“Not really,” Layne replied and Rocky giggled.

“We’re just discussing what we’re going to have for dinner,” Rocky lied.

“Right,” Josie returned, her eyes sharp and intelligent. “You two have been on Code Red Alert since you entered the sanctuary.” Her eyes locked on Layne. “What gives?”

Before he could answer, or in this case not answer, Rocky suddenly called, “Harry!” Then her head swung to Josie and she said, “I’ll call you later, honey, okay?” And before Josie could answer or Layne could get his eyes on what had her attention, she moved away from him and toward Harrison Rutledge.

Layne’s body locked as he watched Rocky greet Rutledge by putting her hand on his shoulder and kissing his cheek.

Considering Layne spent a fair amount of time following Rutledge, he knew that Rutledge rarely missed Sunday church. He’d never understood why a man who wasn’t smart enough to hide he was on the take went to church but he suspected it was precisely that, an effort to hide he was on the take.

He’d forgotten about Rutledge but Rocky hadn’t.

She knew he’d be there.

Shit, she’d orchestrated one helluva a play. Two birds with one stone.

“Excuse me,” Layne muttered to Josie and followed Rocky.

“You’d so do me a favor if you could help out,” he heard Rocky saying as he got close and Rutledge’s eyes moved to him and went wary.

“Rutledge,” Layne greeted as he hit them and he slid an arm around Rocky’s waist, pulling her away from Rutledge and tucking her into his side.

“Tanner,” Rutledge greeted back.

Rocky looked up at Layne. “I’ve asked him to go up for auction. He’d be perfect!” She looked back at Rutledge and lied, “The women will be at each other’s throats for you.”

Harrison Rutledge wasn’t exactly ugly but at 5’10” with light brown hair that was quickly thinning and a gut that was equally quickly forming, he wasn’t exactly calendar man material either.

“I don’t know, Rocky,” Rutledge muttered.

“Oh you have to do it,” Rocky urged. “Layne won’t because he’s with me, Colt is taken and we need as many hot guys as we can get.”

“Have you talked to Mike?” Rutledge asked.

“He’s on my list!” Rocky answered enthusiastically, Rutledge looked unconvinced and she leaned forward, grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. “Just think about it, Harry,” she asked and dropped his hand but tilted her head. “For me?”

Rutledge stared at her, smiled and said, “All right, Rocky, I’ll think about it.”

She clapped her hands and cried, “Great!” before looking at Layne and saying, “Isn’t that great, sweetheart?”

“Yeah, baby, great,” Layne muttered to her and looked at Rutledge. “It’d help out a lot, man. Sean would be grateful.”

Rutledge’s eyes went from wary to guarded, he watched Layne a beat then nodded. “I’d do anything for Sean.”

Fucking lying sack of shit.

“Perfect!” Rocky exclaimed with a little jump and Rutledge’s eyes shot to her tits to watch them bounce.

Sack of shit.

Layne was done and he communicated this by giving Rocky a squeeze and saying, “I missed out on pancakes, sweetcheeks. We need to get home. I’m starved.”

She looked up at him and slid an arm around his waist. “Right, of course.” Her gaze went to Rutledge. “See you later?”

“Later, Rocky.” He nodded to Layne. “Tanner.”

“Later,” Layne grunted and moved Rocky away.

When they’d taken five steps, she muttered under her breath, “That went well.”

“Do me a favor,” Layne muttered back.

“What?” she asked.

“Don’t jump around that asshole.”

She stopped and looked up at him, confused. “Why?”

He looked down at her. “Baby, you got a great rack. Gonna have to put up with everyone noticing it but don’t wanna have to put up with that assclown’s eyes locked on it.”

Understanding flooded her face, understanding and disgust.

“Oh,” she whispered.

“Oh,” Layne repeated.

“Okay, I won’t jump,” she relented immediately.

“Appreciate it,” Layne replied.

Vera approached. “I’ve decided on pork chops and au gratin potatoes for dinner,” she announced and then went on. “And I’m making my Milky Way cake.” After this, Layne felt Rocky go completely solid at his side. “We need to get home. I need to get to the store.”

Layne suspected that Vera just pulled out the big guns. Pork chops, au gratin potatoes and Milky Way cake were his favorite and Rocky knew it because she was the one who’d made him his first Milky Way cake on the first birthday he’d celebrated with her and Vera had been there. Milky Way cake wasn’t Vera’s, it was Rocky’s. Except the fact that Vera had a variety of occasions in the last eighteen years to make it for him and Rocky had not. Layne wasn’t hip on chick war tactics but he suspected his mother just escalated hostilities.

“Ma –” Layne started to warn but Vera cut him off.

“We need to go,” she stated. “I’ll go get the boys.” Then she hustled in the direction of Jasper and Tripp, who’d managed to pry a throng of girls from TJ Gaines’s snare and were shining their football stud light upon them.

Layne’s eyes went to Rocky to see her eyes on his mother.

“Roc –”

“That’s my cake,” she whispered, her eyes still on his mother.

Layne sighed, then repeated, “Roc –”

Her gaze shot to his. “She can’t have that cake.”

“Just let her do what she thinks she has to do.”

Rocky glared at him then her eyes changed and Layne’s neck contracted when they did because he didn’t like what he saw before she hid it by looking away from him.

“Rocky?” he called.

She looked at him again. “You know, I haven’t made that cake in years. Not for Dad, not for Merry, even when they asked for it, and not for Jarrod.”

He understood the look, both his hands went to her hips and he murmured, “Baby.”

“That’s my cake,” she repeated, back to whispering. “And she knows it.”

Then she pulled from his hands and strutted away.

Yep, he was right, an escalation in hostilities.

He took in a deep breath through his nose, looked to see his mother corralling his sons and when they started to walk his way, Layne turned and followed Rocky to the car.

* * *

When they hit the house, Rocky was still pissed at Vera and, wordlessly, she marched through the house and up the stairs.

Layne followed her, not because she was pissed, she’d made that bed by leaving him and she had to deal with his mother her way. He’d said his piece, Vera had ignored it, Rocky clearly wasn’t going to bolt because of Vera’s antics so now he wasn’t getting involved.

No, he followed her because he was pissed. She’d made her play and got her way and Layne didn’t like how she went about it. It didn’t matter that she was right, putting that shit with Gaines under his nose so he’d intensify the operation. Because, in doing it, she’d also put herself out there and that, coupled with how she’d made her play, pissed him off.

It was time to teach Rocky a lesson.

She was halfway across his bedroom when he made it to the door and closed it loudly behind him. The instant he did, she stopped and whirled.

“I’ll be needing to have words with your mother,” she announced.

“Later,” Layne returned, moving toward her.

“No, in about two minutes, before she goes to the grocery store and comes back and steals my cake.”

“Got things bigger than cakes to talk about, sweetcheeks,” Layne replied, still advancing on her, her face cleared, she got a good look at him, she read him and astutely started backing up.

“Layne –” she started, her hand coming up and Layne didn’t stop moving but his eyes went to her hand then back to hers.

“Not wearin’ your bandage,” he remarked.

She kept edging backward, her hand still up and she asked, “What?”

“Bandage, baby, for your wrist,” Layne kept moving forward, she hit the edge of the archway to the bathroom and righted herself instantly, moving backwards into the bathroom.

“Um… it doesn’t hurt anymore,” she replied.

“Doc say you can take it off?” Layne asked as they moved through the bathroom and into walk-in.

“No, Layne, um… what are you doing?”

“I’m talkin’ about your wrist and then, in about two seconds, I’m gonna carry you to my bed, turn you over my knee and slap that sweet ass of yours.”

Her eyes grew round just as she hit the wall of the walk-in.

“Layne –”

He got deep into her space, her hand hit his chest and he kept going, forcing her arm to bend at the elbow and trapping it between them as he put his hands on the wall on either side of her.

“Played me, sweetcheeks.”

“I know.” She surprised him by instantly copping to it. “But it was important.”

“It’s important, we talk about it, you don’t fuck me.”

She stared up at him and rested her free hand at his waist. “I didn’t fuck you, Layne,” she whispered.

“Oh yeah you did, baby, now,” his head dipped and he got in her face, “I fuck you.”

“Layne,” she breathed, her eyes glued to his and hearing that, he lost it.

His hands moved from the wall to her jaws, he tipped her head back further and pulled her up as his mouth slammed down on hers.

She opened it immediately, his tongue slid inside, her arms glided around his shoulders and she pressed herself into him.

He kissed her hard, demanding, wet and she gave it to him, everything he took from her, her fingers moving to his jacket to pull it off his shoulders, he released her face, dropped his arms and let it fall. His hands went directly to her ass, pulling her hips tight against his hardening cock and her hands went to his shirt, pulling it out of his pants, going in, her fingers trailing his skin.