Page 18 of Cinderella and the Outback Billionaire

Ari swung around towards a window with velvet curtains bunched and tied on either side. ‘That is the reason I’m in here in the first place. I have orders to lock him in the upstairs ensuite bathroom when I catch him. He escaped. We think human error was involved.’

Judah cleared his throat loudly.

Reid had no idea what was going on. ‘Him? As in a person? As opposed to a...?’

‘Kitten,’ she said cheerfully. ‘A fluffy, grey, tawny-eyed agent of chaos. He likes escaping from locked bathrooms, knocking over vases and hiding behind curtains.’

Reid turned to his brother. ‘You have a house cat?’

‘It wasn’t my idea.’

Reid knew exactly whose idea it would have been. ‘Does my niece have a kitten? Did the lord of the realm let the itty-bitty kitty out of the bathroom?’

Judah winced and scraped his weathered hand over his face. ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’

‘Does the kitty have a name?’

‘Fluffy.’

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you on account of your hand being over your mouth.’ Life was good today, what with Ari the desert nymph gracing them with her delightful presence and seeming so familiar, and now Judah wincing with embarrassment. ‘What was that again?’

‘Fluffy.’ Judah silently dared him to laugh, but Reid would never. Not even a smirk. Okay, maybe Reid was wearing a tiny smirk to go with his white shirt, and immaculately cut suit. ‘Does Fluffy have a last name? Fluffy Blake? Fluffy Woo?’

‘No.’ Judah looked truly pained by the turn this conversation had taken, which pleased Reid no end. ‘Fluffy-Wuffy.’

Fluffy-Wuffy was currently being stalked by the lithe, long-legged, black-trousers-and-T-shirt-clad Ari with the high ponytail. She moved with the grace of a dancer—maybe she was one when she wasn’t cleaning houses, she was slender enough. Long neck. Delicate hands that parted the curtain and reached down and scooped up a little blob that meowed in protest.

‘Oh, stop your complaining,’ she murmured, and something about her voice was so familiar...

She was a local.

The woman who’d found him in a dust storm and erected a tent over the top of him had been local.

‘What kind of car do you drive?’ he asked as she tucked the kitten against her chest and headed for the door.

‘I’m currently carless. I got a lift here with Gert. So...excuse me, it was nice to catch up, but I have to put the monster away.’

‘Will I see you around, later?’ He didn’t want her to go. A familiar word sat on the tip of his tongue.

Stay. Don’t leave me.

‘I don’t know,’ she replied as she half turned and met his gaze and this time he was close enough to make out the colour of her eyes. They were an extraordinary shade of cognac and quite startling against her tanned complexion. ‘I hope you find your sister.’

She took her leave, and he waited until he no longer heard her footsteps on the stairs before he spoke again. ‘What colour would you say her hair was?’

‘Brown.’ Judah had grown used to Reid asking him to describe in detail those things Reid couldn’t see properly.

‘And her eyes? What colour are they?’

‘Brown,’ said Judah again. ‘Why?’

‘Just curious.’

Very, very curious.

Speech plans sorted, Reid downed his drink, abandoned his brother and made his way to the kitchen in search of Gert. The housekeeper had been a mainstay throughout his childhood and he was as sure of his welcome as anyone could be, even if she did greet him with a steely eye to match her greying hair and a curt, ‘You’re too thin.’

‘I’m working on it, I promise,’ and it was nothing but the truth. ‘I do physio three days a week to strengthen my leg and drink the most disgusting protein shakes for breakfast every morning, along with my three-course breakfast.’

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