A Man for Halli Read online

  “Hey Halli, I forgot to tell you that Dan’s unit has a drainage problem and I promised that you’d fix it tonight.”

  Halli looked surprised but not upset.

  “Why didn’t you tell me earlier, I might need to get parts from the plumbing supplier?

  “Sorry Sis, I completely forgot until we got here. We can check out the job and then I’ll go and get any parts you need. I’ll stop of for burgers at the same time. How does that sound?”

  Joe kept his voice casual as he worked out the timing. Callem had said that he wouldn’t be in until six thirty or seven. That meant he should be home at about the same time as Joe got back with the burgers and Halli would be elbows deep in mud. Joe checked that his phone had enough charge left to be able to take a few candid photos—he was having a hard time containing his laughter, he definitely wanted this meeting recorded.

  “Fine,” answered an unsuspecting Halli as, she hauled her tool box out the back of the truck and walked quickly towards the front door.

  Chapter 5

  Callem struggled out of his rental car leaving huge clods of red clay and dust behind on the seats and floor. He had tried his best to keep the upholstery clean. The seats and floor were covered with blue tarps and garbage bags but, inevitably, there was going to be a mess to clean up tomorrow. Thankfully, today marked the end of his ground tests and from now on he could take his readings from the transporter’s exterior sample collectors.

  It dawned on Callem as he walked awkwardly towards the ground floor entrance that he couldn’t simply walk into Dan’s unit the way he had yesterday. All the damage had been done by taking his dusty body inside. Stopping short of the door he gave the situation keen thought, and then came up with what he thought was a brilliant solution.

  Mentally patting himself on the back he decided his best course of action was to climb in the bathroom window. He’d left it open this morning to help dry out the room. At the time he’d thought the risk of theft was vastly more acceptable than watching Dan’s bathroom grow mould over every surface.

  He figured he could strip out of his clothes and then use a dampened towel to get the worst of the dust off. If he had to buy a few new towels that was a small price to pay to get clean. Smiling in triumph at his brilliance, he headed for the bathroom window.

  Halli squatted on the shower floor, muttering abuse under her breath at stupid inconsiderate males, while digging out ton after ton of what looked like damp red concrete, from the dismantled shower drain. Suddenly, she was startled by a noise behind her. Quickly twisting her head around, she was in time to see a large, dust covered, male body came squirming head first through the bathroom window and fall slowly towards the floor. A final wriggle and the agile body twisted sideways to sit on the closed lid of the toilet.

  A gorgeous face, even if it was covered in red dust, squinted at her back and with a grin that sealed his doom, said. “Hi, you must be Harry the plumber.”

  That was when Halli saw red herself. In one smooth move she got her feet under her and swinging round to face him, planted a solid right hook into that grinning face on the way up.

  “The name is Halli you grinning red baboon. If you and all the rest of my brother’s moronic friends don’t cut it out I’m going to pop every one of you on the nose.”

  A frozen silence followed as, Halli realised that she’d just seriously popped the landlord’s friend on the nose. Her fist still in the air, Halli gazed at it wordlessly as if it was a foreign object not part of her arm. She had lost all ability to move or think. The silence lengthened, as Callem just continued to sit stunned and wordless on the toilet; red blood mingled with the red dust then dripped steadily off the end of his nose and pooled on the floor between his feet.

  It took him a few seconds to adjust to the fact that the plumber who’d just punched him was female; a very attractive female, if he could believe the shape under her dreadful overalls. Several clicks sounded from the bathroom doorway as Callem’s bloody nose was recorded for posterity, by a shocked, but gleeful, Joe.

  “Hell Callem, I’m sorry. I thought you would be too tall for Halli to do any damage when I set her up. She said she would pop the next one to call her Harry, but I didn’t think she could do it,” Joe barely choked the last words out, before he burst into loud, uncontrollable laughter. “I didn’t realise you would sit down to let her reach you.” He turned, doubled over with merriment and vanished into the next room--- best to stay out of Halli’s reach for the moment.

  Callem squinted through the dust to try and make out the face of the Amazon who’d punched him. The view was hazy but, what he could see set all of his life-mate signals humming. If the tingle in his hand, that was working its way up his arm, was true, then this gorgeous pocket Venus with the scowl on her beautiful face, was the woman he would love the rest of his life.

  But first, he had to adjust his thinking from Harry to Halli.

  “No problem, I’ll just sit here until the bleeding stops.” As he spoke he calmly grabbed a wad of toilet paper and held it under his nose.

  Halli was mortified. Obviously this man had been a victim of her brother’s warped sense of humour and now she didn’t know what to say. First of all he was a guest of Joe’s landlord and due a measure of hospitality and help. Second, he was so handsome, that, even covered from head to toe in dirt, just being in the same room as him was making her hyperventilate. She needed to get control fast or else try to sink through the shower drain to escape her embarrassment.

  Taking a deep breath, she gathered all of her experiences with her brother’s friends to try and rescue the situation and get control of her racing libido. OK, she could handle this. The man needed to clean up and she was nothing if not resourceful. The shower was out but, there was plenty of other water around.

  “Ah Callem, is it?” Callem had the presence of mind to nod. “Could you crawl back out through that window?” Another nod was her answer. “Right, well, when you get outside, go around to the beach side of the units and stand under the cold water beach shower until the worst of the dirt is off your clothes and body. Joe will bring you a big beach towel.” with a dirty look at Joe she added “That is, if he will stop laughing long enough to help out. Strip off your clothes, then, use the towel to cover up while you get back inside. I’ll rinse out your clothes in the surf after I finish here.”

  Turning a scowling face to Joe, Halli held up her muddy hands.

  “I’ve got a drain to fix moron. You get a clean set of Callem’s clothes and take them into your unit. When he’s finished outside he can shower and change in your room.” With a disdainful shrug of her shoulders Halli turned back to her drain.

  Hard, dirty work just might take her mind off her embarrassment. Fixing the drain was at least one thing she could do to make up for socking Callem on the nose. As a bonus, she could avoid him getting a good look at just how much of a mess she was.

  Something about that man was making her feel all girly and squishy; very unusual for her and very unsettling. Halli felt like she had just fallen into a magic pool of swirling hormones and romantic dreams, she could swear there were bells ringing in the distance.

  Callem gave his love one last hazy look before turning and squirming back through the window, holding the toilet tissue awkwardly to his nose as he went. Joe just couldn’t resist taking one last photo as Callem’s hunky posterior was framed by the window.

  Chapter 6

  Ninety minutes later Callem was clean, dressed and enjoying burgers with Halli and Joe in their kitchen. His nose had stopped bleeding, his clothes were spinning merrily in the washing machine and Dan’s shower was once again working. Unfortunately, he was also trying to explain why he was covered in so much red dust, while he was supposedly living at the beach.

  “I’m a geologist and linguist, so I travel all over the world with my job,” explained Callem, trying to stick as close to the truth as possible. “I was helping a friend to sink test cores on an island just off the coast that h
e wants to build on.” Mongolia was a good bit further than, just off the coast but, it was the best he could come up with.

  “Which island was that?” asked a curious Joe. Callem quickly searched his brain for a red dirt island and luckily came up with an answer.

  “Coochiemudlo Island, I took the car over on the barge from Victoria Point,” phew, that was close. Callem really wasn’t very good at lying, his strength lay in blending in, speaking the local language as if he had been born there.

  “Oh yuck!” said a so far, quiet Halli. “I had a job over there for two months and at the end of the job I threw all of my work clothes away, it was impossible to get them clean. I even had to trade my truck in.”

  Callem had tried hard to avoid staring at Halli ever since she had joined the men twenty minutes ago. However, now that she had spoken up, he couldn’t take his eyes off her. Her shining brown hair with the fiery red lights glistening in it, her beautiful soft grey eyes and absolutely stunning figure, fascinated and lured him. He wanted to get his hands in her hair and take hours just stroking the silky strands while he got lost in her magical eyes. He had never met a woman on any planet that matched her for beauty. How was he going to win her in the less than two weeks he had left on Earth?

  Damn it all to hell! He had been perfectly happy with his life. He hadn’t been looking for a mate or even wanted one. He had thought that when he reached thirty three years of age and was still un-bonded, that he was going to be one of the few Teerons who stayed single and dedicated to their careers for life. Teerons never bonded unless they felt the magic tingle in their hand that then travelled up their arm, exploding into love in their hearts. Without this signal it was a proven fact that the bonding would be unhappy. No one on Teeron ever took that risk. It was also a proven fact that, when the magic was there then the couple would be happy for the rest of their days. That was if the loved one could be persuaded into bonding, thought Callem. Well, Callianta Anderon had found her human life-mate, Daniel Smith, and managed to get bonded to him in a few days so Callem would just have to do the same.

  Halli didn’t know it yet, but, she was about to be pursued in the Teeron tradition, which once started was unwavering and intense. Tomorrow he would be finishing work early and would be able to begin his pursuit. Glancing at his watch he knew he had to leave her for now, his duties at the pod couldn’t wait.

  “Sorry to break this party up but, I have to go into my friend’s office and write up my report. He needs to consult with the Local Council and his architect first thing in the morning.” Standing, Callem fixed his gaze on Halli’s face.

  “What time do you get in from work tomorrow Halli, I’d like to buy you dinner for all the help you’ve given me tonight?”

  Halli gave him a shocked look from her soft grey eyes. Why would he want to repay her? She’d given him a bloody nose after all.

  “I’m not working tomorrow I’m going up the mountain for a few hours of R and R,” she replied. Joe snorted at that comment.

  “R and R,” Joe snorted in disgust. “What the idiot girl means is she’s going to throw herself off the top of the mountain a few times, just to see if she can survive the landing.”

  Halli swung a fist in Joe’s face as she threatened to bop him. “I don’t take risks I keep telling you. If the conditions are poor then I just watch the others fly and wait to see if the wind direction improves.” Callem felt his blood freeze.

  “What do you do that is so dangerous Halli?” Callem forced the words past his suddenly dry throat.

  “I don’t do anything dangerous. I have a hang glider and I launch off Mt. Tamborine whenever I get the chance.” Halli’s reply was defensive as she watched her brother’s face for his reaction.

  “She’s a thrill jockey and I’m terrified every time she goes up there. I didn’t use to worry but, lately there have been some bad accidents and I just don’t feel easy about it anymore.”

  Halli reached out and hugged Joe with a sudden rush of love for him. “Don’t panic big brother, I’ll be very, very careful tomorrow.” Callem didn’t have any rights with Halli yet so he had to grit his teeth and just push for dinner.

  “So, are we on for dinner tomorrow when you get home?” Callem asked.

  “How about we wait until we are all home and then decide?” suggested Halli. “I never know how tired I’m going to be after a day on the mountain.” Callem decided to settle for what he could get at this point; at least she had agreed to meet with him.

  “Tomorrow then,” he smiled, as he walked out the door. Tomorrow couldn’t come soon enough for him.

  Chapter 7

  Halli had lain on the soft grass, breathing in the crisp eucalyptus scented air, while gazing out at the unbeatable view. One by one, her friends had launched, only to get flushed by a sink wind and end up making untidy landings just a few minutes later. The rest of the gang, watching from their positions on the edge of the cliff, had laughed uproariously. Yelling out “whack, whack,” at their friend’s stumbling runs on landing.

  It was almost noon before Halli decided that the thermals were right for her first launch off the mountain. She’d stretched out on the ground in her launch position to test the adjustment of the harness, tightened and loosened as necessary, watched the wind sock blowing around in the breeze, until now it blew in the right direction. Now, it was time to run. She was going to launch.

  Moving steadily forward, she balanced the glider frame bar between her hands, as her heart beat wildly against her ribs, her breath came fast and deep as she raced to the edge and joyously launched, catching the wind under her wing.

  Almost immediately she caught an elevator thermal and began rising smoothly and swiftly up into the blue, blue sky. Halli felt happiness well-up inside her, filling her whole body with effervescent excitement, nothing matched the feeling of flying like a bird. The wind rushing over her wing was the only sound to break the silence as, Halli rose, steadily higher and higher, the peace of the day filling her soul.

  The world below became just a patchwork quilt of greens and browns, criss-crossed with the black of the tar roads. Halli just knew this was going to be one hell of a ride.

  Callem watched Halli on the transporter viewer while he hovered over the tree tops. The cloaking device meant no one could see him but, he sure as hell could see Halli.

  He had finished work early and had arrived just in time to watch her launch. Already Halli was higher than the transporter and still rising. Callem had never felt so useless. His life-mate was risking her life up in the clouds and he was tied to a vehicle that had to stay invisible or he would be risking the whole Teeron expedition. But, one sign that she was going to be sucked into the clouds and to hell with security. He would use the specimen collection arm to grab her, even if he had to become visible to do it.

  He wanted to drag her into the transporter and stick her permanently on the ground, never, never to fly again unless he was right by her side. Damn! This being in love was painful and unreasonable. He didn’t need a life-mate counsellor to tell him that Halli would punch him in the nose again, if he tried to dictate to her.

  For three hours Callem sat tense and immobile, watching, while Halli toured the skies above without a worry in the world. Finally, finally she started to sink and with one final piece of beautiful manoeuvring, headed into the wind, flared, and then simply stepped onto the ground. A truck was already waiting to pick her up.

  Callem finally breathed again and relaxed his tense muscles, he felt like he’d just aged ten years. Time to head for home—he had a date tonight and somehow, he had to learn how to control his woman’s tendency to take risks.

  Chapter 8

  Halli settled into her truck with a weary but, very, very satisfied sigh. What a fantastic afternoon, it had been years since she had caught such a fabulous elevator. It was rare to catch one that lasted that long and was as smooth as it had been today. Luck had really been her companion on the flight.

  The only downside h
ad been the freedom to let her mind wander. And guess where it had wandered to? To Callem, with the blue eyes, that matched the skies she was floating through; Callem, of the gorgeous physique and handsome face; Callem, of the gentle humour, and forgiving, generous nature.

  What she couldn’t work out was why she had fixated on him. Halli felt a blush rise up her face, as she realised that she had felt as if she was floating in his arms all through the flight.

  Damn Callem, what was he doing getting inside her head? He wouldn’t be interested in her anymore than her brother’s friends were but, oh how she wished he was. No other man had ever taken over her mind like this. Just thinking about him sitting on the toilet seat, with blood dripping off the end of his nose had her heart racing. What would she do if he actually held her in his arms—faint most likely?

  It wasn’t Halli’s style to get a crush on her brother’s friends. Halli had realised early in life that she liked being friends with her brother and his friends. She liked talking work and working with them. However, she knew that she wasn’t the object of their desires nor did she want to be, they were no more her choice of partner than she was theirs. Halli was more of a sister to them than potential lover.

  Halli was short where they wanted tall, curvy where they wanted slim and brown haired where they wanted blonde. So be it. This was Halli and she was content with her lot.

  Halli dated in a desultory sort of way, usually with fellow members of her hang-gliding club but, she never got interested in a serious way. Halli liked company but, she had never met a man who could make her forget her long term goal. Halli was going to own a large piece of beach real estate before she was through.

  Ah well! Time to drive home and clean up, maybe she owned a dress in her closet that wasn’t too ordinary. If she looked hard enough maybe she could find an outfit that would make Callem sit up and at least take a little notice.

  Halli hadn’t needed Joe’s threats of eviction to persuade her to go to dinner with Callem; Joe reckoned she at least owed Callem that for the nose bleed. Halli just wanted to be near him and dream impossible dreams. All through the drive down the mountain and back to the beach unit, Callem’s face stayed with Halli.