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  Scarlet Harlot Publishing™

  Erotic Romance

  Copyright © 2014 by Amarinda Jones

  First E-book Publication: April 2014

  Editor:Bethany Brookes

  Cover design by Amarinda Jones

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2014 by Amarinda Jones

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

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  Dumb at Heart

  © Amarinda Jones

  Chapter One

  “You’re a fool.”

  Cass Kelly blew out a breath. “Yeah, well, tell me something I don’t know.” She

  unlocked the passenger side door and pushed it open.

  “What you’re doing is crazy.”

  “Probably.”

  “So you’re just going to run off to the back of beyond to do what? Find yourself?

  Search for the meaning of life? Ponder man’s inhumanity to man?”

  “All that, and probably get quite sunburnt.” Cass looked down into her handbag.

  The zipper was busted so it was easy to see the contents. Money? Check. Plane ticket?

  Scrunched, but visible. Directions to the back of beyond? Yep.

  “It’s plain crazy.”

  Cass grinned. Yeah, it was, but crazy worked for her. “Look at me, Lorelle. Have

  I ever done anything sensible in all the time you have known me?”

  “Well—nope.” Her friend sighed and reached out to tug on a lock of Cass’s red

  hair. “Just be careful.”

  “Of course I will.” I’m flying off in a tiny plane to a place I have never seen to

  work with people I don’t know, who live miles from civilization, where snakes and

  feral pigs will probably eat me alive, that is if I do not burn to a crisp under a sun

  that can rip your hide off. Careful? Pfft.

  Lorelle shook her head. “Uh-huh. I’m not sure who I should be more concerned

  for. You, or the population of Mundabucka. ”

  It was one photo of Wade Moore in the Cairns Post, that had Cass Kelly packing

  her bags and heading for the airport. “Lying, cheating swine.” Once she thought she

  had loved him. But that was before she saw him and her—Louise Samuels, heir to the

  Samuels yacht company—grinning mockingly up from the page of the newspaper.

  They had just gotten engaged. Funny thing was Cass had a vague thought, despite the

  three months dry spell in sex between them, she and Wade would one day announce

  their marriage. A not funny thing was Cass had realized too late that an heiress beat a

  receptionist hands down when it came to the marriage stakes. Cass knew Wade was

  ambitious but to get hooked up with a horsey faced dame with the inherited Samuels

  wart under her nose, that in no way could ever be called a beauty spot despite what

  was written in the article, she hadn’t seen coming. She also hadn’t seen coming the

  fact that she would get really drunk on hearing about said engagement and then sit at

  her computer tapping away at an online advertisement to be placed in the Cairns Post

  congratulating the—quote—“small balled prick with penis length issues on his

  engagement to Flicka. If there is a God, may their kids look nothing like them. Eat

  dirt and die, yours sincerely, Mary Poppins.” On reflection it was probably a bad

  thing to do. Probably, but it felt good as was throwing herself at the first online job

  she saw after posting her tribute to Wade. But then, Cass wanted to get out of Cairns

  for a bit. While she loved the Far North Queensland tropical city, she knew she had to

  get out and clear her head and de-Wade-ify.

  Two hours later, standing at the local airport at Mundabucka with a suitcase in

  one hand and two cackling caged chooks in the other, Cass looked around her. Behind

  her was a rusted-in-parts, corrugated tin shack that served as arrival and departures for

  the overly optimistically named Mundabucka International Airport. In front of her

  was dry, red dirt as far as the eye could see. And the heat? Suffocating. Unlike Cairns

  it was a dry heat that sucked all the moisture out of a body. Cass felt the sweat

  dripping down between her breasts and clinging to the short floral sundress she was

  wearing.

  She put both the suitcase and chooks on the ground and re-scraped her hair up

  into a haphazard bun on top of her head. “Frig, it’s hot.” Cass looked around her.

  Other than the squinty-eyed airport controller, who introduced himself as Phil, there

  was no one. She was supposed to be met by someone called Evan. Phil smiled when

  she told him this.

  “Evan’s a creature of whim. He gets the call of the wild and takes off just like

  that.” He snapped his fingers.

  Cass was impressed as not only was Phil missing two front teeth but also three

  fingers on his left hand and two on his right. He explained this as a ‘run-in with a

  pissed off wild pig.’

  She looked down at the caged chickens. “Okay, so maybe this wasn’t a brilliant

  idea but it’s not my worst.” They cackled loudly. “Oh, shut up. I know what I’m

  doing—kinda.” Cass muttered under her breath and looked around her once more.

  There was loads of nothing for miles. “Where the hell is he?”

  “Who?” came a voice from behind her.

  Cass spun around in surprise. “Where did you come from?” She asked as she

  surveyed the tall, lanky man with broad shoulders that most men would kill for. She

  looked into the bluest
eyes she had ever seen and saw only amusement. Men.

  Amusement. Not happening.

  “You’d be the city chick here to work at McNally’s Hotel.”

  City chick? “I’m Cass Kelly and undoubtedly you’d be the creature of whim,

  Phil was telling me about.”

  The dark haired man smiled. “That’d be me.” Evan Bates at your service.” He

  looked down at the caged chooks. “You brought chooks.” That made his smile wider.

  Cass picked up the cage. “You’re quick.”

  Evan scratched his head. “You know, when Jo and Flo said you were bringing

  them I thought the old girls had lost their minds.”

  “Do you have a problem with chickens?” They were her pets. She couldn’t leave

  them to fend for themselves when she went bush. They were like family. Sort of.

  He shrugged. “Nope. We like chickens here—preferably deep fried.”

  “You fry my chickens and I will fry your ass.”

  Evan arched one eyebrow. “That could be fun.” His gaze then traveled down her

  body, lingering on her breasts, before moving down to her thong clad feet and back up

  to her eyes. “What’re their names?”

  “How do you know I named them?” She had but that wasn’t the point. Do I look

  that obvious?

  “You brought them all the way to the middle of nowhere. They have to be

  important to you.”

  The chooks were quiet as they watched him. Cass squared her shoulders. “Mitzi

  and Bert.”

  “Bert?”

  “Yeah, what of it?”

  “Bert is a boy’s name. This chook is a female,” he pointed out as he reached for

  her bag.

  “So?” Cass knew her tone was defensive but she wasn’t in the mood to deal with

  a smart ass man.

  Still smiling at her, he responded, “Nothing. So, one bag only?”

  “I travel light.” She had left everything she owned at Lorelle’s place. Not that

  ‘everything’ was much. It was an old television, a purple cane chair, a sofa bed and an

  oversized panda she won at the Cairns show when she was twelve and was reluctant

  to get rid of.

  “Most women travel with all sorts of crap.”

  “I’m not most women.”

  Again, he looked her up and down. “Nope, you’re different all right.”

  She wanted to ask what he meant by that but decided against it. She had a feeling

  the answer would be complicated and right now she needed easy and simple. “How

  far’s McNally’s?”

  “It’s in the middle of town so that’d make it about five kilometers from here.”

  “Great. Let’s go.” She desperately wanted a shower. “Where’s your car?”

  “Horse.”

  “Horse?”

  “Yeah, I rode here.”

  “Well, how am I supposed to get to McNally’s?”

  “On the back of my horse.”

  What the? She hadn’t ridden a horse in her life and wasn’t about to now. “What

  about my stuff?”

  “Phil will drive over later with it.”

  Cass placed the chicken cage on the ground. “Fine, I’ll go into town with Phil.”

  “No worries. He goes off shift in six hours.”

  Her eyes widened at that. “Six hours?”

  “Yep, he’s stationed here in case of emergencies.”

  Cass looked around at the vast expanse of nothingness. “Like what? Aliens

  landing?”

  “Maybe,” Evan chuckled and placed her suitcase on the ground. “So Cass, it’s up

  to you. Sit on your ass out here and sweat a lot or come into town with me.”

  She pursed her lips. “I’ve never ridden a horse.”

  He picked up her bag again. “Not much to it. Climb on, scoot close up to me and

  hold on.”

  Cass licked her lips in thought. Hold on to him. In the heat. Hmmm.

  “I don’t bite much,” he grinned at her.

  Chapter Two

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “So you put your hand in the wrong place. It’s only a big deal if you make it

  one.”

  “It’s wasn’t big at all.”

  “Oh, it is. Bigger than you expected.”

  He was right. Damn man. Damn hands. After some embarrassing attempts to

  climb onto the back of Evan’s horse, which included the fingerless Phil

  unsuccessfully trying to shove her up and then her several pathetic attempts to stand

  on the chair he brought for her and the not so encouraging ‘swing your leg over, girl,’

  Cass had finally gotten up behind Evan on his horse.

  “Where do I put my hands?”

  “Anywhere you like.”

  She assessed the back of the broad shoulders and lean waist presented to her.

  “Cass?”

  “Yeah?”

  “’Ever been with a man?”

  She blushed wildly. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “Just take hold of me and stop acting like a scared virgin.”

  “I am not.” She reached out towards his waist. It was then that the horse, aptly

  named ‘Dodgy’ decided to buck wildly. This had her grabbing Evan low around the

  waist, her hands sliding down over his crotch. The fullness she found there surprised

  her more than the bucking horse. It took her a couple of beats to let go.

  Cass looked down at him. “How do I get off?”

  “Swing one leg over and slide off.”

  Yeah right. Easy for you to say. “What if—”

  “I will catch you.”

  “But—”

  “City chicks,” he mumbled under his breath before holding out his arms to her. “I

  have lifted heifers out of the mud and pulled bogged tractors out of paddocks.

  Catching you will be no different.”

  Heifer or a tractor. Charming comparisons. “Have you ever been with a woman?” Yeah, she was overweight. What woman worth her salt didn’t have boobs,

  hips and an ass?

  “What do you think?” He dropped his arms.

  “Probably not a real one.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because no woman in her right mind would have sex with someone who likens

  her to a farm animal or a piece of farm machinery.”

  Evan smiled at that. “Fine. You’re a misty, blue feather floating in a summer

  breeze. When your body touches mine it will be like the lightest caress of baby’s

  breath and I will sigh because it’ll feel like heaven’s kiss when you touch me.” He

  raised his arms once more. “Now slide the fuck down before I yank you down and

  you fall in a heap with your skirt over your head.”

  For a moment, she wanted to smile but Cass didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. She had endured enough of smart ass males. “Fine. You break your back

  catching me and it’s your fault.” She lifted one leg over, held her breath and dropped

  down.

  He caught her easily. “Not quite a misty blue feather but then I never did like the

  lightweight types.”

  Cass’s breasts were mashed up against his chest. Her heart was beating madly as

  she savored the heated muscle against hers. “You married?” She asked breathlessly,

  moving her lips closer to his as her hands rose up to flatten against his chest.

  “Nope,” Evan’s mouth moved towards hers.

  “Figures,” she said, giving a hard shove back from him.

  Evan Bates smiled at that. Damn. This one I like. When Jo and Flo, the couple

  who ran McNally’s, asked him to pick up t
he new girl, Evan hadn’t anticipated Cass

  Kelly. The redhead was everything he liked in a woman. Generously curved and

  mouthy. Maybe other men didn’t care for a full-figured woman with attitude but Evan

  did. He liked his women to be women. Skin and bones prissy city girls were not his

  style. Finding Cass at the airport had been a surprise.

  “Why are you smiling?”

  “You’re cute when you’re mad.” He tied the horse up against a nearby post.

  She stamped her foot in response. “I’m not mad. I’m hot.”

  Yeah, she was. His eyes dropped down to her breasts. The thin summer fabric

  was sticking to them in the heat. It was an area he would enjoy exploring.

  “What?” She snapped.

  “Nothing.”

  “Nothing, my ass.”

  Yeah, I want to look at that too. Evan watched as she looked around her. What

  would she think of Mundabucka? There wasn’t much to it. Like a lot of outback

  towns, its fortunes had been linked with the busts and booms of the mining industry.

  Currently they were riding the crest of new found mineral deposits that had brought

  big money into the town. Not that you would know it. The main street still looked the

  same as it always did. Bitumen with a wonky white stripe painted down the middle by

  Phil, who not only was the airport controller but the handyman for the town council.

  Along with his other shortcomings, his eyesight wasn’t the best so anything he painted was always off kilter. Not that anyone much cared in Mundabucka. It was a

  peaceful town with one hotel, one pub, a high steepled church, sundry stores, an old

  railway museum with the most ornate doors and a police station, that at one time or

  the other, had seen pretty much all the sixty-seven, permanent inhabitants pass through its doors either to sleep it off or to bail someone out.

  “Where’s McNally’s?” Cass asked, looking around her.

  “At the end of the street.” It was a Federation style, cream colored, two storey,

  timber building bedecked with the original, fancy lace wrought ironwork front verandah, popular at the start of the last century. Evan watched as she turned from

  him and started walking. “It’s the other end of the street.” He grinned as he saw her

  back stiffen. Yeah, she’s gonna be fun.

  Cass swung around and marched past him. A waft of the perfume washed over

  Evan. When they had been riding into town, that scent had tantalized him. It was