Aussie Rules Read online

  Pathetic.

  She moved away, into the lobby and into her office, where she settled in to the stacks of bills and files she needed to work on.

  One of these days you’re going to eat those words…

  He believed in his cause, with his whole heart. It was even more disturbing than the fact he’d turned her upside down and upside right, not to mention on.

  And for the first time, she wasn’t sure she was doing the right thing. Wasn’t sure of anything at all.

  God, she hated that.

  Chapter 8

  Dimi had a tradition when it came to entering the bookkeeping information for North Beach. The first half of the month, she sat at her desk and pretended to work while she actually read a book. The second half of the month she raced to catch up.

  Unfortunately, it was the second half of the month. Even more unfortunately, she was in the middle of a good book. But she needed to get on top of things before Mel crawled up her ass about it, wanting to see the accounting printouts.

  First she sorted the mail into piles, then opened her stacks and sent each to the correct in-box. Then she went through Mel’s mail, which was how she found herself staring down at a letter that read nothing more than:

  Leave. It. Alone.

  Dimi grabbed the envelope it’d come in. The postal stamp was dated five days ago, the place it’d come from so smeared she couldn’t read it.

  At that moment, Bo happened to walk by, heading toward the tarmac. He took one look at her face and stopped. “Dimi?”

  Clearly she had her feelings all over her face, which she changed into a scowl to reflect her feelings for him. “What do you want?”

  “You okay?”

  “I’d be better if you were back in Australia.”

  With a sigh, he began walking again, and when he was gone, she picked up the phone to dial Mel’s office. “You’ve got a letter here you’re going to want to see.”

  One minute later they were both staring down at the plain white piece of paper with the plain Courier 12-point computer font.

  “Matches that e-mail I received,” Mel finally said. “Friendly, huh?”

  “You do have a way with people.”

  “I try.”

  They stared at the letter some more.

  “Bo?” Dimi asked.

  Mel shook her head. “No, he wants the opposite of leaving it alone.”

  They were silent another minute, then Dimi shook her head. “Not Sally—”

  “She’d call,” Mel agreed.

  But why hadn’t she?

  “Hell,” Mel said heavily, and took the envelope and note with her, vanishing back into her office.

  Dimi went to work entering the receivables. Not exactly rewarding work. In fact, she could have saved Mel the trouble of reading all these worksheets and simply told her it was same as always—that is, shaky—but she never had the heart to break Mel’s.

  Mel, who tried so hard to keep them all together, Mel for whom this place meant everything, Mel who kept Dimi on the straight-and-narrow path.

  Mostly.

  Dimi thought about her little transgression with Previously Gorgeous Guy, and sighed. So she still made the occasional bad decision. Sue her. A leopard couldn’t change its stripes. Or spots. Or whatever it was.

  Bottom line, she wasn’t perfect.

  And neither, she thought, as she watched the pretty flickering vanilla candle on the corner of her desk, was Mel. Mel could have, should have, kicked Bo’s excellent ass for touching her. But she hadn’t.

  Interesting. And telling.

  Dimi could see Bo on the tarmac now, looking over an aircraft that belonged to a customer he’d brought in. Since he’d gotten here, he’d been bringing people, helping customers, booking them charter flights…generally upping their business without effort.

  Damn, he was good. Bastard.

  A mug was set down on the desk before her, and then a lemon muffin—her favorite. She looked up.

  “You were talking to yourself,” Danny said. “Maybe sugar and caffeine will help.”

  It wasn’t often she felt self-conscious with men, or revisited past actions, but ever since Danny had had to intervene with that idiot, she’d had a hard time looking him in the eye.

  It wasn’t as if he’d said a word about it, either. In fact, Danny was a man of very few words, but she felt off her footing nonetheless. “Thanks.”

  Perching a hip against her desk, he sipped at his own mug. He wore another baseball cap today, on backward, his blond surfer-dude hair brushing his shoulders, which were encased in his mechanic’s overalls. The sleeves were shoved up, revealing corded strength in his forearms from all the heavy lifting and work he did. On his left wrist were two black leather bands. He had clean hands for a mechanic. Work roughened, but clean.

  “You okay?” he asked quietly, bringing her gaze up to his.

  They’d been friends forever, but this was something she couldn’t talk to him about. “Are you kidding?” She busied herself with the paperwork spread before her. “I’m fantastic.”

  “Yeah.” He shook his head. “Don’t you ever get tired of lying through those pretty teeth of yours?”

  She went still but refused to look at him, instead started hitting keys on her computer, which brought the screen to life. Unfortunately the last thing she’d been doing was playing Solitaire, and it started beeping at her, and she got herself good and flustered before she managed to lower the volume. “Maybe I am always fantastic.”

  “Uh-huh, and I’d buy it off your looks alone,” he agreed. “But I’m not much an exterior kind of guy.”

  Again she lifted her head and found her eyes locked on his dark, melting ones. “What does that mean?”

  “It means I’m more interested in what you have going on in here.” Reaching out, he touched her temple. “And here.” Shocking her with his nerve, he tapped her chest, just above her left breast.

  She caught his hand and pushed it away. “Don’t.”

  “Don’t what?”

  Don’t…hell, she didn’t know, but her heart was doing some funny, jumping thing, and she stood up. “Look, I’m really busy here.”

  “Right.” A single nudge of his finger and the file covering her book fell to the side. The cover revealed a guy wearing a loincloth with a woman on her knees in front of him in a ragged ball gown.

  Dimi’s dirty little secret—exposed. She devoured historical romance novels, the sexier the better. As for why…Well, it didn’t take a shrink to figure that out. She knew exactly what drew her, and it wasn’t just the fabulous, amazing, jaw-dropping sex—but the happily ever after.

  But so what? Everyone was entitled to their occasional vice.

  Or three.

  Danny cocked his head. “Interesting work.”

  She shoved the book in the drawer. “Listen, if you don’t have something you need done, beat it.”

  “Oh, I need something done.”

  She felt herself flinch at the sexual innuendo, and faced him, jaw jumping, head high, eyes oddly burning because this was Danny, and she’d not expected it of him. “Look, just because I slept with that idiot,” she said tightly, “and just because I read romance, does not mean I’m easy—”

  “Whoa.” His smile faded as he rose to his feet. “I don’t think that. I’ve never thought that.”

  Her heart was still pounding, her eyes hot with embarrassment. She didn’t want to do this. God, she didn’t. In fact, she needed a drink. Now. “Go away, Danny. Just go.”

  He stared at her for a long beat before letting out a jagged, frustrated breath.

  “Please.”

  Clearly unhappy about it, he turned away.

  Dimi let out a sigh of relief, but it backed up in her throat when he suddenly pivoted back, hunkering down at her side so that she had no choice but to look right at him.

  “What?” she asked with the haughty tone that had sent lesser men running.

  “You’re keeping a dangerous pace,