‘I don’t need-’

‘I think you do. Barb thinks you do, too.’ He hesitated but then continued. ‘Maybe I should confess I phoned Barb this afternoon. When she heard your koala was dead she was all for rushing up the mountain and taking you home herself. Only I gather Barb has a husband, five sons and a menagerie. We both thought you’d be best here. So what’s it to be, Tori? Here, or Barb’s, because no one’s going to let you stay in a motel by yourself tonight.’

‘Even if I want to?’

‘If you really want, then we’ll pay for a five-star hotel in the best part of Melbourne,’ he said. ‘And you needn’t think I’d have to personally pay-according to Barb half the valley would have their hands in their pockets in a minute to help you. So what’s it to be?’

Still his hand was held out to her.

What was it to be?

She could still drive away. She knew she could.

There was a bath inside. A bath!

And Jake.

There was the problem.

She looked up at him. He smiled.

She couldn’t trust.

She didn’t need to trust. This was a night in a guesthouse, nothing more.

She took a deep breath. She tried to smile back. She put her hand in his and let him pull her up.

The tug had her rising too fast. She almost overbalanced, but he had her steady, catching her shoulders, holding.

He was so near.

She should pull away-but didn’t.

‘Tori…’ he said uncertainly, and she just looked at him. Sex on legs, she thought absently.

No. He was much, much more.

Get a grip, she thought frantically and shoved her hands up, breaking his grip. She came close to falling back down into the car-but didn’t. Thankfully. A girl had some pride.

‘I… Thank you,’ she muttered and managed to get herself round to the other side of the car to retrieve her cardboard box.