s description of your symptoms so far? Ah, yes...and shaking your head hurts,’ he added, seeing her grimace after doing so.

‘Well?’ he prodded.

‘That’s what a hangover feels like?’

‘Yep, ’fraid so.’ As concern battled with confusion for dominance in her pretty face Brett wished he’d been a little less smug. “I know it’s small consolation right now,’ he said, ‘but you aren’t the first person to have one, Joanna.’

‘But my stomach doesn’t feel like you said,’ she told him, in a grasping-at-straws tone.

‘Ahh,’ he said sagely. ‘Then you’re obviously what I call a cast-iron gut drunk,’ he told her, softening the description with a smile. ‘The majority of hangover victims, myself included, cannot look at anything even remotely greasy the morning after. But there’s a second category who swear ingesting as much cholesterol-laden food as quickly as possible restores them to a reasonable facsimile of health.’ He grinned. ‘My bet is you’re in the latter category and that you’re craving...oh, say, a big plate of bacon and eggs? Or maybe a nice, thick juicy hamburger?’

He allowed himself a smug chuckle as her expression came close to a drool. ‘Tell you what, you put those sheets in the machine while I go get dressed, then meet me in the kitchen.’

‘Why?’

‘Because it just so happens I’m the cure for your hangover,’ he said, returning to the task of peeling off his wetsuit. ‘I happen to cook the best damned bacon and eggs you’ll ever taste.’

‘You can’t do that while I’m here!’ The adamant declaration surprised him.

‘Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t expect you to do all the cooking.’

‘I mean you can’t just take your clothes off like that!’

Take my—’

There was no containing his amusement once he’d caught on to where she was coming from, but he sobered quickly when she dumped the bedding onto the floor and pivoted towards the door. Acting purely on instinct, he threw out an arm, barring her escape; he instantly regretted the action when fear flared in those gorgeous eyes.

‘It’s okay, Joanna,’ he said hurriedly. ‘I’m dressed. That is, I’ve got a pair of swimmers underneath.’ Once again she flushed pink.

A week ago he’d have sworn blushing had been entirely bred out of the last few generations of females, but Joanna Ford was a real revelation. A very attractive, very sexy revelation. It was clear she didn’t know what to say or where to look. Or rather, she was working hard to look at everything bar his bare chest, to which she was currently close enough for him to feel the warmth of her stuttered, ‘Oh. Well... I...’

The husky quality of her uncertain whisper sparked interest in muscles of Brett’s body which in the wake of the emotional workout Toni had given him weren’t supposed to be looking for exercise. They especially weren’t supposed to be motivated by a petite twenty-two-year-old with more curves than common sense and a way of nibbling her mouth that made a man want to say, Hey...taste mine.

When she did eventually bring her gaze to his face, her demeanour of shy expectation as she slowly slipped a strand of silky jet hair behind her ear almost made him groan. Had any other woman looked at him like that he’d have read it as a come on and accepted the invitation. Hell, he wanted to accept it now! Trouble was, as difficult as it was to believe, he doubted Joanna had a clue about the signals she was emitting.

Deciding they both needed space Brett lowered his arm and stepped back. Producing what he hoped was a reassuring smile, he excused himself and headed to the bathroom.

Brett heard her enter the kitchen scant seconds before a soft, awed voice officially announced her. ‘You really can cook.’

‘You seem surprised.’ He spared her a quick glance. ‘Can’t you?’

‘Can’t I what?’

‘Cook.’

Her laugh was incredulous. ‘Of course I can. I’ve just never met a man who could.’

‘Then you must’ve met a lot of useless, skinny, hungry men.’ His teasing comment limped into an awkward silence.

The way she was fidgeting with the carton of eggs lying on the benchtop hinted at her still being uncomfortable in his presence, for which Brett was grateful. It meant she’d be too distracted to notice any semblance of unease he might display, because there was no denying this girl seriously raised the level of his awareness meter. In the half-hour or so since their earlier encounter, she’d donned make-up and a trendy trouser suit and it irritated him. To his way of thinking, the sexy fashion-plate image constituted false advertising by promising things that were way out of this kid’s league and strictly off limits to him. Sans make-up, dressed in the blue jeans and sweatshirt of earlier, she’d been less of a threat to his good intentions by at least looking as innocent and unworldly as she so obviously was. Now she looked as if she not only knew the score but wanted the role of captain-coach in the game.

He tried hard to concentrate on what he was doing, but was so aware of her watching his every move her gaze was almost like a physical touch.

‘Um, would you like me to set the table?’ she offered, after several minutes of razor-sharp silence which Brett figured had to have made her as uncomfortable as him.

‘Sure. Thanks.’

Instantly she started into action, moving with the familiarity of having lived in the house for two months.

The kitchen was by no means small, but somehow Joanna’s aura managed to fill every atom of space. Brett had never been so aware of another person’s presence in his entire life. On two occasions they got in each other’s way, and brushing against her felt like being zapped by a current of electricity. But her movements between the cupboards and the table, the sink and the fridge were a distraction even when she wasn’t in his line of vision or within touching distance. Bit by bit the musky scent of her perfume won dominance over the aroma of the cooking breakfast. and his heartbeat drowned out the sizzle of the bacon.

The relief when he could finally sit down and have the width of the breakfast table between them was enormous. Well, it was until the silence again became a stilted roar. They might have both been going through the motions of eating with the automation of two robots oblivious to the other’s presence, but Brett figured between them they’d exercised more covert glances than a CIA agent did in a career. This was getting ridiculous! He was thirty-four, for God’s sake, not fifteen!

‘So,’ he said, quickly lowering his unintentionally loud voice when she physically started, ‘are you feeling any better now you’ve eaten?’

Nodding, she quickly swallowed. ‘A bit.’ A tiny smile tugged at her mouth. ‘You were right; you are a good cook.’

1 did warn you.’

His teasing didn’t draw more than another small smile, but its briefness didn’t dull its impact. Brett scrambled to keep the conversation going. ‘You like Thai food?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve never had it. I had Italian once.’

‘Once?’

‘My family didn’t eat fancy stuff.’

‘Well, then, I guess I’ll have to introduce you to a wider culinary range while you’re here.’

‘Oh, no! Really. I wouldn’t feel right letting you fix meals for me.’

‘Why not? You have to eat, and it’s no fun just cooking for myself.’

For several seconds she seemed nonplussed by his logic, then produced another of those killer smiles. ‘All right, but only if we take turns. You cook one meal, I’ll cook the next’

‘Fair enough.’

Their gazes met and held, and Brett had a difficult time convincing his libido that he really wasn’t interested in any woman right now—much less the young girl across the table. Even if she was the most incredibly beautiful female he’d ever seen. Yet the hypnotic effect of those turquoise eyes made it impossible for him to look away, and they suffused his body with an inner warmth that was as tranquil as it was disturbing.

It wasn’t until she lowered her lashes and rose from her chair that Brett was capable of blinking and breathing again.

‘Would you like tea or coffee?’ she asked.

Caught up in trying to unravel his bemused thoughts, he had to rerun her words twice before they made sense. ‘Whatever you’re having is fine.’

‘I only drink tea,’ she told him. ‘But I don’t mind making you coffee if that’s what you want.’ The curve of her mouth was almost as bewitching as those of the body she leaned gracefully against the counter, and the item which sprang to the top of his immediate ‘want list’ wasn’t anything as innocuous as either beverage. He managed to bite back the admission. ‘Thanks, but tea’s okay with me.’

‘How do you have it?’

Brett found himself actually having to think before making what should have been an automatic response. ‘White. No sugar.’

‘Darjeeling, Earl Grey or Irish Breakfast?’

It was then his trouble alarm started clanging!

The truth was he had no damn interest in what sort of tea he drank and way too much in the woman making it; all of it sexual.

The problem was he wasn’t supposed to be in the market for sex. Even more disturbing than discovering he was, was finding himself window shopping in an area outside his habitual interest zone.

Which, of course, was Meaghan’s fault! he thought testily. She was the one who’d placed him in Joanna Ford’s proximity. It was bad enough she’d exposed him to the ethereal raven-haired witch currently holding up boxes of tea like a quiz show hostess, but if his sister hadn’t erected neon ‘keep off the grass’ signs around Joanna, he probably wouldn’t have given the girl a second glance. After all, as attractive and sexy as she was, it didn’t alter the fact she was only eight years older than his niece and twelve years younger than him.

What was more, he decided, she was only proving a distraction because he was allowing her to be one. Determined to correct that situation right now, he responded to her repeated query about the tea with an uninterested, ‘Surprise me,’ then stoically refocused his attention on finishing his breakfast. His only reaction to the steaming mug which moments later was placed near his right hand was a headbent murmur of, ‘Thanks.’

Ruing the absence of a newspaper to bury his head in, Brett continued to eat and to drink his tea without once letting his gaze shift beyond the centre of the table. With the passing of each loud, silence-breaking tick of the wall clock he congratulated himself on having triumphed over the temptation to look at his breakfast companion. See? It wasn’t hard. He could be as indifferent to Joanna Ford and her seemingly mystical intrigue as he could the salt and pepper shaker her long, elegant fingers were idly tracing with slow, sensuous strokes.

‘Brett...’

The husky utterance of his name was his undoing, immediately snapping his gaze up to hers.

‘I wasn’t lying when I said I didn’t drink last night,’ she told him. ‘But I think you’re right about me having a hangover.’

A curt nod would have communicated his lack of interest in further discussion on the subject, but instead Brett heard himself say, ‘A contradictory comment, but I take it as meaning you think it’s possible you were slipped a mickey.’

Her brow wrinkled. ‘Slipped a mickey?’ The confused shake she gave her head set her dark hair glittering in the sunlight. ‘What does that mean?’

Aw, hell! There ought to be laws against women this unworldly being allowed within a thousand-kilometre radius of a major city. Especially one with a male population. Deciding the sooner Joanna had her beautiful but innocent eyes opened and developed a cynical edge the safer every red-blooded man she was likely to encounter would be, he went on to explain what a Mickey Finn was, concluding with, ‘Some idiot with a juvenile sense of humour probably spiked the punch.’

‘But mostly I drank cola.’

‘Out of a can or bottle?’

She stiffened in her chair and glared at him. ‘Look, I mightn’t be all that terribly chic and sophisticated...’ hearing anger in her voice startled him ‘...but I do know it’s good manners to use a glass!’

Prudence had him swallowing the smile trying to force itself from his lips. ‘While that social nicety has its place, Joanna, sometimes good manners have to take second place to good sense.

‘So.’ he said, ‘I’ll tell you exactly what my father told Meaghan and me when we were sixteen and just starting to hit the party circuit. One: never accept a drink from anyone at a party unless the bottle cap or ring tab is still sealed. Two: never leave a drink somewhere and then go back and drink it later. And three: avoid punchbowls at all costs.

‘As Dad used to say, “The most innocuous thing someone will spike a drink with is alcohol, which can leave you sick as a dog. Other things can leave you dead.’”

‘You mean some people might put drugs in someone else’s drink?’

‘No... Some people do.’

At her look of alarm, he hastened to reassure her. ‘Relax, Joanna; you might’ve been plastered last night, but you didn’t appear doped.’ But then, because she still looked so shocked, concern caused him to add, ‘Well, at least I didn’t think you did. You don’t think you were, do you?’

‘How would I know?’ she demanded. ‘Until this morning I didn’t know I was drunk.’

‘Good point!’ He laughed. ‘Well, you’ll know next time.’

‘There’s not going to be a next time,’ she told him. ‘If I ever have to feel this ill again I want it to be because I’m dead.’

The droll retort indicated Joanna had a sense of humour, which wasn’t good. Because after three years of Toni’s pouts and petulance, a woman with a sense of humour was all too appealing, especially when she came gift-wrapped with sexy curves and wide-eyed innocence that practically begged to be educated.

Once again enmeshed with his own worrying thoughts, it took him several seconds to notice Joanna had already cleared the dirty dishes and was running water into the sink.

‘Don’t bother washing them,’ he told her. ‘Just rinse them and shove them in the dishwasher.’

‘I don’t mind doing them. I enjoy standing here and looking out at the beach.’

‘Yeah? Gee, Meaghan and I always thought it was more fun being on the beach, which is why Mum got the dishwasher in the first place.’

‘True.’ She sent him another of her breath-defying grins. ‘But, since I never saw a beach until I was sixteen, I don’t consider having to look at one from this distance any real hardship.’

Brett knew his curiosity showed, but rather than voice it he merely crossed to the kitchen linen cupboard and, pulling out a dishtowel, joined her at the sink.

‘It’s so incredibly beautiful. It must have been wonderful growing up here?’

Though she phrased the words as a question, her attention was fixed firmly on the other side of the ceiling reaching window, and her enraptured expression as she surveyed the surrounding cliffs, crags, sand and surf suggested she’d merely been uttering her thoughts aloud. Clearly she was in awe of all that lay between them and the horizon.

It was, be supposed, only natural that growing up here had bred a familiarity which to a degree had immunised him against the natural beauty the scene presented, but for some reason Joanna’s reaction to it urged him to look back and try to see it through less jaded eyes. When he did it was as if each new wave that rolled in and collapsed on the beach carried a precious but too long ignored memory of the past.

His father teaching him and Meaghan to swim. The Christmas he’d been given his first surfboard and had been practically tied to a chair to get him to stay out of the water long enough to eat dinner with the multitude of relatives who’d turned up for a hot turkey dinner. He remembered how they’d all been politely appalled when his ‘radical’ father had served up salad and exotic seafood instead. James McAlpine, whose motto had been ‘Tradition is for the gutless and uninspired’, had been highly amused by the predictable reaction, yet he’d still produced an alternative menu of baked vegetables, roast turkey and pork with all the traditional trimmings.

Growing up. Brett had at times been embarrassed by the fact his parents had rejected most of the middle class values embraced by his peers’ families and teachers, who’d viewed his upbringing as being at best unconventional—especially after his mother was arrested at an anti-nuclear rally. Yet now, from the distance of maturity, he could appreciate that James and Kathleen McAlpine had provided their children with a loving and secure environment that went far beyond their material comforts and liberal views on discipline. They’d taught love and tolerance by example, and yet while firmly adhering to their own beliefs had never tried to force feed them to their children.

Yeah, he thought, gazing out at the beach but seeing much more. It had been wonderful growing up here.

As his eyes drifted to the outcrop of rocks at the northern end of the beach yet another time-locked image floated through his mind. One that not only made him smile, but kindled a desire to snatch a piece of the past. But this time, unlike this morning, when he’d dug out his old wetsuit and board, he felt like sharing it

‘Joanna,’ he said, ‘have you got some ratty old jeans and a pair of runners?’

CHAPTER FOUR

THE mid-morning July air was cool but not cold as they picked their way over moss-covered rocks still damp from the earlier tide.

‘Okay, now I know why you wanted me in old clothes and sneakers,’ Joanna said. ‘But where exactly are we going?’

Brett waited until she’d sussed out the width of the rock pool which separated them and then agilely leapt over it before pointing to the wall of rock rising on his right. ‘In there.’

‘We’re going to climb the cliff?’ Her tone questioned his sanity.

‘Nope.’ He pulled at a weedy overhanging scrub growing from wide ancient cracks in the upper rockface to reveal a metre-wide cavity at its base. ‘We’re going to crawl into it.’

Shooting him a sceptical look, she crouched to inspect the cave entrance, then frowned over her shoulder at him. ‘It’s pitch-black. We can’t go in there.’

‘Sure we can...’ He fished out the penlight he’d tucked in his back pocket. ‘We did all the time as kids.’

‘Presumably you were somewhat smaller then,’ she said, her gaze running pointedly over him. ‘The only way you’d get in there now would be flat on your belly.’

‘You got it.’

Watching her mentally assimilate this was a fascinating exercise. A tiny ‘V’ formed between her perfectly arched eyebrows as she flicked her gaze back to the cave’s entrance; a moment later she started to worry her bottom lip with her teeth.

‘Is it safe?’ she asked, without looking at him.

‘Rock-solid.’ he said glibly, then added, ‘High tide is hours away.’

He dropped onto his knees beside her. ‘When we were kids we used to have time trials to see who could get in and out quickest. The record was less than five minutes.’

‘Did you hold it?’

‘Yep!’ He grinned. ‘Until my mate Jason broke it. The sub-five time is his. How’s the hangover?’

‘Shh!’ She scowled. ‘I’m hoping if I ignore it it’ll go away.’

He laughed. ‘So how do you want to do this; you want me to lead?’

‘Who said I wanted to do it at all?’

‘No one.’ He grinned again. ‘But you have very expressive eyes, Jo, and right now they’re practically sparking with anticipation.’

A faint flush hinted at her being pleased by his comment, but she produced a wry smile. ‘How do you know it’s not fear?’

‘Gut instinct,’ he responded, privately acknowledging there was a fair bit of sparking going on inside him too. Except in his case he ruefully suspected it owed itself more to Joanna’s face being within easy kissing distance rather than the thrill of reliving a boyhood escapade. Damn, but she was beautiful! And yet amazingly she seemed completely unaware of the fact. Too bad he wasn’t.

‘Brett...I asked you a question?’

Yes, she had. He knew because he’d watched her mouth move. Trouble was, what he’d been imagining those lush little lips saying had deafened him to what they’d actually said. There was probably only one chance in a zillion that a reply of, You bet I want to make love to you! wouldn’t catch her off guard.

‘Sorry, what did you say?’ he asked, downshifting his hormones to a lower gear.

‘Once we’re in there,’ she said, pulling a stretchy band from around her wrist and hastily securing her hair into a ponytail at the top of her head, ‘how long will it take us to get to the other side?’

‘There is no “other side”.’

He watched her mull this over, then again check out what from where they were appeared to be only a narrow tunnel. ‘So you’re saying we crawl in forwards and then have to come out backwards?’

He shook his head. ‘After thirty metres or so the tunnel opens up into a huge cave.’

‘So we come out the way we went in?’

He nodded.

‘What’s in the cave?’

‘Nothing.’

Joanna’s excited grin created contradictory feelings within him. Most women would have questioned the point in undertaking an exercise which offered no real rewards, and perversely he now half wished Joanna would throw a hissy fit at the whole idea and refuse to take part on the grounds of putting her fingernails at risk. But it seemed Joanna Ford’s shy-sexy persona hid a streak of adventure. Discovering she possessed yet another quality the women in his past had lacked was as bothering as it was pleasing. It had him sensing he’d put himself between a rock and hard place even before he’d eased onto his stomach and prepared to snake his way into the damp darkness of the tidal cave.

There was a noticeable but not dramatic drop in temperature within the rock tunnel; the air held the distinct smell of salt and the hard sand-crusted surface beneath his body was still damp from the last high tide. Clasping the flashlight in his right hand, Brett snaked his way forward on his elbows and forearms without once having a problem with the tunnel’s vertical clearance. Although width-wise it was an occasional squeeze.

‘Don’t you dare get stuck,’ a muttered voice warned from behind him in one such instance.

‘No worries,’ he assured her. ‘How’re you doing?’

‘Fine. Just keep going and try not to kick me in the face with those size twelves you’re wearing.’

Grinning, he continued to edge forward. ‘Almost there. By the way, if you’re close enough to read the sizing on the soles of my shoes in this light, you better back off a bit. The floor of the main cave is about a half metre or more below this. I’ll have to lower myself down onto my hands to get in there...if you’re too close you might get caught by a stray boot.’

‘All right.’

When the tunnel finally did open up, the dim, dank surrounds filled Brett with a wave of nostalgia, making him chuckle.

A hand clamped around his right ankle. ‘Er, Brett... you’re not getting claustrophobic and hysterical on me, are you?’

The cautiously voiced question added to his amusement. ‘Nope. Just appreciating some old memories.’

‘So how come you’ve stopped moving?’

‘Because I’m at the cave.’

‘Already! Really?’ The excitement dripping from her voice magnified his own. He wasn’t game to examine why.

‘Just stay where you are till I get right in, okay?’