12
CLAYTON
“More Girls Like You” by Kip Moore
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“You look good. Haven’t seen you without that ugly-ass serious mask on in a long time.”
I look away from Midnight, one of the best stallions on my ranch, and raise my brow at my brother. I just finished riding the property, letting Midnight go all out and take complete control of our ride. I forgot how fast the old horse could go when he wanted to show off.
“What the hell are you talkin’ about?” I ask Mav after giving my horse one last brush.
“You’ve got the girls goin’ nuts. I swear to Christ, you’re gonna put one of them in labor the way they’re actin’ like you datin’ is the most excitin’ thing goin’ on in their lives. They keep freakin’ out that you’re gonna get spooked and ruin it.”
“You’re fuckin’ kiddin’ me right now with that shit?”
He grunts and shakes his head. “Just repeatin’ what they keep yammerin’ about. Figured you should know that your love life is gonna make you an uncle sooner than you reckoned.”
I flip him off before guiding Midnight back into his stall. I do a quick check of the feed to make sure everyone did their work today. Not that I need to worry about how things are run here. I’ve been stepping back more, and it’s been refreshing. I trust my staff here implicitly, and by doing so, I free up more time to be with Caroline.
I never thought there’d be anything in this world that would have me wanting to spend less time on the ranch, but three weeks with her and I’m finding my happiness is directly connected to her and no longer to the ranch. She brings out a protective side to me that has only ever been shown to my siblings and the ranch. We spend as much time together as our complicated schedules allow, but it’s never enough. For the first time in my life, I wish I had some sort of normal career where I could take her on the kind of dates she deserves instead of us “dating” here at the ranch for dinners, movies, and just generally spending as much time together as possible. I’ve been getting her in my bed most nights, something I did the second I found out she was staying at the fucking motel in Law Bone. In the past few weeks, she’s only spent a handful of nights there, and each of those nights I spent unable to sleep, worrying about her. Between my responsibilities here on the ranch and her helping out at Hazel’s, we get little time even for our unconventional, ranch-bound dates.
“Heard you ran into Jess the other day,” he says, twisting his Stetson between his hands.
“Don’t remind me.”
“Also heard she’s been running her mouth ’bout y’all bein’ back together.”
I stop in my tracks and look over at Maverick. He places his hat on his head and walks over to stand next to me.
“You’re gonna want to get on top of that shit. That woman was evil when you were fuckin’ her, but you and I both know she’s not ready to believe it’s over forever, regardless of how much time has passed.”
We walk in silence toward the house, his words weighing heavy in my gut.
“Does Caroline know about Jess?” he finally asks.
“Yeah. Told her that night of the baby shower when she had dinner here the first time.”
He mulls over my words while straddling his ride home, not starting it up yet. “The girls know about Jess tryin’ to get back with you. They know she’s cornered you once and tried a few more times unsuccessfully. They’re worried about you dealin’ with that as a brother, but they’re worried about what could happen to Caroline if Jess manages to tear y’all apart. You’ve got my wife and our sister actin’ like worried hens and it’s startin’ to piss me off.”
I clamp my teeth together as my breathing speeds up.
“Don’t like hearin’ that, do you?” He turns the key on the four-wheeler, shattering the silence. “You should probably let her know that your ex is sniffin’ around again before she thinks you’re keepin’ it from her for some reason other than protectin’ her feelin’s. There won’t be anything good that comes from her findin’ that out from someone else.” With that, he hauls his ass back to his own house.
I never regretted selling him back Leighton’s family land when they got together. I didn’t need it, the Davis ranch being as huge as it is. But it’s times like these, when he takes advantage of being so fucking close by coming by to stick his nose into my life, that I question the sanity of my choice. Even the five hundred acres of our combined land don’t provide enough distance when he gets a hankering to start handing out advice.
It’s been a long-as-fuck week for Caroline now that the rebuild is under way on The Sequel, and the last thing I want is to bring this shit up tonight, but I know Maverick’s right. I’m not blind to why Jess started this bullshit again. She’s always made it clear she wants to get back together, and it’s my fault for not being more definite in my refusals. Now that she knows I’m seeing someone, it’s worse than ever, and seeing how Caroline’s mama—Jess’s boss at the salon—was with her the last time she tried coming on to me, it won’t be long until it gets back to my girl. And the last thing I want is her thinking that I was keeping that from her.
Fuck.
I pull my phone out of my back pocket and pull up the last text she sent me. She stayed at the motel last night, not wanting to drive in the storm we had roll through after leaving Hazel’s. I didn’t sleep for shit and my mood has been terrible, but when her text pinged through early this morning, I almost came in my pants. All day I’ve been dealin’ with the promise built off that message, and I finished my work twice as fast as normal.
Her small, perfect tits fill the screen of my phone and I groan when my cock throbs. We’ve been playing this game for a week now, teasing each other every chance we get, but never going further than heated kisses and feeling each other up like two horny teenagers. I’ve been craving her body since I last took it close to three months ago, and that need has only gotten worse since we’ve gotten together. When she sent me her first sexy text, I almost died, but when she sent me the first naked picture of her body, I was pretty sure I actually had. There is something hot as fuck seeing my shy and timid Linney opening up to me like this—giving me something that I know she’s never given any other man.
And now it’s likely going to be even longer before we get down to business again. I don’t see her wanting to ride my cock after I tell her my ex-girlfriend grabbed my crotch in the middle of town yesterday.
Regretfully, I close out the picture of Caroline’s naked chest and stomp through my house to shower. Thoughts of my good girl being bad make my jeans get painfully tight around my erection.
Ten minutes later, I’ve just started palming my cock when I feel it.
That zap of energy that sparks from top to toe when Caroline is near.
We could be back in that pitch-black motel room and I would know exactly where she is.
I keep stroking myself, waiting to see what my good girl is up to.
When I hear the curtain move, the rungs gliding almost silently against the pole, I smile to myself and release my cock, letting my hand join the other one pressed against the tile, letting the hot water roll down my neck and body. My ears strain to listen in an effort to try and figure out her next move.
But it never comes.
I’m half convinced I was imagining her, but I can still feel the hum of awareness on my skin, so I wait. Then, from my position leaning forward against the tile, I see the very tips of her purple-painted toes in the space between my braced feet.
Jesus fuck.
She’s been less and less shy with me over the past few weeks, but never this forward. We have dinner together as often as we can, always ending up on the couch, but it’s been was me who’d make the first move to pull her into my lap and kiss her until we were both wound the hell up. I’ve been waiting for her to let me know she’s ready for more, something I told her a week after finding out about her punk of an ex. I wanted her to make sure she was ready, because the next time I get my cock in her tight pussy, I won’t ever let her go. “I know you’re there, darlin’,” I admit and my smile grows when she screams and those tiny feet jump back.
“Dang it, Clayton!” she gasps breathlessly.
I push off the side of the shower and turn, expecting to find her covering as much of her body as she can, but when I finally see her I almost swallow my tongue. My cock jerks, and my smile drops with my jaw.
There she stands, every inch on display. I don’t know where to look first. Her hands are on her hips, long tan legs are spread apart, and her fiery temper is on display, all while her pussy is bare and begging for my tongue. I can’t eat apple pie anymore because of that sweet pussy. Licking my lips, I move my gaze up, over her flat stomach and right to her tits—perfect little handfuls of flesh that heave with her heavy breaths, her rosy nipples hard from my attention. By the time I force my eyes off of her chest, any annoyance she felt at getting caught sneaking up on me is gone.
My girl wants to be bad and she isn’t afraid to show me.
Her lightly tanned skin is flushed red with arousal, her eyelids growing heavy as the same need I feel takes her over.
“You tryin’ to sneak up on me, Linney?”
She bites her lip and nods.
“Are you sure you want to take this step? I told you, once you give me this gift again, I’m not gonna give it back. We’re gonna stop explorin’ and start plannin’ a future.”
“I know,” she whispers, stepping a little closer.
“Baby.” I drawl the word out lazily, taking my own step forward when her eyes close at my endearment. “Caroline, I mean what I say. We’ve been goin’ slow for almost a month, darlin’. You ready to admit what’s happenin’ here?”
Her eyes open and there isn’t a lick of doubt in those beauties. “We were gonna happen the second you tried to kill me with your horse.”
I grab her as her giggles echo around us and pull her naked body into my arms. “Sweetness, we were gonna happen the second you sat your ass down on a barstool and told me you were a good girl.”
“Hey! I am a good girl!”
Her tiny hands hit my shoulders and I close mine around her hips and lift her effortlessly off her feet. Her legs wrap around my back and I feel her lock her feet above my ass. My cock, having no trouble letting her know he wants to say hello, settles in the middle of her sex . Her back hits the shower wall and I flex my hips, dragging my thickness through the hug of her wet lips—their dampness having nothing to do with the shower.
“Yeah,” I breathe, needing to be inside her more than I need air. “I know you are, darlin’.”
She leans forward and starts peppering kisses all over my chest and up my neck. My hips rock steadily as my cock slowly glides through her wetness. I need to be inside of her, but not until I hear what I need to hear.
“Tell me, Caroline.”
Her kisses stop, mouth on my jaw. When she looks up at me, I don’t miss the meaning in her eyes. It tells me she’s just as lost in me as I am in her. The shyness that I normally see is nowhere to be found.
“I’m ready to be yours,” she says with confidence and hunger. “Please, Clayton, make me yours.”
All rational thought vanishes as I take her mouth in a bruising kiss. I press her against the tile with my hips so that my hands are free to roam that gorgeous body. Her legs tighten and her mouth gets greedy. When I palm her tits, the small weight of them perfect in my large hands, she moans into my mouth and starts to rut against my length. I can feel the wetness of her arousal coating my cock, and I start moving with her until we’re frantic for more.
It isn’t until I lift back and enter her with one long thrust that I realize why she feels so fucking good.
“Condom,” I breathe heavily.
“Pill,” she answers, her head falling against the wall with a thump as she starts to roll her hips. With a deep breath, I realize just how much trust I have in her, no doubt filtering in whatsoever at her assurances of using birth control.
My eyes cross. “Goddamn, Linney, you keep moving like that and I’m not gonna last.”
She hums but picks up speed.
“You want me to move, baby? Want to be bad with me?”
“Please,” she whines. “You’re so deep. I’m so full.”
I bite her collarbone and pull my hips back so just the tip of my cock is kissing her entrance. She makes a low sound of protest as she digs her nails into my shoulders, her eyes pleading.
“You want me to fuck you hard or love you slow?”
“Hard first, slow later.” Her feet tighten on the top of my ass, trying to get me back inside of her. “Clayton!” she begs.
I lean forward, nose to hers, and smile wickedly at her. “Tell me to fuck your pussy then, darlin’. Give me the words.”
Her brown eyes go wide, but she doesn’t stop trying to push me back in. She wants to say it, but that little bit of shyness left when she’s with me holds her back. So, I give her a teasing shallow thrust and arch my brow. Her chest heaves and those nails bite in again.
“Fuck me, honey. Fuck me hard.”
“Motherfucker,” I gasp. Hearing her say those words sends shock shooting right through me.
Then I fuck my girl until my ears are ringing from her screams and I’ve drained almost three months of frustration and want into her tight body.
We don’t get out of the shower until I wash every inch of her and she returns the favor. I came so hard I’m sucked dry. My cock shouldn’t be hard this soon, but I already want her again. Hell, I wanted her again as I was groaning out my release. But I know that before I allow myself to take her again, I need to get our talk over with. I’m not sure what she’ll do when I tell her my nasty ex is sniffing around, but I’m not going to take her again while the shadow of Jess is hanging around me. I hope like fuck that after I tell her, she’ll still want me to love her slow, like I promised.
“Let’s get in my bed so I can feel you in my arms, Linney?”
She glances up from drying off her legs and frowns. “Why does your voice sound like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders.” She stands and regards me before her eyes open wide and her jaw drops. “Oh my God! Am I bad? Was it . . . not good?”
I sigh and point to my cock, my still-hard cock. “Darlin’, my body is already beggin’ to get back in you and I don’t think it can be missed that I almost fucked you through my shower wall.”
“So I’m not bad then?”
Having had enough of this space between us, I grab her gently by her shoulders and pull her to my body. My cock jumps the second her soft belly presses against it. “I’ve never felt anything better than what I get when you give me you.”
Her whole body goes soft and she smiles up at me. Her hands on my chest start to roll across my skin until she’s looping them around my neck. “Then what’s on your mind, Clayton?”
“I need to tell you somethin’ that happened and I would rather do it with you naked in my bed so I can keep my word and love you soft after.”
A small worry wrinkle forms on the skin between her brows, but with a deep breath she nods and lets me lead us to my bed. She climbs in first, sitting on her knees and watching me as I drop the towel I had knotted at my hips. Not once does she hide her naked body, and I know that means she’s more worried than she lets on.
“Come here, Linney,” I request softly once my back hits the headboard. Her eyes go from my face, down my body, and up again before that worry between her brow grows. She sucks in a wobbly breath, but scoots forward. I take her face gently between both hands.
“What’s goin’ through your mind?” I question her.
“You’ve got me worried.”
My thumbs rub against her soft cheeks before I lean in and press a soft kiss to her lips. “I’m sorry, darlin’. I don’t want you worried, I just didn’t want to put off talkin’.”
Her tiny hands shake as they move from my shoulders to my neck, one on each side as she studies me. “Is this about John?”
Fucking John. I should’ve assumed he’d be her first thought, seeing as she hasn’t brought him up since I asked her to trust me when it comes to that douchebag.
“No, I haven’t seen him since that afternoon in Wire Creek.”
“Oh.”
“You been worried about him?”
She shakes her head. “Not really. He hasn’t called in a while and I think he got the picture that we’re together, so I don’t expect him to now.”
“What do you mean he hasn’t called in a while?” Jesus Christ, I didn’t even think to ask if he’s been in contact with her since they split up.
She shrugs. “He called a few times after we were done, but stopped for a few years. He called me more recently, but the last time was the night I met you.”
“You’d tell me if he did, right?”
Her head moves in my grasp as she nods. “I would, but he won’t, since I changed my number the next day.”
Somewhat pacified, I drop the subject.
“What’s goin’ on, honey?” she asks with concern when I don’t say anything.
“You know my ex?”
“The one who tried to trick you into more?”
“Yeah. That one.” I shift my hands, wrapping my arms around her body to pull her closer, needing to feel more of her skin against mine. Her hold on my neck slips for a second before she adjusts her arms and her fingers press into my hair. “I’ve run into her a few times since we started this thing, but other than runnin’ her mouth, she hasn’t done more, until two days ago. When I saw her, she cornered me, and before I could get her to move, she grabbed me in a way only you should be grabbin’ me.”
“Where?” Caroline asks, her eyes no longer worried now that they’re burning with rage.
“It didn’t last long, but I know people saw before I could stop it and I didn’t want you to hear it from someone else.”
“Where did she touch you, Clayton?” she asks again.
“Fuck,” I breathe, dropping my head against the wooden frame.
“She touched this part of you, in the middle of town?”
I nod, clenching my jaw when she stops moving and I lose the sensation of her wetness caressing my body.
“And what did you do when she touched what isn’t hers anymore? When she touched what’s mine?”
I look back at her, shocked by the brazen words, still expecting to see her anger but there isn’t any to be found. Her eyes are dancing but no longer spitting fire. Curiosity, maybe, but her trust in me is clear as she waits for me to explain.
“I grabbed her wrist and told her never to do that shit again, but whether she actually heeds that is another story.”
Caroline nods, lifting one hand to run through my hair as she studies me. She repeats the process again as the silence ticks on before leaning forward and pressing her lips to mine in a quick kiss.
“Does she know you’re seein’ someone?”
I nod, my grip tightening just a hair, her body pressing more firmly against mine. “I told her, and seein’ as I said I was buildin’ the future I hadn’t wanted with her with you, I’m thinkin’ she got the point. I made sure she knew that not only do I dislike her disrespectin’ the woman I’m buildin’ a life with, she doesn’t have a chance of makin’ that life with me.”
Her eyes, which were locked on my lips while I spoke, jumped to mine. “What?”
“What part, darlin’?”
“I’m not sure,” she gasps.
“Caroline,” I murmur with a smile.
“Well,” she starts, scooting her bottom closer and rubbing against me, smiling when I groan. “I’m not happy that happened, but I think I like knowin’ that you said all that to her. She doesn’t deserve your kindness after what happened, even if it makes me a bitch to say so. I mean, I understand if you told her that to get her off your back and all. We haven’t really put titles on us or anything, I mean. Is that what was botherin’ you? That I might think you wanted for us what she hoped to get from you before y’all broke up?”
“I think it bothers me more that you think I wouldn’t want that.”
She deflates in my hold, just a tiny bit. “You were clear when we talked about it how you felt about marriage. Even if we were at that point where we’d be talkin’ about it, I know where you stand.”
“Stood, Linney. I’m not standin’ there anymore.”
“What?” she breathes.
I smile, leaning my face closer, and take her mouth in a deep kiss. She grabs ahold of my hair, pulling slightly, and sighs into my mouth. I kiss her slow, moving my tongue against hers in lazy glides. Her hips start moving against mine in a dance of pure torture. Each time she presses forward, I thrust up off the bed, and it doesn’t take much of that for us to become too breathless to continue kissing.
“One of these days,” I tell her as I roll her onto her back, “I’m gonna have a talk with you about our future.” My hips lift and I reach between us to guide my cock into her body. “And darlin’, I’m gonna have one hell of a different way of explainin’ my thoughts for our future than I did back then. Until that time comes, you just let me love you slow and fuck you bad.”