“So what?”
“So what?You don’t care?”
Her nostrils flare. “Why do you?”
“Why do you think?”
For a few too many heartbeats, the quiet question hangs in the loud space between us.
She finally opens her mouth, arms gesturing wildly at the mess of gyrating bodies around us. “Look around. See how none of my other friends give a shit who I’m dancing with or what his intentions are?”
Right.Because none of them are struggling to cope with an insatiable crush on you. If you would take one damn second to notice it. Notice me.
“Then they’re assholes.”
“You’re the one being an asshole, Colt.” She brushes past me, heading for the bar. The only upside to pissing her off is the view of her ass as she walks away.
Of course, I follow. I’m not about to let her go anywhere alone. And that’s even more true when I see Whit shimmy between a group of girls entering the bar—disappearing outside by herself.
“Fucking hell,” I murmur to myself. “This woman.”
It takes a moment longer for me to get around the already-drunk bachelorette party than it took Whit, and when I step outside, she’s nowhere to be found.
Whit
After rounding the side of the building, I lean back against the brick exterior and slam my open palm into the rough wall. The neon bar sign gives little light to an otherwise pitch-black alleyway, and I scrub a hand over my chest, willing my lungs to take a full breath of cigarette-laced air.
“Whit?” Colt’s concerned, albeit angry, voice carries through the still night air.
Though Sheridan’s significantly bigger than Wells Canyon, it’s still a sleepy town that rolls up the sidewalks the moment the sun goes down. Aside from a few people milling about, smoking cigarettes outside of the bar, there’s not a soul around.
“Whit. I know you’re around here somewhere. Can youpleasecome back inside?”
Seething, I bite my lip.
He calls my name again, closer this time.
“Hey.” His whisper makes me lift my head. He’s standing at the corner of the building, hands stuffed in his pockets, squinting at me in the dark.
“That was…” He warily moves closer, as if I’m liable to bite or run away. “I might’ve overreacted.”
“You think?” I focus on glaring at him. It’s the only defense mechanism I have left, especially with his massive bodyclosing in on mine. If I don’t scare him off with the look he’s previously admitted to being afraid of, I’m a goner.
“I just—fuck. I’m actually losing my goddamn mind. It’s…I don’t even know. Do you knowwhyI don’t know? Because I can’t think when you’re around.” He sighs with exasperation. “And I’m far from the sharpest in the tool shed on a good day. But then you show up, and the two brain cells I had rubbing together start heading in completely different directions.”
I swallow hard—the only reaction I’m willing to give him.
“I lose my mind with you. And seeing that guy all over you.” He bites at the inside of his cheek, and everything in him tightens with the memory. His eyes cut to the neon bar sign hanging high on the wall above me. “Do you know how goddamn badly I wanted that to be me dancing like that with you?”
The cold brick supporting my back does nothing to squelch the fire blazing inside me. Something in the way he looks at me shifted on that dance floor, becoming jealous, possessive,hungry,like the way I’m watching him with a predatory gaze right now. Being here with him is dangerous in the way standing on the edge of an eroding cliff is. And we’re working up the courage to jump.
My voice comes out heady and low. “W-why didn’t you?”
Colt’s a good guy. He deserves so much more than I can ever give him. I shouldn’t reach for him, but here I am doing it anyway.
“Because…I like you.A lot.I didn’t want to move too fast and scare you off. But if you want some guy’s dick rubbing on your ass until he creams in his pants on the dance floor, I guess you don’t spook as easily as I thought.” He’s so close, I can feel the heat from his skin and smell the body wash I imagined as I came earlier today.
I bite back a hoarse laugh. “I didn’t actually mean what I said in there. It was nice to feelwantedby somebody.”
