Secret Confessions: Down & Dusty – Brooke (2 page)

‘I’m sorry about your father. He was a great man.’ His features turned gentle, the comfort in those green eyes reaching into places she never wanted him to touch. ‘And I heard all about Rowan and Connor keeping male suitors at bay. I’ve been told there’s been more than a few.’

‘Not too many for them to handle.’ The playfulness left her tone, allowing resentment to slide in. Her brothers had warned away any male in a fifty kilometre radius. Not just verbal threats either. There were black eyes and broken teeth for any man who was caught touching her. God forbid she actually have a relationship. ‘They’re quite proficient in their threatening ways.’

He chuckled, the delicious laugh lines around his eyes deepening, making him all the more impossible to resist.

‘I’m not joking, Heath. You need to back away before they see us like this.’ She pushed at his chest, giving herself room to close the fridge door and slide out of reach.

He straightened his shoulders, squared his jaw. The act seemed like preparation for battle but the only part of her ready for action was her ovaries. ‘I’m home for good, Brooke. I’m not leaving again.’

She let out a barely audible huff. ‘I guess “good” is a relative term.’

His brow furrowed. ‘You really are pissed at me, aren’t you, little one?’

Her nostrils flared. She’d hated the endearment as a child. She hated it even more now. The term was first used by one of the native Australian stockmen who previously worked with her father. Unfortunately, it caught on, with the farmhands and the folks in town too. Even her brothers had tauntingly called her
little one
if they were trying to rile her. But that had died a slow death years ago. Everyone knew she was no longer a child. Apparently, everyone except Heath.

‘Don’t patronise me. I’m far from the little girl you once knew.’

‘Believe me, I noticed.’ His jaw tightened and his Adam’s apple bobbed with a deep swallow.

Silence grew between them. Heavy. Thick. Yet not cloying enough to disable the traitorous arousal making her body tingle to life. She was hot for him. Scorching.

‘Heath?’
Connor’s shout drifted from outside. ‘Grab us another beer on your way out.’

Heath casually stepped back, resting his arse against the opposite counter as he continued to scrutinise her with his wicked gaze. ‘I’ll be there in a minute.’

She wanted to growl at him to go
now
. To leave her alone. To stop playing with her. Torturing her. But the confidence in his features told her he wouldn’t walk away easily. She needed to stand her ground. Put him in his place. Show him she was no longer at his mercy, no matter how much her aching breasts begged to be.

‘Did you ever tell my brothers about us?’ she taunted with the hint of a smile. ‘Seeing how protective they are, I always wondered what they’d think of our teenage rendezvous.’

The glass he’d begun to raise to his lips stopped abruptly, his skin lightening to a paler shade of tan. It was about time he had a taste of retaliation for walking out on her. ‘Or the fact you took my virginity in the tray of your rusted-up ute.’

He cleared his throat and narrowed his gaze. ‘Brooke.’ Her name was a warning, a dark rumble of a growl she’d never heard from him before. And, bloody hell, it made her want to jump him all over again, smash her lips over his, feel the tangle of tongues and the clash of teeth.

‘What?’ She raised a brow and twisted the top on her cider bottle, throwing the lid into the sink a few feet away. ‘I was just wondering, that’s all.’

She lifted the alcohol to her mouth, took a sip, and then delicately licked the sweet taste from her lower lip. Heath’s eyes narrowed, tracking her every moment, showing her his attraction was burning just as bright.

Footsteps echoed from the back porch, then the screen door slid open. ‘What’s going on in here?’

Brooke kept her attention on Heath as Connor entered her periphery. Their gaze didn’t break. He kept his focus strong, determined, his narrowed stare whispering sweet nothings over her consciousness.

‘Just catching up with Brooke,’ he drawled, lazy as shit, without a care in the world.

‘Reminiscing, too,’ she purred. ‘I quite enjoy looking back at all the naughty things we used to get up to.’

Heath’s jaw twitched, an almost imperceptible tic that made her belly flutter.

‘Really?’ Connor’s tone was cautionary. An unmistakable threat.

‘We shared some great times together.’ A smile hovered on Heath lips underneath the thinly veiled concern in his eyes.

That smile sent a wave of memories flooding back. Their first kiss—in the middle of the night, separated by the barbed-wire fence where their properties joined. The stolen sunsets in the back of a dusty ute. Whispered words. Seductive glances. Secret memories only the two of them shared.

‘Remember the day at Forsyth Creek?’ he asked.

A moment of shock hit her before a burst of nervous laughter bubbled up her throat. What the hell was he doing? Did he have a death wish? She supposed she shouldn’t care. Not anymore. But there was a difference between alluding to the truth, and coming right out and saying it. He was crazy to think her homicidal brother wouldn’t kill him for a mere insinuation of what happened that day.

‘I lost control of the four-wheeler at the shallow crossing.’ She swallowed over the dryness overtaking her mouth. ‘When I called Rowan for help, he’d said you were closer. Ever the chivalrous brother, he hadn’t had time to rescue me. But you were there in minutes, hauling me out of the creek because I was too shocked to move.’

‘Uh-huh.’ His smile turned sly. ‘I remember how wet you were.’

Her pussy contracted. He wasn’t talking about her clothes, or her saturated skin. Before he arrived, she’d been trembling, her limbs heavy from the shock of how easily she could’ve been pinned under the water by a vehicle she wouldn’t have been able to push off herself.

Heath had dashed toward her, not a care for his boots or clothing, and picked her up off the rocky creek bed to place her down in the dry dirt. Nothing had calmed her. Not his soothing words, or his strong hold. The only thing capable of snapping her from the seriousness of the situation had been his kiss. A harsh melding of lips and tongue that stole her focus and had her clinging to him for reasons other than shock.

‘I was drenched.’ She bit her lower lip and pressed her thighs together to fight the desire to relive the past.

Their kiss had turned into lust, lust into passion. He’d carried her again, this time to his ute parked under the shade of an old gum tree. With the scorching sun filtering through the leaves, he’d stripped her bare, checking her body for injuries before taking their secret affair to the next level.

Heavy footfalls approached from outside, and Rowan’s bulky frame drove away the bliss of her lost virginity. ‘I thought we were drinking?’

‘Yeah, me too,’ Connor muttered. ‘But it seems these two have more to catch up on than I would’ve thought.’

Another warning. Another threat for Heath to back off and stop hinting to a past that her over-protective brothers wouldn’t approve of.

‘Yeah, well, we’ve gotta go meet Clarissa. She finished fencing today and wants to drop off the wire spinner. I’m gonna meet her at the gate and chew her out for not waiting for our help.’

Connor nodded and started for the sliding door. ‘You coming, Heath?’

Her brother paused, glancing over his shoulder as Rowan slid the door back open.

‘Nah.’ Heath kept his attention on her, never faltering, never wavering. ‘I’ve gotta use the facilities. I’ll see you when you get back.’

Underlying tension entered the room. She was waiting for
that
moment. The one where her brothers puffed out their chests and demanded a quiet word with their friend. It didn’t come. Yet the cautionary glare was in their eyes. They glanced at each other, then at Heath, and finally rested their focus on her, as if testing her judgement to be left alone with someone capable of impregnating her feeble body.

‘Yes?’ she growled. The protective act was old. Too damn old. She was a woman, with bills and responsibilities. A woman with a libido, and breasts, and a pussy that was far from virginal. Why the hell couldn’t they see that?

‘We’ll be back in a few,’ Rowan grated in warning.

Strange. They were actually leaving her alone with a man. A man with a penis. Heaven forbid. Maybe they’d already acted out their barbaric stay-away-from-Brooke routine. Maybe Heath had stated his lack of interest. Either way, she didn’t feel as relieved to be left alone with said penis as she thought she should. Her body had gained a mind of its own, and there was only one thing on its agenda.

There was another scrutinising look from the barbaric duo, then she was alone. With Heath. Attraction and anticipation crackling between them—the spark invisible, yet emotionally undeniable.

Harsh footsteps on the back porch faded, a car door slammed, followed by Rowan’s ute purring to life and drifting from earshot. Then silence. Painful, heart-thumping silence.

Her mind was abuzz. Words of affection were poised on the tip of her tongue, but she’d never let them free. Heath didn’t deserve them, nor would she place herself in that vulnerable position again.

‘Finally.’ He pushed from the opposite counter and stalked toward her. ‘I’ve waited years for us to be alone again.’

***

Heath stepped forward, once, twice, forcing her backward into the kitchen counter as he cornered her. ‘Not a day has passed without you running through my mind.’

‘Right.’ She couldn’t take her focus from his lips, the soft, tempting flesh she ached to feel pressed against hers. He’d always been her weakness. ‘That would explain the month it took for you to come see me … Oh, wait, you’re not here to see me after all. You’re here for my brothers.’

She straightened, unable to look at him when he was so close. ‘The pickings are slim around here these days, aren’t they? Did it take a month to realise I’m your best option for getting laid that doesn’t involve farm animals?’

He rested his hands on either side of her hips, caging her. ‘You’ve always been the only option for me.’

She released a derisive laugh and tilted her face away, ignoring the way his pelvis inched closer, almost brushing her throbbing abdomen as she sipped the alcoholic cider from her bottle. ‘Well, that’s too bad for you, because I’m off limits.’

With the cider strengthening her resolve, she turned to him. ‘Rowan and Connor will be back any minute. If they catch you like this—’ she raked her focus down his body, over the muscles that pressed against the thin cotton of his t-shirt, and back to his beautiful eyes, ‘—they’ll make you regret it.’

‘I’ve never regretted anything when it comes to you.’

‘Even walking away?’ she scoffed, then winced at the question she couldn’t contain. The hardest part of their breakup was seeing him leave without a care. Maybe if he’d shown regret or told her it was killing him as much as it had killed her, then the betrayal wouldn’t have cut so deep. After all these years, the wound was still fresh. Agonising. He was still the only man she’d ever truly wanted.

He encroached further on her limited space. Now, not just toe to toe, but pelvis to pelvis. ‘University was inevitable. From the day I was born, the whole town knew I’d be taking over the family business and running the property. And the overseas exchange was an opportunity I couldn’t miss. But I always knew I was coming back. I always knew you’d be right here when I returned.’

Her breathing laboured, becoming sharp and heavy. ‘I didn’t wait for you, if that’s what you think.’

She hadn’t. She would’ve moved on a million times just to spite the memory of them together. Only the limited men in their tight-knit community didn’t leave her many options. It was even harder when her brothers were willing to murder all those who came calling.

His chest pressed into hers, his mouth a mere inch away. It was impossible not to lick her lips over the harsh temptation pressing into her. ‘You may not have waited, Brooke, but you can’t deny that you still want me.’

I never stopped.

‘My desires don’t fit into Rowan and Connor’s plan. They won’t care who you are. Or how long you’ve been friends. They’ll hurt you if they see you like this.’ And that was something she couldn’t live with. No matter how much he deserved it for breaking her teenage heart.

‘I’ll risk it.’

He brushed his nose over hers, giving her time to protest the approaching kiss that was already stealing her ability to speak. She was too damn weak to slide away. She wanted him—his taste, his touch. She’d never wanted anything more.

The soft sweep of his lips tore a whimper from her throat. The clink of his beer bottle against the sink barely registered. His hands found her hips, his tight hold harsh and possessive. He pressed into her, working his thigh between hers, the hard muscle causing delicious friction against her clit as his tongue entered her mouth.

There was no breath, no words. Nothing but the taste of passion and the sensation of heavenly affection washing over her. She couldn’t get enough. Her hands were in his hair, tugging him closer, demanding more.

‘You’re a damn dream, Brooke.’ He spoke into her mouth. ‘I never would’ve imagined I’d come back to a woman as beautiful as you.’

She wanted to deny his words. To tell him he hadn’t come back to her, he’d just come back in general. But she was too devoted to his lips. Too nauseatingly addicted to the way he made her feel worthwhile when the threat of her brothers loomed close. No other sober man had been willing to put his dick on the line to be with her. She’d had to wait until they sported the drunken Superman complex and thought they were invincible.

‘You still taste the same,’ he whispered. ‘I wonder if it applies to every part of you.’

Jesus.
Her core fluttered in response, the slipperiness of her arousal making her panties excessively wet.

‘I can smell you, Brooke. Can almost taste your pussy on my tongue.’

Did they have time? The drive to the front gate was five minutes max. Add an additional few minutes for conversation. Then the drive home.
Christ
, she was crazy to even contemplate it. Rowan and Connor had broken fingers over the knowledge of a mere kiss. She didn’t want to think what they’d do if they found Heath’s head between her thighs.