Beauty from Pain(28)

I shrug because I’ve never been one to brag, but I’m damn good at it. “I guess. My background in gymnastics doesn’t hurt, either.”


“Gymnastics too,” he laughs. “So you’ve never danced on a stage in f*ck-me pumps for a bunch of horny bastards?”


I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. “You say that like you’re pretty familiar with the scene.”


He holds up his hand. “I’m pleading the Fifth.”


“That’s an American amendment. It doesn’t work for Australians.”


“You didn’t answer my question.”


“Neither did you.”


He has a huge grin. “I may have seen a stripper on a pole once. Maybe twice.”


Damn liar.


I stop the elliptical and sigh loudly, as though he is wearing me down. “Yes and no.”


“Yes to what and no to what?”


“No, I’ve never danced on stage for horny bastards. But yes, I wear f*ck-me pumps when I dance on the pole.”


“Now, you’re bloody hot in my book. What am I going to do with you?”


“I believe the answer to that question still remains to be seen, now doesn’t it?”


12


Jack McLachlan


I’m installing a pole in this gym. ASAP.


We have to stop talking about pole dancing and anything containing the term f*ck me in it before I bend her over my weight bench. I put my hands in my pockets to disguise the hard-on our conversation has triggered. “Are you hungry? Good. Me too. Let’s go.”


She laughs as she steps down from the elliptical. I suspect she knows what she’s done to me. “Is something wrong, Lachlan?”


“Nothing’s wrong. I’m a bit peckish and ready for a bite of lunch.”


My hands are still in my pockets when we start to walk out of the gym. She loops her arm through mine as we walk toward the door. “Me, too. Where are we going for our picnic?”


Her touch only adds fuel to the flame in my jeans. “I haven’t decided. I thought we’d ride out on the ATV and pick a spot together.”


“That sounds like fun.”


We swing back through the kitchen to pick up the basket of food and wine before we head out across the vineyard. I drive out to the middle of the property and stop when I find a somewhat flat grassy area about a mile from the house. “What do you think of this spot?”


“The view is gorgeous.”


We get off the ATV and spread a blanket across the ground. We sit next to each other with the basket between us and she helps me spread the food. “Tell me how you got into the wine business.”


A little truth with a splash of lies on the side. “I guess you could say I was born into it. This is what my dad did for a living before he retired, so it’s what I do.”


“And it makes you happy? I mean, the traveling and being away from your family?”


The cork pops loudly from the bottle of Shiraz. I take a glass from the basket and fill it with wine. “I’m paid quite well to like it. Besides, I get to meet interesting people such as yourself during my travels, so what’s not to like?”


Paige takes the offered glass. “But what about having a family? Don’t you want a wife and children?”


I stifle my laugh. “I decided a long time ago I would never marry.”


I watch her as she holds the glass up to inspect the color of the vino before she smells it. She’s a fast learner. “Maybe the right woman hasn’t come along and stolen your heart.”


I hope she isn’t suggesting she is the right woman because she’d be wrong. There is no right woman for this kind of life. “No wife wants to be the center of her husband’s world on a part-time basis, and that’s what a marriage with me would be like.”


She takes a small drink, waits for the aftertaste, and then smiles. “It’s good. At least I think it is.”


I take a small drink. “I’ve had better and that’s why I’m here—to make this vineyard one of the best.”


She reaches for a cheese cube and cracker. “You shouldn’t let your job keep you from having a family if it’s what you want.”