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  “More,” she whispered, stroking her fingers over his cheeks as she stared into his eyes.

  “Yes, more,” he agreed. “Like this?”

  He pushed all the way in, as deep as he could, and held himself motionless.

  Maggie squirmed, trying to get even closer. “Tease.”

  He was driving himself mad as well. Another slow withdrawal, another deep plunge, again and again until a sharp tingling at the base of his spine warned him he had only seconds left.

  Clay gritted his teeth and adjusted position so he could put his fingers to her clit.

  She gasped for air. “Oh, Clay, I can’t.”

  “Again,” he demanded. “However long it takes.”

  He rocked them together steadily, adjusting position, changing his touch until he saw the biggest reaction. The place where his body kept Maggie careening toward pleasure.

  It was a good thing she came when she did because he was about to break. The sound of her satisfied exhale was like a trigger, and he didn’t even finish his thrust. Just came, spurting into the condom so hard he thought he might’ve blown it apart.

  He withdrew quickly, yet kept his arms around her, his lips coming to meet with hers. He wasn’t going to leave her, not even for the moment he desperately needed to get rid of the condom.

  Maggie’s lashes fluttered open, and she let out a deep, satisfied sigh. “I know this is totally unromantic, but I want to sleep here tonight, so maybe you should take care of things before we have to fight for who doesn’t get stuck with the wet spot?”

  Clay planted one last kiss on her lips before rolling away and following instructions. “I have extra sheets,” he teased.

  She adjusted position on the bed, throwing back the covers and moving the pillows to where she wanted them as she settled in. “If you want to remake the bed, go for it. I’m done with chores for the day.”

  “Which means I’m taking you out for dinner?” Clay asked as he crawled back into bed and pulled her into his arms.

  Maggie rested her head on his chest, drawing designs on his abdomen with her fingertips. “Oh, I don’t mind cooking,” she said. “It’s anything to do with laundry that can kiss my ass.”

  They lay together, warm and comfortable, and Clay wondered at how things had changed in the last couple hours. He’d gone from complete frustration with his situation to gut-clenching fear to such bone-deep satisfaction…

  …and suddenly everything fell into place.

  He didn’t know how to deal with the unreasonable demand his father had laid on him. He still didn’t know where this was going, this thing between him and Maggie. All he knew for sure was this is where she belonged, in his arms, and that was the only thing that ultimately mattered.

  The one thing he would not give up was her.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Clay watched the clock, timing the break in his task as close to three o’clock as possible.

  “I’ve gotta go in a minute,” he told Gage. “I’ll finish the rest of the job tonight.”

  His friend glanced up from the engine, concern on his face. “Anything you need help with?”

  Clay shook his head and kept his mouth shut. The last thing he wanted was for someone to try to talk him out of his plan.

  “You guys done Johnson’s car yet?” His dad, shouting from the door of the front lobby where he’d been spending more and more time camped out. He refused to come into the workshop unless it was vital, and didn’t that make Clay feel like a shit.

  Gage shouted back. “Keys are on the rack. It’s been done since noon.” He turned back to his friend and lifted a brow. “What the hell is going on with him?”

  His brother Len was paying attention from the next car over. “Dad’s got his knickers in a knot over something, and he’s glaring at Clay when he thinks no one is looking. What did you do to him, bro?”

  It was so tempting to spill the beans. Get it out in the open and yet…

  He couldn’t. It would be like pushing his father under a bus. Keith was wrong—full-out wrong to be so judgmental—but after spending years keeping his family together, Clay couldn’t do it. There had to be a way to remove the spike that’d been driven between them without sacrificing family.

  But no way in hell would he give up his time with Maggie, either.

  He dragged a hand through his hair, and the time on the digital clock clicked over like an hourglass running low on sand. “Whatever it is, he’ll figure it out. I really need to go.”

  Gage and Len exchanged glances. Len, of course, wouldn’t say anything. Gage—his expression promised he’d bring this up as soon as he could. And maybe by then Clay would be ready to talk about it, but right now he had a little fire and brimstone to administer.

  He pulled into the parking lot outside the Boys and Girls Club just as the school bell buzzed in the distance.

  A blast of memories hit.

  That sound had signaled the end of his relaxing and the start of another round of unending labour. Hurrying home from school and going straight to the shop to discover what his dad had accomplished since they’d left him that morning.

  Some days were better than others. The good days Keith kept out of the bottle and worked on the jobs that were too technical for Clay and Mitch to figure out. The bad days…? He’d dreaded the ones where he’d find his father slumped in the back room with not much more accomplished than the empty bottle on the desk.

  It’d taken years to move forward from that hell, but they’d done it. Clay and Mitch had kept the garage from going under, while Len babysat the youngest two and helped however he could. They’d done it as a family, waiting until the time Keith dragged himself out from under the liquor and straightened up his act.

  There hadn’t been a lot to celebrate those first couple of years, and then everything changed for the better. Slowly, never completely going back to how it was, but in some ways, they’d been knit together even stronger than before.

  So no matter how much he wanted to tell Keith to shove it, he didn’t know if he was capable. He didn’t know if he was strong enough to untangle himself from the fire-forged cords that tied him to his family.

  A trickle of kids wandered across from the school fields toward the old clubhouse building. Voices came from around the back basketball court, but he focused his attention on the main doors.

  Maggie had talked to Daniel, and in the end they’d agreed not to track down the kids and press charges. Didn’t mean Clay couldn’t scare the little shits into minding their manners.

  On the other side of the doors, he discovered loud laughter and rambunctious activity. A large gathering of kids crowded the front of the room, and Clay headed toward them, faltering to a stop as a decidedly familiar female voice rang over the chaos.

  “Stand back and then everyone will be able to see.”

  Maggie held the attention of the good two-dozen kids aged eight to sixteen. The table in front of her was covered with seedling trays, a mess of seed packages piled to one side and more trays stacked beside that.

  She looked around the room, obviously continuing whatever lecture she’d been giving. “So now that I showed you what I’ve got growing, it’s your turn. I brought enough everyone can plant two trays. One you can use anywhere you want—at your house, in one of the community garden boxes. Outside the center.”

  “Where does the other one go?” The question came from one of the Mason kids, a single dad who worked at the fire station. Josh was hanging on the table, nearly tipping it with his weight as he attempted to peek into the trays.

  “I’m going to use the rest of the plants to make the new Habitat for Humanity houses pretty.” She lifted her hand to stop the chorus of groans that echoed around the room. “Really? You don’t think that’s a good thing to do with them?”

  “But they’re old,” Josh’s twin sister complained.

  “Yup,” Maggie said with a nod, a smile on her face as she pulled a package of seeds from the pile and offered it to Jenn
y. “That’s what happens when you live for a long time.”

  Some of the older kids snickered, but nobody interrupted.

  “I think they’re very happy to have a new place to move into soon, but did you know some of them have lived in the same house for almost their entire lives? That might make them sad to leave, so it would be really nice to have the new place looking pretty for them. I know it would mean a lot to them if you guys were involved with making that happen.”

  The more wiggly kids were crowding forward, but for the most part Maggie worked them like she was some kind of snake charmer. With a clap of her hands she paired up older kids with younger ones, sending the two biggest boys to get an oversized bag of potting soil out of the trunk of her car.

  Clay stood at the side of the room bemused, feeling as if he’d been schooled along with the rest of them. It wasn’t the fire and brimstone he’d intended on preaching. It was a hell of a lot more subtle, and a hell of a lot more effective, from what he could tell.

  Her gaze fell on him, and a rosy glow covered her cheeks. He paced forward and was rewarded with a welcoming smile.

  “Good. Another volunteer.”

  “At your service.” He was. Totally and completely. “Anything you need.”

  Maggie caught his innuendo. “Behave,” she muttered, but she was smiling.

  For the next fifteen minutes, the room turned into a miniature greenhouse as dirty fingers picked up seeds and pressed them into warm soil. Clay wasn’t sure how well some of the seeds were going to grow. They’d been pushed into the soil and pulled out then pushed back in.

  He caught one inventive young man pouring an entire seed packet into the same hole, but he took his cue from Maggie and didn’t say anything. Just smiled at him then later felt as if he’d done something miraculous when he caught Maggie’s approving gaze focused on him over the children’s heads.

  It took a third of the time he thought it would before Maggie was putting the last of the name labels on the trays and guiding the kids toward the outside doors.

  “Since you don’t have enough windows in the clubhouse, I’ll take the trays back to my greenhouse to help them grow.” She tweaked Josh’s nose with a smile. “I’ll water them, but anytime you want to stop in after school to see how they’re doing, you know where to find me.”

  “When will we plant them?”

  Clay spoke up, softly but kept his words firm. “That depends. We need to get the buildings in place first, but we can’t get them done if the site keeps getting vandalized.”

  Maggie held her breath. Clay wanted to reassure her he was following her lead, only the older kids especially needed to know there was a line that couldn’t be crossed anymore.

  “If everything goes well from now on, the plants should be ready right before school gets out.” She smiled sympathetically at the grumbles her announcement received.

  That had to seem like forever, especially to the littlest kids. Clay pushed aside the rest of his need for vengeance as his protective instincts veered toward new targets. “In the meantime, I noticed there’s a basketball hoop outside. Anyone want to shoot a few?”

  He got a loud cheer as a rush of bodies fled into the afternoon sunshine. Clay held back as the kids left, and he ended up alone with Maggie for a moment, basking in the sunshine of her smile.

  “You old softy,” she murmured before pulling him down so she could press a kiss to his lips.

  She hadn’t needed protecting today. The idea was going to take some time to sink in. “I wasn’t about to rain on your parade. You’re pretty amazing.”

  She pushed him toward the door. “I am. And I’m real good at basketball. Get ready to get your butt kicked.”

  He was still holding back.

  Maggie got ready for a night out dancing at Traders, pulling on a new dress, one that had made Clay’s eyes light up when he’d seen her try it on. She slipped into the bathroom to do something a little fancier with her hair than simply pulling it back into a ponytail.

  She put on touch of makeup as she considered why the secret he was keeping made her feel so uncomfortable. It wasn’t that she expected him to spill the beans just because she wanted him to.

  It was subtler than that. Heck, she was keeping a secret from him, and maybe…

  She planted both hands on the bathroom counter and leaned forward to blow a raspberry at herself before offering her reflection a stern scold. “There you go, falling in love with another man who thinks he always knows what’s best for you.”

  It had taken a while for her to convince Cameron that he didn’t need to protect her all the time. Looked as if she was going to have to teach that same lesson to another hardheaded sweetheart of a man. She was in love, and as much as Clay took care of her and everyone around him, she wanted to be able to give back as well.

  And that was why she wanted to know what was poking him. So she could help him, and they could get through it together.

  He picked her up at the front door and kissed her long and deep before they strolled out to his truck.

  “Hmm, I like how the evening is starting,” Maggie said with a smile.

  Clay let his gaze linger on her legs. “Me too.”

  She slipped her fingers into his and held on tight, letting him lead her into the noise and warmth of the pub. He took her in through the family side, the section with dartboards and pool tables and lots of seating in long rows. A number of large gatherings were talking loudly and animatedly around shared pitchers and plates of food.

  “Is your family coming out tonight?” she asked, raising her voice above the crowd.

  “Mitch and Anna, for sure,” he said, waving toward the corner of the room where familiar faces turned and waved back. “They’ll probably spend some time with the Colemans, but—”

  He jerked to a stop and she bumped into his side, catching his arm to keep her balance. Clay instantly turned her in a new direction, guiding her the long way around to where the door to the dance floor stood.

  She glanced over her shoulder to see what was wrong, but nothing caught her attention. “What was that all about?”

  The volume only increased as they stepped through the opening to the second half of Traders. Clay leaned his lips close by her ear as they paused to let their eyes adjust to the dimmer lighting. “I just wanted to get over here before the dance floor got full.”

  Okaaaay.

  Boy, was he a shitty liar.

  Still, she let it go. Keeping tight hold of his arm as he led her through the crowd and onto the hardwood floor in front of the band. And then it wasn’t awkward because she was in his arms and that was exactly where she wanted to be. She slipped her fingers around his neck as he settled his hands on her hips and gazed down at her.

  “There we go,” she teased. “You do know how to smile after all.”

  “Stop it,” he grumbled.

  She arched a brow at him. “I’ll have you know you’re on my naughty list.”

  “Is that supposed to be a bad thing?”

  Maggie laughed. “Okay, let me rephrase. You said you would—”

  He twirled her so quickly she lost track of what she was going to say, confusion rising as he guided them across the dance floor way quicker than the beat of the music called for.

  When they finally settled on the opposite side of the room, Maggie planted her hands on his chest and pushed back until there was open space between them. “What was that about?”

  Was that guilt drifting across his face? She glanced around the room, determined to find what was going on to make him act so irrational.

  It wasn’t that difficult to find a group of locals with their heads bent together, casting numerous glances in their direction.

  “Oh, for fucks sake,” Maggie complained.

  Clay tilted her head back, his fingers under her chin. “Ignore them. They’re idiots.”

  She pulled herself from his grasp. “I’m not talking about them, I’m talking about you. Are you still trying to
protect me?”

  His jaw fell open before he slammed his lips together.

  Yup, that’s what she’d figured. She folded her arms across her chest and gave him a dirty look. “I thought we talked about this. I thought we talked about this a long time ago.”

  “I don’t want you to be hurt.”

  Big, kindhearted buffoon.

  He was right, though. Maggie had had enough of the gossip…in her own way. Fuck this, if they were going to be talking, why not talk about something with a little zing value? She slipped back into his arms, locked her fingers behind his neck and tugged Clay toward her, bringing their lips together so she could give him a fiery kiss right there in the middle of the dance floor.

  It was effective for more than one reason. First, someone in the room let out a sharp wolf whistle, which caused a round of applause to break out, but more importantly, Clay kissed her back. He didn’t try to pull away, didn’t try to hide them. He gave as good as he got, only letting her free when her legs were trembling.

  “Get a room,” somebody shouted, the dirty comment greeted by a combination of cheers and hissed disapproval.

  Clay stared down at her, far more confusion on his face than she’d expected. “Well. So much for controlling the gossip.”

  She dipped her chin in approval. “Good. Because what you’re supposed to be doing is dancing with me.”

  “This isn’t over yet,” he warned.

  “Oh, sweetie.” Maggie tapped her fingers on his chest and offered her best you’re going to get what’s coming to you later smile. “That’s my line.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  She kept them on the dance floor for two solid hours, barely pausing to have a cold drink before hauling them back out. Clay let her boss him around, his fascination rising with each passing minute. Yeah, there were people in the room watching with disapproval in their eyes, but she sure didn’t see them.

  Instead she looked up at him with her emotions right there and readable like an open book. How much she cared for him, and wanted him, and a tiny hint of exasperation, as if she were pissed.