“Drixx,” I called out, “Princess.” Taking a hand off the saddle to point at my mount.
Hendrixx gave me a curt nod then reigned Stash over to the bare mare, who had now stopped and was busy eating some grass, and didn’t seem worried at all that thirty or so annoyed wild horses were just thundering towards her.
Sidling up to her, Hendrixx pulled Stash to a stop then whipped his head around, his blue eyes were practically spewing fire at me, his face thunderous.
“What the flying fuck did you think you were doing? You bloody idiot!” he roared, his face only inches from mine, so close I could feel his heated breath while he shouted at me.
Hurt and anger coursed through me. Hearing the man I practically worshipped speak so angrily to me hurt, him calling me an idiot pissed me off.
Thankful that we were positioned close to Princess, I scrambled off the back of Stash straight onto my own saddle. My sudden and unorthodox dismount surprised Drixx just enough so I could get free from him and move Princess and me out of his reach. Not that he should have been surprised, for years I had gotten in trouble from the Hott brothers for performing tricks on my horse. I found an old trick saddle in one of the sheds and decided to teach myself how to stand up on a saddle while cantering. Fenixx found it amusing, Noxx found it typical, but Hendrixx didn’t like it at all and tried numerous times to hide the saddle from me. He never quite found the right hiding place.
“Jesus Blake, what the hell has gotten into you?” Hendrixx growled, staring me down with his perfect icy blue eyes.
“Wrong with me? What is bloody wrong with you more like it,” I stormed back at him, my hands shaking as I pulled the reigns back over Princess’s head. “I was perfectly fine until you came riding up like John Wayne shooting off your rifle like a madman,” I spluttered, hating the tremor in my voice and the trembling of my hands. I did things that got his dander up, he growled, then he would soften his harshness with a gentle smile, call me Blakey, then all was right until the next time. He wasn’t following our MO this time, however, and that had me very unsettled.
Hendrixx maneuvered his horse forward so the big gelding was neck to neck with Princess, his hand reached out and took hold of the head halter.
“Those brumbies are dangerous Blake, they aren’t to be messed with ever. We have the conserve on the property to protect them from shooters, but that doesn’t mean you have the fucking liberty to go getting yourself into a situation you have no fucking right being in.” His tone of voice was harsh, the harshest he had ever used with me, unsettling me even more.
“Get back to the house Blake finish your chores in the stables. Maybe while you are doing them, you might want to think about growing the fuck up. Possibly think that people give a shit if you get trampled by dozens of wild horses.”
Looking over his shoulder, I could see that the mob had stopped their advance and were standing a hundred metres from us. The big grey in front of his girls, snorting and pawing at the ground in a demonstration of dominance as if he had won the battle.
A horrible ache started in my stomach, not because of the stallion but because Hendrixx thought of me as a child. Panic rose inside me, I was still hurt by his rejection to my touch, now add humiliation to the pile and confusion.
“Where are you going?” I asked when Hendrixx let go and pulled on the reigns turning Stash around.
“I’m going to run them off back down to Kelly’s Track. They won’t be coming back into the valley if I have anything to say about it. Go Blake, I will see you when I get back.”
“Drixx—”
“Go, now,” he shouted over his shoulder, not sparing me more than a quick glance, but what I saw gave me a little semblance of peace. His eyes were no longer fire and ice, what I saw was concern and … something I was too inexperienced to name, but I liked it just the same.
Shaking off the kind of thoughts I was having for Hendrixx, I instead focused on the fact that he’d interrupted my moment with the brumbies.
Who did he think he was anyway? This wasn’t my first time alone with the mob, and if he only knew how many times I had snuck off to look for them.
Giving Princess a cluck of my tongue, I urged her forward, reigning her into a slow walk, aware that her earlier bolt would have taken a bit out of her.
I tried not to worry about Hendrixx or his confusing behaviour. Or the fact that I might have pushed him too far this time.
HENDRIXX
My mood had not lifted in the two hour ride I had been forced to undertake.
Running the mob of brumbies down Kelly’s Track had taken longer than I anticipated mainly because once we reached it, I decided that it wasn’t far enough away from the homestead. Instead, I pushed them another ten kilometres to the west, closer to the ranges.
Now, with the stables in my sight, all I wanted to do was find Blake and shout at her some more, but not before I hold her in my arms and assure myself she’d dodged a bullet when she’d pulled her latest stunt. The brumbies roamed free all over the valley and on Triple H land. My brothers and I, as well as the neighbouring properties, all joined together to create a reserve. All of the wild horses could remain free to live without the danger of being rounded up and sold or worse. All that protection and care didn’t take away from the fact that they should be treated for what they were … wild and unpredictable. And that made them dangerous. Blake’s daredevil attitude to life mostly annoyed me, kept me on my toes and constantly praying for patience. Today, however, seeing her sitting astride her horse so close to the mob, not aware of the peril, scared the fucking shit out of me.
I pushed Stash harder than I think I ever had to get to her when I saw the big grey make his advance towards Blake and Princess. At the time, I knew I would never reach her and get in between her and the stallion, thank god I carried my rifle with me whenever I went on a ride. Shooting warning shots in the air was the only reason I managed to slow the big bastard down, I could see he had eyes for the pretty bay mare, the person on her back meant nothing to the grey. Blake would have been trampled, and most likely killed, had I not acted so quickly.
Not that Blake showed me any thanks for my quick thinking. As usual, her hot, sexy temper reared it’s head, asking me what the hell I thought I was doing!
I could ask her the same fucking question, especially when her fingers went on an exploration under my shirt. Fuck, I nearly jumped out of my skin when I first felt her fingertips smooth across over my lower abs, and then briefly dip below my belt buckle before I stopped her. Why the fuck did I stop her? I wanted her, she obviously wanted me going by her breathy comment about me being a god. So why then did I act like a true prick, and instead of turning in the saddle and sinking my tongue into the recesses of her wet mouth, did I growl at her to stop then proceeded to shout at her? Again.
I wanted Blake with a need there simply weren’t enough words to describe, but for some idiotic reason, I did what I always do, got angry and lost my shit at her.
One minute Blake could be like a balm to my soul, and the next, she had me going off like a bomb.
I had the perfect opening when she trailed her fingers on me to tell her that we should explore our apparent feelings for one another, but at the time, my heart and my mind weren’t exactly in the best place after seeing her in the sights of those brumbies.
Directing Stash through the open gate separating the stables from the paddocks, I noticed Blake standing with three of the HHH hands. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence, the time to knock off from work well and truly upon them, and all the workers we employed got along well. So seeing Blake huddled with the men was not something that should piss me off.
And yet it did.
Blake was a gorgeous woman, blonde, curvy and funny. She never had any trouble getting along with anyone on the farm, and she had practically lived here all her life. Everyone here protected her. Yes, most of the time, it was at my request, but she had that certain something special that made all the men fall at her feet and tre
at her like a little sister.
Looking at the group now, however, seeing how close Joe was standing to Blake, his shoulder way too close, and his attention way too focused on Blake—the look on his face did not resemble one of a brother looking at his little sister.
Clicking my tongue, I urged Stash into a trot, more than ready to break up the party.
“Isn’t it knock off time fellas?” I growled as I approached my employees, my eyes fixed on Joe and his hand, which was sitting on Blake’s shoulder. With a pointed look at the young farmhand, he quite smartly removed it from my cowgirl’s body with a jerk.
“Hey, hey boss,” he stammered, suddenly looking very uncomfortable. And well he should. I was a decent and fair employer, and the Triple H offered generous wages and excellent conditions to work in, all hands had access to accommodation on the property if they needed it. We had a one weekend on and one off system so there weren’t any complaints about getting or not getting weekend work and rates.
What I wasn’t, was overly friendly with my workers, I drew a line getting personally involved in their private business, going to the pub with them on their time off other than once a month when my brothers and I shouted them a night out at the local.
My only exception to that steadfast rule was Blake.
“No overtime tonight blokes. Pack it up and head out,” I ordered, not acknowledging the glare Blake was throwing at me. It was her fault I was still out at six o’clock rather than sitting in my favourite chair, enjoying a cold beer and Friday night footy.
Swinging down out of the saddle, I flicked the reigns over Stash’s head.
“I got that for ya, Drixx,” Eddy said quickly, expertly taking the leather strap out of my hand, the smirk on his face knowing and amused. “Joe, meet you down the pub in thirty,” he said as he led my horse past the little tick turd, his tone giving no room for argument.
Good to know at least one of my men know the fucking rules around here.
“Blake. My office now!” I grunted as I strode past her, not waiting for her to follow. I knew she would, even just to give me shit for embarrassing Joe, also to find out where I had chased the brumbies. The wild horses meant just as much to her as Lancelot did, her mind would be going a mile a minute to know their whereabouts.
Striding into the main stable, I walked down the cobbled pavement until I got to the end of the row of stalls. I’d turned the second last stall into my office a few years ago, changed the wooden stable door to a glass one, put up some plaster walls, and added some homely comforts, even a day bed. The reason I did this? Blake. My office was right next to Lancelot’s stall. Perfect placement to catch my devious, sexy blonde if she tried to sneak our stallion out and ride him.
I did mean our stallion, not that I was going to tell Blake that just yet. When I first laid eyes on the big black beast, I knew I was going to buy him not only because I wanted him, but because Blake would fall for him instantly. He had the perfect combination of feisty and lovable, just like her. He was stubborn, headstrong and sometimes completely unmovable. Just like Blake.
Both equine and woman did my head in more often than not, but I was obsessed with them both equally, for different reasons.
And speaking of my obsession.
“Hendrixx Nathaniel Hott, you better have a good reason for being a dick to Joe!” Blake shouted, her voice close.
I figured I had no more than twenty seconds before the blonde cyclone made her appearance, so I lazily sat down in the comfortable wingback desk chair and lifted my legs to lay on the top of the scarred wood. If I was going to get an earful from Blake, I might as well be comfy. Sometimes she could go off on a tangent for quite a while depending on the subject and how pissed off I made her, and judging by the use of all three of my names, she had a full head of steam going on.
“Office!” I yelled back, not that I need’ve bothered because she stormed in two seconds later her hazel eyes spitting fire.
“What the hell is wrong with you? I mean really, no overtime? You always offer the guys overtime. Fenixx does, Lenoxx does, hells bells Drixx, did you leave your brain cells back in the valley?” I watched with amusement as she paced back and forth in front of my desk—her current tangent well and truly in full flight.
“First you come blazing down the valley, gun firing like some range rider, scare off my mob, pull me up onto Stash, then bark orders at me as if you own me—”
A smile split my face as I watched Blake rant at me, her hands flew up in the air, then down to settle on her deliciously curvy hips, all the while she stomped back and forth. I couldn’t help staring at her shirt, or rather at the view, the three opened buttons were showing me. Creamy, sun-kissed skin, smooth and so fucking inviting, but it was the hint of white lace that had my cock straining against the zip in my pants. Blake wore button up shirts ninety percent of the time, but she always left three buttons undone. The tantalising glimpse of flesh drove me crazy, it filled my nights with the most erotic dreams. Sometimes when she bent down to pick up a bale of hay and did it just so that I could make out the top of her creamy breast, the pillows of flesh taunted me. It got me so hard I would go to bed and pound my cock into the mattress imaging it was her and not my bed my cock was grinding into.
“Hendrixx! Are you listening to me?” Blake growled at me, dragging me out of my sensual musings.
“Yep, you have my undivided attention, sweetheart,” I drawled, waving my hand at her to get going. It was a dick move, and more than likely, I was just adding more fuel to her fire, but fuck, she was fucking gorgeous when she was all fired up.
“Don’t sweetheart me, Hendrixx. You know I can handle myself, there was no need to go in and save me like that.” Her fingers made air quotes when she said the words save me. I could feel my eyebrows rise up, but I sat there unmoving, interested to see what else she had to say.
“And don’t get me started on how you spoke to Joe, I mean honestly Hendrixx, what was that all about?” I hid a smile as I sat there and watched her get a full head of steam.
God, I loved the way my name sounded coming from her lips, my name was unusual, all three of us had strange names. Our parents wanted us to have unique and induvial names that no other kids did, and because of our last name having double T, they decided that we needed a double letter in our first names too. When we were kids we loved hearing Mum tell us the story behind our names, she loved the name Lennox but didn’t like the double n because she wanted it to be the double letters to be at the end of our names, so she changed it, Fenixx too got a different spelling. The story goes our dad wanted him to be Phoenixx, but Mum didn’t like the way it sounded for her baby son, so she changed the spelling and the pronunciation. It was said exactly the way it was spelt, Fen-ixx. I was the only one with the cool distinction of being named after her favourite singer from the sixties.
My mind, stuck in a favourite childhood memory, I missed what Blake was grumbling at me, everything except for one thing.
“I mean Hendrixx, if you hadn’t thrown your weight around, I am sure Joe was going to ask me to the pub with him and the guys tonight—”
“Fucking what?” I yelled, jumping up, my chair flying behind me and into the wall.
“Hendrixx, what is going on?” Blake shouted at me, her eyes wide, looking at me with a mixture of annoyance and bewilderment.
Ignoring my logical side that was screaming at me to shut the fuck up, I did what any man would do and listened to the illogical side that ruled my heart and sometimes my dick. The thought of Blake smiling at another man other than me had my gut clenching with jealous rage. Our relationship might be a little murky, but that didn’t stop the green-eyed monster inside me from rearing its ugly head. At least that was my excuse when I stormed around my desk right to where Blake was standing and forced my body against the length of hers. In my anger, I wasn’t really thinking just reacting, but the second her plump breasts came into contact with my chest, all the fight drained out of me, and all I could focus on was h
er soft, warm curves.
“Drixx?” My name came out in a breathy gasp, her hazel eyes wide with shock, but it was the tremble I felt go through her that made me put one hand on her hip and pull her against my aching groin. My other hand wrapped itself on one side of her long graceful neck, both hands holding her captive.
Hearing Blake talk about wanting to go out without me ramped up my timeline. I still had some shit to sort through, not only concerning her and me getting together but the crap with my old man. My main issues with Blake was our age difference, it wasn’t huge, but enough for me to be worried that she wasn’t ready for me. I knew nearly everything about her, so I knew she was a virgin but was on the pill to regulate her monthly’s. Not much escaped me, and while I was just short of being a peeping Tom and setting up surveillance in her cottage, I did have eyes on her around the property when I wasn’t able to be there myself. So, I knew she didn’t have any guys sniffing around her and that she didn’t date or hook-up. Most of the day she spent working on the farm and when she wasn’t doing that she divided her time driving me up the wall and cooking with my mum.
“You won’t be going out with Joe or anyone else for that matter, Blake,” I told her, my voice sounded dangerous even to my own ears. Whatever finesse I thought I had when it came to women went right out the window when Blake ran her tongue back and forth over her bow-shaped top lip, the quick movement fucking sensual even if Blake had no idea.
Her eyes narrowed at me, the fire back in them.
“Is that right?”
“Yep, that is correct,” I answered her with forced flippancy. Being this close to her was just about bringing me to my knees, especially after earlier when she sat behind me on Stash.
“Drixx, you can’t tell me who I can and can’t go out with. Not to mention the way you acted like a scalded cat when I was on your horse with you kind of gave me the impression you don’t like me touching you, so why are you holding—”
Hott and Ready (The Hott Brothers Book 2) Page 3
