His gaze moved to my back, where his fingertips trailed light lines between my shoulder blades. “I’m shy.”
I laughed again, and so did he. A good, rumbly laugh. A mischievous laugh. I loved it.
“You are not shy.”
Cletus shrugged, still not meeting my eyes, his grin becoming something else, and said, “I’ve never done that.”
My lips parted in surprise. “You’ve never had a blow job? No one has ever done that to you?”
He shook his head, his lips pulled to one side in a wry smile. “There’s a lot of teeth in a mouth.”
“So, you’ve never trusted anyone enough to do it,” I guessed.
His eyes cut to mine and his fingers stilled. Cletus stared at me for a long moment, pointedly not answering, then cleared his throat.
“I’d like to come over tomorrow again, if you’re around after work.”
“That’s sounds good. Come by every day this week if you want.”
I decided to let him change the subject, but secretly I was planning my attack. One day soon, I was going to seduce him. Now I just needed to figure out how to go about seducing a man. Maybe my pen pals had some ideas.
“I can’t,” he sighed, but his eyes twinkled. “I have Jethro’s bachelor party on Thursday and I’m responsible for the entertainment.”
“Entertainment?”
“Yes. Remember I told you about my stripper friend, George? The retired Navy SEAL? He’s the entertainment.” Cletus wagged his eyebrows.
I gaped at him, not sure whether or not he was serious. Seeing he was, I burst out laughing.
“They have no idea.” He chuckled evilly. Truly, it was an evil chuckle, full of malicious intent and wicked anticipation.
“Too bad you didn’t tell me earlier, I could have made a cake for him to jump out of.”
“No, no. He’s going to repel from the ceiling. Ropes are part of his routine.”
“Well, good luck with that.” I wiped my tears of hilarity away with the back of my hands. “Tell me about your day. How was work?”
Cletus lifted his head and blinked, like I’d said something surprising.
“What?” I placed my chin on the back of my hand and stared down at him. “What’s wrong?”
He shook his head slightly. “Nothing’s wrong. I just don’t remember the last time someone asked me about my day, not since my momma died.”
“Oh.” I frowned, because this struck me as sad. My family wasn’t perfect, but we always asked about each others’ days. Granted, I knew there were some parts of my day that my parents didn’t want to hear about, but they still asked. I was surprised the Winstons didn’t do the same. “Doesn’t your family ask?”
His lips curved into a rueful smile. “No. They know better.”
“Know better? They know better than to ask about your day?”
“Yep. I typically end up saying something they don’t want to hear.”
“That’s true with everybody. My parents never want to listen to me talk about my pen pals or my garden. Or my essential oils. Or teaching the scouts.” I frowned. Mostly they liked hearing about new recipes. “Or any other non-baking hobbies and activities.”
“My brothers don’t want to hear about my plans and activities. At all.”
“I know you have all these sinister irons in the fire, but every day can’t be that bad.”
“It is. They are.”
“Okay, so what kinds of daily plans and activities? What don’t they want to hear?”
“Like . . .” He thought for a moment, his eyes moving to where his hand was rubbing circles on my back. “Like about how I’d like to give Jackson James leprosy.”
I wrinkled my nose at this, scrunching my face to show my disbelief. “You do not want to give Jackson James leprosy.”
“I do. And if you see him scratching around the collar it’s because I blackmailed someone into putting itching powder in his dry-cleaned shirts.”
I was about to laugh and call Cletus on his silliness, but something about the way he was looking at me, as though he were bracing for a reprimand, gave me pause.
He stared at me. I stared at him. My mouth fell open.
He’s serious.
“Cletus Winston. You did not.”
“I did. And I don’t regret it.” His tone was flat and insolent.
“Why on earth would you do it? That’s just mean.”
“Jackson James has been harassing me and my brothers—specifically Duane and Beau—for years. He pulls us over for no reason, causes delays, and so forth. He’s a little shit and I’m tired of it.”
I studied him, saw that he believed he was in the right.
Are you surprised? Didn’t you already know he’s vengeful? Didn’t he tell you himself?
“See? That’s why people don’t ask me about my day.” His hand drifted lower on my back, caressing my bottom possessively.
“Why don’t you report him? Go to the station and file a complaint?”
Cletus gave me a grumpy side-eye. “I’m not a rat.”