Natural Attraction (24 page)

On top of this, last night was the best nights’ sleep I’ve had in three years.  I liked hav
ing you in my bed and I liked having you in my home. 
I’m
not ready for you to go home yet.  You’ve got heaps of leave, I’ve got heaps of time and I want to spend it with
you.
  I’ve also got facilities and a lot more animals to take care of so the alternative of me coming to your place is out.

I know you have three dogs.  We’ll bring ‘em back with us too. 

Understanding that, my next question is; do you think you can contact your boss this afternoon and organise to take two weeks off starting tomorrow?”

Um okay, that doesn’t sound rape and murderish does it?
 

“I thought you were going to kill me and dump my body,” I mumble as I realise I have once again gone and got carried away.

Jax starts laughing again. 

“You’re fucking crazy you know?  Where do you get this shit from?  Don’t you think that if I were plann
ing on killing you I’d get you to ring and ask your boss for
all
your leave.  Wouldn’t that give me more time to cover my tracks before someone came looking for you?  And what about your friend, don’t you think she already knows you are with me?  Can that fucking shit and just answer my question about asking your boss for time off.”

Valid points I suppose.

Let’s chalk that one up to me being drunk - again.

But seriously, what the hell?  Who is this guy and why does he keep acting so damned bossy?  I’m not sure if I really, really like it, or I whether I really, really hate it. 

Considering I’ve just met him and I’m drinking, perhaps it’s in my own best interests to take the latter option and defend myself.  I’m not sure that I should be letting him get away with all this bossy shit.  Next thing you know he will probably be pulling that BDSM business on me and I’ll be the ‘sub’.

Fuck
him, I’m sick of being told what to do. It’s time to show
him
who’s boss.

I start to yell and spit my words at him.  “Well,
yes
I can text my boss and
yes
, I do believe she will say yes.  She constantly hounds me to take recreation leave as it is.  That aside, don’t you think it’s a bit rude that you are
telling
me I am staying at your house for two weeks?  Oh, and don’t take that as a question because the fucking game is over.  I am not enjoying the game anywhere near as much as I normally do because
you
are taking it too seriously.  You are using it to manipulate me instead of making it fun.  What if I don’t
want
to spend the next two weeks with you?  Had you even thought about that?”

I hear Jax sigh and feel the truck start to slow as he slaps the indicator on and pulls over on to the side of the road.

Shit, oh dear, I don’t think he liked me yelling at him
.

He leaves the engine idling and puts the truck in neutral.  He takes his feet off the pedals and swings his body slowly towards me.  I see him take his sunglasses off and place them gently on the dashboard.

I then watch as one of his hands quickly flicks forward to unlock my seat belt buckle while the other snakes out and around my head, dragging my face towards his. 

It takes me a millisecond to realize what is going on and my body launches to respond.  My heart rate spikes to its maximum and my breath hitches in my throat.  Moisture floods to my mouth as I feel his lips slam against mine.

I start to say, “Wha…” and before the word finishes he makes use of my parted lips to slide his tongue straight through my lips and deep into my mouth. 

I feel my body start to tremble as I respond to what is happening and melt towards him. 

Why was I angry again?

My mind blanks out as I feel his tongue gently withdrawing to taste my lips.  

I respond by running my tongue around his bottom lip too.  I lightly grab his soft bottom lip between my teeth and nip. 

I hear him hiss as his tongue plunges back into my mouth forcing me to let go of his lip.  I drown in sensations as our tongues wrap together and I feel a flood of heat between my legs as I feel a moan slip from the back of my throat. 

Jesus this man can kiss.

He abruptly stops, withdrawing his face from mine and he stares into my eyes.

“Ash, do you want to spend the next two weeks with me?”

“Yes.” 

Of course I do.

I watch a smirk develop on his face as he leans back in and blisters me with another panty flooding kiss.  He then lets me go as he turns back around and puts his sunglasses back on.

“Good, let’s go get your dogs and your stuff.” 

He puts the truck back in gear and pulls back onto the road. 

I stare at him for a while, considering what has just happened and how
good
it felt.  I take another small swig of my can, reluctant to wash the taste of Jax out of my mouth.

“So, who's your
favorite band?” I ask. 

He grins. 

“Nickelback.”

“Same, do I need to grab any of my albums?”

“That sounds like a second question.  No, you don’t, I’ve got every single one.  What do you think of Creed?”

“Love them too.” 

*****

My girls are not happy with me. 

They had at first been
very
pleased to see me and then they had been ecstatic at us offering a ride in the back of Jax’s truck.  Now that they are tied up in various places around his backyard, they are no longer pleased to see me.  They are miserable. 

Swinging through stages of laying staring at the back door quietly or sitting up yelping unhappily, my girls
are less than impressed at their imposed restraints.  Not that I can blame them.  This really will not do.

Golden retrievers are family dogs and they either need to be inside with you, or if outside, need to have space to run around and enjoy
themselves.  They are not the sort of dogs that you tie up.

Jax and I had agreed the dogs would not be coming inside.  This agreement was made before we both realized that my girls couldn’t be relied on to hang around when there were so many exciting things to do and see at Jax’s place. 

After our umpteenth bout of calling them back from the paddocks, I’d had enough and tied them up.  Unfortunately they could not resist the urge to run off to chase rabbits, jump in dams and make general whoopee. It was getting close to dark and the risk of me going to bed and waking to find them gone was too high.

My dogs being so miserable is also making me miserable and I can see that Jax is hesitant with how to handle me.  We are both standing at his kitchen window looking out into his backyard, watching my miserable girls.

“This isn’t gunna to work for you is it?” He says softly.  I can see he understands this is a huge issue for me and he is treading lightly. 

“What do we need to do?” He asks.

“I think I need to go home,” I say flatly. 

Surprisingly I have spent the last few hours excited about spending two weeks with Jax.  So excited that I have madly packed half of my closet and bathroom into suitcases and they are now sitting in Jax’s spare room. 

I’ve rung Jen to let her know what is happening and she almost flipped out with excitement for me.  My boss has responded with a text that says:

Absolutely – take a month if you need it!  Enjoy, you’ve earned it :)

It has all been a bit too easy I suppose. 

I should have known it couldn’t be that simple to just pick up my life and bring it to a strangers’ house purely for my own selfish benefit. 
My poor girls.  Once again, I’m a bad parent.

“They need a secure yard, it’s the only way.  My place has the entire house and gardens surrounded with chicken wire and
a hot-wire.  It keeps them contained and I don’t have to worry about them.  I’m sorry Jax but I need to take them home.  I can probably drive now anyway.  My last drink was hours ago.  Perhaps I can leave Maverick here and just drive back tomorrow?  At least it saves me towing him back and forth.”

I look up to see Jax’s gorgeous blue eyes looking at me with disappointment.  His strong shoulders slump and he hunches over.  He looks defeated.  I can see he clearly doesn’t like the idea of me going home but he understands that I need to.

I see him start to chew at his bottom lip as he thinks about something.  “Please give me one day Ash.  Just one.  I’ll work something out.”

Oh shit, he’s begging. 

He looks back out the window and then back to me with a hopeful look.

“Okay.  One day, I’m not too sure what you think you can come up with in one day, but I’ll give it to you anyway.” I sigh, resigning both myself and my girls to misery for a whole day as the girls start up another round of miserable yelping.

I look at their misery and ask, “Do you think that we could perhaps lock them in a stable for the night?  At least they won’t be tied up and we probably won’t be able to hear their misery from down here at the house.”

“Sounds like a better plan than ty
ing ‘em up all night.  Give me ten minutes. I need to call my Dad and I’ll meet you at the barn to help you settle ‘em for the night.  I’ve put their bag of biscuits in the stable feed area.  If you wanna take ‘em up and start sorting out their bowls, I’ll be up shortly.”

He leans in to give me a quick peck on the cheek.  “I won’t be long.”

I watch Jax grab his phone, poke in a number and then greet his dad as he exits out the back door.  Resigned to confining my poor girls to a stable for the night, I follow shortly afterwards to find that Jax has vanished out of sight. 

I wonder where he went to as I head over and let the girls off their leads so they can follow me up to the barn.  They are overexcited to have regained their freedom and bounce playfully along next to me,
yodeling and tackling one another.

At the barn, I find my huge bag of dog food sitting up on a bench with the three food bowls neatly stacked next to it.  I go about the business of measuring out three serves of biscuits.  I then decide to walk through the barn and find the best stable for the girls for the night. 

A couple of the stables have horses in them but there are some empty ones too. I choose one that already has some sawdust laid down.  It's not exactly soft grass or their usual preference, an outdoor setting chair, but it should be comfortable to lie on. 

Noticing the automatic waterer will be too high for my girls, I head back towards the feed area to see if I can find a suitable container for water for them.  On my way back I look out the open end of the barn to see Jax still on his phone out near Troubles paddock.  He is striding along the fence line talking animatedly and nodding as he goes.  I wonder what he is talking about as I recommence my search for a container.

Finally finding an old, square, plastic electric fencing insulator box that has some brushes in it, I transfer them to a round bucket and use the barn sink to fill it with water.  I am just about to lift it off the sink when Jax appears behind me saying, “I’ll get that.”  

With what seems like the barest amount of effort, he leans over, picks up the container full of water and steps back waiting for me to lead the way.  I take a moment to appreciate the view of his muscles bulging and realize that I would have struggled to even lift the damned container. 

It really is no work for a man of his size.  His upper body strength is amazing.

Jax follows me to the chosen stable with the girls still swirling happily around us.  He puts the container in a corner and we head back to the feed area to grab the bowls.  The girls, sensing it is now dinnertime become super excited and start barking happily.

You won’t be so cheerful when you finally work out this is only a bribe.

I invite the girls into the stable and ask them all to sit while I spread their three bowls to the other three corners of the stable.  They all sit with their ears pricked, excited by mealtime but not excited enough to move.  They are fully aware that if they move their butts off the ground I’ll scold them and they won’t be getting their dinner anytime soon. 

I head back to the door of the stable and push Jax outside.  They still wait patiently each staring at their own bowl. 

“Okay girls, eat!” I command firmly and they all fly happily to their bowls and start hoeing in.  I take this opportunity to slide the stable door shut as I once again feel like a bad parent, tricking my babies.  None of them have
realize yet, but I have essentially lured them into prison.

“Sorry girls, not even any bones tonight.  I can’t risk you fighting over them in such a small space.” I sigh again and turn away.  “Time to get out of here and let them settle, it won’t be long before they realize what I’ve done.”

Jax nods and grabs my hand as we head back to the house together. 

“You need to bottle that self-control you show when you act as the pack leader to your dogs and remember to use it when you work with Maverick.”