Page 100 of Wilder

He brushed his lips against the side of my face as he murmured something—soft and low, too quiet to make out. I didn’t need the words to understand the sentiment behind them, though. The intimacy in his tone said it all.

I turned my head slightly, pressing my lips into the side of his neck, breathing him in as the world slowly settled back into place around us.

Whatever was going on between us—this messy, intense, rule-breaking connection—I wasn’t ready to give it up anytime soon.

Crazy as it may be, I didn’t think he was, either.

CHAPTER 24

Asher

We lay curled up together for a while.

The room had gone quiet around us, all except for the soft pulls of Wilder breathing against my neck. Each exhale ghosted over my skin, warm and steady. My heart had finally started to slow, a steady rhythm pulsed in my chest, syncing up with the calm that was beginning to seep into my limbs.

The high of what we’d just done still tingled in the tips of my fingers that I moved along Wilder’s back. The afterglow that followed was something deeper, settling into the marrow of my bones and refusing to budge.

Wilder hadn’t moved much, and honestly, I didn’t want him to.

His weight was draped over me, solid and comforting like a blanket I never wanted to take off. His stubble scratched lightly against my shoulder every time he shifted the tiniest bit and I could feel the steady beat of his heart where our chests were pressed together.

I didn’t want to move ever again, even though I knew we’d have to eventually.

Real life waited just beyond the door of this bedroom, with all its chores and responsibilities, and whatever the hell was happening with Carter and the feed situation.

But right here in this small pocket of peace, tangled up in Wilder, I could pretend none of that mattered. That we didn’t have roles to play or titles that complicated everything. I didn’t want to untangle myself from him and let the world in again.

“Tell me what upset you on Christmas.” His words were quiet, soft spoken against my collarbone.

Honestly, that was the last thing I expected him to ask me. “What?”

He shifted just enough to press his nose against my jaw. “On Christmas, when I called you, you sounded upset and told me you didn’t want to talk about it. What happened?”

Oh, Wilder.

Leave it to him to remember something like that.

I grazed my fingers through his hair. “My brother was kind of being a dick. Actually, no. He was one, but we worked it out. Our older brother had to travel to California because his boyfriend got injured during a job, so that left us alone on Christmas. Instead of spending the day with me, he ended up going out and leaving me home alone by myself.”

Wilder lifted his head to look at me. “No wonder you sounded upset. I wish you would’ve said something. I would’ve kept you company.”

That warmed me. “You had your own family to spend time with.”

He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. You’re important, too.”

I blinked, momentarily stunned by the way he said it. Like it was the most obvious thing in the world. The certainty in his voice made something crack open inside me, bleeding into the guilt I’d felt for bothering him in the first place when I’d called all those weeks ago.

Now, I wished I had actually told him what was going on, to see what he would’ve done to try and make me feel better.

Would he have stayed on the phone with me as a silent pillar of support, or talked to me about everything and nothing until I finally passed out for the night?

My hand found its way back into his hair, fingers slipping through the short strands as I tried to find the right words to speak again. “I didn’t want to ruin your holiday. It was just one bad day... I figured it wasn’t worth dragging you into it.”

He scoffed quietly, the vibration of the sound brushing against my skin as he laid his head back down on my chest. “You could never ruin anything for me. You needed someone. I would’ve dropped everything if you asked.”

Goddamn it.

That was the thing about Wilder, he always said things like that—simple, no-nonsense truths that hit way harder than he probably intended them to. His voice was tailor-made to disarm, to get past all the flimsy walls I’d built up to try and keep my distance from him because that was what I was supposed to do with this dumb little crush.