The Socialite and the Cattle King by Lindsay Armstrong Read Free Book Online

minds, she realized. She sensed an element of danger between her and Brett Wyndham, but she had to admit he’d been honest, whereas she hadn’t—not entirely, anyway.
    On the other hand, her career was vitally important to her. It had been her mainstay through some dark days.
    She turned back to him. ‘On. My journalistic instincts seem to have won the day,’ she said ruefully. ‘Can I go home now?’
    ‘Of course.’ He stood up, called for Mike Rafferty, and when he came asked him if he’d found Holly’s car.
    ‘Sure did,’ Mike replied, and handed Holly the keys. ‘It’s parked downstairs, Miss Harding.’
    ‘Thank you,’ She hesitated then turned back to Brett Wyndham. ‘Well, goodnight.’
    ‘Goodnight, Holly,’ he said casually, and turned away.
    After he’d dined alone, Brett took his coffee to his study, where he intended to work on his next trip to Africa, only to find himself unable to concentrate.
    The fact that it was a girl coming between him and his plans was unusual.
    He swirled his coffee and lay back in his chair, Well, a change of direction in his life was on the cards; whilst he knew it was one he needed to make, would he ever be able to resist the call of the wild? Was that why he was unsettled?
    It was a juggling act holding the reins of all the Wyndham enterprises based here and being away so frequently. Also, there was something niggling at him that he couldn’t quite put his finger on, but he suspected it was the need to establish some roots.
    In the meantime—in the short term, more accurately—agirl had come to his attention. A girl he wasn’t at all sure about.
    A girl who continued to hold him at arm’s length, now with the claim that she’d had her fingers burnt due to “chemistry”. How true was that? he wondered.
    Could it all be part of a plan to hold his interest? He’d come across many a plan to hold his interest, he reflected dryly.
    None of that changed the fact that she was attractive in a different kind of way—when did it ever? Good skin, beautiful eyes, clean, very slim lines; at times, sparkling intelligence and a cutting way with her repartee…
    He smiled suddenly as he thought of her ‘Holly Golightly from Tahiti’ act.
    He finished his coffee and contemplated another possibility. It was so long since any woman had said no to him he couldn’t help but be intrigued. Especially as he could have sworn there’d been that edgy, sensual pull between them almost from the moment they’d first crossed swords.
    Why, though, he wondered, had he gone to the lengths of dangling an interview before her?
    Because she was likeable, kissable, different?
    He drummed his fingers on the desk suddenly; or did he have in mind using her to deflect his ex-fiancée?
    ‘I’m off to Cairns—well, Palm Cove—then the bush for a few days tomorrow,’ Holly said to her mother that evening over a late dinner. She pushed away the remains of a tasty chicken casserole. ‘You’re not going to believe this, but I got the Brett Wyndham interview after all.’
    Sylvia uttered a little cry of delight. ‘Holly! That’smarvellous. I wasn’t sure I did the right thing. I know you tried to gloss over it, but I wasn’t sure whether you really approved.’ Sylvia paused and frowned. ‘But why do you have to go to Cairns?’
    Holly made the swift decision to gloss over that bit and murmured something about Brett being short of time.
    Sylvia mulled over this for a moment, then she said, ‘He’s very good-looking, isn’t he? I mean he has a real presence, doesn’t he?’
    ‘I guess he does.’
    ‘Holly,’ Sylvia began, ‘I know that awful thing that happened to you is not going to be easy to get over. Actually, you’ve been simply marvellous with the way—’
    ‘Mum, don’t,’ Holly interrupted quietly.
    ‘But there has to be the right man for you out there, darling,’ Sylvia said passionately.
    ‘There probably is, but it’s not Brett Wyndham.’
    ‘How can you be so