Against All Odds (Outback Hearts) Read online

  He rocked back onto his heels and forced himself to unclench the fingers that had curled around her backpack. He needed to calm down and think. What had been up with that second kiss? She’d definitely kissed him back. And the food sharing, the movie, the cuddling—shit, if she hadn’t been interested, why couldn’t she have just told him flat-out like a normal woman? Why string him along? Because nothing about her was normal. She was bossy, overbearing, and mean half the time, and painfully shy, caring, and the closest thing he’d seen to an angel the rest.

  The businessman sidestepped him and lunged for a shiny black suitcase that probably cost more than the clothes inside. The man hauled it off the conveyor and made for the exit with the single-minded determination of a man heading toward a sure thing. He’d seen the same sense of purpose on his younger teammates’ vacant faces after they’d returned from down range and headed into town seeking sexual escape from combat’s reality. He hadn’t had the heart to break the news to them that the warmth of a female body only helped you forget for a little while. Sooner or later the demons found you no matter where you hid.

  She resettled the strap of her laptop bag and used the gesture to conceal the hesitant glance she flicked his way. The embarrassed flush coloring her cheeks lingered, but her scowl had morphed into something that had him scrambling to catch up. Not angry, not even pissed off…nervous, she was nervous. Of course she’d be nervous. Shit, she was a single woman in a strange land being followed by a desperate, luggage-stealing bogan.

  Realization struck him like a knee to the balls. He’d asked her to come home with him, to spend time with him, but he’d never asked her to just share the night with him. Was she only after a one-night stand? One night of anonymous sex with a genuine Aussie bloke with no strings attached before starting her outback adventure? Was that what was hidden in her notebook?

  As the crowd milling around them thinned and the chaos died down to muffled mayhem, the voice of reason slowly grew louder over the other voices ranting and raving inside his head. From the moment he’d seen her he’d wanted to do unspeakable things to her, but after sharing thirteen-plus hours with her, he was certain one night was never going to be enough. But if one night was all she was willing to share, was that such a bad thing? One night of wild, uninhibited sex to relieve the tension that had coiled so tightly around his chest he couldn’t breathe? A few sweaty, exhilarating hours and they could be on their ways with smiles on their faces and glorious aches in their swimsuit areas. But as he studied her out of the corner of his eye, he knew he didn’t want a one-night stand. He wanted to crush her to his chest and find out just how far down the rabbit hole they could plummet before Wonderland ended and they returned to the real world.

  This whole thing was fucking nuts, he was fucking nuts, but somewhere west of Hawaii with the caramel from his gelato still lingering on his lips, he’d known. And by the time they’d touched down in Brisbane he’d been 100 percent sure. But the more he thought about it the more it made sense, which only proved how batshit crazy he was. Thirteen-plus hours spent pressed up against each other, half a dozen meals, snacks, and drinks shared and fought over, a movie, more arguments than he could recount, and even a nap together, not that he’d gotten much rest. That had to count for at least three dates and a couple of weeks of text and phone conversations, didn’t it? He wasn’t asking her to jump into bed with a stranger, was he?

  His duffle and suit bag wobbled toward him on the conveyor and snapped him out of his psychosis. The faded canvas looked so out of place amongst the modern vinyl, plastic, and aluminum luggage they may as well have had his name stenciled all over them. Her gaze darted between the bags and him, but he held his ground and let his luggage trundle past.

  Her eyes widened, but instead of saying anything she nibbled her bottom lip and focused on the chute spewing out fewer and fewer pieces of luggage as if the carousel was counting down the time she had left to make a break for it. A battered nylon suitcase with a bright red belt hitched around its waist tumbled onto the conveyor.

  She’d done a pretty good job concealing her reaction, but sensing even the slightest shift in people’s intent and posture had saved his arse more times than he cared to remember. He eased his grip on her backpack and inched toward the approaching bag. She pushed in beside him and blocked him with her hip and shoulder. Even with his guts knotted around his throat and his heart hammering against his rib cage, her body brushing against his had him feeling like his skin was suddenly too small for him.

  Who dares wins. He’d lived by the motto inscribed below the Special Air Service’s emblem for more than a decade. It’d kept him alive when he had no right to survive, and it would either get him punched in the face and thrown in jail, or win him Ms. Abigail Marie Williams for the night.

  She lunged for the bag and wrapped both hands around the suitcase’s handle before yanking it off the conveyor. Either she was stronger than she looked or nerves and stubbornness were superpowers, because she had the suitcase propped up and ready to roll before she realized he hadn’t moved.

  He dropped the backpacks he’d been holding and advanced. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped as she craned her head back to take him in. He didn’t give her a chance to retreat. He slid one arm around her waist and trapped her against his torso. A shocked gasp gushed out of her as she let go of her suitcase and braced her forearms on his chest.

  Who dares wins. He captured her neck with his free hand and crushed his lips to hers. The softness and heat he couldn’t forget flowed through him and flooded his belly. If this was the last time he got to hold her before she kneed him in the balls or scratched out his eyes, so be it, he wasn’t dying wondering. He pulled her tighter against his body and kissed her harder until she melted in his arms, and her muffled gasps turned to moans.

  He eased just far enough away to sneak a peek at her. She looked as if she’d passed out, but the frantic thudding against his chest confirmed she was very much alive. She sucked in air and slowly opened her eyes. Long seconds dragged by as she focused those siren eyes on him through her crooked glasses.

  He cradled her to his body and caressed her flushed cheeks with the backs of his fingers before dropping his forehead to hers. “Spend the night with me.”

  ...

  Abi ran her tongue over her tingling, swollen lips and stared into the storm raging within Ryder’s eyes. With just one kiss, he’d incinerated the humiliation and confusion she’d battled since waking from that damned dream and had her feeling like a femme fatale instead of an insecure virgin. Was this what Olivia had meant about the amazing part of sex? Because if his mouth fit hers so perfectly, she couldn’t imagine how good it would feel to have all that superheated muscle pressing, sliding, and pumping into h—

  Her mind rebooted as she heaved in air. Thirteen hours. Fourteen and a half if you counted taxiing and waiting on the tarmac. It was a hell of a lot more getting to know you time than a drink in a sleazy bar…but just long enough to realize how amazing he was. It was just sex, two normal healthy adults scratching one hell of a biological itch before getting on with their lives. No strings attached, no dating, no awkward good-byes, no misunderstandings, no expectations. He lived in the outback, she lived seven thousand miles away. He’d return home for a well-earned retirement, she’d return home for—

  She cursed herself and focused on the man cradling her as if she was the last woman on Earth. Had she ever been so terrified? Had she ever felt so alive? Inching her hands up his chest, she snaked her arms around his neck and yanked his lips onto hers. If this was to be a onetime deal, she was getting her money’s worth.

  His warmth and power cocooned her and shut down her mind completely as she released his mouth and dragged in a desperate breath.

  “Okay.” Her whispered surrender drifted out on the tattered remains of her self-control.

  She clung to him and braced herself for reality to wash over her and quench the fire raging inside, but it didn’t come. For close to a d
ecade, destiny had stolen everything she’d wanted, everything she’d craved, simple things people took for granted, but she’d never wanted anything as much as she needed this man. He was real, so very real, and clutching her as if he was as scared of losing her as she was of escaping.

  She tangled her fingers in the lush hair tumbling out from beneath his weathered hat and claimed him again. He crushed her to his body, yet she craved to be held tighter. Closing her eyes, she pried open his lips with her tongue and mauled him. A guttural groan vibrated through her as he lifted her off the ground. She had no idea what she was doing but forced her tongue deeper as she explored every part of his mouth while clawing her fingers into his hair and pulling him closer.

  The crowd’s gasps, the inaudible drone from the airport’s PA, the rumble of the conveyor belt…everything disappeared along with gravity as she drifted in a world where only he existed. With each thrust of her tongue, pull of her lips, and grind of her hips, her past and her future evaporated and only the present remained. Just a little more time, a few more hours to forget the future hurtling toward her and to take what he offered and claim what she so desperately wanted, needed.

  She tore her lips from his and sagged against him. Dropping her cheek onto his shoulder, she sucked in air and reached for the floor with the toe of her sneaker. As the blinding starbursts faded from her vision and the joyous screams quieted in her ears, an unnerving silence crept into her consciousness. She slowly opened her eyes and scanned the deathly quiet baggage-claim area and the stunned passengers staring back at her.

  His chuckle reverberated through her chest and massaged the last of the fog from her mind. “Sorry, folks, we’ve been apart way too long.”

  He untangled her arms and legs from around his neck and waist and gently lowered her onto the polished concrete. He must have been as concerned as she was about her balance because he slid an arm around her waist and propped her against his hip.

  What the hell was happening to her? In the space of less than a day she’d racked up two worthy contenders for the most embarrassing moments of her life. Thank God Olivia hadn’t witnessed her porn-star meltdowns. Some of the passengers smiled and nodded before resuming their surveillance of the conveyor belt. Others pretended they hadn’t been staring while muttering to themselves and shaking their heads. The two police officers she’d been plotting to use as a distraction in her escape waggled their fingers at her and chuckled. She shrugged, adjusted her glasses, and offered them a tentative wave before easing out of Ryder’s embrace. She’d regained her equilibrium but couldn’t bring herself to look at him. Which was crazy, since she’d just clambered all over him and kissed the crap out of him in front of an audience of shocked strangers.

  AC/DC’s “Shoot to Thrill” cut through the static in her head and wrenched her from semiconsciousness. With all the grace of a naked woman juggling soap in the shower, she fumbled in her pocket for her phone. He studied her in stunned silence as she hit answer and clutched the phone to her ear with a trembling hand before shaking his head and chuckling. He mumbled something to himself while continuing to shake his head, which grounded some of the butterflies fluttering in her stomach and stiffened her spine. What, just because she was an elementary school teacher she couldn’t love the greatest rock band in the world?

  She was just about to let him know what he could do with his preconceived ideas when a string of unintelligible curses flooded her ear. She tore her gaze away from his face—his beautiful, rugged, masculine face—and focused on the giant billboard behind him welcoming her to Queensland, Australia, Beautiful one day, perfect the next. Because she was having a hard enough time kick-starting her brain, and seeing the mouth she’d just tried crawling into wasn’t helping her concentration.

  She pressed the phone tighter to her ear only to discover the chaos muffling her sister’s voice came from inside her own head. “Yes, I made it off the plane. No, nothing has eaten or stung me yet.”

  “You said you’d call as soon as you landed.” Olivia’s voice cut across the ocean separating them like a cruise missile.

  “Jesus, woman, I’ve just collected my bags.”

  His eyebrow rose as he mouthed, Olivia?

  She rolled her eyes.

  He grinned and nodded before bending down to retrieve the hat she’d knocked off during her attack.

  “Was the flight as horrible as you thought?”

  Even with seven thousand miles separating them, her kid sister’s concern eased her racing heart.

  He tipped the frayed brim and flashed her a smile that sent her heart rate skyrocketing all over again before tidying up the luggage strewn around them.

  She forced herself to suck in a breath while she struggled to figure out how to answer Olivia’s question without alerting her sister’s ESP. “No, it was…” wet-dream inducing, mortifyingly embarrassing, potentially life altering “…okay.”

  Her frazzled brain had delayed her just long enough to trigger Olivia’s radar. “What happened? Did you have a horny businessman with nuclear BO and a comb-over sitting next to you?”

  The muscles beneath Ryder’s T-shirt flexed and stretched as he rested her backpack and laptop bag by her feet and slowly rose in front of her like some mythical warrior god. He was a good couple of decades away from a comb-over, and if Hugo Boss bottled his body odor, they’d dominate the male cologne market. “Not exactly.”

  Again with the delay. She needed to pull her shit together, otherwise she’d spend the next ten minutes trying to survive an interrogation from her kid sister.

  “Not exactly?” Olivia’s voice took on a sinister note that had her cursing herself.

  Too late.

  Ryder’s eyes narrowed.

  Great, now Sergeant Harper is in on the game.

  “What do you mean, not exactly?”

  Think, Abi, goddammit.

  “You met someone, didn’t you?”

  Shit! How the hell did Olivia do that?

  “Is he wild-thing worthy?”

  If Olivia had been standing beside her, her sister would’ve been clapping her hands and jumping for joy.

  Ryder folded his arms across his chest and grinned.

  For crying out loud, was he a freaking mind reader as well?

  Heat flooded her cheeks as she fought the urge to curse out loud.

  “He’s standing right there, isn’t he?”

  Oh for the love of God, c’mon.

  Olivia screamed in triumph before whispering, “Just answer yes or no.”

  She sighed and glared at Ryder, who ignored his camouflaged suit bag and duffle as they wobbled by and set off on another lap of honor around the carousel.

  “Is he decent?”

  By the way he leered at her there was no way in hell there was anything remotely decent going on behind that grin. “Yes.”

  “Is he gentle?”

  Those tree-trunk arms and grizzly-bear paws could crush boulders yet he’d held her like she was made of fairy floss. “Yes.”

  “Is he drop-dead gorgeous?”

  She had no idea whether he had super hearing to go with everything else, but the smug jerk straightened and his grin grew into a full-blown smile. Years of comic books and movies had skewed her tastes. He was the perfect antihero. Wolverine to Cyclops, Deadpool to Spider-Man, Batman to Superman, and all her male fantasies rolled into one battle-scarred package. “Yes.” Oh hell yes.

  Olivia squeed so loudly Abi had to wrench the phone away from her ear to rescue her hearing…just as her kid sister screamed, “He’s the one, isn’t he?”

  Olivia’s words blasted out of her phone’s speaker and into the three feet of supercharged air separating her from the man who’d already treated her to two-and-a-half imaginary orgasms.

  He burst out laughing and snatched the phone out of her hand before she’d even realized he’d moved. “Yes, yes I am.”

  She lunged for the phone, but he caught her and trapped her against his body. She bucked and pushed, but
he merely readjusted his hold and twisted his hips so she couldn’t get anywhere near his groin.

  “Ryder Harper, ma’am.”

  She stomped his foot and bit his forearm but he didn’t flinch.

  “No, ma’am. Retired serviceman returning home.”

  She kicked his shin and bit him again before stilling. She tried hearing what Olivia said, but all she could pick up was muffled garble.

  “Sergeant, first regiment, Special Air Service.”

  She’d poked and prodded into every other part of his life but had barely touched his military service. Like he’d done with her head, she’d figured he’d tell her if and when he wanted to. He eased his hold but still wasn’t game to bring his groin within range. Olivia murmured something else.

  He glanced down at her. “We haven’t talked about it. To be honest, I’m still not sure I’ve gotten her to agree to spend more time with me.” He shook his head and smiled. “No, ma’am, she didn’t make it easy.”

  She cursed and lunged for the phone, but he angled away and left her grabbing air.

  He shrugged as if she wasn’t even there. “I was kind of hoping she’d come home with me. Seems a waste to pay for a hotel when I’ve got a perfectly good place to stay for the night.”

  She shot a pleading look toward the police and beckoned them over, but they only waved back and continued chuckling.

  “Yes, ma’am, my brother’s apartment. No, ma’am, I’d never do anything to hurt her.”

  She froze and turned away from the two pairs of bite marks she’d gouged into his bronzed forearm, the second even deeper than the first.

  He winked. “Yeah, she’s very special to me, too.”

  Yeah, you keep smiling and I’ll give you very special.

  “Zero, four, one, two…five, nine, eight…three, three, zero. Five hundred and thirty, Elizabeth Street, Brisbane, Apartment 12.”

  What the hell was Olivia up to? Was her kid sister pimping her out in exchange for his phone number in case she ever needed a hookup Down Under?