There was something going on here that she did not understand. Was Hux happy to see her after all these years? Was he angry with her? It was hard to decipher, and—
Her thoughts came to an abrupt halt as something licked her foot. ‘Bloody hell,’ she said, looking down. The three-legged terrier that had kept her company in town yesterday afternoon had appeared from nowhere and was currently investigating the shower water still dripping down her ankles. ‘There’s a dog.’
Hux didn’t look surprised to see it. In fact, he snapped his fingers and gave his hip a pat and the little dog took a flying leap upwards. Hux caught him and tucked him under his arm in what seemed a practised move.
Of course. The terrier was his dog. The yapping she’d heard on her first night had come from his dog. Hux was here in the hotel corridor because he, too, was a guest at the hotel. Look at her, gathering facts and applying a conclusion. Anyone would think she was a scientist at the top of her game rather than one whose career window was shrinking by the hour. Although why a Yindi Creek local would need to stay here was more than—
Hux swiped at a bead of water that was rolling down her face.
She sucked in a breath. This—whatever this was—was not a good idea. Face touching. Early morning corridor talking. Standing so close. This was intimacy, and she was out of her depth with intimacy; she always had been.
‘Should your hand be there?’ she said. She’d meant it to sound like outrage, but somewhere from brain to lips the words had decided to come out way,waytoo breathy.
Hux moved a little closer so he was practically in the tiny bathroom with her, which seemed very forward, but also a tiny bit ludicrous because there was a scruffy brown-and-white dog under his arm, for Pete’s sake. The dog looked up at her like she was interrupting its one-on-one time with its owner.
Hux, however, seemed to have forgotten the dog.
‘If not there, where, Dr Tan? Maybe we should check out one of your notebooks? Find the list of where it’s okay to be touched. If it’s not your face …’ His hand slid an inch or two. ‘Is it your collarbone? Does one of your lists allow for touching on the nape of the neck?’
There was a faint whiff of coffee about him. He looked rumpled and tired and warm and, other than the dog and the few years of age he’d acquired, he looked so like her past—her youthful, before-shit-got-real past—that it took effort to remember that this was not a good idea.
‘I do not use my notebook for everything,’ she said, but it was hard to put any indignation into the words because as much as this was, obviously, totally inappropriate behaviour—so much time had passed and they were practically strangers, and how dare he remember her penchant for lists and mock her?—her dormant hormones had just suggested that Hux’s idea held scientific merit. She’d never written a list on all the ways in which a man and a woman might, um, touch. Maybe that was her problem.
The scruff of an unshaved cheek brushed against her neck and lips followed, and then the hand that had been sliding along the nobbly rim of towelling was dipping into the gap to find ribs to sneak along, and—
No. She couldn’t just stop thinking, as delicious and distracting as all this was. She was a grown woman, for god’s sake. A mother with a son to think about. A divorcee with a lot of emotional baggage that she was too chicken to unpack.
She put a hand on Hux’s chest and gave him a push. Then she tucked her towel in a little more firmly and edged her way past him into the corridor. ‘Hux,’ she said. ‘I’m going.’ She paused as she scrabbled around for something to say that would re-establish some sort of boundary. ‘I, er, checked in with the police yesterday afternoon. They’re still not interested in letting me access that section of Corley Station.’
The easy smile on his face faded. ‘Seriously.That’swhat you’re thinking about? Now? Here? With you and me? Our first actual talk alone since you took off and left me for dead. All you care about is your bloody dig site.’
‘Um …’
Why was he so angry? A second ago he’d seemed all warm andnice.
‘The dig site is why I’m here.’ And she hadn’t left him for dead, geez. She’d accepted a job. And yes, all right, sure, she’d known it would be the end of her and him being a … a … thing, but—
‘Of course it is,’ he said wearily. ‘You haven’t changed a bit, Jo, have you?’
She felt hurt. It was irrational, yes, and scientists like her valued the rational, but she lashed out anyway. ‘Wow. Looks like you haven’t either, Hux, trying to get your hands on any new female who blows into town.’
‘Oh, fuck off, Jo.’
CHAPTER
15
Later that morning, Hux woke sometime past ten o’clock when Possum ran up his torso and started snuffling at his face with his fairly rank dog breath. Hux’s head felt like a bulldozer had run over it and he had a driving desire for orange juice. And bacon. Lots and lots of bacon. He felt wrecked, the blame for which fell squarely on the hideous plastic chair he’d spent most of the night on.
He found his phone on the bed beside him and picked it up to dial the donger.
‘Yindi Creek Chopper Charters, Phaedra speaking.’
‘Phaeds. It’s Hux. Please tell me there were no charters booked for today.’
‘Relax, love. I see the chopper’s home. What time did you guys land?’
‘Early. Took off the second the horizon lightened, but not sure I should have been flying as I didn’t get a wink of sleep. I wouldn’t mind doing nothing today.’