Enjoy Your Stay (9 page)

“Ana, baby, get up on the table,” Elijah yells, and he flies past her with the wombat hot on his heels. They’re heading right for me, and I only just have time to scramble back into the Ute and slam the door before Elijah bounds up onto the tray, safely out of harm’s way. Once it realises it can’t get to him, the wombat lets out a screech and turns around, making a beeline for Jack again.

Jack’s up off the ground, but there isn’t time for him to make it anywhere before the beast is on him again. He steels himself and leans over, ready to take it on head-first. The thing charges, and Jack pushes on its massive head. It comes to a screeching halt, and that’s how they stay, with the wombat burrowing into Jack’s palm and the idiot that ruined its den, trying to fend it off with his bare hand. I’m shaking with laughter, but I keep recording as Jackson starts yelling for someone to do something.

“Sorry, mate, you’re on your own,” Elijah calls from the back of the Ute.

Ana leans down, snatches up a chunk of freshly shattered watermelon—shiny green skin and all—and throws it at the wombat, only it misses him by about a metre, and hits Jack square in the face. He glares at her. “Really, Ana?”

“Sorry.” She cringes, and holds her hands up in a placating gesture. “It’s harder to throw than you think. I don’t wanna hurt him.”

“Oh, but it’s okay to hit me?”

“You’re the one that ruined his house. I’d wanna hurt you, too.” Ana throws another piece of melon, and this one hits the wombat in the bum. It shrieks, and scurries away, and Jack kicks the melon rind off after it, missing it by a long shot. He leans over with his hands on his knees, and catches his breath.

“I hope I didn’t hurt him,” she says as she gets down off the table.

I film Jackson’s arse for a beat more before hauling myself out of the car, and making my way over to the table. “Well, that was awesome. Jack, you have a little somethin’ somethin’ on your face.” I mockingly rub my cheek.

“Yeah? Why don’t come over here and lick it off then?” he challenges with a smirk.

I just grin and waggle my phone in his direction. “You also have a date with YouTube.”

His smirk vanishes, “Don’t you dare.”

“Oops too late.” I say and hit play.

“You sneaky bitch.” He shakes his head and takes two long strides towards me.

My lips curl up and then I burst out laughing for what feels like the hundredth time in an hour. Jack’s panicked voice rings out from the tiny speaker in my hand. I don’t even care that it’s using up the final bar of my battery, this is so worth it.

He holds his hand out in front of me, “Give me the phone, Holly.”

“Um … how bout, hell no! I have to post this to facebook first.”

He picks up a piece of smashed up rind and tosses it up and down in his palm. “Give me the phone.”

“You wouldn’t.” I challenge, “I’m pregnant, remember?”

“Oh, I remember.” He smiles, but there’s not just good humour reflected in his eyes, there’s a whole world of sex and promises. “Give it up, Hols.”

I’m kind of glued to the spot as all of the blood rushes to my vagina in zero point two seconds flat. Jack’s smile deepens. The bastard knows exactly what I’m thinking, and he’s not above using it to his advantage. I reach forward to place the phone in his hand, but he snatches up my wrist and yanks me toward him. With one of Jack’s large hands at my back, I’m pressed tight against him, and I can feel his hard length against my belly. He gently pivots his hips, pushing further into me, letting me feel just how much he’s enjoying this, and then he brings his free hand up and smashes the watermelon into my face.

“You motherfucker!” I push him away, and swipe the squishy fruit from my eyes. It stings like a bitch.

“Yeah, I guess I am a mother-fucker.” He laughs, low and gravelly, and my lady parts tighten so much at that sound that I feel like I might choke on them. I grab a chunk of melon from the table and prepare to smash it into his face.

“Uh-oh,” Ana tries to move out of the firing line, but as she’s backing away she runs into Elijah, and he quickly pulls her into his chest and then creams her with a fistful of melon. She shrieks, and takes off running. I’m watching them run down the track toward the nature walk when Jack pulls me to him, and kisses me hard on the mouth. For a second, I get caught up in the feel of his tongue sweeping my own. I get lost in his big hands as he cups my chin with one, and tugs my hair with the other, forcing my neck back. For a moment, I get caught up, and forget the resolve I had back in the car, and then reality comes rushing back and I push him away. He stumbles into the picnic table.

“What the fuck, Hols?”

“What are you doing?” I demand.

“Well, I thought I was about to get laid right here on this picnic bench, but I’m guessing we can rule that out now.”

“We need to stop this—”

Elijah clears his throat behind us, and I jump back from Jackson like he’s a grenade I just pulled the pin from. He and Ana are staring at us with different expressions etched on their faces. Cade looks like he’s about to high-five us both, but Ana’s expression is wary. Wary, and also kinda frightening.

“Given that we all just narrowly escaped being eaten alive by a killer wombat, I’m thinking we should maybe move to the other side of the camping ground and get the tents set up before it gets too dark,” Elijah says.

“Yeah, let’s do that,” Jack replies, but he pins me with his gaze as he says it, which makes me think he’s responding to my statement and not Elijah’s.

The boys gather the tents, poles and pegs, and move them to the clearing just beyond the Ute. Thankfully, the campsite is completely deserted, so encroaching on another’s camp isn’t an issue. While they set up the tents, Ana and I sit at the picnic table and start preparing a salad for dinner.

“Hey, you’re okay with this, aren’t you?” she asks.

“Yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“It’s just, we haven’t really had a chance to talk lately, with the plans for getting Belle’s Pies back up and running, and the funeral and the—”

“Smoking hot sex-tapes you’ve been making?” I supply helpfully. “Aw, I totally just made you blush. So he hasn’t turned you into a complete porn star yet?”

“Shut up,” she says, and throws a carrot stick at my head. It lands in my lap, and I pick it up and start munching. “What’s going on with you and Jack? And before you try to tell me nothing, that kiss was not nothing.”

I shrug, and open my mouth to tell her she has the wrong idea, but Ana just barges on through with, “You know, I got up to go to the bathroom the other night, and I heard noises that a girl should never have to hear her hot older cousin make. So, unless he’s started bringing women to the house, I’m pretty sure they were your chants of, ‘Fuck me harder, Jackarse’ that I heard coming from the bedroom.”

I smile to myself, and then see the warning in her gaze. It makes my smile vanish as quickly as it came. When I open my mouth, I find myself repeating the same bullshit excuse for our idiotic behaviour that Jack fed me the other night. “It’s not complicated, Ana. I like sex; he likes sex. Sex together makes sense for us right now. There’s no strings attached, no messy break-ups involved, and everyone walks away happy.” I shrug, “Or, at the very least, a little bow-legged with a happy ending.”

“I’m not going to try and talk you out of this. God knows I didn’t listen when everyone warned me to stay away from Elijah, but I just don’t want to see you get hurt. I know how you feel about one another—”

“Ana, baby, chill. It’s just fucking.” I shrug off her concerns as though I haven’t already been going over and over this in my head for the last two weeks. Truth is, whether we’re pretending there isn’t more to this than there is, or we really are just going through the motions and coming out with a blissful glow, deep down I know I’m completely screwed when it comes to Jackson. And not just by his massive cock.

“N
ICE SAUSAGE,”
Hols says as she sidles up beside me at the barbecue.

“Oh, you like that, huh?” I reply, with only half my usual enthusiasm. Yes, I might still be pissy about the shit she pulled before. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t expect Hols to put out every time I want it. I’m human, too. I get it. Sometimes, you just need a little bit of time to recover from a Jackson-Rowe fucking. But that’s not what was going through that pretty little head of hers, I just know it. She was thinking—and trust me, Holly Harris, when she’s thinking, is a very dangerous girl to be around.

Holly’s brain works in two ways: there’s the sex-fiend side that makes her say and do stupid shit that usually offends people, and then there’s the thinking side, which usually causes some kind of offence to someone, because that part also allows her to do and say stupid shit. Most of the time, it’s shit that should see her sexy arse winding up in jail.

“You need help with that?”

“Nope.”

“Sure? I’m really good with my hands.” She teases.

“No shit, Sherlock. But you and this barbecue plate are not going anywhere near my sausage. I got it, thanks.”

“You okay? You seem cranky.” She gives me that patronising, frowny face that she knows just pisses me off. “Are you cranky, Jack?”

“Nope. I’m good.”

“Alrighty then,” she mutters, and takes a sip from her cup of soft drink, then turns to walk away. I grab her by the hand before she can leave.

“Hols, I’m just tired.”

“Yeah.” She glares, and pulls her wrist free. “Me too.”

Fuck me. Now I’m gonna be sharing a tent with a pissed-off pregnant woman. A pissed-off pregnant woman I wanna fuck so badly my balls are turning blue just thinking about it.
Fucking awesome
.

We eat dinner in silence at the picnic table, taking in the shrill cries of the crickets and cicadas as they settle in for the night. A colony of fruit bats shriek in the trees beyond our clearing. I swat at the mozzies attempting to suck me dry. I love being this close to nature.

I’ve always been outdoorsy, but getting back to basics out here, with nothing but trees and bush around, just invigorates the soul. Course, I hate my hands being idle, so too long out here would end up driving me nuts, and I’d wind up whittling down trees to make furniture or some shit. Now, if Holly could get out of her head for five fucking seconds, I could put my hands to good use on her body. It has to be her decision, though. I won’t talk her into it this time, and Jackson Rowe does not beg for anyone.

After we eat, I collect a bunch of sticks so we can toast marshmallows on the fire. Elijah and I drink too much beer, while the girls chat, and braid each other’s hair or some shit.

Cade leans in, and whispers, “Dude, what’s the deal with you and the crazy, ranga midget?”

If it were anyone else that had called Holly that I’d likely punch him in the head, but as much as Elijah likes to tease, I know he’s one of only three people in the world that actually gets her, so I let it slide.

“Beats the fuck outta me. One minute she’s climbing me like a tree, the next she’s icing down my Johnson with Lysol and a cold shoulder.”

“You know what your problem is, don’t you?”

“Dude, I ain’t never had a problem pleasing women.”

“No, you’ve never had a problem fucking women, but how many of them have fucked you over afterwards?”

“None,” I reply defiant.

“Exactly.” He points his stubbie in Holly’s direction. “Except that feisty little redhead shit over there.”

Fuck it. He’s right. Holly Harris is the only woman who’s ever gotten under my skin.

I chug the rest of my beer, and change the subject. “I know I don’t have to ask how you’re getting along, since you seem to be fucking all over our house.”

“We’re good.” He smiles, and his dimples come popping out.
Jesus Christ, he’s a pretty bastard
. Thank fuck my baby cousin took him off the market or I’d never get my arse laid in Sugartown again. “But then, I never had a problem telling her how I felt. Maybe Holly just needs to feel something more from you than your cock?”

“Christ, mate, when did you turn into such a fucking pussy?”

“The minute I met your cousin.” He winks, and stands. “Now, I’m going to bed, because I got something else I need Ana to feel.”

“Why you gotta be such a fucking cunt?” I laugh, and slam my fist into his side as he passes.