Clay by Lori Wilde

Author:Lori Wilde
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lori Wilde

11

Tobie watched Clay disappear into the bathroom. Anxiously, she bit her bottom lip. Why had he evaded her questions about his childhood?

Was he hiding something? She’d been honest with him; why couldn’t he open up to her? Had his childhood been worse than her own or had it been so good he hadn’t wanted to make her feel bad?

Perhaps his reluctance was for the best. Things had been moving far too quickly between them.

Good heavens, she’d invited him onto the couch bed beside her! He’d wiped away her tears. If that wasn’t a prelude to intimacy, she didn’t know what was.

At twenty-nine, Tobie was still sexually inexperienced. Yes, she’d had two lovers in college, but for so much of her life she’d focused on achieving her goals that she’d never had time for men or dating. Edward had never seemed interested in consummating their relationship before marriage. A fact that had left her a little relieved.

But here, tonight, in the comforting circle of Clay’s arms, she’d planned to explore a physical relationship with him.

That stunned her.

Was she crazy? She barely knew the man. Yet the attraction between them was powerful. She’d wanted to ignore common sense and heed her body. Tobie had never felt so lusty.

Confused and conflicted, Tobie pretended to be asleep when Clay came back from his shower. Tomorrow, she’d move to a hotel until they finished fumigating her townhome.

Stretching out on the sofa bed, Tobie buried her head in the pillow. It smelled of Clay—robust, honest, faintly metallic. She heard the bathroom door click shut. Slowing her breathing, she lowered her lashes to narrow slits and peered down the hall at him.

Clay opened the door to his bedroom and stood at the threshold. Tobie realized he was checking on Molly. That melted her heart.

When she told him that he’d taught her a lot, she’d meant it. Ever since meeting Clay, she understood what real dependability and stability were about. All the money in the world could not buy the tenderness, the unconditional love he showed toward his niece.

For most of her life, Tobie had equated stability with financial security. That was just plain wrong. Look at Edward. He was rich and powerful, and yet at his inner core, he was poor and penniless in the things that mattered.

Growing up, she’d always blamed her father’s lack of money-making abilities for the pain she’d suffered, when in reality it was his reluctance to relinquish his crazy dreams for the welfare of his wife and child that hurt the most. If her father had ever once put their wants and needs first, Tobie knew she could have dealt with the poverty.

The floorboards creaked under Clay’s weight as he made his way back to the living room. She let her eyelids shutter completely.

“Tobie?” he whispered. “You asleep?”

She did not answer. It was better this way, to feign sleep and let them both off the hook.

His hand grazed her leg, and for a panicky moment, Tobie thought he was caressing her. But

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