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Ben gritted his teeth as he tried to will his aroused body back into line. He was not a man who liked tipping out of control, even sexually. Especially sexually. Ben liked to be the boss in the bedroom, or wherever it was he chose to have sex. He enjoyed having total control of the action, along with his partner, which meant he had to have total control over himself, something which he’d practised and perfected over the years.
‘Is that why you became a mechanic?’ he asked, pleased with how normal he sounded despite his wayward flesh continuing to defy him.
Her shrug showed surprising indifference to her choice of career. ‘Before Dad started up his hire car business, he owned a garage. Not up here. Down in Sydney. Anyway, all my brothers became mechanics and I just followed suit.’
‘So when did you move up to the Central Coast?’
‘A good few years back now,’ she replied. ‘I’d just finished my apprenticeship. I know I had my twenty-first birthday party up here so I must have been nineteen or twenty. I’m not sure of the exact year. Why?’
‘Just making conversation, Jess,’ he said, searching his mind for more safe topics. He could not believe that he still had an erection. ‘You’re not using your GPS, I see. So I guess you know the way to Mudgee.’
‘It’s pretty straightforward. We stay on the motorway till we reach the New England Highway, heading for Brisbane. But we turn off onto the Golden Highway just before Singleton. Then we don’t get off that road till the turn-off to Mudgee. Easy peasy.’
‘You sound like you’ve been this way a dozen times before.’
‘I’ve driven to Brisbane via the New England Highway once or twice but I’ve never been along the Golden Highway before. Or to Mudgee, for that matter. I checked it up last night on the Internet.’
‘I’ve never been this way before either,’ he admitted.
Her glance carried curiosity. ‘You’ve never been to your best friend’s place before?’
‘Yes, of course I have. Several times. But you take a different route when you’re driving from Sydney.’
‘Oh yes, of course. I didn’t think of that. You said you went to boarding school in Sydney, is that right?’
‘Yes. Kings College. It’s near Parramatta. Do you know it?’
CHAPTER FIVE
A MOMENTARY FLASH of pique had Jess’s hands tightening around the steering wheel. Just because she’d said she wasn’t school smart didn’t mean she was ignorant. Of course she knew of Kings College. It was one of the best private schools in Sydney. Despite it being located in the western suburbs, it was a far cry from the humble high school she’d gone to only a few miles away.
‘Yes. I know it,’ she said, thinking how way out of her league this man was. ‘It’s a very good school.’
‘That’s where I met Andy.’
‘Your best friend?’
‘Yes. We went on to study law together at Sydney Uni as well.’
Oh, Lord. Now he’d studied law at Sydney University, another prestigious establishment. Jess knew what it took to get into law. Which showed Ben was very school smart. But then, she’d guessed that already.
What next? she wondered. He probably wintered in the ski fields of Austria every year. And took his girlfriend to Paris for romantic weekends.
This last thought gave her a real jolt. Jess hadn’t thought of Ben as having a girlfriend, which was very stupid of her. Of course he must have, a man like him. Not a wife, though. When she’d asked him for a contact name and number yesterday he hadn’t mentioned a wife.
A fiancée was still on the cards, however.
‘And now your best friend is getting married,’ she said, trying to make her voice cool and conversational, not like she was dying of curiosity. ‘Are you married, Ben?’ she asked.
‘No,’ he said.
‘Engaged?’
‘No.’
She’d gone too far now to stop. ‘You must have a girlfriend back home.’
‘Not any more. I did have a girlfriend. But, like yours, that relationship has now gone by the board.’
‘She dumped you?’ Jess said with total disbelief in her voice.
‘Not exactly…’
‘Sorry. I’m prying again.’
‘I don’t mind,’ he said. ‘I enjoy talking to you. Actually, I’m the one who decided to call it quits. I just haven’t had the opportunity to tell Amber yet. I only decided last night.’
Amber, Jess thought with a curl of her top lip. A typical name for the type of girl he would date. She sounded beautiful. And rich. Jess hated her, till she remembered Ben was breaking up with her. Since that was the case, she could afford to be less bitchy. But she was still curious.
