Yeah, he knew the laughing prick.
“Hendrixx, I can’t control Blake any more than you can. And why would we want too? She knows horses better than any man on the Triple H, she is the best horse breaker in the state, and you know as well as I do, she has the gift. She doesn’t get on a horse she doesn’t trust and no horse has ever thrown her.”
Quickly, placing my phone in the cradle on the dash, I hit speaker then jammed the car into gear. Fenixx had a point, Blake knew her shit when it came to horses, her old man taught her how to break the old school way. The only way. Blake inherited her dad’s ability to heal a damaged animal, the gift of horse whispering.
I’d seen her turn a beast other people considered hopeless too many times not to believe. I believed so much in her gift, my brothers and I set aside a part of the property for her to work with horses from all over Australia. Owners at the end of their rope and desperate to heal their animals brought them to the Triple H … to Blake.
At first, she did it for free, not charging the owners who only wanted to have their horses back to the way they used to be. But when the word spread, I convinced her to set a fee depending on the amount of work she had to put in. I wasn’t going to have her taken advantage of, all money she made she kept, I insisted on that.
Despite my confidence in her skills, it didn’t stop the beads of sweat forming on my brow and the rapid beating in my chest.
“I don’t want to control Blake, Fenixx, I just—”
“Hate the thought of her getting hurt and would never forgive yourself if she did, and you weren’t there,” Fenixx finished, knowing exactly where my head was.
“Yeah,” I choked out, grateful for our triplet connection.
“Don’t you think it’s time, Drixx?” my brother asked quietly.
My fists gripped the steering wheel in a tight hold. “Yeah.”
“Good. Okay, she is off the horse, and nothing is broken or sprained by the looks of things so you can slow down. Noxx is in the ring with her, and helping her lead Hercules into the stables.”
Easing my foot off the pedal, I listened to what Nixx was saying, believing that he would never try to shit me, not when it came to Blake’s safety.
“How the fuck am I going to survive the next fifty or so years with her pulling these stunts,” I grumbled, not meaning to say my thoughts out loud.
“I have no idea mate, but fuck it is going to be fun watching it unfold,” Fenixx laughed before ending the call on me.
“Bastard.”
By the time it took me to drive the six kilometres through the paddocks to the training arena we’d set up for breaking horses, Blake or Hercules were nowhere in sight. My brother’s Cayenne was parked up by the main house, which meant he was still here with Daxx.
Parking the ute by the stable doors, I jumped out of the car.
“Blake!” I roared, slamming the car door with the force that matched my mood.
Receiving no answer, which didn’t surprise me, I strode up the gravel path and into the main stables where Blake had her own office. I had plans to move hers down the end of the row with mine, but it was something I put off simply because … well, because I knew how much of a distraction it would be for me having her so close. Now though, my plan was back to being a priority. No more waiting, no more procrastinating. The sooner she sees what she is to me, the sooner my mind can give me a rest.
I started in on her before I even got inside the small space she used for her office. It once had been a tack room, and even though we offered to build her a decent space, Blake insisted she liked the smell of the worn leather.
“Blake Isobel, what the fuck—and I’m talking to an empty room,” I muttered when I saw no sign of her. “Blake!” I yelled again in pure frustration, turning on my heels and taking off for the only other place she could be. If Daxx was here, then she must be with him, she had grown very fond of the rascal during his frequent visits to the Triple H, and it was really nice to see that they got along so well. I don’t know if Blake wants kids of her own one day, that wasn’t a subject we had ever discussed. Hell, to be honest, I don’t know if I want to have any either, I liked kids well enough, fucking loved Daxx and couldn’t wait for my niece to arrive, but having one of my own?
Suddenly, a vision of a little girl with white-blonde hair, hazel eyes and freckles across her nose appeared in my mind, and it nearly brought me to my knees. She looked so much like Blake did when she was no more than five years old, then my imagination decided to fuck with me more by adding a little boy with piercing blue eyes and a rough and ready smile, and my feet stumbled.
Maybe I did want kids, after all.
Interesting.
Breaking into a jog, I raced towards the house I grew up in. The big homestead style house held so many great memories, and it was the place to go to when you were feeling out of sorts because every corner, every room, every piece of furniture was familiar and safe. My brothers and I grew up knowing our parents loved us, our mum not afraid of showing it, Dad was more the tough love kind of a guy. He pushed us to work hard, not sit back and just take, he would never let us sit on our hands and let the Hott name make us into men, not my dad.
We worked the land before and after school, feeding horses mucking out stalls, lugging hay out to the cattle, driving tractors, and fixing farm equipment. All three of us were self-taught mechanics, expert horsemen and global businessmen. For me, the most important part of all those sides of me was the love I had for my family. Nothing mattered more than the people who still lived or once lived inside that big house.
Even my dad and what he had done behind our backs, I couldn’t bring myself to hate him. Couldn’t replace the love and respect with the hatred that boiled below the surface inside me. Every time I saw Daxx and held him in my arms, that hatred threatened to take over, but I just couldn’t do it. I could not hate my father.
Shaking off the negativity towards my old man, I launched up the steps of the front porch. Before I could reach for the big old brass door handle, the door opened, and my nephew was standing there smiling a toothless grin at me.
“Hey, Drixx,” Daxx yelled out excitedly.
“G’day little dude, how’s my favourite kid?” I asked him, reaching down, I picked him up and tossed him up on my shoulders.
“Good! Mummy is fat and tired and she can’t stopped cryin’, cos she wants a gasm, but Daddy said she has to wait till after her nap,” Daxx announced as I walked into the lounge room and all the people in it.
“What’s a gasm, Drixx?”
Fenixx was standing by the large stone open fireplace, not even bothering to stop his laughter, nor was my mother.
Glaring at Noxx, who was unashamedly grinning, I gave him my middle finger then hoisted Daxx over my head.
“Let’s ring your mum and ask her Daxx,” I said, smirking when Noxx’s grin fell from his face replacing it with a look of sheer terror.
“Yeah, thought that might be your answer,” I replied, knowingly tossing his son at his chest. “Watch what the fuck you say around him for Christ’s sake, idiot.”
“Says the man whose favourite word is fuck.”
A soft, sassy voice said from the leather, forest green, Chesterfield couch over on the other side of the large room.
“Blake.” Her name left my lips like a prayer, and my feet moved quickly until I found myself on my knees in front of her.
My eyes scanned her body for any signs of injuries from riding Hercules but all I saw was her smile. It wasn’t the smile I usually got from her, this one didn’t light up her eyes, it didn’t split her face or assure me that everything was okay because from what I could see, Blake did not think that at all.
“You finished baling?” she asked, her eyes downcast and not meeting mine.
“Close enough.” I waited for a few seconds for her to look at me, but I only received a slight nod and nothing more.
Fuck that shit. Last night she kissed me and now she can’t even look at m
e.
“Blake,” I whispered, gently lifting her chin with my thumb and forefinger. “ Look at me please,” I pleaded, then sucked in a breath when I noticed a sheen over her pretty hazel eyes.
“Are you hurt? Did you fall off Hercules?” I rushed to ask, hating the tears I saw in her eyes.
Blake stared back at me, her look was a combination of sadness and pain with a healthy glint of annoyance. Her chin pulled out of my grip as if she had touched an electric fence.
“No, it wasn’t Hercules that hurt me.”
Her answer was spoken softly, but I heard the accusation, and it baffled me because it was aimed squarely at me.
“Me? Are you saying I hurt you?” I couldn’t stop the incredulity with how I asked the question. How the hell had I hurt her? This morning I started work and didn’t even see her, hadn’t seen her since last night in the stables. I went to bed with the feeling of her kiss on my lips and the taste of her mouth on my tongue. The memory of her moans ringing in my ears and the heat of her body wrapped around me, warming me.
“How?” I rasped, bewildered and totally confused. Hurting Blake didn’t compute in my brain. It was a foreign concept to me, being the reason for her tears …
“I saw you Hendrixx, I saw you with her,” Blake murmured, keeping her voice intentionally low aware of the audience behind us.
Without taking my eyes off her, simply because I couldn’t, I asked everyone to leave the room and give us some privacy. I suppose I could have taken her to my house or her cottage, but I didn’t want to give her any time to re-group or back out of telling me what was going on with her. Here I had been stressing over beginning us and she was quite possibly going to tell me no.
I could not, nor would not accept that.
BLAKE
I concentrated on watching Lillian usher her other two sons and grandson out of the lounge room and not on the shocked look on my handsome Cowboy’s face.
I called him mine because I thought of him as that secretly, but the stark reality of it was simply and heartbreakingly, that Mallory knew him better, not as long as me, but better.
Our relationship consisted of him yelling at me, worrying about me, forbidding me to do things and basically overruling me. Mallory got his softer side, watched TV with him, and to my heartache, she got his hugs.
So, why the hell kiss me like he needed me to breathe because that is how it felt? His mouth devoured mine, while his hands explored my curves and my face. The cool touch from his cold hands on my neck, I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I’d dreamed of that same feel but instead on my nipples. I had nothing to go by, no experience to speak of, but my womanly instincts told me I would definitely enjoy it.
The second the last person evacuated the room, Hendrixx was on me. His bulking body pushed me back into the couch, he surprised me further by straddling my legs, his arms on either side of my shoulders caging me in completely.
A Hottie 2 cradle.
I wanted to push him away, scream in his face that he should go find Mallory and get his ego stroked from her. My body and heart wasn’t listening to that however, he was so close, he smelt so good and damn if I didn’t want to feel his lips on mine again. Experience the magic from last night, feel those butterflies, the tingles and the pure bliss of being in his arms.
Licking my lips, I tipped my head back and looked up at Hendrixx, his face only centimetres from mine, so close I could smell the coffee he must have consumed while out in the paddocks on his breath. The feral look in his blue eyes should scare me, but it didn’t. Hendrixx would never hurt me, not physically.
“Explain,” Hendrixx growled low and dangerous, his warm breath hitting my face.
“Nothing to explain Hendrixx, you kissed me, seemed to enjoy it, then Mallory turned up, and you did what you always do, and went off with her. Then I saw you at your window both of you standing close, she touched your arm then you embraced. Nothing more to say,” I told him, holding back the tears at the memory of seeing them standing by the window acting so caring towards each other, both oblivious to my presence on my porch watching it unfold.
There had been a moment in the stables when I honestly believed Hendrixx wanted me. I mean, he called me sweetheart. Twice! Alluded to the fact that our kiss turned him on, then wham! Time for The Voice with Mallory. She has a fiancé for god’s sake, why can’t he watch it with her or rub her feet?
“Nothing more to say!” Hendrixx crowded impossibly closer to me, his breathing coming out in pants, his eyes blazing.
“I have plenty to say, Blake, and you are going to listen to me,” he ordered, just as I was about to argue with him.
“I don’t know what you are talking about, but I stayed by that fucking window half the night waiting for you so we could talk. You never came back.” My retort sounded weak even to my own ears. My god, he was so deliberately close, invading my personal space like he never had before. I concentrated on keeping my breathing from coming out in pants, but who was I kidding? This was Hendrixx Hott, the only man that could steal the very breath from my lungs with just a wink or a smirk on his sexy lips.
“Yeah, I did Hendrixx, I stood on my porch and saw you and Mallory share a moment then you pulled her in for a hug. Why kiss me, Hendrixx? Why tell me those things only to go off with her?” Laying my hands on his chest, I pushed him away—my move surprising him long enough for me to scramble off the couch and get to my feet. Being so close and smelling his scent was putting me off. To argue with Hendrixx and win, I needed my head on properly, and inhaling him was not the way to achieve that.
Pushing past him, I quickly made my way over to the huge, stone fireplace, eager to get some distance between us. Now I knew what he tasted like, how his moans sounded, I couldn’t trust myself not to forget about what I’d witnessed last night and instead beg him for more.
“You pushed my hands off you when I was behind you on Stash, then you act all caveman with Joe, and you top it all off by kissing me senseless. My first kiss, Hendrixx, and it ended with you having a playdate with Mallory.” I knew I was ranting, I could hear the high pitch in my voice, but I was on a roll, the gate was open.
“I did not have a playdate with Mallory,” Hendrixx gritted out, standing in front of the couch, his fists at his sides.
“She likes to watch TV but doesn’t like to do it alone, and Tim really hates ninety percent of her shows.” His explanation may have made sense if he hadn’t let me run off, but he did. Oh, he called out to me, but he didn’t come after me, and that hurt.
For months, I have watched him spend more and more time over at Waterford. I understood completely helping Mack get her farm back up and making money was important for not only Mack and her sister but for Daxx too. What I didn’t get was why he had to sleep over there, sometimes not coming back to the Triple H for two and sometimes three days.
The men on the farm might be hard workers and born and bred in the country, but most of them were a pack of females when it came to gossiping. And the word around the place was Hendrixx slept in the same room as Mallory.
I had ears, and I heard the talk in the stables, I overheard Fenixx speaking causally with Eddy about life over at Mack’s place. What hurt the most were the snippets of conversations about Hendrixx falling asleep on a couch with Mallory sprawled over him, or sitting on his lap at the hospital when Mack nearly lost her arm in a horrendous accident at a neighbouring farm.
I always masked my reaction when the guys saw me in listening distance, but none of them knew how much my heart ached to hear that Hendrixx and Mallory had picked up where they’d left off four years ago.
Four years ago, I had been just a sixteen-year-old girl with a mountain size crush, fast forward to now and that crush had multiplied into a full-blown unrequited love affair.
One that played out in my dreams only … until last night’s kiss.
“And how does Tim feel about his future wife spending so much time with you? I mean before him, you and Mallory were expected to be th
e next Makena and Lenoxx.”
Hendrixx stared at me, not saying anything, he looked to be battling with his body by the way his fists were turning white and the tick of his jaw. I swear I heard his teeth grinding in the silence between us.
I now recognised many of the facial tics, after all, he got mad with me at least five times a day, what I didn’t understand was the almost pleading look in his gorgeous bright blue orbs. Hendrixx Hott never begged, was never unsure of himself, except standing before me now, he was.
“First, let me say I am not in any way privy to anything personal between Mal and Tim. Other than him hating her shows, as far as I know, he is fine with my friendship with his fiancée, because that is all it is. Friendship.”
“Not once have I gone there with Mallory Rogers, not ever. What people expected is out of my control Blake, and quite frankly, I don’t give a shit. Mallory and I have nothing between us other than a whole lot of teasing and tormenting. We rarely talk about serious matters, and I dare say she leaves that for her man because she loves him and not me,” Hendrixx said deliberately and slowly as if he needed me to understand and believe him.
And God did I want to, but Hendrixx wasn’t finished. Taking two steps closer to me, he stilled and continued on.
“As for yesterday, let’s start with you touching me,” Hendrixx whispered almost painfully, “did I like your hands on me, your fingers tracing my abs as if they belonged there? No Blake, I didn’t like it, I fucking loved it. My problem was I had so many emotions whirling around in my head, I needed to stop you.”
“Only minutes before you nearly came close to being trampled right in front of my bloody eyes, that thought alone unmanned me, sweetheart.” My breath caught in my throat, hearing his admission and hearing the endearment slip from his lips. I loved it when he called me that, more than I should.
Another step and all Hendrixx had to do was press his chest out and he would be touching me.
Hott and Ready (The Hott Brothers Book 2) Page 6