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She didn’t see it. Not at all. She couldn’t see that what unravelled him most was her. She made him lose sight of his rational, ordered self. And without that… where would he be?Whowould he be?
He dared to glance at her now. He could just see the freckles on her nose, detect the soft glint in her eyes, the fact that her lips were parted… so, so close… It would be too damn easy to dip his head and capture her beautiful mouth with his. And if she returned it, god help him, he’d take it so much further.
As if Felicity felt it too, she let out a little mewl, and her hand fluttered towards her cheek.
Barely thinking, Oliver took hold of her fingers, brought her hand to his lips and placed a fierce kiss on the inside of her wrist.
As he strode back towards camp, his heart pounded hard enough to crack through his ribs.
He shouldn’t have done that.
But at least it had stopped him devouring her mouth.
* * *
For what seemed like forever,Felicity stood staring at her wrist, feeling the imprint of Oliver’s lips on her skin. When she finally roused herself and made her way back to the van she was shaking,actuallyshaking. She picked up their plates and dumped the cold food into a plastic bag. Found a torch and placed the dirty plates and cutlery in a bucket and stumbled towards the lights of the camp kitchen, her legs on auto-pilot, her mind a mass of questions with no answers.
Oh, good lord, what had just happened? One minute he’d seemed so angry and upset about the reminder of Leonie, the next he was kissing her wrist. In all honesty, she’d been certain he was going to kiss her on the mouth, his face ablaze, his dark eyes like two burning coals.
And in that moment her body had surged forward, wanting… hungry for the feel of his mouth on hers. And it wasn’t the right thing… it was completely the wrong thing, she knew… it would have been disastrous… but even now her wrist burned as if he’d branded her with his mouth.
How would they talk normally after this? It would be utterly awkward. Should she ask him why he’d kissed her? Or just make a joke of it? Laugh it off, when all she wanted was to throw herself at him and kiss him into the middle of next week.
Even in her confusion, a wistful smile tugged at her lips. Would a week be enough? Probably not. She filled the water in the metal sink. Bugs flew around the light. Buzzed around her head.
“You awright there, lass?”
She jumped to see Mitch peering at her from behind a torch beam. “Just been told by the missus to check I didn’t leave anything here,” he said. “Boodiful night, eh?”
It was. For a moment she stopped and allowed herself to listen, to look. The sound of cicadas, a distant owl’s mournful hoot, the moon in a sky so deep and velvet blue that it felt like you could pluck the stars out, one by one.
“It is amazing.” She sighed. It would be even more amazing if she was watching it with Oliver’s arms around her.
Oh, shut up, you silly romantic twat!
“See that?” She forced herself to focus on Mitch’s words as he pointed at the sky. “That’s the Southern Cross.”
She squinted. “I can’t really see it.” There was a glittering mass of stars, that was for sure, but she wasn’t sure which was the Southern Cross.
Mitch pointed a gnarly hand. “Follow my finger. See that square of stars? Now follow it down to the bright star below it to the left. There. That’s the pointer star. That’s how you find your way in the bush. The pointer star shows you where south is. Bush traveller’s compass, that is. Now you’ve seen it, you’ll never lose your way.”
“Thank you Mitch. I’ll remember that.” She smiled at him.
“You’ll be okay finishing off here?”
“I’ll be fine. Got my torch. And the Southern Cross now, thank you.”
“Ah, well, been bonza to meet you. And your man. Shelley still can’t believe it’s him.”
He’s not my man.She should say so, but that would mean more talking, and right now, Scarlet was kicking up a fuss and her head was swimming with a bag of mixed emotions.
As she limped back to the camp, the bucket banging against her right leg, her heart was in her mouth. Wanting so much to see him, but not to see him. Who knew a kiss on the wrist could feel so beautiful and so…difficult. With a kind of jumpy relief, she saw his light shining through the canvas of his tent and the door flap zipped closed.
It was clear neither of them knew what to do next.
Felicity gazed up and tried to locate the Southern Cross. She didn’t understand the stars here. Everything was different, the world tilted on its axis. Where in all that sparkle was the pointer star?
Because she needed it. She really needed it. She was at risk of losing her way here. Of falling for a guy who would never be hers. Because he was still in love with somebody else.
