A Dark & Stormy Knight: A McKnight Romance (McKnight Romances) (9 page)

He was startled at her response. She wasn’t
normally so touchy. “I didn’t mean it that way. I just wanted you to know she
loves you.”

Her voice softened. “I know. I’m sorry. I’m
just tired. And I miss her.”

Aw, hell.

“You need to get out.”

“I will. As soon as I get my car back.
The alternator has to come in tomorrow, right?”

“I’m sure it will.” After he hung up, he
felt so bad about the tough time she was having, he knew he had to give her car
back even though she hadn’t cracked.

Supper was long over and dusk was turning
to dark when his phone rang. He answered it to hear Georgia, sounding as though
she’d reached the end of her rope. “I can’t take it anymore. Come get me.”

Finally. He wanted to whoop into the
phone, but that would ruin the image of cool he was trying to hold on to. “I’ll
be right there, darlin’.”

Sol raced to his truck and sped over the
back roads. He slowed when her folks’ place came in sight even though, as quick
as he got there, she couldn’t help knowing he hadn’t wasted any time.

He pulled in front of the house. Georgia broke from the porch so fast, he knew she’d been watching for him.

Her door wasn’t even closed before she
yelled, “Go! Go!”

Sol turned the truck in a tight circle
then goosed it. The tires spit gravel, and he felt like the getaway driver at a
bank robbery.

When the tires were humming on pavement,
he glanced at Georgia. She was staring out the window, her fisted fingers
pressed against her mouth. “What’s wrong, honey?”

“I—” She cleared her throat. “I yelled at
Mama.”

“Oh.” That was serious. Georgia rarely yelled at anyone but him.

“I haven’t yelled at her since I was a
teenager. I just lost it. And she looked so hurt.” She turned toward him. “How
could I have done that to her?”

Sol laid his hand on her knee. “You didn’t
mean it, honey. I’m sure she knows that.”

“No, she doesn’t. I made her cry, Sol. I
made my mama cry.”

The way her voice broke, she wasn’t far
from tears herself. He pulled onto the shoulder of the road, killed the engine,
and pulled her into his arms. That was all it took for the waterworks to bust
loose. He held her as she cried out the top layer of battered emotions. His
heart ached for her even as his arms rejoiced to be holding her. When she
finally wound down, he dug into his pocket for his handkerchief. As she wiped
the tears from her cheeks, he asked, “Better?”

She sniffed. “A little.”

“Blow your nose, honey, and let’s go have
a drink.”

“Okay,” she agreed in a wobbly voice.

He wondered what she’d have said if he’d
offered her sex instead.

Georgia
felt a little more like herself after the first drink. Sol seemed to understand
that her current life was the last thing she wanted to talk about. He sat next
to her in a booth and entertained her with family stories, his rodeo exploits,
and gossip about the kids they’d gone to school with, and she was grateful.

At moments like this, he seemed so much
like the boy she’d fallen in love with in high school.

Georgia
hadn’t dated much in school. She’d been the girl who developed breasts first.
At first, the boys had been too intimidated to ask her out. Even after the
other girls were out of their training bras, she was the one with “the rack.”
The boys seemed to care only about her cup size. They’d been either clumsy or
sly about trying to feel her up. Both approaches left her feeling dirty and used.
Second dates had been rare.

Like the other boys, when Sol had spoken
to her, he’d talked to her chest. Then—miraculously—one day in the middle of
their senior year, he’d lifted his gaze and looked into her eyes, and it had
all changed. Not that she hadn’t caught him looking at her chest after that,
but at least he didn’t talk to it.

She’d found herself wishing he’d ask her
out, but he never did. They would greet each other in the halls when they
passed at school or occasionally talk about an assignment.

Then one day, about four months before
graduation, she’d needed a ride home. He was there, so she’d asked him. When
she’d mentioned that her after-school chores included feeding the cattle in the
north corral, he offered to help.

That alone should have told her he’d
liked her more than she thought.

The spring had been unseasonably wet, and
the ground everywhere was muddy. They pitched silage into the troughs as
quickly as they could, hoping to beat the rain that threatened. It began
sprinkling as they finished, so they took a shortcut back to his pickup,
running across an open field. He jumped the last ditch then held out his hand
for her. She caught it as she jumped, but her foot came down on the bank, and
she started slipping backward into the ditch. Sol hauled on her hand. She came
forward hard. Knocked off balance on the slippery mud, he backpedaled.

He wrapped his arms around her, trying to
save himself, but she wasn’t steady enough in the slick mud to save either of
them. He went down on his back, his breath whooshing out as she landed on top
of him.

The rain fell faster as he made strangled
noises, trying to get his breath back. She knew how painful it was to have the
wind knocked out of you, but when she tried to lever herself off of him, he
held on tighter.

Georgia
had wondered what it would be like to kiss him, had wished he would try. She’d
started to doubt he ever would. Soon they’d be graduating, and she’d only see
him when they ran into each other in town when she was home from college. Lying
on top of him in the mud and the rain, she knew this might be her only chance.
Just as he was starting to breathe normally again, a half-formed excuse formed
in her head about giving him mouth-to-mouth.

Panicked that she was about to lose her
chance, she put her lips against his. His grip loosened as his eyes opened wide
in astonishment. For another moment, his body was rigid, then his arms
tightened around her again, and he kissed her back.

Georgia
had never let a boy get close enough to feel his erection, but she was a
country girl. She’d seen bulls and stallions bred often enough that she felt no
confusion about what stirred in his jeans.

When his hand found its way under her
shirt to touch her breasts, his touch was neither clumsy nor sneaky. He touched
her because he wanted to touch her. And she let him because she wanted to be
touched.

By the time they got to his truck, they
were both soaked, and his backside was plastered with mud from head to boots.

They never talked about the change
between them, but he began driving her home and helping with her chores. Then
they’d sit in his pickup, necking and petting until they were both fired up and
wanting more. Even so, he never asked her to go all the way, though they’d come
frighteningly close a couple of times.

As morally upright as his family was, she
hadn’t been surprised that he was as much a virgin as she was. Even so, two
days before graduation, he astonished her with the suggestion that they drive
to Las Vegas and get married. She doubted either of them thought about anything
beyond the wedding night.

Georgia
realized Sol had asked her a question. Lost in the conversation, she blinked. “What?”

“I said, what are you smiling about?”

“Oh, nothing. I was just remembering
something.”

“Is it something I’d want to hear?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I was
thinking about a guy I used to know.”

He shook his head and scowled. “I
definitely don’t want to hear it, then.”

Georgia
smiled. The tension uncoiled inside her, leaving her feeling lighter than she
had. Garth Brooks’
You Move Me
started playing on the jukebox.

She brushed the corner of his mustache
with her fingertips. It was soft under her touch. Had she ever told him how
sexy she thought Tom Selleck was? She couldn’t remember it ever coming up.
Would it tickle if Sol kissed her? “Why did you grow this?”

“I made a bet with Gideon and lost.”

Her smile widened. “Don’t you know better
than that by now?” Ruth referred to Gideon as her fey child, and a couple of
times Georgia had heard Sol’s brother say things that made her wonder if there
wasn’t something besides an affectionate teasing behind Ruth’s words.

“I thought I was right,” Sol said,
meeting her eyes.

“You always think you’re right,” she said
kindly.

“And I usually am.” His gaze deepened,
and she fell into his soft, gray eyes. Her lips parted and her breath grew
shallow even before he leaned forward.

His lips brushed softly against hers then
came back with purpose. When he slipped his tongue between her lips, her entire
body felt electrified. He laid his hand on her rib cage to hold her steady then
slid it upward until he’d framed her breast in an
L
between his thumb
and fingers. Her nipples tightened into hard points, but he paused there, just
short of caressing her. She couldn’t keep herself from whimpering softly. It
had been so long since she’d felt his hands on her body.

The only waitress on the floor picked
that moment to swing by their table. “How are you folks—? Whoops.”

Sol pulled back. In the second before he
turned to the waitress, his eyes were full of promise and desire. She tried to
swallow down a surge of lust. The booth suddenly felt too small.

He cleared his throat and said, “We need
another round here.”

As the waitress moved away, Georgia pushed on his shoulder to get him to move. “Let me out. I need to go to the ladies’
room.”

Georgia
had the restroom to herself. She looked at herself in the mirror.
What are
you thinking?
she asked her reflection. Being with Sol was a bad,
bad
idea.

She was feeling isolated and vulnerable,
that’s all it was. Knowing that didn’t lessen how much she wanted to be with
him. Even thinking about Daniel didn’t bring her to her senses.

It wasn’t as if she was being disloyal
because, so far, she and Daniel were only friends. She entered a stall, still
arguing with herself about making another stupid mistake with Sol. As she peed,
she read the graffiti on the inside of the stall. She gasped and her heart
dropped when she read,
Sol McK is HUNG!
and
Yee-haw!

Georgia
felt like throwing up again.

Below Sol’s endorsement, someone else had
written
Jake, too!
There were a couple more comments about Jake. The
McKnight boys were obviously cutting a wide swath among the local population.

Then,
Zach makes three!
An arrow
pointed to the last line. Behind the arrow, it said
Too bad—he’s taken!
Touch him and die! Mrs. Z. McK.

Georgia
let her head fall between her knees as she laughed. God bless Maddie for
helping her get things into perspective. But it still made her a little sick to
think of Sol with someone else, and her reaction would only grow stronger if
she let herself be swept up by him.

The door swung open as she was washing
her hands. If she hadn’t looked up, she’d have missed the hitch in Missy’s
step.

Their eyes met. Apparently, that was all
the greeting Missy felt she needed. She plopped the ugly monstrosity that
passed for her purse on the edge of the next sink and dug into it. Georgia reached for the paper towel dispenser.

“Sorry to hear about your mama.”

Surprised, Georgia turned. Missy held a
tube of bright red lipstick, ready to apply it to her mouth.

“Thanks.”

“It’s a bitch when your folks get
helpless, ain’t it?” Missy smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes.

Georgia
had nearly forgotten that Missy was the youngest of her large family, so she
knew all about having older parents.

“Yeah,” Georgia said. “It’s not the best
time I’ve ever had.”

Missy barked a laugh. “Yeah.” The
lipstick approaching her mouth stalled. “You getting back with Sollie?”

Sollie?
I bet he hates that.
“No.”
Not that it’s any of your business.

This time, Missy’s smile reached her
eyes, and the lipstick touched her mouth.

Georgia
’s
hackles rose.

“But we do have a daughter together. You
know how that is.”

The smile fell off Missy’s face.

“You never really quite divorce the
father of your kid.”
Take that, you floozy bitch.
Georgia dropped the paper towel in the wastebasket. “See ya.”

When she came out, Sol stood to let her
into the booth, but she slid in on the other side instead. His eyes darkened as
she reached across the table for her glass of Baileys.

Was he angry? He sat down across from
her, but before he even got settled, she heard Lydia’s voice. “Hey, there!”

No! No! No!

Lydia
stood at the end of their booth dressed in tight jeans and a tighter top. “I
haven’t seen you since the rodeo, Georgia.” She turned her gaze on Sol. “And
you were supposed to call me.”

“Uh, well, things got busy at the ranch,”
Sol said.

“And I’ve been tied up with Mama.” What
was going on? Was Sol emitting some kind of pheromones that drew women from
three counties away?

“So y’all are taking a break, but you
didn’t call me?” Lydia pouted for affect.

“Uh, do you want to join us?” he asked.

Under the table, Georgia kicked his shin. He jerked at the contact, but Lydia didn’t seem to notice.

“I don’t want to impose,” she said as she
slid into the booth beside him.

Georgia
didn’t believe that for a second. Why had she ever introduced them? She didn’t
like the flirtatious looks Lydia was giving Sol. Not wanting to watch Sol’s
response, Georgia gazed across the bar and saw Missy leave the ladies’ room. It
must be girls’ night out, Georgia thought when Missy sat down near the pool
tables with two girls from high school. Missy scanned the bar casually. Marking
her targets, Georgia thought.

Damn. Where were the guys Missy had
tormented Tommy with?

Georgia
pulled her attention back to her own booth, gritting her teeth as she watched Lydia flirt with Sol, throwing an occasional comment Georgia’s way. Georgia sipped on her drink
while she tried to decide what to do. She
really
didn’t want to go home,
but watching Sol being nice to Lydia, knowing Missy sat in the wings in case an
opportunity arose, wasn’t her idea of a good time either.

When Lydia’s hand disappeared under the
table to rest on Sol’s thigh—Georgia hoped it was his thigh—she decided she’d
had enough. She had to face the music at home eventually. That was punishment
enough. She didn’t have to subject herself to this, too.

“I should be getting home, Sol.”

“Sure thing, honey.”

His immediate agreement surprised her.
Was he as eager to get away from Lydia as she was? Or did he just want to get
rid of his ex-wife, so he could come back on his own? Unless Lydia had changed radically, she’d hop into Sol’s bed without thinking twice. And if, by some remote
chance, she had changed, there was always Missy.

Lydia
pouted when they said good night, and Georgia stewed about it all the way to
the far corner of the dark parking lot. Sol opened the passenger door for her.
When she didn’t get right in, he looked at her with questioning eyes.

Before she knew she was even thinking
about it, Georgia’s hands captured his face. She pulled him down and lip-locked
him. In less than a second, he had her backed up against the side of the truck,
and his tongue was fencing with hers.