Page 116 of The Science of Attraction

“Yes to the presents.” I glanced into the back seat just to be sure. We were headed to Miller Station for a cookout to celebrate Zach’s birthday, and Gil’s instructions about when he expected people to arrive were never merely suggestions. “And I’m going to blame you, just so you know.”

“Of course you bloody will.” Liam dropped the deodorant into his lap and reached back into the bag for his cologne, spritzing some on his neck and wrists before holding it out for me. “You want some?”

I glanced at the label and screwed up my nose. “You couldn’t have grabbed mine as well?”

He gave me a pointed look. “I could have, if you’d stopped mauling me long enough for us to have a genuine chance of getting there on time. Why you couldn’t have decided to fit in a quickiebeforewe showered, I have no idea. I feel disgusting, and that’s without factoring in thirty-two degrees of sweaty heat and enough fucking dust coming through these vents to turn my best white T-shirt into Sahara brown.” He scowled at me from the passenger seat. “You could’ve at least warned me to wear a dark one.” He stretched his shirt to reveal a spiderweb of brown lines where the Mackenzie dust had settled along the damp crease lines.

I winced. He had a point. “But it was you who suggested taking the shortcut,” I reminded him.

“That was before I realised it involved an episode ofThe Most Dangerous Roads In The Worldseries—watch out—” He white-knuckled the grab handle as the ute hit a pothole sending the deodorant flying into the back seat, and a small mob of merinos scattering to higher ground. “You’ve been raving about it for months, so I thought, why not? After all, yousaidit was a good track.” He eyed me accusingly.

“It is,” I protested, smiling out the side window so he couldn’t see me. “And don’t worry. You’re in good hands. I could drive this with my eyes closed.”

“Feels like you are,” he muttered, and I had to laugh.

The dirt road over the ranges between Lane and Miller Stations was only open through the summer, and no, it wasn’t for the faint-hearted. And he was right. I’d been wanting to take him on it ever since we’d moved into the cottage together.

“You have to admit, the views can’t be beaten.” The narrow, barely navigable track wound up and over one of the highest passes in the sawtooth ridge that formed the natural boundary between Lane and Miller Stations. And because of the dizzying heights it scaled, it boasted the best views in the whole Mackenzie, at leastIthought so.

Liam scowled through the dusty windscreen. “Yes, agreed, they’re fucking amazing. I just hope I live long enough to appreciate them.”

I chuckled. “You wait until I bring you back up here one night when the Southern Lights are dancing. We can sleep on the bed of the ute. You feel so close to the stars, it’s fucking magical. Like they’re stuck to your bedroom ceiling. Like you’re part of the Milky Way itself, and if you spread your arms, you could simply float away and be lost in forever.”

He shot me a tender smile, then reached over and ran the back of his fingers down my face. “Sometimes I forget what a romantic you are. It sounds beautiful. But there better be a mattress involved. This body wasn’t built for rough living.”

I laughed because it was true. Liam was many things, but an outdoorsman was not one of them. “No, your body was purpose-built for me, a fact for which I am eternally grateful and—hang on.” I spun the wheel, narrowly avoiding a merino who’d decided to cross the track on a particularly hairy bend.

“And yes, my little city boy—” I reached across to ruffle Liam’s nicely waxed hair, earning myself a slap on the hand. “—I promise there will be a mattress involved... of sorts.”

“Of sorts?” He arched a brow as he repeated my words. “Well, just so we’re clear, the hotness factor of any sexy times you imagine happening under that romantic canopy of stars, will be in direct proportion to the quality of said mattress beneath, just saying.”

I laughed. “Noted. Come on then. Hit me with some of that cologne.” I angled my head and Liam aimed a spritz at my neck at the exact same time as the ute bounced through another pothole and the spray enveloped my face instead. “Shit,” I spluttered, choking on the cloying mist of Ombré Leather.

Liam snickered. “Oops.”

I took another whiff and grimaced. “You do realise everyone’s gonna guess what we’re trying to hide.”

He snorted. “Better than both of us smelling of sex and confirming it.”

“Oh, I don’t know. Eau d’BJ has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

He snorted. “If only that was all it was and not just an appetiser for the main event.”

“Ah...” I sighed contentedly. “But what a main event it was.”

He laughed and gave me a gentle shove. “You’re such an arse.”

“But I’myourarse.”

He flashed me a heated look. “That you are. And I’m figuring you’re feeling the depth of that ownership right about now.”

I wriggled my bum on the seat, feeling the delicious ache from where his cock had reamed me against the vanity just twenty minutes before. “You won’t catch me complaining.”

His warm hand found my thigh and squeezed. “I was kind of hoping you might return the favour when we get home tonight—and you’re doing it again.”

“What?”

“That look you get on your face every time I say the wordhome.”

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