‘Hey, would you like some help?’ came a voice from behind her.
She turned to see a man hurrying towards her. It was the smile she saw first – an honest, genuine smile that spread to his denim blue eyes. He was quite broad in the shoulder, and wearing very tight jeans. His dark hair was floppy over his eyes, in a sexy, unruly, unkempt kind of way.
Although she had carried the large chainsaw many times over the years and she was used to the weight, she wasn’t about to turn down an offer of help from someone, it might appear rude. Besides, he was the first person who had actually spoken to her since she had arrived.
‘Sure, that would be great.’ She carefully passed the chainsaw into his waiting hands.
‘This isn’t the twelve tonnes of makeup and hair products I was expecting,’ he said, following her into the house.
She smiled at the dig. ‘I’ve already unpacked that.’
‘Now if my detective skills haven’t let me down, you must be Jo Carter.’
‘I’m afraid they have. Joy Cartier, my landlord is Joe Carter.’
He was clearly thrown by this.
‘I know, weird isn’t it? Similar sounding names, but no relation.’
‘This could be a problem,’ he mumbled, clearly more to himself than to her. She looked at him waiting for clarification but his lovely smile quickly returned and he changed the subject. ‘I’m Casey Fallowfield, my brother Zach lives next door. This place looks great.’
They walked through the house and towards the shed. ‘Thanks, though I can’t take any of the credit. Joe did all the decorating. I’m just renting from him. Just put that on the shelf up there.’
The shed was very small and Casey leaned up over her to put the chainsaw on the shelf, revealing a flash of brown, toned belly. She swallowed. He was standing so close and his fresh citrus smell made something clench in her stomach.
He flashed her a grin as he let go of the chainsaw and she blushed. He knew she had just been staring at his stomach.
‘So the chainsaws, what are they for?’
‘Cutting wood,’ she said.
‘This is a very expensive chainsaw though, and are those your initials engraved onto the side?’
She brushed past him as she headed out the shed.
‘You’re not… The Dark Shadow are you?’ He grinned, clearly not believing she was.
She laughed. ‘Isn’t he supposed to be some eight foot tall alien, or a time traveller, or a demon from the underworld?’ Some of the conspiracy theories surrounding The Dark Shadow were ridiculous.
‘I heard it was animals, trying to send us a message. Or fairies, definitely fairies.’
‘I heard…’ she looked around to make sure no one was listening, ‘that it was a Scotsman.’
Casey gasped theatrically. ‘Nooooo.’
‘A nine foot Scotsman with a twelve foot long red beard, eyes of coal, arms of steel, teeth made from razor blades.’
‘Those Scotsmen are savage.’
‘Well I’m sure the Scottish are perfectly wonderful people, it’s just this one that’s savage. Some say he’s actually a vampire and he’s hundreds of years old. Can I offer you a beer?’
‘Sure, then you can tell me about the chainsaws.’
She smiled at him over her shoulder. ‘You’re nosy aren’t you?’
‘People interest me – you interest me, Joy. Where have you come from? Why did you come here? Was it to run away from something or towards something? What do you do for a job? Though it must be something good to afford the rent in this place… and what’s with the hulking great autographed chainsaw in your shed?’
‘Wow those are a lot of questions.’ She passed him a beer and came back to stand on the decking, watching the sun sink behind the hills. ‘Maybe one day I’ll tell you the answers.’
‘Ah a woman of mystery. I suddenly like you a whole heap more.’
She chinked her beer against his. ‘To friendship then, and to sucking out all the gory details of each other’s personal lives.’
‘I like it, that’s what true friendship is all about; being beholden to each other over our deepest darkest secrets.’
She smiled. ‘So what are yours?’
‘I’ll need more than just a sip of beer inside me to tell you that.’
She turned back to the view.
Just then the large man, who she had literally bumped into earlier, walked out into his garden. Her heart leapt. He wasn’t wearing a top and his whole body seemed to shout muscles. He was so tall, nearly two feet taller than her tiny five feet. He was filthy and sweaty and Joy had never been so turned on in her entire life.
She watched him pick up a large tree, as easily as if he was picking up a daffodil, and place it carefully into a large hole. He patted the soil gently around it, as if the tree was made from china. More soil was added until the tree was secure. He stood up and drank long and deep from a bottle of water. As he moved, the sunlight caught a piercing in his nipple. Joy tried to swallow but realised her throat was now parched. She took a long swig of beer and suddenly remembered Casey standing next to her.
She quickly turned to him, blushing furiously at the thought that he would have caught her gawping so avidly. To her surprise his attention was well and truly caught by the beautiful man next door as well. His eyes, as she imagined hers were right now, were dark with lust and desire.
Joy took another sip of beer, whilst she pondered this, watching the man next door pick up his tools and take them to his shed. As he turned back, he caught them watching, scowled first at her and then broke into a huge grin when he saw Casey and waved at him before going back into his own house.
Casey took a long sip of beer, which he had clearly forgotten about whilst he had enjoyed the show, and then looked at Joy in what he clearly hoped was a nonchalant way.
She arched an eyebrow at him and he sighed.
‘That… was Finn Mackenzie, my best friend and the man I’ve been secretly in love with for the last fifteen years.’
Joy smiled at him in sympathy. Unrequited love was the worst.
He chinked his beer against the side of hers, dryly. ‘Come inside and we can start on at least one of my dark and gruesome secrets.’
She followed him in, and sensing this unburdening was going to need a bit more than cheap beer, she grabbed a bottle of wine from the fridge and a huge slab of chocolate. She went through to the lounge where Casey was already sitting on the sofa with his head in his hands.
‘You saw it didn’t you, the way I looked at him,’ he said.
‘What, the same look of desire that I had on my face? Yes, I saw it.’
Casey looked up with a sheepish smile. ‘He is beautiful isn’t he?’
Joy shook her head with admiration and sat down next to him. ‘He’s magnificent. If we’re sharing secrets, I might as well share mine with you. When I saw that pierced nipple, I wanted nothing more than to run over and lick it.’
Casey laughed, loudly. ‘Oh, I know. I went with him when he got that done. It gave me a good excuse to touch it, you know, purely out of curiosity.’
She grinned. ‘Of course.’
Darcy, her great, beloved Newfoundland, hauled herself up from the cool tiled fireplace to finally