Romancing the Girl Read online

“Trying to impress someone?” he said, hurrying to walk beside her as Aimee tried to make a break for it.

  “No.”

  Gav laughed. “Which one? The one with the big knockers?” he asked, holding his hands in front of his chest. “Don’t think Joe will be too happy about that.”

  Aimee frowned and looked at Gav. “Huh?”

  “Hittin’ on his women.”

  “Hitting on…” It dawned on Aimee that Gav thought she was making a play for one of the contestants. “Well, hey, you know me and generous…” She copied Gav’s previous hand gesture of big bosoms.

  Gav slapped her on the back and gave a hearty laugh. “Good luck, mate. Be thankful you can’t be castrated.”

  “What?”

  Gav gestured to the trailer the TV crew brought with them. “That production woman, whatshername, she’d cut off your balls for messing with those pretty girls.”

  “I’m not messing with anyone.”

  Gav winked at her. “Sure. Make sure Joey doesn’t find out you’re after his chicks,” he said loudly as he walked away.

  “Jesus,” Aimee whispered under her breath as she turned the corner into the stables. “Oh, crap,” she said, finding Justine in the shadows with her arms crossed and eyebrows raised. It had been a curious sixteen hours since she’d last seen the woman thanks to Gav’s idea to go rabbit shooting the previous evening. Aimee’s thoughts had barely strayed from the sight of Justine in her bed, eyes closed, head tilted back and making mewing noises that made her private areas clench. Usually a crack shot, every rabbit they found last night had gone back to its family safe and sound, and free to destroy more of their productive land in the process, much to Gav’s amusement. Now, with Gav’s inappropriate teasing and her sudden shyness, Aimee struggled to say, “Umm…hi.”

  Justine inclined her head in response.

  Calling Gav a few choice names under her breath, Aimee said as brightly as she could, “What brings you here?”

  “I was waiting for you, actually, but if you have other plans…”

  “I don’t,” Aimee said, shaking her head and moving closer. “I have no plans.”

  “Good to know.” Closing the gap between them, Justine surprised her by yanking her close and kissing her soundly. Either the woman was possessive and jealous, or Aimee wasn’t the only one affected by their impromptu love-making session yesterday.

  “Upstairs,” Justine ordered.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Frenzied, they disrobed as they crossed the room and the moment Justin pinned Aimee to the mattress, the intensity shifted. The desperation dissolved, replaced by something far more unanticipated. Blind need moved over for lingering looks, soft caresses and an overwhelming desire to be closer and more intimate.

  The feelings exploding inside her were terrifying, but tempting. Giving in to them, Aimee flipped Justine to the bed and slowly made love to her. Each touch was deliberate and took the writhing woman to the edge multiple times before having mercy and letting her soar away on an orgasm. It was the most tender Aimee had ever been, and the fact that ability was inside her was thoroughly surprising. Her encounters to date had been quick and detached. They scratched an itch, and none had wanted more, nor had she needed it. This petite woman changed the game entirely.

  Thoughts evaporated as Justine tenderly took her to heights that had her gasping for air and wondering whether she’d ever be able to recover. Aimee’s eyes fluttered open long after her body stopped shuddering with bliss to find Justine looking down at her having taken the lead in the payback.

  Justine shook her head slowly as she mapped her face with her fingers. “You’re incredible.”

  Smiling on an exhale, Aimee tangled her fingers in thick dark locks. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

  Justine smiled and kissed her. Resting her head on Aimee’s forehead, she sighed heavily. “Where did you come from?”

  “I’ve been here the whole time.”

  Justine pulled back a little to search Aimee’s eyes. “I suppose you have.”

  Cupping Justine’s cheek, watching as the woman turned her head to kiss her palm, she said in a moment of rare vulnerability, “I’m glad you found me.”

  Justine nodded. “Me too.”

  Aimee smiled and pecked her on the lips. “If this is why you were waiting for me, I’m not complaining.”

  Smiling back, Justine shook her head. “Actually, I need you to escort me around the property to get some stock footage this afternoon. Apparently, I’m not allowed to wander off on my own.”

  “So this was incentive?”

  Shaking her head and caressing Aimee’s cheek with a soft hand, Justine sighed. “No. This was everything I’ve ever dreamed of.”

  “Cheesy.”

  “Shut up,” Justine whispered, bringing her mouth back down to Aimee’s and initiating another round of love-making.

  ***

  Sally sat down for a cup of tea after Miss Gerhardt called to say Caroline had completed their studies for the day, and could she take her to the dam for a swim. With the unexpected free time, she pulled her tablet off the charger and sat down to read the latest gossip from the online magazine she had downloaded last week.

  With a heavy, pleasurable sigh, Sally lowered herself into the soft padding of the cane chair on the front verandah and felt the pressure release in her feet. Standing on a slate floor all day preparing Aimee’s special surprise made her feet ache. Thank goodness for the station cook they hired at this time of year who would be taking care of the meals for the shearers and farm hands. The film crew was eating up at the shearer’s quarters also, meaning she only had dinner to prepare for her family and Joey’s girls, yet still, that was at least ten people to cater for. Sally slumped into her chair at the idea of preparing that much food. Her feet needed a break. Spotting Aimee and Justine drive back into the quadrangle, Sally nibbled at her lip. Perhaps she needed to get the contestants involved in the kitchen. It was, after all, an important part of the day. In fact…

  “Justine!” she shouted, waving at the woman as she turned around. Holding up a hand in acknowledgement, she finished off her conversation with Aimee and walked over.

  “Afternoon.”

  Sally smiled. “Fancy a cup of tea,” she said, gesturing to the steaming pot on the coffee table.

  “You sure?” Justine noticed the tablet and reading glasses perched on Sally’s nose.

  “Absolutely.”

  “Well then, I’d love one.”

  “So I see you found Aimee,” Sally said after pouring Justine a cup of Earl Grey.

  Justine cleared her throat and looked over to where Aimee was disappearing into the stables. “Ah, yeah. Yeah, I did. Thanks.”

  “And she didn’t mind helping you out.”

  “Ah…no. Not at all.” Justine took a sip of her tea.

  Justine’s face looked flushed.

  “You okay?” Sally asked.

  “Yeah. Good as ever. You?”

  Sally blinked a little. “I’m fine.”

  “Good,” Justine said with a nod and another sip of tea. “That’s good.”

  A little bewildered by Justine’s odd behaviour, Sally tried to change the subject. “How did the girls do this morning?” Justine looked like she relaxed a little.

  “Wonderful. No one was bitten by anything and Amber sheared a sheep without nicking its skin.”

  Sally cocked her head with surprise. “Wow. I’m impressed.”

  “So was Aimee.”

  Sally raised an eyebrow. “Aimee?” Surely the woman meant Joey? “Aimee was there?”

  Justine tucked a strand of curly brown hair from her face. She had stopped wearing it in a tight bun and had spent the past few days tying it back with an elastic hair tie. It softened her face significantly, and she looked nothing like the dragon Aimee claimed her to be. “Ah, no. I told her about it when she drove me around the property.” Justine cleared her throat again. “To be fair, it took a bit to translate Aimee’s
praise, because honestly, I thought she was being her usual charming self when she said ‘good to hear it didn’t bleed to death for once.’”

  Sally chuckled. “Sounds like Aimee. Typical backhanded compliment.”

  Justine laughed softly and said, “Yeah.”

  Sally went on immediate alert at the almost breathless and reminiscent way that word sounded. Surely this woman wasn’t fond of Aimee? They looked more likely to duel with pistols at dawn than make anything representing friendship, but Sally filed that look and that softly spoken word away for future reference. “Now, I asked you over here to ask you a question, if that’s okay?”

  “Fire away.”

  “Well, an important part of running the station is the behind-the-scenes work. It’s not just shearing and dipping and fencing and cropping and ag sales and so on. There’s a lot of mouths to feed, supplies to manage, and the book work is horrendous.”

  “You want the women to do your accounting?”

  Sally tipped her head back and laughed. “Oh, dear, how I wish.”

  Justine shrugged through her chuckles. “Amber is an accountant.”

  Sally cut off mid-laugh. “Seriously?”

  Justine nodded. “Seriously. She’s currently unemployed, though, as she’s back at uni studying nursing.”

  Sally’s jaw dropped. Well, there you go. Sally made a mental note to tell Aimee about her and perhaps she could stop thinking of them as air heads. Shaking her head, Sally got back on track. “What I was going to suggest, is that they could help out in the kitchen. I usually cook for my lot and Joey and Aimee, but with the girls and yourself, there’s more to do.”

  Justine nodded. “That’s a good idea. You know, I don’t mind helping out. In fact, I’d like to. Aimee keeps grumbling on about us being freeloaders, so I’m happy to pitch in if it means shutting her up.”

  Sally laughed again. “Good luck with that. My sister is an eternal pessimist. She’ll find something else to whinge about, trust me.”

  “I don’t doubt that.”

  Laughing softly to themselves, they looked up in unison to see Aimee, guiding Kite from the stables and back into the paddock.

  While Justine continued to watch her sister, Sally stood. “Come on, if you’re serious about helping, I could use a hand.”

  “Sure,” Justine said, standing.

  Sally walked off, assuming Justine was trailing her. When she opened the door, however, she turned to find Justine still over at the outdoor setting staring at Aimee’s back. “Coming?” she called out, smirking when the woman jolted from her reverie with a blushing face. There’s definitely something going on there, she thought to herself. Shifting her eyes to Aimee, she wondered if this interest went both ways.

  ***

  “You know, I was rather concerned for your safety yesterday,” Sally said to Justine in the kitchen a short while later. “We didn’t know where you were after Aimee brought you back to the homestead.”

  “Oh…I was just…reading.”

  “We checked your room.”

  “I went for a walk. Lost track of time.”

  Sally put down the tray she was holding. Bloody city folk had no idea how seriously life was balanced out here. Relieved that the woman had been stupid rather than topped off by her sister, Sally said, “While I get the need for privacy, and hell, the need to have a break after dealing with Aimee, it’s important out here that people know where you are. Trust me, the alternative is unpleasant.”

  “Alternative?”

  “We’ve had people go missing out here before. Make sure someone knows where you are, okay?”

  Justine nodded. “Will do.” Justine bit her lip and looked at the potato in her hand.

  “Especially this time of year,” Sally mumbled to herself.

  “This time of year?” Justine frowned at her.

  I said that out loud? Sally was prevented from answering when Robbie burst into the kitchen at lightning pace again. “For God’s sake, Robbie!”

  “Sorry, Mum,” he said, shrinking his head into his shoulders. “Here’s the icing sugar. Can I have my drink now?”

  “As soon as you tell me why it took you two hours to fetch this,” Sally said, holding up the bag of fine sugar.

  “I went to the dam with Rolly and Miss Gerhardt.”

  Clucking her tongue, she said, “Righto. Go get your drink. And thank you!” she called out as the boy bolted the moment she said ‘go.’

  Sally revealed the cake tin beneath a tea towel, Justine said, “A cake? What’s the occasion?”

  “Aimee turned twenty-four yesterday.”

  “Yesterday? Why didn’t she have her cake then?”

  Sally was quiet for a while and Justine watched her collect bowls from the cupboards. “Yesterday is a little emotional. It was the anniversary of our parents’ death.”

  Justine blinked. “Oh. I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

  “I hardly expected you to, but as you could imagine, it’s hard on Aimee, so we have her birthday today instead. That’s what the bath thing is all about.”

  Silence filled the kitchen as Sally prepared the icing for the cake and lost herself in memories.

  “Can I ask what happened? Joey said in his interview that they were in a plane crash?” Justine said.

  Sally let out a long sigh. “Yeah. It belonged to a family that decided to do the country change thing before it was popular. They flew in one day after getting some work on the station, and a few days later, the mum and kid went missing out in the ranges. Went for a walk to look for flowers. We all looked for them, but with no sign. The guy, who had been servicing his plane, fixed it and suggested they fly around and cover more territory. You can imagine he was beside himself, so his attention to detail was lacking.” Sally fiddled with the measuring spoons. “Aimee begged mum and dad to go with them, stating it was her birthday, so it was her right to go. Dad wasn’t having it and they had a little tiff. He laid down the law and she was devastated. She took off to her special place and we didn’t see her for a few days.”

  “A few days?”

  “Yeah. Joey was supposed to be looking after her, but he went out on horseback to continue searching. He found the mum and kid up near the stock route. They were exhausted but fine, but when we couldn’t contact our parents or the dad to tell them, we got worried. That’s also when we realised Aimee had gone missing.” Sally hesitated but continued her story. “The plane had a loose hose, so the report found, and came down out by the old ruins. That’s where the wreckage was found late that night.”

  “The graves,” Justine said, obviously recalling the ones Aimee and Robbie had placed flowers on.

  “Aimee was nowhere to be found, and Joey and I were frantic. We just lost our parents and we had lost Aimee too.” Sally wiped a tear from her eyes. “We found Aimee curled up inside the ruins a few days later.”

  Justine gasped. “Her special place.”

  Sally’s eyes narrowed wondering how the city woman knew that. Thinking that Aimee must have mentioned it, she let it slide. “Exactly. She saw the accident.”

  “Oh, my God.”

  Sally kept her eyes on her mixing bowl. “She does the water run on her birthday every year because she likes to go to the ruins and visit mum’s and dad’s grave.” Lowering her eyes to the bench, she said, “Aimee refused to come inside the house after we found her because mum and dad were no longer here. It took a long time before she was ready to come inside again.”

  “It sounds like she is lucky to have a brother and sister like you and Joey.”

  Sally gave her a sad smile before looking away. Rubbing her fingers across the bench to wipe away non-existent dust, Sally said, “It took a lot of patience and love for her to work through her grief. It wasn’t an easy time, but we did everything we could to help her; however, the station never stops. No matter how much the loss hurt, we had to keep on top of this place. Joey had to take on more and more responsibility as our grandparents began to look towards ret
irement, so I took on the role of Aimee’s minder, but in time, I started my own family. She’s strong though. So strong. I don’t think I could have worked through it the way she did. Years of nightmares and counselling and—” Sally looked up to see Justine’s hand over her mouth and stiffened when she saw Aimee over Justine’s shoulder. “Shit,” Sally muttered, bracing for her sister’s reaction.

  Justine quickly swung around, dislodging the tears in her eyes. “Aimee?”

  Aimee stood stone still with her eyes on Justine.

  Sally was terrified of her response knowing full well that she didn’t like her personal life being discussed, and had a feeling she might need to throw her body in the line of fire. Tensing to defend herself and Justine, she let her head jerk back on her neck as Aimee’s eyes, sometimes the only feature she expressed herself from, softened. What the hell?

  Sally glanced at Justine. She looked teary and like she wanted to hug her sister. Hello, Sally thought.

  Clearing her throat, Aimee said, “I have a little tradition for my birthday. You can join me if you like?”

  “Oh?” Justine said, cocking her head.

  “Aimee!” Sally gasped as understanding dawned on her. “Don’t you dare!”

  With a cheeky smirk, Aimee held out her hand. Justine took it tentatively clearly unsure of the protocol in front of Aimee’s family. “It’s fine, Sal. If it all goes pear-shaped, I’ll just dump the evidence down the old well.”

  Thrown by her sister initiating personal contact, Sally was left standing alone in the kitchen. Coming to, she swore under her breath and ran off to look for Joey.

  ***

  “So…do I want to know what this tradition is?” Justine asked.

  “Nope.” Aimee smiled and squeezed Justine’s hand when she groaned. “Let’s just say it’s something Joey showed me on my tenth birthday. Are you afraid of heights?”

  “Ah…they’re not my favourite thing, but I manage. Why?”

  Walking into the machinery shed, they turned a few heads when they saw the two sparring women hand in hand.

  “Ah…you okay there, Aims?” Gav asked.