Free Australian Outback Kings / The Cattle King's Mistress / The Playboy King's Wife / The Pleasure King's Bride by Emma Darcy

into her bloodstream, imparting an indelible sense of joining that wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true.
    â€œAs for what I thought of you…I’m glad I was wrong. And I apologise for that, too. Believe me now…you are safe with me, Miranda. Okay?”
    She nodded, too choked by a tumult of emotion to do anything else. He released her and began repacking his bag. Miranda concentrated hard on finishing with hers.
    Her mind thrummed with the knowledge that she didn’t feel safe with Nathan King and never would. He was more than Bobby Hewson. Much more. And even if he left her alone, as he promised, she would not stop being acutely aware of him and the power he had to reach into her.
    Neither of them said anything throughout the hours it took to journey back to the resort. There was no touching, physical or verbal. Miranda did her utmost to block him out of her personal space but he kept infiltrating it just by the sheer force of his presence.
    For all her practised professionalism, she found herself hopelessly tongue-tied when she finally had to face him on the helipad at King’s Eden. She forced her gaze to meet his and almost flinched at the intense blue of his eyes as they probed hers.
    â€œThank you,” she blurted out, barely stopping herself from backing away from him.
    â€œMiranda, I have nothing to do with the resort and Tommy would certainly not welcome any interference from me in his business,” he stated emphatically. “It’s entirely up to you to make good your position here.”
    She nodded, her throat too constricted to speak.
    â€œYou want time to feel settled into your job…fine!” he went on. “But I don’t see myself forgetting what there is between us. And I don’t think you will, either.”
    She did not answer, feeling the threat to her peace of mind and not knowing what to do about it.
    â€œI’ll see you again sometime,” he added, and took his leave of her.
    She watched him get into his Jeep and drive away. Only when he was out of sight did she begin to breathe easily. Two years at King’s Eden, she thought. Of course she would see him again…sometime. And what then?
    What then?

CHAPTER EIGHT
    I T WAS GOOD to see Jared again. Nathan reflected that he always had enjoyed his youngest brother’s company. Tommy had a competitive streak, wanting to score points on everything, while Jared was simply content to be himself, not in contest with either brother. Maybe it was because he’d moved himself into their mother’s world, away from King’s Eden. Or maybe it was simply his nature.
    They sat in the breakfast room, idling over morning tea, Jared and their mother relaxing after their flight from Broome, Nathan catching up on their recent activities. Tommy would fly in this afternoon and would inevitably draw Jared’s attention to himself, but for the moment, it was very pleasant listening to his youngest brother’s plans to extend the pearl business from wholesale into retail, as well.
    â€œSo how goes it with you, Nathan?” he asked, the conversation having lulled after he and their mother had filled him in on their news.
    â€œOh, nothing really changes here,” he drawled, except he only had half his mind concentrated on station business. Miranda Wade occupied the other half, but he wasn’t about to lay out that very private issue.
    In fact, he was thinking this family get-together on the station—the first this year—may very well provide the opportunity to get him close to Miranda again, in a non-threatening social situation, which would surely ease her fears.
    â€œMum tells me we have a new manager at the resort,” Jared prompted. “A woman.”
    â€œYes.” A woman who haunted his nights and wouldn’t get out of his head even during the day.
    â€œSo how is she working out?”
    â€œI have no idea.” Which was really a lie. He’d