Play It Safe(71)

I was looking forward to getting back to that.

But for the next couple of days, I wasn’t sure what to do.

Yes, there I was. Me. Except for drifting through the club fake flirting with men, my life was a vacation.

Fancy that.

I decided I’d order up room service, slip into something comfortable, call up a bunch of movies and spend my time lazing in bed with a movie marathon.

I didn’t do that at home and I thought that would be awesome.

I slid my keycard in, the light went green, I pushed down the handle and slid the card out. Then I pushed open the door.

Then something warm and hard was at my back pushing at me and the door.

I started to cry out, twisting around, my shoulder slamming into something solid, my head jerking back and I saw him.

Gray.

The cry strangled itself in my throat and I didn’t struggle as Gray pushed us in until we cleared the door then he stopped, facing me, shutting the door behind him and standing in front of it.

I took three quick strides into the room and whirled.

Shit. He looked good.

No.

He looked f**king great.

Time had been kind and I shouldn’t have been surprised, I knew it would be. The way he was made, there was no other way it could be. But I also saw photos of his Dad at his house. His father never lost it either.

It wasn’t like it had been thirty years. Gray was just thirty-three.

But he wore it well just as he’d wear fifty-three, sixty-three and, if he was lucky, eighty-three.

“How did you find me?” I asked, tearing my gaze from all that was him to look into his blue eyes.

“Dollface, you came to Mustang and made a splash. It was impossible not to find you.”

It happened and he kept speaking but he saw it and when he was done talking his brows shot together.

My body had jerked like it took a blow.

And this was on his first word.

Dollface.

“Ivey?” he called, his voice softer, a thread of concern drifting through it.

I pulled my shit together and straightened my shoulders.

“Get out.”

The concern vanished and his face got hard again.

“Oh no, we’re gonna talk.”

“You and I don’t have anything to talk about,” I informed him.

“Twenty-four hours ago, you’re right. We didn’t. Then you strutted your ass through two counties laying a thick trail of your man’s money and gettin’ in everyone’s face about it, especially mine, so now we do.”

“It’s done, there’s nothing you can do about it so just leave and move on,” I advised.

“You’re right again, Ivey. It’s done and there’s nothin’ I can do about it but that don’t mean I got nothin’ to say about it. I’m gonna say what I gotta say and you’re gonna listen.”

Really?

Why couldn’t these people just leave me alone?

“Is this necessary?” I snapped.

“Yeah, to me, yeah. You, Ivey, you waltz into Mustang and bail my shit out usin’ another guy’s money? What the f**k?”

“Gray –”

“That was not cool,” he cut me off, his voice starting to go rough with building fury. “Shovin’ your man and his money in my face, Ivey. That…was not…cool.”

“It wasn’t his money, Gray, it was mine,” I shot back, Gray leaned back and the surprise showed on his face. I took that and went with it. “So you can stop being macho man rancher cowboy pissed off that another man sorted your shit. Now you can start being macho man rancher cowboy pissed off that a woman sorted your shit. But, for God’s sake, do it somewhere else.”

“It was his money,” Gray pressed, the surprise moving out of his face, the fury back in.

“It wasn’t, Gray,” I pressed back.

“It was, Ivey, you live with him, you f**k him, he uses you and your hair and your ass and your legs to make the money he pays you so it’s his money. Christ, all these years, you never learned. It just got worse.”

Melted steel shot through my veins encasing my spine and as it did I lost my mind.

“How dare you?” I hissed.

“Pretty easy,” Gray clipped back.

“You have no idea how it is between Lash and me.”

He leaned in, expression, posture and, when he spoke, his tone telling me his anger was escalating right along with mine.

“Darlin’, you forget, I saw you. You swayed your tight ass right in my face. I paid three hundred dollars for the seat at that show as did a hundred other men around that stage. You can talk for a year and you will never convince me that the man you f**k gave you all that money. He’s using you just like your brother. Except unlike your brother he gets to f**k you a different way and you’re so goddamned stupid, you let him.”

“You don’t know how it is,” I snapped.

“I know exactly how it is,” he bit back.

“No you don’t, Gray. Lash is g*y.”

I was so furious at the way he was speaking to me, what he was saying, it just slid out.

And a miracle didn’t happen a nanosecond afterward where my words evaporated before they hit Gray’s ears. I knew it by the shock that settled on his face.

And I had to instigate damage control, pronto.