Page 63 of Claimed by Him

He rolled his eyes. “I’ve got some vacation time stored up. I’ll take it.”

We settled back against the couch, sipping our beer while lost in our own thoughts. It was a comfortable silence, and it made me long for what we had been. I didn’t want him, not even like I had before, but it would be easy to turn to him for physical comfort. He was as gorgeous as ever, and I knew he could do things to my body that would make me forget for a while. He wouldn’t argue with me, and it would be so easy to lean over and kiss him.

But it wouldn’t be fair to either of us.

I’d be wishing he was someone else, and he’d be wondering if things between us were changing again.

I wouldn’t do that to him.

He broke the silence. “Will you be okay with me hearing everything at the trial?”

“You’ve already read the file.”

“I did,” he agreed, “but I don’t want you to be up on the stand, talking about the things that your dad did, then look at me and get thrown off because it’s stuff you haven’t talked to me about.”

“Trust me, it wouldn’t make me feel any better if I’d told you everything myself.” I glowered at my beer, then finished it off.

“Shit.” He looked over at me. “Did you tell him? Jalen Larsen?”

I nodded. “Let’s just say I overestimated him.”

“Bastard,” he growled.

I looked over at him, all of the emotion I’d been trying to hold down twisting inside me. “I can’t completely blame him. It’s a lot to take.” I plucked at the front of my shirt. “Not to mention what Daddy Frankenstein did to my torso.”

“Bullshit,” Clay said. “Don’t you dare put the blame anywhere other than right where it belongs. On Jalen.”

I shrugged. “You might not say that if you saw it.”

“Then show me.”

The words hung there, stark and terrifying. Clay had seen the medical reports, the pictures from the first trial. He knew what my father had done to me, but he’d never seen the end result. And now, even though he knew I’d trusted a virtual stranger before I’d trusted him, he wasn’t angry. He was offering me the chance to have someone react the way Jalen should have reacted.

What the hell.

I sat forward, closed my eyes, and lifted my shirt. Clay let out a low whistle, and the knot in my stomach loosened. I opened my eyes and lowered my shirt. Clay’s eyes met mine, and they burned.

“If your father gets off, I’ll kill him.”

I smiled, tears pricking at the corners of my eyes. “Thank you. And I’m sorry for not showing you before.”

He gave a dismissive wave. “It’s okay. I get it. Things with us have always been…unconventional.”

“Thank you,” I said again. “It means a lot to me that I can count on you.”

He put his arm around me and pulled me against him. “No matter what happens, Rona, you can always count on me.”

I flopped back on the couch and leaned against him. “If that’s the case, would it be okay if I crashed here today? I just can’t face going back to my apartment tonight.”

“Of course,” he said. “You’ve always got a place in my bed.” I smacked his stomach, and he grinned at me. “My guest bedroom, I mean.”

I laughed and remembered why being with Clay felt so good. Coming here had been the right thing to do.

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