Play It Safe(45)

After we had sex, we cuddled, we whispered then we fooled around some more. But Gray didn’t take it all the way.

“Coupla days, honey, don’t wanna hurt you again,” he murmured against my neck, his hands sliding soothingly along the skin of my back.

I didn’t want to wait a couple of days. Sex was fantastic. Or maybe just sex with Gray was fantastic.

Then again, I’d bled a little (which was semi-embarrassing and only stopped being that when Gray didn’t make a big deal of it) and it had to be said, I ached and I did it in a way that didn’t invite further attention to that area.

So we’d wait a couple of days.

I could wait a couple of days for Gray.

For Gray, I’d wait an eternity.

I reached to his belly, put a slice of cheese on a cracker and shoved the whole thing in my mouth.

Then I saw the plate tremble on his stomach, my head tipped back and my eyes (enjoying their journey) drifted up to him to see he was smiling but his eyes and the rest of his body were laughing.

“What?” I asked through a full mouth.

“Jesus, dollface, there’s more downstairs. You don’t have to stuff your face.”

I chewed, swallowed and told him, “I don’t want to get crumbs in your bed.

“I don’t care,” he told me.

“No one wants to sleep in crumbs,” I informed him.

“I’ll brush them out,” he informed me.

I scrunched my face. “Euw. No. In this room, they’ll never be swept up, you’ll be walking all over them, they’ll get in your socks and then you’ll get ants in the summer.”

He was still smiling but his head tilted to the side and he asked, “First, euw?”

“Yeah, euw.”

“No one says euw.”

“I just said it.”

He kept smiling at me when he replied, “I stand corrected. But I will point out that only a woman with a beautiful face and more hair, all of it gorgeous, than is fair to the rest of the female population on top of a fantastic body, who says my name breathy when she gets hot or she’s in the mood to be sweet, which is often, and sounds even hotter when she comes then gets an unbelievably sexy look in her eyes when she comes down can say euw.”

I stared at him actually feeling my heart swell.

Then I pulled myself together and noted, “That’s a lot of conditions.”

His eyes held mine and his reply was quiet. “I know.”

Oh my.

To hide the blush I felt creeping up at his compliment, I dipped my chin and reached out to grab a slice of apple.

“Second,” he started and my eyes went back to him. “The crumbs won’t get lost forever. Macy comes every other week to clean the house and do the laundry.”

I tipped my head deeper into my hand. “Macy?”

“My Uncle Olly’s third wife.”

There were only five words there but a lot to go over.

“Uncle Olly?” I prompted.

“Yeah, Uncle Olly. Oliver. Dad was the oldest. Oliver after him. Frank after him and then Charles. They’re all named after famous cowboys.”

Cool.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah, Dad’s name is Abel after Abel Pierce. Olly after Oliver Loving. Frank after Frank Eaton and Charlie after Charles Goodnight. Their last names are my Dad and uncles’ middle ones.”

That was still cool even though I had no idea who all those people were.

“I don’t know any of those people,” I confessed.

“Not a lot of people do. Gotta be a cowboy to know cowboys and my Granddad was a definite cowboy.”

That was cool too.

“Are you?”

“Got a bit in me but it isn’t the same, not like he tells it, not like he said his Daddy told it. Those days are long gone.”

Alas, they were.

“So Olly’s been married three times?” I asked.

“Olly, three. Frank’s just got rid of his second and is workin’ on his third. Charlie’s still in his second but, the way things are going, I don’t see that lasting very long.”

“Wow,” I whispered, Gray grinned and I noted, “They’ve been through a lot of women.”

“Hard men to live with.”

“Sounds like it.”

“Lucky Macy’s got more piss and vinegar in her than most. Olly owns and runs the bar. Macy owns and runs Olly. Gran and her don’t get along but Macy don’t care. She still comes every two weeks, cleans the house, does the laundry, does the ironing, puts flowers all around because Macy likes flowers and that’s her way and then she leaves.”

Well, that explained the flowers.

“She and your Gran don’t get along?” I asked.

Gray shook his head. “Macy wants peace in the family. Gran can hold a grudge. Dad being firstborn son meant he inherited the land. Me being his only son meant I inherited it. When Dad died, her boys wanted their slice and didn’t mind letting that be known. They didn’t shut up about it, Gran lost her mind. They’d been marrying, divorcing, carousing and brawling for years, none of this she liked and all of it, dollface, they still do. So when Dad died and they made their play, got slapped back and wouldn’t let it go, she was done. She hasn’t seen any of them in years except when she can’t avoid them if she’s in town and then she ignores them.”