Chapter 10 #3
Erica smiled and flicked her hair back and got in way too close as a flaming-hot arrow struck Stevie in the chest. To be fair, Clay was keeping space between them but when he laughed at something she said, all the air evaporated from her lungs.
She was jealous. Ragingly, blindingly jealous.
Her vision a mist of steamy green as the song played on until it came to an end and blonde two cut in, the three guys changing partners in good humour.
The second woman was slightly more circumspect but Clay was clearly enjoying himself, chatting and smiling.
He hadn’t smiled at her all damn night and she was completely, utterly, irrationally… pissed about it. Stephanie Everhart didn’t do pissed. She didn’t think in cuss words. She was amiable. She was agreeable. She was easy-going. Stephanie Everhart was nice. Everybody said so. She was famous for it.
Stevie on the other hand? Apparently Stevie had all the bad words.
She opened her mouth to ask Mags if the guys were allowed to fraternise with guests like that but an approaching Dev cut off the thought.
He was smiling at her, at least.
‘Stevie, I might look like I have two left feet but I promise I can hold my own on a dance floor.’ He held out his hand. ‘What’s say we show these cow pokes how it’s done?’
Mags folded her arms and gave a derisive snort. ‘I’m sure Stevie would rather dance with a starving grizzly.’
Stevie’s gaze slid to Mags, who was frowning huffily at the rangy, rusty-haired, blue-eyed cowboy like he was a rock in her boot.
He was good looking, she realised as she took a closer look – in a boyish, twinkle-in-his-eye, class-clown kind of way.
She just hadn’t noticed, Dev’s attractiveness completely obliterated by Clay’s enigmatic presence.
Completely unabashed by Mags’s put down, he waggled his fingers at Stevie. ‘Don’t listen to short stuff, she’s just jealous cos she can’t dance worth a damn.’
Stevie thought it might be a little more than that by the look of murderous intent in Mags’s eyes, and she was about to decline – really, she was.
Because whatever was happening here she didn’t want to get in the middle of, but then a burst of Clay’s laughter floated towards them and the itsy-bitsy-teeny-tiny skirt worn by blonde three flared out, showcasing a pair of long, shapely, non-beanpole legs, and Stevie’s brain became a swamp of green.
An ogre swamp, heaving and roiling with dark discontent and, on a complete knee-jerk impulse, she took Dev’s hand. ‘I’d love to.’
Stevie barely registered their walk to the dance floor.
She wasn’t even paying attention to the song that was playing.
All she knew as she slipped into Dev’s arms, who was being an utter gentleman keeping a respectable distance between them, was that Clay’s eyes were now glued to her and she beamed at whatever Dev had just said.
Nobody observing them would think, for a moment, they were a couple, more like acquaintances – which was exactly what they were.
But the way Clay’s gaze was shooting laser beams at the spot where Dev’s hand sat perfectly platonically in the centre of her back somehow soothed the raging beast inside.
Unfortunately it only lasted to the end of the song when the prickle at her nape alerted her to the loom of Clay’s presence. ‘Do you mind if I cut in, Dev?’
It wasn’t a question. It was no request, either. It was an order, and Stevie’s nipples hardened in anticipation as Dev bowed out graciously, offering his hand to Clay’s partner and laughing as she said, ‘Well, aren’t you a tall drink of water.’
They danced away then. Or at least Stevie supposed they did because all she was aware of was Clay, big and grim in front of her, his hand slipping through hers, his other hand sliding to her back in a not remotely platonic way.
Low and possessive as a hot wave of longing rippled from her inner thighs to the tight points of her nipples.
As with the others, Clay kept his distance but it didn’t feel like it – the heat between them was tinder dry and so dang combustible.
She stared straight ahead over his shoulder as Brookes and Dunne banged out a tune, but the clench of his jaw and the tight line of his mouth loomed in her peripheral vision.
His whole frame was rigid – biceps, abs, quads – like he was holding himself tightly in check.
Too tightly, his body bristling with suppressed energy that sizzled from him to her, ruffling through Stevie’s belly so deep and low it earthed with a maddening tingle right between her legs.
She bit the inside of her cheek to stop the rising moan from finding an outlet.
There was no doubt in her mind right now that she was dancing with a hungry grizzly.
‘Rhinestone cowgirl, huh?’
The enquiry was polite with a forced note of humour that barely disguised the gravel in his tone, gravel that slid down her neck like a physical caress.
She gave a deprecating laugh. ‘It seemed appropriate.’ Her tone was high and breathy. Unnatural. But how was she supposed to word when every cell in her body was lighting up and melting down at the same time?
He fell silent again for several beats, which was just the reprieve Stevie needed. Her multi-tasking went to hell whenever Clay Calhoun was near.
‘Mom tells me your grandmother is improving.’
Stevie stumbled and Clay’s arm immediately tightened around her middle, edging them perilously closer. Dozens of fairy lights reflected like fireworks in his eyes as their gazes caught. ‘When did she tell you that?’
‘We talk every day. She’s been keeping me up to date.’
‘Oh…’ Stevie swallowed at the news. So, he had made enquiries about her grandmother? Just indirectly.
Black brows tugged low as he searched her eyes. ‘Did you think I wouldn’t be interested?’
Shrugging, Stevie looked over his shoulder again. ‘I… don’t know.’ And that was the truth – apart from some googling and a very inconvenient, very stupid, very intense sexual fixation on him, she didn’t know Clay at all.
Just because she felt a connection, didn’t mean there was one.
‘Stevie.’ That gravelly voice and the sudden easing of tension in his body had her eyes lifting again, meeting his. ‘I’m sorry, I should have checked in with you before I left… I just thought maybe some space was needed after the…’
After the kiss. He didn’t need to say it when it was sitting there between them in all its wild impulsive glory. But space was the last thing she’d needed. ‘It wasn’t.’
‘Okay, well…’ He huffed out a half laugh. ‘I needed it.’
He did? Stevie’s eyes widened. What was he saying? That big tough Clay Calhoun had been freaking out about their kiss? Was that a good thing or a bad thing? She opened her mouth to ask him but he was already speaking.
‘Anyway… I really am sorry about your grandmother’s stroke and pleased that she’s on the mend. How’s your mom?’
Already blindsided, Stevie blinked at his totally unexpected question. It showed real emotional intelligence, an awareness that life-threatening medical situations didn’t just affect the patient.
‘She’s fine. I think? Putting on a good front anyway. Last time she was in a hospital was when Yolly…’
As her voice drifted away, the hand in the small of her back firmed, loaning comfort and bringing their bodies even closer again as she moved to the music on autopilot.
‘That can’t be easy,’ he said.
‘No.’ Stevie’s guilt over staying at the ranch resurfaced. ‘I should have insisted on going with her to see Granny.’
‘It sounded to me from Electra’s stall that would have stressed her out even more.’
Stevie smiled, remembering again that he’d been privy to the conversation and why exactly he’d been in that stall.
‘Yeah. She’s pretty keen for my ranch time to not be interrupted.
’ Even worried about her elderly mother and the prospect of walking back into a hospital, Cindy Everhart hadn’t taken her eye off the prize. ‘And Dad’s with her too.’
Not that her father didn’t have his own hospital-related baggage. Or Stevie, for that matter.
‘Well.’ A slow smile warmed his face, making Stevie hyperaware of his palm print warming right through to her middle. ‘This is probably all kinds of wrong but, for what it’s worth, I’m very happy you didn’t.’
With him looking at her like that – like they were at the beginning of something – Stevie had to admit she was glad she’d stayed on the ranch, too. ‘Same,’ she murmured, an answering smile curving the corners of her mouth.
The music changed tempo, slowing as Brad Paisley sang ‘We Danced’, and the pace under the twinkle lights morphed en masse from lively steps to swaying.
‘Christ,’ Clay whispered, his hand tightening again. ‘I really want to pull you in close and slow dance with you but I think it’d become dirty dancing pretty damn quick and… I don’t think we need the audience.’
The frankness of his admission was like a lightning rod to Stevie’s insides, everything melting and sliding, looping endlessly over and over as her stomach went into free fall.
Stevie had never thought of herself as an exhibitionist before but she’d let him take her virginity on this dance floor right now, if he wanted.
Her nipples ached and she throbbed between her legs. Her body was blooming, ripening under the heat of his gaze like a hot house flower, her roots nurtured by the deluge of desire that turned his eyes to liquid amber.
If this was sexual awakening, she was here for it.
‘Oh God.’ He exhaled on a husky rush. ‘Don’t look at me like that.’
The fact he was feeling this pull just as viciously only added to the dark throb of her body. She’d wanted to be wanton and looking at him, she could tell she’d succeeded. He wanted her.
He really wanted her.
How was it possible that she knew this about him – when she’d never experienced this before? This thing that was so base, so… wild. But she did, and the power of that? Of knowing he’d do just about anything right now to be with her?
That was dizzying.
‘Can you meet me in the barn in ten minutes?’
Stevie didn’t even consider saying no. She just nodded dumbly, the feral call of her libido firmly in charge. Not knowing how she was going to get to the barn undetected with so many people still at the cookout, just knowing she would.
Knowing she’d leap tall buildings in a single bound if that was required. Sneaking away from a group of people? That felt like chicken feed.
And God help anyone who got in her way.