by K. R. Haynes
When he opened the driver’s side door and jumped inside, his eyes narrowed at the sight of the bandage wrapped around her neck. Automatically she reached up and covered it with her hand and diverted her gaze away from his. Was he angry with her because she had gotten injured? Or was he just pissed that he hadn’t turned up earlier? If she asked him those questions now, Mary J was more than aware she would be poking a stick at an angry bear. So she decided to keep her mouth shut and stared out the front window instead.
Hearing the roar of the engine come to life broke some of the silence within the cabin of the truck and had her shifting her gaze back to his surprise to see Mick staring back at her intently. Was that tenderness shining in his eyes for her or did she just want to see some kind of affection for her there? When he started to speak to her, Mary J shook her head slightly to stop him from saying the words she didn’t want to hear from him. “No, don’t. Don’t you dare say you’re sorry, Mick. I swear to god if you so much as utter that one word to me, I will not be held responsible for my actions.” He grunted at her then and muttered something under his breath that she couldn’t decipher before he reversed the truck out of the car park. Turning away from him, she closed her eyes and rested her head on the back of the seat. She was tired and emotionally exhausted and figured a few minutes’ rest would help settle her nerves back down until she could get home and crawl into the comfort of her own bed.
When she reopened her eyes a little while later, Mary J quickly realised they were on the highway that didn’t lead anywhere near her house.
“Mick Huon, do you mind telling me where the hell you are taking me?” If she was in a sane frame of mind she wouldn’t dream of demanding answers from him, but she wasn’t so he would just have to deal with it.
His answer of “home” didn’t exactly fill her with a sense of calm either. Sitting up straighter in her seat, Mary J turned her head slightly to glare at him. “This is not a shortcut to my house, Mick. So where the hell are you taking me?”
“Like I said, I’m taking you home. And if you need to know the specifics, I’m taking you back to my place.”
“Why in god’s name would you do that?”
“Why would I do what?”
“Why are you taking me to your place instead of my own?”
“For one thing, you were attacked tonight and I don’t want you to be left alone. Secondly,” he said to her with his eyes on her, “you could have a concussion after hitting your head. So you can either be taken back to my house where I can take care of you or you can go spend the rest of tonight in the hospital. Which is it to be, Mary J, a night at my house or a night in a noisy hospital room? And you better make your choice in the next five seconds, sugar, as the last turnoff for the hospital is coming up.”
He wouldn’t dare dump her at the hospital, would he?
“Mary J, your answer, now.”
“Fine, I’ll stay at your place tonight and just so we’re both clear on this, I’m not happy about it, Mick.”
“I never asked you if you were going to be happy with it. I only asked you to make a choice between spending a night in a hospital bed and spending a night in my bed.”
Her breathing hitched at hearing his words. It never dawned on her that she would be actually spending a night in his bed. Well, he had another thing coming if he thought she would put out for him because he had chosen to take care of her for a night.
“I’m not sleeping with you, Mick. Just so we’re clear on that.”
He only laughed darkly at her statement and didn’t respond with a verbal one as he continued driving down the highway that would take them back to his place. Mary J couldn’t tell if she wanted to be angry with him for not acknowledging her request or excited about the fact that he hadn’t.
A thought occurred to her then, that she had only been to his house a couple of times for a few barbecues with Randall and Chloe present. Tonight, however, she would be going to his place for a whole other reason, and there were most definitely no barbecues or invited guests on the agenda either. Nevertheless, it had her wondering if Mick would stick to his gentleman ways with her, or show her that dominant side of his he kept hidden from her. Mick may go out of his way to shield her from that dominant streak of his, but she knew it existed within him and wanted him to embrace it with her. She wanted him to dominate her and possess her with everything he held within him.
Just thinking about Mick sharing that side of him with her had her squirming on the leather seat beside him. Hearing him ask her if she was okay had her hiding her knowing smile from him. “Yes, sweetie, I’m fine.” More than fine actually.
* * * *
Mick grunted at her answer. Mary J was up to something. He knew that much. Whatever she had concocted in that mind of hers, she better stop thinking about it or she may end up getting more than she bargained for.
Taking the next exit off the highway and driving the short distance down an unsealed road that led to the long gravel driveway up to his place, Mick wondered briefly if he had made the right decision in bringing Mary J back to his house. Being that his place was a fair distance from the local hospital if her injuries happened to worsen during the night. His home sweet home was sort of a run-down old farming house he had bought a few years back and had been slowly fixing back up to reflect its former glory days. He had sold off most of the surrounding paddocks to local farmers for a small profit, leaving him with about two hectares of land, some sheds, and outer buildings where he kept the broken-down vehicles to tinker on in his spare time.
After working for the Police Force and the Bomb Squad team for over ten years, Mick found he needed a way to relinquish some of the bullshit of the day-to-day stuff, and release the devastation he had seen firsthand from the effects caused by inhuman people harming and causing misery to their innocent victims. Yeah, sometimes his job downright sucked. So working on the rundown old pieces of machinery he had stored down in the rear sheds helped him lessen the stress and lightened the dark moods caused by his job.
Sometimes he found himself down in those sheds working on the cars well into the night. If he slept, it was a fitful one filled with nightmares that would creep into his mind during the still of the night, reminding him of the bloodshed that had been spilled from him and his team not performing their job adequately enough. Some nights he didn’t even bother going to bed and headed straight down to the shed to continue working on restoring one of the vehicles he had down there.
It had Mick wondering then, if he was to hold Mary J close to him as they slept the night away in each other’s arms, could her mere presence alone ease his mind enough to stop those nightmares from plaguing him at night. Could the feel of her soft, delicate frame entwined around his taut masculine one help him sleep peacefully or would he still wake up soaked in sweat with his heart pounding hard in his chest? One thing he did know for sure was he couldn’t risk showing Mary J his dark, almost vulnerable side of himself. The one and only time he had shared that side of himself with another woman, he had ended up being on the receiving end of her ridicule. He couldn’t allow that to happen again.
Ever since that day, Mick had closed that side of himself off from everyone except Randall. The only reason his mate knew about it was because they worked together and they both suffered similar nightmares caused by the job they did. Only Randall’s nightmares weren’t as prolific as Mick’s were these days. Maybe that was because Randall had Chloe lying curled up close to him at night, whereas Mick lay awake and alone in a bed empty of the one woman he wanted there with him. Mary J. She was the woman he wanted to be holding throughout the night and well into the wee hours of the following morning. He wanted to wake up with her tangling around him and have her available to him so he could sink into her moist depths and arouse her slowly and pleasurably from her night’s slumber with him buried deep inside her.
With that tempting thought racing through his mind, Mick snuck a peek at Mary J. Out of the corner of his eye he could see her
fidgeting around on the leather seat beside him. He realised then that he may just find himself tinkering on those old bits of machinery tonight while she slept. Being that it was highly unlikely he’d get a lick of rest, not with all the unsettling images rummaging around in his head of Mary J being injured and in danger. The fear he saw in her eyes earlier in the evening was still playing heavily on his conscience. Had he arrived at the pub earlier than he had, he might have been able to prevent her from being hurt. And then he could have saved them both from the pain tonight’s events had caused them both.
Parking his truck in the garage, Mick went around and helped Mary J down. He tucked her safely under the crook of his arm and walked her up to the back door of his house. Unlocking the door, he guided her inside to the sitting room at the front of the house. It was the only room clean enough for her to sit in. His housecleaning skills were a little lacking these days. Sure he washed up after cooking a meal and did his own laundry, and once a week he cleaned the bathroom, but that was about the extent of his indoor housekeeping duties. He was more of an outdoor kind of guy, so his backyard and sheds were immaculately kept and extremely well organised.
While Mary J settled herself down on the couch, Mick went over to the bar to pour them both two fingers’ worth of aged whiskey and then carried both glasses over to where she sat. Handing one over to her, she glanced up at him with a slightly confused look on her tear-stained face. “Take it,” he told her while holding the glass out to her. “It will help you rest more comfortably and ease those overstressed nerves of yours.”
“Oh, okay thank you.”
Mick watched her take a delicate sip and wince at the burn the whiskey caused her as it cascaded down her throat and into her belly. He emptied his own glass in one shot, relishing the fire the whiskey gave him. Placing his glass down on the bar, he walked back over to her. She seemed way too wary of him for his liking as he settled down beside her on the couch. He had to tamper down on his need to pull her onto his lap and hold her against him. He knew that she wasn’t ready to feel the warmth of his embrace or the sound strength he could offer her. Hell, the little wildcat would probably fight him off if he did pick her up and cuddle her on his lap, and her rejection of him was the last thing he wanted tonight.
So he settled for letting his gaze track lazily over her body instead of holding her close to him. He could sense her body responding to his perusal of her. It pleased him to no end that she responded to him so quickly. He was the fuel to her sexual flames and that thought pushed his own desire for her to a whole other level, one that was unfathomable to him. If he could make his move on her now he would take it, but Mick knew damn well that was the wrong way to go. And knowing that he couldn’t take her was driving him insane. Having Mary J in his home and soon lying in his bed was the start of everything he had ever wanted in life. His next step would be to guide her into submission. Then and only then could he truly feel that sense of contentment he was striving for in both his heart and mind. Because he would then have the love of a woman he wanted to cherish for a lifetime to come and he would be able to watch her flourish and bloom underneath his Dominance.
And what a beautiful sight his feisty Mary J would make when she eventually surrendered to him so completely. He groaned loudly at the image of her submitting to him so willingly and without any hang-ups. Even his cock was getting on board with the images of having her naked body squirming in need beneath him, so much so that he had to casually readjust his jeans from the sudden tightness surrounding his hardening length.
He couldn’t act on those images just yet, even if his body screamed for him to do so. He had to be strong and hold off long enough to tempt his little spitfire first, and then he could seduce her until she submitted to him and his demands. It was the perfect plan. Now it was just a simple matter of him biding his time before he could put it into action and make her his, permanently. Once he took her, there was no turning back for either one of them. But if he made one wrong move or one mistake it could cost him everything he had ever dreamt of and more. His heart and soul belonged to the feisty barmaid, whether she knew it or not. No matter what happened, from here on out, Mary J would come to an understanding that she owned him and in time he would learn to own her too.
Once she had finished the drink he gave her, Mick gathered her up into his arms and carried her down the hallway to his bedroom. Kicking open the bedroom door with his foot, he strolled into the darkened room and gently laid her down onto his bed. He had to control his need to strip her naked and sink into her moist core. Turning away from her, he walked over the armoire and pulled out an old band T-shirt of his and handed it over to her. “You can wear this to sleep in if you like,” he told her, then reached over and turned the bedside lamp on, flooding the room with a soft glow. Mick then pointed his hand toward the closed door. “The bathroom is through there, it’s all yours to use as you wish.”
She stared up at him then. Fear and anxiety flooded her eyes. “What is it, sugar?” he asked her while gently sweeping a finger down her tear-stained cheek.
“You’re not staying in here. I mean you’re not sleeping in here with me?”
Shaking his head no at her, Mick leant down and brushed his lips lightly to hers. “I don’t usually sleep that much anyway, sugar. So I’ll just crash on the couch for a few hours. I’ll still be close by if you need me though, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Are you sure you’re going to be all right?”
She just nodded her head at him, and then grimaced slightly at the pull on her neck. “Did the ambos give you something for the pain, sweetness?”
“Nuh, I told them not to.”
He growled at her then. She clearly needed something for the pain and she had been too damn stubborn to accept it. Well, he was going to fix that right now. Leaving her lying on the bed, Mick stepped into the adjacent bathroom and searched the medicine cabinet for some pain relief he had stored in there. Popping a couple of capsules into the palm of his hand and filling a glass with water he brought them both out to her.
“Take these and don’t even try to argue with me, Mary J,” he warned her. Once she had swallowed the pills down with his help, Mick dropped a kiss to the top of her head and wished her good-night. He then stepped out of the room quietly, closing the door behind him.
Moving into the kitchen, he refilled the glass she had used and drank the water down in one gulp. He wasn’t sure what to do now. One part of him never wanted to leave her side. The other part of him knew he had to. He picked up the phone and glanced at the clock. Randall was going to go ape shit at him if he called him now. But Mick couldn’t put off calling his old buddy until a decent hour. The sooner Randall knew what happened down at the pub tonight, the quicker they could put some plans in place to protect their women. Punching in Randall’s number, Mick held it up to his ear and waited for Randall to answer it. He wasn’t disappointed either. Randall answered the call on the fourth ring. “Took you long enough to answer, bro,” Mick teased him.
“Fuck off. You do realise we were asleep. Christ, what the hell time is it anyway?” In the background, Mick could hear Randall telling Chloe to go back to sleep. Man he felt like a dick for waking up sweet thing but he needed to speak to Randall now, not later or when it was more convenient. This shit was just too important to hold off.
“Just after 4:00 a.m.”
“Jesus Christ, this better be urgent, bro, or I won’t be happy.”
“It’s urgent, mate, hence the reason for the call.”
“Well don’t keep me in suspense, deal already.”
“Fine,” Mick grumbled out to him as he sat back down on the couch and rested his head on the back of it. Closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose, he drew in a deep breath to try and steady the emotions rolling through him before relaying to Randall all that happened down at the Convict Inn earlier in the evening.
“Shit, is Mary J all right now?” Randall asked him once he finished heari
ng everything Mick told him.
“Yeah, the ambos patched up the gash to her neck and now she’s asleep in my bed.”
Randall’s voice rose as he answered him. “She’s where?”
“You heard me, in my bed and before you go jumping off the proverbial deep end, I did not sleep with her.” Randall just grunted at him then advised him that Chloe would want to see Mary J to make sure she was all right for herself. “Fine, but it can at least wait until later on today or tomorrow even. Mary J is going to have to deal with some shit that has been stirred up because of this attack.”
“What kind of shit are we talking about here exactly?”
“I’m not sure, but the look on her face told me she’s hiding something, and it’s probably something ugly from her past no doubt. Has Chloe ever mention Mary J’s past to you?”
“No, not ever. Plus, Chloe would never betray her best friend’s confidence like that.”
“That’s a good woman you’ve got there, mate.”
“Yeah I know, she is one of a kind and I love her to bits for just being her.”
“Okay, enough of this lovey-dovey crap. What about the potential situation we may have on our hands down at the Macgregor’s farm?”
“I’ll call Jake when it hits dawn and get him to drive on out there on his way back into town to check it out for us. If everything is not as it should be then Jake will call it in. But for now, sit tight and for god’s sake get some damn sleep.”
Mick didn’t get a chance to respond to that demand as Randall had already disconnected the call on him. Sleep was the last thing he wanted to do right now and he probably couldn’t get any even if he tried to. Downing another shot of whiskey, Mick quietly slipped back into his bedroom. His gaze easily found Mary J’s sleeping form. Apparently his little spitfire liked to sleep with the light on at night. So he stood there silently for a while just to watch her sleep. When she began to toss and turn around on the bed, he quickly placated her by running his hand lightly up and down her arm to settle her back down. He grinned at hearing her cute little growling noise as she fell back into a deep sleep. She really was a little tigress even when asleep.