Rhino Ash (Saturday Barbies Book 2)

by Lindsey Black

  That didn’t mean it was any less shocking to Ashley, who’d never seen anything like it. If he’d imagined scars, he’d imagined bullet holes, though now he looked he suspected a few of the smaller scars on Hale’s body were the result of guns, like the puckered dent on his left arm and the graze on his hip. If he’d imagined Hale having tattoos he would have thought a tribal pattern would have been likely, something Polynesian perhaps more fitting of the easy-going nature of the man. The intricate watercolour rhinos were not something he would ever have imagined.

  ‘Are you staring at my Rhinos?’

  Ashley jerked, because he had been doing exactly that and he hadn’t even realised Hale was awake. But when he jerked he accidentally kicked the man, jolting his leg and Hale hissed loudly and shuffled away, gripping around the bandage tightly as he sucked in air and waited for the pain to pass.

  ‘Sorry,’ Ashley groused into the pillow, cursing himself silently. He had to stop hurting the guy, before he decided anywhere was less painful than where he was.

  ‘It’s okay.’ But Hale was still clutching his leg so Ashley quietly got up and fetched a glass of water, offering it with some Panadol from by the bed. He sat back down on the edge while Hale swallowed them and then drank the rest of the water as well.

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Least I could do.’

  ‘How come you’re awake? Do you have a shift today?’ Hale looked a little confused, in that adorable ‘it’s first thing in the morning, I’m not quite awake and my brain is taking a little longer than usual to catch up’ way. Or it might have been the ‘I got shanked yesterday and the guy I slept with kicked me there so I’m in agony and trying not to show it’ way. But Ashley preferred the idea of the former.

  ‘No shift.’ Ashley shook his head, liking the way Hale’s hair curled slightly around the tops of his ears. The man even had cute ears, what the hell. Dave was right; his crush was completely out of control.

  ‘I didn’t fully close the curtain, the sun woke me.’ Ashley pointed to the offending ray of sunlight. ‘Thought I was in a fire for a second!’ He chuckled, trying to calm down, but the longer he sat there the more aware he became that Hale was sitting in his bed, and he was equally as sexy as every fantasy Ashley had ever imagined.

  ‘Your breathing woke me up.’

  ‘Excuse me?’ Ashley gaped, not sure where that conversation curve ball came from, but Hale was smirking at him, leaning in and then that mouth was pressed to his again and he didn’t give a damn about conversations or how left of field they were because Hale’s lips were warm and his tongue was wet and he tasted like tap water, mint and medicine.

  ‘You taste funny.’

  ‘Excuse me?’ Hale pulled back and laughed hard, licking his lips as if trying to taste what Ashley was talking about, but Ashley was distracted by the dark chuckle and the way Hale’s whole face crinkled when he laughed as if every part of him was amused.

  ‘Just … the water and Panadol and I can still taste toothpaste, how much did you use last night?’ Hale was still laughing at him and Ashley thought that was a very good thing, leaning in to stop him with more kisses, because that was the only thing better.

  ‘I could get used to this,’ Hale sighed when he pulled back for air, shifting his leg aside, then flopping down on the pillows. ‘The kisses, not the knifing. Obviously,’ he added, in case Ashley had taken his words the wrong way. It made Ashley smile, more, which had to be starting to look ridiculous because his face was starting to hurt. Hale could get used to this? He was trying to burn the image of Finn Hale sprawled out on his pillows into his brain because hot damn, and hell yeah that was going to fuel his breaks for some time. The man looked carved out of Tasmanian Oak or something.

  ‘No kidding,’ was all Ashley managed to say before the door slammed open and a hulking shadow stormed in and filled the doorway.

  ‘Told you,’ Ashley heard Sietta snicker, sounding far too smug. Ashley was going to have to kill him, which was unfortunate because then Taylor would kill him and he wasn’t quite ready to die.

  Taylor stood in the doorway, one hand still on the door knob, the other hanging in mid-air as if he had been ready to point and start yelling, but his face was a rictus of shock, his mouth agape, eyes wide and nostrils flaring on the longest exhalation Ashley had ever seen. He looked, at least momentarily, like he was trying to force himself to calm down.

  ‘Seriously, no one in your family knocks.’ Hale frowned at the door as if it confused him. He was right; everyone complained about it. Taylor himself had put a deadbolt on his bedroom door to stop Emma from storming in. Maybe it was time he gave in and got one himself.

  ‘You … My brother?’ Taylor finally boomed, waving his finger in Hale’s general direction, though really it was hard to tell since Ashley was still hovering over him, groins pressed together … He suddenly felt far more awkward.

  ‘You …’ The finger swung upwards in what Ashley could only assume was his direction. ‘Hale?’ His mouth was still moving but he seemed to be having trouble finding words.

  ‘What’s wrong with your brother?’ Hale was still frowning as if the whole thing made no sense. He was probably right.

  ‘What’s wrong with Hale?’ Ashley went with Hale’s line of questioning, because his brother was being a dick, as usual.

  ‘How … since when are either of you even gay?’ Taylor was getting vociferous.

  ‘Since never.’ The whole room seemed to stop and stare at Hale and he blinked at their confused faces. ‘I’m bi. Since forever. I believe they say we’re born this way now. Like, you don’t even have to choose anymore!’ He was being sarcastic, rolling his eyes at all of them and using Ashley’s shoulder to haul himself up into a sitting position.

  ‘But … My brother!’ It was like Taylor couldn’t decide if he was supposed to be angry or affronted, but at least he let go of the door handle. Had he gripped it any harder Ashley was sure the door was coming off its hinges.

  ‘Bi here too,’ Ashley decided to put in, to be clear. ‘Or Hale-sessed, if you ask Dave, and otherwise interested in female-folk?’

  Hale twitched at that but when Ashley looked his way it was obvious he was equally as startled and amused by the admission. And pleased. Ashley was pretty sure that smirk meant he was pleased.

  ‘I know that!’ Taylor bellowed. ‘Everyone who’s ever seen you in the same vicinity as Hale knows that! But how could you not tell me that? And you!’ His ire was on Hale again. ‘How could you not tell me that? The shit you’ve told me, and you just happen to leave out the part where you’re jonsing for my baby brother?’

  It wasn’t obvious who he was most offended by, or what they were supposed to do about it. He threw his hands up in disgust and stormed out and Ashley knew he’d go downstairs and call Clay to try and calm down, and then Clay would blow up because he didn’t know their little brother was bi and then they would both be in a mood. It was better to either lock him out now or get out of the house. Since there was a chance Taylor would be so angry that he might come back and kick the door in if it was locked so he could yell some more, Ashley thought the getting out of Dodge plan was best. Even if it was his house.

  ‘I can see that.’ Sietta was in the doorway, nodding at them, head tilted.

  ‘Excuse me?’ Ashley frowned at him but Sietta only shrugged.

  ‘What? You’re in bed together, and I’m gay. I’m gonna look.’

  ‘Out!’ Hale pointed sternly at the door. ‘Close the door behind you.’

  ‘Grumpy much.’ Sietta pulled the door closed. Hale waited about three seconds before a grin split his face again and he had to grab a pillow to muffle his chortling.

  ‘My family …’ Ashley wasn’t sure what to say. They were crazy, sure, but he loved them anyway. Maybe that meant he was crazy too.

  ‘Taylor’s face … that was almost as good as the time I saved his life with a lifesaver.’

  ‘Wait … what?’

  ‘I saved your brother�
�s life, the same day I met him, my first day on the squad.’ Hale grinned, clearly still proud of the achievement.

  ‘Did you say with a lifesaver? Like, the lolly?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Hale agreed as he hobbled off the bed and made to go to the shower. Ashley was so absorbed in the story he followed him into the bathroom. Hale didn’t stop him. Ashley sat on the toilet and looked up right as Hale pushed his jocks off, standing naked in front of him and turning the hot water on, letting it warm up before stepping in. Ashley was still staring at the man’s cock, unaware that he licked his lips.

  ‘You going to get in?’

  Ashley wasn’t sure he’d ever taken his jocks off so fast, and then he was under the water, reaching out to soap Hale’s body as if it weren’t the stuff of fantasies.

  ‘So, your brother rocks up to this call at this convenience store that’s being held up by this guy who has a knife.’

  ‘That’s not a knife,’ Ashley mocked, laughing at the image in his head of Taylor as Crocodile Dundee.

  ‘Yeah, exactly,’ Hale laughed in agreement. ‘So he storms in as if he’s bulletproof, or knife-proof or something and things go awry when the guy’s mates come up behind him and they somehow, and I still don’t know how, get the jump on him. So there’s Taylor, hands up hostage style with a knife at his throat the size of his forearm when I rock up with Mendel, who I’m trying to impress because it’s my first day on the job and all, and Mendel offers me a lifesaver. One of those mint fresh ones.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘It’s Mendel, who the fuck knows why? Anyway, I took it but I was distracted and then I remembered I’d dropped my nephew at school that morning, because I was living at my sister’s house for a bit and she wasn’t charging me rent on the condition that I help with the kid. So, I drop him off at school and as he’s waltzing away I realise he’s got a slingshot hanging out his back pocket and when I asked why, he said he wanted to shoot out Max Umber’s eye.’

  ‘The Hell?’

  ‘I know, right? Kid’s seven years old, completely insane.’

  ‘He should meet Jay.’

  ‘No. No, that should never happen,’ Hale disagreed very seriously and the more Ashley thought about it he had to agree. That would be the start of the end of the world, he was sure.

  ‘Who’s Max Umber?’

  ‘I dunno, some bully at his school. Two weeks later Drew, that’s my nephew, knocked out Max’s front teeth in the playground with the flying fox. I have no idea how but Max has left him alone ever since, so good on Drew I guess. But I confiscated his slingshot, and I’m at this convenience store with a mint in one hand and I reach into my pocket with the other and pull out a sling shot and I have no idea why I did it, I was being a wanker that day, right? But I went straight in the front door, and shot this lifesaver straight into the guy’s mouth.’

  ‘Wait … the one with the knife?’

  ‘Yeah. Got him right in the gob and he choked on the lifesaver. Dropped the knife and Taylor had to slam him on the back a few times to get the lifesaver out so he could arrest him.’

  Ashley stood there, soapy loofah in one hand, the other on a firm pectoral while his brain tried to catch up with the story. In the end there was nothing to say, he started laughing hysterically. No wonder Taylor was always raving about what a good shot Hale was.

  ‘I always thought you were a good shot with a gun, not a slingshot!’ He managed to choke out, his eyes watering with mirth.

  ‘Oh, I am. I’ve got the record on every range on the east coast.’

  That was sobering.

  ‘So, the slingshot …’

  ‘We all start somewhere,’ Hale grinned. It was frightening, but still somehow sexy.

  ‘And that’s how you met Taylor?’ That was ridiculous. How had he never heard that? But then, Taylor and Clay didn’t share what happened on the job with the family often. Usually only if it ended up on television and sharing was unavoidable, or if work was taking them away for a week or so. Even then, if their mother wasn’t such a psycho he was sure they wouldn’t tell anyone.

  ‘Yeah. The next day I had to go for my gun retest and he saw me shoot for real. He’s been really nice to me ever since.’

  Ashley laughed and went back to soaping the man, because that was far more fun than imagining him as a killing machine capable of choking men from a distance with lifesavers shot with plastic children’s toys.

  But when Hale turned around again the scar was there in the vivid lights of the bathroom, a heavy sluice across his back with his colourful dancing rhinos in painted splashes, as if the scar were a paint pot they had accidentally trodden in on their way through, wandering across Hale’s skin.

  He must have frozen, still too stunned by the thing to react like a normal human being probably should, because Hale turned and very carefully took the loofah from him and started returning the favour. Soaping him down and rinsing him off while Ashley stared at him, wide-eyed and unable to think of the words to form the questions he wanted to ask.

  ‘It’s old. I don’t want to talk about it now.’ Ashley nodded and let the man distract them both with wet kisses and slippery embraces against the cool tiles.

  They finished in the shower and dried off, dressing quickly, stealing kisses and embraces. At one point Ashley realised Hale was laughing at him because he was taking his shirt off instead of putting it on, but that was fine. Hale’s laugh was always fine.

  ‘This has to be the most platonic one night stand I’ve ever had.’ Hale buttoned his shirt, frowning when he struggled to get one through a particularly small hole.

  ‘Had a lot of one night stands?’ Ashley wished his voice hadn’t sounded so uncertain in its curiosity.

  ‘No,’ Hale smiled at him, abandoning his button to stroke Ashley’s cheek. ‘Not many at all. I’m not fond of being naked with strangers.’ But he’d been naked with Ashley, so he had to assume that meant something, but Ashley didn’t ask for clarification because Hale had gone back to frowning at his stubborn button.

  ‘So where are we going to flee?’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘We are fleeing before Taylor gets off the phone to Clay, right? It’s been fifteen minutes so I’m assuming he’ll stop ranting soon and come back up here. Or he’s waiting for Clay to get here so they can both come up and beat the hell out of me for deflowering their little brother.’

  ‘We did not!’ Ashley protested, hands flailing as he tugged a t-shirt over his head. ‘I’ve already been deflowered!’

  ‘Good to know,’ Hale laughed, hard, leaning in for another kiss.

  ‘My mouth,’ Ashley cursed.

  ‘Is perfect. But we are running out of time if the plan is to flee before your brothers kill me.’

  ‘We could take them.’ Ashley looked Hale up and down and then smirked, actually confident that for once he had found a partner in crime who could help him defeat the twins. ‘We just need a slingshot.’ Hale was laughing again. It was so, so good.

  ‘Let’s go to my place. I need to feed Anubis, and we can take him for a run in the park. Or well … you can run. I can hobble and watch from afar. Make sure no one calls the Riot Squad on you for running the monster.’

  ‘Sounds great.’ The man wanted him to meet his dog. Was that like meeting the kids? Was that a weird thought? Ashley did not care, he was meeting the dog and seeing where Hale lived. All his Christmases had come at once, and even if next year was nothing but coal he was going to be happy for the rest of his days.

  Sietta and Jamie were on the couch, grinning.

  ‘I’d say, since I can’t hear the yelling on the phone any more, that you’ve got like … seconds,’ Sietta guessed. How he managed to look perfect first thing in the morning after sleeping on the couch was anyone’s guess, but he looked like he’d stepped out of a magazine.

  ‘Holy shit!’

  Freya was standing in the kitchen, in her pyjamas, gaping at them all.

  ‘Sietta Salisbury is on my couch,’ she noted.<
br />
  ‘Hi,’ he waved, cheerfully.

  ‘Tea?’ she asked, jovially.

  ‘Love some!’

  Apparently no further conversation was required. She was putting the kettle on.

  ‘Ah …’ Ashley found himself speechless a lot, but not usually in his own home.

  ‘That’s Finn Hale, right?’ she asked him, pointing to his guest. ‘You are Finn Hale, right? Of course you are, you match his description perfectly. He’s right, you’re fucking hot, but for the love of God would you two leave before the human wrecking ball returns and breaks either one of your pretty faces?’

  ‘Who is …’ Hale was pointing at Freya but Ashley shook his head and shoved him toward the door, which unfortunately slammed open to reveal twin hulks, both green with fury, glaring down at them. Or down at Hale; Ashley was actually almost as tall as them now but it was not the time to be feeling proud of that fact.

  ‘You!’ they bellowed in unison.

  Hale was really fast. Really. Ashley was impressed. The guy had a knife wound in his leg and was hobbling around on crutches and he still stepped under Clay and Taylor’s raised arms like water and disappeared. Ashley saw his shadow heading for the elevator.

  ‘Hi! Sorry, we’re in a hurry, gotta dash!’ Ashley hurriedly slammed through them, AFL style, and bolted for the elevator, slipping between the doors as they were closing, watching Taylor and Clay run after him and hearing them collide with the doors.

  ‘Damn, he really called Clay for backup.’ Hale was laughing, leaning against the wall and stroking his thigh around the bandage. Ashley hoped he hadn’t hurt it, but he didn’t appear to be in pain. Looks could be deceiving, but for now he was pretty sure Hale was fine.