Grinchland

Chapter 21

TWENTY-ONE

SILAS

I woke up thinking about Clara. In all honesty, she hadn’t left my mind ever since I dropped her off at her house.

After I kissed her, pressed up against her front door until she was panting.

After I let my hands roam over her body, memorizing her curves.

After her hands clutched my jacket like she never wanted to let me go.

It felt good, kissing her.

It felt right.

I both loved and loathed how right it felt to be close to her.

To touch her. To want her. And for her to want me back?

It was perfection. So much so that I found myself humming while I shaved, doing a little dance in my closet while I got dressed, and barging into Isabelle’s room like an announcer for a TV show.

Isabelle loved it. She could feel my energy and matched it. She skipped around her room while I helped her pick out an outfit, sang at the top of her lungs while I packed her lunch, and demanded that I twirl her as we walked out to the car to get to school.

I laughed—something I hadn’t done in a long time. But it felt right. After all, I was doing a lot of things that I hadn’t done in a long time.

When Clara emerged from her house, I paused to take her in. I wanted her to know how I felt about our date last night. A shy smile emerged as she studied me. There was a secret between us, and I loved that we were the only two people in the entire world who knew what had happened.

Her cheeks flushed and she focused on her car before she glanced back up at me. I waved and called out, “Good morning.”

She only nodded as she unlocked her driver’s door and then slipped onto her seat.

I wanted to walk over to her and demand that she acknowledge me, but I suspected that her hesitancy had more to do with Isabelle being present than with her suddenly finding me repulsive and never wanting to speak to me again.

At least one of us had self-control.

I tried to keep my composure as I dropped Isabelle off outside of her classroom. I wanted to see Clara again, and I was disappointed that she hadn’t been in the hallway to greet me. I angled my body in the doorway in an effort to catch a glimpse of her.

With my weight on one leg as I attempted to peer deeper into the classroom, I heard someone clear their throat from behind me.

Heat flushed my body as I turned to see Maria standing there with her eyebrows raised.

My gaze flicked over to Clara, who was standing next to her, clutching a stack of papers to her chest. She had an amused smile on her lips.

Shit. I’d been caught red-handed.

“Did you need something, Mayor?” Maria asked.

I straightened and adjusted my suit coat. “Nope.” I paused, desperate for a reasonable explanation as to why I was trying so hard to see into the classroom, but nothing rational was coming to mind. So, I went with the next best thing: the truth.

“I was looking for Ms. Snow.” I gave a pointed look to Clara, and when her cheeks flushed, I took satisfaction from being able to get her to react that way.

“Oh?” Maria glanced over at Clara. “And what do you need to talk to her about?”

I cleared my throat as I shoved my hands into the front pocket of my pants and tipped slightly toward Maria. “What did I need to talk to her about?”

The only thing that was flowing through my mind was our kiss last night and how badly I wanted to reenact it, but I doubted that Maria would want to hear about that. And I doubted Clara wanted me talking to her boss about it.

“Probably about the play,” Clara said as she glanced over to me with her eyes wide as if prompting me to play along.

“The play,” I said, probably a tad too loud from the way Maria’s eyebrows went up even farther. “I need to talk to her about the play,” I said, bringing my voice down a bit too low. I winced. Why couldn’t I just act normal?

Maria glanced from me over to Clara and then back to me. “Well, here she is,” Maria said as she glanced back at Clara once more before she shook her head and continued walking down the hallway.

Now that we were alone, I glanced over at Clara, my gaze instantly dropping to her lips before I forced it back up. “I’m sorry about that,” I whispered.

Clara was studying me with her lips tipped up in a shy smile. She shook her head. “It’s okay.”

I leaned in. “I was dropping off Isabelle.”

She nodded. “I figured.”

I glanced down at the ground. “And…I was trying to see you.” I flicked my gaze up to meet hers.

“I figured,” she whispered, her voice turning breathless.

My heart pounded from the sound. Thoughts of our kisses and the soft way she moaned against my lips raced through my mind, and it was taking all my strength not to press her against the lockers and kiss her once more.

“So can I see you tonight?”

She nodded. “You can.” Then she leaned in. “We have practice,” she whispered.

That was not what I meant. I preferred my one-on-one time with Clara.

“But afterward…” She took a step closer to me and peered up at me through her long, dark lashes. “If you want, you can come over.”

I didn’t try to hide my smile. Instead, I just stared down at her, enjoying the flirty way she met my gaze as if she were challenging me.

“I can?”

She nodded.

“Do you have another Christmas activity that you want to show me?”

She shrugged. “You’ll just have to wait and see.” She tucked her hair behind her ear before she started to walk toward the doorway to her classroom.

“Is this a required activity?” I asked.

She paused before she flicked her gaze over her shoulder. “No.” And with that, she disappeared into the classroom, leaving me alone in the hallway.

My heart was racing as I walked out to my car. Her words echoed in my mind like the cave walls of the Grinch’s lair. This wasn’t required. Did that mean she wanted to spend time with me? Was this…a date?

Did I want it to be a date?

In all honesty, yesterday had felt like a date to me even though I’d packaged it up in my mind as just another one of the Christmas activities she was forcing me to participate in. But today felt different. Today felt wanted.

Desired.

That thought plagued me all day. I tried to keep my head straight as I listened to Todd during our morning meeting. I tried to keep my focus during my meeting with sanitation. I tried to keep Clara out of my mind as I answered emails and cleaned out my desk, but I failed miserably.

She had wiggled her way into my life and was becoming impossible to forget.

That night, during play practice, I tried to keep my gaze down and my attention on helping the kids find their marks and understand their cues, but I kept getting distracted by the way Clara’s nose wrinkled when she thought something was cute, or the way her smile grew big every time Isabelle practically yelled her lines.

Apparently to Clara, Scrooge was the best part for Isabelle. And even though Isabelle had no idea who Scrooge was, she was determined to give the part her all. That little girl was acting her heart out, and Clara was eating it up.

And I was falling even harder for Clara as I watched her encourage, smile at, and cheer on Isabelle every time she delivered her lines without messing up.

I never thought I would feel so much desire for a woman who wasn’t paying attention to me. Back when I was dating Nicole, I loved it when she smiled at me from the other side of the room. When she would sneak up next to me and grab my hand. Or when her gaze held mine as she walked toward me.

But watching a woman love my daughter—that was a level of attraction that I had never experienced before. It sent a whole new level of desire coursing through me.

So when play practice was over and I’d fed, bathed, and pajamaed my daughter, I waited for Isabelle to fall asleep in her bed before I scooped her up and made my way over to Clara’s.

After Isabelle was tucked in under Clara’s covers and we’d made our way out into the hallway, I didn’t waste any time pinning Clara against the wall and kissing her with all my pent-up feelings.

She giggled against my lips as her hands found my chest and her fingers curled into the fabric of my shirt like she’d been waiting for this moment.

I growled and wrapped my arms around her waist and hoisted her up so she was higher than me.

She parted her lips and my tongue danced around hers. Our lips moved in unison as if we both wanted to feel and touch as much as we could. She wrapped her legs around my waist, her blonde hair falling around my head, creating a curtain around us.

I didn’t break off our kiss as I carried her from the hall to the living room. Once I felt the couch bump the back of my legs, I lowered myself down. Clara straddled me, her arms on either side of my head and her hands holding onto the back of the couch.

I let my hands explore her waist, her hips, until I brought them to her thighs and dug my fingertips into the soft material of her jeans in an effort to bring her closer to me.

She complied, rising up slightly onto her knees so she could press her chest against mine.

She never broke our kiss, instead, her lips drew my face upward.

I could have kissed Clara all night, but she seemed to have a different plan as, suddenly, she pulled back.

“I have something for you,” she said. She pressed her fingertips to her lips a few times as she moved to sit further back on my thighs.

I wanted to yank her back to me and kiss her again, but she looked so excited, so I just knit my eyebrows together. “You do?” I asked as I glanced around, wondering what on earth she could have gotten me.

She nodded and started to shift her weight, so I helped her off my lap.

I settled back against the couch and watched as she hurriedly left the living room.

Now alone, I blew out my breath and tipped my head back against the wall.

I closed my eyes and just allowed myself to feel. To be in this moment.

Kissing Clara was quickly becoming my drug, and that both scared and exhilarated me.

“I found it,” she sang out.

I glanced up to see her enter the room from the kitchen. She had a white bag in her hand and a mischievous grin on her lips.

I frowned. “What is that?”

She crossed the space between us and sat down on the couch, her knees pressed into my thigh. “Open it,” she said as she dropped the bag in my lap.

I studied her before I slowly took the bag. “You should know that I hate surprises,” I said as I found one of the handles and then the second one.

“I know, but this is a good surprise,” she said, her voice steeped in excitement.

I narrowed my eyes but then decided to stop being so cynical and just open her gift.

As soon as I saw the green and red fabric of a Christmas sweater, I whipped my gaze over to meet hers.

She was grinning from ear to ear with her hands clasped in front of her like she was trying with all her might to contain her excitement.

“It’s a—”

“It’s a Christmas sweater!” she squealed as she moved to shake out the sleeves of the sweater that I was now holding up in front of me.

“—sweater.” I finally finished.

“Do you like it?”

No. I hated it. But loved how excited it made her, so I forced a smile. “It’s interesting.”

She sighed as she studied me. “You can’t wear—”

“Basic?”

She paused before she nodded. “That’s right, you can’t wear basic clothes all the time.” Then she glanced around the room. “You don’t have to worry about anyone seeing you in here. It’s just me,” she said as she brought her gaze back to meet mine.

I glanced from the sweater over to Clara and then back to the sweater. “You really want me to wear this?” I asked. Every part of my being was telling me not to, but all I wanted to do was make Clara happy, even if it meant putting this offending item on my body.

She smiled and nodded. “Yes,” she whispered.

I shifted my weight until I was sitting in the middle of the couch cushion. I grabbed the back of my collar and pulled it off in one swift motion. I heard Clara inhale, and I glanced over to see that her cheeks had reddened and her gaze was trained on my chest.

Satisfaction rose up inside of me as I smirked at her. If I was going to wear this ridiculous sweater, at least I was going to have some fun doing it. But when her gaze met mine and I saw the heat and desire that she had for me, suddenly, this was no longer a game.

This was something so much more.

I pulled the sweater on, and Clara climbed back onto my lap and kissed me until I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Even though wearing this sweater went against everything I’d stood for the last three years, I suddenly didn’t care. All I wanted in this moment was Clara.

For the first time in a long time, I felt alive.

For the first time in a long time, I felt…free.