Free Leaving Necessity by Margo Bond Collins Page A

other hand to take his index finger and slip it completely into her mouth. Slowly, she drew her lips up the length of his finger, the heat of her tongue sliding along the inside until she swirled it around his fingertip. “Hm. Not that one,” she murmured.
    When she took his middle finger and repeated it, he dropped his head back against the seat and groaned.
    Mac closed his eyes, savoring the feel of her mouth on his fingertips. “You’re killing me, Clara.”
    Her low, throaty laugh nearly did him in. “Not that one, either.”
    Combined with the feel of her lips on his skin, his erection pressed so hard against his jeans that he had to shift and readjust himself.
    “Be still,” Clara ordered. “I’m not done yet.” Holding his gaze with hers, she slipped his ring finger into her mouth, this time circling it for a long moment with her hot, wet tongue before she drew it out of her mouth.
    “I may pass out,” Mac announced.
    “Pass out?” Clara’s pleased expression didn’t match her words. “But then you might miss out on the good stuff.”
    Shifting in his seat again, Mac shook his head, barely able to think. “You don’t play fair, Clara Graves. You never did.”
    “Quit talking, Mitch.”
    Closing his eyes, he said, “Everyone else calls me Mac now.”
    He couldn’t decide how he felt about it when Clara gently kissed his knuckles and settled their clasped hands on the armrest between them. “When did that happen?”
    His lip quirked up. “Not long after you left Necessity.”
    She made an acknowledging noise, but didn’t comment. After a moment, he spoke again, quietly. “I didn’t really kiss Sara Barnes that night, you know.”
    Whatever reaction he had expected—anger, sadness, maybe even a calm acceptance after all these years—it wasn’t her loud peal of laughter.
    “Of course you didn’t,” Clara said, shaking her head.
    “You knew? Then why did you leave?”
    Her laughter faded away, replaced by the distant sound of sirens coming closer. “Tell me why you did it.”
    His grip on her hand tightened, at odds with his words. “Because I knew you wanted more than Necessity could offer you. I wanted you to have everything you ever dreamed of. I knew you couldn’t do that here.”
    “If you wanted me to leave badly enough to try to convince me you were having a fling with Sara Barnes, then I had nothing to stay for.”
    Flashing lights came over the hill from behind them, limning her face with red and blue in alternating striations.
    Mac didn’t have time to ask, but as he pulled in behind the fire trucks, he had to wonder if she would have stayed with him back then if he’d had the courage to ask instead of trying to trick her into leaving for her own good.
    And what about now?
    If he asked, would she stay?
     

Chapter Twelve
    By the time the county’s volunteer fire department put out the raging inferno that had been her company’s battery of storage tanks, it was almost three in the morning, and Clara was almost asleep against Mitch’s chest in his truck.
    Tomorrow there would be people to talk to, reports to make, insurance forms to fill out. But for the rest of what was left of the night, all Clara wanted was a shower and some sleep.
    The realization that Mitch had followed her into the house jarred her out of her exhaustion, though.
    Though he had to be tired, too, his long, slow smile didn’t show any of it. “Shower?”
    Throwing her head back and laughing, Clara took his hand to lead him upstairs. “Sure.” At the top of the stairs, she pulled him into her bathroom.
    Something about it felt clandestine, as if they really were teenagers again, sneaking around to be together without getting caught. This time, though, there would be no Uncle Gavin slamming the kitchen door a bit too loudly, or stomping up the stairs too heavily, or clearing his throat too often, or otherwise making his presence known long before he could make it to Clara’s room to find the door open