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Imperfect Stranger
Elizabeth Oldfield
Appearances can be deceptive…As a stranger, Flynn had just one imperfection: an overriding obsession with secrecy. Danielle was intrigued - dangerously sexy, Flynn had awakened more than her journalistic curiosity. She sensed a story; she also sensed trouble.The problem was, the more involved she got, the less convinced Danielle was that she was chasing the story and not Flynn! Was she falling for a man who didn't even trust her with his last name?
Table of Contents
Cover Page (#u72e9a741-06b8-521f-bc9f-1e4b5e5db40f)
Excerpt (#ubc4b0834-b9cc-5869-b4af-6013f783bae9)
About the Author (#u5625c5d3-5914-56fa-b6a1-0946d31c1be1)
Title Page (#uca8a48b0-27a6-5fe2-b05d-d51667d1fe61)
CHAPTER ONE (#u615d0f7b-6ba7-54d1-92e2-a3df289ef0f0)
CHAPTER TWO (#u766ad496-25da-52c6-953b-81b819263a0b)
CHAPTER THREE (#ue59f72a7-817f-58b6-b0ee-ca6a94ab101f)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
“It’s seduction time?” Flynn inquired.
Perplexed, Danielle frowned. “Excuse me?”
“Nice try,” he said, stretching out a hand.
“I wouldn’t…”
“You wouldn’t try and seduce me into letting you write an article?” Flynn drawled.
“No!”
“You lust after me…”
“No,” Danielle vowed.
“Yes, you do. I lust after you, too.”
Danielle looked up at him with large uncertain eyes. “You do?”
ELIZABETH OLDFIELD’s writing career started as a teenage hobby, when she had articles published. However, on her marriage the creative instinct was diverted into the production of a daughter and son. A decade later, when her husband’s job took them to Singapore, she resumed writing and had her first romance novel accepted in 1982. Now hooked on the genre, she produces an average of three books a year. She and her family live in London, England and Elizabeth travels widely to authenticate the backgrounds in her books.
Imperfect Stranger
Elizabeth Oldfield
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_2309eadc-e704-5aaa-800e-5fca7b535bef)
‘THERE are two seasons in the rainforest, the wet season and the wetter season,’ the tour guide said, as the cable ferry started off on its unhurried journey across the brown sun-gilded waters of the Daintree River. He chuckled at his own joke, then continued, ‘And, this being November, the wetter season’s about to start. Or, at least, it should be.’ Squinting up from beneath the brim of his bushranger hat, the young Australian surveyed the cloudless azure sky. ‘But it’s two years since the last prolonged spell of heavy rain and…’
As he launched into a soliloquy on the dangers which a continued drought would pose, Danielle’s concentration began to flicker and her eyes went beyond him, wandering idly over the small ferry and the people who had left the other ten or so vehicles to stand in the sunshine. Abruptly her gaze stopped. Focused. At the front of the boat, a tall, thirty-something man in sunglasses was leaning against a battered, dust-caked jeep. His arms were folded across his chest and he was looking pensively out along the river. With blue-black stubble which said he could not have shaved for the past two days, glossy dark hair curling over his collar, and clad in a navy polo shirt, well-worn jeans and scuffed desert boots, the man looked hard-bodied, strong, tough. Danielle’s pulse-rate broke into an involuntary canter. He oozed testosterone.
Riveted by his presence and by the command he had of his own quiet space, she assessed him intently and thoroughly. With high cheekbones, broad brow and a full sculpted mouth, he promised to be, not Greek-god handsome—a beaky shark’s fin of a nose excluded that—but an arresting-looking man. If only he would remove those dark glasses and allow her to see his eyes. A minute or two later, when he lifted a long-fingered hand, Danielle gazed at him in surprise. Her wish was about to be granted? Well, thank you, kind sir. But instead he swiped back the untidy swath of jet-black hair which fell over his brow and then, as if sensing himself under inspection, turned his head to look along the length of the ferry and fix his gaze pointedly on her.
Danielle swallowed. She felt the heat seep into her cheeks. His eyes might be masked, but the almost insolent shifting of the man’s stance—muscled arms leisurely refolded, long legs spread a little wider apartmade it clear that the look which emanated from behind the dark glasses was cool and direct and challenging. He knew she had been staring. Her brow puckered. After just one day in the balmy heat of Northern Queensland, she appeared to be going troppo! She was not in the habit of ogling strange men. On the contrary, strange men usually ogled her. In any case, rough diamonds were not her type; she preferred cultured, civilised, wellgroomed males.
Deciding that the best way to rescue herself from her embarrassment—and to make amends—would be to shine a quick smile, receive one in return, then turn away, Danielle wiggled the corners of her mouth. A moment of time ticked by, and another, but the man remained straight-faced. Her smile collapsed. Danielle felt flustered. When she smiled at members of the opposite sex she invariably elicited an identical—and a delighted—response, but the continued coolness of his stare made it plain that on this occasion she had misjudged and the recipient was not in the market for seduction. Her charm offensive had received the big chill.
Standing taller, Danielle gazed defiantly back. She was an independent, sophisticated and poised young woman, she told herself, and she refused to be flustered by some graceless hick. She refused to turn away. She refused to draw down her own sunglasses, which had been pushed on to the top of her blonde head, no matter how tempting it might be. She had been looking at him, but so what? As the saying went, a cat could look at a king or, more aptly in this case, a lady could look at a tramp, Danielle thought caustically. She was breaking no rules, committing no crime. Besides, for all he knew, he could have simply reminded her of someone.
Her chin lifted, Danielle stared into the impenetrable black depths of the man’s lenses. He had become an adversary and this was a battle, one which she intended to win. She would not be browbeaten. After what felt like ten minutes, but which common sense insisted could be no more than thirty seconds, doubts began to creep in. Why had she embarked on such a fatuous and juvenile course of action? Just what was she proving? She might be in a rebellious mood this morning, but to engage in optical warfare with a stranger ranked as bloodymindedness gone berserk. Danielle was desperately wondering how she could back off and keep some shred of dignity intact when her adversary straightened and, with an air of becoming bored with a pesky child, swung open the door of his jeep to vault athletically inside. As the door clanged shut behind him, Danielle balled her fists. He might have made an exit, yet it was she who had been dismissed
‘So, although you wouldn’t want it to rain while you’re here, the region is in dire need of water,’ she became aware of her companion saying beside her.
Danielle snapped back to attention. ‘Oh…yes,’ she replied brightly.
When she had drawn up at the tail-end of the queue of vehicles waiting to board the ferry, she had parked behind a minibus filled with Japanese holiday makers off on a day’s safari. As she had got out of the Land Rover to stretch her legs, so the driver had jumped out too, and started to talk. And once on the ferry, Phil—he had amiably introduced himself—had made a beeline for her and chatted again. Danielle shone him a dazzling smile. This fresh-faced young man would never be so impolite, nor so arrogant, as to give her the brush-off—unlike some, she thought darkly.
‘Which place are you booked into?’ Phil enquired, pushing his hands into the pockets of the khaki shorts which, with a khaki shirt and the badged hat, comprised his tour guide uniform.
‘The Fan Palms Lodge,’ she replied.
‘The accommodation’s a bit basic, but the staff are real matey. You’ll like it there,’ he declared.
‘I hope so,’ Danielle said.
A secretary at the newspaper she worked for had fixed the reservation, so all she knew was that the hotel featured wooden bungalows set amongst trees and was located several miles from the coast. But what did ‘a bit basic’ mean? she wondered, and felt a flutter of apprehension. Maybe it would be advisable not to ask.
‘You’ve got around a couple of hours’ drive through the rainforest,’ Phil went on. ‘Still, since last year all of the road to the Lodge has been sealed, so it’s easy travelling.’
Danielle cast a glance behind her at the hired Land Rover. ‘Good. What kind of people live in the rainforest?’ she enquired, deciding that this was an opportunity to start gathering a few snippets of local information.
Phil eased his hat back from his brow and grinned. There were times when the tourists’ endless questions bored him rigid, but he would be happy to talk to this girl on any subject she desired for hours. She was a beaut. Thick, shoulder-length corn-coloured hair which swung in a polished curtain when she moved, huge dark blue eyes, a dimpled smile. His gaze fell. And as for that body in the white and yellow striped top and short white skirt, and those deliciously long legs…
‘Well, obviously some folk are here because of the tourist trade: guys like me, motel employees and such,’ he said, dragging his thoughts back to a more mundane level, ‘but so far as residents go you get the odd writer, naturalist, film-maker, a painter or two.’
Danielle had decided that from now on the jeep and its occupant would be ignored, yet as Phil had spoken her gaze had slid in its direction. The driver’s window was wound down and she could see the man’s shoulder and his arm resting casually along the lower edge. His arm was firm-muscled and powerful, sprinkled with dark hairs which glinted in the sunshine. It reminded her of the kind of arm which, in days of old, would have brandished a cutlass or controlled the reins of a fast-galloping steed.
‘Painters?’ she muttered. ‘That’s interesting.’
‘There’re also some pretty weird types,’ Phil continued.
The man flexed his hand, drawing her gaze to his fingers. They were long, blunt-tipped fingers which promised to be competent and confident in whatever they did, whether it was planing wood or easing a hook from a fish or stroking a woman. Danielle hastily switched her gaze and her attention—her full attention-back her companion. One glimpse of an arm and she was winging off into flights of fantasy? She must be going troppo.
‘Weird?’ she queried.
‘Like hippies, down-and-outs, drop-outs. What we call the feral people.’
‘Why feral?’ Danielle asked curiously.
‘Because they exist on their dole cheques and go kind of wild. North of the Daintree is a great place for disappearing into and it’s reckoned that folk often come here because they’ve got a story in their background or they’re running away from something. Better get ready to go,’ Phil declared, with a nod at the concrete ramp on the riverbank which they were approaching and the ferryman who waited there. ‘Have a great stay and—’ he lifted hopeful brows ‘—who knows, we could meet again.’
‘Perhaps,’ she said, being deliberately vague, for liaisons, no matter how fleeting, were of no interest. She turned towards her Land Rover. “Bye.’
Elizabeth Oldfield
Appearances can be deceptive…As a stranger, Flynn had just one imperfection: an overriding obsession with secrecy. Danielle was intrigued - dangerously sexy, Flynn had awakened more than her journalistic curiosity. She sensed a story; she also sensed trouble.The problem was, the more involved she got, the less convinced Danielle was that she was chasing the story and not Flynn! Was she falling for a man who didn't even trust her with his last name?
Table of Contents
Cover Page (#u72e9a741-06b8-521f-bc9f-1e4b5e5db40f)
Excerpt (#ubc4b0834-b9cc-5869-b4af-6013f783bae9)
About the Author (#u5625c5d3-5914-56fa-b6a1-0946d31c1be1)
Title Page (#uca8a48b0-27a6-5fe2-b05d-d51667d1fe61)
CHAPTER ONE (#u615d0f7b-6ba7-54d1-92e2-a3df289ef0f0)
CHAPTER TWO (#u766ad496-25da-52c6-953b-81b819263a0b)
CHAPTER THREE (#ue59f72a7-817f-58b6-b0ee-ca6a94ab101f)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
“It’s seduction time?” Flynn inquired.
Perplexed, Danielle frowned. “Excuse me?”
“Nice try,” he said, stretching out a hand.
“I wouldn’t…”
“You wouldn’t try and seduce me into letting you write an article?” Flynn drawled.
“No!”
“You lust after me…”
“No,” Danielle vowed.
“Yes, you do. I lust after you, too.”
Danielle looked up at him with large uncertain eyes. “You do?”
ELIZABETH OLDFIELD’s writing career started as a teenage hobby, when she had articles published. However, on her marriage the creative instinct was diverted into the production of a daughter and son. A decade later, when her husband’s job took them to Singapore, she resumed writing and had her first romance novel accepted in 1982. Now hooked on the genre, she produces an average of three books a year. She and her family live in London, England and Elizabeth travels widely to authenticate the backgrounds in her books.
Imperfect Stranger
Elizabeth Oldfield
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_2309eadc-e704-5aaa-800e-5fca7b535bef)
‘THERE are two seasons in the rainforest, the wet season and the wetter season,’ the tour guide said, as the cable ferry started off on its unhurried journey across the brown sun-gilded waters of the Daintree River. He chuckled at his own joke, then continued, ‘And, this being November, the wetter season’s about to start. Or, at least, it should be.’ Squinting up from beneath the brim of his bushranger hat, the young Australian surveyed the cloudless azure sky. ‘But it’s two years since the last prolonged spell of heavy rain and…’
As he launched into a soliloquy on the dangers which a continued drought would pose, Danielle’s concentration began to flicker and her eyes went beyond him, wandering idly over the small ferry and the people who had left the other ten or so vehicles to stand in the sunshine. Abruptly her gaze stopped. Focused. At the front of the boat, a tall, thirty-something man in sunglasses was leaning against a battered, dust-caked jeep. His arms were folded across his chest and he was looking pensively out along the river. With blue-black stubble which said he could not have shaved for the past two days, glossy dark hair curling over his collar, and clad in a navy polo shirt, well-worn jeans and scuffed desert boots, the man looked hard-bodied, strong, tough. Danielle’s pulse-rate broke into an involuntary canter. He oozed testosterone.
Riveted by his presence and by the command he had of his own quiet space, she assessed him intently and thoroughly. With high cheekbones, broad brow and a full sculpted mouth, he promised to be, not Greek-god handsome—a beaky shark’s fin of a nose excluded that—but an arresting-looking man. If only he would remove those dark glasses and allow her to see his eyes. A minute or two later, when he lifted a long-fingered hand, Danielle gazed at him in surprise. Her wish was about to be granted? Well, thank you, kind sir. But instead he swiped back the untidy swath of jet-black hair which fell over his brow and then, as if sensing himself under inspection, turned his head to look along the length of the ferry and fix his gaze pointedly on her.
Danielle swallowed. She felt the heat seep into her cheeks. His eyes might be masked, but the almost insolent shifting of the man’s stance—muscled arms leisurely refolded, long legs spread a little wider apartmade it clear that the look which emanated from behind the dark glasses was cool and direct and challenging. He knew she had been staring. Her brow puckered. After just one day in the balmy heat of Northern Queensland, she appeared to be going troppo! She was not in the habit of ogling strange men. On the contrary, strange men usually ogled her. In any case, rough diamonds were not her type; she preferred cultured, civilised, wellgroomed males.
Deciding that the best way to rescue herself from her embarrassment—and to make amends—would be to shine a quick smile, receive one in return, then turn away, Danielle wiggled the corners of her mouth. A moment of time ticked by, and another, but the man remained straight-faced. Her smile collapsed. Danielle felt flustered. When she smiled at members of the opposite sex she invariably elicited an identical—and a delighted—response, but the continued coolness of his stare made it plain that on this occasion she had misjudged and the recipient was not in the market for seduction. Her charm offensive had received the big chill.
Standing taller, Danielle gazed defiantly back. She was an independent, sophisticated and poised young woman, she told herself, and she refused to be flustered by some graceless hick. She refused to turn away. She refused to draw down her own sunglasses, which had been pushed on to the top of her blonde head, no matter how tempting it might be. She had been looking at him, but so what? As the saying went, a cat could look at a king or, more aptly in this case, a lady could look at a tramp, Danielle thought caustically. She was breaking no rules, committing no crime. Besides, for all he knew, he could have simply reminded her of someone.
Her chin lifted, Danielle stared into the impenetrable black depths of the man’s lenses. He had become an adversary and this was a battle, one which she intended to win. She would not be browbeaten. After what felt like ten minutes, but which common sense insisted could be no more than thirty seconds, doubts began to creep in. Why had she embarked on such a fatuous and juvenile course of action? Just what was she proving? She might be in a rebellious mood this morning, but to engage in optical warfare with a stranger ranked as bloodymindedness gone berserk. Danielle was desperately wondering how she could back off and keep some shred of dignity intact when her adversary straightened and, with an air of becoming bored with a pesky child, swung open the door of his jeep to vault athletically inside. As the door clanged shut behind him, Danielle balled her fists. He might have made an exit, yet it was she who had been dismissed
‘So, although you wouldn’t want it to rain while you’re here, the region is in dire need of water,’ she became aware of her companion saying beside her.
Danielle snapped back to attention. ‘Oh…yes,’ she replied brightly.
When she had drawn up at the tail-end of the queue of vehicles waiting to board the ferry, she had parked behind a minibus filled with Japanese holiday makers off on a day’s safari. As she had got out of the Land Rover to stretch her legs, so the driver had jumped out too, and started to talk. And once on the ferry, Phil—he had amiably introduced himself—had made a beeline for her and chatted again. Danielle shone him a dazzling smile. This fresh-faced young man would never be so impolite, nor so arrogant, as to give her the brush-off—unlike some, she thought darkly.
‘Which place are you booked into?’ Phil enquired, pushing his hands into the pockets of the khaki shorts which, with a khaki shirt and the badged hat, comprised his tour guide uniform.
‘The Fan Palms Lodge,’ she replied.
‘The accommodation’s a bit basic, but the staff are real matey. You’ll like it there,’ he declared.
‘I hope so,’ Danielle said.
A secretary at the newspaper she worked for had fixed the reservation, so all she knew was that the hotel featured wooden bungalows set amongst trees and was located several miles from the coast. But what did ‘a bit basic’ mean? she wondered, and felt a flutter of apprehension. Maybe it would be advisable not to ask.
‘You’ve got around a couple of hours’ drive through the rainforest,’ Phil went on. ‘Still, since last year all of the road to the Lodge has been sealed, so it’s easy travelling.’
Danielle cast a glance behind her at the hired Land Rover. ‘Good. What kind of people live in the rainforest?’ she enquired, deciding that this was an opportunity to start gathering a few snippets of local information.
Phil eased his hat back from his brow and grinned. There were times when the tourists’ endless questions bored him rigid, but he would be happy to talk to this girl on any subject she desired for hours. She was a beaut. Thick, shoulder-length corn-coloured hair which swung in a polished curtain when she moved, huge dark blue eyes, a dimpled smile. His gaze fell. And as for that body in the white and yellow striped top and short white skirt, and those deliciously long legs…
‘Well, obviously some folk are here because of the tourist trade: guys like me, motel employees and such,’ he said, dragging his thoughts back to a more mundane level, ‘but so far as residents go you get the odd writer, naturalist, film-maker, a painter or two.’
Danielle had decided that from now on the jeep and its occupant would be ignored, yet as Phil had spoken her gaze had slid in its direction. The driver’s window was wound down and she could see the man’s shoulder and his arm resting casually along the lower edge. His arm was firm-muscled and powerful, sprinkled with dark hairs which glinted in the sunshine. It reminded her of the kind of arm which, in days of old, would have brandished a cutlass or controlled the reins of a fast-galloping steed.
‘Painters?’ she muttered. ‘That’s interesting.’
‘There’re also some pretty weird types,’ Phil continued.
The man flexed his hand, drawing her gaze to his fingers. They were long, blunt-tipped fingers which promised to be competent and confident in whatever they did, whether it was planing wood or easing a hook from a fish or stroking a woman. Danielle hastily switched her gaze and her attention—her full attention-back her companion. One glimpse of an arm and she was winging off into flights of fantasy? She must be going troppo.
‘Weird?’ she queried.
‘Like hippies, down-and-outs, drop-outs. What we call the feral people.’
‘Why feral?’ Danielle asked curiously.
‘Because they exist on their dole cheques and go kind of wild. North of the Daintree is a great place for disappearing into and it’s reckoned that folk often come here because they’ve got a story in their background or they’re running away from something. Better get ready to go,’ Phil declared, with a nod at the concrete ramp on the riverbank which they were approaching and the ferryman who waited there. ‘Have a great stay and—’ he lifted hopeful brows ‘—who knows, we could meet again.’
‘Perhaps,’ she said, being deliberately vague, for liaisons, no matter how fleeting, were of no interest. She turned towards her Land Rover. “Bye.’
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