Inherit the Sky (Lang Downs 1 ) (19 page)

“It’ll take more than a couple of months in the outback before Vegemite will be on my list of preferred food choices,” Caine said, “especially when the kitchen and Kami’s cooking are just an hour or two’s ride away.”

“Speaking of Kami, we should get back,” Macklin said, looking pointedly at Caine where he still lay snuggled beneath the blankets.
Caine stood, shivering when his sock-clad feet hit the cold floor. He reached for Macklin again, ignoring the look of discomfort that crossed the other man’s face. Macklin was going to have to learn how to deal with intimacy outside of bed, and Caine figured the best way to do that was to give him no other choice. “After we say a proper good morning.”
“Caine.”
“What?” Caine asked. “You certainly liked kissing me last night. What’s wrong with kissing me this morning?”
“Last night was….”
“Exactly,” Caine said when Macklin didn’t finish his sentence. “Last night was. Stop trying to pretend it didn’t happen or that you didn’t enjoy it as much as I did. I’m not asking you to marry me, Macklin. I just want a good morning kiss.”
The panic on Macklin’s face might have been funny if Caine hadn’t been hoping for the opposite reaction. He sighed. “Why is this so difficult?” he asked gently.
“We don’t have time to discuss this,” Macklin replied. “We need to get back to the station.”
“Why?” Caine asked. “Not why at all, but why the rush? What’s so important that you can’t answer my question first?”
“Why is it so important that we discuss it now?” Macklin countered.
“Because we’re here now and you’re acting strangely now and if you d-don’t give me an explanation now, maybe you never will.”
“Maybe it’s better that way,” Macklin muttered.
“Macklin, stop avoiding the issue.”

Macklin sighed and pulled away, pacing the small hut restlessly. “Because I’ve never done this before, right? I’ve fucked, but that’s it. I don’t know what you want from me, and that makes me antsy as a sheep surrounded by dingoes.”
He ran his hands through his messy hair as he spoke, turning to glare at Caine as if the entire situation was his fault. The admission, however awkward, softened Caine’s frustration. He crossed to Macklin again. “What I want right now is a simple good morning kiss,” he said again. “What I want more generally is up to us to decide. That’s the beauty of a relationship. It’s not what I want. It’s what we want.”
“And if you could have whatever you wanted?” Macklin asked slowly.
“What Uncle Michael had with Donald,” Caine replied immediately. “But they didn’t build that relationship in a day or a month. Relationships take time and work. They take fighting and negotiating and sometimes even stepping back a bit. And sometimes they don’t work, and then you just have to accept that and move on.”
“That’s what worries me,” Macklin admitted. “If it doesn’t work, I’ll be the one who has to move on.”
“If it doesn’t work, I’ll leave,” Caine offered. “You don’t need me to run the station. I can g-g-go back home. This is your home. Even if we d-didn’t make it, you wouldn’t do anything to damage the station or its reputation.”
“You’re making it awfully hard to resist, pup.”
Caine smiled. “Then don’t,” he said, lifting his head for a kiss. This time, Macklin gave it to him. It was as deep and demanding as the kisses from the night before, but Caine didn’t mind, not when Macklin was finally kissing him. He relaxed into the embrace that accompanied the meeting of lips, wrapping his fingers inthe ends of Macklin’s hair.
The caress seemed to be the reminder Macklin needed that not every kiss had to be hard and fast. His lips gentled on Caine’s, the tenderness from the end of their encounter the night before coming to the fore. Caine sighed happily into the kiss, sure he could kiss Macklin like that all day and never get enough.

The radio squawked to life on the table behind them, startling both men, but when Macklin would have pulled away, Caine drew his head back down for one more, swift kiss before letting him go.
“N-now you c-can answer them.” He didn’t even mind the stutter. He wanted Macklin to know how their kisses affected him. Maybe it would help convince the other man of the depth of his investment.
Caine busied himself putting his boots and coat back on as he waited for Macklin to finish checking in with the main station, assuring them he and Caine had weathered the night and were on their way back. He gave orders to continue separating the mob for breeding.
“But I don’t know which ewes to put with which rams,” Ian said.
“As long as you don’t put them with their sires, it’ll be fine,” Macklin said. “I’ll adjust my plans when I get back and see what you’ve done.”
“So I guess this means we should head home,” Caine said when Macklin set the radio back down on the table.
“In a minute,” Macklin said. “After I get a kiss to keep me warm for the ride back.”
Caine was sure he’d never moved so fast in his life as he did getting to Macklin’s side now, his joy at Macklin’s comment warring with the thrill of the foreman’s mouth against his, gentle as before but with just a hint of teeth to give the promise of more to come. When Macklin lifted his head and smiled down at Caine, Caine’s happiness was complete.

A
WEEK later, Caine was ready to throttle Macklin again. While the foreman invited him in for a beer every evening and kissed him readily whenever they were in private, he had not invited Caine beyond the living room and kitchen of his house, and any time Caine hinted at more, he drew back, closing himself off or finding an excuse to end their evening together. Caine had tried reminding himself that Macklin was new at relationships and that he needed time to adjust to the idea, but Caine was getting tired of waiting.

“Aussie men are too stubborn for their own good,” Caine muttered as he walked into the canteen. They had separated the last of the ewes into their breeding pens that afternoon. They would put the rams in with the ewes in the morning, and then the summer workers would head back to Boorowa or Cowra, leaving only the full-time residents at the station for the winter.

Kami had made a special send-off dinner, and everyone had gathered in the canteen, even those who usually ate in their own homes. Caine appreciated the festive atmosphere and the desire of the station hands to send everyone off in style, but as dinner turned into drinking and everyone sitting around chatting, he despaired of getting a chance to talk to Macklin alone. He wanted to know what was going on in the other man’s head, but barring that, he needed his good-night kiss, and he wasn’t going to get it in a canteen full of jackaroos. Everyone needed to realize it was late and go back to the bunkhouse or their homes so he and Macklin could go sit in Macklin’s living room again.