Princes of the Outback Bundle Read Online Free Page A

inside blanket-lined canvas.
    “Outback bedding,” he explained. “Perfect for sleeping under the stars.”
    “Don’t you think someone will find us before then?”
    He looked up sharply, and something in his dark gaze caused her pulse to trip. Then he smiled, the slow charmer’s grin that didn’t help calm her elevated heart rate. “Probably. But in the meantime, why don’t you take a nap? You look bushed.”
    Ridiculously conscious of his presence, of their isolation, of all the days and nights they’d shared a bed—of her body’s reaction to that smile—she hauled her swag into the sheltering shadow cast by the hut. She closed her eyes and she worried.
    This was the perfect opportunity to talk, but she couldn’t bring herself to take that first step. There would be fireworks, drama, distress, and after the hours at that accident she wanted some respite from anguish. Later, they would talk. After she’d rested her eyes, her mind and her raw emotions.
    Surprisingly, she slept; right up until Nic roused her to watch the sunset. At the time she had mumbled and moaned. Now she was glad.
    “That was worth waking up for.” Stretched out on her swag, significantly cleaner after a bushman’s bath and significantly more relaxed after her nap, she was watching Nic tend to the campfire. And trying not to notice how damn much she enjoyed watching him. Much like the sunset, she couldn’t look away.
    He cut her a sideways look. “The beans or the coffee?”
    “The sunset. They were one of the few things Brooke liked about the outback. She tried to describe the colors to me, but they don’t translate into words.”
    Like love, like grief, like all emotions. She’d discovered that while trying to compose that letter. While thinking about what she had to tell him that night.
    “Brooke didn’t like the outback?”
    “She hated the isolation and the lack of amenities. She would have hated this!”
    Even as she said it, an inner voice whispered liar . Brooke wouldn’t have hated everything about camping if she’d been with Tomas. She would have loved watching him in the firelight. She would have felt the same for Tomas as Olivia was feeling for Nic right now…
    When would he put the poker down and walk over to her?
    “And you, Olivia? You don’t hate it?”
    His voice curled through her, as soft as smoke, and she shivered a little. It was the way he said her name—her whole name. That never failed to turn her inside out.
    “No,” she said, just as softly. “I don’t hate it.”
    Carefully, he put aside the poker and her shiver turned to heat. Then he started to walk toward her.

Chapter Ten
    Nic sat down on the edge of her swag because, hell, he couldn’t keep his distance any longer. Although she wriggled away to create some space between them, she didn’t bolt. That had to be a good sign.
    Not that he was making any moves. Yet. They had all night and a nice slice of the morning, so he didn’t need to rush.
    There were bits of him ready to rush—bits hard and aching from watching her sleep on this makeshift bed for half the afternoon, and from putting his hand on her soft and sleep-warm shoulder to wake her. And from noticing how she’d discarded half her clothes after she washed.
    Inside her cozy swag, not six inches away, her legs were bare. He’d lay odds she’d discarded her bra as well. For all he knew she might be bare-ass naked except for the long western shirt.
    Which he was not going to think about while he was fully dressed. Sitting down. In jeans.
    He shifted, stretching his legs out in a vain attempt to get comfortable. “You never told me about your sister hating the outback.”
    “You never told me about running away from boarding school,” she countered, quoting one of the stories he’d told her while they’d walked. It was an effort to distract her from the accident, to wipe the sad shadows from her eyes. “Or about putting a cane toad in Angie’s bed. Or the blindfold race down