Page 38 of Wild and Wanted

Oh God… the way he was looking at her, like he was devising a hundred ways to touch her, made her grateful she still had the wall at her back.

‘Okay. Let’s do that.’ Stevie was up for anything on Clay’s menu as long as he was the chef, but when he made no move to pick up where he’d left off, she said, ‘Like, now?’

Clay chuckled and it was almost as dirty as that groan. ‘What’s your rush?’

‘I’m only here for another two and a half weeks.’

‘Plenty of time then.’

She folded her arms. ‘Clay Calhoun, are you teasing me?’

His grin was supremely smug, which should have been irritating but was instead titillating. Clay knew he had the goods, and that cockiness could only be to her benefit, surely? Butterflies in party dresses twirled in her stomach at the thought.

‘Ever made out on a haystack?’

Stevie had never really made out anywhere. Some furtive teenage groping in the dark at the front door after a date was about it. ‘No.’

His grin got even bigger as he held out his hand. ‘Give me your phone.’

So jumbled were her thoughts, Stevie didn’t even think to deny him; she just entered her code and handed it over. The screen lit his ruggedly handsome face as he tapped at the keys and handed it back. ‘This is my number.’

Stevie glanced at it to see Clay’s name followed by the winking cowboy emoji, and her heart did a funny little tap dance in her chest.

Passing over his phone, he murmured, ‘Give me yours.’

Taking the proffered object, Stevie tapped in her own number, using the guitar emoji next to her name. When she handed it back his lips broke into a slow, sexy smile as his eyes lifted to hers, and damn if her whole chest didn’t feel like it was full of helium.

‘Meet me here tomorrow night.’ He didn’t ask, just looked at her with that steady stare, the promise of something secret and wonderful lurking in his eyes.

Stevie nodded. She would have met him on the moon if he’s asked.

‘I’m not sure what time I’ll be done for the day but I’ll text you when I know.’

Another nod and a raspy ‘Okay’ was about all Stevie was capable of as he held her in the tractor beam of his gaze.

Slowly then, he backed away before turning and disappearing into the gloom of the barn, taking with him his pheromones and the invisible strings of his potency that had been holding her upright. Stevie’s head thunked back against the wall as she locked her knees to stop from sliding to the ground.

Somewhere beyond where she could see, she heard the soft snick of a door open and close and she shut her eyes on a rough exhale, her pulse fluttering wildly at the thought – the promise – of tomorrow night.

How was she going to sleep? How was she going to get through the entirety of the day knowing that she and Clay were meeting for a clandestine rendezvous with a haystack roughly twenty-four hours from now?

Her phone buzzed in her hand and she startled, raising her head from the wall, Stevie stared at her phone where a cowboy emoji winked at her from the screen. Half laughing, she tapped the answer button.

‘Stevie?’

Even down a phone line, his voice had the power to undo her with its gravelly undertones. ‘Are you checking I didn’t give you a bogus number?’ she teased, ridiculously buoyed that he’d called.

His low chuckle was like a rush of warm breath directly into her ear, and she shivered. In a good way. ‘No,’ he said after his laughter had ebbed. ‘I’m calling to tell you to wear something with buttons tomorrow night.’

Stevie’s breath caught in her throat as the phone went dead. Her head thunked back again as the pulse between her legs kicked up a notch.

Buttons…

Clutching the phone to her chest, she smiled at the illicitness of the request, knowing she was completely out of her depth. And not caring anyway.

12

CLAY