Page 5

Which is how I ended up with Finn running boxes up the stairs and inside the house, my car parked round the back.

I went to try and carry some of it, but he wouldn’t hear of it.

Instead, I was left to start unpacking my meagre possessions while Finn worked up a sweat.

I tried not to look as his shirt began to stick to his chest, though I did nearly drop some plates because I was so busy ‘not looking’.

The final straw came when he stopped, whipped off his shirt and closed his eyes, standing underneath the ceiling fan to cool down.

Y’know in the old cartoons, where you see the wolf’s eyes bug out and his tongue roll out like a carpet?

Pretty sure that was an accurate representation of me, because he was everything his clothes had hinted at.

He wore a white wife-beater singlet but still, the taut muscles of his arms caught my gaze as they followed the vein that ran down the inner side of his bicep to his forearm.

I could see the slight shift and bunch of his abs under the thin, damp fabric.

He opened his eyes a slit, smiling slightly at me as I tried to jerk mine back to something more appropriate.

“There any water in the fridge?” he asked.

Did I imagine a husky rasp to his voice?

No, must be wishful thinking. He walked into the tiny little kitchenette, close enough to brush me, and I fought back a shiver.

I could feel the cool air of the fridge and the sound of a cap being twisted.

I was thirsty, I thought, real thirsty. I turned around and tried to squirm past him and see if there was any more water.

“Here,” he said, passing a half empty bottle.

“Oh, it’s OK, you must be hot…”

“Here.”

“No really.”

“Take it.” This was delivered as a gentle command. He pushed the bottle into my hand, his fingers brushing mine. I felt that familiar, low down shiver in my body. Parts of it twitched in response to this little gesture.

“You’re the boss,” I said.

His smile widened at this. I swallowed a mouthful of water, the moment becoming too loaded for me to do anything else.

He seemed to watch every movement. I pushed the bottle back into his hand and then stepped around him, leaving the kitchen.

“Look, this feels…really awkward and probably premature, but I feel like I need to clear the air. Are you…?”

I couldn’t bring myself to say it. He was gorgeous and I was ...me.

“Attracted to you?” he said. "I thought that was obvious.”

“I wouldn’t go assuming that. Clarifying is probably a good idea.

I… well, look at you. You’re smoking hot, but I need a job, like really need a job.

I was on my last little stash of cash, which might have gotten me to the next town over and that’s it.

I can’t afford to fuck about with the boss.

” His eyebrows shot up. “Not like that! Though I guess eventually like that… Fuck, I’m not doing this very well. ”

“You’re worried about the job if you have anything other than a professional relationship with your supervisor.”

“Yeah.”

“Talk to Kelly. She’ll talk about this in detail tomorrow.”

“OK.”

“I’ve gotten everything out of the car, so I should go anyway. I think I’m about ready for a really long shower.”

“Oh.” I knew he was inferring something, but I didn’t get far enough to try and work out why. All of a sudden, my mental slideshow was flashing up its estimations of what that would look like, water sliding lower and…

“Head over to the mess shed at 6, it’s the first one on the right down this road. Don’t be late, or you risk going hungry. Nerida will probably find you, though.”

“Uh huh…” I jerked my attention back to the Finn standing in front of me, rather than soapy, naked dream one in my head. “Thank you for everything today.”

“No problems. See you at dinner.”

“Hey, you made it! And you brought Buddy!” I’d gotten to the mess shed a bit before 6, worried I’d miss meal time. I hadn’t had lunch and was starving. Nerida popped out from inside, a big smile on her face.

“That’ll be OK, right?”

“Sure, sure. C’mon, we’ve got a table at the back. Us chicks need to stick together.”

“Ah, right… So remind me, why do us chicks need to stick together?”

“Oh, no reason. This is a good place to work. People are fair, pay’s good…”

“Great.”

“Come and have a seat, Jamie and Dex are already here. They’ll fix you up with a drink. I totally want to see your face when they get here. You look pretty too, that’s a really cute top, with the embroidery and everything.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t sure… Uniform, casuals…”

“It won’t matter much, but I know what it’s like, wanting to look your best.”

“Pretty sure you don’t need to work at it,” I said. She was amazing looking, rocking that fresh faced, super happy look that men ate up with a spoon. It was never something I was able to imitate, I just came across as unmedicated.

“Naww, listen to you. You’re sweet. Well, here we are, best seat in the house. This is Jamie…”

“Hi,” a petite blonde gave me a wave.

“And Dex.”

“Take a load off, sweet thing,” an older woman with the growl of a long-term smoker gestured to the bench beside her. Her hair was a fall of harshly dyed burgundy, but she had good bones, though she looked like she knew she still had it. “What a gorgeous dog. Husky?”

“Yeah, he’s about two years old.”

“Just a pup then. So, you’ll be gofering for our Finn. You excited?”

“I don’t know what to think, to tell you the truth. One minute I was broke, no job, no place to stay, now I’m employed and have accommodation. My brain’s still trying to catch up.”

“Well, while it's trying to do that, have one of these,” Dex picked up. “I call them Long Island iced teas, but I have no idea if they have the right ingredients. Drink up, love, it’ll put hairs on your chest.”

“So this won’t be an issue…?”

“For Finn? He’s had enough of them at meal times himself, so I can’t see why not. Anyway, you’re going to need some liquid courage, trust me.”

Nerida giggled and poured one for all of us, and then called, “Cheers!”

“Guys, you’re starting to freak me out. If this is some kind of hazing thing or something, just lay it on me, I can take it. Not knowing? Not so much.”

“Don’t worry. Here they come,” Jamie said with a wide smile.

She watched the front entrance to the hall, her eyes seeming to grow to twice their size, looking much like a kid at Christmas.

I turned, and it all made sense. They seemed to walk in in waves, row after row of guys, filling the considerable doorway and filing in to take seats at the many picnic tables in the middle of the room.

That wasn’t all that unusual, blokes piling into a mess hall at knock off time no doubt happened all across the country.

No, it was the guys themselves. My mouth dropped open, and I didn’t bother to shut it because every damn one of them was at the very least good looking.

Tall or short, you had guys with long hair, short hair, in between or dreads.

Blue eyes, brown eyes, hazel or green, every skin and every hair colour, including a bloke with a purple mohawk.

But that wasn’t what had me sitting there like a fool.

Every single one of them had well defined physiques, from long and lean, to full on body builder types, shown to advantage in shirts with the sleeves ripped out and thin white wife-beaters.

Every single one of them had the kind of dramatic facial structure with high cheekbones that you saw in fashion mags or on male strippers.

“What the actual fuck?” I said, my head whipping around to confront the girls. My eyes narrowed, “Is this a joke? Am I being punked?”

They all started laughing, assumably at my stupid expression. “Oh, no,” Dex said, “this is all real.”

“A porn set then? Seriously? You can't tell me all of these gorgeous guys happen to work at a mine in the middle of nowhere. That makes no sense, whatsoever! How is that even possible?”

Nerida shrugged. “We’ve all asked those questions, and no one’s really come up with an answer, though maybe Doc Hobbes has a theory. After a while, you just learn to accept and enjoy.”

“Enjoy!” I hissed. “I can’t work with that. Is there a sex shop anywhere near, because I am going to need an industrial strength vibrator.”

“You won’t,” Dex said, a rapt grin on her face as she gestured to the benches. “Trust me, there’s plenty who are willing to go above and beyond whatever a battery-operated appliance would do.”

“Well, they can’t all be straight,” I spluttered.

“That is true,” Jamie said. “Greg is gay, so is Neil.”

“Vance is,” Nerida said.

“Yep, and Nick. So’s Stevie, but that’s a whole other ball game,” Dex said with a grin. “Some are bi, or willing to give it a go though, if that floats your boat.”

“Floats my boat?” I hissed. I picked up my glass and took a long, deep swallow.

This got a few low cheers from the girls, and they misread me and followed suit.

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and then leaned over the table.

“How the hell do you know the sexual preferences of your work mates?”

“Have you had the talk with Kelly yet?” Jamie asked.

“No! What is this talk? People keep telling me to wait for the talk. If you know something, spill!” I said.

“Well, Sanctuary’s less a workplace, and more one big family,” Nerida said with a broad smile.

“A not very closely related family where a lot of the members fuck each other, if they so desire,” Dex said.

“That’s what Kelly’s going to talk to you about, consent and boundaries, how to negotiate a sexual or romantic relationship in the workplace, and what to do if things start turning ugly. That doesn’t really happen though…”

“No, everyone’s clear on the rules,” Nerida said. “Sometimes it all gets a bit heated, passion and all that, but the management team are pretty good at settling people down.”

“So you’ve…” I gestured at the other tables.