Maid for Hire & Educating Australia (10 page)

Kyle shoved a pair of jeans, a button down shirt and underwear into his duffel bag. He grabbed deodorant and a bar of soap. She had body wash, and though it wasn’t flowery, he still ended up smelling like a woman. He loved the smell on her, just not so much on him. He contemplated taking his toothbrush, but he remembered she had given him one the last time. If he saw the brush still out in the bathroom then he would know she was leaving room for another night of his staying over. If the toothbrush was gone, then he would know where he stood with her. He grabbed his gab and the mat, gave one last look around to be sure he wasn't leaving anything and he left.

The first thing he noticed when he stepped inside her home was how dark it was. She had all the blinds closed and the draperies drawn. She had pulled him inside and closed the door quickly. He had barely leaned the mat against the wall before she wrapped her arms around him.

"I guess that mat means we're working."

"Yeah," he ran his fingers through her hair.

"And does that," she pointed to the duffel bag, "mean you’re staying over? Or do you have some place else you need to be after this?"

"Staying."

"Okay, then you should pull your truck into the garage. They're forecasting rain for tonight."

He agreed.

"I'll put up the door for you." He went out the front and she locked the door behind him. It wasn't long before the garage door lifted and he pulled his truck in beside her little Hyundai. He followed her up the stairs and back into the foyer. "You can set up.”I'll just get changed." She reached for his duffle bag. He started to tell her it was heavy, but she had already swung it over her shoulder as if it weighed nothing. Then he quickly remembered she was used to handling heavier, more awkward equipment.

"May I use your bathroom?"

"You don't have to ask." She sat his bag down on the ottoman at the foot of her bed. "It's through there," she gestured toward the French doors. Although he already knew that from the last time he stayed over.

He disappeared into the bathroom. He didn't have to go so much as he was curious. He checked the counter and smiled when he saw both of their toothbrushes in the holder. She had even put one of those brush covers over the bristles. He looked through the glass shower doors and noticed she had put out a bar of soap, Ivory from what he could tell.

When he stepped out of the bathroom she was just pulling her sports bra over her head. "Sorry," he diverted his eyes.

"You've seen me naked already," she adjusted the bra. "So has everybody else," she said dryly.

He exhaled slowly, trying to think of the best way to handle the situation. Since he couldn't find the right words he suggested they get started with her lesson. He refused to have her live like a prisoner and he insisted on opening the blinds enough to let a little light in, but not enough for anybody to be able to watch them.

She half-heartedly blocked moves. "Come on," he grabbed her from behind. "You're angry."

"Yes!" She struggled. She knew how to get out of this hold she just needed to concentrate.

"Use it," he demanded. "Pretend I'm him. He's here and he's got you."

She shifted out of his grip, and did a jump kick. Her moves were quick, precise and if he didn't subdue her soon she was likely to hurt him. He grabbed her leg, making her fall to the floor and quickly pinned her down. She struggled briefly and then her struggle turned to tears.

He sat back and pulled her up to straddle his waist as he wrapped his arms around her.

Minutes passed before she settled. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize," he pushed her hair back from her face. "There's no shame in crying."

"No," she licked her lips. "I'm sorry I said what I said last night. I made it seem as if I was the only one affected and I'm sorry. I'm sorry the entire class saw us, saw you, because of me."

"Hey. This wasn't your fault. It was his. Remember that."

She nodded. "Still...that moment was ours...I wish it hadn't ended up as porn for the evening class."

"I wish I had watched the DVD instead of just assuming everything was okay."

She assured him it wasn't his fault. He had no reason to think it was anything other than the DVD he had ordered. He equally assured her it wasn't her fault either.

"I'm going to take a shower. There's food in the 'fridge." She disappeared into the bedroom. He heard her start singing LeAnne Rimes
How Do I Live.
She had a spectacularly powerful voice. He was drawn to her bedroom. Watching her sift through drawers and pulling out clothes she wanted to wear. She turned, caught sight of him and immediately stopped singing.

"You have an amazing voice."

"Thanks."

"Why aren't you singing with the band?"

"No," she shook her head. "Then everybody would be staring at me. I don't like being the center of attention. On drums I'm in the back...virtually out of sight."

"Trust me, you weren't out of sight. I was staring at you and so was practically every other guy in the place."

"Really? No."

"Yes."

"Oh," she pulled a pair of black, lace shorts-like panties form the drawer. "Shower," she pointed. "You go eat."

"I can eat after," he stripped off his clothes and joined her in the shower.

Seeing her naked was reminding him of how much he wanted to be inside her, but he reminded himself to wait. That is he managed to wait until after they dried off. After that he very much wanted to connect with her, so much so that he couldn’t wait. He took her to bed and loved her completely. She was his and he had no intentions of ever letting her go, not unless she wanted him to. Holding her in his arms; having her resting on top of his body, felt so right and so natural that he never wanted that feeling to end.

The fact that he was thinking of holding on to her brought up another problem for him. Her friends were a big part of her life. The band was important to her and whatever guy she decided to be with he was going to have to fit into that equation. Right now he wasn’t sure that he fit.

"I don’t think your friends like me too much.”

“Sure they do,” she said. “They’re just…musicians,” she laughed as if that explained everything.

“Mike D looks at me like he hates me. Maybe he wants you back.”

"I told you; we're better as friends. He is like a lot of guys; he doesn’t know how to respect a girlfriend."

"I respect you."

"You're way more mature."

"Did he hurt you," he frowned, suddenly aware of his impending anger.

"No. Of course not."

He relaxed beneath her body.

"I'm hungry."

"I can take care of that," he winked.

"For food," she rolled her eyes and pulled herself off him. She pulled his shirt from the floor. "I'm just going to borrow this for a while." She tossed his jeans at him. "Coming?"

"I could come just looking at you."

She laughed. "You have a one track mind Kyle Donovan. Put your jeans on."

He put his jeans on, sans underwear, as he looked at her long legs. Those legs had been wrapped around him, straddled him and draped over his shoulder perfectly. What he wanted to do was get her flat on her back right now, but she needed to eat.

His thoughts shattered with the sound of breaking glass followed by the alarm blaring.

"Stay here;" he left her in the bedroom as he went to investigate.

He came to a stop in the living room. The French doors leading out to the wraparound porch had been kicked in. Instinct propelled him back to the bedroom. He knew a diversion when he saw one. The bastard probably expected her to run to the living room, or cower in a closet. What he hadn't been expecting would be one highly pissed off expert, and if anything had happened to Australia the bastard would have no place to hide.

He reached the bedroom doors just in time to see Australia take a kick to her stomach and fall. He lounged into action. The bastard could fight and there was something familiar about his attack. Familiar and weak. Kyle caught him in a headlock and applied pressure until he passed out. He snatched the ski mask off his head.

"Tony?" Australia moved to Kyle's side.

He heard sirens and cars coming to a screeching halt outside. It wasn't long before officers came running in with weapons drawn.

"Donovan."

"Officer Yates," he nodded.

"All right guys get this piece of shit off the floor," Yates yelled. "Ma'am can you turn off the alarm please?"

She nodded before cautiously padding through the house, trying not to get in the way of the police.

"I'm guessing he's going to need medical attention," Yates indicated the half conscious, handcuffed man.

"You're guessing right." Although Kyle couldn’t say he cared if Tony got any.

"He might be the guy who sent you the tape. We'll find out in interrogation."

Kyle nodded. Now that he realized Tony knew where Australia lived, and that he was capable of a calculated assault, he figured he may have been wrong about Tony’s reaction to the tape, but he didn't think he was. His gut told him there was something more. He just didn't know what yet.

Chapter Four

"N
o, I'm fine. I'm staying with Kyle a few days until things are fixed at my place." She smiled and waved Kyle into the bedroom. She was already naked, just waiting for him to come home from work so she could help him wind down from a long day.

"No. I’m going to class tomorrow night," she watched Kyle strip off his shirt with jerky movements. Whenever he did get his pants off she was sure he had no plans of waiting for her to finish her conversation. "I'll pick it up in the morning." She watched him shed his pants. "No. Eleven. I have to go now. I'll see you tomorrow." She hung up the phone as Kyle climbed into bed, pushed her thighs open, guided her onto her back and nestled between her legs.

"You're coming to class?"

"Yeah. I'm not going to let a little gossip keep me away." She stroked his back. "You will still give me private lessons right?" She winked and he smiled.

"Considering our private lessons always seem to end with me spending the night with you…yes."

She giggled. "I love you Kyle." She froze. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

"I love you too."

She exhaled sharply. “At least I didn't freak you out."

"As if your telling me you love me could freak me out." He ran his tongue along the length of her neck.

"Hmm...What are you doing Saturday night?"

"You, I hope." He placed soft kisses on her shoulder, over her collarbone and back up her neck. It was hard to concentrate when he was deliberately distracting her. She hit his shoulder.

"I'm trying to concentrate."

"So concentrate." He continued his slow trail of kisses.

"You're distracting me."

He showed no signs of stopping so she would just have to figure out how to converse while he kissed her.

"I...have a show next Wednesday...so we're practicing Saturday."

"All night?"

"No. What I'm trying to say is there's a party for the band...kind of a PR party for the show." It was going to be a big show. If everything went well they might even ink a deal. "Would you like to come with me?"

She felt the faintest wisp of air on her neck as he chuckled. "To the party," she said sarcastically. Perhaps the conversation was best left for after sex.

"Sure," he groaned. That was all the talking they were going to do for a while. For all the discipline the man had he definitely had an issue with distraction when it came to her body. Not that his distraction bothered her. She loved being in his arms, connecting with him on every level. The conversations they had before and even after, were some of the best conversations she’d had with a guy in a long time—conversations that were about music that is. The guys in the band were focused on new songs, working their way into a contract, and really getting their music careers out of the clubs and onto the stage. A record deal was their goal; it always had been. They weren’t getting any younger, yet none of them even entertained the idea of giving up the dream. Their music and their goals was the completeness of their conversations. It was nice to talk about other things with Kyle. Talking about his day, his work, his family and her family was a nice change to her daily conversation topics.

She wouldn’t rush to saying they could have forever with each other, but she surely did hope they could.

She survived Friday night's Jukido class with her head held high. She navigated Saturday's party with Kyle by her side and rocked the concert in the park on Wednesday. Then on Thursday she received the news that the band had a deal, but only as a three member team. "Nick's the weak link," the executives had said. "Lose him."

"Look, Nick I swear we're not taking the deal;" Australia cautiously approached him. "We all talked about it after you stormed out and we all voted no. There are other labels."