by Jordan Marie
“Damn, Mom, something sure smells good in here,” the man says, going to the stove where Ida Sue is standing. He grabs one of the rolls she’s putting in a bowl and takes a bite. My eyes are glued to him because he might be the prettiest man I’ve ever laid eyes on. Jesus, if all of Ida Sue’s kids look like Gray and this guy, then the woman should have never stopped. In fact, the country should pay her to continue to reproduce because good golly, Miss Molly, I had no idea they even made men like this. I sure haven’t seen them in Kentucky before.
“White Hall, I told you if you didn’t stop your cursing I’m going to wash your mouth out with soap. Show some respect. Grayson’s lady friend is here visiting us.”
White Hall. Definitely a brother, though Grayson left out his middle name. I’m almost scared to ask where the Hall comes from, but considering the story about Magnolia, I have a pretty good idea. White turns around to look at me and those smoky eyes travel up and down my body, and in a way I just know he’s not missing anything. Heck, I’m hung up on his brother and still I can feel myself getting warm and tingly. This guy must break women’s hearts far and wide.
“I definitely like this one better than the last one. What’s your name, sweet thing?” he asks, and I almost want to roll my eyes. Did all the boys learn how to pick up a woman the same way? Gray’s “sweet lips” were more interesting.
“I’m CC,” I answer, laughing.
“I’m in love,” White answers, sliding in beside me and sitting so close I have to move over to make room between us. I shouldn’t have bothered because he just crowds up against me again.
“Behave, White Hall. This here is Gray’s Claudia.”
Gray’s Claudia? What does that mean? I’d clear my throat to object, but I don’t get the chance.
“Me-maw! Me-maw!” A little white-blonde tornado comes in yelling wearing nothing but a smile. He’s running straight for Ida Sue who stops what she’s doing, bends down to meet him, and the biggest smile comes on her face. I’m struck again with how beautiful Grayson’s mom is. I’m starting to feel frumpy around these people.
“What did I tell you about wearing clothes, River?” she asks, and the name jars me so much that the knife slips and I cut myself.
“Shit!” I growl, holding my thumb out to inspect the damage.
“What did you do, sweet thing? Here, let ol’ White have a look at it,” White says, taking the knife from me. He looks up and winks at me. “Experience has taught me to watch women with sharp objects. We’ll just put this down.”
“Experience has taught you that women learn your bullshit fast and you have to be careful,” a man says, coming through the front door. He’s got blonde hair much like the child and he’s also freaking sexy and he’s wearing a uniform; sheriff, to be exact. Yeah, I’m definitely feeling frumpy around here.
“Bite me, Luca,” White says.
“No, thanks. Haven’t had enough shots to protect me from all the diseases you’ve probably contracted over the years.”
“You staying for dinner, Luca?” Ida Sue asks, but she seems a little cold towards the new guy. I definitely detect a chill there.
“Here, sweet thing, you’re bleeding,” White says, then kisses my hand against the wound, which might be bleeding, but if it is, it’s not much. His mouth is warm and the female in me can appreciate the soft feel of his lips, but the guy himself, as cute as he is, is starting to annoy me. I try to pull my hand away but he’s not letting go easily.
“No, Ida Sue. Just bringing River and dropping him off. Petal said she was coming here for dinner to meet Grayson’s girlfriend,” I hear the other guy answer.
This place is chaos because I hear doors open in the background coming from the living room. A couple more people come in through the kitchen door at the same time while White still kisses my hand. The naked kid is asking Ida where Terry is.
But I’m frozen because I heard the sheriff’s words. I’ve been feeling out of my depth and not talking a lot, but before I can stop myself, my mouth picks now to finally work.
“Cammie’s coming here?” I squeak because I really can’t handle that.
“Who is Cammie?” the sheriff asks.
“I hope to fuck not,” the older man joins in.
Then, I hear the voice I’d been wanting to hear ever since I first stepped foot in this crazy house. “White, what the fuck are you doing with CC? Drop her hand right now!”
Gray’s voice rings louder than anyone else’s, and the room goes quiet. My eyes automatically go to him. How is it that the man is better looking now than he was just six days ago? That doesn’t seem fair.
“What? She was cut. I was just giving her first aid. She seems to be having a little trouble breathing now. I’m thinking a little mouth-to-mouth is in order,” White says, giving me a wink. I’d laugh if I wasn’t scared that Cammie was coming here. In all of my planning of how exactly I was going to tell Grayson off, the possibility of Cammie showing back up wasn’t in them.
“If you don’t get away from my woman, you’ll be sucking your dinner through a straw,” Grayson growls. My heart trips inside of my chest. His woman?
“Your woman? I don’t see how that can be since you’re engaged to Cammie!” I yell at him.
“Engaged to Cam—? What in the hell are you talking about? I wouldn’t be engaged to that snake if my life depended on it,” Gray growls back, walking towards me. He jerks White’s hands away from me. “Back the fuck off, White,” he growls quietly. White grins, but nods his head and looks back at me with a wink.
“We’ll catch up later, darlin’,” he says before getting up.
“Not if you want to keep your face as pretty as you think it is,” Gray growls. He’s towering over me and I feel at a disadvantage, so I stand up to face him. “Now what the hell are you talking about with Cammie? Have you lost your damn mind?”
“She seems to think you are engaged.”
“She what?” he yells, and the anger and surprise in his face makes me feel a little better. I shrug when he looks at me, expecting me to explain further. I’m suddenly not sure what I’m doing here. “I’m not engaged,” he grumbles, his hand coming up to touch my hair.
“She says you are,” I argue, jerking away.
“Woman, I just left your bed a week ago,” he argues, and he doesn’t say it quietly. My face heats as I hear the whispering and laughing around us.
“A week is a long time for a player,” I tell him stubbornly.
“Not the way you wring a man dry,” Gray says, and the laughing becomes almost as loud as the red on my face.
“Gray!” I snarl.
“Everyone out!” Gray yells. No one leaves. “You either leave or you’ll see me fucking my woman on the kitchen table.”
“If my child says that word one more time, I will cut your peter off so you can’t touch your woman again!” a girl’s voice yells from the door.
“I got a peter!” the blonde child yells. “It pees!” he yells, then proceeds to show everyone.
Let me tell you, nothing breaks the tension like having a child piss on the kitchen floor.
Nothing.
34
CC
“What are you doing here, Cooper?” Gray asks me ten minutes later. It took him ten minutes to clear out the kitchen and make sure his nephew’s mess had been cleaned up. Speaking of which, he managed to pee on Gray’s boot. I like that kid; he’s got style.
“I came to tell you that you’re an asshole.”
“You traveled all the way from Kentucky to tell me I’m an asshole?”
“I was mad.”
“Because I’m supposedly engaged to Cammie Riverton?”
“She said you were,” I defend, resenting the way he’s starting to make me feel… stupid.
“She’s fucking nuts,” he growls. Well, I can’t argue with that.
“So you’re saying you didn’t ask her to marry you?”
“I don’t want to marry anyone!” he growls, and I ignore th
e fact that, that feels like a slap in the face. I mean, I’m not looking for marriage either, right?
“Don’t scream at me!”
“Then start making sense!”
“You’re an asshole,” I tell him, then stick my tongue out for good measure.
“Don’t stick that tongue out at me unless you’re willing to use it.”
“In case you missed it, I’m rolling my eyes at you too.”
“Why are you really here, Cooper?”
I swallow, rubbing my arms nervously. “I got mad.”
“Why? You are the one who broke up with me.”
“I didn’t break up with you. I just didn’t want to meet your family!”
“What’s wrong with us?” I hear a woman ask.
“Yeah, we’re pretty damn good people,” White answers.
“White, watch that mouth of yours,” Ida Sue grumbles. From the sound of all their voices, you can tell they’re pushed up against the kitchen door, listening.
“You’re great! I just didn’t want to meet you! I wasn’t ready for that!”
“Why not?” Ida Sue asks.
“Mom,” Gray growls.
“It’s a legitimate question, Grayson,” she chides.
I hold my head down wondering what in the hell I’m doing. “Because,” I groan.
“That’s not a good reason, dear. Whenever my kids gave that kind of reasoning, it usually ended up with my spanking their asses,” Ida Sue says through the still-closed but useless door.
“Hey, that’s it, Gray. Spank her ass.”
“I’ve got to say, that helps iron out Ida when she gets a knot up her ass.”
“Eww. Damn it, Jansen,” White growls.
“Spanking can help iron out difficulties,” Ida Sue says, and moans can be heard echoing for miles.
“Jesus. I belong to a nut-house,” Gray grumbles, grabbing my arm and pulling me outside. The kitchen door slams behind us and I can barely keep up as Gray pulls me towards an old painted red barn. I want to argue with him, but honestly I’d rather his family didn’t hear everything we say, so I go with him.
I just wish I knew what I could say to get out of this without looking like the jealous freak I am.
35
Gray
I pull CC into the barn with me and don’t stop until we’re in the far corner where the fresh hay has been piled up. I push her against the wall with my body and trap her there with my arms. I look down at her, pinning her with my eyes.
“Okay, Cooper. It’s just you and me now.” I watch the line of her throat as she swallows. God, everything about her is appealing. I want to move my tongue along the lines of her throat and taste her skin.
“Did you kiss Cammie?” she asks, and whatever I expected, for some reason that’s not it. Because I take too long to respond, she punches me in the stomach. “You fucking asshole!” She does her best to push me out of the way. When my woman gets mad, she packs a punch. I grab her fists and push them up against the wall. Her breath is coming in hard gasps and she’s pushing against my hold, but I don’t let her go.
“She kissed me!”
“Oh my God. You did not just say that to me!”
“Are you jealous? I swear, it was nothing!”
“Are you an idiot?”
“I’m serious. I didn’t expect it, and I did nothing to encourage it.”
“Fine! Then I’ll go out there and kiss White and we’ll be even!”
“I love my brother, but if you kiss him, I may have to kill him.”
“Are you jealous?” she throws back in my face, and I have to say I am.
“Damn straight. Now that I’ve had your lips, they’re mine.”
“Gray…”
“Now that I’ve had you, CC, you are mine. You need to understand that.”
I see the moment fear hits her face, and I know I’m pushing her way too hard, but I can’t seem to stop myself. The last thing I expected was to have her follow me here. Now that she’s here, I’m going to make damn sure she understands what her being here means.
“You broke up with me.”
“I left, but I was coming back, Cooper. You’re not getting away from me.”
“We were a one-night stand, Gray.”
“That’s just it, CC. We were. What we are now, what we could be, is so much more.”
“Gray, I don’t do relationships real well.”
“Do you want what we have to end, sweetheart?”
“No…”
“Then take a chance. I don’t do relationships either, but I do not want to let go of what we have here.”
“We’re completely different,” she says, but I see a little of the fear on her face fade and I know I’m starting to get through to her.
“Opposites attract.”
“What if Cammie’s right and I hurt you?”
“Hurt me?”
“In your business, with your whole hitting-balls-in-weird-pants thing,” she says and I have to laugh.
“Sweetheart, I can assure you the only way you could hurt me is if you walk away without giving us a chance.”
“I don’t come from money, Gray. I’m never going to be comfortable around people like…”
I put my lips to hers and kiss her gently to stop whatever she’s going to say. Her lips are as tender and sweet as I remember. I drink in the flavor of her and pull slowly back.
“You’ve met my family, Cooper. Do you honestly think they’re anything like the Rivertons?”
“Well, Ida Sue’s pet cow does remind me of Cammie a little.”
“Oh, that was bad, Claudia Cooper.”
“I could show you bad…”
“Right here? In the barn?”
“Let’s be honest. Your family already thinks we’re having sex. We might as well.”
I step away from her. I think she actually thinks I’m a stupid man because her face shows her confusion. She actually thinks I’m turning her down. I pull my shirt up over my body and throw it down on the hay.
“Well, what are you waiting for, Cooper? Strip,” I tell her, kicking off my boots. When she starts undressing while smiling at me, something clicks into place. Claudia Cooper is my forever.
Now I just have to prove it to her.
36
CC
I can’t believe I’m doing this. Then again, I can’t believe I’m here. Something about Gray makes me do things I would normally never do—like have sex in a barn on a pile of hay in the middle of the afternoon with his crazy family milling around outside. Yet here I am.
I watch him the entire time I undress. I can’t go slowly because there’s a good chance I’ll lose my nerve and an even bigger chance his mom will come out to do something crazy like give her cow a manicure. It doesn’t matter because the last article of my clothing hits the ground, then Gray grabs me and kisses me. His body is warmer than I remember, softer, yet strong at the same time. I open my mouth to him, groaning as his tongue pushes inside and takes over my mouth. His mouth slants over mine, our lips caressing, tasting and devouring each other. I’ve been kissed before, but Gray’s kisses are always like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I could kiss him for hours upon hours and still crave more.
When we break apart, I take a deep breath. My body is literally shaking from the need and the storm he has awakened inside of me. I dig my fingers into his back and hold on as I raise my head to look at him. Gray has to be the most beautiful man on the face of the Earth. Have I said that? It needs to be repeated. The man is so masculine and sexy that it should be illegal. With his hair rumpled and his eyes sparkling with mischief, he is like nothing I’ve ever encountered. He could charm a nun into spreading her legs.
“What are you thinking, sweet lips?” he asks and I shake my head at that horrible nickname he insists on using. I want to say something smart. I’m already feeling exposed, but before I can stop myself, the truth slips out.
“I missed you,” I whisper. What is it about Gray that undermines my defens
es and allows these moments of weakness that leave me vulnerable? Gray groans my name, his hand moving down to cup the side of my neck, and he pulls my mouth back to him.
“I’ve missed you so fucking much, woman,” he purrs into my ear. The vibration of his words rock me. Is it another line? If it is, it’s a fucking good one.
When his lips slide down the side of my neck and his hands come around to hold my breasts, squeezing them gently, I stop thinking altogether. His thumbs scrape against my nipples at the same time he gently bites my shoulder. A ripple of need pushes through my body, making my knees feel weak. I can feel myself getting wetter as he kisses down my chest to suck one of my nipples in his mouth, feeding my desire. His tongue moves around it, petting it, teasing it and sending shards of electricity through my body.
“Gray,” I whimper, torn between never wanting him to stop what he’s doing and demanding he just take me.
“I love your breasts, CC. The way they feel in my hands, the way your nipples strain for attention. How they respond when I tease you,” he whispers against my skin before taking one fully in his mouth and sucking on it. My head goes back with a gasp, my nails flexing into his skin and scoring his back as desire rips through me. His tongue pushes the nipple to the roof of his mouth, the slick, moist skin tightly sliding against it right before he flicks his tongue over it and puts it in place so he can bite down on it. A small burst of pain scissors like white heat through me.
I feel his hand move down my stomach, his rough callused skin making me feel more feminine than I’ve ever felt in my life. “Are you wet for me, Cooper?”
For the life of me I can do nothing, not even mumble. My breath is lodged in my throat as I wait to see what else he does to my body. Gray doesn’t stop until he reaches my center. The tips of his fingers slide through the sticky moisture gathered on the outside. “Soaked,” he grunts, answering himself, right before thrusting his fingers inside of me. “Always so wet, tight, and ready for me. You were made for me, Cooper,” his deep voice growls while he slowly thrusts his fingers in and out of me.
