Chance took it from her and said, “Let’s see what it looks like on you.” Clayton accepted the opened choker from Chance and clasped it at the back of her neck and then kissed her there again.
She put her fingertips to the pendant, noticing again the weight of it and walked to the mirror hanging on the wall in the entryway. Sunlight shone in through the thick panes of glass in the door, and she gasped as it shimmered and sparkled.
She turned to Chance and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Thank you.”
Chance squeezed her as she trembled, still in shock. “You’re so welcome, baby. I love you.”
“I love you, too, handsome.”
He released her after a few seconds, and she immediately turned to Clayton and wrapped her arms around his neck. He hugged her and lifted her clear of the floor as she gasped and said, “Thank you, cowboy.” She willed away the prickling tears, not wanting to ruin her appearance for their first night out. “Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome, Lydi. You’re my heart. You know that?”
He set her down, and she gazed up at him as a tear leaked out anyway. “I am?” The truth was in the intensity of his gaze and the emotions reflected in the blue depths of his eyes. With certainty, she saw it and murmured, “I am.” She understood the trust he’d gifted her with as she tried to still her wobbling chin.
Clayton stroked the tear from her cheek. “Yes. You are.”
They stood there smiling at her, their hearts in their eyes, two totally identical men who were completely different. Chance, who was her sunshine and air. The one who had saved her. And Clayton who was her moonlight and passion. Her lover.
Chance broke the silence first. “Let’s take you out dancing before we change our minds and take you back upstairs, baby. The way you’re looking at me right now is setting me on fire.”
Chapter Twenty-two
Clayton groaned as he and Chance sat at their table in The Dancing Pony, watching as Lydia followed Rachel Wolf to the dance floor. That Big & Rich song that was practically the girl’s anthem was playing as Lydia and Rachel joined Rosemary on the dance floor with the other dancers.
Clayton growled. “One of these days those girls are going to start a riot. Oh shit, she can move, can’t she?” He didn’t need this evidence to know that for a fact. He remembered her dancing in the kitchen and could tell by the way she moved with them last night that she had good rhythm.
“Let’s just hope it’s not tonight. At least it’s just the three of them and not the whole gang.”
“Yeah,” Clayton said, looking around. “Not many of the group is here tonight.” He was distracted from conversation, watching as Lydia’s hips gyrated and she moved on the dance floor. His cock hardened, and he remembered the feel of her as she moved like that on him. He smiled when Chance scrubbed his hands over his face.
Clayton’s attention was drawn to several men seated at tables on the edge of the dance floor who watched Lydia and the others with admiration. Knowing from experience that Eli was somewhere nearby, Clayton shifted his attention back to his woman. She nodded at something Rachel said to her and kept dancing to the beat.
“Thanks for picking the necklace up for her,” Chance said a couple of minutes later as he took a sip from his beer bottle. “Everything else go okay?”
“No problem. I tied up all the loose ends. It’ll be a week or so.” He wondered if he’d be able to wait that long. He couldn’t wait to see the look on her face.
“Great. Here she comes,” Chance said as he slipped out of his chair. “I’m going to ask her to dance. Order another round?”
“Sure.”
Chance approached Lydia as she made her way from the dance floor, and her face lit up when she saw him. Clayton marveled that he didn’t mind it when she looked at another man like that. He supposed that was because the man in question was the one person in the world that Clayton had been closest to, up to that point.
Lydia had no idea how she’d bowled them over earlier that evening. The outfit she’d worn tonight made her pale-turquoise eyes glow even more vividly. But her response to the gift was what really caught him off guard. Over the years they’d encountered a lot of gold diggers and manipulators. She was neither. Her reaction proved it when she’d looked about ready to faint.
Clayton watched as she smiled up at Chance and slipped her arm around his waist as he led her back to the dance floor. The lights moving on the dance floor illuminated the strands of her dark-brown hair against the white sleeve of Chance’s shirt. Over the speakers, Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood’s song “Remind Me” began to play.