Free Defying the Odds by Kele Moon Page A

wanna make love to you in a bed.”
     
    “You’ll come home with me?” Melody asked, her chest heaving as she sat straddled over him, trying to get her breath back.
     
    “God, yes,” he said, a broken laugh slipping out of him. “Can’t you feel how fucking hard and desperate I am for you? I’m dying to go home with you. I just sorta , I dunno … I want this to be special, you know?”
     
    “Yeah.” She nodded, her green eyes still wild and hungry, but uncertainty spread over her beautiful features. “I want that too, but I don’t really know how to make it special.”
     
    “Well…” Clay considered that, realizing he had the exact same problem. “I suppose we’ll have to try and figure it out, ’cause I don’t rightly know how to make it special either. Usually it’s just sorta hot and sweaty and uncomfortable.”
     
    She laughed, a bright smile making her radiant. “Yeah, that ’bout sums it up.”
     
    “But not this time,” Clay assured her, knowing that one thing if nothing else.
     
    “No,” she agreed, her smile still bright, her dimples carving deep impressions in her rosy cheeks. “Not this time.”
     
    “Would it ruin the moment to admit I really wanna get that damn truck of yours fixed before I blow right here?” Clay asked, wincing up at her. “’Cause you’re fucking gorgeous over me, and it’s sorta messing with my chivalry.”
     
    Melody reached up, caressing his cheek. “I think it’s sweet.”
     
    “There’s a first.” Clay laughed. “I don’t get called sweet too much.”
     
    “You should. You’re the sweetest guy I know.”
     
    Clay rolled his eyes, refraining from mentioning her taste in men could be considered extremely questionable. Instead he helped her crawl off him as they started the shuffle of pulling themselves together. Clay’s hat was still missing, but he decided to look for it later. Melody nearly crushed her glasses when she sat in the passenger’s seat. Clay pulled his seat up and put the car into drive, forcing himself to stop looking at Melody, because if he stopped long enough to be tempted, they’d never leave this parking lot.
     
    * * * *
     
    Starting the truck was more trying than they’d anticipated, but Clay was motivated and eventually they got it to turn over and start. It felt like a minor miracle when the truck burst to life; the roar of an engine that had seen better days was easily the sweetest sound Melody had heard in a long time.
     
    Clay obviously agreed, because she saw him throw up his hands in triumph. He sat there, gunning the gas for a few minutes before he hopped out of her truck, his breath misty white underneath the headlights. He walked around to the passenger seat and crawled into the car, sitting next to Melody, who’d been pumping the gas pedal while he worked on her truck.
     
    “Okay, you’re gonna drive my car back to your place, and I’ll follow you in the truck,” he announced as he pulled the door closed.
     
    Melody frowned. “Why am I gonna drive your car?”
     
    “’Cause I don’t trust the truck,” he said, giving her a look. “And it’s fucking cold as hell in that piece of shit. We’re getting the battery replaced and the heat fixed tomorrow.”
     
    “Clay—”
     
    “I ain’t arguing ’bout it,” Clay said in a gruff voice. “We’re getting it done, and I don’t give a shit if your pride’s smarting over it.”
     
    Melody huffed but kept her mouth shut. She didn’t want to argue with him, not tonight, when she was going to forget every bad thing that ever happened to her and just let this handsome, wonderful man make her feel good.
     
    Her body was humming with yearning and anticipation. She didn’t know why everything seemed to click with Clay when she shouldn’t click with anyone, but she wasn’t going to question good fortune. If whatever compatibility that naturally blossomed between them allowed her to let down her guard and enjoy really being a woman, then