An Outback Affair/Runaway Wife/Outback Bridegroom/Outback Surrender/Home To Eden (36 page)

She'd matured. She had a woman's sensitivity and perception and wasn't afraid to speak her mind. Back then she'd been way too young for him, but in the interim the rosebud had opened up velvety perfumed petals.

Brock continued to stare at her, holding her gaze captive. Despite the poise he hadn't been prepared for, Shelley was flushed with color. Her wild red-gold hair lay loose around her shoulders. Her beautiful eyes were large and lustrous, her mouth sensitive and her chin prettily pointed.

If it wouldn't have jeopardized their old easy friendship, Brock would have told Shelley she looked damned sexy!

Dear Reader,

Shelley's story is the fourth book in my KOOMERA CROSSING miniseries, which chronicles the lives of people who live and love in Australia's great Outback. The setting for my series is Queensland's Channel Country, a riverine desert and the home of the nation's cattle kings and big mobs. It's a fabulous place, rich in aboriginal Dreamtime legends, full of stark, truly mystical grandeur—bleached cruelty under drought and heart-stoppingly beautiful after the rains when the desert blazes into the greatest gardens on earth.

Shelley Logan and Brock Tyson are both rebels, both hurting from their families' power struggles. Both forever reaching up and outward, reaching for one another and what ultimately is life's greatest prize—enduring love. This is their story. I had to write it.

The first book in my KOOMERA CROSSING miniseries was the Harlequin Superromance
^®
title
Sarah's Baby.
This was followed by
Runaway Wife
and
Outback Bridegroom
in Harlequin Romance
^®
. Look for
Home to Mara,
a further KOOMERA CROSSING novel, coming soon in Harlequin Superromance.

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

EPILOGUE

S
HELLEY
hit the pavement with a fast light step that belied her tiredness. It was late Friday afternoon and she'd all but completed her list of “must-dos” in the town of Koomera Crossing. Her first meeting, with the bank manager, hadn't gone too badly, but the meeting with her father's solicitor—the only one in the town—had not been so good. She'd then ordered fresh food supplies from the general store, where they always did a marvellous job. That had been the most important and most pressing need. Supplies had to be ordered in to accommodate a small party of Japanese guests due in a month's time. Those supplies would be airfreighted out to the station before the tourists' arrival.

She'd stocked up on all the non-perishable items, and now she was going to buy a few little treats for herself, just to keep her spirits up. Toiletries, mainly. Soaps, shampoos, creams, a bit of make-up and the like. Usually she spent very little on herself, only peanuts on clothes and cosmetics, but she made sure she looked after her hair and skin. Those precious assets had to last her a lifetime, after all.

She was dog-tired even for a girl with plenty of go, and she had to force her legs to see out the distance. She'd started out from home, Wybourne Station, in the pre-dawn, making a fairly quick trip—some three hours over rough Outback roads—before she hit Koomera Crossing, the nearest thing to civilisation in this part of the world.

South-West Queensland really was the Back O'Beyond, but she loved her desert home with a passion. Nowhere else could offer her such peace and freedom, such vast open spaces. This was the Timeless Land, sacred to all aborigines. Shelley too revelled in her extraordinary environment—the
living desert, with its vivid pottery colours, undulating red sands and surreal rock monuments. There was nowhere quite like the Outback for mystique. Its very antiquity gripped the soul.

It also kept her close to Sean, her guardian angel, her twin brother. Sean had drowned when they were six. Even now she remembered the sound of his sweet voice calling to her as she'd run madcap in the homestead's rambling, overgrown garden…

Shel…Shel…Shel…

Sean had always run to her, his twin, for love, for reassurance and comfort, rather than to their older sister, Amanda, or even their mother. And even after the terrible day of the accident, of which Shelley had no clear recollection but of chaos and high, screaming voices, Sean had still accompanied her on her childhood adventures. Hadn't he woken her every dawn of her life, patting her forehead and pulling her ear? “Wake up, Shel. The sun'll burn a hole in you.”

Sean! Always destined to remain a beautiful little boy, Titian curls his halo, rosebud lips moving soundlessly, his eyes like shining jewels, a gauzy white radiance all around him.

That was what twins were like. They shared a bond that meant they were never parted, not even in death. Still, heartbreak was never far from Shelley. Her memories of her little brother were bittersweet, but the power and magic of their love for each other sustained her even now.

She walked on briskly, calling a pleasantry here and there. Nearly everyone in the town was as well known to her as she was to them.

She had no intention of returning to Wybourne tonight. She couldn't possibly find the strength for the long drive after hoofing around the town for hours, always trying to find shelter under awnings from the dry, burning sun.

It was the greatest mystery to her and to everyone else—and sometimes she thought her older sister Amanda was
secretly outraged by the fact—but she didn't have a single freckle. She the redhead with the untameable firewheel mop. Her skin was often referred to as “porcelain”. She had to thank her darling now deceased maternal grandmother Moira, born in County Kerry, Ireland, for that. Ditto the rose-gold mane, the green eyes and, it had to be said, the Irish temper when aroused.

She was staying at the town's only pub, run by Mick Donovan. The food was fine and the accommodation was comfortable and spotlessly clean. She couldn't wait to run a bubble bath—what a luxury—and just soak. But first she'd have to buy the bubbles.

She was standing in the town's pharmacy, deciding between two—jasmine-scented or gardenia—when a hand tweaked one of her curls. And not all that gently, she thought in surprise. She was sure in the course of the day she'd spoken to just about everyone who was out and about in town. Station born and bred, she'd been coming into Koomera Crossing all her life.

She was so quick on her feet she caught the telltale trace of devilry on a handsome mouth.

Excitement welled up so fast it made her dizzy. There stood Brock Tyson, right there in the flesh. His bearing held the same fiery male pride, the same high-mettled look that put her in mind of a powerful plunging stallion. As a full-grown man he was magnificent, but the dark brooding hadn't died in him. She sensed it plainly as she faced him. The town, indeed the entire Outback, hadn't seen or heard of him in years, though he was one of their own.

Daniel Brockway Tyson had been one of the wildest and most daring young men the vast South-West had ever known. Brock had found all sorts of marvellous ways of living on the edge. Sometimes as a boy he would go off into the desert for days, giving no account of his adventures when he finally got home to Mulgaree, where he had been met by the predictable whipping. Mulgaree was the flagship of the Kingsley chain of cattle stations. Old man Kingsley,
Brock's grandfather, ran it like a private fiefdom. It was he who had administered the whipping, but he'd never broken Brock's spirit.

“Why, if it isn't sweet little Shelley Logan,” Brock exclaimed, his remarkable light eyes moving over her. “You haven't changed at all.”

“I certainly have!” She allowed him to steer her out of the aisle. “All it takes is time.”

“Give me a minute and it'll become more apparent.” He grinned, continuing his inspection. “How are you?”

Shelley Logan had been just a kid when he'd left. So pretty, so innocent, so bruised by fate. Brock hadn't forgotten the enchanting little Logan twins and their tragedy. There wouldn't be a soul for thousands of miles around who wasn't familiar with the sad story of how little Sean Logan had lost his life.

“I'm fine, Brock.” Shelley was completely unprepared for the onrush of surprise and delight. “Where in the world did you spring from? I've been in town all day, yet not a single soul mentioned you were back, let alone right here in Koomera Crossing.”

His features, which might have been chiselled by a master sculptor, tightened. “It was not my idea but my beloved grandfather's. It seems he can no longer endure our estrangement. Can you beat that? He kicked me out almost five years ago to the day; now he relays such an impassioned plea I simply couldn't turn him down.”

“He's ill?” The thought sprang immediately to her mind. “People start thinking of family reconciliations at those times.”

“He's dying in the way of mere mortals,” Brock told her caustically. “Of course he never thought he was one. I'm not letting any cat out of the bag; it'll only take a day for it to be all over town.”

Shelley looked up at him. She had to tilt her head back. Brock was easily six-three. She was vertically challenged at five-two. “I don't know what to say, Brock. I always
thought your grandfather was very cruel to you.” The whole Outback was in agreement on that.

“Sure he was,” he said carelessly. “But I used to get my own back. I had the rare pleasure of telling him off. Not so my poor mother.”

“How is she?” Shelley asked, eager for news.

He glanced beyond her, out into the mirage-stalked street, his finely cut nostrils flaring. The look in his eyes was very complex and disturbing. “She didn't come home with me, Shel. I buried her in Ireland—the land of her ancestors. She was taken by cancer.”

“Brock!” Tender-hearted Shelley found her eyes stinging. “I am so sorry. I know how close you were to your mother. And she to you.” Shaken, she took a deep breath of air.

“So I'm alone in the world,” he said simply. “My dad simply vanished like a puff of smoke when I was six, and I can't count the rest of my family as family. They're more sworn enemies—or plotters at the very least. Cousin Philip and his mother, dear Frances. She's always hated me.”

Shelley's expression clouded. “Deep down I swear she admires you.”

“Really? I've never heard it.” His eyes, a lovely lustrous silver, such a foil for his dark colouring, strayed over her.

She felt her whole body flush. Brock Tyson's sex appeal was enormous. Once she'd had the mother of all crushes on him—he a charismatic, experienced twenty-one to her virginal sixteen. He'd even kissed her once. Not that he would ever remember. It had been at a bush dance. Her first. He'd swooped on her in an excess of high spirits, flirting, reckless, whirling her off her feet with a whoop of laughter. She'd never forgotten the hardly-to-be-borne excitement of her first kiss—hitherto unsurpassed, worst luck! Brock had always loved the girls, and they'd all loved him.

“In some ways you were Philip's hero,” she mused. “He longed to be like you. Brave and daring. Unafraid of your
grandfather. You two cousins should have been great friends.”

“That was impossible, Shelley.” He shook his black head. “Kingsley and dear Aunt Frances set us head to head. Who was to be the heir? The one who challenged or the one who toed the line? Is Phil still sweet on you?” He said it suddenly, as though he didn't much like the idea.

“Relax, we're only friends. We've known one another forever. My parents approve of him, which is kind of a plus. It's wonderful to see you, Brock. I'm terribly, terribly glad you're back again.”

He smiled down at her, clearly amused by her obvious pleasure and sincerity. “You always were a sweet little thing.” Looking at her wide, sensitive mouth, he had an unexpected flash of memory. “I seem to remember kissing you once. Did I?”

“It was normal for you to kiss all the girls,” she said drolly.

“I don't recall kissing your sister. Is she married yet?”

“No. And how do you know I'm not?” She tilted a brow in mock indignation.

“You still look like a rosebud.” He gave that lazily sexy smile. “People tell me you're running some sort of tourist venture out at Wybourne?”

“I am, and I'm very proud of it.” Her tone was calm and self-assured, belying her girlish appearance. “It's taken time, but we're getting off the ground. A lot of the planning has fallen on me. My poor parents never did recover from Sean's death. It's left them rather tired of life.”

“I know what it's like to mourn. I bet Amanda is a big help to you,” Brock said with a touch of sarcasm, remembering all too clearly Shelley's pretty, highly flirtatious and self-centred sister.

“Couldn't do without her,” Shelley said loyally, Martha to Amanda's Mary and so well used to it, it had become second nature. “Amanda shines where I don't.”

“Where might that be?” he asked sceptically.

“She plays the piano and she has an attractive singing voice. Country and western—that sort of thing. Guests like it. Plus she's very pretty, as I'm sure you'll remember.”

“And you're not?” He upped the excitement with a lingering gaze.

“Stop flattering me, Brock Tyson,” she said mock severely. “I don't know how to deal with it.”

“I bet you do. In fact, you've acquired so much poise you might be getting on for middle-aged,” he joked. “How on earth do you manage to keep the freckles at bay?”

Sex appeal simply oozed out of this man. With those eyes of his on her Shelley felt like splashing herself with cold water. “I can't take the credit, Brock. Just genes, I suppose. How long are you going to stay with us?”

“As long as I can tolerate it,” he said, all of a sudden moody, but still so charismatic he took her breath away. “Kingsley, about to face his Maker, thinks it's time to get a few things straightened out. My mother was his only daughter. He was supposed to have adored her. That was before my father came along to claim her heart. I never saw any sign of love or affection from my grandfather towards my mother. He just found ways to upset and humiliate her. And hey, Shel, it's not all his money. Grandma Brockway brought a fortune to the marriage. It was Brockway money that kept my mother and me in the beginning. After that I was able to pay our way. Kingsley sent us off penniless. As you say, he was a cruel man. It's just that I found his cruelty easier to endure than my poor mother.”

“Surely in asking you to return home he's begging your forgiveness?” she suggested, feeling the bitterness and anger coming off him in waves.

“Then he's going to be disappointed,” he clipped off. “Judgement Day is coming for Rex Kingsley.”

“Pray God he accepts it,” she said quietly. “What did you do all the time you were away?” Rex Kingsley had never mentioned his daughter or his grandson from the day they left.

“Work.” He shrugged. “I had to, as we were pretty much broke. I've been involved in breeding and training racehorses at a top stud in Ireland. Impossible to imagine a place more different to our Outback!”

“Ireland!” she echoed. “So that's where you got to! So far away. I often wonder what our ancestors thought of their strange new land. Ireland. How exciting! I'm going to go one day. That's a promise I've made to myself. You always were marvellous at handling horses, Brock. You've even developed an Irish lilt. Did you like it?”

“Loved it.” His silver eyes sparkled. “You know how us outbackers are with horses. The Irish are the same. The instant rapport paid off. I did a good job. I made good money, and earned respect from people I admired. I kept my mother secure until she died.”

“No one here knew where you went.”