Some Girls Don't (Outback Heat Book 2) by Amy Andrews

lips.
    Selena’s heart did a funny double beat, and she wasn’t entirely sure it was still from exertion. “Hey,” she replied.
    “I’m sorry for being a dick before.”
    Selena smiled. “I think you well and truly made up for it just now.”
    He laughed. “Good to know.”
    They smiled at each other for a moment. The skin at the edges of his eyes crinkled, and she had the weirdest urge to touch it. She didn’t.
    “It wasn’t casual sex for me, Jarrod,” she said, as her smile dissipated. “Casual sex implies that it didn’t mean anything, that it was just sex, just a physical thing, and it wasn’t.”
    “So … you’re saying …” His hands tightened around her waist. “Last night meant something to you.”
    “Of course it did.” She crinkled her brow. “This is you and me, Jarrod. We have history. We can’t just separate that out from the physical. Didn’t it mean something to you?”
    He nodded slowly. “Yeah. It did.”
    A knock on the other side of the door startled Selena. Jarrod tensed, his hands sliding from her waist to flatten against the door either side of her even though he’d locked it.
    “Phone call for you, boss. Head office.”
    Selena’s pulse settled, and she felt absurdly like laughing. She stifled a grin as Jarrod cleared his throat and said, “Tell them I’ll ring back in five.”
    They both held their breath waiting for any more conversation. When it became obvious there wasn’t going to be any, Selena let out the laugh pushing at her larynx as Jarrod muttered, “ Crap ,” and sagged against her, his forehead on the door this time.
    It felt good having him close like this—like old times—and she slipped her arms round his shoulders. He slid his hands around her waist again; she buried her face in his chest and they hugged for long moments.
    “Sorry,” he grimaced after a minute, pulling back from her. “I have to see to that.”
    Selena dropped her arms. “Of course.” She hadn’t said what she’d really wanted to say, but things felt different between them. Easier. Maybe that was the best she could hope for considering how volatile they seemed to be together these days.
    “Thank you for dropping by,” he said. “It was good to …” he smiled, “clear the air.”
    Selena quirked an eyebrow. “It was my pleasure.”
    He chuckled as he unlocked the door and reached for the door knob. “After you.”

Chapter Six
    ‡
    S elena was two hundred kilometres north-east of Jumbuck Springs four weeks later, covering another fracking story, when she got word that a massive bushfire was burning out of control and bearing down on the tiny hamlet of Abbotsville, two hundred kilometres west of their current location. There were reports that it had been deliberately lit and Channel Four wanted her at the nearby town of Barabbery, where the disaster response was being coordinated. ASAP.
    She and her crew were in the vehicle and on their way within the hour. Relief that the fire was far enough away from Jumbuck Springs and Jarrod’s firehouse made the trip easier. Her thoughts had been with Jarrod so much this last month. Thoughts that had made her smile and filled her with the pleasant buzz of nostalgia.
    Thinking about him out there, staring down a monster bushfire, was too much to bear.
    They drove into Barabbery two hours later, smoke just visible on the horizon. A large park in the centre of the town had been co-opted for use and it was a hive of activity as Selena was directed by a controller to an area that had been designated for the media.
    A huge array of emergency vehicles were parked haphazardly around the site near canvas tents with rolled up sides that had been hastily erected for shade and cover as people in uniforms pored over maps. Police and paramedics rushed around. Weary-looking firefighters in their now-grubby yellow suits sat eating and guzzling water as fresh new recruits in bright yellow uniforms loaded up and headed out.
    They finally entered