Breathless for You: Outback Skies, Book 1 (7 page)

Tash let out a ragged groan, the barely there contact flooding her sex with wet heat.

“What it would taste like,” he whispered before lowering his head and swiping his tongue over her labia with a slow, single stroke.

She hissed, lifting her butt off the blanket as she let her bent knees part wider.

Instead of tonguing her folds again, Matt drew back on his heels and traced a line with his index finger over her sensitive flesh.

A shudder of urgency rippled through Tash. Her pussy contracted. Her nipples grew tighter. “And now you
have
tasted me?” She trailed her own fingertips down over her breast, her ribcage, her belly. Stopping at her clit, she rolled the tiny nub with slow circles, staring up at him. “Do you like the way I taste?”

For an answer, he shoved her legs wider apart and took possession of her sex with his mouth. Plunged his tongue into her pussy with fierce hunger.

Liquid electricity radiated through her core. She cried out, the unrelenting pressure of his palms flattening her knees to the blanket, the brutal fucking of his tongue in her sex, undoing her.

She came, his name bursting from her as her juices gushed over his tongue, his lips.

He growled, the greedy, smug sound muffled by her flesh.

She arched on the blanket, driving her hips higher, granting him greater access to her sodden, throbbing sex.

He continued to fuck her with his mouth, his tongue working her clit with masterful flicks until another orgasm shattered inside her and she cried out again.

And then he was gone from between her legs. As her second climax rocked her body, he rose to his feet between her ankles and stripped his clothes from his body.

His cock jutted from his dense pubic hair, thick and erect and engorged with need.

Tash let out a hitching gasp of eager supplication, aching to feel its venous length embedded deep inside her.

When Matt returned to his knees between her thighs she parted her pussy lips with her fingers and lifted her hips toward him.

He shook his head, his eyes dancing with dark delight, his nostril flaring. “Not yet.”

“Why not?”

Without answering, he slowly sank two fingers into her offered heat. Stroked her inner walls, scissored his fingers inside her.

When she didn’t think she could take any more, when her soles began to tingle and the stirrings of a third orgasm began to tighten the pit of her belly, he slowly withdrew his fingers and painted the puckered hole of her anus with her juices.

Her stare snapped to his.

He studied her, his cream-drenched fingers on her hole.

And pressed.

Pleasure unlike any she’d ever experienced seared through her.

A keening cry burst from her. She parted her thighs more, drawing her knees up to her shoulders. Opening herself to him more. “Fuck, Matt…I…”

He entered her anus with one finger and she came again.

“Fuck,” she cried. “Oh fuck, fuck, that feels so good, So good…”

Eyes squeezed shut, hands balling in the quilt, she tossed her head side-to-side. Rode the raw pleasure consuming her. Owning her.

She screamed Matt’s name in glorious surrender and rapture as, without warning, he withdrew his finger from her anus and impaled his cock to the balls in her sodden sex.

Stretching her to the limit.

Filling her with every inch of his desire.

He moved inside her, powerful thrusts that pushed her closer and closer to an edge she’d already fallen over three times. Taking her higher every time. Propelling her to the stars, to the heavens, to a place she’d never been.

He kissed her as he claimed her, worshipped her lips, her throat, her breasts. Reduced her to an insatiable being of carnal pleasure.

Owned her every moan and begging plea for more. More.

Until, face buried in the side of her neck, breath ragged and hot on her neck, his rhythm grew erratic. Wild. Frenzied.

Lifting his head, he stared down into her eyes, his cock deep inside her, his strokes faster. “I fucking love you, Tash,” he panted. “Fuck me, I love you so—”

The rest of his declaration was lost to a groan. It was singularly the most erotic, powerful, wonderful sound Tash had ever heard.

It was all she needed to tumble into her fourth orgasm.

They came together. Gasped each other’s names. Stared into each other’s eyes.

And as the throbbing contractions of her climax began to subside, she cupped his jaw in her palm and placed her fingertips on the scar running down the side of his face. “I love you too, Matt.”

A lifetime later, sharing smiles both shy and wickedly naughty, they dressed again. They needed to get back to Wallaby Ridge. As much as she wanted to stay where they were and make love to each other again, they needed to get back to work. Back to real life.

She had things to think about. Like what she was going to do with her life?

“What was that last thing you said to me?” he asked, reaching for her wrist as she moved to collect the blanket from the ground.

She frowned, the thought of returning to normal life an unsettling knot in her stomach. “When?”

He tugged her closer to him, lips curled in a smile, lowering his head to hers. And then he pulled away. “Someone’s coming.”

Tash blinked. Someone’s coming? “What?” They were out in the middle of nowhere. How could someone be—

The unmistakable sound of a helicopter filled the morning, followed a second later by the kangaroos bounding away and a displacement of air that tugged at Tash’s hair.

Twisting on the quilted rug, she squinted up into the sky, frowning at the sight of a Robinson R22 Beta II helicopter heading their way.

“It seems,” Matt said behind her, his voice raised, the words humourless, “that we’ve been saved.”

Matt watched Ryan Taylor’s heli-mustering chopper land a few yards away from the Flying Doctors’ plane.

Damn it, the last thing he needed right now was for someone to come along and rescue them. And that’s the only explanation for the helicopter’s appearance out here. Rescue. Someone back at the RFDS had decided he and Tash needed to be rescued despite her earlier radio transmission declaring they were okay. Which would only make Tash despise herself more.

Damn it.

Forcing a smile to his face, he waved at the man jumping down from the chopper’s cockpit. Charlie Baynard wasn’t to blame for sweeping in to save the day. Someone from the RFDS base back at Wallaby Ridge had no doubt asked him to come, and why wouldn’t they? Their only doctor and their gun pilot had spent the night in the Outback after an emergency landing that may or may not be classified a crash. Of course they’d send someone to save them as soon as the sun broke, regardless of Tash’s transmission.

“G’day, Doc,” Charlie called as he drew closer to the quilted blanket. “Heard you were in a spot of trouble out here. Thought we’d swing by and see if you’re okay.” The cop shot a quick look at Tash as he drew to a halt beside her, the sharp instincts he was known for showing in his eyes. “But I see it’s not the kind of trouble we were lead to believe.”

Matt flicked Tash his own look, just in time to see her rise to her feet.

“Hi, Charlie,” she said, addressing the senior constable. “You borrow Ryan’s chopper or is he in there as well?”

Charlie snorted. “Ryan’s in there. Between you and me, that bastard still scares the shit out of me when he’s at the controls. I’m sure he forgets he’s got a passenger in the damn thing with him half the time. He’s too used to rounding up cattle in the thing, not actually transporting people. Don’t tell him I said so, but I’d take you as my pilot over him any day.”

Her answering laugh sounded warm and relaxed. Matt, however, heard it for what it was—polite and strained.

“I’ll just go and say hello,” she said before, with a glance at Matt—no longer than a heartbeat—she strode toward the helicopter. “Maybe give him some tips.”

Matt watched her go, doing his best not to chase after her.

“Does our timing suck?”

At Charlie’s question, he let out a ragged chuckle and turned back to the waiting cop. “You could say that.”

Charlie nodded. “Figured as much when I saw you two about to lock lips. Told Ryan we should just bugger off back to the Ridge and give you some privacy. If it weren’t for the fact Michelle Gribble’s baby is running a high fever and she’s hoping you can come take a look, we would have.”

Matt dragged his hands through his hair. A hot sting at the back of his head reminded him he still had a fairly serious wound needing stitches. He watched Tash climb up into the helicopter’s cockpit. Watched her close the door.

“She okay?” Charlie asked.

“If you mean is she physically well enough to fly the plane? Yes. If you mean will she ever again?” He shrugged.

Charlie cocked an eyebrow. “Lost her nerve?”

“Lost her self-belief, I fear.”

“You going to help her get it back?”

Matt chuckled, the sound wry even to his own ears. “That’s the plan. I’m sure as shit not letting her give up.”

“On herself?”

Shaking his head, Matt stared at the helicopter. “On us.”

At his side, Charlie snorted. “Always knew there was a stubborn bastard hiding amongst all that mild bedside manner of yours waiting to be let out. Of course, you know I’m about to make life tricky for you, right?”

Rubbing at the back of his neck, Matt returned his attention to his friend. “I figured as much. Ryan is going to fly me to the Gribble’s, isn’t he?”

Charlie inclined his head.

“And you’re going to accompany Tash back to Wallaby Ridge in the plane.”

“Yeah.” He gave Matt an apologetic grimace. “Sorry.”

Matt sighed. “Because I reported in she’d had an asthma attack this morning? When I was talking to Jen on the radio while Tash was still sleeping, right?”

“It was an asthma attack?” Charlie shot the helicopter a look over his shoulder. “I didn’t get told
why
she couldn’t fly you back into the Ridge, just that me and another pilot needed to get out to you both ASAP. I nabbed Ryan before he started his first job of the day and we headed out here. How long she had asthma for?”

Matt cast a long look at the helicopter. It was Ryan Taylor’s main mustering chopper. The one he used on big jobs requiring long distances. It wouldn’t have any problem getting Matt to the Gribble’s massive sheep station without refueling. The trouble was, Matt didn’t want to climb inside it at all, and it had nothing to do with Ryan’s ability to fly it and everything to do with the significance of its presence here.

He huffed out a slow sigh. “She was diagnosed just before she moved to Wallaby Ridge. Adult on-set, which really isn’t all that common. From what I’ve seen, the attacks are pretty severe.”

“So that’s why she left the air force.”

Turning back to Charlie, Matt frowned. “How’d you know she was in the air force? I didn’t know that until yesterday, and Jen’s been trying to get it out of her for weeks.”

Charlie didn’t answer. Instead, he nodded his head in the direction of Ryan’s chopper. “I think Ryan’s just told her what’s going on.”

Before Matt could turn to see why his friend had come to that conclusion, Matt heard the helicopter’s door slam.

“We’re taking off in five, Baynard,” Tash yelled, storming towards the King Air B200, stare fixed straight ahead. Matt didn’t need to see her face to know she was angry. Her whole body screamed it. “Whether you’re in the plane or not.”

His gut churned. “Give us a sec, will you, Charlie?” he said, hurrying after her. “Tash?”

She didn’t stop at his call. Nor slow her pace.

“Tash?” He lengthened his stride to a jog.

She ducked under the wing.

By the time he made it to the plane, she was inside it.

“Tash?” he said, leaping up into the interior. “Are you going to talk to me?”

“Sure,” she tossed over her shoulder, already buckled into the pilot’s seat, adjusting dials on the control deck. No, not the pilot’s seat. The
co-pilot’s
seat. The seat he normally occupied. “What do you want me to say?”

His gut clenched some more. “Tash…”

“That’s four
Tashes
, Doc. Thought you had a larger vocabulary than that.”

“Tash.”

“And there’s the fifth.” She flicked a switch, twisted a knob beside it and flicked the switch again. “Impressive. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to be flown back to Wallaby Ridge while you go do what you do—be a doctor.”

“Don’t do this.”

She turned. Matt wanted to curse at the black sunglasses hiding her eyes. And the tension in her face and jaw. “Do what? Get angry because my boss has sent out another pilot to supervise the flight back to Wallaby Ridge? Sure. Okay. I won’t get angry. Look at me, I’m fine.” She gave him an emotionless smile. “See? Now, as I said, I’ve got to be a passenger in my own plane while someone else flies you to your next call-out, so you really need to get going.”

She turned back to the control deck and flicked at another switch.

“Doc?” Charlie’s voice wafted into the plane through the open door. “Ryan’s ready to go.”

Matt studied the back of Tash’s head, his chest tight. “Please, babe. Don’t let this destroy you.”

“I’m fine, Doc,” she answered without looking at him. “Don’t worry about me at all.”

“Matt?” Charlie called from the doorway. “You gotta go, mate.”

Matt stared hard at Tash, but she didn’t turn. Didn’t acknowledge he was even there anymore. “We’ll talk about this when I get back to Wallaby Ridge, Tash.”

“That’s six, Doc,” she whispered. The bitter dejection in her voice tore at his heart.

“Matt?”

Biting back a curse, Matt spun on his heel, grabbed his on-flight medical bag from its storage area and hurried from the plane. Every fibre in his body told him to go back, to take Tash in his arms and hold her. Just hold her as she worked through the mental and emotional slap of Charlie’s and Ryan’s arrival. Help her see her life wasn’t over, that he was there for her in any way she needed him to be. To whisper calm words of support and strength. To show her she wasn’t defined by her profession, but by her soul.