[B.S. #3] Claiming Laura (10 page)

“As Angel tells it, James got the fever and you just couldn’t let him be the only one. I want to hear all about her. I can’t wait to tell James when he calls. He sure will remember you dishing him about how he was so involved with Avery.” Chase sat up and put his elbow on the table.

Clay looked irritated back at them. “It’s not the same thing. I just like the lady.”

Chase didn’t let up. “But Angel told me that he had to help you out at the club, so you could bring your lady with you last night. That seems very serious to me. Do I see a link in a chain being built as we speak?” Chase was now openly laughing at Clay’s blush.

Clay had given James a hard time, but this was different. He only liked Laura. That’s all.

Clay got up from his chair and walked to the door. “I’m leaving.”

“And where can we find you, if you’re needed? Should we start at Laura’s place?” Chase just laughed harder as Clay slammed the door behind him.

Clay knew he was blushing as he walked down the hall. He knew now that the secret was out his friends would rib him mercilessly. He had had an easier time facing down the enemy than taking on that bunch.

Oddly, he found that he didn’t mind so much. Laura was worth it. He hurried his steps with the thoughts of the lady waiting for him to return. Clay let himself into Laura’s house an hour later. He had spent the time after the meeting going over e-mails in his office. He had sent one to James, catching him up on what was going on with the firm. James, even though he was on his honeymoon, still liked to be reassured that things were running smoothly with the company. He made sure his e-mail told James nothing was going on and instructed him to enjoy his time off.

* * * *

Clay closed the front door loud enough, so that Laura could hear him come in. He didn’t want to startle her with his abrupt appearance. When he didn’t find her in the living room, and she didn’t respond to his call, he started to worry.

Just as he was about to go up the stairs to look for her, he saw movement in the kitchen. Laura looked like she was baking something and had earphones on, with her hips swaying to music only she heard. Clay stood there a minute and just took in the picture she made. Her long black hair was swept up in a messy bun on the top of her head and she wore a tank top with short red shorts.

As her body moved in the red shorts, it hit Clay like waving a red flag at his cock. All thoughts left his head except the one where he laid her down on the kitchen floor and ripped those tiny shorts off of her. His hands itched. They wanted to do it so badly. Instead, Clay rearranged his now rock-hard cock in his pants and pulled out his shirt from his pants to hide evidence of those thoughts.

Clearing his throat, he reached out to touch her. He knew the minute he did it, that he should have taken more notice of what she was doing. She turned with a scream, with the mixer in hand with the rotating beaters making the batter fly in all directions.

Clay, the kitchen, and Laura ended up covered in whatever she was making. It took Clay a full minute to grab the mixer out of her hand and turn it off.

She finally got a good look at him standing behind her and pulled the earplugs out, raising a hand to her heart. Her wide eyes, which just a minute ago had held a startled look, now turned to an angry glint.

“What the hell did you think you were doing?” Laura looked at Clay standing there, holding the mixer with a batter-splattered face and clothes.

Clay just stood there in stunned silence. He didn’t want to laugh, but Laura, spitting like a kitten, had a drop of batter on the top of her head just waiting to drop down. Clay reached out and took his thumb, ready to wipe it away, but he wasn’t fast enough and it plopped right on the tip of her nose. Clay couldn’t keep it in. He doubled over and laughed so hard, and even harder when Laura reached up and swiped at it, just spreading the gooey batter over her face.

Finally Laura saw the humorous picture they made and joined in his laughter, until tears streamed down her face mixing in with the batter.

Catching his breath, Clay straightened up and apologized to Laura. “Sorry to startle you. I did make noise and called out when I came in. I guess you were too involved to notice,” Clay said, and bit back another laugh.

“You almost gave me a heart attack. And now as you can see”—she spread her hands around the kitchen encompassing the mess—“you have spoiled our lunch. I didn’t know when you would be back, but though I would make you a soufflé.” Laura turned back to the counter and grabbed a dishcloth off the sink and started to wipe off the counter.

Clay reached around her and took it from her hands. “I made the mess. Let me clean it up.”

“That’s nice of you to offer, but I think we should both work on it, then clean up ourselves. It looks like we took a bath in the stuff.” Laura went to the pantry and took out a mop and started to clean the floor as Clay took over the counter.

Clay was still chuckling later as he sat in the living room waiting for Laura to finish her shower. He had suggested that they shower together, but Laura was having nothing to do with that. He had been able to clean up in the downstairs bathroom. His pants only needed a quick wipe off, as they hadn’t received the worst of the goo. But now he was sitting there shirtless, as Laura had placed his drenched shirt in the wash.

Looking around the neat room, Clay knew he could get used to this. A home and a hot woman. Yeah, maybe James had been right after all. A good woman was something to hold onto.

Watching Laura descend the stairs with her long wet hair swishing down her back, Clay was taken back to the pictures he and the guys had gone over this morning. It struck him that Laura would fit the description of the women that were accosted in the parking lot of the Playground. He couldn’t stop the shiver that went through him at the thought. Laura dropped down on the couch beside him and his thoughts turned to her. He could smell the fresh clean scent of her.

Gathering her close to him, he kissed the top of her head. “Sorry again for the mess. You did seem to be awful jumpy. Why don’t I take us out for lunch? Maybe we can find a place that will have a soufflé on the menu.”

Laura cuddled up to Clay and looked into his sincere brown eyes. She had been awfully jumpy. When Clay had touched her, she thought it was the Feds for a moment or worse, the General. She had to put that behind her if she was going to pursue a relationship with Clay. Telling herself she was safe, she put a hand on Clay’s warm chest. Laura just absorbed his warmth for a moment. He didn’t have to know about her baggage right now. She was just surprised that he had come back to her so quickly.

“Sorry, but I don’t have time for lunch now. I have a client coming over in about a half an hour. I have to get ready. Can I take a rain check?” Laura was now rubbing her hand over his chest, enjoying the feel of the crisp hairs that covered it.

Clay was enjoying the chest rub also but grabbed her hand and stilled it when he heard her talk about a client. Client? Didn’t she work as an accountant? He had met a lot of woman over the years that spoke about clients and he didn’t want to think the worse of Laura, but he felt himself stiffening up and asked her.

“I thought you worked for an accounting firm downtown? Why would a client come to your home?” Clay sat up straighter and looked down at Laura. Was she telling him that she allowed strange men into her home?

“Oh I do, but only two days a week. I mostly freelance now and do most of my work at home. The clients that I work on know this and some drop off their stuff here, instead of going all the way downtown to the office.” Laura didn’t know what Clay’s problem was but she could feel his chest muscles stiffen under her hand.

“Don’t you know how dangerous that is? What are you thinking, allowing strange men dropping in? Don’t you know in this day and age, that that’s a stupid thing to do?”

Laura looked up at him. Had he called her stupid? Sitting up beside him, her posture as stiff as his, she snatched her hands from Clay’s and gave him a look of disbelief. “Did you just call me stupid?”

“No, I didn’t. I said allowing clients to come to your home was stupid.”

Laura got up from the couch.
Who does he think he is?
She was used to looking after herself. After ten years it had become second nature to her. Laura was spitting mad and staring daggers at Clay as he sat there on the couch.

Pointing a shaky finger at the door and stuttering as she was so mad she screamed. “Get out!”

Clay stood up next to her. He couldn’t believe that she would take offense to his words. He, after all, had just been pointing out the facts. He knew in his mind that Laura wasn’t that kind of woman. But it was stupid in his mind for a woman, any woman, to allow strangers into her home.

Putting his hands on his hips he faced her with a no-nonsense look.

“Wait a minute, you know I’m right. You are putting yourself in danger every time you open the door to one of your clients.” Clay was now getting madder that she wasn’t seeing reason.

Laura just kept pointing to the door, her face red and her eyes spitting fire at him. “Get out, and leave my keys. I can look after myself and no he-man is going to dictate how I run my life.”

“Easy now, can’t we talk about this?” Clay knew he had to do some damage control and fast, before she would even listen to reason. This mild meek woman, that Clay thought he had pegged, had turned into an overly emotionally spitting kitten before his eyes. What had he said that was so wrong? He knew he was right. Clay opened his mouth again to try and reason with her.

Laura just pointed at the door and before he could speak, told him, “I don’t want to hear anything else you have to say. Just get out!”

Clay knew he had to retreat and come back when she had calmed down. Reaching into his pocket, he reluctantly laid her keys on the coffee table and made his way to the front door. Looking back at her as she stood near the couch, he could just make out the tears starting to fill her eyes. He felt terrible about making her cry but still knew he was right in pointing out the danger that she was putting herself in. Walking through the door was one of the hardest things he’d made himself do in a long time.

Closing the door quietly behind him, he made his way to his truck. He didn’t start it right away, but sat there and tried to think of ways to get her to change her mind and see reason. Pulling his cell phone out of his pocket, he called the office and asked for Brad.

After making arrangements to meet him back at the office, Clay finally started his truck and left.

Chapter Ten

Half an hour later, Clay found himself sitting at the conference room table, rubbing the back of his neck with one large hand. He couldn’t believe what he had just done. Without thinking he had parked his truck in front of the Braden Security building and walked in the front door. Something he never did when they all had underground parking. It could be suicide to break cover. His only excuse was that Laura had him so rattled all he could think of was getting to Brad and talking to him about keeping her safe.

He would never live it down, if the guy got wind of his latest brain-less undertaking. In fact, he could hear Brad just coming down the hallway and braced for the look that he expected from him. Brad, with Angel and Grant trailing behind him, walked into the room with shit-eating grins on their faces. They looked like they would like to break out laughing. They all waited until they were seated, then just howled. Angel almost fell out of his chair, he was bent over laughing so hard. Brad, after he had caught his breath, asked him with almost a straight face, “Dude, what were you thinking?”

Clay just raised his head from the table where he had laid it at the start of their laughter.

“I wasn’t thinking, OK? And why are Angel and Grant with you? I just called you to meet me.”

Brad, with still a wide grin on his face and holding back another laugh, said, “I was out grabbing a sandwich down the street, and came in the front doors of the building on my way back. As I walked in the front door, people were lining up to fill me in. At first I didn’t believe them. This was Clay they were talking about, after all. Our calm straight shooter. But when the guard at the front desk confirmed
their story, I just had to call Angel and Grant and tell them. It was too good to keep to myself. So being the great guy that I am, I called and filled them in.”

Angel who had righted his chair after his near fall, took over, adding, “Didn’t you notice the stares people were giving you? How could you walk through the front entrance to the elevators, wait for one, then ride up here with other people and not realize that you didn’t have a shirt on. You must have been quite a sight walking around all the people dressed in business attire, with your muscles on display and tattoo-covered arms. They probably thought you were here to rob the place. James will be sorry he missed the chance to take you to task, after all the remarks you made to him.”

Before Clay could respond to Angel, Grant piped up. “James doesn’t have to miss out. I will just break into the feed of the cameras at the front door, and James can see it all in full color.”

Clay just gave a beady look at his so-called friends. “Give me a break. James doesn’t have to see the pictures, the story will be enough. You know he will go ballistic when he hears about it. He is so caught up in keeping up appearances that this will have him exploding. So for my sake, can we just jot it down to bad judgment?”

“But was there any judgment involved at all on your part? Dude, you look like a hard-core biker, even dressed in a suit, but to put it all on display in the middle of the afternoon when the office is full. I don’t know where your head was.”

Clay rose from his chair and flexed his tattoo-colored arms, and tried to stare down the men surrounding him. “Give me a break. I just had it out with Laura and the last thing I was thinking about is what I was wearing. I don’t completely remember my drive here either. And if you tell that to James, I will deny it.”