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Eventually, they pulled up to a large metal gate. “Fitzroy Dairy” announced the bottle-green sign. Kitty jumped out and opened it. After Josh passed through, she clanked the mechanism across to secure it.See!She was even learning to close gates. They drove up to the farmhouse and pulled into the yard.

“Okay, everybody out,” Josh said, turning off the engine.

Kitty hopped onto the muddy concrete, suddenly very aware of how silly she must look in her spotless, spotted boots. She wandered round to the back of the truck as Wendy sniffed every crevice and corner in the yard.The doors were open, and Josh pulled something out of a drawer.

“I’m expected to at least dress the part,” he said, unfolding a pair of green overalls. “Though I draw the line at a flat cap and a pipe.”

Kitty giggled. “I think you could carry off a flat cap.”

Josh winced comically. “I’d rather not, thanks. But I’m tempted to make you wear one of these too,” he said, holding up the overalls against her, his hands skirting the top of her bare shoulders. “At least you’d make them look good.”

His cornflower blue eyes met hers, and Kitty bit her lip, willing his hands to slide down her arms, around her waist, and then down…Holy crap!She had to stop thinking lustful thoughts if she was going to get through the whole day.

“I have something that might help you,” Josh said.He turned back to the truck and pulled out an old grey T-shirt.

“It's optional, of course, but you might freak the cows out dressed as you are.”

Kitty frowned, then followed his gaze down to her top. The blackberry juice had dried, and she looked like she’d had a fight with a machete. She took the shirt and was about to ask where she could change when Josh peeled off his own T-shirt right in front of her.

Kitty’s breath hitched. His golden chest and abs shone in the early morning sun, and the pink scar near his waistband drew her eyes down. Her mouth gaped open, and she froze.Bloody hell!His body was incredible. She didn’t know they came like that. She quickly closed her mouth, realising she was probably staring like a halfwit! Thank God she wasn’t dribbling.

Josh stepped into his overalls and pulled them up, his muscles rippling with every movement.She’d been right. Wrestling goats was good for more than just the soul.Nobody else could make a green jumpsuit look as hot as he did. Once he’d done up the buttons, Josh turned towards Kitty, who was still staring at him.

With a quick smile, she turned away, peeled off her vest top, and popped on his T-shirt as fast as physically possible. The shirt drowned her, so she knotted up the front. When she turned back around, his eyes rushed to the bare skin of her waist. A shiver of pleasure swept through Kitty as his gaze lingered on her stomach, but she couldn’t read their expression.

A red-headed man wearing blue overalls wandered out of the farmhouse towards the truck.

“Morning, Josh. You come to see the girls?”

He noticed Kitty and offered a hand in greeting, an enormous smile on his face. “You must be Kitty. Josh said you were coming along to help. Nice to meet you.”

She shook his offered hand.

“This is Keith,” said Josh. “He owns the dairy. Let’s get started before it gets too hot.”

With Josh’s impromptu strip show, things were already a little too hot, in her opinion.

Keith left to get things ready, and Josh turned to Kitty. “This might be dull. Tell me if you get too bored.”

She nodded. This wasn’t a date, and Josh needed to concentrate. She’d keep her ogling to a minimum.

He took his equipment out of the truck. Attaching a small screen to his forearm with Velcro, he put on a backpack.

“I didn’t know you were auditioning forGhostbusters,” Kitty said.

Josh laughed.“It’s an ultrasound machine. I’ll show you how it works later. I’ll warn you, though, it’s not for the fainthearted.”

Once he’d organised his gear, they stepped inside the first of the big sheds. It was quieter than Kitty expected. The low hum of machinery blended with scraping hooves andthe occasional soft bellow. The smell was overwhelming, however. A strange mixture of animal, mud, and disinfectant. Once she’d steadied her breath and conquered her gag reflex, Kitty watched Josh at work.

He described what he was doing with each cow, almost as if in meditation. Kitty drank in the intensity on his face, and the commanding tone of his velvet voice drew a blanket of calm over her. She’d willingly follow him into any battle at that moment. This Josh was far from the one she’d played Twister with, but this Josh was just as attractive. Maybe more so.

He moved further down the barn. Aware she wasn’t doing anything remotely useful, Kitty was grateful to be joined by a ruddy-faced woman wearing a khaki T-shirt and a pair of leggings.

“They’ll be at this for a while, luv. Fancy a cup of tea?” she asked, watching Josh as intently as Kitty. With a grateful nod, she followed the woman out of the shed and into the searing sunlight of the yard.

“I’m Becky, Keith’s better half,” she said.

Kitty introduced herself as they wandered into the cool interior of the stone farmhouse, sitting down at the cluttered kitchen table. Her fingers itched to clean the cloth that wore the remnants of what looked like toast and marmalade. Instead, she clenched her hands into fists.