DumbAtHeart.epub (5 page)

for the first time. Two lovers new to each other and yet both knowing exactly what to

do and what the other needed. It was a slow and sweet with deep thrusts and soft,

sucking wet kisses. She cried out when his mouth left hers and his lips dropped down

to tug on her nipple. Wade had rarely done that. To Wade, breasts were objects to

hold onto as he drove his dick hard inside her body. While Cass liked it hard, she also

craved the soft, slow fondling of Evan. It made her feel like she was a woman he

cherished and desired above all others. In that moment she knew in her heart that his

was what making love actually was. Two bodies joining and moving together as one.

“Oh, Evan—”

“What do you need?” He whispered against her breast, his gaze on hers.

“Just you.” Tomorrow, undoubtedly, she would probably think twice about her

words and the emotion. But now? Now was different. This one man, a stranger, had

turned everything upside down and she liked it. Cass cupped his ass and pulled her

against him. “Please—”

“Anything you want, Cassie.” His mouth was on hers once more.

His lips slid down her neck and sucked against her flesh, his dick plowing away

inside her.

Each upward stroke, jolted against her clit and she trembled as spirals of pleasure

started to pulsate through her body. Cass held Evan tightly against her, not wanting

the connection to break. As his seed pumped into her body, she cried out. It was

probably wrong to love the rush of the man inside her but at that moment ‘probably

wrong’ felt pretty good to her. She felt like a whole, sexy woman being loved well

and truly by a man. Cass cried out his name as she came against him, trembling

uncontrollably as she held on to his body. “Oh, Evannnn…”

He chuckled and pulled out from her.

Cass reached for him. She didn’t want it to end. Evan spread her legs and watched as his semen ran from her body. The fierce look of possession in his eyes

thrilled her.
I am owned.

“Mine,” he growled, one long finger sliding inside her vagina.

At that moment, Cass would have gladly sold her soul to him. She held out her

hand to him. “Please—”

“You want me inside you again?”

The look of raw need in his eyes thrilled Cass. “Yes. I need you.”

Evan plunged inside her once more. He wasn’t as hard, but it didn’t matter. That

they were sweaty, hot and sticky was irrelevant. She just needed that connection to

him.

Evan rolled them onto their side, their bodies joined. “Sorry,” he breathed against

her lips.

“I’m not.” Cass curled against him. She had never had a lover want to stay within

her. That connection felt right. She felt no need to move nor did she feel awkward. It

was delightfully messy yet perfect. She sighed against his skin, feeling at peace in the

arms of a man who yesterday had been a stranger to her.

Evan’s fingers pushed the tendrils of hair from her face. “We should have used a

condom. I should have protected you but I wasn’t thinking with the correct part of my

body.”

Nor had she been. Cass was as responsible as he was. “It’s okay.” Now was not

the time to tell him about not taking the pill due to the side effects it had on her. The

likelihood of her getting pregnant was remote anyway. Her own mother had taken

years and many disappointments to have her. If genetics followed true, Cass would be

the same. “I’ve always wanted to know what it felt like.”

“No man ever came inside you like that?”

“No, I never wanted anyone until—” Cass stopped. She was saying way too

much to someone she barely knew.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For letting it be me.” His gaze was soft on hers. “If anything happens—”

She smiled at Evan to reassure him and herself. “It won’t.”

“I’ll want to know.” His hand linked with hers.

In the one moment, Cass knew she was in danger of falling in love with Evan.

“Neither I nor Flo noticed the hickey on your neck,” Jo murmured as Cass walked into the office.

Cass knew her face was bright red. “Good of you not to say anything about it

then.” She had showered and changed and walked with wobbly legs to the office. She

knew that the two women had to have been wondering what she had been doing for so

long in one room. No bed took that long to make.

“No, and we’re not wondering why it took so long to make one bed either.” Flo

winked at her.

“Fuck.” Was it that obvious? Cass felt bad. She was employed to do a job, not to

fuck around with Evan. That she had hated him one minute and was screwing him the

next confused the hell out of her.
Am I just desperate or a slut? It’s not like it could

be love for god sake. I barely know him, er, well his mind that is.

“Did you?” Jo toyed with the pen in her hand, her eyes bright with interest. “Was

Evan good?”

“He is one of the few men I’d swap teams for,” added Flo, patting the chair

beside her.

Cass smiled and sat down. “Really?” She arched her brow at Flo.

“Oh yeah, I could tell you some stories about my past and men.”

“She was a slut,” Jo informed Cass.

Flo grinned. “Yeah, I was.”

“What changed you?” Cass didn’t care who loved who with what body parts.

Love was as it was. It came from the heart and pigeon holing people into stereotypical

gender rules was of no interest to her.

“This chick called Jo came along—”

“And I was so amazing that you knew you’d be mad to let me go.”

“That’s sweet.” She could see the deep love and affection when the two women

looked at each other. “The thing is—” The two sets of eyes locked on hers.
Do I lie?

Tell the truth? Feign ignorance? How complicated do I want my life to get?
She had

been in town for just a day and yet already her whole life was turned upside down. By

a man. She hadn’t been ready for that. “…it didn’t mean anything.”
Liar.
It meant so

many unexpected things that her head was still spinning from what had happened. Her

body still felt the imprint of Evan on hers. It was sluttish but she had loved the sticky

feel of his semen between her thighs. It made her feel real and right and that hadn’t

happened in a long time.

They rolled their eyes. “Piss weak lie,” Jo told her.

Yeah, it was
. “Okay I didn’t mean it to happen.” She could have blamed Evan for

being naked and charming. But naked and charming she could have deflected if she

wanted to. And that was the thing. She didn’t want to.

“The best sex happens that way.”

“Yeah, well, anyway we had sex to prove a point.” Though, at that moment she

couldn’t remember exactly what it had been. All Cass could remember was the delicious taste and feel of a hot male body on and in hers.

Flo arched her brow. “And that is?”

Cass pursed her lips in thought.
How do I explain this when I’m not sure myself?

“Well, I guess it started out to prove I wasn’t attracted to Evan and it was just about

bodily functions and pheromones.”

“Uh-huh, and how did that go?”

“Not great,” admitted Cass. She found it easy to talk to these two women even

though they were strangers who knew nothing about her life but what she told them. It

was like starting afresh. “It’s kinda messy.”

“Yeah, love can screw with your mind,” agreed Jo.

“Not just your body,” added Flo.

Cass shook her head. “God no, it’s not love. It’s sex.” Sex did not necessarily

have to lead to anything. Besides she’d thought she had been in love with Wade. That

had been a complete mess and waste of time.
How do I even know what love is?
“Sex

and love are not mutually exclusive.”

“It’s fun when they are.”

“I’m not in love with Evan.” Hot, sticky thighs and hard thrusts did not make a

forever romance. But damn, it made forever memories.

Flo nodded. “No, of course you’re not. That’d be crazy.”

“Why?” She rubbed the hickey on her neck. Cass had never been marked by

passion before. She’d liked it.

“Why do you care is the question.”

Good point. Why do I
? It was just sex of the mind blowing kind. “I don’t.” Cass

looked from Flo to Jo and back again. “Aw crap, I can’t fall in love with someone

after having sex once.”

“Why not?”

“Needy bunny boiler types do that.” Cass knew she was neither. She shook her

head as if to rearrange her brain cells. “Anyway, I don’t want to talk about this again.”

“Ah yes, avoidance tactics are always good,” added Jo, with a smile. “I’m so glad

we hired you. You’re a pip.”

“But let’s just keep this I’m-not-in-love-sex between us. It’s the last thing Adele

needs to know,” Flo added in. “We don’t need any dramatic Sicilian vendettas. Mind

you, I think she’ll be too busy with the annual Throcker Thrashing anyway.”

Cass looked surprised. “The what?” She should have been making up for lost

work time but the two women fascinated her.

Jo was happy to tell the story. “Well, in the mid 1800’s a young bloke called Jack

Throcker had owned a property about twenty kilometres from town. He turned up in

Mundabucka with the story that he had jumped on a ship in Liverpool, England, and

made his way to Australia. Local theory was he was a convict transported out for theft

and he ran away from the prison farm he was placed on just outside of Sydney.”

“No one blamed him, of course,” Flo interjected. “It was a harsh world back then.

People got transported for the smallest things. Britain back then was an overcrowded

mess of slums and poverty. Those who made a new life in Australia did quite well—

like Jack.”

Cass had learned about convicts at school. She knew that only the strongest

survived and prospered in the harsh new world they had been thrown into. Australia

back then was a hard, barren land that broke the sprits and backs of many. “So, how

did he get all the way up to Queensland and more importantly, how did he come to

own a property?” Way back then, convicts had no money or welfare benefits. They

had to survive on what they could scrounge or sheer, rat cunning.

“Word is Jack was a bushranger who had a habit of finding useful stuff he could

sell on for a profit. Today they would call him an entrepreneur.”

“He was an alleged bushranger who happened to know a lot of other ‘alleged’

bushrangers. Nothing was ever proven that he was one,” Flo explained. “Reading

through the old Queensland Police Gazettes, Jack Throcker was an interesting man

who wasn’t adverse to the odd bit of mischief.”

Cass was fascinated. “Like what?”

“Things had a way of disappearing when Jack was around but he always, without

fail, had an alibi when neighboring livestock went missing. And if stray cattle turned

up on his farm then it wasn’t his fault. It they got ‘accidently’ branded with his mark

then it wasn’t his fault that they legally became his.”

“Quite a rogue he was,” Flo continued on a gleam in her eyes. “There’s a tale that

a large haul of gold is buried on the property. It was said to have been on a bullock

cart making its way down to the big smoke of Brisbane. It never got there. Jack was

droving around that time and mysteriously wandered off only to return months and

months later a rich man with money in his pocket and a new bride on his arm. The

only problem was the old bride was still living. Word is the first Mrs. Throcker, Jane,

took it badly until Jack explained to her that the new bride, Maisie, was married under

one of his other names and technically she was the only real Throcker wife.”

“Other names?” Did Jane stick around, Cass wondered. Would any woman do

that having a new wife appear, different surname or not? But then how did women

survive back then without the aid of a man?

“Jack was quite a jack the lad. Women loved him. Men either feared him or

wanted to kill him. By all accounts, Jane Throcker just went along with the other

woman, each bearing children to Jack. And, I suppose, in those times, there wasn’t a

lot she could do about it. Stay married or be a fallen woman.”

“And the gold?”

“No one ever really knew what happened to it. After Jack died, because no one

was game to do it beforehand, people searched his land but nothing was ever found.

Jack was too cunning for most and sometimes for his own good. If there is gold still

buried out there, then he never got to use it or he blew the lot and is having a good

laugh now in the afterlife.”

“Hence the annual Throcker Thrash.” Cass understood now. Legend and greed

were powerful motivates. History was on one side and great wealth on the other.

“Yes, once a year, everyone in the district comes together to search for Jack’s

treasure on his property. The old homestead still exists.”

“If Adele’s family is so wealthy, then why does she go looking for the Throcker

treasure?” Added to that, from the little she had seen of the other woman, Cass

doubted she was the type that ever got her hands dirty.

“She’s greedy. Pure and simple,” Flo explained to Cass. “The Throcker Thrash is

in a couple of days. You’ve picked a good week to come to Mundabucka.” She

looked Cass up and down and smiled. “Now, can we trust you to help us make some