Page 152 of Crossed Wires: The Complete Series

Stockmen Keith and Marc are head over heels in lust with the American teacher, though the attraction brings about some surprising revelations. Such as how right it feels to share a woman. This woman. No jealousy between the lifelong mates, just a burning need to bring Harper pleasure. Together. And they do so—until an unsettling event unearths her tragic revelation.

Chapter1

Harper Shaw hitched her bag farther up her shoulder, smiled at the Australian cowboy standing before her and thought,This is not what I was expecting.

The cowboy’s own smile spread wider over his brown, leathery face. He leaned forward, hooking his fingers around the handle of her suitcase. “You must be the American teacher, right? Welcome t’ Australia.”

“Thank you, Mr.…err…” She gave the cowboy an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, I don’t know your name yet.”

The cowboy pushed his very worn hat back on his head. “Ronnie will do nicely, miss.”

Harper wasn’t sure which was drier, the gravelly sound of his voice, the red dirt surrounding her or the air she pulled into her lungs with every breath.

So far autumn in the Outback wasn’t anything like what she’d told her fifth graders. It wasn’t as hot, she hadn’t seen any kangaroos bouncing around and no one had tried to make her eat Vegemite, something every Australian celebrity who went on Leno insisted was delicious.

Nor was the cowboy in front of her anything like thetwocowboys her Australian best friend, Amy Wesson, had said would be collecting her from the airport. Not that she’d told her students how she’d expected the cowboys to look. That conversation had been reserved for after-work cocktails with the few girlfriends she had back in Chicago. In those chats, the cowboys who collected her at the airport—Keith Munroe and Marc Thompson—looked like Ryan Gosling, sounded like Chris Hemsworth and removed their shirts the second they saw her.

Thiscowboy was more…homely.

Oh God, Harper, are you really so superficial?

Disgusted with herself, she bit back a soft snort. She was here to teach a small group of Australian elementary-aged children, not have a trans-global affair, no matter how erotic it sounded.

Okay, thatwaskind of what she was here for. She had, after all, promised herself and her best friend she would do the opposite of everything she’d normally do back home, and back home she was damn near close to being a shut-in. The only boyfriend she’d had in the last four years had been scared off by Andrew—who was theotherreason she’d journeyed so far away from home. She needed to get away from her brother. He was on the verge of delivering one of his “big brother knows best” lectures and, by the serious tone in his voice during their last phone conversation, it was going to be a doozy.

Spending two weeks teaching in a small school on an Outback ranch was just what she needed. A chance to prove she was capable of standing on her own two feet. Of being independent. Of being a woman, damn it.

It had sounded so exciting when she and Amy had discussed it. The young teacher Harper had met online a year ago had painted such an evocative picture of life in the Australian Outback, Harper couldn’t resist suggesting a “life swap” for two weeks. A brief escape to cloudless sweeping skies, air so fresh it was sweet, young students enamored with everything American, cowboys so sexy they hurt to look at, kangaroos, Tim Tams and an adventure beyond her imagination.

Now, standing on the dusty runway of the airport at Cobar, the small town closest to the ranch, out in the middle of nowhere with not a tree—or kangaroo—in sight, let alone a building higher than two stories, Harper wondered if she’d been too eager to pursue the exchange.

“Shell-shocked, ’eh love?” Ronnie grinned. “Yeah, reckon the Outback is a bit different to where you’re from. But don’t panic yet. Wait until you get to Farpoint.”

Harper adjusted the brand-new designer sunglasses she’d bought just for this trip, the brilliant autumn sky bright against her eyes. Eyes that had grown accustomed to spending the last twenty-six hours either inside a plane or an airport terminal. “It’s very…different.”

Ronnie laughed. “City sheila?”

“City what?”

He laughed again, the sound close to boisterous guffaws. “Sorry, I’m messin’ with ya. You’re a city girl, yes? Never been outta the big smoke?”

Harper was sure he was speaking English. Maybe?

“You’ll love Farpoint,” he went on. “Promise. I’ve worked there for the last fifteen years and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Started as a wet-behind-the-ears jackaroo when I still sounded like a girl.” He turned and began walking toward some sort of red-dirt-covered vehicle that looked as if it wanted to be a pickup when it grew up.

Harper didn’t follow. Not straightaway. She stood and stared at the alien world she’d committed to spending the next fourteen days in. A world, it seemed, without green. Red dust blew around her ankles. A flock of bone-white birds flew overhead, their screeching calls harsh on her ears.

“Comin’, miss?”

She started. “Um, Amy said Keith Munroe and Marc Thompson would be?—”

“They got caught up with a cow,” Ronnie cut her off. “I’m a better driver anyway.”

Harper chewed her lip for a second before giving the waiting man a nod. She’d never get in a car with a stranger back home. Ever.

The opposite of everything, remember?

She tilted her chin and smiled at Ronnie. “Coming.”