by Jordan Marie
“You kissed me. Are you going to deny it?”
My stomach churns. I do remember that kiss, and I remember hating every second I endured it, but how the fuck we went from there to her even thinking in her damn mind that we are dating is what’s beyond me. What if she tells that shit to CC?
“You kissed me!” And fuck, now she has me screeching like a banshee.
“You didn’t pull away. Listen, Gray, I know you’ve been messing around with Claude, but honestly, you can’t see her as anyone long-term. A woman like that…”
“A woman like what?”
“A woman with her history. Surely you can’t think…”
Before she can go any further, the sprinklers turn on. For a second, we’re both standing there stunned and it doesn’t hit us what’s going on. Actually, my first thought is that it had begun raining. Yet when I look up, the sky is a beautiful dusk—not quite dark yet, as it’s painted a variety of colors that remind me of home. As the water pressure picks up and I hear the little motorized propellers and feel more of it hit me, I finally realize what’s going on. My head jerks up when I hear Cammie screaming. I look at her and she’s drenched, her big fancy sequined dress looking just droopy now. Her makeup is rolling down her face, the mascara so dark and runny she looks something akin to a raccoon. I grab her hand, more so she’ll stop screaming than anything else, and we take off running towards the club. Running however, is a relative term; Cammie is wearing heels—the kind with points on them that could probably kill a man—so it’s definitely more like a steady walk-jog. I think we’re almost home free when her ankle turns on the grass and she nearly falls. My hold on her and her knee keep her from completely going down.
As much as I don’t want to, I pick her up and quickly walk to the entrance. I set her down and she’s barely hit the floor before she wobbles, picking up her long dress and walking into the entrance. I can do nothing but follow, especially when a wet Riverton and his buddy come up behind us.
I look immediately for CC, just needing to make sure she’s okay. The only thing on my mind is to get my girl and get the fuck out of here. I should have known with women it is never that easy.
“Claudia Cooper, you did this!” Cammie screeches, and everything seems to come to a halt as if in slow motion—all the music, the talk, and the chatter. Hell, even the servers stop moving, and all eyes go to CC who is standing there looking beautiful and entirely too close to some fucking man. Cammie pretty much resembles a drowned rat.
Shit.
I can’t deny the glee that runs through me as I hear Cammie’s familiar and ultra-annoying shriek. I’m talking with Jason again and I school my face to show nothing but dismay. Years of dealing with shit like this makes it easy. As if on cue, I gasp when I turn around. When I see Cammie standing there like the drenched rat she is, I have to admit, it’s not that hard. Behind her is Gray and he’s wet, but he doesn’t look mad. No, there’s something else in his eyes—almost humor. Behind him are Cammie’s dad and some other man I’ve forgotten the name of.
I turn my eyes back to Cammie, taking in her ruined hair, the running mascara, and her dress… oh my. Wearing no bra was definitely a bad fashion decision; getting that white material wet made the dress see-through. Whoops.
“Cammie! Oh my God! What happened to you?” I ask, doing my best to lace my voice with disbelief and shock. Gray coughs in the background and I refuse to look at him because he might see through me—you know, as easily as I can Cammie’s dress.
The girl really should invest in support bras.
“You know exactly what happened to me! You did this!”
“I did? I hardly think I can control the weather, Cammie. We should get you some towels or something to cover you up. I’m afraid you’re flashing the whole club, sweetheart.”
Behind me, Jason laughs as well as a few others. Damn, did I fail to keep my tone from being sarcastic there? Did I give myself away?
Gray takes off his jacket, which is really wet, and puts it over Cammie, hiding her ta-tas.
“Is my daughter right? Did you do this, Claudia?”
My head jerks around. God, how I hate this man and the fact that he thinks it’s okay to talk to me in that tone. I’m taken aback for a minute because honestly, David Riverton has not spoken to me in years. Years. But while I’m trying to form words and swallow down the bitterness I have where this man is concerned, Gray tries to defend me.
“Really, David, I doubt CC could turn the sprinklers on for the club. For one, she’s only visiting here. Do you really think she could even know where the controls to the lawn are?” Oh, look. He’s so cute defending me. It almost makes me feel guilty for trying to drown Cammie. Almost.
“Besides that,” Jason pipes up, “she’s been with me the entire time, and I can assure you that she didn’t have time to do anything other than make me a very happy man by agreeing to dance with me.” Aww, Jason! Covering for me even though he probably suspects that I did, in fact, turn on the sprinklers—which, by the way, unless someone finds the controls, have turned the green grass into grass with mini-rivers running through them. I look up at Jason and smile as he puts his arm around my shoulders in support. It kind of shocks me, but the small growl I hear from Gray shocks me more. I look at him and can clearly see jealousy shooting out of his eyes. Inside, the little girl in me is screaming: yes!
“You’ll have to wait for that dance. I need to go home and change, and since CC is with me, she’s going too,” Gray says, his voice hard.
“She can stay if she wants. I’ll be glad to escort her home. After all, if I had been her date, I wouldn’t have left her all alone in a room full of strangers,” Jason says. Yikes, what have I gotten myself into?
“I want you gone!” Cammie says like the spoiled child she still is.
“I don’t. Really, David, you need to control your daughter. Making these wild accusations against my friend and now demanding she leaves? It’s all very childish and unprofessional,” Jason says, and if I wasn’t afraid Gray would tear his head off his body, I just might kiss him right now.
“Yes, well…” Cammie’s father begins, looking very uncomfortable. Jason might not be on par with Riverton Metals, but his mother and father definitely are, and Jason isn’t exactly a slouch. Gray must get tired of all of this—especially Jason. He comes over and very securely pulls me into him and away from Jason. He locks his arm around me, keeping his hand on my hip. He’s warm and it feels good to be in his arms again, even if he is wet. How does a man get to be so bone-snuggling hot when he’s wet? That should be impossible, but Gray feels like a heater right now—my own private heater. Mine. One that Cammie can’t have. Who knew I could be territorial?
“I’ll be taking CC home, since she’s my date for the evening, but I think she’s at the very least owed an apology.”
Geez! Okay, this might be taking it too far.
“What?” Cammie shrieks again. Seriously, that woman’s voice. I’m surprised the windows didn’t shatter. “I most certainly will not apologize! I don’t know how, but I’m sure she did this!” Time to pack it up and go home. Not because I want to back down, but because I’m standing entirely too close to David Riverton and my knife is nowhere around with which I would geld him.
“I’m sorry you feel this way. I, however, am rather tired. I’ll just be going.”
“Lucas, in light of tonight, I think we should have a meeting about your future with Riverton Metals,” David says, playing his trump card.
Fear hits me and a shiver runs up my spine. I reacted from the gut. I didn’t mean to ruin Gray’s chances of getting the endorsement deal he’s been working for. Shit.
“Mr. Riverton,” I start to say.
“That will be fine, David. We’ll talk tomorrow before I head out of town.”
“You’re going out of town?” I ask at almost the same exact time Cammie does.
“I’m taking CC home to meet my family. We’ll be gone for a couple of weeks,” Gray says a
nd my gasp competes with Cammie’s.
I’m still trying to form words when he escorts me out of the club from hell, leaving a drowned Cammie there with her mouth hanging open, an outraged David Riverton, and a smiling Jason. Gray takes me out to his car and I’m inside and buckled in before I even have time to go over the exchange that just happened.
“I can’t go home with you!” I finally tell him, finding my voice once we’re a couple miles down the road. “I have a job!”
“Jackson can do it while we’re gone. You owe me for the shit you put me through tonight and for probably costing me the Riverton contract,” he grumbles.
“Gray,” I start, already feeling guilty.
“Just save it until we get home. Once we get there, you can explain what you were doing letting another man paw you in front of everyone.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
He slams on his brakes, guiding the car to the side of the road. Thank God I’m wearing a seatbelt or else I’d be thrust through the windshield.
“I’m talking about the fact that you just sent me on my way and agreed with those assholes that I could leave you behind, and then I come back to find you hanging all over another man!”
“Oh good God! You cannot be serious! Jason is a friend! And I encouraged you to go talk business so we could get the damn party over and I could go home. I told you I didn’t want to go in the first place!”
“A pretty freaking chummy friend, if you ask me!”
“Did you seriously just say chummy?”
“Can it, Cooper. I’m not in the mood for your mouth unless it’s on my cock.”
“Well, if you quit being an ass, that could be arranged,” I huff out before I realize what I’m saying. His eyes narrow and he looks at me. Then, he reaches down and scoots his seat back all the way and reclines it until the head of the seat is practically laying on the back seat. “What are you doing?”
“Waiting for you to put your money where your mouth is,” he says, folding his arms.
“Gray… I…”
“Chickening out, Cooper? I expected more from you.”
“We’re on the side of a road!”
“It’s a back road, but if you’re too scared to live a little…”
“I didn’t say that,” I tell him, watching as he unzips his pants. This should be the last thing I do. We need to talk about Gray going out of town, about how he expects me to just pack up and go with him. But as I watch the way his large hand wraps around his even larger cock and stroke it slowly, I know that any discussion we might have has been tabled—at least until we apparently have sex on the side of the road, because if I’m going to give him his, you better believe I’m getting mine, too.
I may be unreasonable here, who the fuck knows. What I do know is that I do not like seeing CC with another man near her. The fact that the man had his hands on her and was getting ready to dance with her pisses me off even more. I have this need inside of me to make sure she knows who the fuck she is with. I also have a need to unload inside of her, which is completely stupid and not going to happen. I will not have a kid. I shove that thought away even as a vision of CC, her stomach round with my child, comes to mind.
“I can’t believe you,” she huffs, but she’s not fooling me. I see the flare of excitement in her eyes. She wants this as much as I do.
“Stop talking,” I tell her, stroking my cock. “There’s other things you can do with your mouth.”
“So romantic.”
“Keep talking and in a few minutes it won’t matter anymore.”
“Minute man?”
“I think I’ve proven how false that is, but for some strange fucking reason, I have the need to come all over that smart little mouth of yours and remind you who you belong to.”
“Belong to?” she echoes.
Shit. I know I’ve said too much, but it’s too late to take it back now.
“My mom always had a saying,” I tell her, watching as she undoes her seatbelt and moves closer to me.
“I can’t believe you’re insisting on talking about your mother while you’re giving yourself a hand job. You’re seriously twisted, Grayson Lucas.”
“She always said you never forget to ride home on the horse that brought you to the dance.”
She stops just as she’s leaning down to my dick. She sits straight up. All at once, a beautiful smile slides onto her face, one so deep that her eyes sparkle. If I was the kind of man who was easily affected by such things, I’d say she could take my breath away in this moment. Then she reaches under her dress, shifting and moving around. At first I’m not sure what she’s doing, but when she comes out with a pair of black silk panties in her hand, I understand. I snatch them and watch her as she maneuvers herself to straddle my lap.
“I’d say that’s a good saying. Especially since you’re acting like a horse’s ass,” she whispers, but I don’t give a fuck what she’s saying at this point. I’ve moved my hands to her hips as she wiggles and settles down on me. My cock slides in between the lips of her pussy. The tip pushes against her and slides up so that it rests pressed against me and her warm, wet, cunt.
“You’re wet,” I whisper, surprised and thankful as fuck. She rotates her hips, sliding those sweet pussy lips against my cock, then grinds against me. It’s all I can do to stop myself from grabbing her and holding her still so I can slam inside.
“I seem to stay that way when you’re around, Gray,” she whispers.
It’s a simple statement and it’s not meant to do anything more than just express the truth, but it grabs hold of me. It burrows deep inside of me and some of the jealousy from earlier disappears, but at the same time, it makes me want to mark her deeper. I want to reach so deep inside of her that no matter where she goes, or what she does, she feels me… she needs me.
She lifts up at the same time her hand wraps around my cock, squeezing it. She positions me at her entrance and I know in a matter of seconds that I’m going to be deep inside of her. I look at her… really look at her. Her eyes drugged with need, her lips wet and glossy, her face flushed, I listen to her breaths as they come in small gasps.
“What are you doing, Cooper?” I ask, truthfully wondering how someone so beautiful could be here with me.
“Riding the horse that brought me to the dance,” she answers with a smile right before she slides down on my cock. I groan as my dick pushes into her, the walls of her pussy holding me tightly, branding my dick with the heat of her. It’s never been better. Never. Out of all of the women I‘ve been with, they pale in comparison to CC. She’s it. Fuck! She’s it. “And I plan on riding him all the way home,” she exhales as she grinds down against me, using my cock to scrape against her and stretch her pussy to accommodate me.
It’s a hell of a place to realize it. But right here on the side of the road, with a car going by here and there, my emergency flashers on, and the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met in my life sliding up and down on my cock, I can’t deny it.
I am falling in love with Claudia Cooper.
“Are you ready?” Gray asks, coming through the front door and acting like he’s going to fight a fire, he’s in such a rush.
“Ready for what?”
“I told you I was leaving for mom’s today for a couple of weeks.”
“I know.”
“So are you ready to roll?”
“Umm… Gray, I told you. I’m not going.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t want to.”
“C…”
“I like you, Gray. I like you a lot. I’m even getting used to the fact that you whack innocent balls for a living.”
“I don’t think that’s the way to put it.”
I smile at him, knowing that would aggravate him. “The truth is, I have a job, a demanding job, and Jackson and I have three engine rebuilds to do this week. I just can’t leave right now. I have to work to keep my deadlines.”
“I want you with me,” he says.
/>
He will never know how much I want to throw caution to the wind and agree. I can’t, though, and the fact that I’m using the garage as a reason feels wrong. The real reason is that I’m afraid. We haven’t really discussed how the dance went down two days ago. I feel like it was proof that I’m not in the same circles as Gray. It’s also proof that I’m not sure I ever want to be.
“Jackson can keep your deadlines. It’s just a couple weeks, C. We can make it one if that helps,” I’m willing to work with you.
“You see, this is just proof of how different we are. I don’t have a bank account, Gray. All I have is my business. I can’t ignore it for some man and go traipsing across the…”
“Some man?” he asks, and even I wince. I didn’t mean it like that at all. Or, hell, maybe I did. I need him to give up on me because I’m not sure I’m strong enough to give up on my own.
“You know what I mean,” I try to defend.
“No, Cooper. I don’t know what you mean. Why don’t you enlighten me?”
“I don’t want to do this,” I mutter, unable to look at him. I move to go around him and put my coffee mug in the sink. It’s early, but I’ll just head out and get to work. And pretend my world doesn’t feel like it’s crashing around me.
“Do what, exactly? Fight? Meet my family? Be with me?”
“I think it’s pretty clear, Gray, that we just don’t mesh.”
“The fuck we don’t. I think if anything, we have proven over and over that we mesh fucking phenomenally.”
“Everything doesn’t boil down to sex!” I growl at him as I try to leave, but he grabs a hold of my arm and pulls me back around to him.
“What is this about? Is it about the dance? Because you never said anything and I thought we had a pretty good bout of make-up sex afterwards.”
“Make-up? That wasn’t make-up sex, you moron.”
“What the hell was it then?”
“Lust! That’s all we have. We scratch each other’s itches, but we’re toxic to each other.”