From Sydney With Love: With This Fling... / Losing Control / The Girl He Never Noticed. Kelly Hunter
‘Ever think of being an archaeologist?’ she asked dryly.
‘I prefer the living world,’ he murmured. ‘Ancient cities can be dazzling but they aren’t my passion. Plant interactions are.’
‘And then there’s the travel,’ she said.
‘Exactly. As for a regular day, it varies. At the moment I’m here on the boat, sitting in front of a laptop for most of the day, running the stats on experimental results. It’s data entry at its most pedestrian—until you find something. And I never know what I’ll find until I find it, or where it will lead until I get there. That’s the beauty of it.’
‘A man who savours the journey.’
‘Don’t you?’ he countered.
‘I used to.’ Charlotte stared past him, out over the water and the increasingly dusky sky. ‘And then somewhere in my mid twenties I started wondering what it might be like to stay in one place for a while. So instead of scraping away at how other people lived, I took the Sydney uni job and tried to put something of what all those ancient civilisations had taught me into practice.’
‘What did they teach you?’
‘That sooner or later everyone needs a home. An environment they can control. A place to retreat to. Somewhere that brings them peace.’
‘And does your apartment by the bridge feel like a home?’ he asked quietly.
‘I’ve been asking myself the same question for a while now.’ Charlotte shrugged and looked out over the water. ‘Sooner or later I’m going to have to decide what to do about Aurora’s house. I really don’t need two.’
‘Which one’s closer to your workplace?’
‘The apartment. But Aurora’s has more sentimental value. It’s the closest thing to a childhood home that I’ve got. We used to make a point of going back there at least once a year.’
‘For how long?’
‘A couple of weeks,’ said Charlotte. ‘A month if I was lucky.’
‘What about school?’ asked Greyson.
‘We used the New South Wales distance education system,’ said Charlotte. ‘Tailored for children who travelled, children who roamed. Aurora supplemented it, of course. She had a knack for making the past come alive so the histories fast became our passion. I studied the Battle of Waterloo by walking the battlefield. I sat in the Colosseum and dreamed of gladiators and the roar of a Roman crowd.’
‘It sounds idyllic.’
‘It was richly rewarding,’ said Charlotte quietly. ‘And sometimes it was incredibly lonely. It’s why I resist the notion of taking the archaeology road again. At least here I have friends and a place that’s mine.’
‘Two places, in fact,’ murmured Greyson dryly.
‘Exactly.’ Charlotte fed him another prawn. ‘I like your home, by the way. It’s very you.’
‘Thank you. We’re almost at the cove.’
And then they were at the cove and Greyson was cutting the engine and dropping anchor as the last shards of light from a long gone sun surrendered to the night.
Charlotte smiled and let Greyson take the near empty food tray and lead her inside. He fetched some drinks—a white wine for her, beer for himself. He took two cheese-sauce-covered lobster halves from the fridge and shoved them in the oven. He looked comfortable in the kitchen. At home.
Charlotte had never once pictured Gil in the kitchen. Certainly not in a ship’s galley. Nor had Gil ever been quite so delectably dressed.
‘You’re smiling,’ Grey murmured.
‘I know.’ She set her wine on the bench and flowed into Greyson’s arms, burrowing beneath his open shirt in search of warm skin over rippling muscle. She touched the tip of her tongue to his collarbone and tasted salt. He put his hand to her head and held her there for a moment, breathing in deep, before tilting her head back and covering her lips with his own in a kiss that spoke of welcome, and wanting, and a man who intended to savour every moment of this particular journey.
‘Miss me?’ he whispered, between kisses.
‘It’s really not part of the plan,’ she countered and kissed him again. She didn’t tell him that sinking into his kisses felt a lot like coming home. She didn’t say that she’d thought about him far more than she’d wanted to this past week. That she’d envied him his overprotective mother and his lovely ex-fiancée, the work that was his passion, and the surety with which he moved through life. A smart and sexy man who knew exactly what he wanted was a very attractive proposition for a woman who did not.
He filled a gap, as Gil had filled a gap. He fed a need Charlotte hadn’t known existed.
‘I think I’m using you,’ she murmured.
‘That’s okay.’ He kissed her again. This time she moaned her approval. ‘Blame it on the endorphins.’
‘You don’t recommend that I take at least some responsibility for my behaviour?’
‘We have a short-term liaison agreement, remember? Your behaviour is entirely appropriate. You could even—just a suggestion—increase your enthusiasm for my company.’
‘You called, I came,’ she countered, stepping out of his embrace and retrieving her wine. ‘Undress me, make love to me, and I guarantee I’ll come some more. How much more enthusiasm do you want?’
‘Maybe enthusiasm wasn’t quite the right word,’ Greyson said smoothly. ‘Never mind.’
He reached for his beer, leaned back against the tiny galley sink, and studied her intently. ‘My mother phoned this evening to ask me what I was doing this weekend. I told her I was spending it with you. She wants you over for dinner again, some time. Just the four of us, my father included.’
‘Why?’ asked Charlotte warily.
‘Perhaps she feels that she didn’t give you a chance.’
‘She doesn’t have to.’
‘Alas, she doesn’t know that.’ Grey studied her some more. ‘I’ll tell her you’re busy.’
Charlotte lowered her gaze. Had she really been involved with Greyson, she’d have grasped the olive branch extended. As it was … he could tell his mother whatever he liked.
‘It’s one of the drawbacks of having a nosey family,’ he said next. ‘My mother’s been after grandchildren for years.’
‘Grandchildren?’
‘What’s your position on that?’ he asked and Charlotte glanced back towards him to find his gaze more intent than ever.
‘On grandchildren?’ she said lightly. ‘I can see the appeal.’
‘On children,’ he said. ‘And you having them.’
‘Yours?’
‘Anyone’s.’
‘Again, I can see the appeal,’ she said. ‘And were I in a loving and stable relationship, I might consider children an option.’
‘What if your partner had a vocation that required travel? Would you consider joining him on his travels? You and the children?’
‘Are we talking about a partner much like yourself?’
‘Let’s assume yes,’ he said.
‘It’s not a question I’ve given much thought to,’ she said. ‘Mainly because the plan is to avoid becoming involved with such a man. I’ve a lot of experience when it comes to unorthodox childhoods, Greyson. I know what worked for me, and what didn’t. I’ll not be repeating