by Mandy Magro
They were silent for a few moments as they contemplated one another, neither knowing what to do next. Dylan broke the silence. ‘Thanks so much for coming over tonight. I’m really happy it all went so well. Mum and Annie absolutely adore you.’
‘And I adore them. I feel like I’ve known them both forever already. It’s a very comforting feeling.’ Renee tucked her long hair behind her ears. ‘I have to tell you something, though. Annie asked me if I was your girlfriend when you went to the loo.’
Stepping back, Dylan blew air through his lips as he ran his hands through his hair. ‘Oh shit, really? She’s too switched on for her own good, my little girl.’ His eyebrows shot up in question, but his tone was still soft and gentle. ‘What did you say to her?’
‘Don’t worry, I just told her we were really good friends, but then she told me I’d make a wonderful girlfriend for you and that I should think about being your girlfriend one day—’ Renee chuckled softly, ‘—and then when I told her I’d think about it she said “Well that’s settled then,” and went back to making her loom bracelet like it wasn’t a big thing.’
Dylan sank down on the edge of the well-used rattan chair, blinking wet eyes but refusing to let his tears fall. His emotions almost getting the better of him, he sucked in a deep breath and smiled. ‘Oh bless her beautiful little heart. She’s an old soul, Annie is. I swear to God she’s been on this earth many times before.’
‘I know, she’s wise beyond her years. I just wanted to hug her so tight, Dylan.’ Renee sniffled, her throat tightening with sentiment. ‘She’s just so damn loveable, it’s beyond ridiculous.’
Dylan stood and wrapped both arms around Renee again, pulling her in until there was not an inch of space left between them. ‘Tonight has gone even better than I could have ever imagined. The fact that you and Annie get on so well means the world to me. Thank you, Renee, just for being you.’
Renee sighed softly as her body melted into Dylan’s. ‘Thank you for trusting me enough to invite me…’ She pulled her head back and gripped Dylan’s gaze with hers, the soft moonlight illuminating his chiselled jaw in the most erotic of ways. ‘I love you, Dylan Anderson. I always have, and no matter where this road we are on leads us, I will never stop loving you until the day I die.’
Dylan’s smile spoke a thousand words. ‘And I love you, Renee Wildwood, more than I ever have before, and tomorrow, I know I’m going to wake up loving you even more than I do now.’ He let his hands drop from her waist and then he tenderly cupped her cheeks. ‘I know you have a life back in the city, and I know I still have a few inner demons to deal with, and I know we have to take things slow for Annie’s sake, but I’m willing to work through everything to be with you. Are you?’
Renee nodded, tears now pouring down her cheeks. ‘Yes, yes I am. I want to give us a go with all my heart and soul.’
Dylan smiled, the depth in his eyes unfathomable. ‘You’ve just made me a very happy man.’
Leaning in, Renee feathered her lips over Dylan’s, teasing him until he pressed his lips hard against hers. Using his strong arms, he picked her up from the ground and she wrapped her legs around his waist. As their passion increased, so did the intensity of their kisses—their tongues exploring and tasting one another with hunger, their lips wet and breathing heavy.
Renee’s body trembled with raw desire. She was hungry for him, and she could feel he was insatiably hungry for her, but she wasn’t going to spend the night with him with Annie in the house—not yet—and she knew he’d feel the same way. Reluctantly pulling away, the taste of him still on her lips, she slowly let her legs fall from around his waist, the sensation of his hardness pressing into her as she did so making her ache even more for him. ‘I better head home.’ Her voice was faint.
Dylan said nothing as he slid his hands beneath her top and caressed the bare skin of her back before sliding his hands around to her stomach and working his way tantalisingly up to her breasts. His fingers expertly traced around her erect nipples, the sheerness of her lacy bra only increasing her sensitivity.
Tingling from head to toe, she arched herself into him.
‘I really should go,’ she said breathlessly, her hands travelling beneath his shirt, her body aching for his as she ran her hands over his firm chest and through the fine hairs on his belly.
‘Soon…you can go soon. I need to make love to you first. I can’t go another day without devouring every inch of you.’ His voice was exquisitely husky as he kissed down the side of her throat, only stopping to gently lick the place where her pulse flickered. Then he nibbled on her earlobe as he breathed sensuous heat into her ear, making goosebumps flood her skin. The intense sensation stole her breath and she fought to control herself, resisting her animal instincts to tear his clothes off right here and now and taste every glorious, pulsing inch of him.
Unable to stop herself, she let her fingers travel down to where his hardness was pressing into the denim of his jeans. The material was so strained, she was surprised his zipper hadn’t burst. She groaned as his lips came to meet with hers once again and he pulsed beneath her hand.
Dylan let his lips glide down her chin, his hands sliding beneath her hair as he gently tugged her head back and kissed the front of her throat. ‘I want you, Renee, now. I can’t wait any longer to be at one with you.’
Renee fought to answer him, her breathing heavy. ‘But where? We can’t in the house, not yet.’
Picking her up in his arms, he carried her into the darkness. ‘I’ve already thought about that, and just in case this happened, I made us up a bed somewhere private, close enough to the house but where we can make as much noise as we like.’
Renee grinned wickedly. ‘Hmm, wishful thinking on your behalf, hey.’
Dylan returned her cheekiness with a grin mischievous enough to make a she-devil fall to her knees. ‘Well, hooray for me because I’m getting my wish, aren’t I?’
‘Yes, you are, and so am I.’
Carrying her across the driveway and up a few stairs that led to a loft above the barn-style stables, Dylan carefully placed Renee back down on her feet. Renee gasped with delight when she saw the mattress on the rustic timber floor, the sheets on top of it crisp and white and scattered with red rose petals. A large window opened up to reveal the star-studded night sky above and a kerosene lantern flickered in the corner of the room, spilling soft light over the romantic country setting. A stereo sat on a little old table, George Strait’s classic country love song, ‘I Cross My Heart’, playing softly. The words were so fitting for this magical moment.
Renee could see the verandah from here, the cottage not even ten metres away, but far enough away for privacy. Her hand fluttered to her chest, her heart melting. ‘When did you do this?’ she said tenderly.
‘When I said I was going to the loo. I thought you’d wonder why I took so long but I think you and Annie were having so much fun together you didn’t even notice I was gone for almost twenty-five minutes.’ Dylan sat down on the end of the mattress and lay back. Propping himself up on his elbow, he patted the spot next to him. ‘Come here so I can kiss you all over.’
Renee wandered over to join him, her eyelashes heavy with unshed tears. ‘This is the most beautiful and romantic thing I’ve ever seen… And the most amazing thing is, it’s all for me. Thank you, Dylan.’ She pulled her t-shirt over her head and let it drop to the floor, and pulled her jeans down and over her feet. Then, she slowly removed her bra, her full round breasts falling free, her eyes never leaving Dylan’s the whole time. Leaving only her black lacy G-string on, she eased herself down beside him, and lay so she was facing him, his gaze drinking all of her in.
Dylan gently pushed her hair back from her face and then let his fingers trace down her neck and over her breasts, his touch gentle and tender. Her nipples responded, growing even harder.
‘You deserve to be spoilt,’ he whispered before leaning in and licking her nipples so softly she wanted to scream out his name and beg him to
ravage her.
But instead, she grabbed his flannelette shirt and tore it open, the buttons popping off as she did. Pulling it from his shoulders, she threw it behind her and then began unbuttoning his jeans, Dylan’s mouth never leaving her, his tongue now trailing tantalisingly down her stomach. Before he reached her throbbing wetness, the one place she was truly aching for him to lick, he stopped and stood, removing his jeans, and then his underpants, his erection tempting her to her knees.
She eyed the eagle tattoo that began at the side of his throat, and followed its path down his chest, over his abs and to his groin. It was so damn sexy. She motioned for him to stay standing as she knelt before him. He slipped his hands into her hair, his fingers pressing into the back of her head. Slowly, she licked the end of his cock—tasting him, tracing the ridge and then running the tip of her tongue ever so slowly down his shaft, and then back up it again. Dylan was breathing heavily, gasping and moaning in pleasure. Lightly, she wrapped her lips around the tip, then millimetre by millimetre, wanting to savour the sensation of him easing into her, she ran her wet mouth downwards, taking all of him in. Not in a hurry, she repeated the movements, enjoying every stroke, every lick, and every drop of his wetness.
Dylan pulled himself from her mouth and slid down to his knees so he was facing her. ‘I want to feel you drift inside me,’ he said. ‘So when I place my lips on yours, just breathe out into me and I’ll draw you in.’
Renee nodded as she leant in and opened her mouth and Dylan did the same until their lips were pressed up hard against one another’s, as well as their bodies. Renee breathed out and the sensation of Dylan breathing her deep inside him was out of this world. Then, reversing the roles, she breathed him in, the motion making her feel a connection with him beyond anything she’d ever felt before. This was all-encompassing love.
Without saying a word, Dylan eased her backwards until he was lying on top of her. He kissed her parted lips, her eyelids, her face and then her neck, making his way downwards until he was at her breasts. With hard strokes of his tongue he flicked her nipples and then took them one by one into his mouth, biting down until she was verging on the brink of pleasure and pain. She arched into him, her nails digging into his back. Then, he continued his journey down her trembling, tingling body, his lips, tongue, mouth and hands exploring her every inch with mind-blowing skill.
When he reached her place of pure indulgence and began circling it with the tip of his tongue, she cried out in complete pleasure, the sensation bringing her closer to climax by the second. Her hands gripping the back of his head, she pushed his face into her. Dylan followed her cue as he plunged his tongue inside her, taking his own sweet time to drag it up the sides of her before licking the length of her wetness on the outside. Unable to take any more, and wanting to reach the height of absolute pleasure with him deep inside her, Renee pulled him back up so she could kiss him.
Dylan rested the tip of his manhood against her sweet heaven, and very, very slowly slid himself inside her, kissing her deeply all the while. Once he was all the way in, Renee tilted her head back in sheer bliss, her breath escaping her in short sharp gasps. She moved her hips in union with his, Dylan’s moans of pleasure matching her own. Gripping one another, they positioned themselves so he could be as deep inside her as possible. With the thrusting getting faster, and more and more hungry, their bodies began to shudder, and then balancing on the edge of euphoria, they fell into a world of ecstasy together, calling out as they came together. Then, completely spent, they lay in each other’s arms, enjoying the paradise they were still floating in as they tried to catch their breath.
‘I love you, baby,’ Dylan said, feathering a kiss on her cheek.
‘And I love you, my gorgeous man,’ Renee said as she closed her eyes and rested her head against his chest, enjoying the feeling of his heart beating against her cheek. She smiled from within. Her fantasies of the past nine years had finally become her reality.
***
Dylan waited until Renee’s taillights had completely disappeared before he headed inside the cottage. From her rug on the verandah, Bossy regarded him with droopy eyelids—her job of guarding the cottage over now that her master was back. Her eyes dropped shut and she was instantly asleep. Glancing at his watch, Dylan shook his head, still smiling. It was one in the morning, which meant he only had about six hours before he had to be back up and on his way to Wildwood Acres for work.
Not that he cared. He was so damn high on Renee he felt like he didn’t need any sleep at all. Making love to her again after all these years had been even more beautiful than he’d imagined, and now he’d allowed himself to fall off the cliff he’d been balancing on, he felt more in love with her than he’d ever been. He wished she didn’t have to go home, and that they could have slept wrapped around each other all night, but she didn’t want her grandparents to worry—and he had Annie to think about too.
Soundlessly he crept into Annie’s bedroom to check on her, her night-light throwing an assortment of multicoloured stars onto her ceiling. Smiling, he looked down at her angelic face. He was so very blessed to have a daughter like her. He blew her a kiss—imagining it landing in her kind loving heart—before sneaking back out of the room on his tiptoes.
Wandering down the hallway and towards his bedroom he stopped as he passed his office. His laptop was aglow in the dark; he must have forgotten to turn it off this afternoon. Shrugging, he padded over to shut it down, the screen coming to life as he tapped the space bar. The page popped up that showed him the areas he had on camera around the property. Curious to see if the cameras had captured anything untoward after he and Ralph had left this afternoon, he decided to skim through the last few hours of recordings on speed rewind. And as he did, something made him pause.
He pressed play, his anger building by the second. He couldn’t make out who it was—the moonlight only hinting at the shadowy figure—but there was definitely someone wandering around his half-built dam. He looked to be examining the earthworks, but after almost ten minutes he disappeared into the scrubland that bordered the national park.
What the hell had they been doing? It was too late to go out there now, so he made the reluctant decision to check it all out before he headed off to work in the morning. He wasn’t about to leave Annie alone in the house while he went driving around the property tonight—especially not with the possibility of whoever it was being anywhere near the house. This was all getting beyond a joke—it had to stop.
CHAPTER
20
‘You got in late last night,’ Pearl said, a twinkle in her eyes as she buttered a piece of fruit toast.
‘Yeah, I heard you coming up the drive well after midnight. Time flies when you’re having fun, hey,’ Mick said from the dining room table, a cheeky smile on his lips as he enjoyed his morning cuppa. ‘Oh, to be young again, Reni.’
Feeling her face beginning to colour, Renee quickly turned all her attention to the cup of coffee she was making, her spoon clanking noisily as she stirred for all of Australia. She’d tried to be extra quiet when she’d got home, even rolling the Land Cruiser in neutral down the last bit of the drive and slinking down the hallway like a teenager that had snuck out the bedroom window, but obviously she couldn’t pull the wool over anyone’s eyes here. Thank goodness her pa wasn’t home to hear this conversation, she’d be even more embarrassed than she was now. But he and Dylan had already headed off to work before she’d got out of bed.
‘Oh, I didn’t think it was that late. Dylan and I were talking and I lost track of time, that’s all.’
Pearl began spreading her toast with some homemade passionfruit-and-lemon butter that a neighbour had dropped off the day before. ‘Oh, come on, love. I wasn’t born yesterday. And believe it or not, I was young like you were once.’
‘You were young once? I never would have guessed,’ Renee replied lightheartedly as she gave Pearl a wink, praying to God that her humour would divert the conversation somewhere else. Sh
e levered herself up on the counter, swinging her legs, feigning casualness.
Pearl smiled perceptively as she pointed at Renee with her butter knife. ‘I know what love looks like, and you, my girl, have got love in your eyes.’ She plopped the knife into the sink full of hot soapy water.
Renee stared back at her with her mouth slightly ajar, words completely evading her. What the hell was she meant to say to that? It’s not like she could deny it.
Chuckling softly, Pearl picked up her plate and wandered over to the dining table, her terry towelling robe emphasising her tiny waist. ‘You know, you’re not a teenager anymore, love. You are allowed to date boys.’ She sat down, smiling wistfully. ‘And you don’t have to hide it from your pa and me. After meeting Dylan this morning, I must say he seems like a really nice young man.’
‘Okay,’ Renee replied cautiously, not knowing where this conversation was going to lead. She’d been put on the spot and had no idea what to say. She tried to remain cool, calm and collected on the outside, but on the inside she was running around like a mad woman with her hands up in the air. She took a sip from her coffee, trying to buy some time as she thought about whether to tell the truth, or divert her nan’s correct assumption altogether, her legs now swinging nervously and bumping against the kitchen cupboard. Upon opening her eyes this morning, she had made the decision she’d been contemplating before falling asleep, and she couldn’t wait to let Dylan know. First, though, she wanted to tell her grandparents—it being the respectful thing to do.
‘Just remember, though,’ Pearl continued, ‘you don’t live in Opals Ridge anymore. It’s going to break your heart, and his, if you get in too deep before you return back to Melbourne—which you are going to be doing in the very near future, I might add.’
Honesty is the best policy. Tell her the truth, while she’s left the gate open.
‘Nan, we need to have a little chat about that,’ Renee said as she hopped down from the counter and wandered over to sit at the table.
