No! That wasn’t going to happen. I would not allow my heart or my dick to take charge, not anymore. Makena’s effect on me in the past was just that, past.
She was going to honour the contract her father signed, and if not, then she would be treated like anyone that HBC dealt with. Money was the name of the game; building my family’s farm into an empire my only goal.
Long chestnut waves and hips so curvy that could make a grown man weep be damned.
Hendrixx was going to have a travel partner tomorrow and I was going to get answers to my questions.
***
“Mornin’,” Hendrixx greeted me, getting into the passenger side of my black Porsche SUV. His smirk told me he knew what I was up to getting the expensive German car out of the garage instead of taking the ute. Inside, I knew I wanted Makena to see just how successful I had become, how I used my time wisely instead of falling in a heap. The truth was, in private, I did fall, I wallowed, I succumbed to heartbreak.
Makena wasn’t going to find that out, however, which brought us to driving a ninety-six-thousand dollar Cayenne. It may be childish, but my reaction yesterday to seeing her had not been my finest moment and nothing like I imagined it would have gone. Today, I was more in control, no surprises coming my way. I knew she was back, knew she still looked sexy as hell and remembered how my name sounded falling from her lips. There wasn’t anything I wasn’t prepared for now.
“Your dick isn’t big enough?” Hendrixx asked, grinning at me.
“My dick is plenty big enough, idiot. I just wanted to give the Cayenne a run, that’s all,” I offered, shrugging then started the powerful V8, avoiding looking at my triplet. That was the problem of being the product of one egg morphing into three; we could read each other too easily. Sometimes it came in handy and sometimes like now, not so much.
“And it helps that Mack will be pissed when she sees you own her dream car,” Hendrixx taunted, his smirk falling into a frown.
“It is? Oh, I forgot about that,” I replied as innocently as I could, but I felt my cheeks heat from being caught in such a stupid immature game.
“Noxx, don’t fucking bullshit me. I get that hurting her is your main end game, but this isn’t the time. From what I heard yesterday from her, the farm is drowning in the debt her father landed them in. He changed from growing produce to cattle and sheep to breeding in less than four years. She works hard and long hours to just keep their heads above water. She doesn’t need you playing mine is better than yours right now,” he warned me, his tone firm and broking no arguments. Hearing that made me worry about how hard she was working. Makena didn’t have a complaining bone in her body, her work ethic one hundred percent and all in. Shovelling farm animal shit, getting on the back of a ute and throwing hay in the paddocks, Makena did it all; at least she had back when we were together. According to what Drixx was telling me, nothing had changed.
A prickle of pride rose in my chest for her whether I liked it or not. And I didn’t. Today was about me getting my satisfaction, not admiring my estranged wife’s work ethic.
Hendrixx was wrong about one thing, hurting Makena wasn’t my end game. Hurting her at all such a foreign thought for me. Did I want her to understand how much she crushed me four years ago? Too right, I did. She broke me that morning; her voice still rang in my ears. The coldness that came from her something I never experienced before.
It seemed to me, if what Hendrixx heard was right, her dad did a good enough job. That didn’t mean I couldn’t let her see my car and how far I had come. Right?
“I’m not a monster Drixx; I don’t want to see her or Mal suffer because their dad made bad choices. But we have an investment, that bull cost us a lot of money and we are owed. When we get there, we take a look at the books and see what kind of trouble Mak—the farm is in, okay?” I don’t know why I stopped myself from saying her name; maybe it was self-preservation, or perhaps each time I said her name, I heard the longing in my own voice.
Reaching out, Hendrixx turned on the car stereo. We didn’t need to verbally communicate to know what the other was thinking. Joys of being triplets, I suppose.
The drive to Waterford achingly familiar, the short-cut I used to take, so embedded in my mind the car practically drove itself. It didn’t take long before the road leading to old man Rogers’ farm came into view. My eye darted to the old letterbox that had been there when I first met Makena. The old milk can now had lost most of its paint and not standing as straight, but it still brought a grin to my lips. When her father got in one of his moods and wouldn’t let me see her, I would drive all the way over here to drop a love letter in the box. Then, sit hidden in my car over the road behind some tree and wait for her to venture out. It was a system we agreed on after the third time her father refused permission for me to pick her up, and Makena never failed to come.
I would sit and watch her walk up the dirt road, my eyes eating her up with each step she took. Then she read the letter, speaking the words I wrote out loud. I never heard her, always making sure I kept well out of sight just in case her dad was spying on her. The way her lips moved, her tongue licking over them when she got to a particularly sexy or loving part of my note got me so hot I would grab my crotch through my pants and pray it was her hand, instead.
“You okay, Noxx?” Hendrixx asked me, finally breaking the silence since leaving Cattle Ridge.
“Huh?”
Hendrixx looked pointedly at my hands; I was gripping the wheel so tightly my knuckles were turning white.
Flexing my fingers, I shook my head, “Memories mate, just some old, but good memories,” I admitted ruefully, looking past the letterbox totally shocked at what I was seeing. Dry paddock, half full dams, and windmills that had no blades, so how was the water getting pumped to the troughs?
Who the hell was in charge of maintaining the property? Surely this wasn’t all on Makena.
“I hope she isn’t paying her workers, because they are ripping her off if she is,” Hendrixx muttered angrily, obviously thinking the same as me. The further we got down the drive and closer to the house and sheds, the angrier I got.
“This place is falling apart,” I growled, “how the fuck did they get a loan from HBC in the first place. Didn’t someone come out here and look over the paddocks, the shedding and feed situation?”
“It wasn’t me mate, I never had any request from Mr Rogers come across my desk,” Hendrixx answered immediately. “Whoever it was is going to get his arse kicked, though.”
“Agreed.”
HBC only went into business with a farmer on a breeding program if we were assured to make a profit. The restaurant market skyrocketed the company into global recognition, but the Triple H started out by breeding Herefords. My dad followed the footsteps of his dad and grandfather branching out from under their tutelage to start his own property. Dad being a true cattleman, didn’t want to depend on just one breed of cattle. He spent years developing the right techniques, picking the right cows to breed together. He worked hard to build the Triple H from just a farm to a high yielding cattle program. Fenixx had the same kind of drive as Dad did when it came to the cattle, he left the business side of two businesses to Hendrixx and myself, staying in Cattle Ridge to keep the place running exactly as Dad would want.
Parking the car beside a ramshackle building that was once used for the main house’s firewood, I turned off the motor and took a good look around.
“You said the old man died three months ago?” I asked Hendrixx.
“That’s what Mack said, why?”
Taking my hands from the wheel, I waved them in front of me, “This looks more like three months of neglect.”
“That it does, brother. Come on, let’s get this over with. Let’s look around the place first then take a look at the books. And check on our bull, those paddocks aren’t fit for so many cows and sheep.”
Sheep! What the hell. Cattle suited this land much better than bloody sheep.
Pushing aside my nervousness at
seeing Makena again, I used my anger and all the pent up frustration that had fuelled me for the last four years and jumped out of the car.
Time for Mr and Mrs Hott to be reunited.
MAKENA
Standing by the kitchen window, I watched with lots of trepidation as my husband waved his brother off and started up towards the house. Hendrixx peeled off and headed to the main barn and machinery shed.
The phrase divide and conquer came to mind, which fit the Hott brothers perfectly.
Both men had grim frowns on their faces when they first got out of the fancy black SUV; of course, Lenoxx would be driving the same car I always dreamed of having.
“Obnoxious man,” I muttered, then couldn’t help laugh out loud when Lenoxx pushed through the small gate only to stumble back when the rusty hinge refused to allow the gate to open.
“Suffer in ya jocks, Noxxie.” I said smirking.
“I didn’t think what could be your impending doom could cause such a reaction, Mack,” Mallory offered, coming up behind me, startling me.
“Oh, thanks for the encouragement, sister of mine,” I drawled sarcastically. Though she probably wasn’t far from being wrong. I expected him to turn up today with Hendrixx; only my wishful thinking had him staying away from me. Was it too much to ask to courier the divorce papers to me? Did he have to come and see the ruination of my world in person?
Most likely.
Of course, there was more to this visit than he thinks. Daxx, thank goodness was over with Tim and his mother, Mallory dropped him off there earlier promising to bring him home in an hour. Maybe I should call and ask them to keep him a little longer; this visit was going to be hard enough, letting Lenoxx go through the farm’s accounts, and Hendrixx checking out the dated and rusting machinery. Producing Lenoxx’s son could maybe wait a day or two.
“I see your mind ticking over Mack, and the answer is no,” Mallory announced, glaring at me, “it is time for all secrets to be laid out and dealt with–Dad’s and yours.”
Opening my mouth to disagree, my retort cut off by a banging on the door.
Mal gave me a brief hug, then moved away, “I will get that, you go into the lounge. I think it is best if Noxx is not attacked the second he walks in the house, after all, we owe them money.”
Mallory didn’t bother waiting for me to agree or disagree. She simply walked out of the kitchen to the mud room where Lenoxx was waiting to be let in via the back door.
“How much more will I owe him,” I mumbled, taking my sisters advice and headed out to the lounge. The open fire wasn’t going so the room had a chill to it even this early in the day. We let the fire go out during the night, so first thing in the morning there was still a sense of warmth, enough so Daxx was comfortable while eating his brekkie, but as the morning went on the old style house with its high ceilings the cold settled back in.
The coffee table already had the accounts, bank statements and everything the brothers would be looking to see. I did my best to keep them up, but sometimes I missed a day here and there, getting inside after a solid eight to ten hours of work outside, I’d much rather sit and play with Daxx, reading him stories or playing blocks with him appealed more than doing the books and seeing the farm sink deeper into debt.
That, I knew only too well and was totally sick of it.
In the kitchen, I could hear my sister giggling and Lenoxx talking low in that deep rumble of his. He sounded happy, at least at seeing Mallory. He’d found his ability to speak, so that was good, right? Yesterday, he only said my name twice. And that was all it took to transport me back to a time where I craved to hear my name fall from his lips. When he would kiss me from head to toe, then make his way back up my body, always taking his time to bring me to orgasm with his mouth and tongue before giving me his mouth, letting me taste myself. Arousal would take complete control of my body; then, finally, he gave me what I needed—him, deep inside me. My pussy had been made for just one man; I gave Lenoxx not only my virginity but everything that was me. He owned my heart, and god damn it, I was yet to get it back. Before it was easy to pretend I didn’t belong to anyone, out of sight really did mean out of mind. I deliberately stayed away from the gossip, so I didn’t hear anything about the Triple H, or risk bumping into anyone that worked there.
All exactly, so this wouldn’t happen.
Because I knew … I knew seeing him again would stir up emotions and feelings I buried long ago.
“Mack?”
Closing my eyes, I counted to ten, then looked up to where my sister’s voice came from and saw the bright blue eyes of Noxx Hott. Bright blue with a dash of fire.
Sweeping my tongue across my dry lips, I raised my hand in a pathetic wave and opened my mouth. “Hey.”
Bright blue eyes turned dark.
“Hey? Okay, that’s it, just hey?” Noxx stepped further into the lounge, his height suddenly imposing rather than the normal comfort I used to feel whenever he was close. Refusing to shrink back or show him how his presence was affecting me, I lifted my chin and stared back at him. Dressed in dusty denim jeans, worn boots, a tight black shirt and his trademark cream Akubra, Noxx looked nothing like any CEO I ever saw, except for maybe on TV. He was handsome and oh so dangerous to my sanity, and I couldn’t let him see he had any control over my body, that would be a bad, bad thing.
“Yeah, hey,” I repeated, planting my hands on my hips, silently daring him to keep going. And knowing my husband like I did, he would keep going.
“Don’t you think you owe me more than that? Because I do, I want much more than a hey after four years of fucking nothing,” Lenoxx growled, moving even closer into the room and my space. The last time he stood in this spot, we stood together, his arm wrapped around my waist while we told my dad that we wanted to move in together. His mum and dad reluctantly allowed us to move into one of the unused rover’s huts on his parent’s property. That night Lenoxx had been Noxx, my boyfriend, lover, and best friend, he went to battle for me when Dad said some pretty horrible things to me—bringing up my dead mother and how disgusted she would be to know that I was having sex outside of the sanctity of marriage.
That had hurt hearing that and Dad knew it, and so had Noxx. My mother died not long after we got together. He didn’t spend much time with her, but that didn’t stop Noxx encouraging me to talk about her, so he could get a better picture of the kind of woman she had been. He never swept my feelings aside when sometimes the loss of her got on top of me. Simple activities like baking scones with his mother could set me off, Mrs Hott slipped into a mothering role for not only me but also Mallory. Back then, Mal spent just as much time at the Triple H as I had. The brothers treated her like a little sister and never left her out; at one time, I had hoped she’d end up with Hendrixx, but they insisted there was no spark. Just as well, really, I couldn’t imagine having to deal with Mallory being caught in the middle with a Hott husband. One was bad enough.
“Mack!” Lenoxx growled again, catching my attention with my nickname falling from his lips, sounding so unfamiliar, so wrong. Lenoxx never ever called me Mack, never.
The hurt it caused suddenly made my blood boil.
“How dare you!” I cried.
“How dare I? What about you, you fucking left me over the phone? What kind of person does that?”
“A person who found out her husband fucked another woman in her bed, that’s who,” I countered, my full head of steam, well and truly running on all cylinders.
Lenoxx flapped his arms around, his head shaking. “Oh, here we go, the so-called affair I allegedly committed. You refused to even listen to me, to defend myself, or even prove that it was all bullshit.”
“Proof? I had proof, Lenoxx, the tape, and the photos said it all. You slept with the receptionist from your work, I saw and heard all I needed to see. Nothing you could come up with could refute the evidence.”
“Because you wouldn’t let me!” he shouted, raising his voice at me. Lenoxx was not a yeller, he didn’
t shout, and he didn’t scream, at least not at me, except that morning on the phone. I remember bursting into tears when he shouted at me, gave me an ultimatum, stay, or never come back.
That wasn’t my Noxx, his treatment of me had always been perfect, gentle and soft, but then again, my Noxx wouldn’t have cheated on me either.
“Why bother, it was your voice. I know every nuance of your voice and that was you asking her to come to our place after I left. To wait fifteen minutes after I left, then go in. It was you laughing with her, so happy with your clever plan to dupe your stupid, poor, country-girl wife,” I screamed back, the gasket finally blowing. He was not going to land this shit on me, no way.
“You can’t deny it was your voice, Noxx.” The name I only ever called him slipping from my lips without conscious thought.
His eyes flared with something other than angry fire, and for a second, he felt like the old Noxx, but only a second.
“Fuck the tape! I never listened to the fucking tape. I refuse to because it is bullshit. I did not arrange for some floozy to meet me at our place. And the very notion you believed that tells me what kind of person you really are.”
My gasp of shock ricocheted off the brick walls, but it was the angry shout from the newcomer to the room that took my attention from Lenoxx’s fury.
“Noxx, that is enough!” Hendrixx stormed over to me, his arm landing on my shoulder, pulling me against his tense body.
“This is not the time or the way this should be done. If you can’t control yourself, then I suggest you go home. Right now, we are here to talk about the contracts and loans, agreed?” Hendrixx asked, looking pointedly at his brother then at me. The same blue eyes glared at me, but they were slightly kinder than the other pair currently glaring at me.
“Well said, Drixxie,” Mallory agreed, making her presence known. Moving to stand beside Noxx, she looked up at him.
“Now isn’t the time, first let’s work out how we get the farm out of the red and into the black without selling it, then you two can have at it as much as you like.” Mallory turned to look at me; her eyes narrowed then subtly moved to the clock on the wall to the left of us.
Hott and Taken (The Hott Brothers Book 1) Page 7
