Chapter 10
Clayton
The knock was soft, almost hesitant, but I’d been lying awake hoping to hear it since the moment I’d left her standing in my kitchen. My heart slammed against my chest as I sat up in bed.
“It’s unlocked,” I rumbled.
The door swung open and Rachel stood silhouetted in the hallway light, her hair loose and tumbling over her shoulders in dark waves.
It was no longer pinned up, controlled and professional.
Now it fell soft and wild around her face, and she looked younger somehow, more vulnerable. Her eyes were red-rimmed and glassy, like she’d been crying, and the sight made something twist painfully in my chest.
“Rachel,” her name contained all the emotion inside me. “I wasn’t sure you’d come.”
Nuts and Bolts lifted their heads where they rested at the foot of the bed, tails thumping hopefully.
“Off,” I commanded, and they scrambled down with matching looks of betrayal before padding over to their dog beds in the corner. I pulled back the covers on her side of the bed and patted the mattress.
She crossed the room, her bare feet silent on the worn hardwood, and climbed in beside me.
Rachel sat with her back against the headboard, knees drawn up, arms wrapped around herself as if she were trying to hold herself together.
“I’m scared,” she whispered into the darkness.
“Of me?”
Rachel’s hand found mine in the darkness, her fingers cool and soft against my calloused palm.
“Of making another mistake.” She turned to look at me, and in the dim light filtering through the curtains, I could see more tears threatening to spill over.
“When I first started this job, I was different. I actually believed I could help people. I made decisions based on what felt right instead of what the policy manual said.”
“Yeah?”
“There was this man in Oklahoma. He was disabled. He lived alone, and a tornado took half his roof.” Her voice cracked.
“That sounds… tough,” I told her, but in reality, it sounded similar to half the claims here on Red Oak Mountain.
She wiped a tear off her face. “I approved an emergency payout because he was so desperate, and… I thought I was doing the right thing.”
“Oh, honey, it sounds like you did the right thing. You helped that man out.”
When she knocked on my door, my cock thought it was finally getting what it wanted. And it was still throbbing hard, but I almost preferred this.
Rachel was really letting me in.
A tiny sob hiccupped out of her. “But it turned out his nephew had staged most of the damage to scam the claim. The payout cost my company thousands of dollars based on my word, and I almost lost my job. They put me on probation for ‘emotional decision-making.’”
Squeezing her hand, I said, “That wasn’t your fault. You were trying to help someone.”
“It doesn’t matter whose fault it was. What matters is that I learned my lesson.
” She laughed bitterly. “For years now, I’ve documented everything and denied borderline claims out of an abundance of caution.
I’ve even refused to bend the rules when I wanted to, because the one time I trusted my instincts, it nearly destroyed my career. ”
I understood that kind of fear better than she knew. The fear of caring too much and getting burned for it.
“My dad died two years ago,” The words came out rough, scraping past the knot in my throat. “It was unexpected. He had a heart attack while he was out in his workshop.”
She shifted towards me, “Oh, Clayton. That’s terrible.”
“I had a girlfriend then. Michelle. We’d been together for three years, and everyone in town expected us to get married.
” I stared at the ceiling, remembering. “But when Dad died, I just… shut down. I couldn’t talk to her about it.
She was the one person who wanted in, and I couldn’t let her in.
I pushed her away while I drowned in grief. ”
“What happened?”
“She left. It was about two months after the funeral.” I squeezed Rachel’s hand.
“The whole town blamed her for abandoning me when I needed her most. But it wasn’t true.
I pushed her away. It was all on me. I tried to set the record straight and tell people it was my fault, but that only made the rumors worse.
Now she can’t even show her face at the grocery store without someone giving her dirty looks.
It’s the small-town rumor mill at work. That’s one you escaped when you left your hometown. ”
“That’s awful.”
I tugged her into my arms, and she melted against me willingly.
“The thing is… I couldn’t let her in because when my dad died I realized I was never going to love her the way my dad loved my mom. Michelle was a sweet, small-town woman, completely perfect, nothing wrong with her.”
I paused then.
We’d had no spark. Not like what I felt with Rachel.
Spending time with Rachel was like riding on a wild freight train that was threatening to jump its tracks. I wanted to careen off the rails with her just to see what would happen.
And it was strange how easy she was to talk to.
“I needed something epic in my life, and I was too much of a coward to admit that what we had wasn’t it. I’ve never told anyone this, but I was glad when she left. I should have ended it a long time before that. It was unfair to make her do the work of breaking up with me.”
Rachel was quiet for a long moment. Then, so softly I almost didn’t hear it, she whispered, “No one’s ever thought I’m epic. If that’s what men are looking for, it’s a good thing I’m committed to being single.”
Single. That sat heavy inside me.
“I’m too fat… and definitively type A. Neurotic might as well be my middle name. Plus, I’m never in one place long enough for anyone to get to know me.”
She met my eyes, and there was something raw in her gaze that made my breath catch. “But despite all that… I wouldn’t mind if we could be epic together. Just for one night.”
Just for one night.
The words hit me like a punch to the gut. She didn’t feel for me what I felt for her. This was physical for her, a way to scratch an itch before she moved on to her next assignment and forgot I ever existed.
But I couldn’t say no. Because as long as she was still here, I had a chance of changing her mind.
“You want a night with me, Rachel?” I asked her huskily, all the heat I’d been feeling towards this woman welling up into this moment, right here, right now.
She met my eyes shyly, “Yeah. I kind of do. Is that okay?”
There was only one answer to that question, and it didn’t require words. I cupped her face in my hands, and then I finally gave in and did what I’d been wanting to do since the first moment she’d landed on my front porch, dripping wet and looking more than a little lost.
I kissed her.
The first brush of my lips against hers was gentle, questioning.
And when she gasped softly against my mouth, I deepened the kiss, sliding my tongue along the seam of her lips until she opened for me. She kissed me back with a hunger that matched my own, her fingers fisting in the front of my t-shirt, pulling me closer.
I angled her head back, taking control, and she melted into me with a whimper that went straight to my cock. My beard scraped against her soft skin as she moaned with need, her legs wrapping around me.
This wasn’t the time to make love to her. This was the time to fuck her so hard that she made bad decisions, like quitting her job and moving in with me.
It was time to give Rachel something to remember me by.
“Tell me to stop, and I will. Otherwise… you’re mine for tonight.” I growled, giving her one last chance to back out.
She gave me her answer by digging her nails into me.
I grabbed her pajama top and yanked, sending buttons scattering across the bed. She gasped in surprise, while I was already tugging the fabric off her shoulders, baring her breasts to the cool air.
“I’ll buy you a new set tomorrow, along with a pair of sensible shoes,” I growled against her skin, and then my mouth was on her nipple, sucking hard while I shoved her pajama bottoms down her thighs.
I didn’t even bother pulling them all the way off before my fingers found her slit, sliding through slick heat that made me groan.
“Oh!” she exclaimed in surprise, her body already responding to me.
She was soaking wet, dripping for me, and when I pushed two fingers inside her, she cried out and arched off the bed.
“Too much? Too fast?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“No, just unexpected. Don’t stop on my account.”
If she thought I’d give her thirty minutes of foreplay before getting to the main event, she’d been wrong. It had taken everything in me to keep my hands to myself over the past three days, and my self-control had only been holding on by a tattered thread.
And guess what?
That thread had just snapped.
“Fuck, you’re tight,” I rumbled against her mouth, curling my fingers to find that spot inside her that made her shake. I worked her with my hand while I kissed her, swallowing her moans while her inner walls clenched around my fingers as I pumped them in and out.
“Are you always like this?” she gasped.
I answered by nipping at the delicate skin on her breast, teasing her other nipple with my teeth until she cried out and latched on to me, pussy bucking on my hand.
My thumb found her clit, and I rubbed in tight circles, building her higher and higher until she was writhing beneath me, her nails digging into my shoulders hard enough to leave marks.
“Clayton, I’m going to… I can’t…”
“Let go,” I commanded, and she shattered for me.
Her pussy clamped down on my fingers as she came, pulsing and fluttering, and she screamed my name loud enough that it satisfied every masculine instinct in me. I worked her through it, drawing out every last tremor, until she collapsed back against the pillows, gasping for breath.
But I wasn’t done with her. Not even close.