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Authors: Kandy Shepherd
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amazing.’
‘Not bad, is it?’
The large open-plan rooms, with soaring ceilings, contemporary designer furniture, bold artworks by local artists, were all designed to showcase the view and keep the house cool in the tropical heat of far north Queensland. As well as to withstand the cyclones that lashed at this area of the coast with frequent violence.
‘He says, with the modest understatement of a billionaire...’ she said.
Jake liked her attitude towards his wealth. He got irritated by people who treated him with awe because of it. Very few people knew the truth about his past. How closely he’d courted disaster. But a mythology had built up around him and Dominic—two boys from nowhere who had burst unheralded into the business world.
He had worked hard, but he acknowledged there had been a certain element of luck to his meteoric success. People referred to him as a genius, but there were other people as smart as he—smarter, even—who could have identified the same need for ground-breaking software. He’d been in the right place at the right time and had been savvy enough to recognise it and act on it—to his and Dominic’s advantage. Then he’d had the smarts to employ skilled programmers to get it right. Come to think of it, maybe there was a certain genius to that. Especially as he had replicated his early success over and over again.
‘I found some gourmet pizzas in the freezer,’ he said. ‘I shoved a couple of them in the oven. There’s salad too.’
‘I wondered what smelled so good,’ she said. ‘Breakfast seems a long time ago.’
‘We can eat out for dinner. There are some excellent restaurants in Port Douglas—as you no doubt know.’
‘Yes...’ she said. Her brow pleated into a frown. ‘But I need to check in at my resort. I haven’t even called them. They might give my room to someone else.’
‘Wouldn’t you rather stay here?’ he asked.
Her eyes narrowed. ‘Is that a trick question?’
‘No tricks,’ he said. ‘It’s taken us a long time—years—to get the chance to spend time together. Why waste more time to-ing and fro-ing from a resort to here? This is more private. This is—’
‘This is fabulous. Better than any resort. Of course I’d like to stay here. But is it too soon to be—?’
‘Over-thinking this?’
‘You’re throwing my own words right back at me,’ she said, with her delightful curving smile.
Her eyes seemed to reflect the colour of the sea in the vista visible through the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the beach to the far reaches of the Pacific Ocean. He didn’t think he’d ever met anyone with eyes of such an extraordinary blue. Eyes that showed what she was feeling. Right now he saw wariness and uncertainty.
‘I would very much like to have you here with me,’ he said. ‘But of course it’s entirely your choice. If you’d rather be at your resort I can drive you there whenever you want.’
‘No! I...I want to be with you.’
‘Good,’ he said, trying to keep his cool and not show how gratified he was that he would have her all to himself. ‘Then stay.’
‘There’s just one thing,’ she said hesitantly. ‘I feel a little...uncomfortable about staying here in a house you shared with your ex-wife. I notice there aren’t any feminine touches in the bathroom and dressing room. But I—’
‘She’s never visited here,’ he said. ‘I bought this house as my escape when things started to get untenable in my marriage. That was not long before I met you at Dominic’s wedding.’
‘Oh,’ she said.
‘Does that make you feel better?’ he asked.
She nodded. ‘Lots better.’
He stepped closer, placed his hands on her shoulders, looked into her eyes. ‘You’re the only woman who has stayed here. Apart from my mother, who doesn’t count as a woman.’
‘I’m sure she’d be delighted to know that,’ Eliza said, strangling a laugh.
‘You know what I mean.’ Jake felt more at home with
‘Not bad, is it?’
The large open-plan rooms, with soaring ceilings, contemporary designer furniture, bold artworks by local artists, were all designed to showcase the view and keep the house cool in the tropical heat of far north Queensland. As well as to withstand the cyclones that lashed at this area of the coast with frequent violence.
‘He says, with the modest understatement of a billionaire...’ she said.
Jake liked her attitude towards his wealth. He got irritated by people who treated him with awe because of it. Very few people knew the truth about his past. How closely he’d courted disaster. But a mythology had built up around him and Dominic—two boys from nowhere who had burst unheralded into the business world.
He had worked hard, but he acknowledged there had been a certain element of luck to his meteoric success. People referred to him as a genius, but there were other people as smart as he—smarter, even—who could have identified the same need for ground-breaking software. He’d been in the right place at the right time and had been savvy enough to recognise it and act on it—to his and Dominic’s advantage. Then he’d had the smarts to employ skilled programmers to get it right. Come to think of it, maybe there was a certain genius to that. Especially as he had replicated his early success over and over again.
‘I found some gourmet pizzas in the freezer,’ he said. ‘I shoved a couple of them in the oven. There’s salad too.’
‘I wondered what smelled so good,’ she said. ‘Breakfast seems a long time ago.’
‘We can eat out for dinner. There are some excellent restaurants in Port Douglas—as you no doubt know.’
‘Yes...’ she said. Her brow pleated into a frown. ‘But I need to check in at my resort. I haven’t even called them. They might give my room to someone else.’
‘Wouldn’t you rather stay here?’ he asked.
Her eyes narrowed. ‘Is that a trick question?’
‘No tricks,’ he said. ‘It’s taken us a long time—years—to get the chance to spend time together. Why waste more time to-ing and fro-ing from a resort to here? This is more private. This is—’
‘This is fabulous. Better than any resort. Of course I’d like to stay here. But is it too soon to be—?’
‘Over-thinking this?’
‘You’re throwing my own words right back at me,’ she said, with her delightful curving smile.
Her eyes seemed to reflect the colour of the sea in the vista visible through the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the beach to the far reaches of the Pacific Ocean. He didn’t think he’d ever met anyone with eyes of such an extraordinary blue. Eyes that showed what she was feeling. Right now he saw wariness and uncertainty.
‘I would very much like to have you here with me,’ he said. ‘But of course it’s entirely your choice. If you’d rather be at your resort I can drive you there whenever you want.’
‘No! I...I want to be with you.’
‘Good,’ he said, trying to keep his cool and not show how gratified he was that he would have her all to himself. ‘Then stay.’
‘There’s just one thing,’ she said hesitantly. ‘I feel a little...uncomfortable about staying here in a house you shared with your ex-wife. I notice there aren’t any feminine touches in the bathroom and dressing room. But I—’
‘She’s never visited here,’ he said. ‘I bought this house as my escape when things started to get untenable in my marriage. That was not long before I met you at Dominic’s wedding.’
‘Oh,’ she said.
‘Does that make you feel better?’ he asked.
She nodded. ‘Lots better.’
He stepped closer, placed his hands on her shoulders, looked into her eyes. ‘You’re the only woman who has stayed here. Apart from my mother, who doesn’t count as a woman.’
‘I’m sure she’d be delighted to know that,’ Eliza said, strangling a laugh.
‘You know what I mean.’ Jake felt more at home with
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