Tall, Dark & Distant by Julie Fison Read Free Book Online Page B

where things would go if he brought her back to the house?

    Nik met Georgia for a run every morning that week. Sometimes they met at 6 a.m., sometimes at 8 a.m. and on other days some-where in between. Georgia liked a routine, but there was no way Nik would stick to one. Boarding school was the last place he’d suffered a routine, but that was only because he had to. Now, he avoided them completely. They were risky. Not that he was going to admit that to Georgia, no matter how often she asked about why they met at a different time each day.
    He was well practised in avoiding awkward questions and nothing would prise that particular story from him.
    By meeting at a different time each morning, he was also able to convince himself that he was still in control of his not-a-relationship relationship with Georgia. He’d attempted to prove this point to himself by not showing up at all one day. But on that morning he got out of bed early anyway, put on his running kit, and drove into Noosa for a coffee, he told himself. Instead of stopping for a coffee, though, he drove straight to the national park where he met Georgia as planned. He was only two minutes late.
    Nik tried to convince himself that he was only meeting Georgia every morning to improve his fitness. And it was true, she was a great running partner – fast, strong and fun. He hardly even noticed the hills as they ran through the park, comparing notes on running shoes, listing the reasons why gyms sucked, sharing travel stories, talking politics and even discussing trees. Georgia was so easy to talk to and so refreshing compared to his usual crowd. He couldn’t imagine identifying different types of eucalypts with them. But the problem was that he wasn’t just running with Georgia in the morning. He was thinking about her all day and dreaming about her all night. And that made his fitness theory difficult to maintain.
    ‘So, you still haven’t really told me why you came to Australia,’ Georgia said at the end of their sixth morning run. She’d asked the same question in a different way pretty much every morning, and he had batted her query back with a vague, Why not? His past was the one topic he’d stayed well away from all week, despite Georgia’s questions.
    On this morning, for no particular reason that he could think of, he didn’t offer his standard answer. He actually told the truth. Or a selective version of it, anyway. ‘I needed a break from Europe. Too many parties.’
    ‘Really?’ she asked.
    Nik shrugged. ‘I got into a bit of trouble in Monaco.’
    ‘Gambling?’ Georgia asked, raising an eyebrow.
    ‘No, I fell off a jetty after a party – no biggie really. But I just decided it was time for a change of crowd.’
    Nik didn’t mention that he’d intentionally driven his Porsche off a jetty and into the sea after a bet with a totally insane American heiress. He’d been doing 200 clicks at the time. His father wasn’t too impressed and nor was hers. They’d both nearly drowned.
    ‘I see,’ Georgia said, but she understandably still looked confused. ‘I fell into a fountain once, after a party – in my school uniform. It was so embarrassing.’
    Nik laughed. She was so cute. And, momentarily blinded to reason by her cuteness, he found himself saying, ‘Care for a swim?’
    Nik knew he couldn’t invite her back to the house. Even if he had decided to break the rules (which, as yet, he hadn’t), Georgia couldn’t come over because Kat was due to turn up any day. But there were plenty of other places to swim, including a particularly inviting ocean no more than 20 metres away.
    Nik nodded to a set of stairs leading to a rocky beach.
    ‘Great,’ Georgia replied. ‘But how about we go to a proper beach?’
    ‘Here’s fine,’ Nik shrugged, pulling off his shirt and trainers and making his way to the water’s edge.
    Nik watched a wave crash over the rocks, sending spray into the air. He waited for it to retreat and then picked