He paused at the door with his key in his hand and turned to stare down at her with such an intense look. This was another face of Zac’s she had trouble reading. But she’d learn all of his expressions if she had the chance. Their gazes locked. Time seemed to stand still. Distantly, she heard a bird call out, and someone rumbled a suitcase over the path below. She could pick up the subtle scent of his aftershave, and the even more subtle scent that was Zac. Everything seemed more noticeable when she was with him.

With his gaze still on hers, he bent down and kissed her gently on the lips, his breath warm on her cheek as he turned his mouth to her ear and she closed her eyes. Very quietly he said, ‘I love you, Ava.’

Her eyes flew open. Men didn’t say that. Especially ones she’d only known for a week. ‘What?’

His lips tilted at her shock. ‘I love you.’ The words came out again, each word defined as if he savoured it.

In that instant, time felt like a slow train that ran over her ghostly self as she stood outside his door. Two carriages. Bump. Bump. He’d said it twice.

‘I’ll explain inside.’ He slid the key into the lock and opened the door for her. As he steered her through to the verandah, her eyes automatically crossed the glorious red and olive of the desert and lingered on the majesty of Uluru in the distance. Indented soaring cliffs were burnished orange and gold with the late-afternoon sun. She loved this view at sunset. If he’d planned the moment, he’d executed it perfectly.

Then she saw the rest. The table set with flowers, glorious desert blooms in an ochre bowl, crystal glasses and a beaded bottle of what she suspected was champagne in a bucket with ice. She shot him a glance and saw his lips twitch.

‘And still in time for the setting sun.’

‘This looks very special.’ But her mind reeled from his words at the door, her heart tentatively testing the echo again. Did she dare hope? She remembered how her day had been coloured by the promise of his arrival, by her first sight of him this afternoon. She’d felt like throwing herself into his arms and had had to hold her hands out instead for control. What if he really felt this craziness too?

He watched her, then shook his head with a smile. ‘Ava. I probably deserve this incredulity, but it’s no game I’ve played before. What I feel for you is not a lukewarm feeling. It’s hot. Urgent. Terrifying.’ He gave her a searing glance that could quite possibly have singed off all her clothes if she stood any closer to him. On the verandah, in full view of the road.