Leant towards the doorframe, one boot crossed over the opposite, and his face shaded by his battered Akubra, he lifted his shoulders casually. ‘Lengthy sufficient.’ He strode in direction of her and held out the cup that he’d left beside the espresso machine. ‘I made you a espresso; white, one sugar, proper?’

‘Sure.’ She nodded. ‘Thanks.’

‘I see you bought my word.’ He took a sip from his mug.

‘Uh-huh.’ She gazed up at him by way of the steam rising from her cup. ‘Thanks for letting me keep one other evening, and I look ahead to no matter it’s that you just’re making us for dinner.’ She took a sip and savoured each the flavour and the truth that he’d made her a espresso simply the way in which she preferred it.

‘I took some hen breasts out of the freezer, I’m simply unsure what I’m going to do with them but.’ He sat down beside her, smiling at her nod of approval as he stretched out his lengthy legs. ‘How lengthy has it been because you’ve ridden a horse, Mills?’

‘Aside from being doubled by you the opposite day, too lengthy for my liking.’ She blinked into the glimmering sunshine now bathing the again verandah. ‘Why’s that?’

‘I used to be simply questioning should you’d prefer to go for a little bit of a gallivant across the place?’

Pleasure had her sitting up straight. ‘I’d like to.’

‘Nice.’ His charming smile deepened his dimples. ‘Seeing because it’s a public vacation, I’m going to offer myself the day without work too, so that you and me can head out to the dam for a swim and possibly even a picnic.’

Smirking at his audaciousness, she tipped her head a bit of to the facet. ‘Oh, we’ll, will we?’

‘Sure, we’ll.’ The playful sparkle in his eyes was heightened by the daylight.

A hunky man, with an enormous, lovely coronary heart, on a horse, eager to whisk her off – ahh, her coronary heart was beating a bit of sooner. ‘Okay, I believe that sounds beautiful.’ She smiled softly as butterflies fluttered in her stomach.

‘Righto, effectively.’ Standing, he shadowed the daylight from her eyes. ‘I’ll simply go and saddle up the horses and meet you again right here in an hour or so.’

‘Okay, I’ll simply end my cuppa, have a chunk of toast, then go seize a fast bathe.’ She gestured to his empty cup now sitting on the banister. ‘Simply depart that there, I’ll pop it into the dishwasher.’

‘Cheers, Millie.’ He headed down the steps then took long-legged strides throughout the again garden. ‘See you quickly, cowgirl.’

Cowgirl? She preferred the sound of that. If solely she might be his cowgirl, now that may be the icing on the cake. Picturing what the day had in retailer, she may nearly really feel the wind towards her cheeks, tugging at wisps of her hair, and the horse’s highly effective physique carrying her as if she have been as mild as a feather, in direction of the glistening dam, whereas she watched Jarrah take steps away. Simply as he was about to vanish across the nook of the equipment barn, he paused and appeared again, and her hovering spirit flew skywards.

Jarrah King preferred her.

And he or she preferred him.

However what was she meant to do with such a revelation?

Nothing, Millie, that’s what you must do; bear in mind why you’re right here …

Giving her voice of cause a bit of psychological slap, she stood and made her approach again inside to eat, bathe and costume for the day forward.

***

Two and a half hours later, vibrant lorikeets heralded the sunshine glinting off the dam’s glassy floor from their perches inside the towering paperbark tree. With Millie standing earlier than him in her cute little denim shorts, frayed on the bottoms, a white boho shirt that shared a peek of her pink swimmers beneath, and a smile candy sufficient to draw bees for miles, however sassy sufficient to deliver most males to their knees, it was all Jarrah may do to not seize her proper then and there so he may do wild, pleasure-filled issues to her. And her lovely inexperienced eyes, they appeared a lot brighter, full of life. He preferred – no, cherished – to assume he’d heartened her to really feel such a approach.

Turning from the place she was watching blue and purple dragonflies flittering above the glistening water, she smiled dreamily at him. ‘It’s so fairly right here, Jarrah.’

You’re fairly, Millie … Oh god assist him, he wished to kiss her so badly. ‘It’s a stunner of a spot, hey.’ He bought up from the picnic blanket and joined her by the water’s edge. ‘You prepared for a dip, now we’ve let our lunch settle?’

‘Rattling straight I’m.’ She tugged her shirt over her head, and in what felt like mere seconds had stripped all the way down to her shiny pink bikini.

Jarrah’s creativeness took off into uncharted territory, and he barely reined it again in earlier than it bought maintain of him.

‘Final one in is a loser.’ She squealed as she ran, jumped after which landed with an almighty splash.

‘Hey, no truthful, you bought a head begin.’ Chuckling, he stripped all the way down to his board shorts and, taking a working leap, dived in beside her.

Paddling on the spot, Millie shivered. ‘It’s a bit of chillier in right here than I anticipated.’

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