The rest of the morning went smoothly, Fenixx and I managed to repair the length of fencing in the holding yard; Blake behaved herself and promised to keep away from anything with four legs at least until Hendrixx returned from his meeting in town. All in all, the day went smoothly, so smooth I suggested to Fenixx we head into Cattle Ridge and grab a beer, see if Hendrixx wanted to join us for a few games of pool seeing as his meeting should have well and truly finished by now. Maybe he decided to go find himself some action, pool or otherwise.
Jumping into the driver’s seat of the closest vehicle, which just happened to be my dad’s old 1970 HT Holden ute. Cherry red paint, chrome mag wheels, souped up 8 litre V8 engine with all the good stuff. Perfection.
Starting up the motor, I enjoyed the rumble, not able to help kicking the boot giving it a good rev while I waited for Fenixx to get in.
“What about Blake?” he asked, as soon as he got in.
“Shit!” I clipped, thinking seriously about leaving her here alone, then thought again. Hendrixx liked to throw his fists when pissed off and I wasn’t really in the mood for a friendly brother to brother boxing match. Putting the car in gear, I rolled up to the entrance to the horse barn winding down my window when I got there.
“Blake!”
“Yeah?” the small blonde yelled back from somewhere inside.
“Going into town for a bit,” I shouted.
Blake came out from behind the big wood sliding door, her blonde hair pulled back in a braid, and dressed also in her usual faded dusty jeans, worn leather cowboy boots and tight tee.
“So?” Blake drawled, her brows raising to her hairline.
“So, get in,” Fenixx growled, climbing out of the car and held the door wide open for her.
Blake narrowed her eyes at the door, momentarily perplexed then suddenly the penny dropped.
“Seriously! That man is getting on my last nerve!” Blake grumbled, throwing the length of rope she was holding behind her to the ground.
“I don’t care, you can castrate him for all I care, just as long as you get in the car now and come with us,” I told her, using my hand to motion for her to hurry up and get in.
I watched Blake battle with herself for a brief minute then smirked when she huffed but still stomped forward and threw herself into the car, shuffling across the bench seat so Fenixx could get in beside her.
“I am an adult just in case you didn’t know,” she complained, her arms folded over her chest, a cute childish pout on her mouth.
“Yeah, you certainly look like an adult, Blakey,” Fenixx laughed, as he reached over her to grab the lap-sash belt and buckled her up.
“Why does Hendrixx think he is the boss of me?” Blake whined, as I turned the car around and headed away from the outbuildings and down the long winding driveway.
“I can take a guess,” Fenixx muttered under his breath, looking out the window his ever-present ball cap pulled low down over his forehead. Fenixx was country right down to his cowboy boots except for his hat. Preferring to wear a cap with the family cattle logo on it.
Grunting in response, I pulled out of the huge gates of Triple H cattle and headed in the direction of Cattle Ridge, guessing about the ins, outs and whys Hendrixx kept a close eye on Blake pushed as far back into my mind as possible. Whatever his reasons, all I hoped was he knew what he was doing. Blake’s father trusted our family with her care when he died when she was fourteen, four years later Fenixx and I saw her as sister.
Hendrixx did not.
All thoughts of my brother and his nineteen year old obsession quickly flew out of my head as I drove down the dirt country road leading us to town. This was what I missed most about working and living in the city five days a week. The peace and quiet and the deserted road, not having to sit in bumper to bumper traffic, hook-turns or taxi cabs. It wasn’t often I got behind the wheel in Melbourne, while I considered myself a pretty chill kind of a guy; one way to work me up was traffic. So, I mostly used the company’s car service to get me to and from meetings.
Coming up to a crossroad, my eyes zeroed in on the sign indicating Waterford. Years ago, that sign used to send my groin into an excited spin. Taking the right turn meant I would only be forty-six kilometres away from my girlfriend.
Now, however, it only stirred anger, resentment and a shit load of betrayal.
Wherever the hell Makena was now, I hoped she was suffering as much as I was.
I also wondered when my dick was going to work with someone else. How the hell was I going to wine and dine a woman and get laid when the stupid bastard only wanted Makena.
Fuck my life.
Turning off the dirt road onto the sealed road at the beginning of the main drag of Cattle Ridge, the first thing I noticed was Hendrixx’s car parked across from the pub we frequented whenever the mood for a beer hit in the distance.
Cattle Ridge wasn’t the biggest town, everyone knew everyone, and with only two sides of the main street. The businesses were an interesting mix of small town grocers, a hairdresser or two, a few general stores, the pub, a post office, and an eclectic mix of farm animal agents, real-estate and our local solicitor.
“Hey, who is Hendrixx talking to?” Blake yelled, suddenly sitting forward, knocking the gear shift throwing the transmission into neutral.
“Jesus, Blake!” I growled, slamming my foot on the clutch and putting the car back into the right gear.
“What the hell is going on?” my brother’s query came out more confused than inquisitive, making me focus on the whole street and finally seeing what Blake and Fenixx were. Standing on one side of the road looked like half the population of Cattle Ridge. All of them standing there and staring in the same direction, all of them looking intrigued.
Following where they were watching, I noticed Hendrixx standing in the middle of the road, hands planted on his hips, I couldn’t hear anything being said, but by my brother’s body language he wasn’t happy. I could see that someone was standing to his right, but his large frame blocked me from seeing who it was.
Pulling the car off the road, behind the crowd of onlookers, I jammed it out of gear and cut the engine.
Whoever Hendrixx was in a showdown with, the town’s people were riveted.
“Small town busybodies with nothing better to do,” I grumbled, releasing my seatbelt, but didn’t make a move to get out of the car. It wasn’t often the three of us got into town at the same time, and to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t looking forward to hearing the inevitable shouts of Hottie 1, 2 and 3.
“Can’t say I blame them, I mean Hendrixx is quite a sight,” Blake offered, her voice carrying a disturbingly dreamy quality.
“You know we are identical, right?” I asked, raising my brow at Blake.
“Only to the untrained eye,” Blake quipped, giving me a wink.
Chuckling, I leaned forward, my hands on the wheel, and strained to see who had Hendrixx in a mood.
“No way,” Fenixx breathed at the same time I cursed a blue streak.
“What the flying fuck is she doing here?”
With my knuckles turning white from the effort of gripping the steering wheel, I sat frozen in both body and mind as the person standing behind Hendrixx moved aside and into my line of sight.
A tingle in my groin made its presence known as my wife stood in the middle of the road shouting at my brother. Her long, wavy, chestnut hair, longer than four years ago, her body curvier but no less sexy, but it was the fire and anger on her gorgeous face that caused my lips to quirk into a small smile without giving them permission to do so.
Dressed in a tight, plain white button-down shirt, worn, dusty jeans and her favourite boots on her feet—boots I’d bought her long ago. I felt the panging I had buried deep claw its way to the surface. Like a man desperate for water, my mouth dried, and my tongue grew thicker, my cock pulsed in my pants, seeing her for the first time since she’d packed up and left me.
My traitorous heart and cock reacted immediately.<
br />
My god she is fucking beautiful.
MAKENA
It surprised me that my fight or flight instinct chose to dig in and fight the minute Hendrixx Hott walked into the office of his solicitor with the shocking news he was the COO I had the meeting with and behind the mystery company HBC. My mind boggled that my own father would even borrow money from his mortal enemy, but when Hendrixx explained the fine detail of the contract my dad signed, all sense of tucking my tail under and running away disappeared; instead, my temper reared up immediately.
After I got over my shock of seeing my brother-in-law, someone I’d once loved very much, and after he explained the terms of the loan and the contract regarding the wretched bull, and after my shouting and his erupted into cursing and me throwing a paperweight at Hendrixx’s head–luckily he ducked, and it went sailing into the plasterboard of his solicitor’s office wall–we got kicked out to continue our heated exchange on the street.
“Mack, will you please just calm down,” Hendrixx huffed, again trying to reason with me but I was well past the point of seeing anything but red. Not after the shit I just heard from his legal representative.
“Calm down, Drixx! Are you serious? After what I just found out, you should be thankful you still have your legs under you holding you up.” My growl bringing a chorus of chuckles from the onlookers standing across the road watching us without a hint of decorum. They were here to see a show, and by god, Hendrixx and I were giving them one hell of a one.
“Hey, how is Mal? She end up going to Uni to study geology?” Hendrixx asked me, all of a sudden changing the conversation and completely blindsiding me. Not that I should have been surprised, Drixx was the most laid back of the brothers and didn’t like confrontation. He liked humour, and he used it well, back in the day I would have laughed at his tactic, right now I was finding it difficult to refrain from punching him in his handsome face. A face identical to the one I loved more than my own life … once.
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I silently counted to ten, something I found myself doing a lot lately, and sighed.
“She is fine, no she didn’t go to Uni, she works for a real estate agent in Waterford and still lives on the farm,” I answered him, praying for some kind of divine intervention.
“Oh, that’s too bad. Has a lucky guy swept her up yet?”
“Drixx,” I growled, shooting him a warning glare, then sighed again when he met my glare with a wink, nearly making me smile. Nearly.
“Yes, she is seeing Tim Keaton; they recently got engaged.”
“Tim! That is great, good bloke that,” Hendrixx said, a genuine smile replacing his playful smirk.
“He is, now, back to the contract. How exactly did Dad agree to let your company go into partnership with him with a breeding program? And what did your solicitor mean when he said you own a part of my farm?” I asked through gritted teeth, still reeling from the bombshell that my husband was the CEO of a hugely successful international beef business that dealt with countries like Japan, America and half of Europe and hundreds of other small, rich countries.
Hearing that Noxx made his father’s cattle farm a roaring success didn’t surprise me one little bit. Noxx had so much drive, even when he worked as a welder in a hot and sweaty foundry he worked hard to make our little life together comfortable, and what we couldn’t afford he made up with love. So much love … until there wasn’t.
I couldn’t help the swell of pride bubble in my belly, but I quickly pushed it down. Allowing myself useless and senseless daydreaming and wishing was just a waste of time and far too much heartache to deal with now. I had to focus on getting some kind of resolution or at least a promise Hendrixx wasn’t going to take my farm.
“I can’t believe my dad would ever do business with Will, Drixx. He just wouldn’t,” I insisted, feeling a little of the fight seep out of me. These last few months, since Dad passed away, had been the hardest physically of my life. Even those precious weeks and months after Daxx was born, getting up to him all alone to fed and rock him to sleep, then do it all over again a few hours later weren’t as hard as working land that had no potential. Every day I returned back to the house so exhausted and sore, my body practically wept when I finally sat down. Too tired to eat most nights I went to bed after spending time with my son willing the aches and pains to give me a break.
Working the farm was like swimming against the current with an anchor tied to my feet, and now with the debt Dad forced onto the farm it seemed like there wasn’t any light at the end of the tunnel. Especially now with the Hott brothers thrusting themselves into my world again.
Not knowing anything about Noxx was so much better, I was able to keep my head firmly entrenched in the sand. Which is why I didn’t step foot in Cattle Ridge, no danger of hearing gossip, it was safer for my—
Daxx!
My son’s cherub smile and chubby face popped into my mind, then all of a sudden, as if thinking of my child conjured up my greatest fear.
“Makena!”
The sexy voice behind that gravelly growl had the same effect on me; it did every time he slid inside me. Thousands of tiny tingles raced down my spine and right to my core, pulling a soft groan from my clenched lips.
No, this wasn’t happening. My eyes squeezed shut tight, thinking that if I couldn’t see him, then he couldn’t possibly be there. But as usual, when it came to Noxx, I didn’t have to see him to know he was close. Our attraction was like a magnet, naturally attuned to one another.
“Noxx,” the shortened version of his name fell from my lips in a soft guttural whisper without my consent. Years of conditioning to refer to him as Lenoxx unless I was alone, and I went back in my mind to the better times in our relationship. Then he was Noxx.
Always Noxx.
I felt him, and my body hummed the minute it felt his presence closer to me. Opening my eyes reluctantly, I looked up into the same eyes I saw every single day in my son.
Noxx’s son.
“Makena?” his whisper was low and pained as if saying my name hurt him. Hurt him! What did he have to be hurt about? I was the one who had her world ripped out from under her, not him. We were still married because … well ,okay, that was most likely my fault, but that wasn’t the biggest issue now.
Lenoxx Hott was standing in front of me after four years and damn if he didn’t look better than ever. Yeah, he was older now, but the years only enhanced his sex appeal. Gorgeous light blue eyes, neat light brown hair with flicks of natural blond through it and stubble neatly trimmed on his jaw. I resisted the urge to rub my thighs together, just the memory of that stubble and how it felt between my legs was enough to make me come on the spot.
He always made sure to leave his jaw covered with a light dusting of soft short hair, at my insistence. Noxx didn’t like a full beard; he used to say it got too itchy after it reached a certain length. Why the hell was I remembering stupid nuances about my husband when I should be kicking him in the crotch for trying to take away my way of life?
Squaring my shoulders, I opened my mouth to give him what for when I found myself in a bear hug and lifted off the ground.
“Hey, Mackie Mack, long time no see!”
“Fenny!” I squealed, giggling as Fenixx twirled me around, momentarily forgetting my dumbfound. I liked Fenixx Hott; he used to be my partner in crime around the Triple H when things got boring or if I was hiding from Will. Those times Nixx could talk me into just about any crazy stunt, from climbing the tallest tree on the property to getting on the back of a bull and throwing our own version of a rodeo. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I got hurt, and you could put money on Noxx getting into a fistfight with his triplet for putting me in danger.
Good times.
“Have you put on weight? Got some extra curves here, baby sister,” Fenixx teased, squeezing my slightly rounder and padded arse. Slapping him on his shoulder blade, I wiggled out of his embrace. It was a typical Fenixx comment, flip and cheeky, and once upon a time, I w
ould have laughed at him, but it hit too close to home, too close to my secret.
“Don’t be an arsehole Hott,” I mumbled, hoping that my heated cheeks didn’t give anything away other than embarrassment. My figure most definitely changed after having Daxx, particularly my hips and boobs. Stumbling back away, so the three brothers were standing in front of me, two smiling widely and one looking like he was seeing a ghost.
“So—I ah—I have to go,” I rushed out, quickly turning back to where I parked my car. I always thought if I ever saw my husband again, I knew exactly what I would say to him—demand why he cheated on me, why he threw away everything for a piece on the side. Yet here I was, and here he was, and my flight response was kicking in instead of fighting. Funny how scenarios play out in your mind for years and when the opportunity finally arises, what do I do? I run on shaky legs as fast as I can without saying more than one word to him.
“Mack! We need to talk this shit out!” Hendrixx called after me. Looking back over my shoulder while still hightailing it to my car, I waved my hand erratically at him.
“Um, I will get my solicitor to contact yours. Um, bye.” I couldn’t help focus on Lenoxx again and saw that he was still standing like a frozen statue, his eyes still wide, and his mouth open still in shock.
What he still was, though, was hot as hell. So hot, so sexy and still married to me.
God damn my life.
***
“Mallory!” I shouted as soon as I flew inside the back door of the house, running at full pelt through the kitchen.
My only objective? To find my son and hold him in my arms.
Seeing Lenoxx brought back so many emotions, good and bad. Just looking at his handsome face both hurt and lifted my heart. I had to mentally forbid myself from running to him and begging him to come back to me. That I actually went there in my mind pissed me off. He cheated on me; I did nothing to end our marriage, ending our dreams and life together.
No, that was all on Lenoxx.
He had the proof, I left him the photos and the tape recording of him speaking to who I could only presume to be his mistress. They were irrefutable proof of his infidelity, the evidence I had not been enough and that he lied to me.
Hott and Taken (The Hott Brothers Book 1) Page 5