Chapter 34
Troy
“Go out!” Weeks later, Kimberley was sitting in her lounge room, waving her hands at us.
“Go out for a hike, or a drive. If I had an Aussie hunk at my beck and call, I’d be showing him the sights.
” With a wink at me, she shot me a rakish grin.
“He looks like he’s the kind of man that appreciates a good view. I’d be making sure he saw mine.”
“Mother!” Mackenzie came bustling out of the kitchen with a tray piled high with healthy snacks, drinks, and Kimberley’s medication. “Stop being such a brat and take your meds.” Sitting down in the chair opposite, she leaned forward. “The doctor said you need to rest for the next couple of weeks.”
“And I’m here to make sure she does.”
Sandra was Alex’s mum, and I tried really hard not to hold that against her.
She was kinda snippy with me initially, but I wore her down.
Made clear I was going nowhere and that I would not make the same stupid mistakes her son did.
The woman might not rate me too highly, but she had come to accept that Mackenzie was my girl.
Sandra held up a bag full of goodies, none of which was on the nutritionist’s approved list of foods, as well as a couple of DVDs.
“Movie marathon?” she asked Kimberley. “I’ve got popcorn, cookies—”
“Mom can’t have any of that,” Mackenzie said, rising to her feet as if to intercept the older woman.
“Mom gets to decide what she can and can’t have.
” The iron in Kimberley’s tone had us all turning around.
My future mother-in-law was a sweet lady, but I could see where Mackenzie got her stubborn streak from.
The set of her jaw, the way her eyes narrowed when her daughter went to argue, made clear her stance. “One bowl of popcorn, a few cookies—”
“And some Milk Duds, Twizzlers, and Skittles,” Sandra said, peering into her bags.
“Isn’t going to send me back to hospital.” As Kimberley stared at her daughter, her expression softened. “Honey, I’m fine, remember?”
When the doctor said the surgery had been a resounding success, I didn’t know how much I needed to hear that.
Not just for Mackenzie, either. Being back in the hospital, seeing the lady passed out in the bed after surgery, it’d brought up a lot of uncomfortable feelings.
The doctor’s words helped make clear this was different.
“So go, shoo.” She waved her hand at us like we were a pack of blowflies hanging around a sheep’s arse. “Go outside and see the world. Troy travelled all the way from Australia to come to the States, and all he’s really seen is the hospital, the mall, and this house.”
Honestly, if I could’ve kissed the woman, I would’ve, and the shine in Kimberley’s eyes made clear she was well aware of that fact. Turning to Mackenzie, I shrugged.
“So what do you think, love? We never really got to go on a date. Want to rectify that now?”
“Date…?” It was as if my girl was swimming up, up and only now she breached the surface of everything she’d been drowning in. “But… We…”
“Go.” Kimberley was the deciding factor. “Me and Sandra are overdue some girl time.” She winked at me. “I think Troy wants some of that too, so…”
So that’s how several hours later, we ended up hiking up the side of a hill.
“A movie,” I said, pausing to catch my breath.
“Then lunch or an early dinner at someplace nice. Maybe a walk along the beach.” The weather was much cooler in the States, as it was just moving into spring.
“Something romantic, not…” Sitting down on a nearby rock, I waved my arm around. “Whatever this is.”
“Turn around, cowboy.”
Mackenzie nodded to something behind me. With a grumble under my breath, I did as I was told.
“Oh.” The vista before us was fucking beautiful, even I could appreciate that.
Australia was a far flatter country, it appeared, because the mountains beyond, the pine trees covering their sides, were something I’d never seen before.
“OK, I get it now. That’s beautiful.” My arm went around her waist and I pulled her onto my lap. “You’re beautiful.”
“I’m all sweaty and gross.”
She went to wipe her forehead with her sleeve, but I stopped her.
“Mum always said that horses sweat, men perspire, and women glow.” Smiling down at her, I saw the exact same thing I did when we first met. “You glow, Mackenzie.”
“I’m not glowing.” Her hands went to her cheeks. “Pretty sure I’m all flushed again.”
“You were glowing when I pulled you from Wally’s pen,” I said. “Again, when you woke up and confronted the lot of us.” My grin would not be suppressed. “You were this very fetching shade of pink when I barged in to save you from Bruce.”
“You just wanted to take a peek at my tits,” she said as she turned to face me. “Admit it.”
My eyes dropped down, unable to resist for another minute, because I’d been holding myself back.
First, because Mackenzie was exhausted, recovering from the shock of her mother needing major surgery.
Second, because my girl threw herself into caring for her mum and it seemed kinda shitty suggesting sex when she was so obviously stressed.
But those words, they gave me permission to do exactly what I needed.
“Always.” All the humour went out of my voice as I took in the way her jacket fit her shoulders, then the scoop of her top. Just a tiny hint of her cleavage could be seen and it was the valley I really wanted to see. The flushed skin begged to be reddened further with kiss after kiss. “Babe—”
“Are you…?” Her eyes went wide, and for a minute I thought I’d fucked up, but her impish smile helped alleviate my fears. “Troy, is that a gun in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?”
“Gun…?” Moving closer felt like fate. There was no resisting this. Just a tiny little kiss pressed to her neck. Her scent in my nose, the sounds of her breath, it was everything I needed. “You know Australians don’t do guns.”
Moving her so she straddled my lap put the pressure right where we needed it.
Those damn stretchy yoga pants she was wearing had me mentally cursing the entire hike up here.
If they outlined the shape of that peach-like arse perfectly for me, then they did for every man that we passed by.
But right now the thin fabric was exactly what was needed.
The heat I could feel pulsing between her thighs, the way the fabric moved to mould her body to mine.
“So yeah, I am very glad to see you.” My hips moved instinctively, rocking a little, back and forth until her breath picked up again, forcing her eyes to sparkle.
“We shouldn’t…” she hissed.
“Oh yes, we should. Nothing like multiple orgasms to help let off some steam.”
Mackenzie was about to tell me off, but before I could get much further, the muffled sounds of people coming up the track had her dragging herself away.
Fuck…
Too close to the edge, I forgot we were out in the middle of nowhere and people would come traipsing down the trail without notice.
“To be continued,” I promised, subtly adjusting my now throbbing dick, before making for the trail.
“Or we could find somewhere a bit more private,” she said.
That gleam in her eye, it had me doing stupid things every time, and so I took off after her, following that perfect arse until we stumbled upon this.
“Ahh, is this another one of those dodgy motels?” I checked out the campsite, questioning the structural integrity of every building. “Because I don’t think this is worth even ten bucks an hour.”
“It’s an abandoned campsite,” she said, drawing me closer.
I saw long grass and thought of snakes, and broken down buildings (more snakes), but Mackenzie didn’t seem to be as worried.
Ducking inside a massive hole in the wall of one building, she gestured for me to follow.
The place stank of mould, rot, but the minute she turned to me, nothing else could hold my focus. “You’ve been so patient.”
“Patient about what?” I asked, cradling her face in my hands. Anything to get closer to her.
“We haven’t had sex in weeks,” she said. “Not since the night before I left.”
“I remember.” That came out as a groan, because her hand slid down, cupping my hardness, then giving it a squeeze.
Pleasure exploded through my body, as much from the novelty as the sensation as her touch.
“But you’ve been so stressed out.” With effort, I pulled her hand free and had it rest on my chest. “I can wait. I’ll wait forever, if that’s what you need. ”
“Not to wait, that’s what I need.”
When she sank to her knees, I wanted to stop her.
“Hey, love, you don’t…” She had my pants unzipped and fished my cock out in seconds. The feel of her skin against mine silenced me completely.
“You were saying?” she asked.
“I…” Hot, wet, her tongue flicked across the head and a cool breeze had me shivering from the sensation of her saliva drying, right before her lips parted around me.
My hand went to her hair, unable to stop myself from caressing it as she took me deeper.
“I’m gonna shut the fuck up now, because…
” My words dissolved into a groan that came from the depths of me.
“Because…?”
Mackenzie’s mouth popped free and she looked up at me with a grin that had me shaking my head.
“You don’t have to do this.” I pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “Or we can put a pin in the whole hiking thing, hustle back to the car, and find somewhere, anywhere, where I can show you exactly what I’ve been wanting to do to you since I got off that plane.”
“Or I could do this.” Watching her swallow my dick was blowing my fucking mind. No blowjob had ever felt this intimate. “And then you’ll have taken the edge off before you show me what you’ve been wanting to do to me.”
“Good plan.”
That was ground out between gritted teeth, because I was already so fucking close. The feel of her, the way the wind whipped around us, had it feeling like an extension of her caress. “Fuck, Mackenzie, you make me feel so good. That’s it, love, just like that.”
My hips couldn’t help but move, thrusting slightly, but I held myself back. There was no way my girl would end up spluttering on the end of my cock. Holding back just made this so much sweeter when it came.
“Pull off…” I gasped. “If you don’t…”
She hummed her answer, making my feet curl in my boots, right as it came tearing through me. Ecstasy, pure ecstasy, had me pulsing right down her throat, until finally she swallowed my load and pulled away.
“Holy shit…” Fighting to take a breath, I leaned back on the half decayed wall. “That was…” As my head hit the crumbling stucco, something moved out of the corner of my eye, and it wasn’t my girl. “What the fuck!”
A bloody great tarantula the size of my hand, but chunky with it, crawled negligently closer. “Mackenzie… Love, grab my knife from my pocket.”
“Why?” Her amused tone, her grin, when my eyes rolled her way, had me staring. “That’s just Chuck. He won’t hurt you. Don’t make any sudden moves, though.”
“No chance of that,” I growled, eyeing the spider.
“Just move slowly.” She winked at me. “Chuck can get a little skittish.”
I ignored everything she said, not taking a full breath until I’d darted away from the building.
Patting down my shirt, my hair, had Mackenzie falling about in a fit of laughter.
Once I had my pants buttoned up, I picked her up and threw her over my shoulder, after giving that perfect arse a well-deserved smack.
“Chuck…” I grumbled. “I get everything is bigger in America, but does that have to apply to your arachnids as well?”
“Not everything is bigger.” That hand was cupping my groin again and my cock apparently thought near-death experiences were hot, because I was rising to the bait again.
“You guys have the Big Pineapple, the Big Lobster, but it’s the Big Banana I’m interested in.
” This was going to be a very difficult, very distracting hike back to the car.
“Care to show me all the ways Australia has America beat?”
“Try and stop me,” I said, making for the trail.