Marion Lennox: Rescued By A Millionaire

Her pride, Jenna thought. But then…did she have one speck of pride left?

‘I could do that,’ she whispered.

‘Well, what are you sitting here for, girl?’ Maggie retorted. She grabbed the pup, who was sitting on Jenna’s feet. ‘Clear the way, pup. The lady has a mission.’ She squeezed Jenna’s hand. ‘Good luck, my dear. Oh, good luck.’

It wasn’t going to work.

Jenna walked into the hangar and Riley turned to see who was approaching and his face shut down just like that.

She didn’t have a hope.

‘I thought you’d be in bed,’ he said shortly and she winced.

‘I came to thank you for your hospitality.’

‘You’re welcome.’ He turned back to his engine and she stared at him in dismay. And in building anger.

‘I’m not,’ she said at last, and he turned again.

‘Pardon?’

‘I’m not the least bit welcome. You can’t wait to be shot of me.’

‘I didn’t say that.’

‘You didn’t have to.’ Then, as his face closed even more she felt herself snap. Damn losing more pride. He needed to be kicked! ‘You’re being a selfish, unmitigated bore. I have no idea why I even thought I could possibly be in love with you.’

There was a moment’s silence. He carefully wiped oil from his hands with a rag, and then put the rag down as if he were afraid it might break.

‘An unmitigated bore?’

‘Yes.’ She stood her ground and flashed fire. ‘And you’ve upset Karli. She doesn’t have a clue why you’re being so mean.’

‘I’m not being mean. I brought you here. I’m arranging for you to be taken to Adelaide.’

‘I thought that,’ she said. ‘I told myself that you’re being good to us and I shouldn’t complain. But then I figured that you’re only giving us things that anyone with money could throw at us. Nicole used to put us up in five-star hotels and provide us with babysitters, too. No one ended up loving Nicole. Not even her daughters.’

‘What are you saying?’

‘That you’re rejecting our love.’ How about that for a bald statement? It was true, though, so why not say it?

‘I don’t want anyone to love me,’ he told her, and her anger increased.

‘Of course you do. You just won’t admit it because you’ve been hurt in the past. Well, you’re looking at an expert at being hurt, and yet here I am throwing my heart stupidly, wantonly at some selfish oaf of a man who won’t even take a day off to fly us to Adelaide.’

‘Stop it, Jenna.’

‘Why should I stop it?’ She was past caring, she thought dully. She’d not meant to say any of this, but he stared at her with eyes that were blank, as if he was trying to shut her out, and she couldn’t bear it. She could see behind that blankness. He thought that if he let himself love her, then she’d hurt him-just as all those people had done in the past.

‘Coward,’ she whispered.

‘I’m not a coward. I’m a realist.’

‘You think what’s between us has to end?’

‘Of course it has to end.’

‘Of course it does,’ she said cordially. ‘’Til death do us part. See, I even know the relevant vow. Death happens to everyone, but I’m banking on fifty years in the interim.’

‘You’re saying you want to marry me?’ he demanded, startled.

They were twenty feet from each other, with the concrete hangar floor stretching out between them. Overhead was a glaring fluorescent light, harsh and almost surreal in the echoing hangar. Hardly the place for a proposal of marriage.

‘I’m saying how I feel about you,’ she told him. ‘That’s how I feel. Why not be honest? Marriage or not, you’re a part of me. But you haven’t the courage to see it.’

‘Jenna, it’s impossible.’

‘Why is it impossible?’

‘It won’t last.’

‘Will you stop it?’ She felt like stamping her foot in rage and, dammit, she did. ‘You’re saying our love can’t last so you’ll end it now. That’s terrific reasoning-I don’t think. That’s like looking at a table loaded with food and saying you’ll be hungry in the future so you won’t eat now.’

‘I-’

‘What’s the difference?’ she demanded and tilted her chin. ‘What’s the difference, Riley Jackson?’

‘I don’t want…’

‘To commit. No. I can see that.’

‘This is stupid.’

‘It is, and it’s not my fault that it’s stupid.’

‘Jenna, go to bed. I’ll not risk your happiness. Karli’s happiness.’

‘Our happiness depends on you, you dopey-’

‘Jenna, don’t.’

‘You’re telling me to go away.’

‘Yes.’

‘Maggie says you love me.’

‘Maggie doesn’t know.’

‘Doesn’t she?’ She walked a couple of steps forward and faced him square on. ‘So she’s wrong?’ she demanded. ‘You can stare straight into my eyes and say she’s wrong. That I’m mistaken? That it’s totally one-sided and you don’t love me.’

He bit his lip and stared at her. ‘I don’t…’

‘You don’t what? You don’t love me? Say it, Riley.’

‘Go to bed.’

‘Say it, Riley.’

‘Hell, will you get out of my hangar?’

‘You can’t say it, can you?’

‘It doesn’t make one whit of difference what I can or can’t say. I’m not in the market for another relationship. Please…say goodbye to Karli for me. Tell her I’ll write to her when you’re back in England.’

‘Big of you.’

‘It’s all I’m prepared to do, Jenna.’

She closed her eyes. Where could she go from here?

Nowhere. Not when he stared at her with eyes that were blank and cold.

Where was his warmth now? Where was the Riley she’d fallen in love with? Where were his chuckle, his smile, his caring?

He’d never given them to her.

So she’d lost, but at least she’d tried. She’d go back to England. She’d fought with everything she had. She could do no more.

‘Fine,’ she said again. ‘Break your heart. Break mine and break Karli’s. See if we care.’

And she turned and stalked out of the hangar with her head held high.

From the back she looked almost in control.

But only from the back.

He had to finish checking the engine. But not yet. For now he stood and gazed out into the night and pain echoed round and round in his head.

Coward.

He was, he thought. But…it wasn’t just him he was protecting.

He honestly didn’t know whether he was capable of giving what they wanted of him.

Husband to Jenna. Father to Karli. From self-containment to family man just like that.

The pup slunk into the hangar and sidled his way up to him and Riley found himself patting him before he knew what he was doing.

The pup. What was his name?

He didn’t name dogs. The men had dogs and this was the product of Max’s bitch and one of the itinerant drover’s dogs. The rest of the litter had been sold, but Max had decided to train this one. The only problem was that the pup had decided that Riley was the answer to a dog’s prayers and when Riley was around he’d go to no one else.

‘Leave it, mate,’ Riley said bleakly as Jenna disappeared into the darkness. He pushed the collie away. ‘I’m not worth loving.’

The pup whined and pushed his nose into the small of his hand.

Riley ignored him.

The pup whined again.

‘Enough.’ Riley grabbed the keys to the nearest Land Rover. Max could finish the plane. He’d only been using it as an excuse to stay away from the house and he suddenly wasn’t far enough away. ‘I’m going to check the cattle down south. I’ll radio in to let everyone know where I’m gone and I won’t be back until after they’ve left.’

He was talking to a dog?

The dog looked up at him, his head cocked to one side, and Riley could almost swear he understood.