Hott and Taken (The Hott Brothers Book 1)

by Leah Sharelle

  Every night he called to speak to Daxx on a Skype call, asked us both about our days, how we were listening intently to every word of Daxx’s babbling. I didn’t miss the way he looked at me, the sneaking glances or the worry on his face when telling him about doing fencing, or feeding the animals. Hendrixx was around to help half of the day, but he has his own responsibilities at the Triple H, and Fenixx was busy with foaling horses; I had not seen him for a few days.

  He made sure to tell me to take care, watch myself around the machinery, and general caring, but his reluctance to make too big of a deal out of my welfare left me feeling flat when the call ended.

  I had no one to blame but myself, but I honestly thought the sex was going to be the start of moving forward into something more than just the sex.

  “Hey, Daxxie, wanna come with me to see Tim?” Mallory singsonged, coming into the kitchen with her bag on her shoulder and a pep in her step.

  “Yay! Tim!” Daxx shouted, his mouth still full of the sandwich I’d made him for lunch. Noxx and I were attempting to broaden his palate from canned spaghetti and mini hot dogs, so far so good. He liked strawberries and snow peas and was quickly eating his way through Lillian’s veggie garden, but I wanted him to explore even more food.

  “What’s going on? You saw Tim yesterday and stayed there last night,” I said, looking at my sister and seeing a blush creeping up her cheeks.

  “Oh, gross Mal, don’t have sexy thoughts in front of my son,” I groaned only half-serious.

  “Oh, and you are one to talk. It’s lucky Daxx sleeps like the dead; otherwise, you would be explaining shy Mummy moans into the wee hours at night when Daddy is home,” Mal retorted, making a vomiting sound, and Daxx laugh.

  “Go suck,” I mumbled, feeling my own cheeks heat with embarrassment.

  “You moan while doing that too, Noxx loves it by the sounds of his deep groans and grunts.” Mallory ducked when a salt shaker flew out of my hand and at her head.

  “Come with us, Tim wants to show me the new tractor his dad just picked up, why he thinks I would be interested I don’t know, but if I pretend to be impressed, he can’t say no about going with me to check out wedding cakes and invitations.” Mallory grinned impishly, “And … Cameron has been asking after you,” Mallory told me, her eyebrows wiggling suggestively.

  I knew she was only kidding, but Cameron held no interest for me. He was cute enough and the same age as me, but he wasn’t Noxx. Cameron was interested in me; I hadn’t been out in the paddocks that long I couldn’t see he wanted me, the only problem being nothing interested me except for a dark blond cowboy with the bluest, most serious eyes. Noxx was one of a kind, and for the life of me, he was the only man I wanted to touch.

  “Mal, nothing is going to happen between Cameron and me, ever. And in case you weren’t aware of what those noises were coming from my room at night, I am sleeping with my husband. And only him,” I replied firmly.

  “I wasn’t suggesting you take him to bed, Mack, just get out of the house and away from the farm. You never know, maybe a little jealousy will pull Noxx’s head out and see what is happening between the both of you.”

  “I don’t like playing silly games, Mal,” I told her with a determined shake of my head. “I don’t know what is happening between us, to be honest. He has two personalities with me, indifferent during the day and lover at night. To tell the truth, it is confusing me to no end. I don’t know what I can do to fix it,” I admitted, truly fed up with the conflicting signals Noxx was throwing at me.

  “Do you know if he has listened to the tape yet?”

  “No,” I huffed, getting up from the table, taking Daxx’s lunch plate over to the sink. Turning on the water, I smiled at the instant hot water pouring out of the tap. Noxx came through with his threats of improving the house, starting first in the kitchen. We now had a modern non-wood heating system, a new gas stove, and much to Mallory’s delight a microwave. Hendrixx sent the Triple H’s electrician over and he rewired the entire house, he even replaced every ancient light switch and wall socket with new safety ones.

  While that was happening inside the house, Hendrixx and Noxx worked on the windmills and water troughs. After three days of hard work from them, Charlie and myself, every paddock had working mills and running water. No more carting water in the farm ute, well actually no more farm ute, Noxx drove it onto the back of a tandem trailer and took it to a wrecker in Cattle Ridge coming back with a double cab Toyota from the Triple H.

  Charlie wept when he saw the diesel car, with all four doors actually attached to the chassis and really did cry real tears when he found it also had a working heater.

  Noxx stuck to his word and put money into the place, but I didn’t feel right about it. I still planned to sell Mum’s fifty and go ahead with Fenixx’s breeding idea, not prepared to sit back and let Noxx pour his own money into fixing my problems.

  “I think I might come with you, Mal. I need to talk to Cameron about his parent’s interest in buying the fifty acres. I haven’t heard from them since I phoned his dad about it, I want to see if they are on board or if we have to go through with the agent.”

  I spoke to Noxx about my idea to sell the land to raise some capital, he immediately went into CEO mode and drew up a proposal for the agent and arranged for an independent valuation on the parcel of land. He didn’t trust a small town Agri agent to give a fair appraisal, nor did he want me to wait for them to get up off their arse and get it done in a timely manner, his words not mine.

  Now, I had the valuation, which was pretty generous thanks to the hidden bore under the ground smack bang in the middle of the paddock. If my father knew there was a hundred years supply of water lying under Mum’s paddock he never let on, it was just another nail in his coffin, so to speak. If he knew about it, why didn’t he drill into it for us to use? Of course, I already knew the answer; it had been his stubbornness and his unrelenting pride and utter selfishness. He’d rather watch the farm suffer than ask Mum for help.

  “What are you thinking about?” Mallory asked, coming to the sink, Daxx on her hip, a toy car in his hands.

  “Argh, so many things are going through my mind, Mal, I don’t know which to concentrate on and which ones to ignore. I mean, I should be happy, soon we will have money coming in, the bridging loan will be taken care of, and Fenixx is helping me set a plan for a direction to take the farm in, one that can definitely make us a living. But—”

  “But, there is still something huge standing between you and Noxx being together like you both want, and you’re not sure how to tell him, but you have to because it means—”

  “It means destroying him all over again,” I finished her sentence for her like she had mine, “sometimes I wonder how I get myself into these situations, Mal, if I had only stayed and talked to him, given him a chance to explain.” I couldn’t help the whine in my voice; I sounded like Daxx when he tried to argue why he shouldn’t need to go to bed.

  “Mack, you can’t do the what-if game. The plain fact is you didn’t, and you couldn’t.” Mallory leaned over and pressed a kiss to my cheek, shocking me. Mallory and I had never been close sisters, not because we didn’t like each other more because our father insisted on having his children choose sides. Mal didn’t deliberately side with Dad; it just happened that way. She learned from my mistakes growing up as young girls and saw what happened when Dad and I butted heads. She simply used that knowledge to make her social life easier than I had.

  “I think you need to get that document you signed out and show our solicitor, have him go over it and see if there will be any recriminations if you tell Noxx,” Mal suggested.

  “Yeah, maybe you are right,” I conceded. I had to do something to fix the mess I created, to gain back the trust I ached for from Noxx.

  “Is Noxx bringing the photo back with him?”

  “Yes, he has a mate that specialises in computer-generated photos or something along those lines. It has a technical name, but you kn
ow me and technology,” I shrugged pushing off the sink and heading to the door.

  “Trust me, I know, and so does the TV remote,” Mallory grumbled, following behind me. “Daxx don’t ever ask Mumma to program your TV shows; she is hopeless.”

  Laughing lightly, I snagged my hat off the peg by the back door and fitted it snuggly to my head. Once upon a time, I never went without hairspray, and I certainly wouldn’t wear an Akubra five or six hours a day. Things change, people change too, I’ve changed, life made sure of that.

  ***

  Black spots danced before my eyes, blurring my vision. Painful pants left my mouth as I tried desperately to stay awake. Without seeing my arm I knew I was in big trouble, Mallory wasn’t glaring at me or pouting because she had to stitch me up, not this time.

  “Jesus, Makena, you have really done it this time, I mean really done it!” Mallory told me. She sounded scared, almost frantic as she pressed tighter on the towel wrapped around my upper arm, making me grimace.

  “Not so tight,” I gritted out between clenched teeth.

  “If I don’t hold it tight, then you will bleed out and die Makena; now shut up we are nearly at the hospital,” she shouted at me, rather unfairly, in my opinion. It wasn’t her that got her arm stuck in the chain-driven gears on the harvester, or her that cut her arm down to the bone.

  “Where is Daxx?” I rasped, then hissed when Tim spun the car sideways into the emergency department driveway, sending me roughly against the car door.

  “Charlie is going to pick him up from Tim’s and take him home. Cameron is going with them to help look after Daxx.”

  I breathed out a sigh, thank God for that. I didn’t want Daxx to be anywhere except our house; his routine was important, and not only that, Noxx was due to skype him later, and Daxx didn’t like to miss his chats with his dad.

  Noxx, just thinking of his handsome face, brought a smile to my face, or at least a painful smile.

  “Noxx is going to flip his shit when he hears about this one,” I joked.

  “Ya think! I’m not telling him this time, I called the Triple H and left a message for Fenixx and Hendrixx to call me. They can handle Hottie 1,” Mallory muttered, and I had to admit, I agreed with her. Noxx was not going to be happy not one little bit.

  “He is a hottie, isn’t he?” I mused dreamily, suddenly feeling very sleepy. “And the things he can do with his tongue, Oh Mal, you wouldn’t believe—”

  My eyelids felt heavy, so heavy. I really could do with a little rest, yes a nap sounded good about now.

  “Mack! Makena, open your eyes! Tim!” My sister was shouting, but she sounded so far away and … terrified. I wanted to ask her if she was okay, but the darkness was calling me.

  Screaming echoed dully in my head, annoying me.

  What on earth is she carrying on for?

  My last thought before I finally succumbed to the dark.

  LENOXX

  I looked down at the traffic jam on the street below me and grimaced at the sight. The noise and the lights of the city that once never bothered me now put me on edge. Five days in Melbourne and I was ready to grab my hat and pack the fuck up. I missed my son, and by Christ, I missed Makena.

  Leaving her and Daxx back in Waterford to deal with HBC business, not my first choice. I asked, practically begged Makena to come with me, bring Daxx to stay in my penthouse apartment. Did she agree? Fuck, no. Makena came up with a dozen reasons why she couldn’t go, the animals, the farm, the sale of the fifty acres, even Daxx’s cartoons. She thought of every reason under the sun why she couldn’t go and not one why she could.

  It was the same for her not going over to the Triple H with me when I took Daxx to see Mum, all of a sudden, an emergency came up, or Charlie needed her help. Once again, my sixth sense raised its head, Makena didn’t want to be seen here, or at the Triple H the only thing was why? Mum visited Waterford Views, she and Makena talked civilly like long lost old friends. So it couldn’t be my mother, it wasn’t my brothers, so what was stopping her from going with me?

  We weren’t exactly in the best place in our fragile relationship; our time together was either spent with Daxx or in bed. The only time any real feelings between us showed was when we made love. Physically we were sensational, perfect in fact. The heat we generated in bed, the passion was like a well-worn pair of wranglers. We fit like a glove–comfortable and familiar. Standing on both feet and dressed was where our problems continued.

  I couldn’t get past her leaving me, and she refused to accept me until we proved my theory that the photo had been doctored, and I listened to that fucking tape.

  My eyes darted to my wall safe, hidden behind a picture of the Triple H back when Dad first started it. Behind that picture sat the yellow envelope that held my fate locked inside.

  I promised my wife I would bring it back with me, get it looked at by my old school mate, Alec, who was a digital photographer and a computer whiz. If anyone could tell anything was dodgy about that photo, it was Alec.

  I didn’t need proof, but if it made Makena feel better, then I was prepared to put my word up against an expert. I knew the truth, and deep down Makena did too; otherwise, she wouldn’t have let me touch her night after night for the last two weeks. Makena had a lot of pride, but she had plenty of morals too, no way she let me put my hands on her, slide my dick through her pussy if she still thought I had cheated on her.

  Not my cowgirl.

  Leaning a hand against the floor to ceiling window and closing my eyes, I blocked out the traffic and instead visualised my beautiful wife smiling. The last time I saw her, she stood in the paddock with Daxx on her hip, both of them waving madly at me as I sat in the helicopter waiting to take off. Her gorgeous dimpled cheeks, bright-green eyes sparkling and her hair whipping around her from the wind created by the blades. Daxx had pushed his mouth into her ear and said something to her, I don’t have a clue what he said, but Makena grinned at him then kissed his chubby cheek, making my heart burst with love for my family.

  With one hand on the glass, I slipped the other into my pants pocket, the small plastic USB still there, still mocking me for carrying the blasted thing around without listening to it.

  “God damn it!” I growled, pissed off at myself for my decisions to ignore what I should have made a priority. What I should have done was listen to the tape the minute I found it on the bed, then hightailed it after her and insisted that she listen to me, look into my eyes and then tell me she believed I could cheat on her.

  I should have been there when Daxx was born, made sure she had the best care money could buy. Someone other than Makena took all those rights away from me, and I was determined to find out who. Our marriage sabotaged, and the first three years of my son’s life stolen because of what? Jealousy? I had no one in my past who could want Makena out of my life and I knew for sure she didn’t.

  Jesus, a man could go insane thinking and rethinking over the same shit, over and over, and I was mighty fucking close to losing my shit. I wanted Makena back the way she used to be, and I wanted the same for myself. Mum had not been wrong when she told me she wanted her son back the way he used to be, Makena leaving me changed me irrevocably, but people could change, couldn’t they? Find that special part again, and go back, get a second chance.

  I had to believe that could happen otherwise what the hell was I doing losing myself in her again only to meet the same fate.

  Glancing at my wristwatch, I noted the time. Five more minutes, and it was time for my Skype call with Makena and Daxx, the best part of my day. Daxx loved that he could see not only me but also himself in the little square box at the top of the screen. Makena had never used Skype before, so teaching her how to connect then how to get the picture up had been a task with laughter from Daxx and me, and frustration from his mother. Makena had trouble programming the DVR, let alone figuring out computers; I guess that explained why she still used old fashioned ink and paper to log the farm’s financials.

  Movin
g away from the window, I walked over to the desk, my apartment office was much more homely than the one three floors below in the HBC offices. This one had a sense of country about it, whereas the other one was all glass and chrome.

  Rounding the desk, I sat down in the leather chair and powered up my laptop, if I knew my kid, he would be hounding his mum to get a wriggle on and call up Skype. Makena now had a brand new tablet much to her chagrin but I insisted that she had a way for me to not only call her and Daxx but to see them as well when I went away.

  Selecting the right app, I moved my mouse to the call button when the landline phone on my desk started to ring.

  “Of course, why wouldn’t it ring now?” I grumbled, clicking on call then reaching over to pick up the receiver.

  “Hott,” I barked, my eyes on the screen as it continued to call, but no one was picking up.

  “Noxx! Get home! Get home now!” Fenixx’s frantic voice demanded on the other end.

  “Fenixx, what’s wrong?” My fingers tightened around the receiver so tight it was a miracle it didn’t snap. Real fear and dread suddenly started to pound in my chest, the ache more painful than I had ever felt before.

  “Daxx? Makena? What the fuck is going on, mate? Is my family okay?”

  “Makena is hurt, Noxx, she is hurt real bad. Hendrixx and Mum are at the hospital, and I’m on my way to Waterford Views to be with Daxx as fast as I can. He … he saw her get hurt,” Fenixx said softly, I could hear the choke in his voice, the fear.

  “Nixx,” I breathed, my voice shaking. “How bad?” I asked the question I didn’t want him to answer, but I had to know.