Rescuing Rudi Read online

  “Oh, that was so good.” She looked at him, her eyes shining with pleasure. “Why don’t you come in with me?”

  “Don’t keep asking,” he replied gruffly, looking away again. “Maybe I will sometime.”

  But ‘sometime’, to Rudi’s delight, turned out to be the very next day. After a lovely trip to town which included breakfast at his favourite cafe, supermarket shopping (where she also bought herself a new phone and some make-up), and browsing the farmers’ market for the freshest, most delicious fruit and vegetables, he told her over lunch that he would take her down to the pool at two o’clock again.

  This time when he knocked on her door, she was ready with her towel wrapped around her. She opened the door to find him in a black bathrobe. As she came out, he handed her a matching one in grey.

  She looked at him in surprise, but he just nodded tersely, gesturing for her to take it saying, “It will be a little bit too big, but it will do. Put it on.”

  She slipped her arms through the sleeves, which did hang down a little past her hands, and wrapped it around herself, letting her towel fall to the floor, then tied the belt, and picked up her towel. He hadn’t stopped to watch though, so she hurried after him to the pool.

  While he seemed to have no trouble avoiding looking at her when she was not fully-dressed, it was incredibly hard for her not to stare at his magnificent physique revealed when he removed his robe and was standing in just a small pair of tight navy-blue swimming shorts. Although quite a bit of the hair on his head and face had turned prematurely silver, the curls on his sculptured chest and rippled abdomen were still jet black.

  For a moment, Rudi was so lost in how gorgeous he looked, she forgot to be self-conscious of herself as she took off her robe and slipped into the pool. Denver moved to the edge of the pool but made no move to get in; he seemed to be lost in thought and completely unaware of his surroundings.

  “Hey,” Rudi yelled, smacking the water with her hand and sending a shower up over him. “Come in!” She splashed him again as he gave a startled jump.

  “Why, you…” he growled, glaring at her with dangerous intent.

  “Uh oh,” Rudi squealed, turning to swim away from him as fast as she could.

  She heard him dive into the pool and in a couple of strokes he’d reached her and grabbed her by the legs.

  “Hey,” she turned and started splashing water into his face as hard as she could. “Let me go.”

  Instead of letting her go, he pulled her up against him, picked her up and threw her into the water. She came up spluttering and laughing.

  “Meany!” She splashed him again and dove under the water, swimming away from him knowing he’d catch her without trouble. She reached the end of the pool and surfaced to find him waiting for her.

  “Naughty girl,” he scolded her, wagging his finger at her. “And you know what happens to naughty girls.”

  She did but didn’t feel in any danger of that happening at the moment so she just laughed.

  “I wouldn’t laugh, if I were you,” he teased her again. “I’d be getting on and doing my laps. I’ll do them with you,” he offered in a more kindly tone.

  He was clearly a very strong swimmer and she was only allowed to swim slowly and gently, but he paced himself to stay alongside her until she finished the amount suggested by her doctor.

  “How do you feel?” he asked as she stood up and wiped the water from her face and shook some drops from her cropped hair. “Any pain?”

  “No,” she smiled at his concerned look. “I feel great. The water is lovely, and swimming is so peaceful and calming.”

  “It is,” he nodded. “I’d almost forgotten how good it felt. I might start doing a bit more again. It’ll be warming up soon. Perhaps I shan’t let the pool lay idle this summer like it has been doing.” His voice had drifted off as though he was talking more to himself than her.

  Rudi waited until he’d finished talking, then dove under the water, breaststroking along the bottom luxuriating in the feeling of being suspended. When she finally surfaced, he was watching her.

  “You look like a mermaid.”

  “Mermaids can’t do frog kick,” she blushingly laughed off his compliment.

  He grinned. “No, I guess they can’t. Okay, you look like a frog, then.”

  “Ooh, you!” she exclaimed, splashing and lunging toward him, but he turned and swam powerfully away. She chased him but every time she got close, he ducked, dived or swam away always remaining just out of reach.

  After a few moments of diving, swimming, splashing, and running around in the pool, he stopped. As she got close enough, he grabbed hold of her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pinning her arms to her sides.

  “Hold your nose!”

  “I can’t,” she cried as he ducked her under the water, and she just had time to shut her eyes and stop breathing.

  He pulled her back up, still holding her, his face only inches from hers.

  “Let’s see, are you a witch? Well, you didn’t drown, so you must be.”

  His voice had dropped to a murmur, and he was looking directly into her eyes. She felt a stabbing sensation through her abdomen and her chest tightened as their eyes locked together, and she felt his hard body pressed against her. She felt his power drawing her in as her surroundings faded away, and she was aware of nothing but his eyes and the sensation that she was falling into them.

  Time stood still. She was grateful. She wanted to be in his arms, her face next to his, his eyes looking into her soul forever.

  “Okay,” he said brusquely, pushing her away and shattering the spell as though he’d been completely unaware of the bubbling chemistry. “Time to get out. Come along.”

  “Can I stay for a bit longer? You know I can swim okay. I’ll be fine on my own, and I can lock up when I leave.”

  He moved quickly back to her and grabbed her by her upper arms.

  “What did I tell you?” he demanded.

  “Yes, but…” she stumbled, shocked by the vehemence of his reaction.

  “There is no ‘but’,” he cut her off. “You are never, never, never to swim in this pool alone. I thought I had made that clear. If you do, if I catch you sneaking in here without me, you will be very, very sorry. Do you hear me?”

  Rudi blanched. She didn’t understand why he seemed so angry, and he was frightening her. She nodded, unable to speak.

  “Say it,” he demanded, giving her a little shake. “Say it!”

  “I will never swim in the pool without you,” she stammered, desperate to do whatever he wanted just so long as she could get away.

  The words seemed to snap him back, and she saw his look of anger go to one of horror and remorse. He let go of her arms and pulled her hard against his chest.

  “Oh, little girl. Did I frighten you? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

  While he was speaking, now in a gentle voice, he was stroking her back.

  “There, there, little one. I’m not cross with you. I just need to know you will never come in here alone,” he continued on in a voice so slow, soft, and hypnotic that Rudi felt herself relaxing against him, all the emotion draining out of her.

  Obviously happy that she’d calmed down, he took her hand and led her to the edge of the pool.

  “Come on. That’s enough swimming for today. Let’s get showered and dressed and watch a movie. It’s pretty cold and miserable out, and you haven’t watched any TV all week. What do you say?”

  Snuggled on the couch watching a movie with him on a cold and wet Sunday afternoon? Oh, yes, please, she thought.

  “Sounds good.” She kept her voice light not wanting him to see just how good it sounded to her in case he changed his mind. Every time she thought they were getting a bit closer, he pushed her away. At least it seemed that way to her.

  When he’d held her in the pool earlier, she really felt there was a strong spark between them, but as soon as she felt it, it was gone, and she was left wondering if she’d ima
gined it. She wished she knew what he really thought of her and how he felt about her. Was she just an obligation he was dealing with? Did he feel fatherly toward her, caring but totally without sexual attraction? Was there a tiny spark somewhere that she could work on? If only she knew.

  Maybe she could snuggle closer to him on the couch and if he pulled away, she would just ask him outright. If he told her that he didn’t find her remotely attractive, she’d be disappointed but at least she would know.

  But what if she pressed him and he rejected her and then felt uncomfortable having her around. He might decide she had to leave straight away. The breath went out of her with an ‘oof’, almost like she’d been punched, at the thought. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t fall in love with him; told herself she only wanted to stay because it was a safe, comfortable hiding place, but the thought of saying ‘goodbye’ to him and walking out of his life hurt more than his spankings.

  * * *

  Burrowing under her doona later that night, her disappointment sat like a sour ball in her throat. He had thwarted her plan of snuggling up with him by sitting in one of the armchairs and leaving her on the couch by herself.

  He’d been friendly enough; she couldn’t fault him on that. He’d been careful to pick a fun movie they would both enjoy, and he’d organised an early dinner of beer and pizza while they watched it, which had felt almost decadent considering his usual strict adherence to a healthy diet. Finally, to top off their leisurely Sunday, he’d taken her for a walk in the still chilly, late, spring evening. It was gorgeous: the air was clean and fresh, the trees and bushes were coming into full flower, two kookaburras laughed at them from their gum tree while a flock of white, sulphur-crested cockatoos called noisily to each other as they flew overhead, darkly silhouetted against the reddening sunset. And the view was spectacular.

  Despite their size differences, Denver and Rudi kept a similar pace, easily staying side by side as they walked up the street past their neighbours’ houses, half-hidden among the gum trees. All the blocks on the hillside were large and the hill steep so it was quite a hike by the time they had gone around the corner and reached the back of Denver’s block.

  Holding the fence wires apart, Denver let Rudi in and then climbed through himself. As they set off down the track to his back door, their hands banged gently together again as they’d done a few times during the walk. Rudi had deliberately kept allowing it to happen, hoping he’d take the hint and wrap his big hand around hers. But he hadn’t and he didn’t.

  So, while they’d had a wonderful fun and relaxing Sunday together, he’d kept his distance and she still wasn’t sure why. Did he not find her attractive? Maybe he was just insecure and thought she would think him too old for her. Or maybe he was worried she was a gold-digger.

  Certainly they were chalk and cheese: he was older, wealthy, educated, extremely successful, fastidious about tidiness and good food and exercise and other things that she didn’t care about at all, and she? Okay, so she was none of those things, but he didn’t know that. He had no idea about her true background and she meant to keep it that way, but maybe it was time she came up with some plausible background story that would impress him.

  Yes, she decided drifting off to sleep, she was running out of time if she wanted to stay here with Denver, and she did want that. She needed to do two things: give him a story about who she was and where she came from that he would admire, and find out more about him.

  He’d told her he was a widower, but she hadn’t seen any photographs or evidence of a wife anywhere. Maybe he was gay, she thought with sudden shock. Perhaps he’d lied about having been married. He had some sort of secret he wasn’t telling her, she was sure, and as she drifted off to sleep she made a plan and vowed to herself that she would discover just what that secret was.

  Chapter 5

  Over the next couple of days Rudi was careful to keep her head down and her eyes open, and her vigilance paid off. Now that she was looking, she noticed things she’d not done before. Things like: Denver kept the top drawer in his office locked; when he said he “had work to do” in the evening, he always went into the spare bedroom between hers and his which she’d yet to see inside; and he always kept his bedroom door shut.

  If there were any secrets to uncover about Denver Bane, it was most likely they were hidden in one or more of those three places, so she needed time alone to have a poke about, and the only time she could be sure of being alone in the house was in the early morning while Denver was in his gym. He’d extended her exercise time to twenty minutes, but she still had a good half-an-hour to have a look around.

  Having made up her mind, she set her alarm for six o’clock, got up, dressed in the grey cotton tights and top she wore for her gym workout, and listened for him to leave the house. Once she was sure he’d gone, she peeked out her door. It was still and quiet. He would expect her to join him in the gym in thirty minutes, and she daren’t be late, so she made her way quickly down the hall to his room.

  Although she knew he wasn’t there, her heart was thumping as she slowly turned the handle and pushed open his door. The only time she’d seen inside at all was when he’d given her a guided tour of the house and gardens, and even then, it had been the quickest of peeks. Now she was able to have a good look around.

  It was a huge room with a big walk-in wardrobe and an en suite bathroom. As she would have expected, it was impeccably tidy, the bed was made and there was not a discarded piece of clothing in sight.

  On each side of the king-size bed was a single-drawer bedside table. One held a reading lamp and book; the other was empty. Now knowing on which side of the bed he slept, she ran her hand over the pillow where his head lay and stroked the doona that kept him warm.

  She opened the drawer. Inside was a box of tissues and a small torch. It seemed so little, she thought. Here was a man who spent his life creating whole other worlds in which people lived, loved, had adventures, solved crimes, and died, and yet his own life was so sparse, so tidy.

  Although Rudi couldn’t quite put that into words herself, she found the lack of personal touches, the lack of evidence that someone even spent time in this room somewhat eerie. She went into the walk-in wardrobe. His clothes and shoes were all neatly folded or hung on hangers all facing the same way.

  The bathroom was the same, his toothbrush, hairbrush and razor were all in the small cupboard above the vanity. A bottle of shower gel and one of shampoo on the holder in the shower recess were the only clues anyone had used this bathroom recently.

  Looking into the shower, the image of him in his bathers sprang up before her: the strong bare arms, the lower halves covered with black hair, his beautifully sculpted chest also with its covering of black hair converging in a line running down the middle of his tightly undulating abdomen and disappearing out of view.

  She drew in her breath as his bathers magically disappeared and she pictured what lay beneath them. It was almost as if he were actually showering right there in front of her, so vivid was the image of him, wet and soapy, turning away from her to show off his curved, muscular buttocks as he washed the soap off his chest. He looked at her over his shoulder and grinned seductively as he slowly began to turn back, and she could see…

  Her legs beginning to buckle jerked her back to reality. She was trembling so violently, she had to put her hand on the basin to steady herself. Looking in the mirror, before her hot breath caused a fog that obscured her reflection, she saw her cheeks were red and her eyes brighter than usual.

  Damn! She chastised herself as she fought to quell the intense physical desire the thought of his naked body had erupted in her. She wasn’t supposed to be having sexual fantasies about him; she was supposed to be looking for any clues about his personal life, and she had to admit there didn’t seem to be anything in his bedroom. That only left the spare room.

  Pulling herself together and hurrying out of the bathroom as time ran out, she made for the door to the third bedroom on this
floor; the one with the door that was always shut and she’d not seen inside. She tried the door. It wasn’t locked. She pushed it open and took a step inside.

  She gasped. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but it wasn’t this. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to take in what she was looking at: the boxes, rack of clothes, shelves holding all manner of objects, the stacks of photos on the desk and many more, framed, on the walls.

  “What the—”

  She spun around, her heart thumping at the sound of a very angry voice.

  Denver grabbed her by the shoulders, pulled her out of the room and slammed the door. “What do you think you’re doing in there? How dare you snoop in my private life? Were you looking for something to steal?”

  The shock of being caught in the act had taken Rudi’s breath and power of speech away, but his last question brought them back with a vengeance.

  “No,” she replied as angrily, forgetting for the moment that she was the one who’d been caught out. “I don’t steal. I’m not a thief!” Her eyes burned with the shock of being caught and the shame of being thought a common thief. “I was… I was just…” But she couldn’t think of any easy way to explain what she was doing. “I thought you were in there,” she finished lamely.

  His eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed menacingly.

  “Did you?” he asked in a low, slow voice. “Or are you lying to me now?”

  Unable to believe the awfulness of the situation she was in, Rudi averted her eyes from his, looking down at her feet, biting her lip, wondering what on earth she was going to say next. She could either confess to lying or tell another one.

  Her dilemma was quickly resolved, although not in a way she might have wished. Grabbing her hand, Denver pulled her next door into his bedroom, and before she had time to realise what was going on, he pulled down her tights, turned her around, grasped her firmly around the waist, bent her forward and started spanking her hard and fast.