Page 163 of Crossed Wires: The Complete Series
Harper narrowed her eyes, contemplated what Annie said and then scooped up the postcards and travel pamphlets of the U.S. she’d had the small group of children cutting from. “So Hazel tells Hunter and Dylan what to do and they do it? Is that how it works?”
“No. Hunter runs the business side of the station, the money side, the paperwork, and Dylan does the sweaty work. He’s in charge of the jackaroos, jillaroos and hired hands. Hazel lords over them as only a mother can. She knowstheyknow how to run Farpoint, but she likes to keep them on their toes. And the hands call her ‘boss’ because she’s their bosses’ boss. Make sense?”
Harper chuckled. “I think so.”
Annie replaced the paintbrush and plucked a roll of tape from the table. “I have to say, it’s great to hear another American accent again. I didn’t realize how much I’d miss Monet until she left. How are you settling in? Is everyone being nice to you?”
“Everyone is amazing.” Harper dropped herself onto the chair opposite Annie. “And the children in the class are so cool. It still messes with my head I’m teaching in a classroom on a ranch.”
“Station,” Annie corrected.
“Station,” Harper echoed, smacking her palm to her forehead. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. It took me a while to get used to it as well.” Annie turned the tape in her fingers. To Harper, she looked very content. Relaxed. Nothing like the tense woman who used to grace the pages of the celebrity gossip magazines. “The Sullivans are big on family,” she went on. “Farpoint Creek is the only station in Australia—whether cattle or sheep—to keep the practice of a resident teacher alive. Dylan says it’s because their great-grandfather didn’t like the idea of his twin daughters going to a boarding school in Sydney and being seduced away from Farpoint by big-city boys.”
At the word “seduced”, Harper’s belly fluttered. Since Keith Munroe had kissed her two days ago, she’d spent too many moments fantasizing about being seduced by the gay cowboy and his partner.
She’d also fantasized about seducingthem.
In those fantasies, instead of wrapping the towel around her body after finding them in her bedroom, she’d dropped it to her feet, smoothed her hands over her hips and made some intelligent, innuendo-heavy comment that made them both fall instantly in lust with her. After Keith kissed her—something that, in real life, was only spurred by his competition with Marc—his hands roamed her body, his worship joined by that of Marc, whose lips journeyed her throat, her breasts.
Then both cowboys removed their clothes and made love to her over and over again, bringing her to orgasm time and again with their hands and mouths and tongues and?—
“Harper?”
Harper started, jerking her stare to Annie’s face. “I’m…I’m sorry,” she stammered, her cheeks filling with heat. “I wigged out a little. I think I must still be jetlagged.”
“I understand. I was exhausted my first few days here. It takes the body clock a while to adjust.” Annie’s smile turned to a smirk. “Plus you spent most of yesterday being pursued by one very persistent stockman, yes?”
Harper resisted the urge to fidget on her small seat. Ronnie McNamara had collected her from the cottage for breakfast yesterday morning a little after sunrise. She’d still been in her PJs when he’d knocked on the door, a bunch of pretty blue daisy-like flowers in his hand. He’d waited outside while she’d dressed and then driven her to the main homestead, pointing things out as they went. Leaving her at the homestead front door, he’d promised to collect her again for lunch, asking if she’d fancy a picnic. Annie had saved her from answering, the American heiress telling Ronnie that Hazel had already planned lunch.
But Harper had to give it to the man; he was tenacious. Rather than be dissuaded, he’d suggested a picnicdinnerinstead. “Nothin’ like eating under the stars in the Outback,” he’d said, offering to come get her from the cottage. “I’ll teach you how to make a bush-oven damper if you like.”
The picnic under the stars never eventuated. Hazel spent the day showing Harper everything she could around Farpoint, regaling her with utterly delightful tall tales about life on the station. It wasn’t until Harper was halfway through the most delicious roast beef dinner she’d ever eaten, her mouth full of tender meat smothered in rich brown gravy, that it dawned on her she hadn’t seen Ronnie.
With a guilty start, she’d mentioned it to those at the table. Annie had winked at Hunter, who’d scowled at his mother when Hazel proclaimed, “As if I’m going to let Ronald McNamara poison you with that gutrot he calls damper. Hell’s bells and buckets of blood, not even Dylan’s dog will eat it!”
Still, Ronnie had been waiting for Harper when dinner finished, removing his hat and smiling at her when she and Hazel exited the homestead. “I’ll take her back to Miss Wesson’s place, Mrs. Sullivan,” he’d said to Hazel. “I’ve got to check the fence line along the Kangaroo Creek track anyways.”
“How’s the cow you rescued from the billabong?” Hazel had asked, and Harper had been intrigued to see his face turn flame-red.
“It’s aw’right,” Ronnie had answered.
Hazel had narrowed her eyes. “How ’bout you go check on it? Just to be sure. I’ll drive Harper home.”
With a muttered, “Yes, ma’am,” the cowboy had climbed back into the same pickup in which he’d collected Harper from the airport and driven into the night.
“Those boys don’t know what they’ve done,” Hazel had muttered with a shake of her head before turning back to Harper. Harper wanted to ask which boys. For some reason, her pulse had started racing.
For some reason?Harper fidgeted a little on her seat.Huh, maybe it’s because the last two nights you couldn’t stop thinking about Keith Munroe and Marc Thompson.
“And,” Annie said, the word laced with good-natured humor, “he drove you here this morning, correct?”
Harper fiddled with the pile of postcards and pamphlets on her lap. “Yes, he did.” She didn’t add how disappointed she’d been to open the door and see Ronnie when she’d been hoping to find Keith and Marc. Annie didn’t need to know she was harboring pornographic fantasies about the two cowboys.
It also didn’t help she hadn’t seen either of them at all yesterday. It was as if, after the kiss from Keith, they’d run from her. Hell, they’d damn near sprinted from the cottage after it happened, Marc with a speculative look on his face and Keith with a hasty apology.
Maybe the kiss unsettled him? Maybe it reallydidmake him wonder what it would be like to make love to a woman instead of?—
