Hot Boss, Wicked Nights

She reined in the swing, stood and stepped away. ‘You’re not my boss. You haven’t said you’ve committed to the business long term yet and our conversation has given me reason to think otherwise. You might help us for a while, then up and disappear.’

‘You think I’d do that?’

She shrugged. ‘I don’t really know you.’

‘Well, then, a good reason to loiter together in the playground a little longer,’ he said. But she wasn’t listening. He swiped up his jacket and followed the rigid line of her back as she headed towards the car.

On their way back a sudden impulse had him turning off his intended route to the office. He headed instead for Diamond Bay, north of Bondi where the surf and rocks were a world away from the cityscape of Sydney’s CBD.

‘Where are we going?’ she said with a frown.

‘I want to show you something.’

He parked where they could see the cliffs and the Pacific Ocean rolling in. Grey and misty today but no less wild in its beauty. He climbed out, walked a few paces, breathing in the familiar salt-spray scent while he waited for Kate to follow. The sound of the waves crashing below echoed in his ears. ‘This used to be my favourite place when I was growing up,’ he said when she stood beside him.

‘You lived round here?’ she said, gazing at the homes nearby.

‘No.’ He shrugged deeper inside his jacket as a sudden chill gust blew over them. ‘We lived in a semi-industrial part of town where the trains rattled our windows and vibrated through the floor night and day. This was our escape.’

‘You and Bryce?’

‘Not Bryce.’ He narrowed his eyes against the sting of the wind, annoyed with his slip of the tongue. ‘We’d walk for miles, following the cliff top. Sometimes we’d dodge beneath the railing and see who could stand the closest to the edge.’

‘No way!’ He felt her incredulous gaze on his face. ‘How old were you?’

He continued looking out to sea where a rainstorm was sweeping in, watching gulls swoop and dive. He’d always envied them their freedom. ‘Twelve, I guess.’

‘So I played on swings while you risked your neck.’

‘Yeah.’ The last time he’d been here had been the day after Bonita had succumbed to leukaemia. He’d looked out at the horizon and wondered where she was now, then down at the unforgiving rocks below. And briefly considered the unthinkable…

It was the day he’d vowed to live for today and never look back.

‘It’s a long way to fall,’ Kate said quietly, following his gaze.

He crossed his arms against the cold, fighting melancholy. Coming here to his and Bonita’s favourite spot had been a mistake. Bringing Kate had been a bigger one. And yet, somehow, with Kate at his side, he felt soothed. It was almost as if she shared his sadness.

What did she know about losing someone? He had no idea. He didn’t want to know because it meant sharing his pain and he wasn’t willing to open himself up to that.

It started to rain in earnest. ‘Time to go,’ he said, grabbing her hand, holding it a moment against him, her life force seeping through his shirt as comforting as a glass of warm milk while rain lashed their faces. Her eyes brimmed with moisture—as if she, too, knew of loss—and were full of soul. If he looked deeper, he might even see his own reflected there.

He relinquished his hold as quickly as he’d taken it and stepped away. No. He risked his body and his life for the pure adrenaline rush and he did it several times a year. The only risks he was willing to take didn’t involve his heart.

CHAPTER FIVE

‘HAVE dinner with me,’ Damon said. They were back in his car and on the way home. He’d already phoned Sandy, told her they weren’t coming back and asked her to close up.

Kate glanced at his tense jaw, shadowed with a hint of sexy stubble. Sexy, she could do without, but there was no hint of romantic intention in his voice, just the quiet tone of a friend in need of company.

Except…today was Tuesday, the evening she visited her family. Up there on the cliffs she’d forgotten. She too had been thinking of another time. When her brother had died in a hang-glider accident on the side of a mountain. ‘I go to my parents’ house for tea every Tuesday.’

‘Every Tuesday?’ He glanced her way, then shrugged a shoulder and returned his eyes to the road. ‘No worries. Your family comes first—it’s no big deal.’

But Kate heard the thread of disappointment running through his words. Something had happened on the cliff top, to both of them. Something that went deeper than sex or attraction. It had left her shaken. With her track record, she should be running for the hills, but instead she heard herself say, ‘I’ll phone them and put it off.’