Three Blind-Date Brides: Nine-to-Five Bride

‘How are the photos coming?’ Though Rick’s question was calm and sensible, the expression in his eyes as he glanced at her still held remnants of yesterday evening’s interest.

Marissa’s pulse fluttered. ‘I’m almost done. Every digital camera is different but I think the shots I’m getting will be fine.’

‘Good. That’s good.’ Rick gestured to the businessmen. ‘Perhaps a group shot of all of you?’

He made the suggestion in the deep, even tone he’d used when Marissa had stepped into his office suite this morning and found him already immersed in a deluge of paperwork at his desk. A tone that said they were all about business. But his gaze had contradicted that.

The man had probably invented the term ‘confusion’. For anyone near him, that was. And she hadn’t wanted him to kiss her last night. She’d simply lost her focus for a moment.

‘Hold the pose, gentlemen.’ She forced a wide smile as she changed cameras again. ‘I need another two photos yet.’

Ozzie the koala didn’t seem to mind being held and oohed and aahed over. He sat quietly, his keeper at the side looking on. Ozzie looked utterly adorable with his thick fur and blunt nose and fluffy ears, though his claws were sharp and strong, made for climbing the eucalyptus trees he fed from.

Fortunately the koala was tame and well-behaved. If Marissa could tame her hormones around her boss in the same way, that would be helpful. She took a moment and tried not to think of Rick’s presence close beside her, or the fact that more than simply her chemical composition seemed interested in him.

She had to see him as her boss and nothing else, and with that in mind, she switched her attention to work. ‘Here’s hoping this visit ends in a successful outcome.’

‘The team seemed pleased with our talks. They’ll meet with at least two other major companies before they leave Sydney and then there’ll be a period of time before they make a decision, but I’m hopeful.’ Rick lowered the final camera and turned his gaze to their visitors.

He smiled towards the group. ‘That’s the last photo.’

Mr Qi spoke quietly to the keeper and then gestured them over. ‘We’d like one of our hosts with Ozzie. Miss Warren will hold him, please.’

To refuse in such circumstances would be out of the question. Instead, Marissa pasted a smile on her face and came forward to hand over her share of the cameras. She drew one long uneasy breath as Rick approached her.

His head bent close to hers. ‘Are you okay with this? All the animals here are trained to sit placidly.’

‘That’s not …’ She refused to admit the thought that being close to the boss, not the furry animal’s manners concerned her. ‘I’ve never held a koala but I’m not worried he’ll hurt me. I just hadn’t expected them to ask for this.’

‘Sometimes we overlook our own tourist attractions,’ he murmured and his gaze roved over her. For all the world as though he felt he’d overlooked her?

Well, she wasn’t much to notice today, in any case. She wore a drab navy cardigan buttoned to the neck over a soft white blouse. A long, ordinary, unadorned navy skirt completed the outfit, so there wasn’t a whole lot worth looking at.

Covered from neck to calves in the most unappealing outfit she had? And mostly as a deterrent to herself? To help her not to think about her boss? Who, her?

‘Keep the cardigan on while you hold him.’

His comment didn’t make a lot of sense, but she gave a small nod to indicate her acquiescence before she turned to face their guests.

They all waited expectantly with cameras poised.

‘This will be a thrill for me. Thank you for the opportunity.’ It cost nothing to be positive, right? At least Rick hadn’t realised the real reason for her unease.

That depressing, confusing, annoying, irritating and wholly aggravating thought disappeared when the keeper put the koala into her arms and another feeling altogether swept through her.

Ozzie cuddled into her like a baby, a warm soft weight with one arm draped over hers and his head turned to the side beneath her chin. Her arms closed around his warmth and a wealth of completely unexpected emotions clogged her throat before her thought processes could catch up with her reaction.

For one long aching moment as Rick stepped behind her, put his arm about her shoulders and she looked up into those intense grey eyes, she longed for the completion of a child. A baby to love and nurture, care for and protect, and the feelings that she’d suppressed over recent months—even longer—all tore through her.

She hadn’t impulse-bought that baby wool to make socks for herself. A part of her had reached from way deep down inside for something she wanted, had tried to ignore—how could she want such a thing? It was so foolish to long for something that might never happen for her.

It took two to produce a baby—two willing people and a whole lot of thought and commitment and other things. She should only allow herself hopes and dreams and goals that she knew she could achieve. She certainly did not want to have her boss’s baby. It would be absolutely beyond the point of ridiculousness to imagine such a thing.

Even so, Rick’s eyes locked with hers and something deep flickered in his expression, something more than curiosity or simply a man noticing a woman.

Maybe he’d read all those thoughts in her face before she’d been able to mask them? Panic threatened until she assured herself he couldn’t possibly have done so. She hadn’t realised they were even there until they’d hit her so unexpectedly. Why would he realise such things about her?

‘All right?’ His gaze was steady as he looked at her, and she managed a shaky breath before the tension fell back enough so that their surroundings came into focus again and she felt in control of herself once more.

‘Yes, thanks.’ She let her fingers stroke over the koala’s soft fur, let herself come back together. ‘He’s unexpectedly light for his size.’

‘A wombat would be far heavier to hold—the compact steamroller of Australian wildlife.’ Rick’s quip helped ease the moment, they both smiled at long last, and then they smiled for the cameras.

When the photo session ended Rick’s arm seemed to linger a moment before he dropped it, but he strode purposefully forward and with due ceremony invited the men to enjoy another hour at the zoo. ‘I asked the keepers to save a surprise, and we hope you’ll enjoy the opportunity to feed some wombats and kangaroos and other animals while you think over our lunch discussion. There’ll be coffee and cake waiting at the restaurant for you when you’re finished.’

He left them with smiles and bows and swept Marissa away, who had now pulled herself together. That reaction earlier … It was just some crazy thing that had happened.

She removed her cardigan, rolled it into a ball and wiped her hands on it and warily acknowledged that perhaps biological ticking and the Big 3-0 did appear to have somewhat of an association inside her after all. What to do about that was the question.

When they climbed into Rick’s big car, she set the cardigan on the floor behind her seat.

‘They smell a bit, don’t they?’ Rick watched Marissa dispose of her cardigan and tried not to think of that moment back there when she’d first taken the koala into her arms and seemed so surprised and devastated, and he’d wanted to hold her, just scoop her up and take her somewhere and cuddle and comfort her.

‘Yes, Ozzie smelled of eucalyptus and warm furry animal.’ She buckled her seat belt and sat very primly in the seat, her back stiff enough to suggest that she didn’t want to delve too deeply into her reaction to holding the animal. ‘His coat was a little oily. Thanks for the hint to keep my cardigan on.’

She’d seemed empty somehow, and he’d wanted to give her what was missing, but his response had been on an instinctive level he couldn’t begin to fathom. Well, it didn’t matter anyway because she was his secretary, nothing more, and since that was exactly how he wanted things to be … ‘You’re welcome.’

He glanced at her. She was dressed conservatively, but the prissy white blouse just made her hair look fluffier and made him think all the more about the curves hidden away beneath the shirt’s modest exterior.

So much for his vow not to think about her as an attractive woman after having his arms around her for those brief moments last night.

‘You seemed well prepared for the koala experience.’ Her voice held a deliberate calm and good cheer. ‘Have you—’

‘Held one? Yes. Once.’ It hadn’t left any notable impact on him, unlike watching her experience today.

Perhaps his instincts towards Marissa weren’t entirely dissimilar to those he felt towards his sisters and nieces—a certain protectiveness that rose up because his father had failed to be there for them.

Rick tried to stop the thoughts there. Stephen Morgan was a decent enough man.

Except to Darla, and unless any kind of genuine emotional commitment was required of him. Then Stephen simply dropped the ball as he always had.

Rick forced the thoughts aside. There was nothing he could do about any of that, no way to change a man who inherently wouldn’t change. No way to know if Rick himself would be as bad or worse than his father in the same circumstances.

‘We often take our overseas business contacts places like this.’ It didn’t matter what he’d felt for Marissa—or thought he’d felt. By choice he wouldn’t act on any response to her, and that was as much for her good as anything else. ‘They have a good time and happy businesspeople are more inclined to want to make deals. Those deals mean money and building the business.’

He relaxed into this assertion. It felt comfortable. Familiar. Safe.

When Marissa turned her head to face him, her gaze was curiously flat. ‘You’re a corporate high-flyer and success means everything to you. I understand.’