Out Of The Ashes (13 page)

What was she doing here?

Then I saw that other girl, Tima I think her name was, across from her, and I knew she’d come with friends.

Paige didn’t look okay, though. Not with her hands on her ears like that. Was it too loud in here for her?

I started walking toward her when I noticed the guy behind her. He was shoving her hips against his, playing rough. Heat shot through me, my protective instincts shifting into first gear. I shoved people in the crowd out of my way as I made a beeline for my girl.

“Paige!” I shouted.

She couldn’t hear me. The guy behind her gave me a look that told me to go get my own dance partner. I shoved his hands off of Paige, and shot him a look that said, “This is mine.”

He glared at me and stood his ground. I shoved him backward, sending him reeling into the people dancing behind him.

I slid in front of Paige and gently grabbed hold of her wrists. Her body stiffened before she looked up at me with those big, beautiful eyes. She launched herself into my chest, and the warmth that flowed through me as I wrapped my arms around her was like coming home to a warm house on a cold winter day.

We couldn’t talk in here without shouting, so I pulled her with me toward the door. She tapped Tima, whose eyes fluttered open lazily, and pointed to me. Tima smiled and waved at me, and then Paige let me pull her out the door and down the stairs.

When we were in the bar downstairs, I pulled her close to me and looked into her eyes. I took hold of her face, and my thumbs caressed the skin of her pronounced cheekbones.

“Are you okay? I saw you with your hands on your ears and I thought maybe…”

She shook her head. “No, I’m fine. It was just loud, and I was hot…”

She trailed off like she wasn’t sure what to say to me. “Clay…”

I looked at her a minute, just absorbing her presence. Her hair was limp from the humidity upstairs and her cheeks were two spots of bright red. She was a little breathless from the heat and the dancing.

She was beauty personified.

“I want to go home,” she admitted.

“What a coincidence,” I said with a grin. “I want to go home, too. Do you want me to take you?”

She nodded, a grateful smile crossing her face.

We left, and I put her in my SUV. I closed the door behind her, and then climbed in on the driver’s side.

We drove in that comfortable silence experienced when you were with someone you knew you didn’t have to impress. Conversation wasn’t essential; it was just a choice. And right now we were choosing not to talk.

I glanced over at her though, as I drove the short distance to her apartment. I just wanted to make sure she was real, and that she was really sitting in my car. The past two weeks without seeing her or hearing from her was an eternity. She could very well be a mirage. She was staring at her hands in her lap. I wondered what she was thinking. I wondered if she’d ask me inside when I dropped her off.

Pulling up to her complex, I parked the car and turned to face her.

“Did you have a bad night?” I asked.

My hand twitched because I wanted to reach out and grab hers, but I restrained myself. I wasn’t sure where Paige’s head was, and I didn’t want to overstep.

“I’ve had a bad two weeks,” she said. “I didn’t want to be out tonight. I just…didn’t want to stay home with my thoughts anymore.”

Her eyes were downcast again, and the sadness in them tore at my heart.

“Paige—“ I began.

“Come in,” she said at the same time.

We looked at each other, startled.

“You want me to come in?” I asked carefully.

She nodded, almost shyly. “I would love to talk to you, Clay. Explain myself. I understand though, if you don’t want to come in. If you’ve moved on. If you have someplace to be…” she bit her bottom lip.

I made her nervous. I needed to fix that, now.

“Paige, let’s get something straight. The only place I want to be is with you. That’s why I was so frustrated that day, because you didn’t understand that. So if you want me to come in, I’m coming in. I’ve missed the hell out of you.”

She nodded, the faintest of smiles creeping into her worried expression. She started to open her door.

“Don’t you do it,” I ordered.

I leapt out and hurried around to her side of the car, opening her door for her. I reached up for her, and she put her hands on my shoulders so I could lift her down. When I had her in my arms like that, I didn’t want to let go. I held her, staring down into her eyes.

She stared right back. “Your ankle is better.”

“Much,” I agreed, finally setting her on her feet.

But I took her hand in mine. I had to touch her because who knew how long I had with her?

We walked up to her apartment hand in hand, and I swear nothing ever felt as good as the weight of her hand in mine.

Paige

We sat down side by side on the couch. I had placed two tall glasses of water in front of us, and Clay leaned forward to pick his up. He glanced over at me as he took a sip. He ran a hand through the short brown curls and I flashed back to running my fingers through those locks.

“I’m sorry,” I blurted. “I never should have let you go that day you came to check on me. There’s so much going on inside my head, I wasn’t sure if I could share it with you. It’s not a trust thing, it’s…it hurts to talk about it. Any of it. But I know that if I want to have you in my life, you deserve to know everything. I’d never purposefully send you away, because I want you with me. I’ve realized that I may have destroyed the something beautiful we were building, and the thought scares me more than my past does.”

He studied me a minute, just looking at my face. Then he reached out and touched my cheek, rubbing it softly with the back of his hand.

“I shouldn’t have walked out on you, Paige. I was frustrated. We have time; I was being impatient. I realize that now. I’ve been going crazy without you. The only reason I haven’t called is because I thought you didn’t want me to. I’m new at this whole relationship thing. If you aren’t ready to tell me everything now, then you’re just not. I don’t want to rush you.”

I leaned into his side and closed my eyes. Having him here next to me felt so good that I wanted to hit the PAUSE button, save the snapshot of this moment for later.

He used both hands to cup my face. “Seeing you tonight made me realize that I don’t want to be without you. I don’t want you dancing at some club unless I’m the guy dancing behind you. I’ve just been going through the motions this month, not really living. You’re for me, so I’m going to do whatever it takes to stay with you.”

“Are you…are you saying you want to try this thing?” I whispered, leaning my forehead against his.

“Yeah,” he murmured. “I want to do this thing. Can I kiss you now?”

“Please.”

He puckered his lips, and his mouth meeting mine wasn’t subtle. He let me know with that kiss that he wanted this, wanted me. He conveyed with the urgency of his lips moving against mine, with the tenderness I felt when his tongue gently tangled with mine, that he was here because there was nowhere else he’d rather be.

I pulled back, breathless.

“Let’s play a game,” I suggested.

“Oh, this sounds dirty,” he answered, rubbing his hands together. “I like it.”

I hit him playfully on the arm. I momentarily lost my train of thought when my fist connected with solid muscle beneath his button down. When I caught back up, I shook my head.

“Not that kind of game!”

He leaned forward, nuzzling my neck. “No?”

“Well…”

“What kind of game?”

He laid a line of kisses up my neck and back down again.

“Um,” I answered, distracted.

He pulled back to look at me. “Well?”

“Well, we have some talking to do, right? Why not make it fun and not so full of pressure?”

“I like that idea, too,” he said. “I meant what I said, though. You have no pressure from me. I’ll be ready when you are.”

“Okay,” I answered. “So here’s what we’ll do. I will ask you one thing I haven’t learned about you yet, a burning question. You can either answer it, or remove an article of clothing. And then it will be your turn to ask something of me.”

“So this is a dirty game!” he grinned triumphantly.

“Well, it wasn’t supposed to be. I just changed the rules at the last minute. You make me want more of you.”

A pleased smile brightened his face. “I do?”

“You do,” I nodded firmly.

“Let the game begin.”

Nineteen

Clay

We faced off inches away from each other, sitting cross-legged on the floor. I wasn’t quite sure how one of us would win this game, but I really didn’t care. This would be fun. I would get to see more of Paige’s sexy-soft skin, and learn about her past at the same time.

Win-win.

“You can go first,” she said. She leaned forward until her elbows were touching her knees and focused on me.

“Thanks. I already know my first question. I’m starting off easy on you, okay? But even if you answer the question, you can still feel free to strip a little.”

She shook her head at me, a chaste smile on her lips. “Nuh-uh. I’m sticking to the rules.”

“We’ll see. Okay, first question. How long have you and Gillian been friends? She’s like your guard dog sometimes. She scares me. If you tell her I said that, I’ll deny it.”

She laughed, and it was like those wooden chimes people hang on their porches in the summertime. Beautifully musical and haunting at the same time.

“We met in third grade. That was when her family first moved to Simpsonville. Actually, she was a guard dog even then. Some older girl was picking on me on the playground. Gillian pulled her hair and made her scream. That girl never messed with me again, and Gillian and I have barely spent a day apart since.”

“That story sounds exactly like Gillian,” I answered. “So you two are like a package deal? I get you, I have to take Gill too?”

“Absolutely,” she answered. “My turn?”

“Your turn.”

She furrowed her brow, which let me know how hard she was rifling through her brain to come up with an appropriate question. I leaned forward and kissed her forehead where those little wrinkles crinkled together.

She shot me a surprised smile, and I shrugged.

“When your face looks that adorable, I’m going to have to kiss it.”

“Um, okay. I got one,” she said. “What’s your favorite food?”

“Really? All the questions in the world, and you want to know my favorite food?”

“We have all night,” she pointed out.

“True. My favorite food is pizza. Boring, I know. I have very simple tastes.”

“I like pizza too,” she said. “See? This game shows us what a good match we are.”

“I didn’t need a game to tell me that.”

It wasn’t a line. I truly did just know that Paige was supposed to be in my life. All roads led straight to her, in a crooked, long, winding route.

She beamed at me. I would never get sick of making her smile.

“Next question. What do you want to be when you grow up?”

“I haven’t declared a major yet,” she answered. “But lately I’ve been feeling that I’d like to do something with Psychology. Maybe help people who have been through a trauma.”

Hmmm. That told me a lot. I already knew she had been through something painful, both physically and emotionally. I was hoping tonight was the night she’d tell me about it. I wasn’t going to push, though. I promised her patience, and that was what I was going to give her.

Instead, I nodded. “That sounds like you. Can I just say something?”

“Of course you can.”

“All of these clothes we’re wearing are really distracting. Maybe we should do a bonus article removal. Just to keep us motivated.”

She burst out laughing, like the kind of belly laugh that girls usually don’t do unless they’re really confortable with someone. She covered her mouth with both hands, like she hadn’t meant to do it. I was grinning like a fool, but I couldn’t kill the smile plastered to my face.

“You’re ridiculous,” she scolded.

I pictured her scolding me like that in a sexy teacher outfit. The thought made me ten kinds of excited, and I wished I could pull her onto my lap right now so she could feel it.

I shrugged. “I’m a guy.”

Her full lips curved into a sexy smile. “I’ve noticed.”

She reached down to the skin-tight jeans she was wearing and undid the button. My eyes zoomed in on her hands as they worked to pull down the zipper. My hands twitched, I wanted to help her so badly.

“One article,” she whispered.

I nodded and swallowed hard.

She slid the jeans down her legs, following their progression with her eyes. I followed the trail her eyes were blazing, and I froze.