Page 34 of Wild

With that, I was off. Marina might not be mine, but she definitely wasn’t for that pansy ass in the Wranglers. If she wanted to get it on with a guy, it was going to be me. Except I couldn’t do a fucking thing about it.

Fuck.

11

MARINA

I hadno idea line dancing could be so much fun. Becky and the other ladies from the hospital were hilarious and could cut a rug as if they were in a country dance competition. And they were super cute in their jeans and cowgirl boots. Leigh was even worse with a fun cowboy hat with braids. Audrey wasn’t much better than me, but she was having the best time, too, even decked out in the silly t-shirt and tiara.

This was why I’d come to Montana. To hang with my sister, to cut loose. Well, I’d cut loose all right, but with Colton, which was a whole lot of fun in a completely different way. As I spun with the others, I caught a glimpse of Colton and Boyd. They were watching us. Of course, they were.

I should have been upset they felt we needed keepers, but I had to admit, the way they were looking from their spot against the wall was more like two possessive men than babysitters. They gave us room, but it was obvious they were there with us. They blended in with the crowd at Cody’s. Both of them screamed cowboy. Boyd, with the cowboy hat I wondered if he even wore to bed and that huge rodeo championship belt buckle. Colton wasn’t wearing a hat, and his well- worn jeans and snug shirt were just like everyone else’s. It was the way he carried himself, the way his gaze roved over the space as if keeping watch for any kinds of dangers, that set him apart.

There were cute guys everywhere. I might have been young, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew who flirted with me. But none of them were Colton. Sure, some guys were closer to my age than him, but they just seemed like boys. Just like the guys back at college. I wondered if they would spank me or tie me up. I wondered if they’d make me call themsirwhen naked. I didn’t think so. I didn’t think I’d get wet for them either. None of them would compare to Colton. None of themdid.

That was why, when the song was over, it was Colton my nipples got hard for as he cut through the crowd to get to me. Ever since I woke up from my nap, I’d gotten mixed signals from him. He’d barely touched me, but he couldn’t stop looking at me. He’d been watching me like a hawk since we got to the bar, and now he was heading my way. I licked my lips, wishing he’d carry me off like he had earlier in his kitchen.

But this was Audrey’s bachelorette party. No matter how many orgasms I craved, they’d have to wait.

“Hey,” I said. He stood so close our bodies almost touched, his hot from… from him beinghot.His gaze was almost penetrating, reminding me of when he’d lifted me down from the sign by the swollen creek. As if I was the only person in the world. He sniffed, then growled. Or I thought it was a growl over the music.

“Let’s get a drink.”

I nodded. He reached for my elbow, but like earlier, seemed to rethink it and just held out an ushering hand to indicate the path to the end of the bar. I looked back, and Audrey and Boyd were right behind us. Boyd talked a guy off a stool and set it before Audrey, so she could sit. I hadn’t gotten used to the idea that Audrey was pregnant.

The kind of family I’d always wanted—two people who loved each other obsessively having a baby that would be the center of their world—was right in front of me. Growing. I was crazily jealous of what she had, but she deserved it. After my dad being a dick and ditching her mom and Audrey having to pretty much raise herselfandtake care of her depressed mom… Yeah, the tiara she wore should have been made of diamonds.

I leaned my side against the bar, and Colton loomed beside me, his foot resting on the brass rail as he flagged down the bartender.

“Where are the others?” I asked.

Audrey tilted her head, the tiara teetering a bit as she did so, and looked around. Raising her arm, she pointed toward the back. I had no idea how I missed Becky on top of the mechanical bull. It was whipping her back and forth, but she was holding on, her free hand swinging over her head. I couldn’t see Leigh or Anna in the crowd, but I assumed they were with her.

“She’s a riot,” I told Audrey.

She nodded, pushing her glasses up. “Amazing nurse, too. She’s much better at riding that bull than I am.”

“You rode it?” I asked, staring at my staid sister and back at Becky who was whooping it up. “Why have I never heard about this?”

“She was pretty good, too,” Boyd said, kissing Audrey’s temple.

Audrey grinned but rolled her eyes. “One time,” she clarified. “Well, my days of bull riding are like Boyd’s. Over.”

The bartender came by with bottles of water and set them before us. Colton screwed off a cap and handed one to me. I frowned at it. “I wanted another lemon drop,” I said. I wasn’t planning on getting drunk, but it wasn’t a bachelorette party without a little alcohol. “I’m drinking for Audrey.”

Just then, the waiter came back with my preferred drink—which showed Colton had been watching me closely—and a Shirley Temple, which Audrey grabbed right up and pulled a cherry from the glass and popped it in her mouth.

“You’ll have your drink, but the water, too.”

Well. I guess he did have a Daddy streak in him. Bossy, but sweet.

I took my drink and looked up at him through my lashes. I had no idea how to respond to that other than,okayoryes, please,so I stayed quiet.

“So, Colton, when do you have to be back to base?” Audrey asked.

I stilled, and I felt oddly deflated. I hadn’t forgotten this was temporarily, but I wanted to. He was going back to North Carolina. I only had a few weeks until fall semester started… in a different time zone. On the opposite side of the country from him. In no fantasy world could I imagine that what we started this week could become anything. At least not right now.

“Next week,” he replied.