Read Fulfillment (Book 3 in The Temptation Series) Online

Authors: K.M. Golland

Tags: #romance, #sex, #true love, #humour, #love triangle, #australian, #alpha male

Fulfillment (Book 3 in The Temptation Series) (10 page)

BOOK: Fulfillment (Book 3 in The Temptation Series)
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I laughed. “I
know.”

Jen and I
composed ourselves before leaving the bathroom, and I suddenly felt
terrible for leaving Bryce alone for such a long time. My concern
about him feeling awkward without my presence, however, appeared to
be ridiculously unwarranted. Because, when I made my way back into
the Kitchen area, Bryce was in the middle of helping Mum prepare
the roast chicken. Well...help was probably the wrong word, he was
actually in control and giving her lessons in what appeared to be
the stuffing process. He looked up and caught me smirking at him
but that soon changed as I took in the sight of his hand inside the
carcass—my vomit-express threatening another departure from
stomach-station.

“Are you
alright?” he asked, trying to sound concerned but knowing very well
why I was sick.

“Yeah, I’m
fine. I think it may have been a bit of delayed motion or travel
sickness from the chopper ride. I felt a bit yuck when we were in
the air.”

“You’re
supposed to grow out of that, Alexis,” Mum grumbled. “We could
never take her anywhere when she was younger,” she explained to
Bryce.

I screwed my
face up at the molested chicken. “Um...I think I might go outside
for some air. Where are the kids?”

“Where they
always are...on the tractor with your father.”

I nodded and
pointed to the door, indicating I was hauling my arse out of there
and away from the gut-wrenching chicken.

***

After Bryce
had helped Mum in the kitchen, he offered to take both her and Dad
up in the helicopter for the aerial view Dad had requested. Jen and
Steven were sitting on the front porch with me, the twins were
still blissfully asleep along with Olivia, and Nate and Charli had
taken the quad bikes out in one of the paddocks. Sitting on Mum and
Dad’s veranda on an autumn afternoon was simply divine. Our
childhood home, which was a large, solid brick ranch-styled house
with a tin roof and a veranda that circled all the way around the
building, sat atop the highest point on the property, and being
that it was situated on a hill, allowed you to experience one of
the most stunning panoramic views of the valley. It really was
picturesque and peaceful. Well, peaceful until the loud hum of an
engine roared in the distance, getting louder as it approached the
house.

I knew the
sound of the engine did not belong to the quads or the chopper.

“Jake is
here,” I said, lifting my eyebrow while taking a sip of my cup of
tea.

“Is he alone?”
Jen asked, sarcastically.

“Can’t see,” I
replied, “probably not.”

My older
brother Jake was not married, and unfortunately I didn’t think he
ever would be; he was just not the ‘settling down’ type. He was a
truck driver and constantly on the road, not liking to tie himself
down to anyone or anything, and he seemed more than happy to have a
new girlfriend on his arm each time we saw him. And I use the term
girlfriend very loosely.

His Harley
Davidson Fat Boy roared up the gravel driveway alongside Nate—who
was on his quad—leaving a dust cloud behind them. Charli was on her
quad following, with her mouth closed and a not so impressed look
on her screwed up face. Jake jumped off the bike and removed his
helmet, then laughed at Charli who was choking on some dust.

“Now that is
what I call ‘eating my dust’, Kiddo.”

“You could’ve
waited, Uncle Jake. I had to close the gate,” she spluttered
between coughs.

He walked over
and patted her on the back. “If I had waited, I wouldn’t have won,
would I?” He smiled, gave her helmet a light tap with his hand then
headed in our direction.

“I didn’t know
it was a race,” Charli called out, unimpressed.

“Ah, there are
my two baby sisters.” He enthusiastically leapt up onto the veranda
then uncomfortably squeezed in between me and Jen, putting his arms
around our shoulders and pulling us in for an embrace. “Hey,
Steve,” he nodded towards Jen’s husband, who was reading the
paper.

“Jake,” Steve
acknowledged, in a brief and unperturbed manly kind of way.

“So, where are
your rugrats?” Jake asked Jen.

“Asleep.”

“Too easy,” he
replied, retracting his hands from us and crossing them behind his
head. Jen elbowed him in the ribs. “Hey, I’m kidding,” he winced
with a chuckle. “So, Lex, where’s that good for nothing, son of a
bitch husband of yours?”

“Jake, shhh,”
I hushed him, looking around to see where Nate and Charli had gone.
“Don’t speak about him like that around the kids.”

“It’s the
truth though,” he responded angrily. “I’ll fucking kill him.”

“No you won’t.
And regardless, Rick is still their father and they love him so
please be careful what you say around them. Anyway, he is spending
Easter with Claire because I told him to. I didn’t think having him
here while I was introducing you all to Bryce was a very good
idea.”

“Oh yeah! So
where is this Bryce?” He tilted his head back to look inside.

“Up there,”
Jen said as she pointed to the sky.

“What? On the
roof?” He stood up and walked to the edge of the veranda looking
up, confused.

My brother was
not the sharpest tool in the shed but he looked intimidating. He
was a big build—quite solid. He had tattoos up both his arms and
across his chest. His hair was a colour in between my blonde and
Jen’s brown, and he always had a few days growth of beard on his
face. But it was his kind, gentle blue eyes that gave away his
softer side.

“No,” she
mocked him. “In that helicopter flying around, Dad wanted an aerial
view of the farm, so Bryce has taken Mum and Dad for ride.” Jen’s
grin widened as she noticed Jake’s expression.

“Fuck off.
He’s flying that thing?”

“Yes,” I
butted in sternly. “He is a helicopter pilot. We flew here to cheer
the kids up, they were miserable about not seeing Rick.”

Jake pulled
the ‘not-bad’ face then put his hand to his forehead to shield the
sun’s blinding rays from his eyes. “So, am I gonna like the
guy?”

“I don’t care
if you like him or not. I like him
a lot,
and
that’s all that matters.”

“No it’s not.
You know you need your brother’s approval.” He pulled out a
cigarette from the squashed pack in his pocket.

“I do not need
your fucking approval. Now behave, it’s hard enough for him to try
and fit in as it is. It’s not easy having the stigma of billionaire
following you around.”

“Oh...poor
him,” Jake pouted with his smoke hanging out of his mouth. “Shit,
I’d just hate to be a billionaire, too.”

“Shut up,
Jake, you know what I mean. All I’m saying is he’s normal just like
you and me, so treat him that way.”

“Yeah normal
alright, just ignore the shit load of money he has,” he mumbled as
the chopper approached to land.

***

Watching Bryce
walk with my parents from the chopper as the rotor slowed down was
kind of heart-warming. It was clear Mum was a fan, not only from
her cooking lesson earlier but by how she let him hold her arm as
they walked, guiding her along. Dad seemed pleased as well, talking
non-stop, his mouth and hands moving in unison at a rapid rate.

I stood up and
grabbed my brother’s arm, gripping it tightly. “Please be nice,” I
said under my breath. I then turned my back to Bryce and looked
Jake in the eyes. “I’m in love with him Jake, I mean
really
in love with him.” I tugged my brother along as we
stepped down from the porch.

Mum patted
Bryce’s arm as an indication to let go so that she could embrace
her son. “Jake, Darling.” She pulled the cigarette from his mouth
and butted it out on the ground.

“Mum!” Jake
protested.

She completely
ignored him and wrapped her arms around her big boy.

Dad kept
walking past and slapped Jake on the back. “Good to see you, Son.
I’ll need your help in the stock yards in a minute, some of the
heard has pinkeye again.” Dad continued on into the house, I’m
assuming to prepare the ointment that he had to wipe into the cows’
eyes. Just the thought of it had my stomaching churning again.
Ewww, big cow eyeballs with oozy ointment.
I gagged, and I
swear I spewed a little in my mouth.

“Are you
okay?” Bryce whispered, looking a little concerned.

I smiled at
him and whispered back. “Yeah, I’m just a little extra queasy
today.” I wrapped my arms around his waist, and he gently moved a
piece of hair away from my eye.

He leaned
forward and kissed the top of my head. “Do you need anything?”

Still
whispering, I answered, “Hmm, I could think of a few things.” I
smirked at him and his eye involuntarily twitched, making me
giggle.

“Ahem,” Jake
cleared his throat.

I turned,
squinting my eyes at my brother. “Jake, this is Bryce. Bryce, this
is my brother, Jake.” I kept my tight grip around Bryce’s
waist.

He reached an
arm out to shake Jake’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Jake.”

“Same. So, is
that your ride?” Jake motioned to the chopper.

“Yeah, is that
yours?” Bryce motioned to the Harley.

“Yeah, sure
is.”

“2010 Fat Boy
Lo, right?” Bryce pried my hands away from their comfortable
position on his firm sexy arse and started to walk toward Jake’s
bike. I pouted at the loss, but more so because I could feel my
massive sexual urge creeping up on me. I was terribly tempted to
sneak him into the shed and take him in amongst the hay bales.
Hmmm, that’s a thought.

“Yeah,” Jake
answered, impressed. “You like bikes? You’ve probably got a few,
right?”

“Just a
couple,” Bryce said modestly, obviously trying to play it down in
the hope he did not come across as boastful. I knew he had a couple
of motorbikes in his garage, although I’d never seen him ride them,
nor did he ever talk about them. I made a mental note to ask him
why at a later point in time.

 

Jake and Bryce
soon became embroiled in a heavy discussion about ‘Knuckleheads’
and ‘Ecosses’, so I left them to it, deciding to take a walk.

***

I had wandered
down the hill my parents’ house sat upon and across the creek into
the furthest paddock on the property. Nate had followed me on his
bike as far as the creek but decided to turn back when I said I was
heading to the hay shed. When he was younger, I had put the fear of
God in him, telling him the shed was full of snakes—which
technically, it probably was. He had refused to go there ever
since, so my not-so-false-lie had worked a charm. The hay shed
wasn’t really my destination though, the gum tree that was only ten
metres from the shed was. When I was younger, I would often climb
up it a few branches high and perch myself comfortably in the gum’s
inviting arms, reading my books for hours.

I always knew
it was time to head back to the house when I heard Mum’s voice echo
across the valley, shouting for me to return home—her voice
probably carrying for miles. I just loved it on the farm; it was my
one true home, and I loved that my children got to experience it as
well.

I made my way
to the gum’s large trunk and traced my fingers along the etchings I
had made during the years. ‘Alexis’ tree home 1987’; I scratched
that one when I was ten. ‘Mum and Dad suck’; I’m pretty sure I was
12 years old when I engraved that one. They’d said I couldn’t go to
the school disco, and that decision pissed me off. ‘I love Johnny
Depp’; yep, I was definitely 14 when I lovingly tattooed that to my
tree. And finally, ‘Rick and Alexis were here 1995’. I poked at the
letters as tears welled in my eyes, memories flooding back of the
two of us sitting in this very spot studying for our school
exams—my head on his shoulder as he quizzed me about the ‘Fair
Trading Act’. I wiped the tears away and moved around the trunk
some more, smiling when I got to the spot where I had marked Nate
and Charli’s birth dates.

The sound of
an approaching bike distracted me from my etchings. I looked out
past the shed to see that Bryce had jumped on Dad’s quad and was
making his way to where I was standing. I smiled at how quickly he
could settle in and feel at home, it made me happy seeing him so
comfortable, not only at my parents’ property but comfortable with
my family as well.

He pulled up
and turned off the ignition.

“Hey, you
gonna buy one of those now?” I asked, as I pointed to the blue
Polaris quad bike.

“I’m thinking
about it. I don’t have one of these,” he replied with a smile.

He jumped off
and walked toward me, his eyes speaking many things. Automatically,
my body started to react by tingling in the spots that wanted
Bryce’s touch.

“What are you
doing?” he said softly, as he cupped his hands on my cheeks and
pulled me in for a kiss. I started to answer but couldn’t as his
lips were pressed firmly against mine. One of his hands slid to the
back of my head, the other dropping to my hip, pulling me further
into him. I opened my mouth, inviting his tongue to caress my own
and when it did, I moaned with desire and went slightly limp in his
arms. He groaned in response, as his hard cock pressed into the
base of my stomach.

My body began
to express it needed Bryce desperately, as my pulse raced rapidly
and my breathing quickened. I pulled him around to the other side
of the tree and frantically pulled at his jeans, undoing them and
unleashing his erection in my hands. Closing my eyes, I surrounded
his shaft, feeling its warmth on my fingers.

He gently
stepped me up to the trunk of the tree and mouthed my neck. “Your
touch sets my body on fire, Alexis. The way you stroke my cock is
fucking sensational.”

I smiled as he
gently licked and nipped at my neck, adoring that my touch had the
same effect on him as his had on me. I brought my thumb to my
mouth, licked the tip then swirled it over his crown. He growled
harshly.
Fuck! That sound never gets old. I love it.

BOOK: Fulfillment (Book 3 in The Temptation Series)
8.57Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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