Always On My Mind (The Sullivans #8)(39)

With that, she turned and walked out the door toward his truck. Still reeling from everything that had just been said between them, it was a hell of a job for Grayson to try to keep his eyes from wandering to her hips as he followed her, especially when he had a bad feeling that she wasn’t wearing anything at all beneath the form-fitting dress.

Sweet Lord, what he’d give to touch her naked skin again, to press not only his hands, but also his mouth, to her. To all of her.

Before she could reach for the door handle of his truck, he opened it for her, then offered a hand to help her up. She looked surprised, but she placed her hand in his.

He forgot to let go as he looked down at her fingernails. “You’ve put on nail polish.” And she smelled like vanilla and spice, so sweet and sultry that he was barely able to tamp down the overpowering urge to bury his face in the curve of her neck and breathe her in.

“Mascara, too,” she said as she fluttered her eyelashes at him. “I didn’t want people to think you couldn’t do any better than a girl who didn’t know how to take care of herself.”

God, he was so mesmerized by the flick of her tongue against her glossy upper lip that he could barely remember why he’d taken her hand. Finally, he realized they were standing beside his truck and the door was open.

“Can you climb in okay with those heels on?”

She shot him a sassy look. A look that owned every last letter of her naughty nickname.

“I can do absolutely anything in these heels.”

As he closed her door and walked around the back of the truck, he had to adjust himself in his jeans to try to hide his hard-on. The vision of making love to Lori while she was wearing nothing but those red spike heels wouldn’t go away as they drove from his farm to his neighbor’s property fifteen minutes away.

Grayson parked in a dark corner behind a large grouping of shrubs at the very edge of the parking area. When Lori got out of his truck, it was so dark that she asked, “Are you sure there’s a party here tonight?” Before he could answer, she walked around the thick shrubs and finally saw the brightly lit barn, and the colored lanterns that were placed along the path from the parking area.

“Look at all these lights and the lanterns and the decorations! I swear, it looks like the moon has been hung above the barn just for tonight. Why didn’t you tell me it would be like this?”

Because he’d never appreciated any of this until right this very second when he could see it through her eyes—eyes that saw the beauty in absolutely everything. But instead of telling her that, he simply held out a hand. “Sounds like the band is already playing. Ready to head in?”

She looked uncertain for a moment before nodding. When she put her hand in his, he realized that holding her that way was shockingly right, as though she really was his girl and he was taking her out for a night of dancing, country style.

Chapter Fifteen

Lori loved how it felt to hold Grayson’s hand. He wasn’t giving her his trust, wasn’t baring his soul to her and letting her try to help him, but even though holding hands was something small, it wasn’t nothing.

Yes, she knew it would be smarter to keep her walls completely up with him. Especially since he’d already proved he knew how to cut her to the quick, that all it took was a few well-placed words and a disgusted expression to rip her heart to shreds.

But now that she had some insight into what he’d suffered, how could she just turn away from him?

Just then, she stumbled over a rock in the dark and Grayson caught her in his arms. And when she looked into the barn over his shoulder, she realized everyone was gawking at them.

“I don’t think you’ll have any problem convincing the neighbors that you’re off the market,” she murmured as she drew back from him.

“Good,” was all he said as he brought her fully inside the barn.

The barn was just as beautifully lit up inside as it was outside. She saw the hay bales lining the large space, the country band playing up on the stage at the far end of the building, the dance floor that had been cleared in front of them, and the drink and food stations positioned all throughout the rest of the barn.

She was the only person in satin and heels, although there were plenty of sequins on display, so at least she’d gotten one thing right. She’d intended to make Grayson look ridiculous...only now she was the one who had to get through the night looking like she should be at the Oscars rather than at a community dance. Whereas Grayson looked exactly right in his dark jeans, denim shirt, cowboy boots, and hat.

“Grayson, glad you could make it.” A man in Wranglers and a big black cowboy hat that matched his shiny black boots patted Grayson on the shoulder hard enough that she could feel it vibrate through her.

“Place looks great, Joe,” Grayson responded. “I’d like you to meet Lori.”

The man tipped his hat to her. “Pretty girls are always welcome in my barn.” He winked at her. “Just don’t tell my wife I said that.”

“What are you not supposed to tell me?” asked an attractive middle-aged woman with honey-blonde hair wearing a jean skirt that fell to her knees and a leather vest over a fitted white shirt. She smiled at Grayson, but her eyes chilled a bit as she took in Lori’s outfit.

“That I’ve never been to a barn dance before,” Lori said with a smile that she hoped didn’t betray how out of place she felt. She hadn’t met this woman at the CSA pick-up, but everyone else had been so nice there she had no reason to think this woman wouldn’t be nice, too. “Everything looks amazing.”