Authors: Beth Cornelison
He turned up his hand in a gesture that said he didn't know how to explain. Avoiding her insightful gaze, he stared past her to the tall grass dancing in the meadow next door. "He took care of me and my mother for years after my dad died. It's my turn to take care of him, however I can."
He blew a deep breath out through pursed lips, relieved to have gotten that much off his chest, even if it meant she never wanted to see him again. His grim history and ongoing debts and obligations intimidated
him
sometimes. He could imagine Claire wouldn't want any part of it. Steeling his nerves, he glanced at her face, gauging her reaction.
Tears puddled in her eyes, and she reached for his cheek. "You have to be the most caring, patient, good-hearted person I’ve ever met." She stroked the side of his face with her fingertips, and a dizzying rush of sensation swamped him. "As for Sam, what was most obvious to me about him was his love and concern for you. Maybe he’s..."
"Crazy?" Kevin supplied.
"Eccentric."
"It doesn’t matter what word you use. The truth is the truth. Half the time he can't remember my mother is dead. Some days he thinks he's still in Iraq. One time they called me to the elementary school to get him because he was doing his Gene Kelly impression, singing in the rain...naked. He'd decided to use the runoff from the roof as a shower."
She bit her bottom lip and winced.
He waved a hand toward his trailer. "Welcome to my world. It's not pretty, but I call it home. With me, what you see is what you get, and...I won't apologize for it."
"Apologize? Why on earth would you think I wanted you to apologize for who you are? I’m proud to say that I know you, Kevin. I want to be your friend...if you’ll let me."
He pulled away from her caress, fighting the knot that was swelling in his throat. She took a sideways step, staying in front of him when he tried to turn away. "And since we are dealing in the truth today, here it is. The truth is...I want to be
more
than your friend, Kevin."
More than his friend? His stomach somersaulted.
"Maybe I read your signals wrong—Lord knows it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong about someone—but..." She plunged on, filling the awkward silence as he gaped at her, stunned. "The other night, when we kissed...I thought...maybe it was the beginning of something..."
He should have been celebrating, thanking his lucky stars that this woman would even give him the time of day. More than friends?
Cripes
. Who'd have ever imagined?
Instead, her assertion stuck cold, biting fear in his heart.
"Kevin—" Her voice cracked with emotion. "I can’t stop thinking about you, even when I’m supposed to be concentrating on something else. You’re the first person in my mind in the morning and the last person I think about at night. When you kissed me, I felt it all the way down to my toes. You make me laugh, and you've touched my heart with your generosity and gentleness." She closed the distance between them, and Kevin found himself holding his breath as she captured his chin and looked deep into his eyes. "Do you hear what I’m saying?"
She drew his face closer and tenderly pressed her lips to his. Kevin’s heart slammed against his ribs, and he pulled away from her with a jerk. "Don’t."
"Why not?" He heard the disappointment in her voice.
"It hurts too much."
She gave him a sympathetic grin and touched the corner of his mouth. "Your lip’s still tender?"
"No."
When he tried to disengage his chin from her fingers, she clung to him, framing his face with her hands. "I'm not Robin."
His heart lurched. "How do you know—"
"Mrs. Proctor has been on my case since the day I moved in, warning me not to hurt you the way Robin did. She even made grave threats if I so much as considered crossing you."
He blinked his amusement. "Really?"
"She said you loved Robin. That you haven't really been yourself since she left. Kevin, I—" Her voice cracked, and she fell silent, drawing her lower lip between her teeth. Claire took an unsteady breath and leaned closer. Her warm, soft breath touched his ear like a gentle caress. "You can trust me, you know. I'd never let you fall."
Recognizing his promise from when he'd driven her home on his motorcycle, he snapped his gaze up to meet hers.
"Give me a chance, Kevin. All I'm asking for is a chance to prove myself to you. I know I don't have much experience in matters of the heart, but I'm a fast learner."
His heart hammered a staccato rhythm, stunned by what she seemed to be suggesting. Didn't she see how different their lives were?
"I came to Grayson looking for something." She aligned her body with his, trailing her fingers over his shoulder and along his neck to tease the hair at his nape. "I came here to fulfill a dream I'd had for years and to establish my independence. I needed the opportunity to choose what
I
wanted my life to be. Well, I know what I want, Kevin. I want you. And I'm willing to work for what I want if I have to...because I believe you're worth it."
He couldn't talk. Couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. He couldn't have mounted a defense if he'd wanted to. She'd decimated his last hold on his emotions with the sincerity in her voice, the moisture in her eyes. His self-control went up in smoke when she pressed her lithe body so close to his. She raised her lips to his again, and with a groan of surrender, he shattered.
He wrapped his arms around her and drew her firmly against him. He lost himself in the sweet caress of her lips, stroked his tongue inside her mouth and swallowed her mewl of pleasure. The satiny texture of her skin and her intoxicating scent of roses fed his senses and stoked the inferno that crackled inside him.
Claire threaded her fingers through his hair and pulled him even closer, angling her head for a deep kiss. Her tongue met his and dueled, matching every parry and lunge.
When breathing became a necessity, Kevin hugged her body to his and sucked in a lungful of the warm morning air. Claire, too, gulped oxygen, but the effect was more of a gasp.
She levered away from his body and dropped her gaze, and Kevin followed her line of sight. And discovered the source of her gasp. His jeans didn’t do much to hide his state of arousal.
Her eyes darted back up to his, and she sent him a playful and irreverent grin. "Is that for me?"
"Sorry." He curled up the corner of mouth. "My friend gets a little excited sometimes, and I have trouble controlling him."
"I see." Claire's gold eyes glittered as she continued grinning at him.
Kevin cleared his throat. "Perhaps we should step inside if we plan to continue."
"Perhaps so."
He backed into his trailer, tugging Claire with him, and kicked the door closed. "Now where were we?"
The sultry, slightly wicked expression that lit Claire’s face was an incredible turn-on.
"I think you were about to introduce me to your friend," she murmured, and her hands slid down his back and inside his jeans.
Kevin’s breath escaped as a hiss through his teeth when Claire cupped her hands over his buttocks and pulled him closer. "Have mercy."
"Nuh-uh. No mercy." She squeezed his tush and liquid fire shot through his veins.
He caught her lips again and tumbled them onto his couch, twisting so that his back bore the brunt of the broken spring. She landed just where he wanted her, on top, between his legs.
She raised her head briefly to smile at him, and her hair spilled around his face like a silky gold curtain, enveloping him in the sexy scent of her perfume.
"I've never felt this way about a man before. You make me want things I never..."
He sank his fingers into her hair and pulled her down to nibble her lips. "Tell me what you want," he murmured against her mouth.
"I want it all." She echoed her request by rubbing her hips against his in a provocative undulating motion.
Heat slammed into him. He wanted nothing more than to sink into her warmth and spend an eternity buried inside her. His body clambered for release as she slid along the length of him in seductive strokes, her mouth blazing a moist trail along his throat.
But above the roar of blood racing to nether regions of his anatomy, his brain slapped him with an icy dose of reality. He had no condoms, no protection for Claire of any sort.
Double cripes
.
"Bad news, princess."
"Mmm?" she hummed while she moved her kisses to the line of his jaw. Her tongue flicked at his earlobe, and he groaned. She was killing him, torturing him with a sweet agony that had to stop before he lost his head and damned the consequences of unprotected sex.
"We have to stop. I don't have any condoms."
Apparently it took a moment for his confession to penetrate the haze of her desire. She continued kissing him for several seconds before her head jerked up, and she stared at him with heavy-lidded eyes. She looked so damn seductive, her lips swollen and wet, her hair tousled, and her eyes shaded with passion that he wanted to weep. Telling her
no
had to qualify him for sainthood—or the loony bin. He had to be crazy to walk away from a goddess who was ready to share her body and her heart with him.
"Oh." She licked her lips and pushed herself up to sit beside him at the edge of the couch. She raked her hair back with her fingers and took a deep breath. "Just as well, I'm late for work as it is and...well, my boss—" She glanced at him over her shoulder and grinned. "He jumps to all kind of conclusions when I'm late. Last time, he thought I'd quit."
Kevin sat up and gave her a playful frown. "Geez, he sounds like a real jerk. How do you stand working for him?"
"Well..." She dragged a finger down his chest, and he shuddered as crackling sensations skittered across his skin. "Thing is, he's got a really hot body. I put up with him jumping to conclusions, because the rest of the day, I'm imagining him naked and sweaty in my bed."
His mouth went dry. "Cripes, woman. Don't tell me that. How the hell am I gonna get any work done today knowing you're...imagining me..." He couldn't even say the words. His body was burning, and his heart felt like it would hammer through his chest.
"Naked," she finished for him. Claire brushed a light kiss on his lips before rising to her feet and crossing to the door. "I'll get the food from my car and be right back."
It would take longer than she needed to get the pan of lasagna from her car for his body to cool down. And he had to get himself ready for work as well.
He thought of the large pans of food he'd seen on her front seat and inspiration struck.
He met her at the door, taking a pie pan from her when she came up the steps. "Have dinner with me tonight. I can't eat all of this food alone. And... " He cleared his throat. "I'll be sure to stop by the drugstore on the way home tonight and get a whole case of condoms."
She set the pan in her hands on the table and turned, a demure smile on her lips and an innocent pink flush on her cheeks. "That would be lovely."
The poised and polite princess was back. What happened to the temptress he'd been tangled with on his couch? A nagging doubt crept in to spoil his bliss. What if the moment had passed? What if she'd reconsidered already? What if she'd taken a hard look at what she'd almost done and been horrified?
Ribbit
.
"Unless you rather not. I mean, it was just an idea. I'd understand if—"
"When should I be here? My shift ends at six."
"Then I’ll get Lydia to lock up for me, and I’ll leave at six, too." He sucked in a deep breath. "How's seven?"
She smiled. "Seven is great."
Ha! Take that you dumb frog!
C
HAPTER
N
INE
How in the world was he supposed to keep his cool until seven o'clock? He still had to put in a full day at the store, including playing down the significance of his black eye, bruised jaw and stiff movements to those who hadn't heard about his condition.
And Ray. God, he had to deal with Ray. Talk about spoiling a good mood.
But all he had to do was think about seven o'clock and a slap-happy grin found its way to his lips. Imagining Claire in his arms, in his bed gave him the distraction he needed to face anything, even Ray. He just needed to conduct his business as usual, and before he could say 'One case of condoms, please,' seven o'clock would be here, and he'd have Claire to himself. Alone. All night.
Hot damn
!
Kevin parked his motorcycle in the shade at the back of the hardware store and headed inside, his pulse already revving over seeing Claire again. He had to keep it low key around her. No sense tipping the whole store and every customer off to the fact that the princess had spent several mind-blowing minutes with him in a lip-lock straight out of his dreams.
He checked his stride as he walked to the front door and scowled. Geez, he actually had a little bounce in his step, like something out of an old musical—the ones where the guy kisses his gal then virtually skips off, whistling like some besotted shmuck.
Was he besotted? He grinned to himself. Maybe. Call it what you want. What mattered was he was happy, truly happy for the first time in years. Not just optimistically content, but spring-in-his-step, grin-on-his-face happy. Because of Claire.
I know what I want, Kevin. I want you.
I'd never let you fall.
Kevin yanked the front door open and sucked in a deep breath.
The higher you build your hopes and expectations, the farther you have to fall when she wakes up and smells the frog pond.
The voice of experience and caution slashed at his bubble of bliss with sharp claws. Things had started off well with Robin, too, before she took a critical look at what she'd gotten into and run for the hills.
The deflating weight of doubt kept his feet on the ground as he made his way to the register counter where Claire, Lydia and Ray were gathered around a box of doughnuts.
"Hey, food stays in the break room, people."