by Cora Seton
Clay thought about it. “We’ll enter camp separately. You go to your tent, I’ll go to mine. I’ll come to you when the coast is clear.” He stole another kiss. “We’ll be very, very quiet, but we’ll make some noise. Know what I mean?”
She knew exactly what he meant, and heat pulsed low inside her at the thought of what was to come. All her earlier fears were gone. Clay was a good man through and through. She wanted him. She might just… love him.
The realization rocked her. When had that happened? She’d worked so hard to keep her distance and keep her common sense about her. Now she was sitting in his lap, sharing memories, kissing him…
Planning to make love.
They walked back together, their arms entwined, stopping now and then for a long, languorous make-out session. Nora was desperate for more by the time they reached the outskirts of camp.
“See you in a minute,” Clay said.
“See you.”
The walk alone to her tent, and the time she spent finding the things she needed to prepare for bed by flashlight, calmed her racing pulse—a little. She gathered a towel and her toiletries before heading for the bunkhouse to wash up. She hadn’t paid much attention to the men coming and going into the bathroom while she’d been working at the desk earlier, but now she did the math. One toilet, fifteen men and women. That didn’t seem sustainable at all.
When she went indoors, Clay was already exiting the bathroom, his hair damp and his towel around his neck.
“How’d you beat me?”
“I’m fast when I want to be.” He grinned down at her. She scanned the room, but no one else was in here, and the cameras must have been occupied somewhere else.
She reached up and snatched a kiss. “My turn.” She hesitated. “Won’t it be pretty crowded in here in the morning?”
“The privies will get their share of traffic,” he said.
“You dug privies?” She couldn’t keep the shock from her voice.
“Composting toilets, actually. We’ve got five of them set up in little buildings around the place. I’ll show you where they are tomorrow.”
“Composting toilets?” She didn’t even want to know.
“Don’t worry about them. Just get ready for bed. And hurry up—I’m not sure how much longer I can wait.”
Nora, glad the cameras were busy elsewhere, knew what he meant. She went into the bathroom, brushed her teeth and washed her face—
And then realized she had a problem. She opened the door a crack. “Clay? I need Avery. Or Savannah.”
He disappeared and came back a moment later. “I don’t see them anywhere. I think they already went to bed. Anything I can do to help?”
“No.” She’d have to get out of these stays herself. But even as she thought it, she knew it was impossible. They laced up her back. It would be like extricating herself from a straitjacket. “Yes,” she said. “But you have to promise to behave.”
Clay was by her side in an instant. “Behaving is my number one skill.”
“Right.” Nora allowed him in, shut the bathroom door and turned her back to him. “I need you to get me out of my dress.”
“I thought you’d never ask.” Clay’s fingers went to the ties at the back of her dress and undid them. When he saw the stays beneath her gown, he whistled. “Holy shit, sweetheart, what’d you do to deserve this?”
“It’s what one wears under a Regency gown.”
“No wonder your breasts look all…” He cupped his hands and held them up to where she could see in the mirror. “Talk about handfuls.”
Nora elbowed him. “Hurry up.”
“I’m at your service.” He got to work on the stays. For a few anxious moments Nora thought he might be tightening the knots rather than loosening them, but finally he figured it out.
“I can take it from here,” she said.
“I had a feeling you’d say that.” Clay didn’t move. Instead, he reached inside her dress, under her chemise, and slid his fingers an inch or so under her stays. His touch felt good. Too good.
Nora sighed.
Clay seemed to take that as an encouragement and slid his hands higher, lifting her loose stays away from her body. When his fingers brushed the underside of her breasts, she sucked in a breath. He was being so gentle. She closed her eyes as he moved them higher still and cupped her breasts the way he’d mimicked in the mirror. When he brushed her sensitive nipples with his thumbs, she melted against him.
He kissed her under her ear and slid his mouth down her neck. When he slid one hand down over her hip and lower, she stopped him. “Clay.”
He nodded and released her. She let her stays fall loosely back in place, her chemise and dress hanging over them. She looked bulky, and the back of her dress was undone, but nothing untoward was showing and at least it was dark out. When she passed by the men gathered at the fire, they wouldn’t notice anything wrong.
Clay helped her gather her things, left her alone in the bathroom to finish up and waited for her outside. As she opened the bathroom door, Walker was walking into the bunkhouse. He didn’t say a word and neither did they. Clay had grabbed her laptop while waiting for her. He ushered Nora past Walker, out of the bunkhouse, and hurried her back to her tent. Once there, he unzipped the zipper and almost pushed her inside.
“Hey!”
“Sorry. Cameras coming.” He followed her inside the tent, yanked the zipper closed and collapsed on the ground beside her, pushing her laptop aside. “We made it.”
“I thought you were going to your tent and would come later.”
“Woman, you’re killing me.” Clay reached for her and Nora met him halfway. She allowed him to pull her on top of him where he lay sprawled over her bedding. As she moved over him, tugging on her dress to make it come along with her, she wanted nothing more than to lift it over her head and toss it away.
When Clay’s hands slid to the back of her dress, and he asked, “How about we get this off?” she acquiesced gladly. Once its voluminous layers were gone, she straddled him in her chemise, panties and stays, but he quickly peeled the stays off her, too.
“I thought we were supposed to take this slow,” she said to tease him, although the hard length of him between her legs made her ache with pleasure and wanting.
“I think we need to get to know each other as thoroughly as possible.” As if to make good on his position, he reached up to palm her breasts. Nora sucked in a breath, unprepared for the sensation of his fingers caressing her.
His plan sounded much better than hers.
She lifted her chemise up over her head, suddenly desperate for Clay to see her… all of her. The little slip of silk that was her panties hardly counted. Besides—she had no doubt he’d dispose of it before too long.
“Nora.” The sound of her name in his mouth told her how much he wanted her, too. “No fair getting ahead of me,” he added. She appreciated his low tone. It was hard to find privacy in a tent, but he was doing his best for her. He shucked off his clothes more quickly than she’d thought possible, lifting his hips with her still on top of him, and nearly bumped her head against the cloth ceiling of the tent as he unbuttoned his jeans and tugged them down and out from under her.
“I like where this is going,” he said, when nothing stood between them but her panties, “but I want to be sure I don’t scare you off again. Are you sure this is what you want? We could just talk.”
She laughed. Was that even possible at this point? She was grateful for the restraint he was trying to exercise, though. She ran her hands over his chest, and Clay closed his eyes. Moving them lower, across his taut belly, she cherished the silky feel of his naked skin.
When he reached up to kiss her, she shut her eyes and drank in the feeling. Clay was the best at making out, hands down. Nora found herself spiraling into his force field as her breasts grazed his chest.
Clay cupped them again, reached up to take one nipple into his mouth, and she arched back, delighting in the sensations. Rela
xing under his touch, even as he brought her alive, Nora thought she’d found heaven.
Some minutes later, Clay rolled her over onto her back and lowered himself between her legs, tugging her panties off and tossing them away. She opened for him, ready to let him do as he would. She wasn’t disappointed. As he took his time exploring her with his tongue, Nora dug her fingers into the covers beneath her, lifted her hips to give him deeper access and tried to keep from moaning aloud in the pleasure of it all. She wanted to stay like this forever, open to Clay—exposed to him. When Clay slid one hand up her belly, cupped her breast again and squeezed her nipple lightly between his thumb and forefinger, Nora bit back a cry as she went right over the edge. She wasn’t afraid to shatter in front of him. Instead, she gloried in it. Collapsing back in a glorious heap, her chest heaving as she caught her breath, all she wanted was to return the favor.
Clay seemed all too pleased to let her.
As she pushed him onto his back and began a slow, sensual exploration of Clay’s body, Nora knew she could be free with him. He was comfortable in his body and she wanted to be more intimate with him. She wanted to make love to him.
But not yet.
Tonight was a just a beginning, and she meant to start off right. Every inch of his hard, lean body turned her on, and she allowed her lips to trace over him, enjoying his tight muscles, the strength held in readiness, the hair on his chest and in a line that led below his belt.
When she reached that region, she took her time to kiss and explore him with her mouth. The length of him made her smile, but his girth sent a shiver through her that made her want to be with him all the more.
Not tonight. Soon, she promised herself, growing warm thinking about what it would feel like when he pressed inside her. For now she took him in her mouth, stifling a groan of pleasure that echoed the sound Clay made when she closed her lips around him.
He felt good. So good. She slid her mouth along the length of him, tasting him. Savoring him. She took him deeper. Repeated the motion. Inside her mouth, Clay grew even harder. God, he was going to feel good when they made love.
He made an unintelligible noise that Nora took as a sign she was doing it right. She delighted in the way she could turn him on. When she felt his fingers slide into her hair, sending hairpins flying, she let him move her, knowing her mouth was making him feel so good he would soon lose control.
Even when Clay pressed on her shoulders, warning her he was close, Nora kept her position. She wasn’t afraid to take him in. This was Clay. The man who wanted to marry her, even if they’d only met six weeks ago. All she knew was that she wanted to know every inch of this man, and tonight’s exploration of his body was only the beginning. She wanted more. Much more.
She slid her hands underneath him, gripped his hips and took him in even deeper. Clay came with a groan, bucking against her and breathing hard. She savored the experience, savored giving this gift to this man. Nora didn’t know when she’d lost all her inhibitions, but Clay had this effect on her.
When he was done, he fell back against her pillow. “That was… amazing.”
She worked her way up to lie beside him. “I agree.”
“Nora, I didn’t mean—”
“I wanted to,” she assured him and smiled as his arms wrapped around her. He pulled her into a spooning position.
A few minutes later they were both asleep.
Chapter Fifteen
‡
“All I’m saying is those green roofs are going to take constant upkeep, and they absorb water rather than allowing it to run off and be used again. Take a look at these houses,” Dell said the next morning at the building site.
“We’re going with the green roofs. It’s all planned out, Dad.”
“But you haven’t looked at this.” Dell waved a tablet at him. Clay blamed Boone for lending it to his father. Boone probably thought it would distract Dell, but he’d been gravely mistaken.
“Okay, take a break,” Clay said to the other men, and turned to his father. “What is it you need me to see?” He took the tablet when his father handed it to him, and realized he was looking at a website that featured a sustainable community in Arizona. “Conditions there are totally different than they are here, Pops.”
“But look at the way they run everything off rainwater. We could do that.”
Clay’s design did share elements of the principles the Arizonans were using, but he’d altered his plans to suit Montana. “Dad, you don’t seem to understand the time pressure we’re working under. I can’t change my mind every two seconds about what we’re building. We have the plans. They’re done. Finished. I don’t have time to debate everything with you.”
“I’m just trying to help.”
“You keep saying that, but you’re not helping—”
“Clay?”
He bit back his angry words and turned to find Nora had approached without him seeing her.
“Is everything all right?” she asked, looking from him to Dell.
“My son is a stubborn mule,” Dell told her.
“My father is an interfering old fart,” Clay retorted.
“At least I know when I’ve overstepped myself. Who are you to think you can reinvent the way houses are built? You don’t have any real world experience.” Dell’s chest had puffed out like an angry rooster’s.
“You have no idea when you’ve overstepped yourself! You’re slowing me down. You’re undercutting my authority in front of my men. You’re just… getting in the way.”
An awful silence spread out between them.
“Dad, I didn’t mean—”
“Sure you did.” Dell turned on his heel and left.
Nora had her arms folded over her chest when Clay turned to her. “That wasn’t very nice.”
“You have no idea how irritating that man is.” But Clay had blown it, and he knew it. “How about you help Harris for now. See those two-by-fours over there? He’ll need those next. Bring them over to him. I’m going back to work on Riley’s kitchen.”
Curtis joined him in the tiny home, but Clay was finding it hard to concentrate. His conversation with his father kept replaying through his mind, and he was all too aware of Nora outside following Harris’s curt commands. He’d hoped to impress her with his building skills, but now everything felt off, and it was killing him after the night they’d just had together.
Nora was every bit as sexy as he’d known she’d be, and even though they’d only fooled around, he’d gone to sleep satisfied. The way she’d taken him in her mouth and kept him there, coaxing him to come with her tongue…
Sweet Jesus.
He got hard all over again just thinking about it.
But now nothing was going right. He wanted to recapture the light, teasing tone they’d used the night before—and this morning—but she seemed bothered by the way he’d spoken to his father, and the presence of the other men meant he couldn’t explain to her why he’d been so short with Dell. He and Curtis struggled to plumb the kitchen sink in Boone and Riley’s house, while Harris framed up the second house with Nora’s help. When her time with him was up, and he said good-bye to her two hours later, she simply nodded and headed back for the manor without a second glance. The good weather they’d been enjoying broke soon afterward and a warm June rain fell steadily until nightfall. After slogging through the afternoon as best he could, when Clay went into the crowded bunkhouse for dinner, he found Nora looking as frustrated as he felt.
“Bad day?”
“I wrote one new sentence in my book this afternoon,” she informed him. “And Sue didn’t make it—some crisis at the school. Avery decided to dust all the knickknacks in the curio cupboard in the parlor, and ended up breaking one. We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out how to fix it. Meanwhile, our website isn’t getting enough hits, so Savannah and Riley went into town to a café where they’d get an Internet connection for their laptops, and one of James’s horses threw a shoe, so they’re eat
ing with the Russells tonight.”
The evening wasn’t going to get any better, Clay knew. Nora would want to work more after dinner and with everyone crowded into the bunkhouse, it made for close quarters on this damp night. “Why don’t we take a walk after dinner? It’ll help clear your head.”
“In the rain?”
“I think it’s stopping.”
“I really need to work.”
“Maybe by the time we get back maybe the bunkhouse will have cleared out some.”
“Oh, why not? Today’s a big, fat waste anyway.”
Clay did his best not to take that personally. Dinner was a quiet affair. Everyone seemed out of sorts tonight. His father hadn’t returned from wherever he’d gone, and Clay wondered if he’d finally returned home. He hoped his parents could sort out their difficulties and his dad could find a better career, but he had his doubts. Dell was so angry these days, and it frustrated Clay that he didn’t have any answers. It frustrated him, too, that even when his dad had taken an interest in alternative building methods, they still ended up at each other’s throats.
When they were done with their meal, Clay and Nora snuck out through the kitchen again. He was grateful the rain had stopped and the stars were beginning to show between the tatters of the clouds, and even more grateful when they managed to slip away without being caught when the crew went off to eat their meal. This time he led her in a long arc that eventually met back with the track that ran down to Pittance Creek. The grass was wet, and soon his feet were soaked, but he didn’t care and Nora didn’t seem to mind, either. The hem of her long dress was damp, but she strode along beside him without comment.
“Want to play a game?” Clay asked.
“What kind of game?” He liked the feel of her hand in his. It was small and delicate, but Nora was the kind of woman a man could build a true life with. She wasn’t changeable or indecisive. She knew her mind and she stood her ground.
“Ice cream or cake?” Clay asked her.
“Ice cream,” she answered without a second thought.