Family Farm (29 page)

‘Cheers.’ Izzy tried to get a look at his handiwork.

Leaning over her shoulder he stuck the last bandaid on and made sure the wound was closed tightly to minimise scarring. He realised how close his lips were to her smooth skin. Impulsively he leant down and kissed her shoulder just near the cut.

Will watched as Izzy’s head moved towards him slightly. It was all the enticement he needed. Dragging his lips across her damp skin, he left another gentle kiss further up at the base of her neck. Slowly he breathed out, before kissing her on the soft spot below her ear. His hands, with a mind of their own, moved to her waist and pulled her closer. He nibbled on her ear before moving his full mouth across her cheek to her mouth. Briefly, he kissed her cool lips before placing a hand on her neck and raising her chin with the other. Staring into her crystal blue eyes, he waited, wondering and watching.

Then he saw it.

A smile had crept from the corner of her mouth, and her hands moved across his body. He couldn’t think any more as he exploded within. Kissing her again, he was calm and gentle until she deepened it and blew his mind in the process.

Feverishly, they clung to one another. Will pulled her in tight, and ran his long fingers through her wet muddy hair. This is what he had been aching to do since the bin party. From then on he had wanted so much more. He had been holding back and now he was quickly losing any chance he had of controlling himself.

The sharp intake of air whistled through Izzy’s lips. Her body was motionless, except for the radiating heat that started flowing through her skin from the spots where Will’s mouth had been. They burned like the marks from a branding iron. Soon she didn’t feel cold or wet any more. Those sensations were being replaced by warmth and a longing to be touched by Will again.

Izzy, throwing caution to the wind, returned Will’s kisses with yearning and obsession. Her heart pounded madly against his, like the beating of drums. Reaching back, with one quick flick, she released her bra. Shrugging it off, she sent it falling to the floor.

A groan escaped Will as her soft rounded breasts pressed against his upper body. He could barely contain himself as he felt her fingers find the small trail of hair at his waist and follow it to down to the top of his jeans, where she began to unbuckle his belt.

Breaking loose from her lips, he gave her a devilish look. Hell, she was sending him totally nuts. Leaning across to the shower, he turned on the taps and soon warm misty water sprayed down into the base. He felt so tired and exhausted, but at the same time, a fire in his belly was egging him on for more. The pain in his lungs from coughing up water was soon forgotten as the desire to have Izzy increased.

Meanwhile, Izzy had already unbuttoned her jeans and shaken them off. She flicked off her wet knickers onto the pile of wet clothes on the floor and jumped under the warm water, watching and smiling as Will struggled to peel off his jeans. She took pity on his tired state, leaned out of the water and pulled them down for him, as well as his boxer shorts.

Joining her in the shower, his excitement was unmistakeable. Izzy reached up on her toes and kissed him passionately, drawing him under the water. With his renewed strength, Will pushed her against the tiles and groaned as his body melted into hers. Slowly he ravished her with his tongue. Down from her neck to her breasts, where he stopped and took delight in exploring and tasting one silky bud then the other. His tongue sent shivers down her back and she clung to his wide shoulders for support. The warm water stung their cold skin as they explored and devoured each other until the last of the mud drained away.

Will pulled Izzy away from the wall of the shower, but staggered dizzily. The warm water was forgotten – he had his own burning desires. He groaned, feeling the closeness of her whole body next to his and shuddered with pleasure as she worked her way down, exploring his body with her mouth. Then suddenly he smacked his elbow on the taps. The shower was just too small. As if reading his thoughts, Izzy turned off the water. Will wanted to pick her up and carry her out, but knew he did not have that much strength. So he held her hand and guided her towards his room.

Izzy followed him blindly to the room with dark blue walls that made his tidy room feel small, and the queen-sized bed, with its masculine stripy doona cover, very large.

Will gently laid her down and rolled her across the soft fluffy covers, still dripping wet. Then he started slowly kissing her from her bellybutton, up between her breasts to her silky neckline.

Izzy traced her fingers along his rigid muscles down his back to his narrow hips. She moaned from the sheer delight. Pulling him close, she begged him to continue.

As he moved in between her, he gazed into her eyes. She looked so sweet and delicate trapped under him – a look he wasn’t used to from her. After this, there would be no turning back for him. Beads of water glistened on her smooth skin, and he itched to lick them off. He studied her, giving her the option to stop. But there was no hesitation – just a burning in her eyes as she pulled him inside her.

MOVING quietly, so she didn’t disturb Will, Izzy slipped off the bed. She’d rested there next to him for what seemed like ages, watching the rise and dip of his chest and the way his hair fell across his forehead just above his eyes. The large bruise, which had darkened considerably, seemed out of place on his perfectly tanned skin. She wanted to run her hands over his arms and rest her head on his chest, but she didn’t dare wake him. He seemed so different, so quiet and peaceful, as he slept, and she wanted the moment to last forever. She wasn’t sure if she just saw him differently now, after all that had happened.

There was no denying how she felt – she was falling for him. From the moment he gasped for life after being dragged out of the gully yesterday, she knew she could no longer lie to herself. It made leaving him so much harder. What she really wanted was to wake him with her lips. Oh, but she couldn’t – he needed his sleep. She knew a part of her had always loved Will, right from when she was young, but her childhood crush had grown into something more the moment she’d got to know the real Will. Claire was no longer around to dominate all his spare time, and Izzy was no longer the kid he’d done his best to avoid.

She couldn’t deny the fact that Will was an amazing bloke, but what if it wasn’t meant to happen? What if it was a mistake, like it had been with Claire? Now that her feelings ran so deep, she didn’t know whether she could handle the rejection. How could they be friends again after that?

Reluctantly, she opened his wardrobe and pulled out one of his warm checked shirts to wear. Izzy knew it would probably be best if she wasn’t here when he woke up. It would hurt too much if she had to watch him make his excuses and say that it had been a heat of the moment thing. She couldn’t put herself through that, not now. Will Timmins feeling as strongly about her as she did about him? She doubted it. Izzy wasn’t going to embarrass herself. It would be best to move on with a bit of dignity. If she snuck out now, it would give them enough space so that the next time they met, things would be back to normal. They could pretend it hadn’t happened.

Izzy quickly pulled on a pair of track pants, which she found folded neatly on a chair, then quietly snuck out, glancing back at Will lying sprawled out on his bed. Taking a deep breath, she moved on to the bathroom to pick up her wet clothes before rushing out of his house and trying to erase the feelings the last few hours had aroused.

Tiptoeing back into her house, she hoped to avoid her parents. At least until she was in her own clothes. To her dismay, they were both sitting by the sliding door with a cup of tea and a plate of scones. They stopped chatting and looked up, their eyes full of questions.

‘Izzy, you’ve been gone for ages. Is everything all right?’ Jean probed.

‘Have you been with Will all this time? What were you doing?’ said Bill, twisting his body around in his wheelchair to face her.

‘Yes, I have. We … ah … had a big rescue mission to save Clyde,’ said Izzy, itching to get to her room and be by herself.

‘What happened to your clothes?’ Those hawk-like eyes of her mother never missed a thing. She watched her dad’s eyes open in awareness; he’d only just realised she wasn’t wearing her own clothes. Think quickly. ‘Um … we got drenched saving Clyde and I got changed back at Will’s.’ She tried to make it sound light, like it was no big deal.

‘Why didn’t he drop you off home to change? What’s going on with you two?’ No doubt Jean’s mind was ticking over, so the last thing Izzy needed was her face to start heating up. Luckily, her dad seemed to be struggling to understand the implications.

‘I had to drive Will home. He was completely buggered. It was really serious – he nearly drowned. We were soaked to the bone after crawling through the creek.’

‘What do you mean, nearly drowned? What in blue blazes were you doing?’ Bill barked, fuming as he waited for answers. His complexion had changed to a brighter shade of red.

Izzy sighed. She’d hoped to avoid this.

‘Clyde was stranded and we had to get him out – the gully was filling up fast. Will slipped and got stuck under the water. Not before Clyde had belted him, mind you. I managed to drag him out and got him breathing again,’ Izzy rattled off quickly before taking a deep breath.

‘What? Bloody hell! Is he okay?’ It was all her dad could say, as he was still seething.

‘Yeah, he’s fine now. It was just a bit of a shock, that’s all. Clyde got out okay, too. We saved him, Dad.’

‘Forget the bloody ram. You could have killed yourself by the sound of it, and Will too. How many times have I told you not to get mixed up with farm work? It’s too friggin’ dangerous.’ His voice was doubling in volume.

‘Dad, I have a bigger chance of being hit by a bus than being killed doing farm work. You have to let me live my life at some stage. Being here on the family farm is what I want to do. If I do die here, at least it’s where I want to be.’

‘Over my dead body,’ he screamed, waving his arms about. Bill had never felt so cross in all his life. To think it could have been her lying at the bottom of the gully. How could he bear to see another daughter of his dead? His little girls, both gone. It’d kill him. No, he was tough on Izzy for a reason. It was for her own good.

‘Urgh.’ Izzy threw up her hands and began to plead her case. ‘What do you think I was doing at Rob’s place? He taught me everything he knew about farming. He didn’t care that I was a girl – he just treated me like any other worker. I just wish it were you, my own father, who’d have been proud enough to give me a go. If only you gave a damn about what I wanted,’ Izzy finished, her cheeks flushed with anger.

Bill shook his head violently. ‘Well, you don’t seem to give a damn about what
I
want! I don’t care what you know. There is no way in hell that you are working this farm, and that’s final.’

‘Well, just so you know, I have been. The last couple of months it’s been all me, not Will. Me! I did it all and I bloody loved it. Can’t you see that’s what I want? I want to be a farmer, just like you. I bet if I had balls, you’d be there patting my back, like you do with Will.’

Bill shook his head again and Izzy thought she saw a vein pop in the side of his neck. ‘Well you don’t, so that’s that,’ Bill replied, but she knew she’d hit him hard and he’d been offended.

Izzy stared at him in disbelief. ‘When Claire died you only lost one daughter, not two. I’m standing right here in front of you and you still don’t see me.’ Her eyes set firm on her dad’s enraged face. ‘Seeing as I’m not wanted here, I’ll go work on another farm somewhere else, somewhere I’m valued and appreciated.’

Jean moved forward and took a protective stance in front of Izzy. ‘Bill, can’t you see how important this is to her? She’s going to do it whether you like it or not. Bill, please, I’ve only just got Izzy back and you’re not going to drive her away …’ She stopped herself from adding the word ‘again’, just in time.

‘She’s not working on this farm, or anywhere else around here if I can help it,’ Bill spat.

Fury erupted inside Izzy’s head. She couldn’t believe that he still wouldn’t budge. Damn it. Well, if that’s the way he was going to be, he left her with no choice. ‘Fine. I’m outta here. Enjoy running the farm from your chair, Dad. You’ve made it crystal clear that you don’t want a daughter like me.’ She was already heading to her room to pack.

Randomly she threw things into her bag, still bubbling with rage, as she listened to her parents’ argument continue. She’d never be able to change his mind. She must have been dreaming to think the old fart would welcome her back with open arms. Now she knew once and for all that she’d have to move on and leave this dream behind.

Storming out past her parents, she said, ‘Goodbye, Mum.’

‘Izzy, wait,’ pleaded Jean.

Izzy stopped, standing in Will’s clothes and bare feet as her mum came rushing up to hug her.

‘Please don’t go, love. Give him time to cool down,’ she begged as she used her finger to put Izzy’s loose hair back behind her ear. It was not quite dry and was starting to curl.

‘It’s no use, Mum. How much longer do I have to wait? I need to be out there working. I have a life to live. Men like him can’t change. I was deluding myself to ever think he might.’ Sighing, Izzy said, ‘I’ll call you when I get settled … somewhere.’

Tears welled up in Jean’s eyes and threatened to spill. She stood with slumped shoulders in her blue fleece jumper, track pants and slippers. The pained expression on her face pulled at Izzy’s heart. ‘I love you, Mum. This isn’t your fault, and I know you tried. But this is something I have to do,’ said Izzy, giving her one last hug before turning away and heading out the back door.

Bill’s wheelchair didn’t move.

The rain had finally stopped as Izzy tugged on her boots and stepped outside with her bag. The clouds were still dark and gloomy, mirroring how she felt. Negotiating the muddy ground, she made her way to her faithful ute, scanning the land she so loved as she went. She made a mental picture and took a long deep breath to steel herself.