“Yup. You’re a devil, Miss Rachel Williams. I’ve got definitive proof. You wield your sexy body like a weapon.” His fingers drifted to my wrist, stroking the sensitive skin on the inside, right over my pulse point.
“Sexy? Really? Not every man is into a woman like me. I don’t think that old farmer was impressed.”
I was a nerdanda plus-sized girlie, which… didn’t seem to bother Clayton. In fact, last night he’d seemed to worship mycurves. He’d literally nibbled on my love handles, groaning like just doing that was going to make him come again.
“Who wouldn’t be entranced by you? I couldn’t believe it when I opened my door and saw you standing on my porch. I wanted to bend you over and fuck you on the spot.”
That made me flush. Clayton seemed like he wasreallyinto me.
“What’d you do to the poor termite man?” he asked.
“Denied the claim and recommended an exterminator.”
“You’re cold, Rachel. So cold.” He grinned at me, his face wide open in that moment.
I studied him while I talked, searching for traces of the surly man who’d made a snap judgment about me when I first landed on his porch. The one who’d looked at my company logo and decided I was the enemy before I’d even opened my mouth.
That man seemed like a distant memory now.
One thing I knew about Clayton Armstrong was that he was the most loyal person I’d ever met. Loyal to his town and his family, to Mrs. Andretti and all the other neighbors who couldn’t afford to pay him fairly for his work. Loyal to Nuts and Bolts, who followed him around like furry shadows.
If we turned into something real, I had no doubt he’d be just as loyal to me.
He was nothing like my last ex, who couldn’t even be called a real boyfriend. I’d stopped dating after Thomas, but not because he broke my heart. We hadn’t been invested enough for that. But I’d thought to myself, if this is as good as it gets with men, I might just live without them.
Clayton made me reconsider that philosophy.
“Your job’s so different from mine. Tell me what the draw is,” he rumbled.
I knew he was subtly digging at the edges of me, trying to find out how I could have a job he despised. I thought long and hardbefore answering him. “I think I’ve been looking for stability my whole life. I grew up with one emergency after another. My family got a utility cut-off notice in the mail every other week, always living right on the edge of disaster. But I’m starting to see that the lifestyle my job requires might not match what I want from life anymore. Money isn’t everything.”
He sat up straight, his attention riveted, even though he casually asked, “Oh? Have you something else to worship instead?”
“Yeah.” Our eyes met and something silent passed between us. Then everything about him relaxed.
We talked for a few more minutes before he pushed back from the table and stretched. His shirt rode up to reveal a strip of tanned stomach that made my mouth water despite everything we’d already done.
“I need to head over to my buddy Grady’s place,” he said. “I scored a deal on some tile he needs for a fix-up project at his neighbor’s house.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Let me guess. Another elderly widow in need?”
Clayton shrugged, a sheepish grin tugging at his lips. “Yup.”
“You’re going to go broke helping everyone on this mountain.”
“Probably.” He didn’t seem particularly concerned about it. “You want to come along? Grady’s wife makes a good pie. Afterward, we could go see the town. It’s stopped raining.”
The invitation hung in the air between us, and I wanted to say yes. Wanted to climb into his truck and meet his friends, pretending for a few more hours that this was my life.
That I belonged here withhim.
But the claims files were still sitting in my bag, unfinished. And I’d already played hooky for most of the day.
“I should focus on my work. I’ve been putting it off long enough.”
“Yeah. Of course.” A flicker of hurt slid across his face. I saw it shining in his eyes before he looked away, and my chest ached with the weight of everything I couldn’t say.
He was on edge because of what might happen with Mrs. Andretti and all the claims on this mountain. He knew I held people’s futures in my hands, and he was waiting to see what kind of person I really was.
