âBut you saved my life!
âYou actually threw yourself in front of the gun. How can I ever repay you for that?â Jo exclaimed, her face pale and her grey eyes dark with disbelief and emotion.
Gavin pulled his jumper over his head and Jo winced at the sight of the wound in his upper arm. But she immediately pulled off her top, which she ripped into strips with her teeth and fingernails, and then applied as a pad and pressure bandages to his wound.
Gavin Hastings flinched, but there was a suggestion of humor in his eyes as they rested on her, her upper body clad only in a bra, as she worked on the dressings.
âWhat can you do to repay me, Jo? I think it would be a damn good idea if you married me.â He swayed suddenly, and blacked out.
JOANNE LUCAS steered her grey Range Rover over the appalling road and shook her head.
Sure, she hadnât expected the drive to a sheep station somewhere south of Charleville in outback Queensland to be a picnic. But the road had been quite good until sheâd turned off onto the station track, and it was far worse than anything sheâd anticipated. It was also quite a bit further than sheâd expected to drive, and the chill dusk of a winterâs evening was drawing in.
She scanned the horizon for some sign of habitation but there was none. This was serious sheep country, the Murweh shireâshe knew from the research sheâd done it carried approximately eight hundred thousand head of them! There were also cattle stations in the area so you expected it to be wide open and isolated.
On the other hand, her destination, Kin Can station, had quite a reputation. So did its owners, the Hastings family, for wealth and excellence in the wool they bred.
How come they couldnât afford to put in a decent road to the homestead, then? And how on earth did the wool trucks cope with it?
Come to think of it, if she hadnât had her wits about her, she would have missed the small, nearly illegible Kin Can sign on a gateâanother surprise because sheâd been led to believe the station was well signposted.
Do they actively discourage visitors? she asked herself, then slammed on the brakes as she topped a rise to see a man standing in the middle of the track aiming a gun at her.
Do they ever! It flashed through her mind, followed immediately byâSo what to do now?
Any decision was taken out of her hands as the man loped forward and wrenched her door open before she could lock it. Not only that, he slung the gun over his shoulder and manhandled her out onto the road.
âNow look here,â she began, âthis is insane andââ
âWhatâs your name?â he barked at her as he backed her up against the bonnet.
âJoâ¦Joanne, b-but people call me Jo,â she stammered.
âJust as I thought, although I was expecting a Joeâof the masculine varietyâbut perhaps they thought you could seduce me and keep doing it until they tracked me down.â
He paused and a flash of ironic amusement lit his intensely blue eyes as he looked her up and down then murmured, âOn the other hand, you donât look that feminine, Jo, so Iâll go with my first scenario.â
Jo, who had gasped several times as heâd spoken, lost her temper and stamped heavily on his toe with the heel of her booted foot.
He didnât even flinch. âSteel toecaps, darlinâ,â he drawled. âSo it gets your goat up to be called unfeminine?â
Jo breathed heavily but a small portion of her mind conceded that, yes, it hadâwhich was just about as insane as the whole mad situation. Nor could she resist a glance downwards, although she did resist the urge to tell this crazy person that most women would look unfeminine in creased cargo pants, a bulky anorak and a knitted beanie that concealed her hair.
She did quell the sneaky little voice in her head that reminded her some men found her height and straight shoulders unfeminine anywayâ¦
âLook here, whoever you are,â she began, âIâm expected up at the homestead soââ
âIâll bet you are, Jo,â he rasped, âbut weâre going a different way. Letâs just see what youâre packing first.â He started to pat her down like a policeman.
âPacking?â It came out in a strangled way edged with outrage as she tried to evade his hands. âWill you stop touching me? Iâm not packing anything.â
âTake âem off, then,â he ordered as his hands reached her waist.