Jack

 

 

After we showered and dressed for bed, I pulled back the covers and hopped in, then extended my arm out in invitation. He was cute as hell in his chequered sleep pants and plain T-shirt, and he bit his lip as he climbed in beside me.

I turned the bedside lamp off and quickly pulled him into my arms. I snuggled in a bit and kissed the side of his head, and he relaxed immediately.

“Just because you’re in my bed doesn’t mean I’m going to ravish you,” I whispered into his hair. “Not saying I won’t either, but the DNA-rewriting orgasm you gave me half an hour ago kind of took the edge off.”

I could feel him smile against my chest. “This is just as good. Actually, this is very good.”

I sighed, and a contentment settled over me like sinking into a warm bath. Sleep was quick to come for us, and the last thing I remembered was thinking that morning sex sounded pretty damn good.

* * *

“Wake up, sleepy head.”

I frowned and reached in the bed for Lawson, but I found only cold sheets. I cracked one eye open. He wasn’t in bed, he was standing beside the bed with a coffee cup in his hand.

“I made this for you.”

I groaned as I stretched out. The weight of my morning wood lay heavily across my hip. “What happened to morning sex?”

He laughed and put the cup on my bedside table. “I have butterflies to find.”

It was hard to be frustrated or even disappointed when he was so damned cute. He was basically vibrating with excitement.

“I’ll make toast,” he said on his way back out the door.

I sat up and sipped my coffee with smiling lips. Mmmm, it was good. “I could get used to this,” I mumbled.

“What was that?” he called out from the kitchen. There was a clanging of plates and cutlery.

“Nothing,” I replied, smiling at the empty doorway. The truth was, I liked having him here. I liked the sound of someone else pottering about, and I really, really liked the fact it was Lawson.

After a bathroom stop, I made my way to the kitchen to find Lawson buttering two pieces of toast. He proceeded to spread one with peanut butter and one with Vegemite without asking me which I wanted and slid the plate toward me. He picked up his own coffee and sipped it. “Hope you don’t mind. I made myself at home.”

“Not at all.”

I picked the peanut butter toast, Lawson took the Vegemite piece, and he smiled as he ate it. “So, will you be joining me again today?”

“Would you like me to?”

“Yes.”

A thrill ran through me at his direct reply. “Then I shall join you.”

Lawson put the plate in the sink as he finished his toast, and he wiped down the countertop. He was babbling because he didn’t know if Rosemary usually had breakfast, but he didn’t want to give her something she shouldn’t have. He was trying to hide his excitement, but he really was buzzing. “Okay, okay,” I said, washing my toast down with coffee. “I’ll go get dressed.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

I walked up the hall to the bathroom and called out behind me, “And there’s some of Rosemary’s favourite treats in the container in the laundry.”

When I was showered, shaved, and dressed for a day in the field, I found Lawson standing at the back of his Defender. Rosemary was sitting in the back next to the tubs, and he was running through his inventory with her.

“Your office assistant is a cutie,” I said.

Lawson chuckled. “She is.”

“I was talking to Rosemary.”

Lawson’s mouth fell open, but I could see it in his eyes when he realised I’d just called him a cutie. “I’m not her assistant.”

“Of course not.”

“That would assume her in a position of authority over me.”

I leaned against the rear of his Defender and grinned at him. “Have a problem with that?”

He never missed a beat. “The only person I want in a position of authority over me is you.” He raised an eyebrow. “I have every intention of that happening tonight, but if you don’t help me get to North Scottsdale National Park in the next thirty minutes, it won’t be happening at all.”

I stood up straight and clapped my hands together. “Right. Who’s driving?”

* * *

North Scottsdale National Park was northeast of where he’d searched before, and the only access in was a dirt road, as the name suggested, north of Scottsdale. The areas we’d marked out yesterday on Lawson’s maps were estimated areas of silted clay on the town side of the mountain. Still classed as dense woodlands, the undergrowth was thicker. Theoretically, on paper, an Eltham Copper wouldn’t inhabit an area like this. But Lawson was adamant. Everything pointed to this location. A combination of the correct soil types, average rainfalls, and temperatures suitable for Notoncus ants. From the photographs of the area taken over many years, there was proof of Bursaria, but we wouldn’t know for sure until we got there.

But more than that, Lawson’s gut told him this was where he would find it.

I helped him unpack his tubs and waited for him to get ready. “What will you do if you find a whole… colony of them?”

He didn’t even look up. “Colony of what?”

“A colony of the Eltham Coppers that aren’t actually anywhere near Eltham.”

“A kaleidoscope.”

“A what?”

“The collective noun for a group of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope.”

“Oh.” Then I thought about that. “That’s actually pretty cool.”

He looked up from his iPad and smiled. “It is.”

“Who gets to name the collective nouns? Because they’re all very clever. An army of ants, a pounce of cats.”

“A flamboyance of flamingos,” he added keenly.

“A flamboyance? Who the hell named that? Actually, who the hell knows that?”

“I know that.”

“Yes, but you’re a genius.” Then I thought about that too. “Actually, a flamboyance of flamingos is pretty clever.”

Lawson smiled. “An array of hedgehogs.”

“A cackle of hyenas.”

“An ambush of tigers.”

“A parliament of owls.”

“A congress of gorillas.”

“Oooh, that’s a good one,” I said. “I take it I’m not the only one who finds the collective nouns interesting.”

“I used to read them when I was little.”

That made me smile. The thought of a little Lawson with his nose in a book, no doubt. “When did you catch your first butterfly?”

“I was four.”

“Wow. That’s young.”

“My grandfather was an enthusiast. He gave me a catching kit for my fourth birthday.”

“A catching kit?”

“Yes, you know the green and orange kits with a plastic cylindrical holding jar with a small net.”

“Oh, I had one of those. I caught grasshoppers.”

Lawson smiled as he scrolled through something on his iPad. “Then the following Christmas, he gave me a proper kit with an actual killing jar. I was very excited.”

“About getting a killing jar?”

“It’s not the most favourite part, and truthfully it’s more humane than the old practices of stabbing an entomological pin through the thorax. And it’s only a rarity that any individual butterfly is killed these days. We have such good technology for studying them that we don’t need to.” He smiled sadly. “I remember when I caught my first monarch, my grandfather made me put it in the killing jar. It was quick, but it was awful to watch. I cried for days.”

“Oh, that’s horrible.” I went to him and put my hand on his arm. “I’m sorry.”

He gave me an honest, appreciative smile. “Thank you. But I was five.”

“And it drove you to spend your life dedicated to protecting the species?”

He laughed. “It wasn’t quite that dramatic, but something like that.”

I kissed his cheek. “So, if you do find one of these butterflies, what do you do?”

“Photograph, video, record data.” He took a deep breath. “And make some phone calls.”

“Is there a Butterfly Justice League or something that sends out a protective detail?” I joked.

He smirked at me. “There is. You’re looking at it. Do I detect an inner nerd familiar with Justice League?”

I barked out a laugh. “There is a lot you don’t know about me, inner nerd included.”

He chuckled again. “I never was one to back down from a challenge.” He scrolled and swiped at his iPad screen. “Later though, if you don’t mind. Right now, I have much BJL work to do.”

“BJL?”

He rolled his eyes. “Butterfly Justice League.”

I laughed as I left him to do his thing. I went about my own data collection, taking photos and soil samples. He was quicker in his assessments this time. Still methodical and thorough, but there was a pressure and urgency now. The additional information gave him extra drive, and it compounded his disappointment when he found nothing.

He’d assessed three sites before lunch. He concentrated on the areas of preferred soil type, did his grid thing, and came up empty-handed.

His mood wasn’t exactly a happy one as I offered him some lunch. He bit into his apple and frowned as he chewed. “I’ve found grass blues and common whites, so it’s feasible the Eltham might be here.”

I knew there wasn’t much I could say that would make him feel any better, so I listened to him instead.

“Professor Tillman spent the better part of six decades looking for this particular species. You know what? I don’t think I’m cut out for that. I understand patience is key, and I was foolish to think I could find it in a week.”

“You’ve made great progress.”

He took another bite of his apple, chewed, and swallowed it down. “Am I supposed to spend every weekend of the next fifty years searching every national park in the state?”

I shrugged. “Yes.”

He went to reply but stopped, and his shoulders sagged. Instead he took a deep breath. “I guess so.”

“You know it might not be all bad. You’ll go back to Victoria but get to come back every weekend you can. I’m not opposed to seeing you on weekends.”

Lawson opened his mouth, then promptly closed it. “I don’t want to think about that just yet.”

“About seeing me again?”

He shook his head slowly. “No. About not seeing you again.”

I stepped in front of him and put my hand to his face. “I don’t want to think about it either, but we’re running out of days, Lawson.” I kissed him softly. “When do you leave?”

“In three days.”

I sighed, closed my eyes, and pressed my forehead to his.

Three days.

“This is kind of insane, isn’t it?” I asked. “I’ve only known you for a few days.”

“Five days. Six days if you include today.” His blue eyes met mine, our foreheads still touching. “It’s not insane. Insanity is a state of mind which prevents normal perception and/or behaviours.”

I chuckled at his clinical reply, but he pulled back so he could see my face properly and shrugged. “Jack, what I perceive of you, and how I’ve conducted myself in your company is with full mental cohesion.” His cheeks stained with colour. “And Einstein would have you believe that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” He bit his lip and laughed at himself, I think. “But I don’t want different results. I wouldn’t change a thing.”

I kissed him, deeper this time. It wasn’t a kiss that was leading to something more. It was simply an I-have-to-kiss-you-right-now kind of kiss. He’d just professed how he felt to me, as only Lawson could. By giving me a clinical definition of insanity and quoting Einstein, of course.

I ended the kiss with a flutter of butterfly kisses against his cheek. “I wouldn’t change a thing either,” I whispered. “Except for the whole leaving thing.”

“Except for that.”

* * *

We drove further north, deeper into the national park, the track now no more than a four-wheel drive fire trail. The terrain went from undulating woodlands to steeper, open forest. The canopy wasn’t exactly touching but the undergrowth was thicker and made for difficult assessment of possible activity.

But it didn’t stop him. I doubted much would. Again, he did his own research and I did mine, though I could hear him whistling or muttering to himself periodically, so I knew where he was at all times.

But he found no Notoncus ants, and therefore, no Eltham Copper butterfly.

There was nothing at the second site we went to after that either.

Cloud cover was starting to roll in from the south, which troubled me. After Lawson had thrown his storage tubs into the back of the Defender, he pulled off his hat and wiped his sweaty forehead. “The humidity is rising.”

I pointed to the sky. “Those clouds are coming from the south, too.”

“And that’s not a good thing?”

“Usually means storms.”

He sipped his water bottle and moaned. “Please let it rain. It’s so dry and hot. Never thought I’d miss Melbourne weather. This here never changes. Back home we’d be onto our third season of the day by this time: arctic southerlies, desert westerlies, monsoon rain. This here is just plain old hot and dry.”

I put my hands out and felt the sweat roll down my back. “This is a perfect summer day.” Truth be told, it was stinking fucking hot and dry as a chip.

Lawson rolled his eyes. “What’s your favourite season?”

“All of them.”

“You can’t love all of them.”

“I do. In summer, I love winter. In winter, I love summer.”

Lawson laughed and threw his water bottle at me. I caught it easily and finished it off. “We’d better get heading back. That road in isn’t going to be easy going if this storm hits.”

He nodded reluctantly.

“I’m driving,” I announced as he buckled Rosemary into her seat harness. “There’s something I want to show you. It’s not far from here.”

I followed the trail further north—the overhung branches scraped up the side of the Defender—and pulled off at a closed gate. “Is that private property?” Lawson asked.

“No. It’s all Park’s land, but we closed access. It’s not locked, but it keeps the innocent people out. Plus, most people who use this road are heading through to Bridport. They don’t stop along here.” I got out and opened the gate, pushing it into the scrub to keep it open. I jumped back in and drove the Defender through and kept on going.

“Shouldn’t we have closed the gate?” Lawson asked, looking behind us. “Rule of thumb in the country is, you leave gates as you find them.”

I grinned at him. “I know, but we won’t be long.”

I drove for maybe a hundred metres, but with the winding and bumpy trail, it was slower going than I’d have liked. When I got to as far as the trail would take us, I stopped the Defender and undid my seatbelt. “We walk from here. It’s not far, but we’ll have to be quick.”

Lawson was excited but cautious. “Should I be worried? Maybe my first impression of you being a serial killer was founded.”

I laughed as I got out. I opened up the back door, unclipped Rosemary, and pointed directly ahead. “This way.”

We’d only been walking for a little while to a symphony of birdlife when he asked, “How far are we going?”

“Almost there. See the clearing up ahead?” As we entered the clearing, I could see the sky had darkened considerably. “Okay, we need to be quick. This way.”

I took us to the right of the clearing where a gully formed before the line of trees. I jumped down into the gully and back into the treed area and held onto Rosemary’s collar.

“Why did you stop?” Lawson whispered.

“Look over there, twenty metres through the gully.” I nodded ahead. “Listen.”

He craned his neck and his brow furrowed as he concentrated. I could hear it, and I waited for him to. His eyes flashed to mine. “What the hell is that?”

The noise was very distinct. Growls, hisses, screams, and screeches. It sounded like there were younglings. My grin got wider. “We can look. But we can’t get too close.”

Lawson’s gaze searched and searched, and I could see the moment he found them because he smiled. “Tasmanian devils.”

I nodded excitedly. “And joeys. They’re very vocal.”

We could see two baby devils rumbling and jumping on each other. They were the cutest things. Black with bands of white across the chest, little tails, and huge jaws.

“There’s been a den here for years. The same female comes here to have her babies year in, year out. We’ve been keeping an eye on them. The bitch has been tagged, but she’s healthy, her joeys are healthy, so we leave them be.”

Then a third joey pounced onto his siblings and more growling and snarling ensued, followed by more rumbling and rough-play.

I took out my phone and snapped photographs. “I’ll send these to the STDP.”

“What’s the STDP?” he asked, not taking his eyes off the playful joeys.

“Save the Tasmanian Devil Program,” I explained. “We give them any information we can. They do some great work.”

“Where’s the mother?” Lawson asked.

“She’d be sleeping, probably. With one eye open on this lot, I’d say. They’re nocturnal mostly, but will bask in the sun.” I watched the joeys play. “Cute, huh?”

“Oh, Jack, they’re remarkable.”

It was silly how his words could cause my heart to skip a beat. But his love for and understanding of what I did made me happier than I could explain.

He put his hand on my arm as he took a small step and leaned so he could get a better look. Thunder rolled overhead, and I looked up at the sky. “Come on. It’s time we weren’t here.”

We climbed up the embankment of the gully, and I headed left, back toward the way we’d come. I only got a few steps with Rosemary when I realised Lawson wasn’t with me. I turned to find him stopped, staring in the other direction.

“Lawson, we gotta get going.”

Without looking at me, he put his hand up. “Wait one sec…”

I barely heard him over the rumble of the sky. “Lawson―”

But he was already walking in the wrong direction, over to the far edge of the clearing. He stopped and looked up. “What direction is this?”

“Uh, north, I think. Why?”

He was inspecting something near the trees. “Jack! Jack, come quick!”

I ran over to him. He was now crouching down, lifting the bottom of a shrub off the ground.

A Bursaria shrub.

He was looking at ants…

Oh, holy shit.

Then he put his hands down and leaned real low to look up under the leaves of the shrub.

Ants quickly crawled over his hands. “Lawson, the ants…”

“They don’t bite,” he said absently, not even looking. Then he lifted the bottom branches of the shrub and gently poked a pen into the roots of the plant. And as if right on cue, a little copper coloured butterfly flittered out and landed right near his hand. Then another, then another.

Lawson fell back in shock, scrambling to stay off his arse, and put his hand to his mouth, his eyes wide. He glanced at me. “Jack.”

I nodded.

One butterfly took flight again, skipping across the air before landing back in the shrub. Lawson took his phone out and his hands were shaking so badly he could barely scroll to his camera. He took some photos, then had the presence of mind to switch his phone to video mode. He filmed it, this tiny little creature, as it stretched its wings and skittered to a different leaf.

Thunder cracked through the sky just above our heads, scaring the crap out of both of us. Rosemary whined. “Shit that was close. Lawson, we have to go. Now. We can come back tomorrow, first thing. I promise.”

He nodded, took a dozen photos of the ground, the shrub, the clearing, then another quick succession of shots of the butterfly, just as the rain began to fall.

“Lawson, now. Or that road will be impassable.”

He spun around and got to his feet. The rain had begun to flatten his hair and made his shirt cling to his chest, but his grin was huge. “I found it.”

I grabbed his arm and pulled him along with me. “Come on.”

Together, along with Rosemary, we ran back to the Defender. I jumped into the driver’s side and Lawson jumped into the back with Rosemary. I threw the Defender into reverse, and looking over my shoulder, I reversed the whole way out down the trail to the gate.

Lawson had harnessed Rosemary in, then jumped out to pull the gate shut. When he got into the front passenger’s seat, he was still grinning. Actually, he was buzzing. He stomped his feet and did some crazy laughing dance in his seat. Laughing with him, or at him, I shifted the gears into first and started down the trail. “Seatbelt,” I said gently, as he obviously hadn’t remembered.

He clicked his belt in. “Jack, I found it!”

“Lawson, it was incredible. And it’s so small. I wasn’t expecting it to be so small.”

“I know!” he said, nodding excitedly. He was still bouncing in his seat. “Oh my God, I need to call the professor.” He pulled his phone out and did a quick scroll of the photos again. His hands were shaking. The energy he was giving off was incredible. Even Rosemary was standing on the backseat smiling at Lawson. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself before he dialled the professor. He hit Call, put the phone to his ear, looked at me, and grinned. “Professor Tillman? This is Lawson Gale.” I couldn’t hear exactly what the professor said, but Lawson then added, “You’ll never guess what I found today.”

There was a second of silence, then I could hear the professor’s muffled voice, and Lawson laughed. His excitement was so contagious, even I was smiling despite the torrential rain and shitty dirt road.

“I’ll send you some photos, to the email you gave me. You can confirm, but I’m confident it’s it. Looks like the Eltham Copper but has five small dots on the hindwing with tapered black edges.”

He saw all that detail?

Lawson laughed. “Yes! Yes! I know! It’s so remarkable. We’re just returning to town now. The weather has turned bad, so once I get to my laptop, I’ll forward you what I have… Yes, we’re heading back up in the morning, weather permitting, of course.”

They spoke briefly before disconnecting the call. He looked at Rosemary, then at me, his grin still firmly in place. “I found it.”

I laughed. “So you keep saying.”

“I can’t believe it.”

“Can I ask something?”

“Yes, of course.”

“What do butterflies do when it rains?”

He laughed. “They hide. Under leaves, bark, logs, large rocks, anything they can find. That’s what they were doing when I interrupted them: trying to get out of the coming rain.”

As we came down the mountain, the Defender slipped on the dirt road a few times, and I sighed with relief when we reached the tarmac. Lawson seemed oblivious, because he looked at me and smiled. “Can we please go past my place so I can grab my laptop and a change of clothes?”

“You don’t want to just stay there?” Then I added, “With me. I mean I’ll come to your place with you.”

“I’d rather not. Mrs Bloom is nosey, and I love the privacy your place provides.” He waggled an eyebrow at me. “I have plans for tonight, remember?”

“Should we get some wine? I think celebrations are in order, don’t you?”

His grin hadn’t waned one bit. “I think wine and celebrations are definitely in order.”

* * *

After Lawson had raced into the B&B, he came back out with a laptop bag and jumped into the Defender, out of breath and rain running down his face. He looked at the clothes sticking out the side of his bag, then smiled at me. “I multitasked.”

I laughed and pulled the Defender up in front of the hotel. “Won’t be one sec.” I braced for the deluge of rain, though it had eased up a little. It was more wind now. I raced for the front doors of the hotel and ordered two bottles of the same wine Lawson had brought home the other night. When I got back into the Defender, he had his phone pressed to his ear and his smile was gone.

“I am advising of my find, not to gloat, but out of professional courtesy. I most certainly will not be sending photographs until Professor Tillman has confirmed what we both suspect is a new species.”

Okay then. Someone was having their arse handed to them. I had to admit. Lawson was sexy as hell when he was pissed. I hated that some jerk had ruined his mood, though. It was a monumental day by anyone’s standards, and some dickhead was trying to bring him down.

“I’m technically on leave until Monday, so you can do whatever it is you see fit… By all means, please do. You can also tell him to expect a full report from me, which I’m certain he’ll love. I’ll make a point of dedicating an entire subsection to you and how you’ve just requested to go against protocol… That’s fine, Professor Asterly, but after all the years we’ve worked together can you tell me what I am?”

Lawson tilted his head as he listened. “Yes, well. That too. But more than being a pain in your arse, I am unbiased to the facts, and I won’t be manipulated. It’s unfortunate that your emotional reaction is to be hurt, but I can’t be responsible for how you feel, Professor… No, that won’t be necessary. I’ll be in contact with him directly. He can let you know when I will return.”

I was almost home by the time he got off the phone. Lawson growled in frustration. “That man is an ignoramus.”

“Your boss, I take it?”

“Yes. Ugh. I shouldn’t have called. I only did so as a gesture of goodwill, and he seems to think himself invited to come down here. No doubt to have his name associated in some way.”

I drove into my driveway and turned off the engine. “Lawson, forget about him. Until he gets here, if he gets here. Enjoy tonight, get all your data on file, send it to Professor Tillman, then tomorrow we can go back and you can get all the data you need.” I just wanted to see him smile again. “Wanna go in and upload the photos? Get a closer look?”

It worked because his lips twitched until he smiled. “Yes, please.” He leaned forward and looked up at the low, grey sky. “That looks like it’s set in.”

“I can check the meteorology site. See if you can get back up there tomorrow.” From the look he gave me, I was pretty sure he was going anyway, rain or not. “Come on.” I opened the door and got out into the wind and rain. I unharnessed Rosemary while Lawson made a run for the door with his laptop.

Inside, we dried off with towels. It wasn’t exactly cold, but the temperature had dropped some with the storm. “You warm enough?” I asked.

He nodded, but it wasn’t convincing. “I might get changed, is that okay?”

“Sure. I’ll see what I can organise for dinner.”

When he came out, he was wearing his chequered sleep pants and a T-shirt. He looked completely comfortable and at home. It took the breath from my lungs.

He looked down at himself. “This okay?”

I nodded stupidly. “More than okay.”

He looked into the pantry where I stood with the door open. I picked up a packet of couscous. “Well, I can do a Greek lamb and couscous thing, or―”

“Tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches,” he said, reaching in and taking a can of tomato soup.

I chuckled. “You’re a man after my own heart.” I took the can from him and kissed his cheek. “You go start on your photos. I’ll fix dinner.”

He stood in my kitchen, looking all kinds of adorable. “I will cook for you one day.”

I barked out a laugh. “Yes. Yes, you will.”

* * *

So he busied himself in the lounge room while I got changed into my PJ’s too, heated the soup, and made some toasted sandwiches. The wind howled outside, splashes of inconsistent rain hit the roof, thunder and lightning boomed through the sky. But inside was warm and dry and peacefully, blissfully quiet.

When I walked out with his soup and sandwich, I found him sitting on the floor, leaning against the couch, laptop on his legs, and his eyes trained on the screen with Rosemary asleep against his leg.

It stopped me where I stood. My heart squeezed and my mouth went dry.

Such a simple thing, really. A truly domestic sight that sent a pang of longing through to my core. I never realised it was what I wanted. It never occurred to me that I should yearn for something so basic. Sure, I’d had times of loneliness, but I never thought to myself, gee, I wish I had someone who would sit on my floor in his pyjamas and do his work with my dog curled up at his side… well, until I saw it. Now I’m pretty sure I wanted nothing else.

Lawson looked up at me expectantly, oblivious to the profound realisation I’d just had.

I held up his plate. “Dinner’s ready. Want it down there or at the table?”

He smiled and my breath caught. Man, I was in trouble. “Down here, if that’s okay.”

We ate in the lounge room, he on the floor, me on the sofa behind him. The soup was a perfect dinner, homely and all comfort as the weather made a fuss outside. Lawson did what he needed to do while I sat and watched him work. I also played with the hair at the nape of his neck, relishing the wake of goosebumps that followed each trail of my finger. When he declared he’d done all he could do, he pounced on me.

He straddled my hips, resting his arse on my legs, and he planted both hands on either side of my face and kissed me.

And holy hell, it was some kind of kiss.

He rocked his hips back and forth seeking friction. “Jack.” He breathed the word into my mouth. “Take me to bed.”

I was going to pick him up―I could have easily―so he could wrap his legs around me, but he climbed off and stood in front of me. And waited.

I stood up to my full height, so close our chests touched, and I slid one hand around his jaw and crushed my mouth to his. I could feel his erection poking into my thigh, and he slid both hands over my arse and pulled our hips together. He broke the kiss. “Jack. Bed.”

He was getting impatient. And I had to admit, I really liked a bossy bottom. It turned me on to be with a man who wasn’t afraid to tell me what he wanted.

I took his hand and led him down the hall to my room. I left the lights off, I could see him just fine. I pulled his shirt over his head and kissed down his shoulder. “You want me inside you?”

He moaned quietly. “Yes.” He craned his neck as I kissed back up to his jaw. “God, yes.”

I slid my fingertips under the elastic of his sleep pants and pushed them over his arse and whispered in his ear, “I want to taste your arse first.”

“Oh god,” he breathed.

I gripped his erection and gave him a few languid strokes. “Get on the bed, Lawson. Face down.”

He did as I instructed, stepping out of his pyjama pants and kneeling on the bed before slowly lying down. Lightning cracked outside, illuminating the room. God, he looked so amazing. I stepped over to the bedside table and threw a condom and the bottle of lube onto the bed beside him. He fisted the duvet in anticipation.

I knelt on the bed and pushed his legs apart, running my hands up the back of his thighs and over his arse. I leaned in and breathed a slow warm breath over his hole.

“Jack, fucking hurry up.”

I loved that he only swore during sex. But apparently me taking my time with him was not on his agenda. “I can’t wait to hear your filthy mouth,” I murmured against the skin at the base of his spine. Thunder boomed outside and the static in the room amped its charge.

“My mouth isn’t filthy,” he replied on a whisper. There was no conviction in his voice.

I spread his arse cheeks and ran my tongue up his crack, pressing into his hole. He fisted the sheets at his sides and raised his arse for me. “Oh, fuck!”

I smiled victoriously. “You like that?”

“Yes, please more.”

Thunder rolled far off and lightning lit up the sky through the window. His arse was perfect, illuminated by the storm outside. Pale and round cheeks and a perfect, tight hole. He wanted more, so I gave him exactly that. I fucked him with my tongue and he grunted with every pass. But it soon wasn’t enough.

“More.”

I flipped the lid on the lube and poured a decent drop down his crack, and slipped my finger inside him.

“Mmm,” he hummed, rocking his hips for me.

“You love it, don’t you?”

“God yes. More.”

I added a second finger and curled them, searching for his prostate.

“Oh fuck,” he growled.

There was another curse word. I’m sure he had more in him. So I played with him a bit, stretching him, testing his patience while turning him on. He slipped his hand under his hips, no doubt to grab his cock. “I need more,” he said with a tortured groan. “I need your cock inside me.”

There was nothing like hearing him beg.

I pulled out my fingers and he responded by raising his hips off the mattress so he could jerk himself. God, he was so hard and so desperate for it.

I rolled a condom down my length and slicked myself up with lube, then added more to his arse. He hummed an impatient sound. “Jack, I need you now.”

I knelt behind him and swiped the head of my cock up and down his crack. He rocked back and forth, wanting, needing. “This what you want?”

“Fuck yes.”

I did it again, this time pressing in a fraction, only to pull away again, giving him another swipe.

Lawson pushed up so he knelt on the bed and turned his head. An angry, frustrated flush covered his cheeks. “I need you to fuck me. So quit playing with my arse and bury your cock in it.”

And there it was.

That filthy fucking mouth.

I put one hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down on the bed, leaving his arse raised. With my other hand, I lined my cockhead to his hole and pushed in.

There was no filthy mouth now, just short gasping breaths that became a long keening sound the deeper I pushed in. “That what you wanted?”

He cried out underneath me. “Yes, yes. Fuck yes.”

I pulled out a little, only to push back in deeper, beginning to slowly thrust into him. He gasped and grunted with each breath, the most wonderful sounds. When I was buried to my balls inside him, I stayed there. I ran my hands over his shoulders, down his back, massaging him as I gave him time to adjust. He responded by rocking his hips, wordlessly asking for more.

“Oh God,” he murmured. “You’re so big.”

“And you can take every inch,” I said, thrusting into him sharply.

He let out a long low groan, but raised his arse. “I can feel your pulse inside me.”

Oh fucking hell. His dirty mouth would be the end of me.

“Jack,” he moaned. “Fuck me.”

I thrust into him again and again, listening to his whimpers and moans, his whispered pleas for more. I was so close to coming. He felt so damn good, his arse was so warm and slick, but I needed to feel his mouth as well.

“I want to see you.” I slowly pulled out. “Roll over.”

He quickly did as I told him to and lifted his knees to his chest. I pushed into his welcoming heat in one thrust, watching his eyes flutter closed. His mouth gaped open at the intrusion.

I crushed my mouth to his, tangling my tongue against his. Lawson’s hands went to my hair and then my jaw, and he held my face right where he wanted me.

He kissed me deeply until he needed air. “God, you’re so far inside me.”

Lawson’s words made my balls ache. I slammed into him, and his neck corded with strain. I grunted as I spoke. “If you keep talking like that, you’ll make me come.”

“Fuck yes.” Lawson’s arms tightened around me. “So good, Jack. This is what I need.”

“You need to come first,” I said, pushing up to lean on my left hand. I took his cock into my right hand and pumped him. Precome pulsed from his tip, so I ran my thumb through it, slicking his shaft.

“Oh fuck,” Lawson cried out. His hands fisted the sheets at his side. I drilled into him, fucking his arse as I pumped his cock. Then his eyes went wide and his mouth fell open. His whole body went taut, and his cock throbbed in my hand before shooting stripes of come across his belly as lightning struck somewhere close.

I pushed every inch into him, spreading his legs wider and fucking his mouth with my tongue while he rode out his orgasm on my cock.

But the need, the urgency was gone, and I could take my time now. When he sagged, sated and smiling, I let go of his cock and leaned over him. I thrust slower, deeper now his body was pliable and relaxed. He put his hand to my face and we kissed as I made love to him. Rocking slowly, savouring every second of being inside him. My climax built, slow and steady, and Lawson held my face as I came.

He gasped as I filled the condom deep within him. “I can feel every pulse,” he whispered, his eyes wide with wonder. Then he kissed me as my orgasm rocketed through me.

I collapsed on top of him and he held me tight as my breathing returned to normal. What I experienced wasn’t just a physical release. Something inside me shifted as well. I was pretty sure my heart had fallen for him.

I could feel his heartbeat against my chest, and I wondered if―I hoped―he felt the same.

Lawson’s fingers traced patterns across my back, and I slowly pulled out of him. I rolled out of bed to discard of the condom, and he pulled up the blanket. When I came back, he smiled at my naked form and held the blanket open for me. I climbed in and he settled himself into the crook of my arm. I kissed the side of his head. “Want a shower?”

“No. Just want to lie here. Fall asleep with you.”

I pulled away, and with my fingers under his chin, I tilted his face so I could look into his eyes. “Are you staying the night?”

He smiled at me. “Is that a problem?”

I tucked him back into my arms and snuggled in. “No problem at all.”

He was quiet a minute, but I could tell by his breathing he was awake. “So um, sex with you is amazing.”

I barked out a laugh. “I could say the same to you.”

“Yes, you could.”

I was still grinning. “Sex with you is amazing.”

He sighed happily. “Thanks.”

I kissed his forehead again as the rain fell outside. “It was better than amazing. You’re better than amazing.”

He froze before he lifted his head to look at me. “So are you.”

His face was ethereal in the silver of the darkened room. I swallowed hard. “Tell me I’m not alone in what I feel.”

He studied my face, searching for what, I don’t know. “What do you feel?”

“That this is something special. That whatever this is shouldn’t end when you go back to Melbourne.”

His eyes bore into mine. “I don’t want this to end.”

“Me either.”

“Promise me we’ll work something out.”

Thunder boomed outside, lightning split the sky as the storm raged. Outside, a frenzy whipped around us. Yet I’d never felt more calm, more peace than I did in that moment. “I promise.” I fluttered my eyelashes on his cheek, making him smile.

“You’re the first person to ever give me butterfly kisses.”

“Really? But you’re a butterfly expert.”

He kissed me softly, lingering, but pulled away with a sigh as he settled his head on my chest. “I came to Tasmania in search of an elusive species. And I found it. But never in my wildest dreams did I expect to find you. And I believe I found a type of butterfly that exists only in my belly which only makes itself known when I think of you. Though sometimes they lodge in my throat when I see you and they make breathing somewhat difficult.”

I smiled at his way with words, tightened my hold on him and grinned at the ceiling. “Me too.”

With Lawson in my arms and the storm raging outside, my body sated and feeling more content than I could ever remember, I fell asleep with a happy heart and what could possibly be a permanent smile.

* * *

I woke to a panic. My phone was ringing, my pager was beeping, and Rosemary was barking. I sat up, grabbed my phone to see it wasn’t even five a.m. Lawson was now awake, sitting up beside me, looking confused and disoriented. I answered my phone.

It was my rural fire inspector, Tony Wells. His voice was loud and brusque.

“Jack! We’ve got a Category Three bushfire. She’s in Oxberry. 10k northeast of Scottsdale, but mate, she’s heading straight for you.”