She probably wanted to see as little of him as possible.
If what April had told him was right—and the jury was still out on that—then Sophie and his sister had had quite a talk at the hospital. And Sophie had said things that she’d never said to him. Things that he wouldn’t have been especially receptive to hearing.
Like, I love you.
Why the heck would Sophie have admitted something like that to April? And since he was asking himself questions—why would Sophie have allowed it to happen? She’d known from the start that he was emotionally bad news, and he hadn’t exactly been Mr. Sunshine around here.
Yeah, the jury was still out on that I love you.
He got out of his truck and didn’t even slow down or skulk as he usually did around the chickens. A good fight might help his sour mood, though some would probably think he had lost it if that fight was with poultry. Still, the chickens must have picked up on his “go ahead, make my day” attitude because they squawked and scattered.
Good.
Clay went up the steps, stopped and frowned when he spotted the egg on the welcome mat. Maybe one of the hens had laid it there, but the more likely culprit was Vita. It had her trademark shit streak and tiny feather. He refused to accept that the “offering” might have played some part in the chickens’ flight, but he gently rolled it to the side with his foot.
Bracing himself for the chaos that he’d probably see inside, Clay opened the door.
No chaos.
There were no toys strewn on the floor, no signs that Sophie and the boys had been here at all, actually. That revved his heart up some, and he hurried through the house, looking for them. They weren’t in his bedroom, but he soon found them in the guest room. Even though it was barely 8:00 p.m., the boys were sacked out on the bed. Sophie was asleep, too, snoozing between them with Hayden cradled in her right arm and Hunter in her left.
Even though Clay didn’t make a sound, something must have alerted her because Sophie opened her eyes, yawned and smiled. The smile quickly vanished, though, because she likely remembered that she was pissed off at him. Except it was more than that.
He’d hurt her.
“April said that you told her you’re in love with me,” he blurted out.
All right, that wasn’t how he’d planned this, and judging from Sophie’s confused look, the jury had been right to stay out on this. Either April was flat-out wrong or Sophie was still waking up and wasn’t sure how to respond.
She put her finger to her mouth in a hush gesture and eased away from the boys, kissing each on the top of his head, as she got up from the bed. She pulled the covers over them, picked up the baby monitors from the nightstand. He’d bought the monitors for when the boys slept over, and Sophie obviously knew how to use them because she flicked them on, leaving one on the nightstand and carrying the other one with her.
Once she was next to Clay, she took hold of his arm much as she’d done to Wanda Kay before giving the nurse a good dressing-down. Then she closed the guestroom door and led him back to the living room.
“Good evening to you, too, Clay,” Sophie snarled.
“I’m sorry that sounded so blunt.” Was blunt the right word? Maybe like an asshole would have been better. “But it’s just been weighing on my mind. Did you really say that to her? And why doesn’t the house look as if the Hunter and Hayden train wreck hit it?”
Clay groaned. He was batting zero tonight in communication skills so he tried a do-over.
“Good evening, Sophie. I’m sorry I’m late, but I got a tip on a possible Billy Lee sighting that I had to check out. No Billy Lee,” he added before she could ask. “Brantley wants to stay the night at the hospital and won’t be able to pick up the twins, but Spike’s folks will come and get them in the morning. I tried to get here as fast as I could since I figured the boys would have set the place on fire by now.”
She stared at him, shook her head. “No fires or train wrecks. They were good for the most part, and I found diapering supplies in the bag in April’s car. Plenty of toys for them to play with, too.”
Yeah, like the baby monitors, he kept toys for them, and was about to say that, but Sophie just kept on talking.
“After I fed them, I took them to tend your horses, then bathed them—the twins not the horses—and had them help me clean up. I stayed with them while they fell asleep. FYI, Hayden wants a bunny and Hunter wants a motorcycle. You can blame me for the motorcycle and Mila for the bunny.”
Then, her stare changed a little. Not quite a glare but close.
“And I didn’t say diddly-squat to April about being in love with you.” Her tone changed, too. It hadn’t exactly been friendly before, but it had a hostile layer to it now even though she was whispering. “I don’t know if she assumed it or misheard something I said because she was in pain. Either way, the l-word didn’t come up. However, I did tell her that I’d cared for you.”
Cared. He didn’t miss the past tense of the word. Was it a slip of the tongue or did she really no longer care? And why did it feel like a punch to the gut if it was the latter.
Because he was stupid, that’s why.
The attraction was still there, swirling around him and making him feel things he didn’t want to feel. “Fuck the attraction,” he grumbled.
Since he hadn’t meant to say that aloud, he was still batting zero and probably shouldn’t attempt anything as complex as human speech. That didn’t stop him, though.
“It’s good that you didn’t fall in love with me,” he said. “Because that wouldn’t have been a smart thing to do.”
Sophie’s glare got a little bit worse. “Don’t you think I know that?” She poked her index finger against his chest as she’d done to Wanda Kay. He hoped she wasn’t about to threaten to spread some rumors about him and the football team. “I don’t want to be in love with you, Clay McKinnon. I don’t want to care for you. Heck, I don’t even want to like you.”
Well, she told him. Or at least she would have if he hadn’t heard something at the end of that mini tirade, and what he heard was something he repeated aloud. “But?”
And he held his breath.
Sophie certainly wasn’t holding her breath. It was coming out in short spurts and reminded him a little of a bull that was about to charge. Her gaze darted around. She cursed under her breath. Apparently his communication skills weren’t the only thing at zero tonight because he had no idea what was going on in her head right now. She certainly wasn’t answering that “but.”
“How well do the boys sleep?” she asked.
Of all the questions he’d considered she might ask, that wasn’t one of them. “Like rocks. Why?”
Again, no immediate answer, but she still seemed to be stewing.
“Fuck the attraction,” she grumbled.
Clay pulled back his shoulders. He’d never heard her curse. Well, other than that G-rated stuff that seemed to come out of her mouth whenever she was upset.
“And fuck you,” she added.
They stood there like gunfighters in an Old West shoot-out. Clay figured this would be a good time for him to tell her that she could drive April’s car to her house, that he’d arrange to have it picked up later.
But he didn’t say that.
However, he did move. So did Sophie. And he wasn’t sure who moved first. Either way, he yanked her to him, and they landed against each other. She repeated her last two words of profanity, but Clay didn’t think she was cursing him this time. She seemed to be letting him know what she was going to do to him.
Good, because he was going to do it right back.
Even if it was a big-assed mistake. Even if it complicated things worse than they already were. Even if he burned in hell for it.
Clay kissed her, hating that she tasted so good. He hated himself. Hated he
r. But he just kept on kissing her. Of course, it didn’t just stay a kiss with Sophie and him. Their hands soon got involved. He touched her, moving his hand from her waist to her butt. That way, he could align them in the best possible way for a cheap thrill.
Which he knew wouldn’t be very cheap. Nope. He’d pay for this for a long while.
Sophie did some touching, too. Her hand on his butt, and she bopped him in the head with the baby monitor when she tried to hook her arm around his neck. It smarted since it landed against the old chicken injury, but pain was the least of his worries right now.
In the back of his mind, he thought of the boys and hoped they really did sleep like rocks. But just in case that didn’t happen, he needed to make sure they didn’t get out of bed and find Nunk and Sophie naked and doing the nasty. He’d be able to hear them over the monitor, the very one that bopped him in the head again, but best not to drag Sophie to the living room floor for this.
He’d drag her to his bedroom floor instead.
That took some doing, what with the monitor bopping, the kisses, touches and Sophie trying to get him unzipped. Clay scooped her up, and while trying not to bash into the wall, he carried her to his bedroom.
Sophie took full advantage when he was occupied with setting her on her feet and shutting the door. She went after his zipper again while she kissed him. Frantic kisses. He knew they were fueled with the same heat he was feeling, too, but he needed her to understand that she could back out of this mistake if she wanted.
Clay put his hand over hers to stop the zipper lowering, and he looked her straight in the eyes. Definitely Sophie’s eyes. Not a trace of flashbacks. Which wasn’t necessarily a good thing. A flashback would have stopped him. As it was now, Sophie was his only hope.
They were screwed.
Because she was no hope at all. She pushed his hand away, unzipped him. “If you don’t have a condom, this is going to get ugly.”
His dick was intrigued by the notion of ugly, but it was just a tad more intrigued by having actual sex with her. Clay fished a condom from the nightstand drawer and pulled her to the floor. The bed was only a few inches away, but it seemed too civilized to take her there. If he was going to do this, he deserved to be punished with rug burns and sore knees.
Sophie started up the kissing again. Man, did she. The woman’s mouth and hands were everywhere, but she quickly zoomed in on his zipper again. Clay zoomed in on hers. He pulled off her jeans but didn’t bother taking his off. This was a little like a war now, and for some reason speed mattered. Maybe because if they thought about this too long they’d stop.
But neither stopped.
He rid her of her panties and got the condom on in record time. What he hadn’t counted on was Sophie flipping him on his back and climbing on top. So, she’d be the one with sore knees, and he’d get the rug burns on his ass. All in all, not a bad price to pay for having his head explode.
That’s exactly how it felt when Sophie took him inside her and started to move. Explosions in his head. Thankfully, he didn’t in explode other places despite Sophie’s attempts to do just that.
She was still in the fuck-you mode, and she put that anger to good use. She rode him hard until Clay could take no more. He reached between her legs to give her some help to hurry along her orgasm, but she batted his hand away. That’s when he realized this wasn’t just sex for her. She was proving a point. Exactly what point he didn’t know because he could no longer think. The only thing he could do was let Sophie’s ride give him the mother of all fuck-jobs.
Clay was helpless when he came, but Sophie continued to move, making sure she drained him. Then, she rolled off him, dropping onto her back on the floor.
“I want you to remember that,” she said.
Oh, he was certain he would. Once his brain cells started working again. Thankfully, his hand started working before his brain, and he was able to take hold of her when she started to get up. Clay pulled her back to the floor with him. And he kissed her.
Between her legs.
If she wasn’t going to let him put his hand there, then he’d see how she reacted to his mouth and tongue.
She reacted all right. She sort of melted, and he could almost feel the anger seeping from her body. Her muscles went slack, and she fisted her hand in his hair. Not pushing him away but pulling him closer. She even lifted her hips off the floor to help him, but Clay needed no such help. He kissed and tasted until she called him a bad name. Until she cursed again.
Until she came.
Clay didn’t move. All in all, it was a nice place to rest his head. And he gave her one more special kiss along with it. He didn’t say anything, but the words were floating through his head.
I want you to remember that.
* * *
SOPHIE WOKE TO the sound of gibberish. Perhaps alien gibberish coming from above. Her eyes flew open, and it took her a couple of moments to figure out what was going on.
She was in Clay’s bed.
Naked, from the waist down, anyway.
Clay wasn’t there, but in the middle of the alien gibberish she heard his voice. “Shh. Don’t wake Sophie.”
“Soapy!” the alien squealed, and that’s when she realized it was one of the twins, and the conversation she was hearing was coming from the static-y baby monitor.
She jumped from the bed and cursed the rug burns on her knees. She had some on her butt, too, she realized when she pulled on her panties and jeans. Plus, she was a little sore from the rough anger sex. But at least she’d proved her point. That Clay and she were attracted to each other despite how he felt. Despite how she felt, too.
In hindsight, it was a stupid point to prove.
Sophie hurried into his bathroom to freshen up. Thankfully, she didn’t look as if she’d had sex on the floor with a cop. She just looked, well, kind of relaxed. A good orgasm could do that, and the orgasm had indeed been good. Now, all that was left was facing the devil who’d given it to her.
“Soapy?” one of the twins called out.
Even though she could have used a shower, Sophie opened the door and peered out. Two sets of little eyes peered right back up at her.
“Soapy!” Hayden yelled and grabbed her legs for a hug. Hunter quickly joined him.
Ignoring the rug burns, Sophie scooped them up for a real hug. That’s when she saw there was another pair of eyes on her. Clay’s. He was in the living room, watching them from the hall.
He’d obviously showered because his hair was still damp, and when Sophie went closer with a boy on each hip, she caught the scent of his soap. He smelled good. Looked good, too.
Damn him.
After the anger sex, she’d told him I want you to remember that. But her slapped-together plan had failed. She doubted it’d left a lasting impression on him, but she sure as heck would remember it.
“It’s hard to keep them quiet after they wake up,” Clay greeted. “I wanted to let you sleep a little longer.”
“I slept plenty long enough.” And she’d slept like that proverbial rock. She recalled Clay moving her to his bed shortly after the orgasm to remember, but after that she’d zonked out. Apparently, the zonking had lasted for over nine hours since it was nearly seven in the morning.
Clay took the boys from her and headed to the kitchen. He put them in booster seats at the table where there was already cereal and juice waiting for them. Obviously, there’d been no nine hours of sleep for him. The boys seemed pleased with what was on the menu because they got busy eating.
“Just so you know, Spike’s parents couldn’t come after all so Brantley will be picking them up any minute now,” Clay said.
He didn’t have to finish that. If she didn’t want to see her ex, and she didn’t, then she’d better skedaddle.
“You can take April’s car if you need t
o get home,” he added.
Yes, she definitely needed to get home, especially since her mother would want a report. Sophie had called her shortly after she’d arrived at Clay’s the night before to let her know what was going on, but that didn’t mean her mother wouldn’t have questions. Sophie only hoped she didn’t have a visible hickey—a sexual scarlet letter—so her mother would know what she’d been up to.
“Have you spoken to April this morning?” she asked.
He nodded. “She’s not having any pains. The doctor’s going to let her go home later today.” Clay paused. “You want to talk?”
She did. But she also didn’t want to talk. If Sophie thought it would do any good, she’d pour her heart out to him. But now wasn’t a good time. Truth was, there might never be a good time for it. Anger sex didn’t mend a broken heart.
“I should be going,” she decided to say, and she located her purse on the counter, intending to do just that. But Clay’s phone rang before she could tell the boys goodbye. Since it could be an update from April, she waited.
Clay didn’t put the call on Speaker, and she didn’t want to move close enough to hear the conversation so she kissed the boys goodbye.
“See you guys later,” she whispered to them.
“Ater,” Hunter tried to repeat. Hayden actually stopped wolfing down his cereal and gave her a milky kiss in return. As kisses went, it was one of the best, and stickiest, she’d ever had.
Thankfully Clay’s conversation was short but maybe not especially sweet since he looked a little troubled when he hit the end call button on his phone. “Can you stay with the boys a little while longer?” he asked.
Not that she was looking forward to seeing Brantley, but she nodded. “Why?”
“That was FBI Agent Mike Freeman.” Clay put his phone in his pocket, already heading for the door. “He’s investigating what happened at Granger Western, and he said he found something important. He needs me at the office right away.”
“Important,” Sophie repeated as she watched Clay practically race to his truck and drive off with barely a backward glance.
Those Texas Nights Page 25