In one swift motion, he hoicks me up and I cling to him with one arm round his neck while holding my heels in the other. I haven’t eaten all day. I must weigh less than a Persian rug.
There’s an audible ‘oof’.‘How much do you weigh?’ he asks, staggering slightly.
‘It’s all muscle,’ I blurt. ‘I do Pilates. It’s gentle but effective.’It enables women like me to scale buildings in order to rescue men like you.
He sniggers. ‘The way you’re choking me, I figured power lifting.’
I release my hold. ‘I do really appreciate this.’
He spots a bench by the roadside and gently puts me down before sitting next to me.
‘Thank you,’ I gush. ‘That was very kind of you. Considering…’
‘No worries. I’m Australian. Anything for a sheila in distress.’
He makes being Australian sound like so much more. Forgiving. Understanding. Trustworthy. Used to women behaving erratically.
‘And it’s me who should be thanking you.’ He’s giving me a very appreciative look. ‘That was some very impressive performance you gave back there.’
‘You’re welcome.’ I feel myself blush in the darkness.
‘Seriously. You were nothing short of heroic.’
I give him a pointed look. ‘Go on.’
He chuckles. A low, attractive sound. ‘Funny, clever and modest. A real triple threat. How did you do it? How did you know who was married or not?’
‘You’re asking me to give away my trade secrets?’
He tilts his head. ‘It would really help me out.’
‘Does that happen a lot? Married women coming on to you?’
He nods but I detect a hint of sadness behind his smile.
‘Simple,’ I say, shuffling up. ‘Two were wearing wedding bands. One had taken her wedding ring off recently to get a tan. Two had faint ring marks but an even tan line suggesting they’d been off a longer time. And one looked so dolled up I took an educated guess.’
‘You figured all of that out in three seconds? Who are you? Sherlock Holmes?’
I smirk. ‘I’m just your average femme fatale genius with a photographic brain. No biggie.’
His gaze travels the length of me until he catches me watching him. He visibly swallows. It’s as though he’s only just noticing me. ‘Uh-huh.’ He begins inspecting the bench as though it’s in danger of collapsing.
Something strange is happening as I look at the shy emotion etched on his face. Even though he’s half in shadow, his eyes are radiating chivalry, and he has such an aura of trust and good manners about him, it causes my mind to book an imaginary one-way ticket Down Under. Gosh. I think I am in the process of falling the teensiest bit in love.Four minutes. It can take as little as four minutes.
‘How long do you think we’ll have to wait?’More than four minutes?
He shrugs. ‘No idea. I just hope that wasn’t the last one heading back to Gumbet.’
I snap to attention. My mother’s words come back to haunt me, sending a chill down my spine. ‘But it’s pitch black. What if we…?’ I trail off. It’s too awful to think of.
‘What if we…?’ he repeats.
I swallow hard. ‘Get kidnapped?’
‘Kidnapped? By who?’
‘It’s just my mother has this… She seems to think that… Well, it doesn’t matter.’ I pull at one of my pigtails, twirling it round my finger in an attempt to distract me from the anxiety growing in the pit of my stomach. ‘I’m sure we’ll be okay. I’m sure we will. No, we will, I’m sure of it,’ I jabber.
