Runaway Bride

At heart, he’d never changed. He was a gypsy, a nomad.

And he was quite sure that, for a nomad like him, it had been a mistake to come home.

CHAPTER THREE

WHEN Bella woke she was aware of a strange blue-grey light outside. She saw stands of tall pine trees flashing past. And she saw the back of Damon’s dark head.

The back of his head? That didn’t seem right. She blinked and tried to sit up, but she was held down by her seat belt. Her neck was stiff and she realised that her seat had been lowered into the reclining position. And the car had a roof.

When had that happened? She couldn’t remember.

Beneath her cheek, there was something soft and pillowy—a man’s sweater with a faint hint of Damon’s exotic cologne had been rolled up to cushion her head.

She yanked on the lever that raised her seat. ‘What time is it?’

Damon smiled. ‘Hey, there.’

Yawning, she reached for her water bottle and took a few sips. That was better. ‘What’s the time?’ she asked again. ‘Have I been asleep long?’

‘It’s almost five.’ He pointed to the clock on the dashboard.

‘Wow. I’ve been asleep for a couple of hours, then.’

‘More than a couple.’

Sleepily, Bella took another look at their surroundings. There was something about the light that didn’t seem right for five o’clock in the afternoon. It should have been all golden and coppery and sloping in low from the west. She shivered and frowned as a terrible thought struck. ‘Damon, it’s not five o’clock in the morning, is it?’

‘It certainly is.’

‘No! It can’t be.’ Shocked, she sat up straighter, and pulled her jacket more closely around her. Wait a minute. Where had her jacket come from? She turned to Damon. ‘Did you get this jacket out of my bag?’

‘You were getting goose bumps on your arms.’

She rubbed at the stiff spot on her neck. ‘But I can’t have been asleep all night.’

‘You were exhausted, Bella, and you needed to sleep. You’ve had a huge twenty-four hours.’

‘I know. But don’t tell me you’ve been driving all night?’ ‘I felt fine.’

‘Damon, you shouldn’t have. You should have stopped.’

She was beginning to feel quite angry. Guilty, too. They were supposed to share the driving. ‘Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t planning to stop?’

‘It wasn’t planned. It just seemed like a good idea to let you sleep and push on.’

‘But we could have stayed in a motel.’

He cocked a questioning eyebrow. ‘Were you anxious to spend the night in a motel?’

‘In separate rooms, of course.’

‘Of course.’ Faint amusement shimmered in his eyes.

Bella could feel her anger rising to the boil. ‘Anyone with any sense knows you have to have adequate rest on a long road trip.’ She should have guessed something like this might happen. Damon Cavello had always been a risk taker.

They rounded a curve and she shot an angry glance at the view of vast plains stretching ahead, soft in the morning light, and dotted with grazing cattle. ‘So, where are we?’

‘Just south of Rockhampton.’

‘Rockhampton? That’s ridiculous, Damon. What’s the point of haring up the highway when we don’t know for sure where Violet and Paddy are? We could have passed them in the night back in Gympie, or Hervey Bay.’

‘I take it you’re not a morning person,’ he said smoothly.

She narrowed her eyes at him. Okay, she was being snappy, but she was justified. Damon might think he was bullet proof, but they were supposed to be a team and he should have at least consulted her before deciding to drive all night.

‘I’m fine once I’ve had coffee.’

‘There should be a coffee shop coming up very soon.’

‘I still think I was making a valid point. Let me remind you, you’re not still in a war zone, Mr Cavello.’

‘I had noticed.’

‘That means we don’t need to take the risks you’re so fond of. I don’t fancy finding myself wrapped around a gum tree because you chose to drive all night.’

‘I was fine, Bella.’

‘That’s not the point. From now on, we make joint decisions. If we need to drive all night, I’ll be part of the decision making. I’m not just here for the ride, you know. I’ll do my share of the driving.’ ‘I hear you.’

Annoyed by his quiet, smug responses, Bella threw in her trump card. ‘And. As I said, it’s crazy to race pell-mell up the highway when we don’t know where our grandparents are. We’re supposed to be stopping along the way and making enquiries.’

‘The circumstances have changed.’

Gobsmacked, she stared at him. ‘How?’

‘Brenda Holmes rang from Greenacres. They’ve found a note from Violet.’

Bella’s jaw sagged. ‘You mean I slept through a phone call?’

‘Snored your head off.’

If he weren’t driving she would have hit him. ‘When were you going to tell me?’

‘When I could get a word in edgeways.’

The nerve of him to treat her like a sleeping child and then throw joking insults. Bella was sorely tempted to continue her lecture. But she supposed it would be water off a duck’s back. The man was a law unto himself. Already, she was beginning to regret her rash impulse to join him on this wild chase.

‘So where was this note?’ she asked primly. ‘And why did Brenda Holmes take so long to find it?’