A Kiss to Seal the Deal by Nikki Logan Read Free Book Online Page B

didn’t sleep on the beach.’
    She leaped clean off the ground at the unexpected voice,deep and close. She was more conscious than ever of her smelly seal-clothes, extra rumpled after a night squished up in her car. And the fact he’d just busted her peeing, albeit out of view.
    â€˜Grant.’ Her hands went to her loose hair, blowing in the ever-present wind, before she could stop them. She scanned the desolate coastal paddocks until she spotted his truck in the far distance over near the sheep’s water supply. ‘What are you doing out here so early?’
    â€˜I wanted to check the drinkers before it got too blustery. I saw your ute.’ He glared into the tiny extra-cab of the ute. ‘Did you sleep here, Kate?’
    â€˜I was just too tired to drive last night.’
    He narrowed his eyes and really studied her. ‘You look terrible.’
    Again her hands twitched to attend to her shabbiness. He, of course, looked every bit the fresh-from-the-shower Aussie farmer, even though she knew he wasn’t. Clothes, it appeared, really did maketh the man. Every time she saw him those shoulders seemed to get wider. ‘We have so much to try and finish. Every minute counts.’
    His lips thinned. ‘Where’s your team?’
    â€˜I’m only bringing half of them; the other half are in the lab rushing the samples through.’ She could hear the tension in her own voice and smiled brightly. ‘But we’re getting there. It’s all good.’
    He pulled his hat down harder over his eyes against the rising morning sun. ‘No, it’s not. Not if you’re wearing yourself out and sleeping in your car.’
    Frustration hissed out of her. ‘Sadly, my budget doesn’t really run to portable labs and campers. I’m just working with the parameters I’ve got.’
    â€˜Would that help? A lab down here?’
    â€˜Talking in hypotheticals sure won’t.’
    He stared at her steadily.
    â€˜Fine. Yes, it would help. We would run the samples duringthe hottest part of the day and move our contact hours to morning and late afternoon. I could get my whole team back down.’
    Grant looked out to sea for moments and then brought his clear green eyes back to hers. ‘What sort of a building do you need? Does it have to be hospital-grade?’
    Her heart-rate picked up. Was he serious? Was Grant McMurtrie offering to help her? He was built near enough to a gift-horse. ‘No. Just dry, lockable and pest-free. As long as the equipment can be sterile we can work anywhere with power.’
    â€˜How about my garage? It needs a good clean-out but I’m not using it.’
    Grant drove a top-of-the-range Jeep Wrangler and it sat out weathering most days. ‘You need that for your car.’
    His eyes darkened. ‘No. It’s not…suitable.’
    She stared at him. ‘It’s a garage.’ Of course it’s suitable.
    â€˜Do you want it or not?’
    Kate’s breath whooshed out of her. ‘Why would you do that? You want us gone.’
    His gaze was steady. ‘Despite what you believe, I’m not completely heartless. I grew up with these seals and don’t want to see them persecuted any more than you do. The way I figure it, you can’t get a complete year’s worth of data no matter what happens, so me making your daily tasks more comfortable isn’t going to hurt me, particularly.’
    He was right. Volume made all the difference in the world to her, to the validity of her research. But depressingly little difference to him or to the Commission, who were holding out for something more persuasive.
    â€˜What if you’re wrong?’
    â€˜I wouldn’t be offering if I thought there was a chance of that.’
    The smug confidence should have infuriated her. But all it did was remind her how much she was drawn to a capable man, with a good mind.
    His eyes softened. ‘And I don’t