“Sparky, come!” I shouted and the dog came running. At least one creature showed some good sense. Wally stopped at the fence, roared his defiance, but he wasn’t going anywhere else, which gave me permission to look down.
“What…?”
I had words, so many words to say to this woman, but I couldn’t remember a single one as I looked down. Dark brown hair fanned over my arm and it shone in the sunlight, but it was her eyes that caught at me. Brown with flecks of green, it felt like I counted every one of them in that moment. She fit perfectly in my arms, as if all the years I spent labouring on this damn farm were just preparation for this. When her lips parted, when she licked them, it felt like the whole world condensed down to just that movement.
Except it didn’t.
All of the work I had to do, the people, animals, everyone depending on me wasn’t a burden I could shuck off in the face of a beautiful woman, and that’s what had me scowling.
“What the hell were you thinking?” I snapped, having been asked that question myself many a time. “Going into a bull’s field?”
“Wombat…” she croaked out, suddenly going very pale. “I… wombat.”
Before I could interrogate further, she went limp and for a moment, all I could do was stare.
“Wombat…? What the bloody hell does that mean?” The need to shake this stranger awake, to demand answers rode me hard, but something stopped me. A tiny little sigh escaping full lips. My hand went up on its own accord, ready to push a strand of hair away from her face, when the sound of a car rolling up had me turning around. The cavalry had arrived.
“So you found out what had Wally all riled up?” Billy dropped out of the tray of the ute he, Scotty, and Bronson had driven up in. With a long whistle, he raised an eyebrow as he checked out the stranger. Why did that have me holding her closer to my chest? “It’s alright, lad.” He nodded to the bull, who turned away, ready to go and chomp on some more grass. “I’d get all excited if I saw a pretty lady too.”
“So who is she?” Bronson asked, coming to stand in front of me. “And what was she doing in Wally’s field?”
“Not one of those PETA sods?” Scotty asked with a frown.
“Whoever she is, we’ll work that out once we take her back to the house.” I threw the keys at Billy. “You’re driving.”
“You sure?” he asked, sidling closer. “Because your arms must be getting tired. I can carry the lady…”
But they weren’t. My grip on the woman tightened as I stormed over to the back seat, waiting for Bronson to pull it open before climbing in with her. Spark scrambled in beside me, panting furiously as he eyed the woman.
“Maybe she’s that farm stay person,” Billy asked, looking back at me via the rear view mirror.
“Does she look like a James to you?” I snapped. “Now let’s get moving.”
There was no way anyone would mistake her for a man. Soft, curves for days, she was all woman, and that was a problem. If I saw her in a pub, I’d have turned to take a longer look. Might even have bought her a beer, if she seemed amenable. Just my bloody luck that the most beautiful woman I’d seen in years was some kind of insane animal activist shooting ‘content’ in one of my fields.
“What…?” Charlie asked as I strode into the house, taking in the girl, me, and then the rest of the boys. I didn’t stop to explain. Walking down the hallway, I paused at the doors, then kicked open the nearest one. Not my bedroom. The thought of lying her down on my bed had my cock twitching and that made me feel like shit. The woman was unconscious. Some instinct had me walking in here.
Into Mum’s old room.
It was clean, tidy, because Charlie made a point of keeping it nice, but I hadn’t set foot in the room since Mum died. The need to get the hell out was a pleasant distraction. I checked to see if the stranger was still breathing, then laid her down on the bed and left the room.
“Her car is out in the middle of the road,” I told the boys. “Bring it in and her bags. I need to know who this trespasser is, right before I call the cops.”
Chapter 3
Mackenzie
The wombat shaking his head, then scrambling to his feet, only to make a beeline for the side of the road. I shifted restlessly on the bed. The thin trail of blood he left behind. “Hey!” I said, only for the wombat to pause for a second and look back over his shoulder at me before taking off again. “Hey, fella, you’re injured.”
Didn’t see much evidence of that as he barrelled forward. This creature was like a boulder and a ball of fur had a baby and he just pushed his way through the long grass growing by the side of the road.
And I could’ve just left him to it.
The animal was obviously healthy enough to make a quick exit, but… What if he had a head injury? The thought of the wombat going back to his burrow and then rolling up into a ball, closing his eyes, maybe for the last time, was what got me moving.
“Pspsps…” I said, then shook my head. “You’re not a damn cat. Look, wombat.” It paused again, staring back at me. “There was already an international incident where one of mycountrymen was manhandling one of you for clicks. Going viral on my first day in Australia for hurting the wildlife is not part of the dream, so if you could…”
Evidently, he was not persuaded by my speech. He trotted across the field, meaning I had to go after him.
