“May I? Please?”
Maz licked her lips in thought. She knew what he was asking. It was something she wanted. “I've never…” she stopped when she realized how dumb that sounded. Joe knew only too well the extent of her experience.
“We’ve had a lot of firsts together Maz.”
“Yes we have.” She closed her eyes and concentrated on the friction inside her body. “Joe?” Maz turned her face so she could see him.
“Hmm?”
“Please…”
“What?”
“Take me.”
“Where?”
“Anywhere you want.” The words were out and Maz didn’t regret them. “I’m yours.” She had never stopped being his.
“As I belong only to you.” He slipped his fingers from her body. “Don’t move.”
“Where are you going?”
Joe chuckled and slapped her butt lightly. “I have to get a couple of things. I promise I will be back. Wild horses could not keep me from you, lady.”
“Hurry.” Maz needed to be filled and now.
Joe leaned over her. “Needy are we?”
His voice was a hot whisper against her ear. It made her body shudder. “Yes, we are needy.” Maz knew she wasn’t alone in her desires. The stiff cock that brushed her skin was evidence of that. She felt Joe move away. She could have turned around and watched him or even sat down and waited for him but there something so primal and out of control being on her hands and knees and waiting for her lover.
Maz heard sudden swearing and the sound of a body hitting the ground. “Are you okay?” She swiveled her head around to see Joe jumping to his feet.
“Yep, just eager and clumsy.” He approached her, a tube of lube in one hand and condoms in the other.
“Well, be careful. Don’t damage anything that’s useful to me.” Maz surveyed his bouncing cock. She wanted all of it inside her. There was only one problem.
“Trust me, it will fit,” Joe said as if guessing her thoughts.
“What else am I thinking right now?”
“Why hasn’t he got that damn condom on? Is the lube cold? Am I going to giggle or moan when he pushes into my ass?” Joe knelt down behind her and ripped the condom packaging with his teeth. “The condom will be on any second, the lube is cool but it’s kind of fun and I bet on you crying out my name in passion in a couple of minutes.
“Well I’m going to make sure I laugh then.” She stiffened as she felt Joe’s hands position her hips.
“Relax.” He placed slow, thorough kisses down the side of her neck making her shiver.
“That’s easy for you to say. You’re not going to have a pole shoved up your ass.” Not that she was worried about that. Maz was actually looking forward to it.
“Not exactly a flattering description.” Joe flipped the lid off the lube. “What about calling my cock something like my ‘powerful love muscle’?”
Maz burst out laughing only stopping when he started to work the slippery lube into the tight puckered hole of her ass. One finger followed by another slid easily inside. Maz bit back the moan that came to her lips.
“Okay?” Joe pushed a third finger in and began working them backward and forward.
“Yes-s-s,” Maz moaned under the steady, pumping pressure of his hand.
“Want to cry out my name yet?”
“Who are you again?”
“Just a man.”
“A mighty fine man.” He was. And I am lucky to have him as long as I can.
“I do my best.”
“Joe?”
“Yes?”
Maz ground her ass back against him. “I need more than fingers.”
“This may hurt so I wanted you to get used to the feeling.” He pulled his fingers out.
Maz smiled softly. He was such a caring lover. “You’ve never hurt me yet.” And maybe, just maybe, I acted a little dumb over the whole Cheryl thing.
“And this is why I love you, Maz.” Joe moved in and positioned his cock at her anus. “Hey, you’re shivering.” He wrapped one arm around her waist and held Maz close.
She was. He loved her. Of course he had said it before but she knew at that moment he really did. “Heat me up, Joe.” Maz needed to feel him all the way inside her.
“Anything for you, Maz.”
At first the pressure of a large cock head against a tight ring of muscle seemed impossible and too much. Maz almost asked Joe to back off. Almost. The need to be filled overrode any other concern she had. When his cock finally penetrated her bum, Maz stiffened as the strangest feeling took hold of her body. It was uncomfortable but not. It was tight but a perfect fit. The penetrative force was scorching hot yet she melted under the gentle assault of muscle pushing inside her. “Oh Joe…”
“Told you,” he whispered in her ear.
“That was a sigh and not a cry.”
“Same difference.”
“Just shut up and fuck me, Joseph.”
“Yes, Marilyn.”
And then he started moving and Maz’s fingers burrowed into the carpet. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply as every thrust pushed deeper and harder inside her until she could feel his balls grinding up against her butt.
Okay?” Joe kissed her shoulders as his fingers moved around to play with her clit.
“Yes.” And then he gave her the slowest, most through fucking of her life. The intensity of it made her whole body shake as the friction of his cock pulling out and sinking back in over and over made her whimper. It was so different to have him buried in her ass. It was the same heat yet it was the forbidden aspect of it that made it more exciting. “We have to do this again.”
“Oh yeah,” Joe readily agreed readily. “Can I move faster?”
“There’s more.” Dear Lord, who’s a lucky girl?
Joe chuckled. “I went slowly because I wanted you to get used to me.”
“By all means go faster. Please do.”
That’s when Maz cried his name. Maz didn’t care that he was right. She loved the slap of his thighs on her ass, the grunt and groan as Joe came and the way his arms encircled her body and held her close as she screamed when the orgasm hit her.
Chapter Eight
“Beryl was here.” Merlene smiled and shook her head at Maz as she approached.
“Oh yeah?” Maz felt amazing. That was the only way to describe it. Every inch of her body tingled from Joe’s touch. Sore thigh? What sore thigh?
“Yeah. Word around town is you and Joe were spotted frolicking naked at his place.”
Maz rolled her eyes at this. “Whose word.”
“I heard it from Blue.”
“That’s a really reliable source,” Maz snorted at the idea. “Anyway, I never frolic. Do I look like a frolicker?”
Merlene held her hands up. “Hey, I’m just repeating what Blue said.”
“Well, we—I mean I—wasn’t naked in the pool and that’s the only place someone would have seen us unless they were looking inside.” Maz shuddered at that prospect. “Oh I don’t even want to think about that.” What she did on her hands and knees with Joe was no one’s business except her own.
“It doesn’t matter about specifics. The thing is it’s gone around town and Beryl is pronouncing you engaged.”
Oh crap. That sounded like Auntie Beryl. “We are not.”
“Well, you are as far as Amberwarra Falls is concerned.”
Bloody Beryl. She loved her aunt but there were times when that woman could try the patience of a plaster saint with her interfering. She was probably making a wedding dress right now.
Dusty and Blue came into the pub and headed straight for Maz. They were beaming.
“I was stoked to hear the news. You and Joe make a bonza couple.”
Blue nodded his head in agreement. “And it means Joe will stay in town and we’ll be able to get him to play in the Mighty Emus football team.”
“And the Wandering Wombats cricket squad,” Dusty added with pleasure.
“So when’s the wedding? Hey, don’t look at me like that. You just said you were getting married.” Merlene gave Maz a cheeky wink.
“I said ‘would get married’ in the not-bloody-likely sense of the word.” Where the hell had Beryl heard about her and Joe being together, let alone naked?
“Word is you and Joe—well you know.” Dusty grinned and nudged Blue.
Maz narrowed her eyes. “What?” What exactly was she going to have to live down or lie about?
“Threw a leg over,” Blue announced blithely. “Oh come on now, we’re all adults here.”
“Oh for god’s sake. Even if we had sex—”
“If?” Merlene teased her.
“If. That doesn’t mean we’re getting married. Jeez, none of you three are married.”
“Yes, but with these boys, sex with yourself doesn’t count.”
Blue looked appalled. “Fair go, Merlene. I told you I was adjusting myself behind the tractor.”
“You were moaning a lot.”
“My strides were tight.”
“Uh-huh.”
Sometimes Maz likened Amberwarra Falls to a mob of drunken six-year-olds prodding each other with sticks.
Dusty broke into their argument. “The thing is, he’s a good bloke and Joe would to do right by you. And as for bonking you before the ceremony, well who cares? Besides we haven’t seen a really beaut wedding in town since Snogger Reilly got Mandy Clarke preggers and they had the sprog at the reception.”
“Yeah, that was a good wedding,” Blue nodded in agreement. “I still have the pictures.”
Merlene snorted in amusement. “You fainted and were out cold when the baby started to come.”
“I was drunk, Merlene. There’s a difference,” Blue corrected her. “And I’ve seen heaps of calves born.”
Maz shook her head. Give me strength. “Regardless of all that, I am not marrying Joe.” It was madness. Sure, he had joked about it but she knew Joe had not been serious. Why would he be? She knew, despite what he said to the contrary, Amberwarra Falls would not hold Joe for long.
“Yeah, you are.” The man in question appeared. Joe went straight up to Maz, his eyes on only her.
“Here’s the lucky man himself.” Blue clapped him on the shoulder. “We have to organize the bucks’ party and see you off proper.”
“Yeah, and get a stripper.” Dusty pondered on that for a moment. “Do we have any in the Falls?”
“Only paint stripper and I doubt that will hold your attention for long,” Merlene quipped.
“We are not getting married.” Was anyone at all paying attention to her?
Joe reached out his hand to Maz. “We still have things to discuss.”
Maz stepped back. “Um, no we don’t.” As far as she was concerned there was nothing to discuss. Sex was one thing. Even contemplating a life with a drifter was another. Marriage meant commitment and settling down. Joe was neither of those things.
“Darling—”
“Don’t darling me.” What the hell was wrong with everyone at the moment? Was she the only sane one? “I’m not your darling.”
“Whose are you then?” Joe looked at Maz significantly.
When he looked at her like that, Maz felt a familiar heat surge through her and what she had been about to say completely left her mind. She was in an impossible situation. Admit her feelings for Joe and live with the fact he might leave. Agree to marry him which would thrill the whole town, but of course this was not about them. Or walk away now and think long and hard without any pressure from anyone but herself.
Maz surveyed her friends and lover. While she was no quitter, she certainly didn’t want Amberwarra Falls making decisions for her. “I’m not having this conversation with you—any of you—right now.” Maz turned and left. It was better to think than react and do the wrong thing.
“I’ve heard brides can get pretty emotional,” Dusty commented as if this explained her behavior.
“Yep, definite wedding jitters.” Blue clapped Joe on the shoulder. “You’re a lucky man, Joe.”
—
“I know.” Joe felt bad about trying to force her hand. He knew he shouldn’t have inferred to Blue about marriage between him and Maz but he loved her. That was the pure and simple fact. Joe knew the feeling was mutual. He could see it in her eyes and feel it in her touch. That Maz had not had a relationship with any other man meant she was not one to go into anything uncommitted. Because of that, Joe had acted. He didn’t want to go on as just lovers. He wanted more. He also knew that Maz was worried he would leave and that wasn’t his plan at all. Joe wanted permanency and he had that with Maz. He loved her. This was about commitment. He knew he had to show that this was forever. Maybe, employing the earnest good intentions of the locals was cheating but Joe planned to use whatever weapons he could to make Maz understand this was forever and he wasn’t going anywhere. He was finally home.
—
“Bloody man.” Maz kicked a box of soda water in anger. “Oww, crap that hurt!” She staggered slightly as she sought a place to sit and check the damage to her toe. Maz swore as took off her shoe to look at her foot. It wasn’t the pain from her foot that made her swear. She hated being pushed into a corner and that was what Joe had done bringing the town into their relationship. She stiffened suddenly. “Relationship? Do we have one of those?”
Maz was so worried that he would leave her that she hadn’t really thought logically about what they had. The fact was she loved Joe. She had never stopped. Some people mated for life and she was one of them.
“Okay, so we have a relationship. But do I need him?” She was a strong independent woman who had been living her life successfully for fourteen years without him. Did she even know what need was? Was it seeing someone every day? Laughing with them? Leaning on them? Comforting each other? Loving them? Maz wanted all that and more.
“Okay, so I need him but it’s just the bloody way he has gone about it,” she muttered to herself and massaged her toe. Something like marriage was an enormous commitment. She wanted to make up her mind herself and not because the town wanted a bridal extravaganza. “And damn it I want to be asked.” Maz didn’t want it be a foregone conclusion. She wanted the whole dropping down on to one knee bit and asking for her hand. “I deserve that.” Every woman did.
Maz blew out a sigh. “So what do I want?” She couldn’t deny that she felt happy with Joe. Was he really going to stay? But then would he announce the whole marriage thing and create the stir he had if he wasn’t? “Oh frig, I don’t know.”
“He’s a cheeky bastard, your Joe.”
Maz looked her to see Merlene appear before her. “He did this deliberately.”
“Yeah, but he loves you as you do him.” Merlene held up her hand. “Oh come on, don’t even try denying it with me. I can see it in your eyes.”
“I barely know him.” Or maybe I do. Maybe I’m trying to find any bloody excuse to push him away. Maybe it’s not Joe who wants to leave. Maybe I’m scared. That thought amazed Maz. It was always easier to blame someone else.
Merlene sat down beside her a nearby crate. “Tell me what you know about Joe.”
“Why?”
“It may clear your thoughts.”
“Well, he’s dead sexy and very sweet. He says things to me that make my heart pound and my thighs sweat.” Maz smiled at the thought. “He’s arrogant and pushy and yet I know if I had any problem at all he’s the first person I would turn to.”
“That’s nice.”
“He’s nice.” Maz had always thought nice an insipid word. But it wasn’t. It was a word that caught up a whole lot of deep feelings and packaged them together in a beautifully wrapped present that she could open and take out stuff without worrying about consequences. Nice was safe. Nice allowed her to act without fear, to be what Maz wanted to be without worry
ing about the cost.
“I believe he could talk me into anything and yes, if Joe was going I would want to go regardless of my need to stay here.” That threw Maz. That she would follow Joe. “I want to hold his hand. I want to kiss his cheek and I want to have him wrap his arms around me because he is a safe harbor.” Joes loves me. So what the hell am I fighting this for?
“Merlene, he makes me feel more than I ever have in my life. I know that Joe loves me.” Maz stopped dead on those words. I’m such an idiot. I’m fighting the wrong person. I should be fighting myself.
Merlene had a soft smile on her face. “You know a lot.”
“Yes.” A surprising amount.
“So what’s the problem?”
“He will leave.” Or will he? And when did I change my mind about that?
“Joe wants to marry you. He’s not leaving.”
Maz looked at her friend. “I’m the problem then.” Sometimes reality was a nice, firm head slap.
“Yeah.” Merlene nodded in agreement. “Life is too short, mate, to stuff around worrying about the ifs and buts.” She stood up. “Besides if you take control of your wedding now, you can maybe stop Beryl trying to crochet you a wedding dress.”
Maz rolled her eyes in horror. “Well, since you put it that way.”
—
“Do you have something you want to ask me?” If Joe wasn’t going to come to her then Maz would go to him. She didn’t want her future being decided by a town. She needed to know exactly where she stood with Joe.
The man in question stood up from the treadmill he had been working on in the gym. “Like what?”
“I dunno. Something on your mind?” This was not the most private place to have a conversation but nowhere was in a small town so why worry about it now?
“I have a few things I’m considering.” Joe smiled a slow, lazy smile at Maz.
She felt her stomach clench in response. “If I have to drag it out of you then forget it.” He was as sexy as hell but impossible with it and Maz was not about to beg any man to propose to her. She wanted the fairy tale but not under sufferance.
“Drag what out.”
Perverse bastard. “The whole marriage deal.” Maz tapped her foot in irritation.
Thigh High Page 7
