Second Chances (20 page)

“No. I can’t…You don’t understand. There’s…”

“There’s no further argument to be had, Claira. School is out in a week and then the boys are going to stay at Sarah’s parents for a while. I’ll stay at your house until then. When school is out you’ll stay at the ranch.”

Completely taken back by his commanding brazenness, Claira shook her head. “You can’t stay with me. I’m not staying at your home, either.
There’s no reason for it. You’re crazy for even suggesting such a thing.”

Grey chuckled and took a relaxed sip of his coffee, confident in his decision. “I’ve been called worse.”

Setting back against her seat, Claira shook her head in frustration.
What is it with these men?
She waived to the waitress and pulled her purse into her lap. “I’ll have one of these to go and the check, please,” she said and pulled out her wallet.

Unaffected by her denial, Grey drained his cup and picked up the other full one.
“So what time do I need to pick you up?”

Claira paused and then dropped her hands to her lap in defeat. “Why are you doing this? You don’t even like me.”

Grey started counting.
One Mississippi. Don’t like her?
She’s eating me alive from the inside out and she doesn’t think I
like
her?
Fuck! Fuck that! Two Mississippi. Three Mississippi. I just spent the night on her porch, sitting in a chair built for a freaking doll house no less. I took out
—
four Mississippi—five Mississippi—breathe
.
I took out a knee cap on the dashboard of that fucked up, death trap she calls a car when she slammed on the brakes for some stupid, confused squirrel. Damn thing was probably trying to mate with the hamster under the hood.
I haven’t showered, shaved or
—
six Mississippi
—
breathe
,
or had near enough coffee to make even the slightest dent in this ass kicking headache
.
She doesn’t think I
like
her
?
How about the hard-on bulging against my zipper?
That should give her a fucking clue! Seven Mississippi, eight Mississippi! To hell with Mississippi!

He slid out of the booth
and stood before her, towering over her so close she had to lean back to look up into his eyes. When she did, the ominous cloud that had hung in his gaze just moments before was gone, replaced by steel determination and that same flash of desire she’d only thought she’d seen that first day in class. Only this time it was more than a fleeting flash, it was a flash flood of boiling lava heat. He pulled over a chair from a nearby table and straddled it, his face mere inches from hers.

“Grey…”

On her one word protest, her lips parted, his hands cupped her face, pulling her to him with lightning speed and crushed his mouth to hers. Claira tensed in shock as the taste of coffee and Grey burst over her tongue and short circuited her nervous system. Her breathing stopped, her heart rate hit the stratosphere, her skin felt like it had melted from the friction of her blood running through her veins at such a frantic pace.

She didn’t know what she expected Grey’s kiss to feel
like, had barely dared to imagine him kissing her was even possible. She certainly didn’t expect the gentle yet commanding presence that flowed around and through her. Bending her will to his own, his tongue slid past her lips and glided smoothly over her own.

Just like that, s
he felt herself surrender to his command. Her spine caved and bowed toward him, air filled her burning lungs at a frantic pace. When his tongue retreated she leaned in and chased it back, unwilling to let him go so soon. She wasn’t sure how they got there, but when her fingers slid through his thick, silky hair at the base of his neck she let out another whimper, pulling him closed to her. His hands moved from her face to her shoulders, then suddenly he was pushing her away. She sensed him tense before he tore his mouth from hers, his own breath’s coming in erratic and frantic pants.

The dark cloud was back in his eyes, intense and piercing, making her nearly flinch as he pulled back and focused that
cold gaze on her. She couldn’t read him. Was he angry? She didn’t know him well enough to be sure, but she felt that she’d guessed it right.

Before she could consider it further, Grey jumped to his feet, the movement so fast the chair he was sitting in tilted and wobbled on one leg, nearly falling over before he caught it and swung it back to the table behind him. “I’ll pick you up at three,” he nod
ded, turned on his heel and stormed through the front door of the diner, ringing the life out of the little bell hanging at the top.

Grey was gone. Claira’s gaze moved precariously around the small diner, noticing half a dozen people staring at her with mixed emotions on their faces. With her wits returning from the little vacation they had taken while Grey’s tongue was down her throat, she felt her cheeks heat with another flush of embarrassment and…frustration. Who did he think he was, kissing her like that and then pushing her away? It wasn’t as if she’d asked him to kiss her.

Cl
aira picked up her wallet and stopped when she noticed the bills already lying on the table. When had he done that? She shook her head and stuffed her wallet back in her purse. Who the hell cared? She needed to get out of there and get to work. And no way was she letting Mr. Grey McLendon pick her up from school or stay at her house like she was some helpless child. Okay, so she may have a deadly, pissed off mobster looking for her. No, no maybe about it. Lucian was looking, but it didn’t mean he’d find her. And what made Grey think she was in some kind of trouble anyway? He didn’t know anything about her. No one did. Claira Robins had no history. Her birthday, even her credit score was made up for crying out loud. You’d think they could have given her a score above six hundred, not that she needed credit. Yeah, that was her, no history, no family, no friends and three outrageously frustrating and beautiful males that were driving her slowly insane.
Truly
pathetic
.

Claira stormed out the
door, forgetting her coffee-to-go order, and made her way back to her car. Her smart, little car. She couldn’t stop the smile that erupted when she remembered Grey’s big body stuffed into her passenger seat like a smashed loaf of bread. Just as quick, her smile faded, her brows furrowing together when the vision of his cold, angry stare flashed through her mind as he pushed her away from him.
Frustrating man!

Her cell phone’s shrill ring pulled her from her mixed up thoughts. She hurried to dig it from her purse
with one hand as she unlocked her car with the other. Looking briefly at the caller ID, not recognizing the number, she clicked the talk button. “Hello?” When no one answered she pulled the phone back to look at it. “Hello?” She tried again. Again, nothing. She hung up and tossed her phone back into her purse, starting the car and then clicking her seatbelt into place. As she was pulling away from the diner the phone began to ring again. “Not again.” She didn’t think she could take another day of anonymous hang-ups. She’d already changed her number once.

As soon as it stopped ringing it started again.
Keeping her eyes on the road she fished out her phone and answered it. “Look, if you’re not going to say anything, then stop calling me!”

“
Claira, sweetheart, you ok?”

Claira’s shoulders slumped and
she let out a huge sigh when she heard Mason’s calming voice. “Mason,” she sighed as she pulled into the faculty parking area and shut off her car.

Mason’s worried scowl relaxed when he heard his
name whispered from her lips. “Good morning, honey. What was that all about?”

She slumped in her seat and let out another long breath. It felt so good to hear his strong, comforting voice. “Sorry,” she smiled into the phone as if he could see it. “I’ve been getting a lot of hang up calls lately. I need to change my number.”

“Prank calls?” Mason asked, feeling his smile slipping back into a scowl as he remembered the scene in her house on Saturday.
He won’t stop!

“I guess,” she huffed. “They never say anything. They eith
er hang up or wait until I do.”

Mason wanted to confront her. Ask her who she was running from. No, the last thing he wanted to do was upset her more before
she went into work. Based on the call he’d just gotten, Grey had already done quite a job of that already. He wouldn’t push her anymore today. “I think you should change your number if they don’t stop. Just be sure to give me the new one.”

She smiled again at his teasing tone, feeling warm and
oddly safe. Not wanting to worry him she decided not say anything about changing it the first time. “I will.” Another thought occurred to her as she looked out the windshield and noticed the first few students being dropped off. Damn, she was hoping to get an earlier start, and would have if Grey hadn’t ambushed her. “Who’s dropping the boy’s off today since Grey decided to stay the night on my front porch? Aren’t Monday’s his day to drive them?”

“
Look out your widow.”

Claira turned and saw
Mason in Matt’s truck pulling into the parking lot. “You’re here.” The breathless cry of relief and excitement caught her a little off guard. God, was it possible to feel so many things for someone she’d just met? It didn’t make sense. She felt like she was losing control of everything. She couldn’t afford to do that but she didn’t seem to be able to stop any of it from happening.

Mason backed the
truck in next to her and she winced when she saw the huge dent in the rear door before it opened and the twins spilled out. Mason ran around the front of the truck and squatted in front of Con and Car as she opened her door.

“Hey, Miss Robbins,” Car turned and waived, his smile as bright as the morning sun.
Con was wiping sleep from his eyes, his greeting more of a grunt, just like someone else she knew.

Claira
smiled, intent on hiding her frustrations and confusion. She was sure it fooled everyone but Mason. “Hi,” she smiled as she watched the boys run off to her class.

“Hi, yourself.”
The look on Mason’s face made her weak in the knees. Where Grey was sleepy and grumpy, Mason looked like he just rolled off the pages of GQ Magazine instead of a bed. He took the few steps needed to close the space between them and wrapped her in a warm embrace. “I want to kiss you really, really bad, but I know it would make you feel uncomfortable here at the school. So I’ll settle for a hug.”

Claira wanted to jump in his arms and beg him to
take her home, but he was right. It wouldn’t be proper and God only knew what kind of gossip it would fire off, not that she cared that much about wagging tongues. She was more concerned about the twins and how they would react or be treated. Instead of jumping him then and there, she relaxed in his arms and let out the rest of the tension that had built inside her. When she thought about Grey’s kiss and the way he acted afterward, the conflicting emotions sent a shiver down her spine.

“Hey, you cold?”
Matt asked as he squeezed her tighter in his arms “I have a sweatshirt in the truck you can borrow. It’ll warm up by lunch, I’m sure.”

Claira shook her head
and pulled back. “It’s not that. I just…” How did she explain it? Grey was contradicting on so many levels. His kiss was so warm and commanding, she couldn’t deny how wonderful and surprising it was. She’d thought for one brief moment she’d read him wrong and maybe he did like her the way his brothers did. But then he clearly wasn’t ready for…for whatever this was they were doing. Either that or he didn’t like her kiss.
Oh, no!
What if that was it. What if he’d pushed himself to give her a chance and he didn’t find what he was looking for?

“Hey.” M
ason’s soft voice broke her panic and her eyes snapped up his. “Don’t over think what happened this morning.” Mason smiled and cupped her face in his big warm hands.

“He called you, huh?”

“Yeah.” Mason nodded. “You’ve turned his comfortable, controlled, self-loathing world completely upside down and he’s trying to get his footing back. He’s overreaching a bit with this whole moving in thing, but it’s just his way. He protects what’s his. We all do.”

Claira slumped in his
arms.
I’m not his. I’m not anyone’s.
Knowing it was a losing battle, she tried anyway to dissuade their feelings about her needing protecting. She didn’t want them to worry or start prying around for answers she couldn’t give them. Or worse, get hurt because of her. “I’m not in any danger.”

Mason came close to spilling it all right there in the parking lot. What if she didn’t know someone was stalking her?
No,
he thought. She knew or she wouldn’t have all that MacGyver stuff going on with her doors and locks. Still not wanting to upset her day, he decided to wait a few more hours before he started demanding the truth. “Go make geniuses out of our sons,” he smiled and gave her a pat on the rear, fighting to keep a respectable distance. “I’ll be over with dinner later and we’ll talk.”