Inside the bathroom I stood at the sink, staring into the cracked mirror, trying to see what Damon saw, or what I’d always assumed was there. Or something. Some sort of indication of who or what I was now. Mother, lover, mate, friend, business owner… My hands gripped the sink until I tore them away, running them under the tap and then wiping the cool water across my forehead. And when I came out of the toilets, Damon was waiting there for me.
He pushed himself away from the wall, ambling closer.
“The others will tell you to stop running. That it just makes them want to chase you more.” Then he grinned slowly. “I say run all you like, beta. I’ll hunt you. I’ll chase you down and when I catch you…” I shivered as his hand slid down the sleeve of my leather jacket. “It’ll be right where you want me, too, I promise.”
Chapter 40
“A farm?”
I’d jumped back on the bike, sliding on much more easily now, my feet finding the foot pegs without effort, then as we rode along the freeway, I got a preview of where we were going. The sea, brilliant turquoise with a strip of white sand, began to appear the closer we got. I assumed it was another day at the beach ahead for me, but Damon veered off, revving the bike through town, which got some looks from locals, then going down several winding roads until we came to a big farm gate and a sign.
“A farm,” Damon confirmed, getting off the bike while the motor was still running, unclasping and swinging the gate open, then bringing us inside and shutting the gate behind us. “We know the family that runs the place and… I think you’ll like it out here.”
“Like what out here?” I asked, my eyes roaming across the paddocks full of graceful ghost gums, their massive white trunks twisting and turning as their branches reached for the sky, the grass between them thick and lush and green. “Damon?” He just smirked and then we took off again. “Damon?”
“How’re you going, mate?” A big man said, stepping down from the veranda of a big, beautiful old colonial style farmhouse. The place looked like it’d been built with blocks of hand-hewn local stone, the various shades of red in the bricks complementing the crisp white pointing and iron lace around the posts.
“Jimmy…” Damon said, and the two men embraced each other in that rough, easy way guys seem to be able to just do.
“So this is her?” Jimmy pulled away from Damon to look me over.
He was an alpha for sure, and big and blustery with it. He wore an open necked shirt with a worn pair of jeans, and had longish reddish blond hair that stood up all over his head. He hastily smoothed it down with a massive hand and then offered it to me.
“I’m Lily,” I said, shooting Damon a dark look for not introducing me.
“Nice to meet you, Lily. I’m Jim and I’ve known this idiot you’ve decided to take as a mate since he was knee high to a grasshopper.” I glared just a little more at Damon then, the man just grinning wider with each time. “You didn’t bring the cub down?”
“Ah, no,” I replied. “I wasn’t given a lot of details about today. Was just thrown on the back of Damon’s bike and here we are.”
“Ah.” Jimmy smiled slowly, then looked at Damon. “Still in the honeymoon phase, wanting her pressed up tight to you on the ride down. You won’t be able to keep that bloody death trap with a child.”
“I dunno,” Damon replied. “I figured I’d keep it for… pleasure jaunts.”
“Well then, let’s get you into one of the ATVs and give you a tour,” Jimmy said.
“I’m sorry,” I said, “but a tour of what?”
“He really did keep you in the dark, love.” Jimmy patted me on the shoulder. “You’re gonna come and feed some alpacas.”
Alpacas?I shot Damon a quizzical look as Jimmy grabbed his keys and then led us over to a fleet of dark green ATVs. They looked more like buggies than the usual farm vehicle I expected. Damon escorted me into the back and made sure I had my seatbelt on before he got in beside me, while Jimmy took the driver’s seat.
“We run the biggest and best alpaca farm in Australia,” Jimmy told me, peering at me via the rear view mirror. “We’ve got more awards than we can poke a stick at for the quality of fleece, but for most people the appeal is… Well, you’ll see.”
The day was one of those perfect Australian days. The sky was a sea of blue above us, broken only by tiny white clouds that were whisked along by winds whipping in from Antarctica. The air seemed golden, saturated with sunlight, filtering through the massive trees as we drove down a small path. I craned my neck when we got to a thick stand, the lumpish grey figures of kangaroos clustered beneath it.
“What’re you stopping here for?” Damon asked, then took a look and smiled. “City girls.”
“They love roos, not realising what bloody bastards they are when it comes to maintaining fences,” Jimmy added. “Though we do our damnedest to replace a lot of the lost habitat on the farm. We’ve planted hundreds of thousands of gum trees on the place, put in waterways and used historical images of the land from before white settlement to inform the design of the place.” He smiled sheepishly. “We do a lot of eco-tourism here, so the spiel just comes tripping off the tongue.”
But I barely heard anything they had to say, watching the animals sit or crop at the grass, moving along with slow methodical motions. Their fur looked like grey velvet and they had these big, beautiful doe eyes you couldn’t help but stare into.
“Evie would just love this place,” I sighed.
“I wanted to bring her down.” Damon’s arm rested across the back of the chair as he spoke to me. “I wanted to snatch her away from Benny boy and let her skip the day at school, but…” His eyes dropped for a second and Damon actually looked somewhat abashed for once. “I figured it’d go better if you saw it first, thought it was a good fit for her and… you were ready for me to take her on trips.”
I flushed then, my eyes flicking to Jimmy, who was looking down at his phone, answering an email or something.
“Thanks. And... you’re right. The easy way would’ve been to do just that, to give her everything she’s ever wanted. Time off school, an adventure, animals…” I looked up at Damon then. “She’d have loved you for it. You would have had an in with Evie that would normally take a while to establish. Which would be great until the next time.”