Page 45 of Outback Reunion

His words and the need in his voice had almost the same power as his touch to unravel her.

Or at least she thought so, until he began to caress her even more intimately, sliding his finger back and forth, in and out, discovering that spot deep inside her that Dante had never managed to find and—

Dante!The thought of her husband was like a bucket of ice dumped over the top of her.

What the hell was she doing?

He might be dead, but she was still a parent. She had responsibilities. Priorities. Her daughter was—hopefully—sleeping mere metres away, and here she was about to lose a lot more than her head in the front seat of an expensive but dusty ute like some kind of sex-mad, teenage floozy.

No better than her own mother!

Summoning every ounce of willpower she possessed to push his hand away, Gabi yanked down her dress and put as much distance between them as was possible in the confines of the cabin. Her hormones were screaming at her, and her pulse raced where his lips had been on her neck moments earlier, not to mention the throbbing between her thighs. Even if she wanted this, she didn’t deserve it.

‘Fuck. I’m sorry.’ Mark ran a hand through his hair and puffed out a sigh. ‘I didn’t mean for that to get out of control so quickly.’

‘It’s not your fault,’ she said, shaking her head, ‘but I can’t do this.’

He nodded sadly. ‘I understand.’

Yet, despite his words, he must think her a cocktease. She was the one who’d come on to him! If only he knew how hard it was for her to stop. For the first time in years she’d felt something good when a man touched her, but that didn’t mean she should give in to those feelings.

Her hand shaking, she undid her seatbelt and forced herself to look at him. ‘Thanks for a great night, Mark.’

‘Please, let’s not end things like this,’ he said. ‘Can we swap numbers? I’d love to hang out again before you leave town and keep in touch this time after you go. No expectations. Just as friends.’

Gabi closed her eyes; lord, he was making this difficult. Part of her wanted to accept this offer, but she knew that the way she felt about Mark,just friendswould never be enough. She got the feeling that with him, it would be all or nothing, andallsimply wasn’t an option. For multiple reasons.

Sometimes it was better not to taste the icing if you couldn’t eat the whole cake.

‘I don’t have a mobile,’ she lied, extracting her hand from his. ‘Good night, Mark. See you in another life.’

Then, once again, she found herself fighting tears as she climbed out of his ute and fled towards the gate, not daring to look back for fear she’d change her mind. She fumbled with the latch as she let herself into the lot and hurried in the direction of her caravan.

‘That looked like quite the kiss!’

Gabi jumped at the sound of her mother-in-law’s voice and looked across to see Eve sitting on a folding chair outside her and Lorenzo’s van.

Shit.

‘What are you doing awake? You weren’t waiting up for me, were you?’

Eve chuckled. ‘No. Luna fell asleep after a couple of episodes ofFriends. I left the dogs guarding her and came back here but I’m struggling with insomnia at the moment. Bloody menopause. Lorenzo’s snoring was making me homicidal, so I thought I’d come out and listen to my book in this lovely fresh sea air, to try and calm my middle-aged rage.’

Gabi laughed nervously at this confession. ‘What are you listening to?’

Her mother-in-law had always loved books—she’d been the one to introduce Gabi to romance novels when she was probably too young to be reading them—but she waved her hand in dismissal. ‘Oh, just some cheesy historical romance. Never mind about that. Looks like you had a good night?’

Good didn’t even come close. Even with the tense parts, the night had been amazing.

‘Yep. Great night,’ Gabi managed. ‘Well, guess I better go check on Luna.’

She couldn’t get out of this awkward situation fast enough. It was mortifying that Eve had seen her and Mark in much more than a scorching lip-lock. Hopefully the car doors meant she didn’t bear witness to any below the belt action. Thank God she’d worn a dress, because she was almost certain that had she been wearing a top, he would have ripped it off.

And had that happened, she wasn’t sure she’d have been able to stop.

‘My son didn’t know that man, did he?’ Eve said before Gabi had even gone two steps.

She couldn’t quite decipher her mother-in-law’s tone—was she amused, disappointed or even just perplexed?—but she couldn’t continue the lie, not when Eve had asked her directly.

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