Chapter Seven
It was a gloriously sunny day, and I’d had the good sense not to get wasted at the party, so there was not even a hint of a hangover. The four people that slept on my living room floor could not have said the same thing. Darren, the only one awake, looked decidedly unwell as he queried where I was off too so early - it was actually ten o’clock.
“Just going to see a friend,” I explained quietly before telling him he would be able to find aspirin in the cabinet above the bathroom sink. Then, trusting Matt to ensure that the house wasn’t trashed and the carpet wasn’t splattered with vomit, I left my worse for wear friends behind.
During the drive to Jay’s ranch, I felt inexplicably nervous. Not frightened as such, but that excited, fluttering kind of nervousness. A jittering dwelt low in my abdomen, and my hands trembled slightly. It was the same kind of feeling I’d had when I got on the plane to Australia; that mixture of nervousness and elation. I hadn’t felt that way about a person in several years. The last time was probably when I was sixteen; I’d had a huge crush on the quarterback of the football team, a ridiculously handsome boy called Ben Curtis. Nothing ever came of my infatuation, but I used to get that mildly nauseous sensation whenever he was within fifty feet of me.
In the years since, I’d assumed that was just an adolescent thing, and that grown women didn’t feel that way around men, even ones they were attracted to. I’d certainly never experienced it around Rich. But over the course of the long drive, I began to wonder if I’d ever really been attracted to Rich at all. When I compared the way I’d felt about him with the way I felt about Jay (or even Ben Curtis) it was a very different sensation.
My relationship with Rich had seemed right on a practical level. We got along pretty well. He was doing a Masters in anthropology; we’d read the same books; enjoyed the same films; liked watching documentaries together. It all seemed to fit. I thought he was the kind of man I was meant to be with. We made a good match. But my love for him, because there’s no doubt I did love him, was more intellectual than visceral.
Perhaps, I reminded myself as I passed the spot my car had broken down last time I was on that road, I was looking at it the wrong way around. Maybe the way I felt about Jay was just a shallow captivation. I didn’t really know him after all. And what I did know told me that we were worlds apart, literally and figuratively. It was more animal attraction; lust rather than any deep affection. Just because he gave me the shakes didn’t mean there was something profound between us.
By the time I pulled up to the ranch, I was sick of my own wondering mind.
Jay must have heard the car, because as I got out of it, he appeared from one of the barns. Dressed in jeans with yet more frayed holes in the knees, and a T-shirt that was drenched with sweat, he lifted a hand in greeting.
My heart lurched at the sight of him, hammering rapidly it seemed to leap into my throat. And muscles deep within me clenched. Yep, there was definitely animal attraction. The key question was lust all there was to it? Determined not to reveal how a mere glance of him turned me into a puddle of gibbering hormones, I silenced the naughty voice that practically pleaded for him to drag me into the barn he’d just come from and have his big, strong, hardy way with me.
There was no doubt in my mind; sex with him would be different from anything I’d ever experienced with old boyfriends. It would be energetic, vigorous, and maybe even a little rough. His coarse workman’s hands would grab me. He’d force me to his sweat-coated skin, and he’d take me hard and fast.
Why did that turn me on so much? I’d never wanted it before. I’d wanted to be treated with respect, I’d wanted to be loved and taken care of. However, a sudden mental image of him thrusting me over a hay bale and entering me from behind moistened my underwear.
“Hey,” I smiled; waving back at him while my eyes were transfixed by the way his shirt clung to him.
“Hi,” he replied, approaching with long, confident strides. His raised arm stayed up and he swiped the forearm across his brow. “I’m glad you could come,” he added.
Breathe, breathe. Not wanting to make a complete idiot of myself, I willed myself not to betray my secret, salacious thoughts. “Thanks for inviting me,” I returned with more self-possession than I really had.
I was glad that I’d decided to go for a very casual look. Sneakers, jeans and a red and black plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. My hair was swept back in a ponytail, and I hadn’t bothered with any make-up accept a little light foundation.
His gaze glided down the length of my body and he grinned. “You look good,” he said, his voice low but, I liked to think, appreciative. “This is part of the ‘when in Rome’ philosophy?”
“Somethin’ like that,” I chuckled. “I seem to recall you saying something about beating the city out of me.” I don’t know what it was about him that turned me into a wise ass. Maybe it was the way my subconscious chose to mask my libidinous feelings. It all seemed pretty juvenile, though. Like pigtail-pulling at elementary school. Yet I was no more capable of stopping that then I was of ceasing the heat between my thighs.
“Right, yeah,” he nodded. “Are you game, though?” Bright blue eyes widening in surprise, he cocked his head as he continued to study me.
“You had other plans?” I wondered.
“Well, I hadn’t really given it much thought,” he admitted. “But I figured we could have some lunch and then maybe go for a ride or...well, whatever you wanted to do really.”
“You think I’m not cut out for it?” I responded, shutting the car door with a flick of my hip before folding my arms beneath my bosom. “Come on, cowboy, give me your best shot.”
As stray beads of sweat rolled down his temple and meandered to his rugged jaw, he laughed. “Y’know, for an intelligent woman, you seem to have a bit of trouble retaining information. I am not a-”
“Cowboy,” I interrupted. “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I jovially murmured. “Well, Mr. Stockman, I’m not as fragile as you think. So, bring it on.” Was this bravado really fooling anyone?
If his subtle smirk was anything to go on, I definitely wasn’t fooling him. He did seem to be enjoying this feisty to-and-fro, though. “Right,” he sighed. “All right, you wanna know what it’s like to work on an Aussie ranch? Come with me.”
I followed the jerk of his head, pausing just long enough to notice that he had an exquisitely pert ass that those tight-fitting jeans hugged. I was envious of that denim.
First, he took me to one of the cattle barns and explained the huge feed bags that had just been delivered, and which sat on a large pallet beside the open doors, needed to be carried in and stacked up.
My upper body strength is nothing to write home about. But I’m no weakling, either, and I wasn’t going to shy away from the challenge. So pushing my already rolled sleeves a little higher, I grabbed hold of one of the fifteen-kilo sacks. I ignored his chuckle as I struggled to lift it, and ignored his continued quiet laughter as I walked awkwardly into the barn.
I managed a grand total of three before he insisted that I stop.
“I’m fine,” I told him tartly.
“You’re gonna hurt yourself,” he said with a soft smile rather than the smart-ass grin he had been wearing.
I was feeling pretty hot and bothered, my arms ached and there was a dull pain in my lower back. I didn’t tell him about any of that, though. Instead, puffing a loud sigh, I turned and sat on the remaining bags.
“You know,” I began softly, “there was something I wanted to ask you.”
Mirroring my action and taking a seat next to me, he twisted his face to mine. “Shoot.”
“What brought you to the university?”
As he brushed damp hair from his brow, the sun illuminated his glowing skin and highlighted the rivulets of sweat that rolled down his neck and bled into the collar of his shirt. “A friend of mine teaches business there,” he explained. “He asked me to give a few lectures on modern a
griculture business practices.”
“Oh,” I nodded, his words sinking in somewhere, but my mind predominantly fixed on his throat.
“He seemed to think it went pretty well,” he added. “Reckons he might be able to offer me regularly work, just once a week or whatever.”
“So?” I breathed. “I’d see more of you?”
“I hope, whether I’m at the uni every week or not, I’ll see more of you,” he replied simply and unaffectedly. “Now,” he stated, slapping his thighs as he jumped back to his feet, “are you gonna admit defeat like the soft seppo you are?”
“Seppo?” I repeated, my head lifting indignantly and eyes set solidly on his.
“Septic tank,” he uttered, slipping both hands deep in his pockets. “Yank.”
“Charming,” I muttered, getting up and wiping my hands over the dusty seat of my pants. That was one of the many colorful Australian rhyming slangs that I hadn’t yet heard. “And I’m not admitting anything,” I assured him sternly. “Come on, put me to work. I’ll show you how soft I am.”
Ours was a strange relationship, I realized that even at the time. He brought out two things in me that I didn’t know existed. And I could never, even in my wildest dreams, have imagined they’d co-exist. A potent, heady, passionate sexual desire. And a petulant, childish desire to one-up or annoy him.
The latter he seemed to have for me, too. Of course, that didn’t mean he also had the former. What I am sure of is that he demurred at my challenge. He didn’t ‘put me to work’.
“I’ve got a better idea,” he said, before leading me to the stables.
Getting Tia from her stall, he tacked her up and helped me onto her back, then mounted another of his horses. I asked where we were going, but all he’d tell me was that he wanted to show me around the property.
Thankfully, I didn’t need to ‘ride’ Tia as much as she just carried me. My direction not required or desired, she simply followed her master gently. And I soon began to relax. As it turned out, Jay’s ranch was much more vast than I could have imagined. He led me down to a narrow, but freely running stream, where a group of his cattle had stopped to drink.
It was incredibly serene, and the heat of the sun was just starting to taper off. It was beautiful, and neither of us felt the need to say anything, not even a snide remark.
The peace didn’t last, though. I heard hooves coming from somewhere over my right shoulder, and then I heard the shout.
“Oi, Anderson!”
Tia whinnied and tossed her head as I wrenched my face behind me.
Four men, all on horseback, all thickset, with dark hair and an unmistakable family resemblance where approaching fast.
“What the fuck are you doing on my land?” one of them, who seemed to be the oldest and who had a scar above his right eye, demanded.
The other men’s horses moved hurriedly to form a circle around Jay and me. Panicked, I cast my eyes to my friend and knight in shining armor. I tried to figure out whether he looked worried. He wasn’t relaxed that much was obvious.
“This is my land,” Jay announced curtly. “My family’s land and it has been for four generations.”
“That’s where your wrong, mate,” another of the men chipped in. “This isn’t your land, or your family’s land. It’s ours.”
“I’m not gettin’ into this again,” Jay insisted.
“Then get your animals and your woman off our land,” the first shouted.
More than a little unnerved, I cast my eyes carefully at each of the men, trying to assess the danger they posed. I would have been ready to head back right then and there, but Jay was not willing to back down.
“You, and your men, are the ones trespassing,” he stated defiantly.
“I don’t think you’re getting it Anderson,” a man with a thick bushy beard yelled, his palomino shuffling anxious hooves beneath him. “We’re fucking serious.” Abruptly reaching behind him, he grabbed something from the saddle and swung his arm back around. The sun glinted off the blade as he exposed what was more of a machete than a knife.
I sucked in a breath as the weapon was pointed toward me. Tia neighed and rocked back a little on her hind legs. Jay’s horse surged forward. Placing himself between the man and me, he stuffed his hand into a pouch on the side of his own saddle.
“I’m serious, too,” Jay tersely spat, freeing a pistol from its concealed place and aiming it directly at the other man’s face. “Now, you be a sensible boy and put that thing away,” he commanded. “We don’t want anyone gettin’ hurt now, do we?”
“Put it away, Greg,” the older man gruffly insisted.
Greg, the guy with the knife, chewed his lip bitterly before finally lowering his weapon. As soon as he did, Jay followed suit.
“This isn’t over, though,” the leader of the group continued. “Not over by a fucking long way.” With a jerk of his sullen head, he gave his companions an order, and they followed it.
For a long time, I watched them slowly retreat. It wasn’t until I could no longer see them that I once again breathed.
“You all right?” Jay asked, leading his horse closer to me. Facing me, he pulled his ride to a stop when his leg was brushing mine. “Faith?” he added, reaching across and cupping my face in his large, hot hand. “Are you OK?”
“Yeah,” I whispered, panting slightly. “Yeah, I’m OK.” Meeting eyes that were so full of concern, I found my efforts to breathe thwarted again. There was such intensity in his gaze, a power and seriousness that was completely unanticipated.
And then another unexpected thing happened.
Slowly, he leaned closer. Frantically licking my lips, I knew what was coming, but couldn’t quite believe my senses. His face continued to inch delicately nearer, I felt the whisper of his breath on my cheek, and all at once the warmth of his lips had over taken mine. The pressure was delightfully sweet; the scent of him was intoxicating. My head was spinning, and my lips parted with a quiet moan of need.
He didn’t respond as I’d hoped, though. Gently withdrawing with nothing but a tender, almost apologetic, graze of his tongue across my bottom lip, he looked as though his actions had caught him equally unawares. “Um...” he mumbled, with a slight shake of his head. “We should probably head back.”
I agreed with a nod that I hoped didn’t look as disappointed as I felt.
On the way, he told me that the men were the Kings. A family with land that bordered Jay’s family’s property. Apparently, a dispute had been waging for some sixty years over where their land ended and Jay’s began. Recently, that dispute had become more aggressive, and was one of the many reasons Jay’s mom felt unable to remain at the ranch following her husband’s death.
“I don’t know why they can’t get it through their thick heads,” Jay muttered when we got back to the stable. Agile as ever, he slipped down from his horse easily before moving to help me. “Anyway,” he sighed. “I’m sorry you got caught up in all that.”
“Not your fault,” I shrugged off quickly, lifting my left leg over the saddle and jumping down with rather less finesse than he had. He was there, however, to steady me.
“And I’m sorry about...” he mumbled, eyes not quite meeting mine. “I’m sorry that I...”
“Kissed me?” I wondered, baffled by his attempt to apologize for it.
“Yeah,” he quietly uttered.
My hands feeling awkward by my sides, I quashed the urge to touch him. “Did I seem displeased with that turn of events?” I asked instead, flashing him a shy smile.
“Well, no,” he admitted.
“That’s because I wasn’t,” I assured him, marvelling at how unsure he suddenly seemed. Surely, women fell at his feet. He couldn’t be unaware of the effect he had. He couldn't have been unaware of how I responded to him.
“So...” he said with a lopsided grin. “What would you say if I asked you to have dinner with me some time?”
“As in a date?” I replied with an arch of an eyebrow
.
“Yeah,” he nodded hesitantly. “Yeah, a date.”
“Then, I’d say ‘yes’,” I responded, an unbidden smile tugging at the corners of my mouth.