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Ben looked at her in confusion, his eyes dark with pain. 'But the cheque, the scene in your bedroom . . .'

'Tell him the truth, Rick,' she implored.

She half expected Rick to say that they were lovers, and ruin any chance for her and Ben, but to her astonishment he said, 'What's the use? I've had my fun watching you two destroy each other.'

'Then there's nothing between the two of you?'

'There never was, Ben,' she said quietly.

Ben took a step towards his half-brother. 'Get out of here before I kill you.' He sounded as if he meant it.

Rick looked alarmed, also sensing that Ben was serious. He raised his hands defensively. 'No need to get rough. I know when I'm not wanted. But I'll need some cash to set myself up somewhere else.'

'I'll make sure you have enough money to do what you want, Rick, as long as it's far away from here,' Ben agreed.

Any other man would have salvaged his pride and refused to accept Ben's money, but Rick wasn't a fool. 'I'll write and tell you where to send the cheques,' he said and went back to his car.

Ben waited until the noise of the car engine died away then turned to Keri. 'I'm sorry. This wasn't how you wanted it to turn out, was it?'

She felt the corners of her mouth twitch into the beginnings of a smile. 'It's exactly how I wanted things to turn out.'

'But Rick's gone. You heard him, he won't be back.'

She could hardly believe he still expected her to mourn Rick's departure. 'Good,' she said, putting satisfaction into her tone.

His eyes narrowed and a gleam lit them. 'Don't play games with me, Keri. I won't settle for being second best.'

She shook her head so that the golden curls cascaded in the air, flashing brightly where the sunlight caught the strands. 'You won't have to. You see, I've finally stopped lying to myself.'

'About Rick?'

'No, he was the one doing that. I've been lying to myself and I didn't even know it. I thought I came back to prove you couldn't hurt me any more. I was wrong. You're the only man alive who can.'

'What are you trying to say? That Rick was right? You do care for me?'

She leaned against a fence rail and spoke to the crocodile watching them behind the wire, but her words were for Ben. 'It was one of the few the things he said.' She swung around, facing him. 'Rick always wanted what you had. He thought you got everything by right of birth. He couldn't accept that you earned every single thing you have.'

'Even you?' He forced the question out in rasping tones.

She smiled shyly. 'You didn't have to work very hard at that.'

'Come here, Keri.'

It was said as an order but there was a note of desperation underlying it which drew her towards him like a magnet. In the hot sun, his body felt fiery to her tentative touch, then she was pulled into his arms and there was no more time for thinking.

All her questions vanished in the heat of his embrace as he moulded her sun-warmed body against him so that-she was achingly aware of every masculine contour in his taut frame. Her hands clasped his wide shoulders and drew his head down until their lips met. According to the aborigines, devils haunted every cave and waterhole in the bush. There were devils in his kiss, too, bewitching her so that she was robbed of her power to think rationally. She could only swoop and fly with the kitehawks on currents of delicious sensation which took her to new heights of pleasure and passion.

When he drew his mouth reluctantly away from hers, he said softly, 'I love you, Ranger Donovan.'

'I love you, too, Ben Champion. I just wish it hadn't taken us both so long to face the fact.'

'I was so sure you loved Rick,' he said raggedly.

She moved restively in the circle of his arms. 'He wanted you to think so. He couldn't stand the thought of your having everything.'

A frown creased his forehead. 'But he knew so much about you.'

She knew he was referring to the birthmark. She had no choice but to tell him the whole story, otherwise it would hang like a cloud over the rest of their days together. 'I didn't want to tell you,' she began haltingly. 'But the night I left Kinga Downs, something happened.' Her voice broke and she found, even now, that that night still hurt to think about.

'Go on,' he prompted gently.

'Rick was so mad about being left out of Jake's will that he . . . he took it out on me.'

'He raped you?' Ben's voice vibrated with fury at the very idea.

'No, he tried and he managed to rip my clothes, but I ran away from him into the bush behind the house.'

'So that's how he knew about the birthmark,' Ben observed. 'My God, did he put those marks on your shoulders, too? I swear I'll kill him after all.'

She slid a finger on to his lips, silencing his anger, then drew a strangled breath as his mouth fastened on to the finger, drawing it between his teeth. She felt his tongue curl around it, stirring a symphony of longing inside her. It was an effort to reclaim her hand. 'Let it rest, Ben. He's gone.'

'But to take a bullwhip to you, scarring you for life. What sort of monster would do such a thing?'

This was much harder than she thought it would be. How could she tell him the truth, knowing what it must do to him? But there was no choice. She couldn't let him go on thinking Rick had scarred her. 'It wasn't Rick,' she said, her voice low. 'It was an accident. The man who did it never even knew I was hiding in the bushes.'

She felt rather than heard his cry of protest. 'Oh, lord, Keri. It was me, wasn't it? I did this to you?' Dumbly she nodded, fighting the tears which clustered behind her eyes as she witnessed the depths of his pain.

'It was an accident,' she repeated hoarsely.

'I remember now. I was practising for the whip- cracking championship. I held the state title then. I felt the whip strike something soft but I thought it was an animal or something. When I searched the bushes, I found nothing.'

'I'd gone back to my room by then,' she breathed. 'I didn't blame you. How could I? I loved you.'

'Even after I'd hurt you?'

'You didn't know. And I hurt you, too, in a way, by not living up to your expectations.'

'Damn my expectations,' he countered. 'If I hadn't been so blind, we could have been together all this time and I wouldn't have had to read about you in the newspapers like a lovesick fool.'

It was hard to imagine Ben being a fool over anything, even love, and she thrilled to the knowledge that she held such sway with him. 'I should have guessed what was going on when you remembered all those stories,' she observed.

He grinned wryly. 'I told myself I was only reading them out of curiosity. But curiosity doesn't make you feel murderous reading about your girl dating a millionaire.'

'But I didn't know I was yours then.'

'You know it now, don't you?' he asked anxiously. 'Why do you think I was so keen to get a ring on your finger? I didn't want to take a chance on your escaping from me a second time.'

'So it wasn't all for Rick?' she asked, feeling a sensation of warmth steal over her.

He frowned. 'I wanted to keep my promise to my father, but I needed to keep you here for myself, too.'

'Even though I disappointed you before?' she asked, recalling his earlier admission. She hadn't guessed that she was the woman he had been describing.

He shook his head. 'You never disappointed me. You were always honest with me, more than I was with myself, it seems.' His arms tightened around her. 'I swear I'll make it up to you, my darling. I'll never hurt you again as long as I live.'

She nestled into the circle of his embrace, murmuring in contentment. 'Is this a proposal, Mr Champion.'

His lips grazed the top of her head. 'You bet it is. You can hardly be surprised since I've been pushing you towards a wedding for ages, with Robyn's help.'

'I wish I'd known you were serious,' she confessed. 'It would have made all the difference.'

'As long as it makes a difference now,' he said. 'You seemed so anxious to get away that it was the only way I could keep you here. I thought I was going to have to set a trap for you, as we did for Fang.'

'I only wanted to get away because you didn't seem to care,' she told him. 'The truth is, you don't need a snare. You caught me a long time ago.'

Accepting the invitation of her parted lips, he showered her with tiny kisses. 'This time,' he said as his mouth moved over hers, 'I don't mean to let you
go.'

She smiled teasingly. 'Just try it.'

In answer, he pulled her close against him, setting the blood singing in her veins and triggering a craving which she knew would only be satisfied by the fulfilment of his possession. The thought heightened her responses and she matched his kisses. with equal ardour. His warm breath on her mouth was like a promise of life and she drank it in eagerly.

In the background, she heard Fang's throaty roar as the male crocodile called to his mate. Suddenly it seemed as if the entire outback resounded with the calls of love.