Chapter 1
The heat of the early afternoon sun hit Josh like a punch in the face as he left the foreman’s air-conditioned cabin.
“Thanks,” he called back before swinging the metal door shut.
He hefted the heavy bag containing two week’s clothing over his shoulder and set off across the large patch of sunburnt lawn to where the portable metal cabins of the work crew were. He glanced down at the key. The tag attached said Number 43.It wasn’t difficult to find his new accommodation as the cabins were arranged numerically in neat rows, separated by narrow pathways of blue metal.
The first thing he did once he got the door open was drop his bag and turn the air-conditioning on; it’s icy blast like a lover’s kiss against his sweaty, suntanned skin. He closed his eyes to savour its soothing breeze, barely getting a chance to enjoy it completely before hearing a noise at the door behind him.
“Hey, you must be Josh,” said the burly man who entered, pulling the door shut behind him. “I'm Duke. You been here long?”
“No, the plane just got in about half an hour ago,” said Josh, shaking his new roommate’s hand. “I didn’t realize how far out this mine site was. I used to work in Kalgoorlie, which wasn’t too bad, but this one is out in the middle of nowhere.”
Duke smiled and took his jacket off. “Yeah, it’s a bit of a shock at first, but just wait until you start doing your twelve-hour shifts. You’ll climb into that bed so exhausted that you won’t care where you are.” He threw his jacket onto the bed. “Which team are you on?”
“Team C. Apparently we don’t start until tomorrow afternoon.”
Duke began to unbutton his shirt. “I’m Team A and we do the morning shift. I guess that’s why they put us in together. You’ll be getting in just as I’m heading out.”
Duke peeled his plaid shirt off to reveal a broad, muscular chest covered in a thick mat of dark hair. Two large nipples sat atop the solid mounds of his pectoral muscles, sticking out like teats. His arms were massive, the forearms thickly-haired, and he had a tattoo of a mermaid that rippled on the skin over his left bicep.
“I'm gonna grab some sleep. How about you?” asked Duke, his hands busy at his belt buckle. “Or are you gonna head over to the mess hall?”
Josh shrugged his broad shoulders. “Might as well hit the sack. I’m a bit tired after the flight up from Perth.”
He unbuttoned his shirt while Duke pulled his work boots off. Soon the room was filled with the smell of sweaty feet. It was a smell Josh was used to. No point in being disgusted by something he couldn’t help. Duke’s boots were left exactly where he dropped them, while his socks were tossed into a corner where there was already a sizeable assortment of dirty jocks and socks.
“Sorry about the smell, mate,” Duke said. “Occupational hazard.”
They shared a laugh and continued to undress.
“You don’t have to apologise,” said Josh, pulling his boots and socks off while Duke slipped his Levis and jocks down to his ankles. “They’re mild compared to some I’ve smelled.”
When the giant man leaned down to pull his jeans off, Josh found himself unable to take his eyes off the man’s thick, solid thighs and lightly-haired butt cheeks. They had parted a little, so Josh could see the nest of dark hair that sat in the centre of his roommate’s arse crack. He tried not to look, but the view was so inviting that he couldn’t help himself. Naturally he felt himself getting hard and a flood of panic swept through his body. He fumbled with his own belt buckle, his jeans falling to the floor just as Duke turned around.
“I might snore, mate, so I’m gonna apologise in advance,” he said with a smile, his teeth brilliantly white against the deep red of his lips and the dark brown of his thick moustache and goatee. He looked down. “Fuck, mate. What’s that?”
Josh didn’t have to look. His eight-incher was poking out at right angles from his thick bush of black pubic hair. There was nothing he could do about it now. And when he glanced down at Duke’s thick cock hanging down like an extra limb over a set of the biggest balls he’d ever seen, he felt it twitch.
He held his breath. It wasn’t the first time he’d had a hard-on in front of a workmate, but those previous incidents had been in the morning when, more often than not, his roommate had one, too. This time, however, there was only one thing that could have caused it—the sight of Duke’s naked body. What would the big guy do? Josh held his breath, hardly even daring to look the man in the eye.