Unknown (15 page)

'Who says I haven't?'

'Your behaviour tonight.'

'I told you, she invited me in.' She cringed as Rick repeated the half-truth. Then she gasped as she saw Rick take up a fighting stance in front of Ben.

Ben reacted swiftly. 'Don't be an idiot. I can take you any time. Drunk, you don't stand a chance.'

'I'm not drunk,' Rick mumbled, but he backed away. Ben followed him and he lifted his hands. 'Don't hit me.'

'It's tempting,' Ben affirmed. 'By heaven, if I hadn't promised Dad, you'd be walking off this land for good.'

Rick straightened but still took a pace backwards. 'But you did promise, didn't you? If it had been me, I'd have stuck with the will and forgotten all about any deathbed promises. Now you're stuck with it.'

Ben's hands curled into fists and she heard him breathing hard as he fought/or control. 'Don't bet on it, pal,' he ground out. Shouldering a stunned Rick out of his way, he stalked back into the house.

Feeling sick, she backed away from the window. Despite Ben's' injunction that she stay out of it, she couldn't go to sleep and leave things as they were. She had to talk to him.

He was in the kitchen, filling the kettle with water, when she came in. 'I thought you were going to bed,' he said without turning around.

At least he hadn't ordered her away, she thought with a rush of relief. 'How did you know it was me?' she asked.

'The aborigines taught me how to identify people by their tread. Besides, neither Rick nor Jessie wears Louis Feraud perfume.'

His words were teasing but his tone was devoid of humour. She had heard that tone before, in firefighters when they came home from fighting a bushfire which had finally beaten them and gone on to devour thousands of acres of scrub.

. 'Rick lied, you know,' she said softly but with an edge of determination in her voice.

He plugged in the kettle and spooned coffee into a mug. 'I know.'

She stared at his slumped shoulders. 'You know? Then what was that performance all about just now?'

He turned around. In the harsh electric light, his eyes were ringed with violet shadows. He looked exhausted. 'I meant I know Rick wasn't entirely blameless. That's why I'd rather talk in the morning, when he's had time to sober up.'

'When he'll conveniently have forgotten everything, you mean,' she challenged him.

He massaged his eyes with one hand then dropped the hand and looked straight at her. 'What do you want from me, Keri? An admission that I didn't see what I saw just now?'

'No, I want you to leave some room for doubt, that's all.'

He unhooked a second mug from its wooden rack. 'Want some?'

'Yes, please, very weak.' She didn't really want to drink coffee at this hour, but neither did she want to leave Ben until they had straightened this out.

She waited in silence until he had made the coffee then followed him into the living-room where he set the mugs down on a low table. Outside, all was black and still, the silence broken by the chirrup of cicadas and the occasional shrill cry of a curlew. Faintly, as the wind changed, she heard the rhythmic clicking of singing sticks and chanting as the aborigines entertained themselves in traditional fashion. The sound arose and vanished with the wind movements, making it sound ghostly. A chill rippled along her spine.

Ben caught the slight movement. 'Are you cold?'

'No, I'm fine.' The night was balmy and warm, the wind a whisper of coolness which she welcomed after the day's hot breath. 'Did you know that Rick blames the Champion family for the death of his mother?'

'Our mother,' Ben corrected, cradling his hands around his coffee mug. 'Yes, I know. What does that have to do with anything?'

She swung around, resting her hands on the back of an armchair. 'Don't you see, that's why he would sacrifice Casuarina, and why he's so keen to come between you and me.'

'I thought I was the one coming between you and him,' Ben observed with faint irony.

'You don't have to, because Rick doesn't care about me,' she said. 'He just wants to even the score between the two of you.'

Ben raked his hands through his hair. 'Do you think I don't know what drives him? He's easy to understand, and if it wasn't for Dad's wishes, I know how I'd settle it: You're the one I don't understand. You seem to understand Rick well enough, but still you keep coming back for more.'

Something snapped inside her. 'For God's sake, Ben, there's only one reason I keep coming back for more and it isn't Rick. He can't bear to see you happy, so he's out to destroy our love as well.'

She stopped, aware that she had revealed far more than she intended to. Ben was staring at her intently. 'What love, Keri? Answer me.'

'The love he thinks we have for each other,' she said weakly.

'That wasn't what you meant, though, was it? The love you meant is real, isn't it?'

'Yes,' she whispered. God help her, it was real, and he had seen it in the transparent moment when she had lost control of her emotions. Somehow, despite her vow to remain at arm's length from Ben, he had managed to get in under her guard. And now he knew it too.

He crossed the room in swift strides and gathered her into his arms. His tiredness had vanished in a second, and his grasp of her shoulders was strong and irresistible. She melted into the embrace willingly, knowing there was no point in hiding her feelings from him any longer, or from herself for that matter.

His mouth crushed hers, hot and seeking, and she yielded to its demands, becoming so much clay in his hands. She felt herself shaped and moulded to his heart's desire, even as he fused into the shape of her dream lover. 'God, Keri, why didn't you tell me?' he said, his lips moving provocatively against her mouth.

'I didn't even tell myself,' she confessed. 'I was so angry I didn't know what I was saying.'

'So the truth will out,' he noted. 'Is it the truth? Was it me all along, and not Rick?'

'Yes,' she agreed, 'it was always you.'

He would have known even if she hadn't confessed, because she was telling him with every movement of her body against his. How could there be secrets between them when their bodies were such terrible liars?

With one hand, he held her against him while the other strayed across her shoulder, pushing her robe aside so that he could kiss the inviting hollows of her throat. She heard a soft moan and realised that it came from her own throat. She twined her fingers into his hair, bringing his head down so that he could leave a trail of kisses across her shoulders. When he nuzzled her robe aside and found her right breast, she drew a strangled breath, instinctively moving her hips against him.

His teeth grazed her sensitive nipple and warmth flooded through her. She pressed his head closer and kissed the top of it joyfully. How could she have denied herself this moment in case it led to more pain?

He trailed kisses across her chest, pushing her robe aside with his head
so that he could kiss her other breast. All of a sudden she became
aware of a change in him, as if someone had poured icy water over their passion.

'Ben, what is it?' she asked, confused. He lifted his head and looked at her with such naked pain in his eyes that she was shaken. 'What's the matter?' she repeated.

'Go to bed. Don't argue, just go,' he ordered in a harsh undertone.

What had she done? Scalding tears of hurt and confusion sprang to her eyes but she refused to give way to them until she knew why she was being dismissed so cruelly. One minute everything had been wonderful between them, the next, he refused to look at her or explain what was the matter.

He remained immovable, keeping his back to her and ignoring her pleas, until in despair she fled back to her room.

Once there, she stood shaking, unable to believe what had happened. Something had turned Ben against her, but what?

Searching for an answer, she turned to the cheval mirror, as if her reflection could provide a clue.' Then her hands went to her breasts and she slid the robe off her shoulders, finally seeing what Ben had seen—the heart-shaped birthmark surrounding her left nipple, which Rick had taken such perverse pride in describing to Ben.

ROBYN was wheeling herself away from the breakfast-table when Keri walked into the dining- room next morning. Her eye flew unerringly to Ben's place at the head of the table, but the jumble of plates and cutlery there showed he had breakfasted some time ago.

Robyn intercepted the glance and shook her head, gesturing towards the windows to indicate that Ben was already out on the property. Keri didn't know whether to feel relieved or cheated. She could have tried to explain how Rick came to be so familiar with her body's distinguishing marks, but she wasn't sure Ben would listen, far less believe her.

Pensively, she poured orange juice into a glass and sat down with it, ignoring the bacon and scrambled eggs keeping hot on a sideboard. She had slept little last night and had no appetite this morning.

Robyn watched her in concern then wheeled herself to her keyboard. 'You OK?' she queried on the screen.

Keri forced a wan smile. 'I'm fine. I didn't sleep too well last night—the heat, I suppose.'

'Hope so,' Robyn sympathised through her keyboard.

Not wanting to alarm Robyn unduly, Keri made an effort to brighten up. 'What have you got planned for today? Want to help me visit Fang and Matilda?'

Robyn's head swung from side to side then she reached for her keyboard, 'Sorting paintings for Theo,' she explained.

Keri nodded, relieved that her friend would be occupied today. Still, she felt bound to offer, 'Would you like me to help you?'

'Later, with the packing,' Robyn supplied. 'Drop by the studio if you get lonely.'

'Thanks, I will,' Keri agreed. When Robyn had wheeled herself out, she shared a sardonic smile with her reflection in the polished tray covers. She was supposed to be protecting Robyn from undue stress, not depending on her for companionship.

She refilled her coffee-cup twice as she thought about last night. Despite how things looked, Ben had accepted her word that she hadn't encouraged Rick. But the sight of the birthmark had been the last straw. She should have told Ben how Rick came to know about it, then he wouldn't have jumped to the most obvious conclusion. She had put off telling him for fear he would think it was a new trick to interfere in Rick's marriage plans. She should have known her silence would look even more incriminating.

An explosive sigh escaped her tightly compressed lips. She was damned no matter what she did. Ben hadn't even listened to her bombshell that Rick and Theo planned to develop Casuarina. He would never do such a thing and couldn't conceive of anyone else who would—far less a Champion. Except that Rick wasn't a Champion.

She looked up as Jessie came bustling in. 'Finished your breakfast, dear?'

'Yes, thanks, I'm not very hungry,' she explained as the housekeeper cast a disapproving glance over her untouched place setting.

Jessie clucked her tongue. 'Funny, but Ben said the same thing. Is that what love does to you?'

She gathered up the dishes and returned to the kitchen with them, leaving Keri to look thoughtfully after her. Love didn't rob you of your appetite. The destruction of love was the real robber. If only she had stuck to her vow not to become involved with Ben again, she wouldn't have this sick, empty feeling inside her. The memory of being in his arms with his mouth hungrily seeking hers wouldn't taunt her now.

Restlessly, she pushed her chair back from the table. She couldn't do anything to assuage that emptiness now. It would be with her until time healed the worst of the hurt. But perhaps she could do something about Rick's plans.

Going into Ben's office, she closed the door behind her and picked up his telephone. Within minutes she was talking to an efficient-sounding secretary who put her through as soon as she identified herself.

'Keri, how nice of you to call,' came Theo's enthusiastic response.

'It's good to talk to you, too, Theo,' she said evenly. 'I trust you enjoyed your dinner at Kinga Downs.'

'It was a memorable evening,' he confirmed, then chuckled softly. 'I trust Ben Champion wasn't too put out by my unsubtle teasing?'

'A bit, but he soon got over it,' she said truthfully, thinking that Theo's efforts to make Ben jealous were all for nothing. 'I was calling about something else. Your plan to build a casino on Casuarina land.'

She waited for him to deny that he had any such plans, but he said, 'I take it Rick has explained the project to you.'

'He didn't explain anything. He gloated about what he was going to do,' she said miserably. 'Theo, how could you be a part of this? You saw Ben's egg- ranching project for yourself. A casino would destroy all the work he's put in on it.'

'Champion Holdings is vast. Surely he can move his crocodile farm elsewhere?'

Tiredly, she explained to Theo, as she had done to Rick, how long it would take to start the project again in a new location. 'To say nothing of the eggs and animals we'd lose during the trauma of the move,' she finished.

There was silence for a moment, then Theo said, 'I'm sorry, Keri, I didn't know my choice of this site would cause you such concern. I wish there was a way I could make it up to you.'

'There is. Tell Rick you can't back the development. Without your funds, he won't be able to go ahead alone.'

'It isn't that simple,' Theo explained. 'Unless I find a loophole in the paperwork, I have no grounds for pulling out. I'm sorry.'

It sounded as if he wasn't going to try. 'I see. Well thanks, Theo. Goodbye.'

She heard him start to add something more but she was already replacing the receiver on its cradle.

If she let him go on, he would only try to make her see why the development was the only way to go. Theo valued her good opinion, she knew, but she couldn't condone his activities this time. She wondered how Rick had managed to persuade him to be part of the project, when the Theo Strathopoulos she knew had always shown concern for the wilderness and its creatures. It was one of the things she liked about him. Used to like, she amended inwardly, feeling a surge of disappointment.