Divine Phoenix(Divine Creek Ranch 10)(84)
With her fingertips, she stroked the short blond strands at his forehead and smiled when he gazed into her eyes again. “Of course. Just know that I’m scared I’ll end up alone, if we try and it goes south. My heart would break, Clay.” He nodded slowly, and she whispered, “I love you, too.”
Their romantic moment was interrupted by the opening of the back door. Del came in, stamping his booted feet on the mat as he rubbed his hands together. “Hey. The temperature is dropping out there. I hope you brought your coat, Lily.”
Lily smiled as he came to her and leaned down to kiss her brow as though it was the thousandth time he’d done it. She noted that he lingered there instead of pulling away immediately. “Hey, yourself. Did you get your errands all run? I have a ton of stuff for you at the house.”
“I did. You smell good, and look at your hair. It looks gorgeous.”
She smiled and stifled a girlish giggle as he stroked the ends of her hair. “I feel ten pounds lighter.”
Clay coughed and said, “No more of that.”
Lily smiled at him, acknowledging his sentiment. “No more of that,” she echoed.
“Did I interrupt anything?”
Clay shook his head. “No, I was just telling Lily I’ll miss her.”
The sincerity was plain in Del’s eyes. “Bro, you know you’re welcome out there.”
“I know but I have an errand to run and it might be nice for y’all to have a little time together.”
Lily saw the yearning in Clay’s eyes and wasn’t quite convinced but took him at his earlier words. She allowed it when Clay stood, drew her to him and kissed her deeply, right there in front of his brother. His velvety tongue slid against hers as she parted her lips and savored his slightly minty natural essence.
His hands at her hips were gentle, not demanding or territorial. The only time JT ever kissed her in front of other men was as a means to mark her as his and never because he’d just wanted to show her affection. She’d grown to dread those times because there was no love in JT’s kiss. This was different. This kiss spoke to her heart.
He was willing to give up time alone with her to give a ménage between the three of them a chance. She knew she’d never afford a sister the same kind of access to Clay…or Del, for that matter. It boggled her mind that there was a chance this could work, but all the other ménage relationships in the community proved it could.
The ringing of the phone shattered her contemplation. She reached for the extension and saw that Tabitha had already picked up the call out in the shop.
“Ready to go?” Del asked quietly as Clay released her and urged her toward Del with a gentle hand at her lower back. Del entwined his fingers with hers as she placed her hand in his, offering a smile. There was some unspoken emotion in his gray-green eyes as he gazed at his brother.
* * * *
Tabitha stuck the handset between her ear and shoulder as she rifled around in the drawer under the register for her nail file. “Clay Cook Jewelry. How may I help yooouu?”
“Well, hello there, darlin’. I was wonderin’ if I could chat with Lily.”
Tabitha’s lip curled up on one side. Lily this and Lily that. Lily’s so wooonderful. Blabbity-blabbity-blab! Rot Lily!
“I’m so sorry, sir.” She watched Lily drive off in her piece-of-crap car with Del following along behind her like a good puppy dog. “She just left for the day. May I ask who is calling? I could leave her a message, if you’d like? Or…” She attempted to lower her voice to sound more appealing to the sexy voice on the other end of the call. “Perhaps I could help you with something.”
“Well, darlin’, you might just be able to help me. This is Lily’s husband callin’.”
Tabitha shredded her cuticle, and the phone landed on the floor when her jaw dropped.
* * * *
Del carried the grocery bags into his grubby kitchen and said, “That’s the last of it.” He felt bad that it had not occurred to him to clean up the kitchen for her since she might want to use the stove or countertops. “Sorry it’s so messy.”
Lily peeped at him over the door of the new refrigerator and smiled at him. Her amber eyes sparkled, and she replied, “I love a challenge, Del. I’ll have it whipped into shape in no time.”
He pulled open the freezer and discovered that she’d stocked it full of homemade, foil-wrapped frozen meals and…Girl Scout cookies? “Where did these come from?”
Lily laughed and replied, “You’d be doing me a huge favor if you ate these. Clay has no idea how much of a temptation they are to me. There are plenty more where that came from.”