Chapter 22
CLAY
What followed was the happiest week of Clay’s life since he’d been stomped on by a very angry horse and had his spine smashed to pieces.
Possibly the happiest week of his life – ever.
It required some creative handling to keep their fling under wraps, to keep up appearances of friendly acquaintances all while itching to touch her and kiss her and talk to her like they did when they were alone in bed together, not like their polite inanities when they were in public.
But it was worth it to go to sleep wrapped around her and wake up with her plastered to his side, her hair spread on his pillows and her scent on his sheets.
And it seemed they were getting away with it.
No one appeared to have twigged to their changed relationship.
His parents were playing it cool and there were no side-eyes or sly winks from anyone.
Mags and Dev hadn’t even questioned it when he and Stevie had both declined another Saturday night at The Corral – him citing the paperwork Mags had given him with background information on her business idea, her citing a Zoom meeting with her agent to discuss the tour kicking off in November.
They both kept up appearances to aid the ruse.
Stevie rode with Mags every day and went on whatever trail ride was going as well as spending time in the stables grooming horses.
She attended all cookouts – Clay skipped them because attending would have been more suspicious – as well as participated in other ranch-based activities both at the ranch house and in the yards, including the barrel racing and calf-roping demos that were always guest favourites.
Clay had breakfast at the ranch house every morning as usual – dropping Stevie back at her cabin on his way – and did his job the rest of the day, tending to the ranch and the cattle, doing whatever chore presented itself as the most urgent.
He drove everyone hard at it too so they could be done quickly, freeing him up to spend time with Stevie.
And when he managed to avoid staying out overnight – something he was always up for – by suggesting to his father that perhaps the cattle could stay another week or so on the very healthy pasture they were on, the guys were happy for the reprieve, backing him 100 per cent.
He even managed to not do something dumb like whistle or laugh too much, although he often caught himself smiling at a memory of Stevie despite the sweat and the dust and the eyes all around him. Like he was right now as they cantered back to the ranch much later than he’d planned.
The day had been long because sometimes cattle were the dumbest beasts on God’s green earth, but the thought of seeing Stevie again had him grinning like a loon and urging his horse to go faster.
As if she’d known he was thinking about her, his phone buzzed in his pocket and Clay grinned as he answered it.
‘Where are you?’ she demanded, sounding miffed and cute before he’d even had a chance to say hello.
He chuckled, loving her impatience. ‘I’m almost back. Probably take me about half an hour to get to you. What are you doing?’
‘I’m lying naked on my bed thinking about you.’
If Stevie had snapped a rubber band against his dick, it could not have reacted faster. He loved how bold she was growing, how confident she was becoming in her newfound sexuality. ‘I’ll be there in twenty.’
He was there in twenty and although she was waiting for him outside, fully dressed – saucy little tease that she was – with her guitar slung over her shoulder, she was naked ten minutes after that.
All except for his cowboy hat, which was tipped at a sexy angle as she rode him like the mechanical bull at Joe’s.
He’d been stripping to get in the shower and wash away the layers of sweat and dust but Stevie, already out of her clothes, hadn’t been having any of it.
She’d pushed him on the bed and climbed on top of him, snatching a condom from his stash and rolling it on impatiently, before moving over him and sinking herself all the way down on a satisfied gasp he knew was going to live in his dreams for a very long time.
She was like some country nymph, her eyes closed, her mouth parted, her pebbled nipples like pale pink frosting as she found her rhythm in a sinuous kind of undulation. Clay’s heart pounded in his chest, his fingers digging into her hips as he hung on to the tenuous control he had over his balls.
‘God,’ she murmured, her eyes opening on a frown. ‘It’s different doing it like this.’
‘Not working for you?’ Clay asked through a rigid jaw whilst trying to ignore just how very much it was doing it for him.
‘Oh, it feels good.’ She ground a little, her body shuddering at the sensation at the same time it dragged a groan from Clay’s lips. ‘It’s just… I don’t know, not quite the right angle or something.’
She looked sexy as hell naked and obviously aroused – her nipples tight, her cheeks flushed, her pupils large, her pussy gloriously wet – despite the puzzled little V forming between her eyebrows.
He chuckled at her frustration. ‘Here, let me help with that.’ Clay’s hand slid from her hip, trailing to the hot, slick join of their bodies.
‘No, wait…’ Her fingers circled his wrist. ‘Could you—’ She faltered, pressing her lips together, her gaze dropping to their hands, and although her cheeks were already flushed, he could see an extra rush of colour.
‘Look at me, Stevie girl.’ It took a beat but her eyes slowly lifted, radiating uncertainty. ‘You can have whatever you want.’
She nodded but it lacked enthusiasm. ‘I read in one of Yolly’s books once, she was on top like this and the hero, he—’
She paused again, her gaze searching his for a beat before she tugged on his hand and brought it to her throat, her own slipping away.
Ah.
Clay smiled slowly, surprised but really fucking turned on by this development. Like he wasn’t close enough to blowing his load already.
‘This?’ he murmured as his thumb brushed the shallow dip at the base of her throat and wafted over the thick thud of her carotid pulse as it settled to one side of her neck, his fingers sliding to the opposite side until he was lightly cuffing her throat, the ridge of her trachea hard beneath his palm.
‘You want this, Stevie girl?’
Clay almost groaned at the sudden sexual glitter in her eyes and the shift of her throat against his hand as she swallowed.
‘I… I don’t know.’ She swallowed again. ‘But it was… exciting to read.’
‘You got off on it?’
She nodded. ‘Yes.’
‘Shall I?’ Clay exerted the lightest of pressure.
Her breath hitched, and her eyes bugged a little as she shook her head and he eased off. ‘Can I just…’ She leaned into his hand instead, putting herself in control of the pressure, and Clay braced his arm as he took more of her weight.
‘Better?’
She nodded, swallowing thickly, her chest rising and falling rapidly, her breathing sexily unsteady. ‘Yes,’ she assured him on a pant then started to move again.
Clay did moan this time. The sight of her in nothing but his hat, his hand around her throat, her back arched as she leaned more of her weight into his hand and rode him like she’d been born in a saddle, was a goddamn revelation.
‘Fuuck, Stevie girl,’ he muttered, his eyes locking in on hers, ‘you look so sexy wearing my hand as a necklace.’
Her moan vibrated against his palm as she picked up the pace, her breathing heavy as she worked her hips in a circle-circle-grind rhythm that got faster and more intense, her eyes glazed with lust as she started to whimper and pant.
‘Yesss,’ Clay whispered, his heart a mad slam in his chest, his breathing crazy unsteady considering he was doing fuck all except fighting the rising surge of his climax. ‘Yes, Stevie, bring it home.’
‘Clay,’ she panted, her rhythm becoming haphazard now, one hand flailing before sliding over his hand at her throat, the other landing on a pec and squeezing as she leaned into it, shifting her angle a little, a satisfied grunt falling from her lips.
Fuck, she was awesome. ‘Stevie,’ he groaned as he clamped down on the dictates of his body to let go. ‘Gonna make me come.’
She gasped then, her eyes widening, and Clay saw the moment her body let go, a hard jolt shuddering through her and into him, swallowing convulsively against the restriction at her throat as her internal muscles clamped hard, squeezing him as she bucked and writhed and called his name, her gaze never leaving his as he finally gave into the scream in his blood.
His orgasm soared with hers as he vaulted upright, his hand falling from her throat to slide around her waist and anchor there as he took over, hammering up into her, his tongue licking into her mouth as he kissed her hard and deep, pushing them higher and higher and higher into a galaxy of stardust.