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Carter looked at Indy. Her eyes were closed but they opened when he tugged her to him.

‘I swear I didn’t come down here for that. I was completely okay with just talking.’

She laughed and pressed a kiss to his lips, firm and reassuring. ‘I know, but I’m sure as hell happy it happened.’

‘Did I say I wasn’t happy? I’m happier than I’ve ever been.’ He smiled and nuzzled her neck. God, the skin there was so smooth.

Her giggles rang out in a delicious-sounding way. ‘Stop,’ she said, pushing on his shoulders.

He brought his head up and looked into her shining but thoughtful eyes.

‘I’ve liked it every time we’ve had sex but that time …’

‘You didn’t like it?’ Worry snatched at him.

‘No, I did,’ she hurried to assure him. ‘I just didn’t know it could be like that.’

‘What do you mean?’

She bit her bottom lip and her eyes grew round. ‘Gentle. Slow, but still intense and amazing. Like you cared as much about my pleasure as you did about yours.’

What kind of sex had she been having? He didn’t want to know; it hurt too much to think of anyone being anything other than loving towards her. Instead, he pressed a kiss to her lips. ‘I do care about you, Indy.’

She ran her finger across his lips and down his chin, her nail catching on his stubble.

He swallowed hard. Her finger continued its path down his neck and across his collarbone.

Despite being exhausted, he grew hard for her.

Holding her hand, he caught her lips with his and drew out the kiss into a long and steamy one.

He rolled them so she was on top, her naked body pressed against his.

Her hair fell around them like a curtain and he ran his fingertips slowly up the smooth skin of her back.

She shuddered and broke the kiss, sliding off him but staying in his arms.

‘Down, boy,’ she teased. ‘Aren’t you tired?’

‘You’re enough to keep me going.’

She laughed. ‘Good answer.’ She ran her nails through the smattering of hair on his chest.

There was a scu?ng on the verandah and Carter’s head whipped around to the door as Indy laughed.

‘It’s just Blossom.’

Carter relaxed. ‘I think we should take round two back to your place.’

Indy’s eyebrows wriggled. ‘Who says you’re getting lucky again?’

‘I’m lucky to just be in your presence,’ he said. Her face softened. ‘But if you’re too tired, I can head up—’

She cut him off with a kiss. ‘Don’t turn stupid now.’

He laughed and helped her up from the ground. The search for clothes commenced. Indy pulled on her underwear and Carter had to remind himself that it wouldn’t be long before he’d get to tear it off again.

‘Did Beau grow up around a bunch of girls?’

He snatched up his jocks. ‘What?’

‘I’ve been thinking about what you told me before and I mean, you’re guys. Guys normally have it out and then get over it. Not hold onto shit like girls do.’

‘Not when Aaron not playing cost us the grand final.’ Carter shifted the cushions, looking for his shorts.

Indy scoffed. ‘You don’t know that. This guy, Aaron, could’ve played and you might’ve still lost.’

Carter thought about the game. It’d been back and forth between the Scorpions and the Taipans, each team battling for the lead until the Taipans took off in the last ten minutes.

‘Why do you say that?’

‘Aaron’s one guy. Yeah, he sounds like he was good.

Or maybe not that good if he didn’t get that award.

Anyway, as good as he may have been, your sport requires more than one person to do their role to win.

’ She tossed her hair over her shoulder.

‘Look at it this way. Nova’s great and if there was a farm owner award then she’d win it hands down, but not even Nova can run a place like this on her own—it takes all of us doing our bit.

And if, say, Theresa or Janet left and someone new with less experience came in, it’d be a weak spot in the team, but it’d still function and the rest of us would have to work harder until the new person was up to scratch. That’s the definition of teamwork.’

‘Or if you left.’

‘What? I’m not leaving.’ She shook her head and looked down to button her denim shorts. ‘Do you get what I mean, though?’

‘Yeah, I do. Even if I hadn’t given that statement to the police about what Aaron did and he played, it doesn’t automatically mean we would’ve won.’ He found his shorts under the couch. ‘I know that, but I think Beau is blind to the reality of the whole thing.’

Already dressed, Indy handed him his shirt and pecked him on the cheek.

‘Just proves that you’re a hell of a lot smarter than him.

’ She looked at the door. ‘I’ll go out first and go in front of the cabins as usual.

I’ll walk slow and make a bit of noise. You circle around the back and follow the tree line behind the cabins. ’

‘Deal.’

Outside, Carter paused to scratch behind Blossom’s ears, giving Indy a chance to go first. Maybe he should’ve told her about promising Jonathan that he’d change teams if things didn’t improve. There was always tomorrow.

He skirted around the breakout room. I’m not leaving .

He frowned. Her tone had been firm, but he’d heard a hint of fear.

That’s why he’d let it go: it was a conversation for a different time.

He ducked across the road and walked in the shadows of the trees.

All he knew was he couldn’t say goodbye to Indy at the end of camp and not know when he was going to see her again.

Carter jerked awake. His head lifted from the pillow and he stared, confused, into the darkness. What had woken him? Where was he? His bunk room wasn’t this dark. He swiped a hand down his face.

A crunch. A gasp.

‘Ouch!’

‘Indy?’

‘Carter …’ Her voice shook.

He flipped back the sheets and launched himself out of bed, picturing the setup of the room.

Rounding the bottom of the bed, he dived for the wall, hitting the switch he’d hoped he was aiming for.

Light flooded the room and he was momentarily stunned, his eyes stinging.

He blinked against the harshness. When he could see, the first thing he spied was his pants and jocks on the floor.

He pulled them on as he looked around for Indy.

‘Babe …’

She was seated on the floor between the bed and the wall, surrounded by shattered glass and ceramic.

A lamp shade was stuck halfway beneath the bed.

She was visibly shaking, her face pale, and she was clutching her foot.

There was blood seeping between her fingers, but his heart lodged in his throat at the tears snaking down her face.

Grabbing a discarded piece of clothing, he swept the broken pieces of lamp towards the wall to clear a path then scooped her into his arms. His fingers gripped her tightly, her trembling making carrying her more di?cult.

He picked his way through the lounge room and perched her on the edge of the kitchen table, then snatched up a tea towel that hung over the sink, praying it was clean.

‘Here, baby, use this.’

She moved her hand and he tied the cloth around her foot tightly to stop the bleeding.

His T-shirt was still on the table, so he grabbed it and pushed it over Indy’s head, hoping it might go some ways to warm her up and stop her shaking.

She worked her arms through the holes while he found another cloth then wet it.

Pulling up a chair, he sat below her and pulled her blood-stained hand towards him. He set about wiping it clean.

‘What happened?’

She sniffed and used the collar of his shirt to wipe her eyes.

‘I don’t know what woke me, but when I did, it was so dark.

I tried to turn the bedside table lamp on but I knocked it over.

’ Fear dripped from her voice. It stirred the sleeping beast within him, the protective one who wanted to destroy all her fears and hurt.

‘Why didn’t you wake me?’

‘I just wanted a light on …’

He released her hand and rose enough to press a kiss to her lips. ‘It’s okay. You’re safe, I’m here and the bedroom light’s on.’

She gave him a small but watery smile and he just wanted to snatch her up from the table and crush her to him. Whatever had happened to make her fear the dark was real, and she lived it every day.

‘First aid kit?’

‘Under the sink.’

The clock on the microwave told him it was three in the morning. He’d meant to leave earlier but had obviously fallen asleep. Indy was staring at the floor lamp in the corner of the lounge when he sat back down with the first aid kit and tugged her foot over to him.

‘I don’t think staring at it is going to make it turn back on,’ he told her, unzipping the kit and finding the alcohol wipes. It’d be a miracle if there was no glass in the cut.

‘Why wasn’t it on? I always leave it on. Even during the day, just in case I don’t make it back until after dark.’ The fear was fading from her voice, but it wasn’t completely gone. She winced as he cleaned her wound.

Carter shrugged. ‘The bulb might’ve blown.’

‘Maybe. I can’t remember the last time I changed it.’

‘This cut isn’t too deep and you’re really lucky there’s no shards in it, so I think a bandage will do.’ He found some gauze and a bandage, making quick work of securing it around her wound.

‘Can you get something out of the freezer for me, please?’ Indy asked.

‘Yeah, you want an ice pack?’ He headed over, flinging the door open and searching for a frozen blue pack, but coming up empty. He turned back to her with a brow raised.

‘The bottle of vodka, please.’

Carter rolled his eyes and shut the freezer door. ‘I think not drinking at three in the morning is probably the better option. I’ll get you some paracetamol.’

Indy laughed lightly. ‘You’re probably right. I have to be up for work in a couple of hours and Nova does not approve of drinking on the job.’

He grabbed a glass and filled it from the tap before finding the painkillers that sat on top of the microwave. Handing them to her, he went to the lamp and pulled out the bulb. ‘Yep, it’s blown. Do you have another one?’

‘Same cupboard as the first aid kit.’

Carter was surprised at how awake he was after being woken early the last two mornings, using huge amounts of physical energy training and staying up late to make love to the amazing woman still sitting on the table.

He changed the light bulb, then found a dustpan and broom and cleaned up the shattered lamp.

‘Come on, baby,’ he said, scooping Indy back up in his arms. She could probably walk now but he liked carrying her. ‘Back to bed.’

‘My hero,’ she replied with the tiniest bit of sarcasm.

He set her in the middle of the mattress and pulled the sheet over her, tucking her in before climbing on too. He wrapped an arm around her.

‘I’m going to stay until you fall asleep but then I better go.’

She rested her head against him. ‘Thank you for staying, but I won’t be sleeping again.’

‘Do you want to talk about it?’

He frowned when she didn’t answer. She was so silent and still. If he hadn’t known better, he would’ve thought she’d dropped off to snoozeland. But he wasn’t going to push her, as desperate as he was to know what or who had hurt her.

Her head moved slowly from side to side, but then she sighed.

‘When I was younger, my parents used to have a lot of people over. They’d all get on it together.

I don’t remember everything, but I remember the dark.

The noises outside my bedroom door, lots of banging and yelling.

Fights would break out all the time. Sometimes I’d get locked in there.

Maybe my parents thought it was safer. It was so dark, and I would get so hungry.

Felt like days would pass before I’d be let back out … ’

Her voice trailed off, leaving Carter to imagine the sort of neglect inflicted on a vulnerable young girl by drug-fucked adults.

A fury hit him like nothing he’d ever felt before.

She’d been a kid! A kid that her parents hadn’t prioritised over their next high.

He wasn’t na?ve, he’d taken drugs before, but that didn’t mean he could understand how anyone could want that over protecting and caring for their own flesh and blood. Their own child !

Indy pulled her head back and looked up at him. He worked to gain control over himself. He didn’t want her to retreat again. She’d trusted him with her past and he couldn’t betray that.

‘I’m so sorry you went through that, Indy,’ he murmured, cradling her face. ‘I promise you, as long as I’m around, I’m not going to let anything happen to you.’

She nodded and he pressed a desperate kiss against her lips. He loved her. It was the only thing that made sense for the strength of these emotions swirling around inside him. He was in love with Indy.

He leant back against the headboard as Indy rolled into the pillow. What the hell did he do now?