When Dr. Sally Blake is hired to take Dr. Luke Forrester into the Outback to conduct medical trials, Luke falls hard for the gorgeous, wild and feisty woman who breaks all the rules and they find themselves caught up in a love affair as tempestuous and dangerous as the Outback itself. But Sally and Luke's lives are poles apart and when Sally learns he's bought her family's company, including her precious plane, she's fighting mad!
Publisher: New Concepts Publishing
www.newconceptspublishing.com/outbackaffair.htm
"Are you crazy? You could have killed us!" Luke swore savagely as Sally expertly adjusted the small plane so it was now flying level.
She glanced at Luke whose face was as white as a sheet and was instantly remorseful. "I'm sorry, Luke. I forgot about your flying phobia," she said, with real regret in her voice.
"Goddamn it, Sally. This has nothing to do with any phobia. Why the hell did you suddenly duck down and buzz that guy?"
"That's Todd Ramsay. He lives on the station next to ours. I always buzz him when I fly into Alice."
"Well, it's bloody irresponsible. What if you'd lost control? We'd be dead meat now." Luke kept up the angry tirade, although Sally saw that his hands were shaking. I've done it this time, she thought.
"Perhaps I should remind you that at the moment I'm paying your salary and I want you to promise you will never do anything like that again," he continued.
"I have apologised." Sally decided that his tongue-lashing had gone on long enough.
Luke sighed and turned to look out of the window. They were nearing Alice Springs airport and passing low over a range of hills on the edge of the town. The earth was a deep, rich red in colour and to Luke it looked as if they were landing on Mars rather than the busy tourist town of Alice Springs in the heart of Australia.
I may as well come from another planet for all I understand of the people here, he decided. Or rather, one person -- Sally Blake. He shuddered. One moment they'd been cruising comfortably at a reasonable altitude with a hundred kilometres to go before landing and the next moment they were crashing to earth with Sally whooping and yelling at some young station hand driving a tractor across a paddock. Luke could have sworn they were only a few metres from the ground before Sally pulled the plane up. Hells Bells! If she wasn't sitting in the pilot's seat he would have willingly throttle her right there and then he was so angry.
"You can't say you don't have a bit of excitement, Luke." Sally tried to lighten the atmosphere as she landed the plane and taxied along the runway to stop outside the terminal.
Cutting the engines, she looked across at Luke. He was still pale and his sensual mouth had tightened into an uncompromising thin line.
"I am sorry," she whispered, with a remorseful little smile.
"I could strangle you," he replied, just as softly.
"Wait until we get to the homestead, then you can," she said. "I'd like to die in my own bed."
"I don't know that I will be able to keep my hands off you for that long."
The statement hung in the air between them as their eyes locked and both knew that a different meaning lay behind those casual words.
Sally's mind whirled. Luke's eyes had been nothing short of sexually lustful and she knew her look had reflected the same. What was happening to her?
Rescuing her four-wheel-drive from its car park next to the terminal, she helped Luke load the cases and equipment, neither of them speaking.
Of course, she shouldn't have buzzed Todd but it had been sheer habit. She always buzzed Todd and his dad. She had grown up with them. They were mates. Just like she would often buzz old Albie Weingenein, if she saw him. The Aboriginal tracker was her best mate and had taught her everything she knew about surviving in the Outback and the complex cultures of the indigenous peoples. Why shouldn't she acknowledge them, for heaven's sake?
Still -- she had rattled Luke and was annoyed that she had been so thoughtless.
They travelled in silence as Sally drove along the well-worn track to her home of twenty--nine years.
They were a kilometre from the homestead when Luke said "I don't wish to alarm you but there's a wild horse thundering up behind us. He appears to be giving chase."
Sally glanced behind and then laughed in delight. "That's my horse, Ruby. She must have known I'd be back and has been waiting."
She stopped the vehicle, getting out to greet the magnificent chestnut animal, which quivered with excitement at seeing her mistress. "G'day, Ruby darlin'. I'm home at last," Sally cooed, as she hugged Ruby's neck and the horse nuzzled her.
Luke watched this show of mutual affection in awe as another side of Sally's character opened to him. The horse obviously trusted and adored her and he felt he was witnessing something very special.
"Luke, will you follow me?" she asked, not waiting for a reply as she grasped Ruby's mane and jumped on to her back. Ruby reared and took off at a full gallop along the track with Sally riding with the skill of a person born to ride.
Luke swore loudly as he moved into the driver's seat and took off after Sally and her wild companion. What was it with this woman, he thought as he followed them from the road and along a driveway leading to the homestead.
Sally was waiting for him as he stopped in front of an imposing and gracious single storey house. Getting out, he reached up grabbing Sally's leg and pulling her into his arms with a thud while Ruby shied away.
"Have you got a death wish, you stupid woman?"
"What?"
"Riding like some sort of lunatic with no protective headgear. You're a doctor, for God's sake and should know better. You could have been killed."
Sally struggled, conscious of her body pressed close to him as his arms relentlessly held her. His face looked shocked and angry and she was so near she could see a tiny white scar on his cheekbone. Blue eyes glittered into hers.
"Let go of me, you bloody nong," she yelled, trying to push him away. "Don't tell me you've got a phobia about horses as well?"
Luke let go of her arms and Sally tried to step back. But instead his hands cupped her face, his thumbs running over her flushed cheeks and stubborn jaw. His eyes were intent on her petulant mouth as his lips hovered above hers.
"The only phobia I have relates to people doing crazy things likely to kill, or at the least, badly injure themselves." Luke spoke quietly now, trying to get the message across to this extraordinary woman.
"I care about you, Sally. That's how my parents raised me and that's what my training as a doctor has taught me and I'm sure has taught you. Within the space of an hour you have twice put your life in danger, not counting that of myself. In two weeks time you're going to be my guide in one of the remotest lands on earth. I will be relying on you. I need to trust you and at the moment following your irresponsible behaviour, I don't feel that I can."
He stopped as Sally pushed her hands against his chest, breaking the contact between them.
"You know your trouble, Luke?" she said, trying to appear nonchalant as his biting words sunk in.
"No. Tell me."
"You've got no sense of humour."
Luke hesitated and then burst out laughing, pushing his hands in the pockets of his khaki shorts as he surveyed the blonde bombshell before him, red dust covering her clothes and dirt smeared along one cheek. Boy! He had been so close to shutting that sassy mouth with his own a moment ago. It would have been interesting to see how she would have coped with that.