Flawless Surrender (The Surrender Trilogy, #2)(24)

“Well good, then I don’t have to feel bad about making out with you.” He turned and started to walk back to the living room, working hard to resist laughing at her gasp and fumbling protest.

“Wait a second, I’m not making out with you!” She looked so indignant that he wanted to throw her to the floor and prove her wrong. Instead he just shrugged.

“No, not yet. We’ll save that for later. First, I need to unload my stuff in my room. Do you know where I can find Tanner?” Clint stopped and cocked his head in confusion because her cheeks went pale.

“Your room? Um…well…you can’t.”

“I can’t? I can’t what?” He narrowed his eyes.

“You can’t use your room.”

A laugh burst from his throat, “Oh really? And why is that?”

“Um, because I’m using it.”

Clint was struck dumb. He stood there staring at her, and fighting to keep his erection from busting the seams of his pants. Holy fu-ck! The angel was sleeping in his bed! How lucky could he get? He knew he should be a gentleman and offer to take the couch, but if Zoey wasn’t with anyone right now, then he wanted to take advantage of this moment and coax her into giving him a shot. He couldn’t wait to get her under him naked.

When he left years ago, she had just started puberty. She was skinny as a rail and her head was bigger than the rest of her. Now, she was a voluptuous woman with killer porn star curves. It reminded him of his own ugly duckling phase, and it shouldn’t surprise him that she had matured into a swan too.

“Aw, that’s alright, Zoey love. That will save me some time and effort, because you were going to end up there eventually anyway.” He spun on his heel as she sputtered and cursed up a blue streak behind him. Laughter spilled from his chest, but he kept walking toward the living room to get his stuff. Clint wasn’t the type to force a woman, but he would sure as hell seduce her. Watch out Zoey Carson, I’ve got you in my sites, and I’m planning on bagging the trophy, as he put his luggage into his now shared bedroom.

Maybe coming home wouldn’t be as bad as he thought.

His bedroom smelled sweet, a blend of him and Zoey. The scent didn’t help the erection he was trying to ignore as he set his gear in one corner and pulled on a clean shirt. Before looking for his brothers, he peeked around. She didn’t have much, a few things in the dresser drawers, a cedar chest, a bike, and a framed photo of her and another woman sat on the bedside table next to a romance novel.

Clint did a double take when he saw the couple on the cover weren’t just embracing. The woman was bound with rope, and blindfolded, while the man hovered near her ear holding her close.

The knowledge that Zoey didn’t mind a little kink in her play sent his temperature skyrocketing. He had to shake himself hard to get his brain functioning again.

What the fu-ck is wrong with you, Keegan? You haven’t even been home for a full hour and you already want to seduce a local and tie her to the bed so she can’t get away. You don’t even know her!

With that thought firmly in his brain, his cock began to slowly deflate until he was able to walk more comfortably. Now that he was thinking properly again, it was time to find his big brother and swallow his pride.

He glanced toward the kitchen on his way to the front door, but Zoey was nowhere in sight. A twinge of disappointment was ignored as he walked across the yard to the open barn doors. It felt strange to be walking into the barn in tennis shoes and not cowboy boots, but oddly, the familiar smells and warmth of the old building were comforting.

Standing in the middle of the aisle with his back to him was Tanner. He was talking to someone, and when Clint heard a female’s distinct huff of irritation, he knew he had found the missing Zoey.

What he wasn’t prepared for, was to find Dalton as well.

“Professor?”

All three turned to look at him, and Dalton’s face broke out in a wide grin. “Gilligan! Damn, boy, it’s good to see you!”

Clint hugged his brother, clapping him on the back and fighting the emotions that welled up inside of him. He and Dalton had always been the closest of the three brothers. Maybe it was because they were the younger two, or maybe they just understood the other’s need to escape Texas and the pressure of the ranch.

Pulling back from Dalton, he turned to Tanner, “Skipper! Wow, do you know how much you look like pops?”

“fu-ck you too, Hollywood!” Tanner said, but his lips quirked up in a half smile as he held his hand out for a handshake. Clint jerked his grip and hugged his older brother loosely.

“Hollywood, huh? Well, it’s better than Gilligan.”

Zoey cleared her throat, but the moment they all three turned their attention on her she looked like a deer in the headlights, shifting nervously on her feet. “Um, yeah, so it’s great that we’re having a family reunion and all the name calling, but uh, there’s kind of the problem of three beds and four people.”

Clint reached out and snagged her around the waist, determined to shake her of the prim and proper way she set her spine when she spoke to him. “I told you, angel. I don’t mind sharing. I’ll keep your back warm…or your front, I’m not picky.”

She planted her two tiny hands on his muscular chest and pushed. If he hadn’t released her she wouldn’t have been able to move him, but he let her go easily. “I am not sharing a bed with you, Clint. I’m happy you’re home for your brother’s sake, but I’m not a welcome home gift.”