‘As long as I don’t have to do a speech, I can do that.’Could she?‘Or you can.You’re good at talking.’
Stone adjusted his hat, his hazel eyes heavily analysing her.‘If you don’t do pitches, how do you sell your stuff?’
Is this where she confessed her dislike, and pathetic fear, of making a fool out of herself for pitching her documentary to the distributors?‘Mostly, I just put my B-roll on these websites that act like an online storefront.They connect me to the customers without the need for a middleman, or agents.’
‘And these images go to…?’His cap shaded his eyes, but they were still locked on to her.It felt like he was asking more than just a simple question, and she’d learned Stone was a lot more complex than he let on.So, what was the ulterior motive to Stone’s question?
She shrugged, taking the easy way out.
‘Do any of your images make it to social media?’
‘Sure.All the time.News groups, influencers, and even corporate conferences use them.’
‘The what?’
‘You know the big company conferences, where they do presentations to their stockholders, letting the B-roll play in the background while they talk of destroying the planet in big words.’
Stone didn’t say a word, but he stood very, very still.
‘What did I say?’
‘Nothing.’He turned his back on her to work on his helicopter.
‘I can pay you to do some more scenic flights later.’She was still trying to keep this a purely platonic working relationship and not take advantage of the guy, who did have the golden ticket to take her to places she’d never find on her own.
‘We’ll see.First, there’s a bunch of babies we need to find.’
‘Of course.’She felt foolish for forgetting about the stolen cold stock, while struggling to keep her attraction to Stone under control.
And the struggle was real.
Especially when his jeans gave her a magnificent view of his arse and strong thighs, when he unhitched some heavy-duty straps from under the helicopter’s skid.His biceps tightened beautifully as he gathered the tie-down straps together and stored them near some seriously large cement blocks.How bad were the winds out here?
‘You could leave me here, and I’d be happy to poke around your land, like the billabong.’And that way she’d escape doing the talk in front of his peers.
‘Get in, shortcake.Like I said, your skills are needed—especially after what your footage found.We don’t want the Duchess giving us one of her annoying eye rolls while tapping on her watch, if we’re late.’
‘Why do you call Amara the Duchess?’
He paused to give her that studious look again.‘Only our team can call her that.Amara has a big job and she’s extremely good at what she does, and not just as our paperwork queen.’
Talk about high praise, when it didn’t make sense.‘But you and Craig tease Amara all the time.’
‘Only because she’s like our little sister.’His tone and his stance displayed his protection of Amara, it was subtle but enough for Romy to pick up on that vibe—it was really kind of sweet.
‘Trust me, Amara gives it back just as much—you just haven’t heard it yet.’Stone rubbed his jaw, as if contemplating her questions.‘Why?Were you offended when we were bantering with each other, especially when you got your hives?’
She secured the gimbal across her chest, then buckled the seatbelt over it.A snug fit, sure, but she’d worked in worse.‘I don’t mind the banter.It’s just rare because no one looks at the girl behind the camera.’No one hired her for her looks or what she wore, just her skills.
But Stone looked at her longer and deeper than anyone had done before.It was unnerving.
‘Strapped in?’He handed her a set of earmuffs.
‘Yeah.’The moment she slipped on the earmuffs, the sounds of the outback world vanished, replaced by a cocoon of silence like swimming underwater.
‘Camera ready?’Stone’s voice was loud and clear through the headphones, as he flicked a whole lot of switches inside the cockpit.
Just switching on her camera always started her smile, along with that skip of her heart rate.She loved her job so much, she didn’t need to be the face on-screen, when the world was ready to show off all its splendour, and she was happy to observe.And with luck, she may be able to convince the Rowntrees to give her permission to film their farm.
