Southern Sunset: Book One of 44 South Read online

  “Both.”

  Perfect.

  I lowered my lips, inhaled deeply, and then licked up her centre, thrusting my tongue inside. And then I was eating her out, sucking and nibbling and growling against her mound, while my fingers gripped her hips firmly and my nose rubbed her clit and I just about lost my fucking mind.

  There might have been a finger or two thrust inside. There definitely was an orgasm or two on her part. And then I was stripping, rolling on a condom, and positioning myself above her glorious body as she shuddered and moaned and floated back down from her high.

  “Look at me,” I said. She blinked open well sated eyes. “I want you to look at me when I take you for the first time.”

  She swallowed thickly.

  “Nod your head if you understand.”

  She nodded her head slowly.

  “I don't make love, Maggie,” I told her. “I fuck.”

  She blinked, a small furrow appearing between her brows.

  “But that doesn’t mean I’m not loving you,” I added. “I fucking love your body right now. But I don’t do slow and easy, Maggie. I like it hard and fast and wet and loud.”

  She met my gaze with a steady one of her own.

  “Tell me to stop now,” I hissed between clenched teeth.

  “Stop talking,” she said. “Start fucking.”

  I closed my eyes, sucked in a deep breath, and when I opened them, I was already thrusting inside.

  So tight. So wet. So fucking hot. I wrapped an arm behind her back, arching her body up under me, one hand gripping her hip tightly, holding her still for my cock as it thrust inside, the other fisted up in her hair. She tilted her pelvis, met me thrust for thrust, her legs wrapped around me, ankles crossed over my thighs; I could feel her boots still. Fuck! I could feel the holster on her thigh.

  “You’re armed,” I said on a grunt. “Do you feel unsafe?” I didn’t stop fucking her. Each word said between a roll of my hips, a thrust of my cock, the most blissful sensation I had ever experienced on every pump and glide.

  “Should I be?” she said on panted breaths.

  “Never, if I can help it,” I declared, crushing my lips to her mouth.

  She came apart within moments. I’d barely gotten started. I made her come three more times before I emptied myself inside. The condom was pulled off, tied up and discarded. Another was on in the next breath, her pale brow arched, her lips stretched wide, her smile… alive and beautiful and reaching her eyes.

  “Is this how I make that smile real?” I asked, holding her watchful gaze.

  “I’m not sure,” she replied. She meant it. Maggie had ghosts from her past. She was running. She wanted to hide.

  “Turn over,” I whispered. She complied. She was made for this.

  I reached down and swept her hair over her shoulder, baring her long neck. Then let my finger trail down her spine, into the crease of her arse. She shuddered. I slipped it into her wet and waiting pussy, feeling her walls contract greedily around its length.

  “I think we’re going to have to try many different things together, Maggie,” I said, hearing the desire in the husky tone of my voice. “Until you know the answer to that question.”

  “Less talking more fucking,” she demanded.

  I was laughing when I thrust inside her again. In fact, I don’t think I stopped smiling until the sun started to rise and the birds sang their morning chorus.

  And then I wrapped her up in my arms, holding her close, laying a soft kiss into her sweat soaked hair, and grinned at the ceiling, as she drifted off to an exhausted slumber. I could hear people in the house. I wasn’t sure Maggie had.

  She was right, I was a caveman. Because even though we had guests, I still demanded she say my name each time she climaxed.

  And I still craved to make that smile mine.

  Chapter 15

  No Pet Names

  Maggie

  The sun was in my eyes. The curtains wide open, a soft breeze filtering in through a crack at the base of the sash window. I stared around the part of the room I could see from where I was lying on my side. There was a dresser with a few innocuous things scattered across it; a comb, a wallet, a set of keys. Old Spice aftershave.

  I felt a hot body wrapped around me from behind, a muscular chest pressed up to my naked back. A hard arm holding me tight, legs entangled with mine. I blinked, sucked in a slow breath, and spotted my Glock in its holster on the bedside table.

  On my side.

  I let the breath of air out and closed my eyes.

  I had no excuse. I hadn’t even had a drop of alcohol. I’d been sober, awake, and of sound mind.

  And I’d fucked a suspect.

  Multiple times.

  And OK, so I’d cleared him from the suspect list, he had a solid alibi, and my gut told me he had nothing to do with Whiting’s death. But he did run the station the body had been found on. And he drove a Ford Ranger ute with a Red Tussock license plate.

  I’d seen it as he’d carried me into the house last night. RED 2. Which meant they had more than one. And I didn’t know which one had picked up Whiting from outside Smokey’s the other night.

  Oh, this was bad. The arm tightened. A very impressive erection pressed into my lower back. Hot breath coasted over my neck, a tongue licked up the side, until lips covered my pulse point and he sucked.

  “Such a give away,” he muttered against the tender skin. “It flutters like a hummingbird when you panic.”

  “I don’t panic,” I immediately said.

  “Maggie,” he replied sounding sad. “You live in a state of panic most of the time. I just wish I knew why that is.”

  I thought I was good at hiding my emotions. I thought, other than the fake smile of course, that I fooled everyone.

  But there was no fooling Luke Drake.

  “I should go,” I tried.

  “It’s Sunday. The bed’s warm. Your body is hot. And I’m hungry.”

  Something clattered down stairs.

  I tried to sit upright. “Who’s here?”

  “The family, of course. Lie back down, I’m not done with you yet.”

  He’d said that last night. I’m not done with you. God knows why it turned me to mush.

  “You have family staying? Isn’t this your house?” I demanded, instead of giving into my libido.

  “The wedding,” he replied steadily, gripping my chin and turning my face to his. Warm, amused brown eyes met mine. “Mum will be cooking breakfast, and then there’s all the food she’s been baking for the past week. Momo and Finn will turn up eventually, if he can drag himself out of their bed. Justin and Matt should be here too, if they know what’s good for them. Oh, and the Tanakas. Momo’s parents. Then there’s the cousins and my aunts and uncles and well, I think you get the picture.”

  “All of them?” I said on a squeak.

  “Yes, beautiful. All of them. And I intend to make sure every single one of them knows that you’re mine.”

  I glowered.

  “The Tanakas,” I started. “They stayed somewhere else, right?”

  He smiled. “No. They stayed here. In the house.” He was enjoying this.

  “Your parents?” I whispered.

  “Here, too. Their home is in the retirement village in town. Too far to drive last night.”

  Oh, shoot me now.

  “Please tell me your brothers did not stay in the same house you… you fucked me in all night long. Please,” I begged.

  His face sobered. “Matt and Justin have homes on station land. It was just the Tanakas and Mum and Dad here last night.”

  “On another level of the house, right? Like, out the back and down a long set of stairs and behind a big, thick…”

  “Maggie,” he said softly, cupping my cheeks. “You’re mine.”

  I shook my head. “We met yesterday. I’m invest…”

  “You’re mine,” he said unequivocally.

  “Do I get a say in this?”

  “Do y
ou have something to say?”

  I blinked at him. Fuck, there was so much to say. But did I regret sleeping with him? Sorry, fucking him? Hell, no. That was the best sex of my life. Possibly because it was fucking and not making love, but I wasn’t going to go there just yet.

  “You knew they were here,” I finally said.

  “Yes, I did,” he said, owning his caveman behaviour.

  “You’re an arse,” I growled.

  “But as of last night, I’m your arse.”

  I let out a huff of breath. “Unbelievable.” Can’t a girl have a secret shag and then walk away without the world knowing?

  Oh, God. What the hell was Sheila going to say? Who the hell was Sheila going to tell? Argh! Mac. This was not good. Not good at all.

  I pushed the covers back and climbed out of bed. He let me. Not for a moment was I foolish enough to believe he couldn’t have stopped me. Not by force, per se. But by his magnetism. I was a magnet. That’s what it was. He was just a bigger one.

  I couldn’t resist.

  “Bathroom?” I said, indicating a closed door. The only closed door other than the one into the room itself. Luke lay back on the bed, hands behind his head, naked chest on display, sheet down around his thighs.

  He was hard. Everywhere. From the eight pack he sported to the corded arms he flexed beside his head. To the huge fucking erection sprouting between thick thighs.

  I licked my lips. That had been in me last night.

  Multiple times.

  “The closet,” he said. “This is an old house. The bathroom is down the hall.”

  Down the hall where any number of people could be walking. Down the hall where I couldn’t skulk away quietly and unobserved.

  I looked down at the floor, blushing. I hated to blush. I was beginning to hate this morning.

  Luke appeared before me, completely naked, much as I was. Nudity didn’t disturb me usually. Unless it was the nudity of the man I was lusting after and trying to keep at arms’ length.

  “I’ll check to make sure the way is clear,” he murmured, leaning down and kissing me on the lips. Just lightly. Barely there, really.

  And I wanted more.

  Damn this attraction. Why now?

  He walked over to the closet and pulled out some clothes. Tracksuit pants that would be several sizes too big and a t-shirt I was going to drown in.

  “Do you want some boxers?” he asked. “Or go commando?”

  I let out a laugh. “I’ve got knickers, I’ll wear them.”

  “Sure,” he said with a shrug of his shoulder. “If you can find them.”

  I stared around the room and spotted bits of my dress, his trousers and suit jacket, a crumpled dress shirt, tie, socks, boots - his and mine - and no underwear.

  I sighed. “Commando,” I said, scowling.

  “There she is,” he said, handing the clothes off to me. “My little tiger.”

  “Oh, no! No pet names,” I demanded.

  “No? How about…?”

  “No!” I reached up and placed my fingers over his lips. Our eyes met. My heart thudded. I watched as his gaze swept across my cheek to the pulse at the base of my neck.

  And then he growled.

  I dropped the trackies and t-shirt and we crashed together; lips, hands, bodies. Magnetic.

  My legs were around his waist in a second, he was spinning us back to the bed in the next. My head hit the soft mattress, his body covered mine, our tongues delved and dived and tangled together.

  And then someone knocked on the door.

  Chapter 16

  Depends

  Luke

  “You have got to be kidding me,” I muttered, lifting my lips off Maggie’s kiss swollen ones only long enough to get the words out. Then I was kissing her again. Frantically.

  I couldn’t seem to get enough.

  A second knock sounded out, louder this time.

  “Go away!” I shouted, clutching Maggie to me as if she’d escape in the distraction.

  “Can’t, bro,” Justin called. “Got a problem.”

  His voice was solemn and subdued. Unlike Justin. Especially unlike Justin if he knew I had a woman in my bed. The fact he was missing the opportunity to rib me, meant something serious was going on.

  I knifed off the bed and stalked to the door, swinging it open only wide enough for Justin to get an eye-full of me.

  “Whoa!” he said, covering his face. “My innocence!”

  “Fuck off. I’m busy.”

  He smirked. The Justin I knew back. So, whatever had happened, couldn’t be that bad. I hoped.

  His hands lowered and he scratched at the back of his head. He was dressed, but looked dishevelled, like he hadn’t had the time to shower yet. Or had been up several hours already. Due to the state of the vineyard after an event, that was probably true. He’d undoubtedly been over there since sparrow’s fart helping with the clean-up. Justin could be a dick sometimes, but he was a hard working one.

  “Some of section four stock wandered into the vineyard,” he finally said.

  “The fuck? How’d it get over there?”

  He shook his head. “That’s not the worst part.”

  “It gets worse than stock migrating several kilometres into a fully fenced section?”

  He nodded, his dark eyes swirling with some kind of emotion I couldn’t place.

  “A hundred head,” he said. I whistled. That was a lot of sheep to break off from a flock and get themselves over rough terrain and through multiple fences.

  Ah, fuck. We had a rustler.

  “I’ll get dressed and help Sam and Charlie get them back where they belong. Did they harm any of the vines?”

  “Luke,” Justin said. “They’re all dead.”

  I stood there, stunned immobile. Trying to figure out how a hundred head of sheep could get themselves killed naturally, whilst traipsing over impossible to navigate terrain on their own.

  I was coming up blank.

  “Is that normal?” Maggie’s voice asked from behind me. “For sheep to die like that without cause?”

  Justin tried to peer around my shoulder; I closed the door to just a crack.

  “Go back to bed, babe. I’ll handle this,” I said, not wanting Justin to see an inch of Maggie’s perfect skin.

  When I looked over my shoulder, she was dressed. In my clothes. I almost opened the door back up, then and there.

  “Is that the new cop?” Justin mock whispered. “In your bed?”

  “Hello, Justin,” Maggie said, pulling the door open from behind me.

  “Maggie! Wow! Didn’t know you were in there.”

  Dick.

  She smiled. For a second, I could have sworn it wasn’t fake.

  “So, is that normal?” she repeated.

  Justin scratched at his head again. “Nope. Sheep don’t just walk themselves over close to five kilometres of land and then cark it.”

  “So, how did they die?” she pressed.

  Justin met my eyes. There was anger there. “Poison, looks like. Possibly 1080.”

  “1080?” I queried, deciding it was high time I got dressed. I walked back into the room, fully aware Justin would see the state of it, and grabbed some jeans out of the closet. “How the hell did 1080 get into the vineyard?”

  “And how the hell do I contain it?”

  Fuck! He was right. If 1080 was found on vineyard land, then it could compromise the vines. The whole of next season’s harvest. Fuck!

  “Isn’t that the pesticide used by Department of Conservation for rats and stoats and the like?” Maggie asked.

  “Yeah. Nowhere near here,” I muttered, pulling a t-shirt on over my head. I ran a hand through my hair and then sat down heavily on the bed to pull on some boots and socks.

  Maggie walked over and started doing the same, sitting next to me as if it was a perfectly natural thing to do. I liked it.

  Justin leaned against the open doorway and watched us with a smirk. I glowered back at him as I finish
ed tying off my boots.

  “You heading back over there?” I asked.

  “Yep,” he said.

  “I’ll come with you.”

  “Me, too,” added Maggie.

  “You don’t need to see this,” I said, suddenly wanting to protect her from the sight. Dead stock was not something I wanted Maggie to see first thing in the morning after having been in my bed all night.

  “If it’s a crime, will you be reporting it?” she asked, staring me levelly in the face.

  “Depends,” I hedged. Sometimes you dealt with things like this yourself and didn’t bring in the cops. Even if your brother was one.

  Maggie smiled. It was the fake one. My hands clenched and my eyes narrowed.

  “I’m here, anyway,” she advised, standing up and strapping on her holster, to the outside of her thigh.

  It should have looked ridiculous, but somehow Maggie pulled it off, making it look quite mundane. A cop in oversized track pants with a Glock strapped to her well-shaped leg, the holster wrapped around her thigh and waist.

  She actually looked pretty badass.

  “Who you gonna shoot, Sergeant?” Justin asked.

  “Depends,” she said, mimicking me. “What sort of sicko are we dealing with? If they can kill sheep in such a horrific manner, can they kill humans, too?”

  Justin and I stared at her, a horrible realisation settling in my gut. First a dead body on our land in sector three. Then section four stock found dead in the vineyard. The morning after a family wedding.

  “You think someone’s out to smear us?” I asked.

  “What do you think?” she threw back at me.

  I didn’t want to think at all. I wanted to be back in that bed with Maggie moaning under me. Nothing but the sweet scent of her arousal in my nose and the soft, silky sensation of her skin under my fingertips.

  I flicked a disgruntled glance back towards the rumpled sheets and then stormed out of the room.

  Chapter 17

  Tough Love

  Maggie