Chapter Twelve

The sun had dipped below the horizon by the time Sera slid into the front seat of the Road Runner.

Hazel and Marcy had gone off shopping together hours ago, with Hazel promising to drop her new minion home ‘some time’ so Sera had stayed on. She’d built the Cinderella Project logo, bought web space and signed up for all the social media accounts. It felt like she’d finished the uphill slog and the rest of the project would be an easy slide down the other side.

The contract had been open-ended, dependent upon Hazel’s needs as they arose, but the foundation could be finished in another couple of weeks. And then what? Another change?

Shaking off the discomfort that brought on, Sera slid her key into the ignition. Twisted. And nothing happened. She really wasn’t in the mood for this.

She tried again. Whir. Whir-rer-rerrrr...

“Argh!” She screamed at the sky. It looked majestically back.

She bumped the door with her shoulder. It bumped back. Teeth gritted, she rolled back into the seat well and shoved with her feet, kicking the thing open with such force her knees jarred and her teeth knocked together.

She was starting to hate this car she’d so loved.

She heaved herself and her bag out of the vehicle right as a body appeared out of the evening gloom.

Instinct kicking in, she lashed with an elbow. “Hi-yah!”

The body was faster, stronger. It grabbed her arm and pinned it between them. “Hell, Sera. It’s me.”

Me smelled so good. Felt even better all squashed up against her.

“Murdoch,” she said, “you scared the hell out of me.”

Yet she didn’t push him away. Because for all the ‘what next’ questions rolling around inside her head, the ones surrounding him were the loudest.

“Problem?” he asked, eyeing her car with that gleam men got in their eyes when they were near a beast with that much grunt. Pity then the thing was a broken dream and more than she could probably afford.

“Won’t start. Door’s not working right. Needs a new alternator. And I think the injection coil might be cracked. And it’s been stuck under this ruddy Jacaranda for days which means it’ll need a polish by the time all the sap soaks in. Apart from that...peachy.”

He raised an eyebrow at her feisty tone. “Need a lift?”

“I was heading home. Is that even on your way?”

Yep. He knew enough about her to offer her father a chance at working on a ’48 Chevy truck, while she hadn’t a clue where the guy lived. She might as well have been having romantic fantasies about the Grand Canyon.

Then he had to go and say, “I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

If only.

Fed up, she said, “You know what? I don’t actually care where we go. You decide.”

He looked at her for a beat. Then another. Then cocked his head towards his Ute a few doors down on the other side of the road.

She pushed the door to the Road Runner shut, fighting against the creaking metal and giving it a kick closed for good measure. Murdoch said nothing. Good man.

At his Ute, he opened her door first, held out a hand to help her inside. She took off her jacket and threw it in the back. Her bag followed. Then she buckled herself in while he eased his large frame into the driver’s seat.

He gunned the engine. It started smoothly on the first go. And she settled in for the ride.

That lasted about two minutes before she blurted. “So, where are we going?”

All she got was a crooked smile. “I have somewhere in mind.”

Then he fiddled with the digital radio some until he found a fifties station. Playing Elvis. “Trouble”, no less. He shot her a look. She returned it with a wry smile.

Then she leant her head back against the neck rest and watched the sky fade from purple to black as the lights of Sydney flickered by.

“Quite the crew you’ve assembled today,” she said, his voice rough from underuse.

A beat slunk by before he grunted his agreement. “We were falling behind.”

“Not what Hazel thinks.”

His gaze shot to hers before looking back at the road ahead. “She said that?”

Sera ran a hand through her hair, tugging at her scalp to get some blood flowing anywhere but the places that came alive being this near the guy. “She thinks you’re trying to rid yourself of her as soon as humanly possible.”

No response.

“Are you?” Sera asked, expecting denial – it was his default position after all.

“Probably.”

Well, that was a turnaround for the books.

“No. Not her so much as the job.”

“Why?”

He waited till he pulled up at a red light then turned to her, his hand resting on the gear stick mere millimetres from her thigh.

“Reasons.”

Something about the way he said it made her skin warm and tighten all over. “Care to share them?”

His gaze flicked to her mouth, his hands gripping the steering wheel tighter. But then the light turned green and off he drove. And all he said was, “Sooner this job’s over, the better.”

Funny that she’d been thinking the exact opposite. Or maybe not so funny. Especially if it was indicative of how far apart their hopes for what could happen between them might be.

They finally slowed in a leafy little pocket of Pymble, north of the city, where the blocks were large and the trees old.

He pulled into an unfenced property and down a driveway lined by trees. As they approached, sensor lights lit up the property revealing a small stone cottage set back off the road. The garden was well kept. A small creek ran up the side of the drive. And a huge Jacaranda had begun to bud.

“Where are we?” she asked, peering through the windscreen at the quiet moon-dappled house.

“First house I ever renovated.”

“Yours?”

He leant his forearms on the steering wheel and shook his head. “It belonged to Hazel’s first husband. A good man from what I heard. An old school lawyer. It was his family home. After he died – long before I knew Hazel – it was left to disrepair. Took her a long time to get over him. After Carly died, Hazel offered it to me to fix up. Said it was time. Forced it on me, really. I reckon she’d have shackled me to the stone if that’s what it had taken. It was a chimney to foundation renovation, it was back breaking, and it saved me. I owe her a lot.”

Sera let that settle. “Does anyone live there?”

He shook his head.

“Do you have a key?”

He pulled a key ring out of his pocket, thumbed through the keys till they found the right one.

She was out of the car before he had the chance to help, then up the front path and onto the pretty little porch.

Murdoch slid a big, old key into the lock and the front door opened with far more grace than Sera’s much younger car. The man had skills.

They wandered through the tiny house, the stone walls soft with age, the creamy window panes reflecting the moonlight, the slate floors looked so soft she had to reach down and touch them. It was beautifully restored – its age clear, the amenities discreetly modern.

Along with skills, the man had finesse. Respect. And she wondered if he had any idea these vignettes he provided in an effort to discourage her from pursuing him served to do the exact opposite.

“I wanted to thank you for what you did for my dad today.”

“Hmm?”

“Asking him about your dad’s Chevy. Even the thought of getting stuck into a new project lit him up. I can’t tell you how much that means to me.”

“No need,” he said, his gaze snagging on hers.

Then he moved past her to usher her out the door.

It was only halfway back to the car that Sera realised that while she’d assumed this excursion was another effort at discouraging her, he’d not actually said anything of the sort. Not once. Even his story about Hazel, while poignant, wasn’t laced with any ‘keep out’ signs.

A moment later, he reached out and slid his hands inside of hers.

She stopped, looked down at where they touched, then looked up into his eyes. They were shadowed by the overhanging trees. Too dark to reflect even a glint of moonlight.

He wrapped his fingers tighter around hers. Then tugged her towards his truck.

And when they got there...

He spun her and pressed her against the side.

Her breath left her lungs in a whoosh. Her entire body felt airless and heavy at the same time.

Then he slid a knee between hers, his hands resting on the top of the cab by her head, trapping her. Like he thought she might actually try to get away. Ha!

His face hovered millimetres from hers. Their breaths mingled. The sounds of night were swallowed by the dark copse of trees overhanging them.

And while she ached for him to kiss her, to touch her, to take the edge off the desperate need rocketing inside of her, his eyes roved over her face. As if he needed first to learn every rise and fall, every nuance.

When his eyes finally found hers, they were dark, gleaming from the reflection of the dappled moonlight off the white of his truck.

Sera couldn’t think of a moment when she’d felt more outside of her own body while also deeply grounded within. Her senses reeling, tripping, tumbling. And apart from the leg wedged between hers the man wasn’t even touching her. Yet.

“What do want from me, Serafina?” he said, his voice a rumble that hummed hotly through every inch of her.

She opened her mouth to tell him, but her throat was constricted to the point of pain. Her breaths came ragged and hard. His hot body branded her in a way she’d never felt before.

“Fine,” he said, a smile tugging at both corners of his beautiful mouth. “I’ll tell you what I want. I want to taste every inch of you. I want to be inside of you. I want to see your eyes turn dark and your skin turn pink. And I want to lose myself in you. You drive me crazy, Serafina, till I don’t remember how to think straight. I tried convincing myself I didn’t want that. When that didn’t work, I tired convincing myself I couldn’t handle it.”

“And now?” she asked.

“Now,” he said, and crushed his lips to hers in a kiss she felt right to the centre of her soul.

Not about to wreck another shirt, she went at him another way – by untucking his Henley from the waistband of his jeans.

When her palms found skin, the muscles twitching at her touch, she shivered. His skin was like velvet, the muscles beneath hard and hot. And the scrape of hair arrowing from his belly button to his jeans... Oh, my.

Now became the word of the day. Now, now, now, chanting inside her head like the drums of war.

He growled against her mouth as she popped the top button of his jeans.

She grinned, got kissed on the teeth for her efforts.

He pressed harder against her, ensnaring her between the cold metal and his big hard body. Then he took her gently by the chin, stilling her. Filling her with tension and heat and need and affection.

When his tongue slid along her top lip her grin disappeared.

When he tilted her head and opened his mouth to her, her whole world turned a hazy red and every thought dissolved until she was nothing but sensation.

Desire, tingling, pulsing... The cold evening air a stark contrast to the heat of his kisses. Goose bumps popped up all over her flesh. Then she began to tremble.

“Cold?” he asked.

“Not a bit,” she said, as his hands ran down her arms and landed on her hips.

With a deep, rumbling hum, his mouth nuzzled against her neck. His thumbs found their way under the hem of her t-shirt, then made small circles on her belly. Her trembles turned to wracking shivers.

When he pulled back, she reached out for him, only to find him opening the cab door.

He was back kissing her the moment he was able. Soon, together, they fell into the big back seat. Finesse forgotten.

“Ow. Ow, ow, ow,” she said, flinching off the seat.

“What? What happened?”

“Seat belt buckle. It’s not as big in here as it looks.” She moved the heavy silver clip from under her shoulder, and shuffled her bag out of the way too.

“The Chevy has more room.”

Sera pressed her head into the seat. “Oh, you know that for sure, do you?”

“I was sixteen once.”

“I’ll see your Chevy and raise you a Miata. Son of one of dad’s work mates had one. He’d dropped the pan to allow the seats to sit as close to the floor as possible while still using sliders so the seats would recline.”

“Fuck, Sera,” he said, closing his eyes against the image.

“I’m trying here.”

His eyes sprang open. “You look like butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth, and then I remember, you have the hottest mouth of anyone woman I’ve ever met.”

Murdoch’s eyes burned hot and deep. He’d told her he wanted to lose himself in her. She could put up with a little discomfort for all that.

She reached around his neck, lifting her head to press her lips to his. He sank into the kiss, into her, and soon enough she felt nothing but heat and the tightening knot of desire deep inside.

As the windows of the car began to fog up, Sera rid herself of her top. She nudged off her boots. And Murdoch helped remove her skirt and tights. Kissing his way over her belly, then her thighs, her knees. Turning her to place a soft kiss on the hip she’d bruised when banging into her desk that morning. The big sweetheart.

“Kiss me,” she said, digging her hands into his hair and tugging.

“Not yet,” he mumbled, sliding his tongue slowly and thoroughly across her stomach.

“Please?” she begged, not even sure what she was begging for anymore. Her hips lifting, vision blurring, voice barely more than a croak.

“You need to learn to let some things come to you in their own time.”

“Why?”

His deep laughter rumbled from his chest to her heart. “The girl knows how to make a point. Then again, so do I.”

He kissed her on the top edge of her underpants. Glanced up and grinned that rare, cocky grin of his as she realised where he was going.

“Murdoch—”

“Shut up, Sera.”

Good thing she did because he went ahead and proved his point till she was ready to surrender every argument to the man till the end of time.

Delicious, mind-bending eons later, Sera blinked her eyes open to find Murdoch holding himself over her. A smile sitting easily on his face as he watched her come back to earth.

She ran a hand over his beautiful face before trailing it down his neck, loving the way his muscles contracted under her touch.

She let her fingers drag more slowly over the bumps and planes of his chest and his hard, flat belly, before sliding inside his jeans, the one button still popped.

She closed her eyes in wonder as she palmed his erection, hot, hard, silken. And all for her. “At least something as big as it looks.”

His laughter filled the cab. Flooding her entire body with feelings so strong she couldn’t contain them.

Needing to put that energy to good use, she tugged at his jeans, while he did the man thing and nudged them off using his feet.

He found his wallet in the pocket, pulled out a condom, holding it between his teeth as he threw his jeans away. They made a thwacking sound as they landed on the dirt outside.

Once he was ready, Sera wrapped her legs around him. Humming as he nudged her centre.

There he paused, waiting until she stopped wriggling, waiting until she looked him right in the eye, as if he wanted her to know who made her feel this way. As if she’d ever forget.

The foggy windows adding a magical glow, they made love slowly. Quietly. With soft kisses, and gentle touches, deep melting strokes. Such tenderness in such a gruff package was overwhelming.

When his body tensed, she ran her hands over every inch of him, taking his release as her own until the world turned still, crisp, infinite. Then she tumbled back down to earth to find herself curled up in a warm, strong pair of arms.

“You should tell me to shut up more often,” she said, stretching out the kinks and rubbing herself along his length at the same time.

His laughter rumbled through the quiet as he braced himself on his elbow so as not to crush her. “I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much.”

“I’m choosing to take that as a compliment.”

“You choose wisely.”

Murdoch slid out of the Ute first, kissing her on the knee as he scooted past.

Sera propped herself on her elbows and watched him find his jeans and put them on, kindly not bothering to do up the last button leaving her with the splendiferous view of a wall of muscle and the chance for getting up to more no good.

She waited for Murdoch to turn away so she could get dressed but he leaned against the open door of the Ute and watched her.

“Really?” she asked.

“You think I didn’t feel your gorgeous eyes scouring every inch of me as I got dressed? Turnabout’s fair play.”

“You think my eyes are gorgeous?”

“Sera, I think your gorgeousness has no bounds. You’re getting goosey all over. Get dressed before you freeze to death.”

Any goose bumps were his fault, much like her hiccups, but she shut up and she found her jacket and skirt and slipped them on. She shoved her feet into her boots. Rolling up her bra, undies and tights she shoved them into her bag.

She found Murdoch sitting on the tray, as he looked up through the canopy of trees at the stars above.

She joined him there, humming with pleasure when he grabbed a folded up blanket and wrapped her up. She pinked at the laughter in his eyes when she opened the blanket so he could join her there.

“I’ll take you home soon,” he said, his pinkie finger tracing a path up and down the edge of her thigh. “Just wanted to take a moment.”

“Fine with me.” She followed his gaze to the stars above. “Looking out there makes all the worries of the day feel less important somehow. Like it’s as easy as breathing out and letting it all go.”

His brow furrowed. “Never been all that good at letting go.”

She thought about all the unexpected right angles her life had taken of late and how she was struggling to keep up. And she thought about her mother.

“Yeah,” she whispered, “me neither.”

She tucked her hand into the crook of his arm and breathed in deep. He took the hint and breathed in deep with her. Together, they breathed out long and hard and with it came a surge of laughter.

This, Sera thought, when it was the two of them. Things felt so easy, so right, so honest. And as close to wonderful as she’d ever known.

And in the quiet of the night, with moonlight kissing her legs, and Murdoch’s warm musky scent filling her senses, Sera knew she was in love with him.

She knew it in her bones and in her heart. Heck, she was pretty sure if she asked her toenails and her kidneys they’d give her the same answer.

She loved him.

And if this was how love usually felt then she wondered how anyone in love ever left their beds.

“You can’t run away from me this time, Murdoch,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “I won’t let you.”

He hummed beside her, a low warm energy that filled her up inside. “I’m not going anywhere.”

She knew he was taking her literally. That his promise extended so far as not kicking her to the roadside and driving away. Yet snuggling up against him, her body still glowing from making love to the man, she let herself imagine it meant more.

Because her father was right. She knew.

Justin Murdoch was the one.