Free Their Newborn Gift by Nikki Logan Page B

it out into the bush. Noisy, twenty-first century, overkill. The quiet communion of her horse would do fine.
    Of course on a property the size of Reilly’s that was probably an unmanageable luxury. Lea wondered if he surveyed his vast lands by low-flying helicopter. She was very conscious that he’d been driving on his own land for at least a third of the three-hour drive here this morning.
    She snuck a sideways glance at him. If she’d been thinking straight all those years ago, she never would have chosen Reilly to walk out of the bar with. In the sparsely populated Kimberley, the Martins were virtually neighbours, even though they lived three and a half hours away. Celebrity near-neighbours too. Everyone knew of them, while they knew almost nobody. But he was Reilly Martin. Exactly the sort of man someone in self-destruct mode would be drawn to.
    Passionate. Hard. Casual.
    She’d been a gonner the moment she walked into the pub and had seen him and his mates propping up the bar, his champion’s trophy amongst the discarded empties littering the bar top. She’d desperately needed to connect with someone in her grief, and he had been all too ready to connect with what he’d assumed was a willing out-of-towner.
    While half the district knew Leanne Curran by reputation, less than a handful had actually met her. Only her grandfather knew her as Lea.
    Grandad and now Reilly.
    She’d relied on that anonymity and had doubled her efforts to lay low after she’d discovered she was pregnant. Molly was the gift she’d never realised she longed for. The healing she’d never thought she deserved. It had taken her a year to get over the anxious fear that Reilly would somehow learn of the unexpected pregnancy, piece together all her ramblings the night they had made love and track her to her doorstep, demanding answers. Demanding his daughter. Funny how things worked out.
    Different circumstances, but eerily similar results.
    Fifteen minutes later they had saddled up and were walking clear of the yards. Reilly was just about to swing up onto Pan when he paused and looked at Lea. ‘Do you…Are you all right to mount?’
    Lea stared. ‘I’ve been riding my whole life.’
    ‘Is it safe?’
    Oh. Dawn was slow in coming. He was worried for his investment. His child. A thousand snappish replies crossed her mind,but she refused to be played. She hoisted herself effortlessly onto Goff’s back, met Reilly’s cool eyes and matched them.
    ‘It’s safe. Let’s go.’
    ‘Not that one,’ Lea said, pointing to the alpha male. Then she picked out the alpha female from the grazing herd, the one he’d just had his eye on. ‘Or that one. Their loss would cripple the mob.’
    ‘Understood,’ Reilly said. ‘Shame, though. They’re both spectacular.’
    They stood flank to flank, both appreciating the beauty of the scene before them. The brumbies picked at the dry grasses while their alpha stood guard.
    Reilly moved Pan up and down, scanning the distant cluster of horses. Then he turned to Lea. ‘Can you get them running? I want to see their conformation.’
    She didn’t hesitate; she squeezed Goff with her knees and set off towards the mob. Just loping in their direction was sufficient; the alphas turned and struck off across the clearing, drawing the rest of the mob behind them. It was hardly a stampede, more precautionary than panicked, so Lea was able to swing around the bottom of the group and turn them back the other way. They obliged and made a course straight across Reilly’s line of sight.
    He should have been watching the horses, but he suddenly found himself thinking of ancient centaurs. Lea moved so fluidly with her mount it was as if they were joined at the pelvis. In return, her horse barely knew she was on his back; he was just happy running wild with the mob. Joy radiated off both of them.
    There was something about a woman on horseback.
    He tensed. Just not this one. The woman who’d kept his child from him.
    He