by Nicola Marsh
Tea-candles lined the verandah railing, casting a soft glow over a table set for two. Ruby red gerberas in a makeshift glass bottle vase took center stage, with gold-wrapped chocolate hearts scattered at its base.
Uh-oh. I'd stumbled onto the Hodkins trying to schmooze each other and a physio assessment would be the last thing on their minds.
Undecided whether to check and see if they were okay or abscond before I ruined their romantic evening, I glanced at the back screen door, somewhat relieved when it swung open.
"Sorry to intrude …" The rest of my apology died on my lips as Joel stepped onto the verandah, holding a bottle of wine in one hand, two glasses in the other.
"Glad you could make it," he said, acting like this wasn't totally surreal as he placed the wine and glasses on the table. "Want a drink?"
I shook my head. Didn’t help clear the fog. "What are you doing here?"
"Doing what I should've done a long time ago."
Before I could move, he hauled me into his arms and kissed me. I wanted to protest, to shove him away, but my traitorous heart gave an almighty leap of approval. Then his lips started varying the pressure, gentle and grazing, desperate and demanding, and I was lost. Lost in the mind-numbing pleasure, lost in the memories, lost in the joy of being kissed by the guy I loved.
We were breathing hard when we finally stopped and I took a step back, needing to think.
"We've been through this already, Joel. I'm not interested—"
"Bullshit." He winced, as if he hadn't meant to sound that harsh. "Look, I know what you think of me and I haven't given you any reason to feel differently. But I've changed. And I want a chance to prove it to you."
Tears stung the back of my eyes. It would be so easy to give in to him, to date him for however long he was in town. If that week in Denver we'd been together had been any indication, we'd have a blast. Before Joel ran again and took my heart with him.
Not. Going. To. Happen.
"What are you doing here anyway? I'm doing a home visit …"
He shrugged, having the grace to look sheepish. "The Hodkins moved into a retirement village in Albury a while ago. I coerced Mum into sending you out here."
"Shifty."
"I'd prefer clever. Or ingenious."
I didn't care what he preferred. I preferred to be left alone and not have to relive how much I wanted him every time he blew into town.
"I can't keep doing this." Feeling slightly nauseous that this would have to end, I shook my head. "I'm glad you'll continue to visit Kate, but I'd prefer it if we didn't see each other when you're in town."
Rather than appearing dejected, he actually grinned. "Why? Because you're in danger of enjoying our kisses? And more?"
"Cocky prick," I muttered, baffled when he laughed.
"I know it's hard for you to believe, considering my track record, but I'm not going anywhere," he said, taking a step toward me.
I held up my hands and backed up, until my butt hit the verandah railing and I couldn't move.
"Now who's running?" he said, so softly I barely heard.
"I can't do this—" I spun around, needing to escape, needing distance between us before I broke down in earnest.
"I bought this place." His hand on my shoulder didn't stop me as much as his words. "For us."
Shock rooted me to the spot. I could hardly comprehend Joel intended to keep visiting Kate. Trying to absorb the news he'd bought a hobby farm—for us—in the hometown he despised just didn't compute.
"I'm hoping it'll prove I love you and want us to be together …" He cleared his throat. "I'm kinda hanging out in the wind here, babe. Say something."
The shaking started then. My legs, followed by my arms, until my teeth chattered.
"Hey." His arms came around me from behind, pulling me back against his chest. And I let him. He felt so solid, so comforting, so dependable. Three things I never would've attributed to him.
Joel had bought this place.
He wanted us to live together.
We would be dating. For real. In a committed relationship.
As the enormity of his declaration sunk in and he continued to hold me close, not talking, not pressuring, the shakes subsided.
This was actually happening.
What I'd always wanted but believed to be futile.
Who knew dreams did come true after all.
I turned in the circle of his arms. Wrapped my arms around his waist. Looked him in the eye. "I love you too. I always have."
He let out an excited whoop, hoisted me up and swung me around, our laughter echoed by a distant kookaburra settling down for the night. Something I'd be doing very soon. Settling down with the guy I loved.
When he stopped and my feet touched the ground again, I said, "We're really doing this?"
"You better believe it." His lips grazed mine, a feather-light whisper that promised so much. "We can move in end of the month."
Desperately wanting to believe in the fairytale, I couldn't help but shake the residual doubts that this was too good to be true.
"What made you change your mind? About everything?"
He cupped my face, leaving me no option but to lose myself in the intensity of his gaze. "Mum shed some light on a few misconceptions. My dad was never trapped here, it was the other way around. But it was basically being with you in Denver that showed me what I was missing out on."
Buoyed by his honesty, I traced the contour of his bottom lip. "And what's that?"
"Happiness. A future. With someone I love too much to lose because of my own stupid insecurities." He nipped my finger and I snatched it away, smiling. "That's why I ran the first time, when I started to feel too much for you. I didn't want us to get involved too young, then ultimately growing apart because I couldn't settle."
He released my face to gesture at the cottage. "I'll admit, buying this place was to prove to you I meant what I said. That I was serious about us. But once the deed came through, I realized something else."
"What?"
"That once I stopped running, here is where I want to be." He grinned. "As long as I have you by my side."
Bursting with joy, I flung myself at him and hugged him tight.
Uppity-Doo would always be my go-to place but in Joel's embrace, secure in his love, I knew I'd finally come home.
EPILOGUE
JOEL
"Hey man, nice set-up." Kye slapped me on the back. "With all those chickens and lambs and shit, almost looks like a real farm."
I elbowed him, laughing when he staggered a little. "Annabelle's real proud of this place so you shut your big trap—"
"Before one of the girls shuts it for you." Ashton handed us a couple of beers. "I swear they get bossier when those three get together."
"They're not so bad," I said, making pathetically unmanly goo-goo eyes at my wife as she cradled our sleeping son in her arms.
Annabelle winked at me, and the guys groaned.
"You've got to be kidding me," Kye said, shaking his head. "You've been together five years, your kid's one and you're still making eyes at each other?"
Ashton made a gagging sound. "Get a room, you two."
"We will, now that we've got so many ready, willing and able babysitters crashing." I smirked. "Though considering the way you two schmucks fawn over your women, maybe you'll be too busy."
Kye's cocky grin softened. "Face it, bozos. We lucked in."
Ashton nodded and raised his beer in the direction of the girls. "Three of the best."
We chugged back our beers, content to watch our women natter and fuss and coo over Harry.
Annabelle already owned my heart but amazingly, when Harry had been born, my heart expanded and filled with even more love. I'd never thought it possible but I was happy, truly happy, in Uppity-Doo, running a successful physiotherapy franchise across four surrounding towns with my beautiful wife and my mum. We were a good team.
And the fact Mum adored Harry and loved babysitting gave
Annabelle and me the opportunity to snatch weekends away in Melbourne at the apartment we rented there. Yeah, part of me was still drawn to the bright lights of a city even though I was a country boy at heart.
"How's life at the academy?" Ashton asked Kye as I belatedly remembered to flip the burgers sizzling on the barbecue.
"Good." Kye mimed a serve. "What with my exceptional talent as head coach and Mia's incredible marketing skills, we're going gangbusters."
I edged the sausages to one side to make way for the onions. "And I don't need to ask how you're going, Mr. Famous Artist."
Ever modest, Ashton shrugged. "The London show sold out, thanks to Dani's PR, so we'll see how Paris goes in a few months."
"Does your PR manager wear the pants in the bedroom too?" Kye sniggered and pressed a thumb to Ashton's forehead.
I laughed. "Face it, guys. We'd be nothing without our strong, talented women."
"Speak for yourself," Kye said, puffing out his chest in mock bravado. Which deflated when Mia shot him a mischievous glance that said so much.
"Damn, we're lucky." Ashton raised his beer in a toast. "To not screwing up with the best things to ever happen to a bunch of clueless dickheads like us."
Kye tapped his bottle to ours. "I'll drink to that."
As I clinked bottles with the guys, I glanced at my wife and son, knowing I'd do everything in my power to not screw up again. I'd done my fair share in the past. These days, I was right where I wanted to be.
Life couldn't get any better than this.
If you enjoyed this book, check out my Bombshell contemporary romance series, kicking off with BEFORE, available at all retailers.
Good girls finish last? Screw that.
Being a small town girl isn’t so bad. Unless Mom’s the town joke and I’ve spent my entire life shying away from her flamboyance. College in Las Vegas should be so much cooler. But it’s not. Bad things happen. Real bad.
So when my brother Reid offers me an all-expenses paid vacation to Australia for a month, I am so there. Discounting the deadly snakes on the outback cattle station, I should be safe.
Until I meet Jack.
Jack defines bad boy and then some. He’s big, buffed, bronzed, and hotter than any guy I’ve ever met. His sexy Aussie accent makes me melt. And the guy can cook.
But he’s my brother’s new bestie and he lives on the other side of the world. There’s no future for us.
Is there?
Chapter One
JESS
College was overrated. Seriously.
The dorm-hopping, frat-partying, alcohol-imbibing rumors were true. The part where I became a party animal, made a zillion BFFs and took UNLV by storm? Hadn’t kicked in yet. I sucked as badly as a freshman at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, as I had as a student at Hell High, my nickname for my old high school in Craye Canyon. Apparently once a geek, always a geek.
In two semesters I’d attended three frat parties, had drunk two vodkas, one rum and a watered down Long Island Iced Tea. And the only other bed I’d graced besides my own belonged to my roommate’s dog, illegally smuggled in whenever she could. Yeah, chalk up permanent virginity status alongside geek. Embarrassing.
On the upside, I didn’t live at home any more. One of the major incentives for busting my ass at high school to enroll at UNLV was the distance. UNVL was over an hour away from my hometown so I’d have to live on campus. Craye Canyon wasn’t big enough for Mom and me.
Pity my foray into freedom hadn’t lived up to expectations. I’d hoped to shed my good-girl image at college. Yet here I was, last day before summer break, still hanging out in the library. Worse? Still a virgin.
“Hey Jess, you’re coming tonight, yeah?”
I glanced across at Dave, my study partner, and bit back my first response of ‘I wish.’ Somehow, I didn’t think the serious bookworm would appreciate the innuendo.
“Think I’ll give it a miss,” I said, packing my satchel for the last time this semester.
I was free for the summer. Without plans. I couldn’t head home, not with Mom in wedding planner frenzy mode. Summer was the busiest month for Nevada weddings and it seemed like every bridezilla in the state wanted Pam Harper to organize their wedding. Poor suckers.
“School’s out, Geekette.” Dave tweaked my nose. “Time to par-tay.”
“That settles it.” I elbowed him away. “No way am I going anywhere with a dork who says par-tay.”
“Now you’re just playing hard to get.” Dave slung an arm across my shoulder, a friendly gesture I’d tolerated during our many study sessions together.
“Yeah, that’s me, a regular babe juggling guys along with assignments.” I rolled my eyes. “Besides, I’ve got plans tonight.”
“What plans?” He snapped his fingers. “Quick, the truth, before you make up some crap.”
“I haven’t seen my cousin in a while, thought I’d hang out with her.”
Truth was, my cousin Chantal worked nights as a dancer at the coolest burlesque venue on the Strip. But she had a great apartment I could hide out in to avoid the inevitable end of semester parties.
I didn’t feel like getting drunk, stoned or laid. Not that I’d ever done any of those things before. That Geekette nickname Dave had bestowed on me last August when we both started our undergrad English major? Pathetically true.
“Come to the party with me for a while, then go hang with your cousin later.”
When I opened my mouth to protest again, Dave pressed his finger against my lips. “Not talking no for an answer, got it?”
I didn’t mind Dave’s arm around my shoulder but having his finger against my mouth made me uncomfortable. We were friends. We hung out. Two loners who studied and grabbed the occasional meal. I wasn’t remotely attracted to the six foot, reed-thin Mr. Average and I’d never picked up any vibes off him.
But there was something about the way he was looking at me, the way he was muscling in on my personal space, that had me edging away.
“I might see you there,” I said, slinging my bag over my shoulder and accidentally on purpose bumping him out of the way in the process.
For a second I thought I glimpsed anger in his pale grey eyes before he blinked and I attributed it to the sunlight filtering through the library windows.
“Okay, catch you later.”
I waited until Dave left, watching him lope between the tables and out the main library doors. I liked his easy-going nature, how he joked around without crossing the line. He’d never put the moves on me so the whole touchy-feely finger on the lips? Probably harmless and just me over-reacting to having a long, hot summer stretching ahead of me with not one freaking thing to do.
I needed to get a life.
Fast.
Chapter Two
JACK
I was a man on a mission.
I needed a bourbon in one hand and a blonde in the other, not necessarily in that order. And the annual Onakie B&S Ball happily provided both.
I’d traveled a long, dusty three hundred miles to attend the black tie Bachelor and Spinster ball in outback Queensland, along with ten thousand other revelers currently jammed into the arena.
Festivities—translated: consuming as much alcohol as humanly possible—had kicked off in the afternoon, gates to the ball opened at seven, which meant there were a lot of B&S’s paired off already. Nothing like beer goggles for making a member of the opposite sex appear overly attractive.
I hadn’t run into anyone I knew, which suited me just fine. No one from the Cooweer Homestead cattle station where I worked had made the long trek. Then again, considering I was the only twenty-year-old on the property, with the next youngest employee being forty-five, it didn’t surprise me. Besides, I preferred it this way. A few hours out of my mundane life to cut free. Go wild. Get pissed. Shag some willing and able chick.
It may not be much, but after spending the last four months working my arse off at the cattle station as a cook, I needed to burn off a little
steam.
“Hey handsome. Gotta light?” A thirty-something blonde with sun-wrinkles ringing her big blue eyes touched my forearm, waving a cigarette in her other hand at me.
I shook my head. “Sorry. Don’t smoke.”
“Too bad.” She flung the cigarette away and stepped in closer. “Fancy a drink instead?”
“Got one, thanks.” I raised my bourbon. “But don’t let me stop you.”
Not deterred by my offhand responses, she threaded her fingers through mine. “Let’s go dance.” She paused and sent me a loaded glance from beneath her lash extensions. “Down by the river.”
Code for ‘my Ute is parked at the farthest corner of the compound so we can fuck our brains out and no one will hear.’
This is exactly what I’d wanted. A no-strings-attached quickie to alleviate the boredom. So why did the thought of having meaningless sex with a stranger suddenly sound so unappealing?
She stood on her tiptoes and whispered in my ear. “I give great head.”
I wasn’t too keen, but my cock wasn’t so discerning. It stood to attention, straining to get at the brazen blonde.
Sensing my indecision, she tugged on my hand. “Come on.”
Like any weak-minded guy who allowed the wrong head to dictate his actions, I fell into step beside her. We dodged a crammed dance floor where an international rock band blasted hard core. We pushed our way through wall-to-wall revelers drunk on booze and each other. We wound our way through Utes and 4WDs parked helter-skelter. We sidestepped couples writhing against each other in the dark.
It was nothing I hadn’t seen before. In fact, in the four years since I’d run from the last foster home in Sydney and worked my away across the outback to far north Queensland, I’d attended several B&S balls like this. Lonely people from all walks of life hooking up for a night of raucous fun, endless drinking and faceless sex.