Margaret Way - Required - Three Outback Brides - Cattle Rancher, Convenient Wife / In the Heart of the Outback... / Single Dad, Outback Wife

‘You know I am. Damn, damn, damn,’ he groaned. ‘So what do we do? Let the flames die?’

‘It might be a good idea.’ She didn’t bother to hide her regret.

‘Would you want to have my baby?’ he asked very quietly.

‘Are you speaking seriously?’ It wouldn’t be the end of the world if she fell pregnant to him. It would be thrilling.

‘Yes,’ he said.

‘What’s going on in your mind, Rory?’ She was trying to read it from his expression.

‘You haven’t answered the question.’

‘I want children,’ she said. ‘I’ve told you that before.’

He took her hand, looking intently into her eyes. ‘Do you think we have enough going for us to consider marriage?’ He knew he was being carried to extremes, but maybe extremism was his natural bent? Either that or he had finally found his life’s focus.

‘Rory!’ Allegra began to laugh a little wildly. For a minute she felt like she was flying; caught up by a great wind. She who had come through a catastrophic relationship was being asked to consider marriage again. What was even more astounding was she knew right away what her decision would be. Something extraordinary had happened to her. She had to seize the day.

‘Well?’ He took her chin, sparkles of light in his eyes.

‘You don’t have to propose to me to get me into bed,’ she said, pierced by the look in his eyes. She was long used to men regarding her but this was something entirely different.

‘You think I don’t know that?’ he said gently. ‘I know this has come at an odd time, but can’t you see the beauty of it? I want a family. So do you. We’re much the same age. Neither of us is content to let things go on much longer. If I’ve shocked you with my audacity, perhaps you can think of it as a contract that could work extremely well for both of us as we both have the same aims. You wouldn’t have to leave the home you love. You’d gain a half share as my wife and partner. You’d be able to hold onto your own money. It’s important for a woman to feel financially independent.’

The words were business-like, but the warmth of real emotion was in the sound. ‘I should say you’re crazy!’ Allegra was still flying high. To share a dream! Isn’t that what she had always wanted?

‘You know I’m not.’

‘So what are you leading us into?’ she asked as calmly as she could.

‘Why a marriage of convenience for two people who just so happen to suit one another right down to the ground.’

‘We can’t have love, too?’

For answer, he turned her face to him and dropped a brief, ravishing kiss on her mouth. ‘Wouldn’t you say we’re more than halfway there?’

So there was one secret between them. She was already there. ‘Maybe we should slow down instead of full steam ahead?’ she suggested before binding him to her.

‘I’m going to leave that up to you, Allegra,’ he said. ‘I won’t change my mind. You’re the woman I want.’

She kept her eyes lowered. ‘You can’t have forgotten both of us have a lot of old issues to work through?’

‘We can work through them together.’ His response was swift and sure. ‘Have I dared too much too soon?’ He searched her eyes for any hint of misgiving. ‘I hadn’t planned any of it. It took a tumble down the hill to shake it out of me. Love is a big word. Maybe the biggest in the dictionary. I don’t think we’re going to have a problem getting into bed together, do you?’ he asked dryly.

No problem at all but she had to remind him. ‘There’s a bit more to marriage than sex, Rory.’

He nearly said what was flooding his mind. I love you. But the last thing he wanted was to frighten her off. ‘Do you think I don’t know that? We really like each other, though, don’t we? Not that I’m about to knock great sex. Marriage would be very sad without it. But we have a lot in common. All the things we talked about last night. Our love of the land. Don’t let any bad experience you may have had with your husband warp you.’

She felt a frisson of shock. She had never said a word to him about Mark. What then had he assumed? ‘So much depends on our mutual love of the land, doesn’t it?’ she said, ignoring the reference to Mark.

‘I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was a crucial factor.’ He didn’t drop his gaze. ‘I couldn’t consider marrying a woman—no matter how much I wanted her—if I knew she might go off and leave me when the going got rough. Worse, leave our kids. You were being entirely truthful when you said the land is where you belong?’

‘Of course! How could you doubt me?’ She shook her head vigorously. ‘I have my own dreaming.’

‘Well then, it’s a brilliant idea,’ he said as though that clinched it.

‘More like explosive!’ Allegra knew she ought to be filled with doubts but incredibly she wasn’t. She felt more like a woman who had been blind all her life then finally opened her eyes. In fact, she had never felt so good. ‘You’ve got to give me a little time to think,’ she said, paying a moment’s homage to caution. Impossible to think when he was holding her hand and making love to her with his eyes. ‘This is scary. Or it darn well ought to be. I didn’t do too brilliantly the last time.’

‘And you won’t let me hear the problem. He didn’t abuse you, did he?’ Rory couldn’t abide the thought. ‘I’d go find him and horse whip him if he did.’

‘And wind up inside a jail? I wouldn’t like that. Mark isn’t a violent man. In many respects he’s the perfect gentleman. Everyone thought so anyway. People can act perfectly civilised but one barely has to scratch the surface to discover they’re something quite different underneath. My dad didn’t take to Mark. I knew that although Dad never put his concerns into words.’

‘I’m listening,’ he prompted, feeling an iron determination to protect her.

She bent her head, unsure how much to say. ‘Mark was into a fantasy life. A sexual fantasy life.’

‘One that bothered you?’ he frowned.

‘Once I found out he’d been unfaithful the marriage was as good as over. I hate to talk about it, actually. I forgave him the first time. I thought it was a one-off aberration and I felt badly about calling it quits so early in the marriage. But it wasn’t. Mark continued his brief encounters with married women in our own circle. They made an absolute fool out of me. Opportunity is always present if one is looking for it.’

‘Good God!’ Rory made a deep, growling sound in his throat. ‘He sounds like an oversexed adolescent.’

Allegra’s shrug was cynical. ‘A lot of men of all ages fit that description. Men and woman have affairs. Married or not. I saw a lot of it. One can’t help attraction. The possibility is always there. If one is married the right decision is to consciously turn away from temptation. Some don’t.’

‘You never thought to get even?’ he asked. ‘Sorry, I withdraw that. I know you didn’t.’

‘You’re dead right. I respected my marriage vows. I respected myself. That’s why I had to get out.’ She steadied herself to look into his eyes. ‘I liked the way you checked the minute I said it wasn’t the right time to have sex.’

‘Why of course! You surely didn’t think I would force the issue?’

‘I didn’t, but I was responding an awful lot. In a way it was a crisis and you dealt with it the way it had to be. Mark messed me up for a while. He’s quite a bit older. Nearly ten years. He set out to mould me to his ways but he failed. He actually believed his little affairs were harmless. He swore over and over he loved only me. I was his wife. That put me on a pedestal instead of exposing me to ridicule. He swore he’d get help.’