OUTBACK TREASURE 2 (Pearce Station Duet – Book 2) by Ann Grech
Release Date: May 18, 2020
Cover Design: Soxational Cover Art
Genre: M/M Contemporary Romance
Trope: Small town, cowboy, action adventure
SYNOPSIS
Deception tore them apart, but Pete and Scottie are drawn to each other like a moth to the flame. Trust and friendships are tested in Pete’s mission to rewrite the legend of the golden reef before time runs out.
Scottie Pearce never planned on falling for anyone, especially not the geeky history graduate nearly half his age. He and his lover have unfinished business. But is nature conspiring against them? The desert trying to tear them apart?
When secrets are revealed, who will be left standing?
I cast my gaze around the paddock, and my eyes locked on the sight before me. The head of Pearce Station was having a quiet moment with a horse I guessed was his. Brushing down its neck and standing real close to the powerful animal. It was almost intimate.
He was nothing like I imagined. Scott Pearce was older—probably late thirties, with grey around his temples. But damn… model-worthy. Not one of those catalogue perfect men who looked like it took hours to style their artfully messy do, but real and strong and mussed up and covered in red dirt and sexy as hell. A few centimetres shorter than me, but with a strength that I could tell was from endless hours of hard work rather than sculpted in a gym. Broad shoulders, a narrow waist, long legs, and from what I could see, an arse I could bounce a coin off. When he’d clasped my hand with his work-roughened one, I was hard-pressed not to moan out loud. His grip was firm. Controlled. I bet he could have crushed my hand if he tried, but he didn’t. In fact, he seemed to hesitate. He moved with this relaxed swagger, like everything operated on his say so, and I supposed it did. It was clear that the women on the station—Karen and Lynn—were the matriarchs of the family and held as much, if not more, sway than he did, but Scott had presence. I was only with him for a matter of a minute, but I hadn’t been able to get him out of my head since. And now, seeing him in what seemed like a private moment with his horse, I was even more drawn to him.
“Scottie’s horse is Tilly,” Ally said from behind me, jogging to catch up. I hadn’t realized I’d walked away from her towards him. “She’s a buckskin.” The golden horse stood smaller than Nutella. Her dark mane shone as Scott brushed her down. Calmer than Ally’s mount, she stood patiently as Scott moved to her legs. The two of them silhouetted by the setting sun made for a stunning vista. Endless kilometres of flat red earth dotted with blue-green vegetation stretched out, and the range in the far distance was quickly turning shades of purple. The darkening blue of the sky was tinged with the remainders of pinks and oranges as the sun sank into the horizon for the day. Lost for words, I stared. The view—the whole view—was spectacular. “Wow,” I breathed, coming up beside Scott and reaching for Tilly, petting her neck. The big horse turned to me, nudging me in the shoulder as I kept petting her.
“She likes you,” Scott said quietly, wonder in his voice. “She’s usually a bit of a loner.”
“You’re a beautiful girl, aren’t ya?” I cooed to her, immediately more comfortable in her presence than ’Tella’s. Scott’s lips tilted up in a small smile. He wasn’t looking at me. His gaze was focussed on his horse as he absently brushed down her mane again, but I was watching him. The serious expression he wore in the kitchen was gone, the frown line on his forehead smooth, and the set of his shoulders relaxed. He turned to me and our eyes met and held. It might have been only a second, or an entire week, but I wanted nothing more for it to have been a moment between us. My breath caught and my heart pounded in my chest, my pulse thrumming hard through my veins as I thought about being able to reach out and touch him. About what he’d taste like and how his rough hands would feel on my bare skin. I didn’t realize I’d moved closer until Scott sidestepped, moving around me. Embarrassment and more than a little regret washed over me. There I was, imagining the perfect moment, a first kiss to ruin me for all other men, and a sweaty roll around in the sack with a sexy-as-hell farmer who was probably straighter than an arrow. But what was the likelihood that I’d find a gay farmer five hundred Ks past the middle of nowhere? None and Buckleys, that’s what.
The hot flush to my skin must have given me away. Being a ranga meant that my pale complexion turned beet red every time I did something stupid, like imagine the sexy stockman underneath me as I rode him.
“You, ah… wanna go for a ride sometime?” Scott asked. The question seemed to surprise him, if his wide-eyed stare was anything to go by. Or maybe it was just the way he worded his invitation. “I mean—”
“I’d love to.” I smiled at him and nodded. “See a bit more of the place, that is.” I waved my hand out towards the ranges and the spot where the sun had just sunk below the horizon. All the maps, all the hours of searching… the singular focus on my goal. The rush to get out here. But now I was there, my world had tilted on its axis. It suddenly didn’t seem as important to find the reef. Other priorities occupied my mind. “You know, help out a bit.” I didn’t know what I was saying. I was adequate enough with dirt. Okay, at identifying soil properties and rock types. I was better with history. With books and with the ghosts of yesteryear. I was what you’d typically call a nerd—reading glasses and all. I’d ridden horses before, but I wasn’t an expert by any means, and I had no idea what the hell to do with a cow. Never mind a herd of them. But at that moment, none of it mattered. I wanted to get to know how this station worked. I wanted to be out on the land, to feel a part of something bigger—the red dirt and blue skies. Inexplicably, this piece of Australia felt important to me, and I couldn’t ignore the pull it had over me.
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OUTBACK TREASURE 1 (Pearce Duet #1)
Photographer: Paul Henry Serres
Model: Gabriel Lapratte
By day Ann Grech lives in the corporate world and can be found sitting behind a desk typing away at reports and papers or lecturing to a room full of students. She graduated with a PhD in 2016 and is now an over-qualified nerd. Glasses, briefcase, high heels and a pencil skirt, she’s got the librarian look nailed too. If only they knew! She swears like a sailor, so that’s got to be a hint. The other one was “the look” from her tattoo artist when she told him that she wanted her kids initials “B” and “J” tattooed on her foot. It took a second to register that it might be a bad idea.
She’s never entirely fit in and loves escaping into a book—whether it’s reading or writing one. But she’s found her tribe now and loves her MM book world family. She dislikes cooking, but loves eating, can’t figure out technology, but is addicted to it, and her guilty pleasure is Byron Bay Cookies. Oh and shoes. And lingerie. And maybe handbags too. Well, if we’re being honest, we’d probably have to add her library too given the state of her credit card every month (what can she say, she’s a bookworm at heart)!
She also publishes her raunchier short stories under her pen name, Olive Hiscock.
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