登陆注册
15468300000098

第98章 FOUR 1933-1938 LUKE(8)

His mind turned within its limitations to another method of acquiring what he hungered for; at about this stage in his life he discovered how attractive he was to women. His first try had been in the guise of a stockman on Gnarlunga, as that station had an heir who was female, fairly young and fairly pretty. It had been sheer bad luck that in the end she preferred the Pommy jackaroo whose more bizarre exploits were becoming bush legend. From Gnarlunga he went to Bingelly and got a job breaking horses, his eye on the homestead where the aging and unattractive heiress lived with her widowed father. Poor Dot, he had so nearly won her; but in the end she had fallen in with her father's wishes and married the spry sexagenarian who owned the neighboring property.

These two essays cost him over three years of his life, and he decided twenty months per heiress was far too long and boring. It would suit him better for a while to journey far and wide, continually on the move, until within this much larger sweep he found another likely prospect. Enjoying himself enormously, he began to drove the Western Queensland stock routes, down the Cooper and the Diamantina, the Barcoo and the Bulloo Overflow dwindling through the top corner of western New South Wales. He was thirty, and it was more than time he found the goose who would lay at least part of his golden egg. Everyone had heard of Drogheda, but Luke's ears pricked up when he discovered there was an only daughter. No hope she'd inherit, but perhaps they'd want to dower her with a modest 100,000 acres out around Kynuna or Winton. This was nice country around Gilly, but too cramped and forested for him. Luke yearned for the enormity of far western Queensland, where the grass stretched into infinity and trees were mostly something a man remembered as being vaguely eastward. Just the grass, on and on and on with no beginning and no end, where a man was lucky to graze one sheep for every ten acres he owned. Because sometimes there was no grass, just a flat desert of cracked, panting black soil. The grass, the sun, the heat and the flies; to each man his own kind of heaven, and this was Luke O'neill's. He had prised the rest of the Drogheda story out of Jimmy Strong, the AMLANDF stock-and-station agent who drove him out that first day, and it had been a bitter blow to discover the Catholic Church owned Drogheda. However, he had learned how few and far between female heirs to properties were; when Jimmy Strong went on to say that the only daughter had a nice little cash sum of her own and many doting brothers, he decided to carry on as planned. But though Luke had long decided his life's objective lay in 100,000 acres out around Kynuna or Winton, and worked toward it with single-minded zeal, the truth was that at heart he loved hard cash far more than what it might eventually buy him; not the possession of land, nor its inherent power, but the prospect of stockpiling rows of neat figures in his bankbook, in his name. It hadn't been Gnarlunga or Bingelly he had wanted so desperately, but their value in hard cash. A man who genuinely wanted to be the boss cocky would never have settled for landless Meggie Cleary. Nor would he have loved the physical act of working hard as did Luke O'neill.

The dance at the Holy Cross hall in Gilly was the thirteenth dance Luke had taken Meggie to in as many weeks. How he discovered where they were and how he wangled some of the invitations Meggie was too naive to guess, but regularly on a Saturday he would ask Bob for the keys to the Rolls, and take her somewhere within 150 miles.

Tonight it was cold as she stood by a fence looking across a moonless landscape, and under her feet she could feel the crunch of frost. Winter was coming. Luke's arm came around her and drew her in to his side. "You're cold," he said. "I'd better get you home."

"No, it's all right now, I'm getting warm," she answered breathlessly. She felt a change in him, a change in the arm held loosely and impersonally across her back. But it was nice to lean against him, to feel the warmth radiating from his body, the different construction of his frame. Even through her cardigan she was conscious of his hand, moving now in small, caressing circles, a tentative and questioning massage. If at this stage she announced she was cold he would stop; if she said nothing, he would take it as tacit permission to proceed. She was young, she wanted so badly to savor love properly. This was the only man outside of Ralph who interested her, so why not see what his kisses were like? Only let them be different! Let them not be like Ralph's kisses!

Taking her silence as acquiescence, Luke put his other hand on her shoulder, turned her to face him, and bent his head. Was that how a mouth really felt? Why, it was no more than a sort of pressure! What was she supposed to do to indicate liking? She moved her lips under his and at once wished she had not. The pushing down increased; he opened his mouth wide, forced her lips apart with his teeth and tongue, and ran the tongue around the inside of her mouth. Revolting. Why had it seemed so different when Ralph kissed her? She hadn't been aware then of how wet and faintly nauseating it was; she hadn't seemed to think at all, only open to him like a casket when the well-known hand touches a secret spring. What on earth was he doing? Why did her body jump so, cling to him when her mind wanted badly to pull away? Luke had found the sensitive spot on her side, and kept his fingers on it to make her writhe; so far she wasn't exactly enthusiastic. Breaking the kiss, he put his mouth hard against the side of her neck. She seemed to like that better, her hands came up around him and she gasped, but when he slid his lips down her throat at the same time as his hand attempted to push her dress off her shoulder, she gave him a sharp shove and stepped quickly away. "That's enough, Luke!"

同类推荐
  • The Elevator

    The Elevator

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 玉梨魂

    玉梨魂

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 憨山老人梦游全集

    憨山老人梦游全集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 窑器说

    窑器说

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 佛说摩诃衍宝严经

    佛说摩诃衍宝严经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 给你一个商品,看你怎么卖

    给你一个商品,看你怎么卖

    摊位的卖主、卖场的营业员和商业经理人埋怨生意不好做,其实缺的是热销的商品,缺的是卖商品的智慧,读一读《给你一个商品,看你怎么卖》这本书,相信在品读中能够给你开拓卖的思路,为你找寻卖的办法,让你收获卖的学问,让你能够把所有的商品都能变成热销品。
  • 最高战备

    最高战备

    每一个向往大时代和大成就的年轻人都喜欢把自己所处的时代视为转折年代,他们高声叫嚷:“这是最好的年代,也是最坏的年代!”。作为普通人,当你和主角一起置身文中的时候,才能明白这句话的含义。PS:登陆后,当你久等的大神迟迟未更之时,不妨抽空翻翻这本书,也许会喜欢上它......。
  • 江湖多少红尘梦

    江湖多少红尘梦

    为寻找失散十五年的妹妹,太子赵临渊化名李澜,踏入诡谲江湖,不料因手中一把青空剑,掀起一场血雨腥风。漫漫寻亲路,又引出多少恩怨情仇,孰对孰错,是非曲直,又有谁能说得清……江湖多少红尘梦,风花雪月醉一场。
  • 我叫陈小刚

    我叫陈小刚

    当吹牛逼不用再打草稿,当装逼不用考虑后果。陈小刚:路见不平一声吼啊,该装逼时候就装逼啊。陈小刚:陈小刚做好事我从来不留名。记者:.....陈小刚:你有你的故事我有我的开水,不很很硬,但是很烫。恶霸:.....书友群号码:425648038
  • 都市异能风暴

    都市异能风暴

    ‘你们为何杀我母亲,我要灭你们全族。。。’李凌天怒喝道。一场史无前例的异能风暴由李凌天掀起,在风暴中崛起,立足世界巅峰。我欲凌天,霸绝天下!!!
  • 丝绸之路(上册)

    丝绸之路(上册)

    大唐景龙四年六月,在甘州商道上,一棵棵稀疏的枯木被渐起的沙尘所迷蒙。只片刻工夫,面前便呈现出一种灾难将至的恐怖景象。透过风沙漫过的阵阵迷雾,有三支带着丝路韵味的大型驼队,伴随着风沙的呼啸声和悠扬的驼铃声,由远及近缓缓而来。
  • 亿万继承者:独宠豪门千金

    亿万继承者:独宠豪门千金

    A市,有只手遮天的穆祁夏,有豪门千金蓝雪。初次见面,他意外撞到了她。在她落魄的时候,他总是会出现在她面前。传闻他不近女色,从来不在别人面前扬起嘴角,却偏偏把许多“第一次”都献给了她……“下雪了!”“嗯,夏雪了!”我们说好的:要携手看一辈子雪景!——穆祁夏,蓝雪
  • SD娃娃的红砂痣

    SD娃娃的红砂痣

    小时候的她,被自己最爱的主人杀掉亲生父母,然后,遭到遗弃,她要复仇,于是认识了两个同样遭到遗弃,双亲被杀的悲惨遭遇的同伴,于是,她们一起,复仇!!!在复仇的路上她们遇到了自己的真爱,可是老天非这么不公,硬要拆散他们............
  • 异界之女神崛起

    异界之女神崛起

    雪无痕很郁闷,非常的郁闷....莫名其妙的挂掉了然后,在想要夺舍的时候,被坑爹的小珠子带到了时空裂痕之中。然后....还好.....重生了然后.....很好......是人类然后.......尼玛....女的然后..........然后......没有然后了
  • 霸道萌宝女神归来

    霸道萌宝女神归来

    酒吧里,被人下药的他撞进了他的房间。清晨醒来想要逃跑结果无情的被抓包了……大婚当日,韩陌邶你愿意娶冷唯笑小姐为妻么?我…不愿意。然后转身走向了一个女人。呵呵呵,没有眼泪,只有笑,不断的嘲笑不断的冷笑,转身再不想见……五年后机场,一双一模一样的萌宝说妈咪你看电视上的那个男人跟我们长的一样诶。他说女人偷了我的东西还想走?