Page 46 of Wild and Wanted

A husky pent-up breath left her mouth in the form of a dramatic sigh as she eased down, snuggling her head into the crook of his shoulder, her hand resting over the solid roundness of his pec. ‘So what now?’

‘It’s customary to talk.’

Stevie scrunched her brow. ‘You talk after…’

After being with a woman. That’s what she’d been going to say, but a hot shard of green light sliced into her side at the thought of him with another woman.

The tips of his fingers trailed up and down her arm as his low chuckle reverberated through his chest wall. ‘Yes. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t just dip and run.’

To her shame, Stevie had pictured Clay as someone who dipped and ran – not that she’d thought of it in such crude terms. So his denial was surprising. The juxtaposition of man whore and pillow-talker was a puzzling dichotomy.

But if he wanted to talk and not have her hands down his jeans then, fine…

‘What did you do today, dear?’ she asked with painstaking sweetness, her fingers absently swirling small circles on his shirt now.

He laughed, clearly not deterred by the underlying sarcasm. ‘I slushed around in the mud with recalcitrant cattle and smart-mouthed cowhands. What did you get up to?’

Stevie had to admit, the brush of his fingers was nice, lulling her back into that post-orgasm mellowness, the quiet stillness of the barn conducive to inane, how-was-your-day chatter. Closing her eyes, she pressed her nose to his shirt, breathed in the essence of him for a beat or two before answering.

‘The trail ride was cancelled today because of the weather so I spent a couple of hours in the stables with the horses.’

‘Talking to them?’

Amusement laced his voice, but she didn’t care; she found their company restful. ‘Yes. And brushing them down, it’s soothing.’

‘It is,’ he agreed amicably, the amusement morphing to something that sounded very much like approval.

‘Then I went up to the house where your mom was teaching a bunch of us how to make beans and biscuits.’

‘Beans and biscuits, huh? I guess we’ll make a country gal out of you yet.’

Stevie smiled at the tease in his voice. ‘I guess.’

Surprisingly, she had enjoyed the time in the ranch kitchen. With her mind often preoccupied with whatever lyric she was working on, Stevie tended to burn most things she attempted so cooking had never been her thing.

Yolly had been the wizard in the kitchen.

But in the company of the half dozen other people keen to occupy themselves during the inclement weather, it had been a pleasant way to pass a rainy day. Theresa had set up stations around the spacious kitchen with something different to do at each and the mix of friendly chatter, the patter of rain against the large picture window and the aromas of cooking had been cosy.

‘It’s a shame your first ever trail ride was cancelled. I know our guests enjoy them.’

‘Yeah. I’d been looking forward to getting out there.’

Thankfully Mags had offered to take her out solo tomorrow, which Stevie truly appreciated. Guided trail rides were only scheduled every other day so Mags hadn’t had to offer her services, especially when Stevie knew how busy she was around the ranch.

‘I would be too if I’d had to put up with being Mags’s latest project for the last ten days.’

Stevie laughed at the tone of exasperated affection she often heard when the siblings talked about each other, but surely people who lived in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones? She may well be a project to his sister who’d been tasked with teaching the city girl how to sit on a horse and ride one competently, but what did he call what they were doing?

‘Isn’t that what I am, to you?’ Her fingers paused their swirling as the thought gave her pause. ‘A project?’

Operation Cherry Pop.

His fingers also stopped their inexorable path up and down her arm. ‘No.’

Clay shifted then, rolling up onto his side, displacing her onto her back against the blanket, the still unbuttoned sides of her shirt falling open, her nipples on full, wanton display. A dark frown furrowed his brow as he loomed above, his amber gaze blazing sincerity. His full mouth straight and serious.

‘You’re the woman I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I first saw you.’