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“We’re going to be late for work,” Shaun murmured into my hair. I didn’t respond, just arched my back, pushing my butt against his hips, and he groaned. “You better stop that or I’ll call in sick, tie you to the bed and fuck you till you’re raw.”

“That may be mission accomplished,” I said, feeling a twinge as I moved. “I am now thoroughly glad you bought lube.”

“Perils of sleeping with a guy with a big dick, babe.”

“Having sex five times in the one night might have been a contributing factor.”

“Mmm,” he moaned as my hips shifted. “Once more could hardly make a difference…” He went to roll me over, but instead, I flipped him back, straddling him before dropping kisses lower and lower down his body.

“I’m sure I owe you a favour,” I said, mouth hovering over the head of his dick. “What could it be?” He watched me, wide-eyed and hopeful, as I moved closer, grabbing him around the base and then bestowing one long lick from root to tip.

“Swing your hips this way,” he hissed as my tongue made a leisurely swipe of the crown. I looked up quizzically. “We need to multitask, or we’ll be late,” he said with a grin. I shrugged and did as he asked, gasping around his cock as his tongue flicked out...

“I’m going to get you to go with Slade today,” Finn said when I came outside.

By the time we had finished, had a shower and got ready, Finn was waiting on the porch. He smiled politely when he saw us, greeting Shaun with a nod of his head. “See you tonight?” Shaun said, dropping a kiss on my cheek.

“Sure.”

“So," Finn said, "have you ever ridden a quad bike?”

"Ah, once or twice."

“Well, you’ll be doing a perimeter check, so I’ll get you to ride with him until he can do some bike training with you."

I looked over to where Slade lounged against the cart, arms crossed over his chest. He regarded me silently with a steady gaze.

"We check the fence each day. It'll be something I get you to do most mornings, so getting your head around it would be good. Be alert for signs of intrusion, footprints near the boundary, broken tree branches, holes under fences, etc. Slade will show you what to do. Show her around the rest of the site while you’re at it. I barely got through the admin buildings.”

“Got it, boss. You ready, princess?” Princess?

I looked him over with a frown. He just chuckled and walked over the quad.

“You getting on?” Finn had gotten into his cart, taking off to deal with the problem at the mine again, and I was now realising what I would have to do.

I would have to get on the back of the olive green quad bike and wrap my arms and legs around a strange man. A very big, strange man.

While many men on the Sanctuary were taller than me, for some reason it was more apparent on Slade.

He had scruffy, reddish hair with a bit of a beard going, and flat hazel eyes that seemed to take in everything without reaction.

He lit a cigarette in a few abrupt motions, then turned around with a frown to me.

“What’s the hold up?” he asked, then followed my gaze as I watched Shaun’s back grow smaller and smaller in the distance.

“What are you worried about? That Shaunie will get jealous?” His tone was filled with that entirely male disdain that was able to turn you from a confident woman to a little girl in moments.

“Look, I…”

“What, you stressing about spreading your legs and letting me between them? Think your boyfriend will get jealous? Worried I might get all hot and bothered about it?” I swallowed the huge lump in my throat.

He voiced my fears pretty accurately, but I sounded like a conceited dickhead when he said it.

“Too late, honey,” he said with a growl, taking a few steps closer, a small smile on his lips.

“You breeze out here smelling of flowers, soap and sex, and I’m already half-hard.

Can’t say if that will get better or worse.

” He ran a finger along my jawline quickly, dropping his hand before I could jerk away.

“But whatever you got going with Shaun can’t be too strong if all it takes is a bike ride to turn your head. ”

“That wasn’t what I was worried about,” I said, finally finding my voice. “It just feels…bad to be touching another guy two moments after I was having sex with the first one.”

He cracked up at that, his teeth stark white against his bronzed skin.

“Ah, god save me from small-town girls. Look, I get that back in whatever backwater town you come from you have jealous, overbearing dicks who feel like they have to growl and posture over their girls to warn off possible competitors, but I’d like to think we’ve evolved past that here.

Will Shaun like you coming home tonight smelling of me?

No. Will I enjoy it? Probably more than is polite to say.

Will it be the latest entry in my spank bank?

I don’t know, but am happy to update you once this has become clear to me.

What I do want to do is my job, and according to Finn that entails driving you around, Miss Daisy.

So will you do me a favour, and get on the fucking bike? ”

I gritted my teeth, taking a long whistling breath in between them, and then nodding.

“I’m sorry, I do come from a backwater town, and I guess seeing a string of guys acting like possessive jerks made me think all of you had the potential to be possessive jerks.

I also like him and don’t want to upset him, because hurting people’s feelings without a reason seems like shitty behaviour, but maybe that’s just me.

Get on the damn bike, I promise to ignore any and all erections, semi or full, and let's go to work.”

He grinned at me, taking one last drag from his cigarette before crushing it under his boot. “Well, c’mon.”

I threw my leg over the back of the quad once he was on and slid behind him, forcing myself to put my arms around his waist without being weird about it. This is a job, I’m being professional , I told myself. I swear I heard him laugh as he started the bike, taking us flying down the hill.

We stopped down at the shed to leave Buddy with Nerida and the crew for the day. She just smiled and looked over me and Slade with a lascivious eye.

“What you’ve seen so far is what we call the admin sector,” Slade said as we rode out.

“This is the married quarters.” He pointed to a cluster of larger bungalows that spread out over a rise on the other side of the admin buildings.

“There’s more facilities here, creche, bakery, store…

The queens need more stuff I guess, raising kids. ”

“Queens?” I asked.

“Mothers. Most workers here were born and bred, so this is kind of a village in a way. Now, the area we need to check starts here,” he said, taking us down the path furthest away from the accommodations, where the land devolved into forest. He pulled up at the corner of a 20ft fence, covered in cyclone mesh and made from sturdy metal supports, and grabbed a clipboard from a saddlebag.

“Basically, we go along the fence-line and make a sight check. There’s sensors on the wire so that if there’s a break, they pick it up early.

What we’re looking for is signs of activity outside it. ”

“What would want to break into a mine site?”

He shrugged, “What we dig up in there, its valuable, so there’s that.

There’s also the dogs we keep roaming in there.

Good for keeping intruders out, bad for being around little kids, if you catch my drift.

We’re checking as much to make sure none of them are getting out, as keeping other things from getting in.

Now if you find anything, you write it up in this report form and then file it with the fencers. ”

Were they the guys I’d spied on yesterday? I imagined walking into their shed and submitting the reports, it probably would go as well as going to the mechanics on the first day. Fuck, I was never working in a male-dominated environment again. It was too damn embarrassing.

We walked and rode along the fence line for hours, Slade passing me a bottle of water and prompting me to drink at each interval.

I was just filling in the form about some loose wire at one section, when Slade held up a hand to me.

I looked up, curious as he bent down, staring into the mesh, then he gestured for me to come over slowly.

I crept up to him, still getting a glare when I stepped on a twig with a snap.

He crouched down and drew me with him, pointing at the wire.

It took me a while to see them, tawny coats blending in with the brown leaf litter and tree trunks, but I had to slap a hand over my mouth to stifle a gasp when I did.

There they were, two huge dogs. Not the usual German Shepherds or Rottweilers, they looked a lot like Buddy, though with a pale grey and white coat and so much bigger.

“They’re so beautiful,” I whispered. Slade glanced back at me, a lazy smile spreading across his face as he took in my expression.

“Check them out,” he hissed, and then gestured to our left. I looked hard and then fell back onto my heels. There, timidly clustered around a wide tree trunk was three puppies, each a dull brown colour with some dark ticking around the ears.

“Oh my god!” I squeaked. I regretted it instantly as the animals started and took off.

“You’ll see them again,” he said, and got to his feet, dusting dried grass off his pants.

“C’mon, I know a nice place for lunch.” With the sun overhead, he headed for the forest, parking at the edge and pulling out a styrofoam Esky cooler, and then beckoning for me to follow him.

Once past the first few trees the space opened up, and we could walk easily under a shady canopy.

He gestured to a few logs which had fallen almost at right angles.

He handed me a sandwich and another bottle of water and sat down, legs outstretched on the ground, his back against his log.