Thunder Canyon Homecoming Page 12

  “What are you thinking?” he asked.

  Her lips curved. “That I was wrong.”

  He propped himself up on an elbow. “About?”

  “Sex.”

  “How were you wrong?”

  His hand had slid from her hip to her breast, his thumb tracing lazy circles around her nipple. An already tight and aching nipple.

  “I always thought that the anticipation was so much more exciting than the main event,” she admitted.

  “And now?” he prompted, nuzzling her throat.

  “Now—” she sighed contentedly “—I don’t.”

  His mouth came down on hers, as gentle as a whisper. Not possessing but coaxing, not demanding but giving. And the more he gave, the more she wanted.

  She lifted her arms, drew him down to her.

  He pressed her back down onto the blanket, then abruptly drew away.

  “You know what? I’m starving.”

  She blinked, stunned by his sudden withdrawal. “I could maybe throw something together,” she offered. “But I was supposed to stop and get groceries on my way home, so the fridge is pretty bare.”

  “Why don’t we order something and I’ll go pick it up?” He was already reaching for his pants, starting to dress.

  “That sounds better than cooking, but why don’t we order something and have it delivered?”

  “I don’t mind going out.”

  She tugged the blanket up to cover her nakedness. He’d been so wonderful and attentive earlier that she hadn’t felt the least bit self-conscious. But now it seemed that he couldn’t get away from her fast enough, and that made her wonder what she’d done wrong.

  “So what do you want—Chinese? Pizza? Pasta?”

  “I want to know why you’re so anxious to get out of here.”

  He paused with one arm in his shirt. “What?”

  She tucked her knees up beneath her chin and stared at the fire. “If you’re done with me, just say it. Don’t make up excuses to race out the door.”

  He was immediately beside her, squatting down so that they were at eye level. He touched his hand gently to her cheek. “I’m sorry, darlin’. It never occurred to me that you would think I was running out on you.”

  “Isn’t that exactly what you’re doing?”

  “No,” he denied and brushed his lips against hers. “I only wanted to make a trip to the pharmacy without admitting where I was going.”

  She drew back. “The pharmacy?”

  His smile was wry. “Well, I didn’t actually plan for this to happen tonight and we’ve already used my emergency condom.”

  “Oh.” She felt her cheeks flush. “Well, I didn’t plan for this to happen tonight, either, but I thought I should be pre pared for…eventually.”

  “You have protection?”

  “A whole box. Upstairs.”

  He tugged the dangling shirt off his arm, tossed it aside, then scooped her into his arms, blanket and all. “Then I guess we should be upstairs.”

  “I thought you wanted food.”

  He was already halfway to her bedroom. “We’ll have some thing delivered.”

  Later, they ordered Chinese and opened a bottle of wine. They ate fried rice, Cantonese chow mein and lemon chicken and washed it all down with a light, crisp Chardonnay. Then they made love again.

  Corey didn’t know what it was about Erin that had gotten so completely under his skin, but no matter how many times he had her, he couldn’t seem to get enough. But his feelings for her went much deeper than physical attraction, and there was still so much that he didn’t know about her.

  He needed to know what was going on, why she seemed so preoccupied with the man who was his friend and her boss. He no longer believed that she was infatuated with Grant. He knew she wouldn’t have made love with him as willingly and passionately as she had if she had feelings for another man, but there was definitely something that she wasn’t telling him.

  He wanted answers, but as connected as he felt to her right now, he wasn’t ready to let anything come between them.

  They were in her bed, snuggled together beneath the covers. The only light in the room was from the flames of the fire, but he didn’t need to see. He’d memorized every detail of her face, every curve of her body.

  He lifted a hand to brush a strand of hair off of her cheek. Her lips curved, though her eyes remained closed. “Tired?”

  “Exhausted,” she admitted.

  “Do you have to work tomorrow?”

  She shook her head. “No. Although I will have to go pick up my car.”

  “I’ll take you in the morning.”

  Her eyes flickered open. “You’re going to stay?”

  “If that’s okay.”

  “That’s definitely okay.”

  “Are you going to make me breakfast?”

  “If you consider coffee and toast ‘breakfast.’”

  “You have to get groceries,” he remembered.

  She nodded, her eyes drifting shut again.

  “Erin—”

  He wanted to apologize for the way he’d confronted her at the resort, for what his brothers would undoubtedly refer to as typical high-handed behavior. But he was afraid that mentioning what had happened earlier would lead into a discussion about Grant and after everything they’d shared tonight, he wasn’t sure he was ready to have that conversation.

  “Mmm,” she said.

  He brushed his lips to hers. “Sweet dreams.”

  After the intense physical workout of the night before, Erin suspected that Corey would have preferred a hearty breakfast of eggs and bacon and fried potatoes, but he didn’t complain when he got only the toast and coffee she’d promised. In fact, he even helped prepare the simple morning meal.

  While Erin set coffee brewing and put the bread in the toaster, Corey embarked on a search through her cupboards for peanut butter and jam. While she buttered the toast, he filled two mugs with coffee and carried them to the table. When they finally sat down together, she noticed that he went for the peanut butter but she preferred jam, that he drank his coffee black while she added lots of milk and sugar to hers.

  It was funny, she thought, the things you could learn about a man when you woke up with him in the morning. She’d rarely had that experience before. Though she was almost twenty-six years old, she’d still lived with her parents, and Betty and Jack Castro were not the type to casually accept their daughter spending the night at a man’s house.

  She’d had a boyfriend from out of town visit her in San Diego for a weekend once. They’d started dating while he’d attended USD and had stayed together after he’d graduated, but it had been difficult to sustain a relationship over the long distance and when he had visited, her parents had put him in her brother Jake’s room and made sure they kept their own door—located directly across the hall from their twenty-two-year-old daughter’s—open throughout the night.

  Of course, Corey had probably slept with a lot of women, and, although she didn’t intend to dwell on that thought, the realization did make her feel more than a little awkward. Especially in the morning, when she woke up with her hair in tangles and her face bare of makeup. She didn’t know if he sensed her self-consciousness, but he eliminated all traces of it by making love with her again.

  It was certainly an effective way to get her blood flowing in the morning, but even as she’d snuggled again in the warm comfort of his arms, she’d been all too aware that things could change in a minute—the minute she told Corey the truth about her reasons for coming to Thunder Canyon.

  He hadn’t pressed her for an explanation, but she knew he hadn’t forgotten their aborted conversation of the day before. More likely, he was giving her an opportunity to explain, as she wanted to do. But she was hesitant to say anything that might jeopardize the comfortable rapport they’d established.

  So she was silent about it while they tidied up the kitchen, after which Corey took her to the supermarket to do her grocery shopping. Erin assur
ed him that she could shop on her own—if he would just take her to get her vehicle—but he insisted that he wanted to spend the time with her, and because Erin wanted to be with him, too, she didn’t protest too much.

  After they’d finished shopping, he took her home again and helped her put away the groceries. It was a routine chore, and one that she’d performed dozens of times by herself. But somehow, with Corey, it was cozy and domestic and it was all too easy to imagine that it could become their Saturday morning routine.

  Dangerous territory.

  She knew that physical intimacy didn’t necessarily imply a committed relationship, and she wasn’t looking for any long-term promises. She hadn’t been looking to get involved at all. But being with Corey had decimated all of her reservations. Being with Corey allowed her to forget that the unanswered questions about her past made it difficult for her to plan a future. Being with Corey made her forget everything except how very much she wanted to be with him.

  She tried to play it cool. She didn’t want him to know that she’d already given him a very big piece of her heart. Despite the reference he’d made to his feelings for her, she knew that those feelings might change when he learned the truth about her reasons for being in Thunder Canyon. As she’d gotten to know him better, one of the things she’d learned about him was that he was loyal to his family and friends, and she suspected that his uneasiness in believing she had a crush on her boss originated more from his friendship with Grant and Stephanie than any personal jealousy.

  It was the issue they’d been ignoring, pretending it didn’t exist. But they couldn’t continue pretending.

  “Looks like it would be a nice day to go riding,” Corey said.

  Erin looked out the window, at the big, fat flakes of snow that had started to fall. “It’s snowing.”

  “The horses love the snow—it makes them frisky.”

  “I don’t love the snow,” she told him.

  “California girl,” he teased.

  “Yep.”

  He chuckled. “Okay, so what do you want to do?”

  “Stay indoors where it’s warm.”

  “By the fire?” he prompted huskily.

  Her blood heated with the memory of what they’d done by the fire the night before…and in her bedroom…and in the shower.

  Yeah, she could think of a lot of ways to pass the time inside with Corey. But first, they had to talk.

  “I need to tell you about Grant,” she said.

  The teasing light faded from his eyes; the muscle in his jaw flexed.

  “I’m listening,” he said, but the coolness in his tone warned her that he’d started to withdraw already.

  “I think—” she drew in a deep breath, blew it out “—I think that Grant Clifton might be my brother.”

  She knew he’d be surprised, probably even skeptical, but she hadn’t expected that he would laugh in response to her statement.

  But after a minute of stunned silence, he did just that. “You’ve got to be kidding. That’s why you’re so interested in your boss—because you think you’re related?”

  “I know it sounds unbelievable—”

  “Sounds? Darlin’, my family has known Grant’s family forever, and I can assure you that he only has one sister. What on earth would ever have given you such an outrageous idea?”

  She couldn’t help but feel irritated by his immediate dismissal of her suggestion. “For starters, Elise Clifton and I share the same birthday.”

  “Lots of people share their birthdays with other people,” he pointed out.

  “I was born in Thunder Canyon.”

  “Again, nothing more than a coincidence,” he insisted.

  “And Elise looks a lot like each of my brothers,” she continued, determined to make her case.

  His brows rose. “What are you saying—that you and Elise were switched at birth?”

  “It could have happened.”

  “Maybe—if this was a Sunday afternoon movie.”

  “Life is often stranger than fiction,” she pointed out.

  “And what possible motive would someone have for mixing up babies?”

  “I’m not suggesting that it was a deliberate switch but an accident.”

  “Yeah, because that’s much more likely,” he said drily.

  She reminded herself that his skepticism was expected, but it was his obvious disbelief that hurt. She tried to understand—she knew her explanation had surprised him—but she couldn’t comprehend how a man who claimed to care about her could so completely disregard something that was so important to her.

  “The last time I visited my great aunt Erma, she told me that my real family was in Thunder Canyon.”

  “And you told me that she was dying when you saw her.” His tone was gentle now, sympathetic. “She was probably pumped up on medication and didn’t have any idea what she was saying. You can’t take someone’s delusional ramblings and run with them.”

  “She was dying but she wasn’t delusional,” Erin insisted. “She just wanted to be sure that I knew the truth about my family.”

  “Did she actually tell you that you and Elise Clifton were switched at birth?”

  “No,” she admitted, some of her conviction fading, “but—”

  “And what does your family think of these claims?” he challenged.

  She dropped her gaze, sighed. “I haven’t told them.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I didn’t want to upset them until I had proof,” she admitted. And maybe because she knew they would be just as skeptical as Corey.

  “But you’re willing to upset Grant and his sister and their mother?”

  “I don’t want to upset anyone. I only wanted to talk to Grant, to find out more about his family.”

  “Is that why you’ve been asking questions around town? Do you think there was some kind of conspiracy? That the whole town was somehow involved in covering up a baby switch?”

  “Of course not,” she denied, wondering how he’d managed to twist her words around so completely, and wondering why his obvious lack of faith in her hurt so much.

  “Well, if you think you can make that kind of claim and not upset a whole lot of people, you’re sorely mistaken, darlin’.”

  “I just want to know the truth,” Erin insisted. “All my life, I’ve never really belonged—it’s like I’m an outsider in my own family.”

  “Lots of people feel disconnected, but they don’t go looking for a new family to replace the one they’ve got.”

  “I’m not looking to replace my family. I love my parents and my brothers—”

  “If you truly love your parents and your brothers, you’ll let this go,” he said.

  “I can’t. I need to find the truth.”

  “What if the truth is that you are their biological child?”

  “What if I’m not?” she countered. “What if Elise Clifton is?”

  “What will that change? Even if you’re right, what do you hope to accomplish? Do you think anyone will thank you for digging this up?”

  Probably not, she admitted to herself. And while the absolute last thing she wanted was to hurt anyone, she knew that continuing to live a lie would hurt, too. Why couldn’t he see that she needed to know the truth—that she couldn’t begin to move forward until she’d answered the questions about her past?

  “Obviously we have a difference of opinion on this.”

  “I won’t help you cause heartache for people I care about. You need to decide what really matters to you—our relationship or this wild goose chase you’ve set yourself on.”

  There was something in his tone that was so determined, so final. Was it possible that this was the same man she’d spent the night with? The man she’d not only made love with but realized she was falling in love with? “What are you saying?”

  “I’m asking you to forget about this…to just let it go.”

  She didn’t understand why he was so adamant, but maybe he was right. Maybe it
was unfair of her to turn other people’s lives upside down for something that was, at this point, only speculation.

  Still, she couldn’t help but feel disappointed. She’d finally found the courage to confide in Corey about her reasons for coming to Thunder Canyon, foolishly hoping that he would support her quest for the truth. Instead, he was asking her to abandon it.

  “Okay,” she finally said. “I won’t say anything to Grant—”

  Corey pressed a brief kiss to her lips before she could finish. “Thank you. The Cliftons have had enough crises to deal without having their lives turned upside by something like this.”

  She felt uneasy. He’d obviously assumed she was willing to forget about her potential connection to Grant when all she’d intended to say was that she wouldn’t mention anything to her boss until she had concrete proof of their relationship. Because there was no way she could abandon the quest she’d already started.

  They spent the rest of the weekend together, and while Corey had apparently managed to put their conversation aside, it continued to weigh on Erin’s mind.

  For a minute, when they’d faced off in her kitchen and he’d told her she had to choose, he’d reminded her of Brandon. He’d been her first serious boyfriend, her first lover, and she’d been so infatuated with him she hadn’t realized that he was slowly trying to take control of her life. She wasn’t allowed to have thoughts and opinions unless they supported his thoughts and opinions. He made suggestions on what she should wear, how she should cut her hair, and he didn’t hesitate to express his displeasure when she exhibited her own style choices. He told her he wanted to marry her, but she realized he didn’t want a partner but an accessory.

  Since then, she’d been careful to steer clear of men with domineering tendencies—until Corey. He was a cowboy through and through, confident and self-assured, the type of man who could walk into any situation and take charge with little effort. He was also attentive, considerate and charming. He listened to her when she talked and he seemed to respect her ideas and opinions. So why had he reacted so strongly—and so negatively—to the possibility that she might be related to Grant?