Was she serious! All that she just threw at me, she was worried about proper decorum?
“Lillian! What on earth are you talking about?” I spluttered, finding my voice.
“Which part dear, here give me the bowl you might be an expert cook when it comes to your donuts, but I think you may be a bit off your game tonight,” Lillian said way too casually, but yet I still surrendered the bowl to her because … well because I was in a state of shock.
Lillian Hott might as well be a mind reader, because let’s face it being the mother to three successful and sexy businessmen wasn’t her only claim to fame.
Staring openly at the woman who had played the part of my mother all my life, I fumbled for my next words. I had to choose them carefully as my opponent was deftly accurate when it came to shooting me down.
“Lillian,” I started out slowly. “Hendrixx kissed me, then Mallory walked in, and he is now with her,” I said, each word slow and precise, my eyes holding hers the whole time.
“He. Isn’t. Interested. In. Me.” Just saying those words hurt, my lips were still tingling from the kiss Hendrixx and I had shared, my belly was still fluttering and girlie bits still singing.
“Yeah, right!” Lillian scoffed, “Blakey, you have spent far too much time with the animals and not enough time observing the males on the farm. Hendrixx has spent years protecting you, and not just from the danger you continually put yourself in. Each and every worker on the Triple H knows you are off-limits. My son isn’t the kind to go to such lengths for no reason.”
“Then why is he with Mallory?” I asked, using my trump card.
“Because it’s The Voice night,” Lillian offered, looking at me as if those five words explained the meaning of life or something.
My head dropped to my chest in defeat. What the hell did that have to do with anything?
“So?” I growled, steadily losing my mind with her.
“She always talks during shows, Tim hates it. Drives him nuts.”
I didn’t know if I wanted to laugh or cry or pull the pearls from around Lillian’s neck and strangle her with them. She had to get to the point of all this before I lost my mind.
“Lillian, for the love of God, what does all this mean?”
“Driving Hendrixx mad is better than annoying her fiancé, wouldn’t be good for their impending nuptials.” Lillian then touched my face, her hand rubbing at my jaw.
“Hmmm, best tell Hendrixx he needs to be careful with his facial scruff. Your skin is so soft he left some whisker burn,” she said, soothing the area that didn’t even hurt, not in a bad way. I could feel the warmth there from his sexy, short beard, and once again, Lillian’s powers of observation heated my cheeks with embarrassment.
I blinked once, then again, and just because I couldn’t help it, I blinked three more times, speechless and not capable of voicing one comeback.
A kind and loving look replaced the mischief on Lillian’s face, her arms coming around me to pull me in for a hug.
“Oh baby girl, you have been so sheltered since your dad passed away and so loved by all of us.” Comforting hands rubbed up and down my back before Lillian pulled back just enough so she could look right at me.
“Not once has Hendrixx made sure Mallory is okay after being out of his sight for more than twenty minutes. Never has he covertly followed her on horseback for hours, and I’m pretty sure he hasn’t threatened to fire a worker because he looked at her longer than Hendrixx deemed necessary.”
“And most importantly, remember Mallory was out of his life while Makena and Lenoxx were separated and it never affected him. You disappear on horseback for an afternoon and Hendrixx comes close to losing his mind. Think on that baby and work it out for yourself.” Combing my hair through her fingers, Lillian gave my cheek a loving peck, released me from her embrace then went back to gathering and measuring ingredients.
Mallory and I never really got along back when she and Makena used to hang out on the Triple H. Makena I liked, she knew how to ride, loved being around the horses, and, most importantly, didn’t see Hendrixx as anything more than a brother figure. Mallory, on the other hand, spent a lot of time laughing with Drixx, getting piggybacks from him, and asking for foot massages. What kind of flirting was that anyway? Even at the age I had been then, I knew about flirting, and Mallory flirted with Hendrixx. I admit that I didn’t see anything other than that, but then they did take off to his room to watch TV, or so they said.
Somehow, I knew Lillian was giving me a message, but with everything that had happened out in the valley, then in the yard and after in the stables, I was far too frazzled to decipher it out of her bombshell comments.
It was somewhere in there.
Where and what I still had to work out.
HENDRIXX
“Drixx, can you believe what Kelly is wearing? She looks like a first-class git,” Mallory laughed from her seat on my couch. The Voice was on, and god help me, I wanted to put my foot through the TV screen so I didn’t have to listen to not only the contestants singing, but Mallory also. The woman butchered every song being performed and if I had to listen to one more comment about the judge’s fashion faux pas, just once more, Mallory was going to find herself headfirst in a feed trough.
“Hottie, are you listening to me?”
Fisting the curtain in my hand, I silently counted to ten.
“Does it look like I am fucking listening to you, Rogers?” I gritted out, not taking my eyes off the cottage across from my place. Blake had yet to turn on any lights, the small dwelling was pitch black with no sign of movement going on inside.
What the fuck was she doing? She went up to the main house over an hour ago, she loved spending time with my mum, but Blake was always at her place at this time of night. She got up just as early as I did every morning, not one to sleep in, Blake made sure she got a decent night’s sleep before she began her workday.
“No, it looks like you are a peeping Tom waiting to catch the poor unsuspecting lady take her clothes off,” Mallory answered, and if I were to turn around, I was positive I would see a ridiculous smirk on her face. Mallory had one main goal in life, other than to marry Tim, and that was to piss me off. Since the first day we’d met, our friendship was one of oil and water, and neither of us would have it any other way.
There had been a big expectation that we got together like Noxx and Mack, but both Mal and I knew from the very start that not a single spark existed between us. Yeah, she was beautiful, and yeah, she had a banging bod, but she didn’t do anything for me other than make me laugh and annoy me.
Like she was now.
“Why the fuck isn’t she home yet? She has a full day of work tomorrow, finishing breaking in the new horse.” Blake was our main horse-breaker, her dad taught her, and for the last three years, I gave her the responsibility of being in charge of the stables under Fenixx.
Nixx was concentrating more on the breeding side of the farm, and now that he had taken on the breeding program over at Waterford with Makena, Blake’s workload had tripled. My cowgirl wasn’t one to run from her job or ask for favours, she simply took whatever was thrown at her, no complaints.
“If she doesn’t get her required amount of sleep, she’ll lose focus. She needs her wits about her around a half-wild horse,” I muttered, suddenly worrying what might happen if her lack of sleep was to make her complacent at the wrong time.
The volume on the TV turned down to a dull roar followed by a sigh from Mallory.
“Okay Hott, let me ask you some questions, and you have to answer them and just them.” Coming up to me, Mallory joined me at the window, her hand lifting the other side of the curtain to peer out.
Great, another Mallory Rogers inquisition.
“Fine, shoot,” I grumbled, resigned to the fact that it was better just to do as I was told, rather than fight her, especially if I wanted to leave any time soon.
“What is Blake’s favourite colour?”
“Green.”
>
“TV show?”
“She doesn’t watch much TV, but when she does, she likes reruns of older shows; MacGyver, Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place and Seinfeld.”
“Food?”
“Donuts when she is upset or unsettled, but only ones she makes herself, she can eat pizza five days a week for tea if she let herself, and she loves any dessert that contains lemon.”
“When she is sad what—”
“She has this thing she does I am not even sure Blake knows she does it, but she gets this far away look in her eyes, and she worries her bottom lip with her teeth and plays with her hair, you know twirls it around her finger over and over.”
“But when she is happy? Fuck, her smile lights up her face, her hazel eyes shine, and her little nose gets these cute and shit, little wrinkles just about here.” I reached up and pointed to my own nose then abruptly dropped my hand when I realised what I had done.
Oh, fuck no, fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Wrinkles hey, worries her bottom lip—desserts with lemon. Damn Hendrixx, you know more about Blake than you do about me,” Mal joked her smile smart and knowing.
“Do fucking not,” I argued, feeling my cheeks heating.
“Oh yeah? What is my favourite dessert?” she challenged, her arms crossing over her chest.
“You like … um … fuck Mal, how the fuck do I know!” I shouted, flinging my arms in the air.
“You don’t because you don’t care what I eat when I am upset or that my eyes shine when I am happy. You do, however, know about Blake because she means more to you than anyone ever has. What I don’t understand is why you aren’t telling her all this? Her age can’t be an issue now, so why the dancing around your feelings for her. It’s obvious she feels the same way, or she wouldn’t have run off to your mum. I bet everything I have in my handbag she is up there right now, making donuts and biting on her bottom lip.”
My head dropped, breaking eye contact with Mal. I didn’t like the thought that Blake was right at that moment, upset. I didn’t like it either that I was probably responsible despite not understanding exactly what I had done wrong that made her run from me in the first place.
“Yeah, you might be,” I reluctantly conceded.
“Why did you kiss her, Drixx?” Mal asked softly, her hand on my arm. “Honesty only,” she rushed to add, pre-empting my usual, smartarse replies to questions that normally made me uncomfortable.
“Because there was no other choice. Years of yearning, wondering what she tastes like, what her lips would feel like on mine, how her moans would sound when my tongue first touched hers. The feel of her hands on me not because she was behind me on a horse or because work required it, but because she craves to touch me just as much as I do her. But …” I could hear the longing in my voice, the rasp of need, the honesty.
I fucking wanted Blake more than I wanted to live.
“It’s Blake. And you are worried how your family and the men on the Triple H are going to accept you two being in a romantic relationship after years of them seeing you in a brotherly role.”
I literally gaped at Mallory. Her insight into what was going around in my head just a little too spot-on. If I was being honest, I used Blake’s and my age difference as a cover for the real reason. Mallory hit the mark on my reluctance going forward in pursuing Blake. She was like the farm’s princess, and everyone adored her. I knew there were going to be protests and even some resentment when I made my move on Blake. She had more than fifty big brothers wanting to keep her safe, my brothers included.
Only not me. Nothing I felt for Blake was brotherly.
The fight in front of me didn’t worry me. Noxx and Nixx knew what I felt, Eddy and some of the workers I was close to did as well. Gossip from the locals didn’t worry me, what did was how Blake would think of the whispers and pointing.
We didn’t share blood, and she didn’t call my parents Mum or Dad. Hell, even after her dad died, Blake insisted she continue living in the cottage she shared with her father. Aged fourteen, she lived alone, granted my brothers and I took turns checking on her all night, but she didn’t come to live in the main house, live with us as if she were a blood relation.
I honestly didn’t give a fuck about anyone else’s opinion except Blake’s. And my mum’s.
“No wonder Mack was happy when you moved in with Tim permanently. Your uncanny ability to know what is going on in someone’s head is rather unnerving,” I said, instead of agreeing with her assessment of the situation.
“Well, it’s a gift Drixxie, much like you dodging the obvious.” Mallory smiled at me before she wrapped her arms around my waist, her head tilting back so she could look me in the eyes.
“You know when I interrupted you two tonight, I witnessed something that tells me you don’t have anything to worry about, my friend.”
“Oh?”
“Yep, Blake had the same look on her face I see on Mack’s whenever Noxx is around and the same one I see in the mirror whenever I think about Tim. She might be young, but love doesn’t have age limits. Trust me, don’t wait too long because otherwise, you will be missing out on so much memory-making. Go with your gut and follow your heart, fuck expectations, and what other people think.”
“You’re quite the poet tonight, Rogers, you are wasted in real estate,” I declared, pulling her closer for a hug.
“Don’t I know it,” she joked back, making me laugh.
Had I not hugged Mallory right then, instead kept my eyes on the small cottage, I would have noticed the small figure standing on her front porch hidden in the shadows watching two friends hug and jumping to the wrong conclusion.
***
“Eddy, where the hell is Blake!” I yelled out from my perch on the tractor.
“How the hell do I know, I have been out here baling hay with you all day,” Eddy shouted back at me giving me a ‘duh’ glare.
Since five a.m. this morning, Eddy and I, as well as three farm hands, had been out in the Lucerne crop cutting and baling without so much as a break. Mum came by and brought out breakfast and lunch, but there had been no sign of my cowgirl.
This wasn’t normal, not for Blake. She couldn’t go more than an hour without pissing me off, coming to see what I was up to, ask if she could ride Lancelot or just bring me a drink.
This morning I went looking for her at her cottage, thinking that she’d had enough space to think about our kiss, and maybe she was ready to talk about it and invite her to come out into the paddock to drive the tractor while I drove the truck and stacked the bales. When I got there though, the place was quiet and dark, much like it had been all night last night. After Mallory left, I stood back by the window looking for any indication she was in there, but nope there was nothing. Maybe she stayed up in the main house with Mum. Thinking about it now, I was kicking my arse for not going in search of her and confronting her about what was happening between us, but instead, I listened to Mallory’s stupid advice and waited. Next time, I wasn’t going to listen to her, no matter how poetic or educated she sounded on the subject.
Growling under my breath, I shoved a hand in my jeans pocket and yanked out my phone.
“Fucking ten hours unsupervised, I shudder to think what shit she is getting herself in,” I mumbled, pulling up Fenixx’s number.
“Yo Hendrixx, you aren’t going to believe what I am watching right now,” Fenixx told me the second he answered his phone.
“Nixx, I don’t give a shit about your porn categories. Can you do me a favour and go find Blake and see what she is up to?”
“No need brother of mine, I already know what she is doing, and I have to tell you she is getting really good on that trick saddle mate. Hercules is a natural trick horse.”
Blood drained from my face as I listened to Fenixx. Blake, my Blake was—Jesus, standing on the back of a horse and not just any horse. Hercules was a three year old gelding with a mean temperament, he stood just over fifteen hands and loved to buck. We bought him from a sale
in Macedon sight unseen. Blake heard from one of the sales auctioneers that the big bay had been mistreated by his previous owners, and after he bucked off and bit their young daughter, they decided to put him into the sale. Most equine dealers didn’t like to handle broken or mistreated animals, mainly due to the headaches that came with selling them responsibly. Most dealers didn’t want to be liable for any accidents happening in the sale ring, which is why many of the horses went straight to abattoirs.
Blake, of course, wasn’t going to let that happen, so that is why I found myself the owner of a nasty, biting, kicking and bucking sabino Arabian.
“She is doing what?”
“Daxx is here with Noxx, he brought the little man over so Mack could have a sleep in peace and quiet,” Nixx replied as if that was supposed to explain why Blake was standing on the back of an animal that could crush her under his four hundred kilogram weight.
The sound of my nephew clapping and shouting in the background, then a female’s big pitched whoop gave me more chills.
“Tell me she isn’t,” I demanded of my brother, the same time jumping off the tractor to the ground.
“Yep, she did, almost landed on her feet too,” Nixx told me sounding very impressed, but I was anything but impressed. Hercules had come a long way in the three years Blake had been working with him–she had retrained him to wear a saddle and have a rider on his back. When she announced she wanted to train him to be a trick horse, I of course, put my foot down and forbid her to do anything of the sort, Blake naturally ignored me. I had to admit her patience with the flighty beast was admirable. Her prowess and determination two things I loved most about her, but that didn’t mean I could handle her being on his back while I wasn’t there to control the situation.
“Fenixx, I expect you to watch after her when I’m not there. I can’t be in two places at once,” I shouted down the phone, jumping into the farm ute and firing it up.
Out of the windscreen, I could see Eddy laughing outright, his head shaking back and forth, and I could make out Blake’s name coming from his lips.
Hott and Ready (The Hott Brothers Book 2) Page 5
