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“Is that why you all keep pushing me to be with Colt? Even though it’s so sudden? I’m not sure I’m ready for that kind of intensity…”
“He’s my brother, and I love him,” she began, “but I’m telling you, even if I wasn’t his sister, I’d still push you toward him. He’s one of the best men I’ve ever met. Loyal. As loyal as they come.”
“It’s not enough of a reason. I want to want him because I can’t breathe without him, you know?”
“That’s how I feel about Zip.”
“Then how are you supposed to let him go?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I just know I have to.”
I squeezed her hand, my heart beating in sympathy for my new friend. But there was nothing more to say, so I stood with her on the front porch of the clubhouse while we waited for Cheese to grab his bike and take her home.
“I’m gonna fuck Colt tonight,” a girl slurred.
The words stopped me cold and I immediately tucked myself into a nook where I could eavesdrop in privacy. I couldn’t see the two women’s faces, but I could hear them clearly—not that they were attempting to be quiet.
“Good luck,” her friend replied. “He hasn’t been able to take his eyes off that girl all night.”
“That girl,” the drunk woman spat. “What the hell does he see in her? She’s not even that hot. And she’s so fucking short. If he fucks her he’s gonna break her in half.”
“You would know,” her friend teased. “The last time you slept with him you were hurting the next day.”
“Oh, but I hurt so good!”
The sound of their heels and laughter disappeared down the hallway, their words echoing in my ears. I sank down onto the floor, pulled my legs up to my chest, and rested my head on my knees. I hadn’t been prepared for their gossip. Not that I was ever going to be prepared to hear another woman talk about Colt in any sort of intimate way. A way I had yet to experience, but wanted to.
Desperately.
I admitted my desire for him. But I knew by the churning in my belly it wasn’t just about sex. Because Colt hadn’t taken me to his bed, I’d had time to live in his house, in his presence and had begun to feel things for him.
I’d catch him staring at me, his dark brown eyes warm and soft. There were lines around the corners of his eyes—but not from smiling. He hadn’t grown up smiling. He’d grown up fast because he’d lost his parents young. Parents who were in love, who meant everything to one another.
“Babe?”
I flinched, not having heard Colt approach. He stood above me, a frown on his face. “What are you doing?”
“I needed a minute away from the party. Joni left,” I added.
“I know. Cheese texted that he was taking her home.”
“I’m tired,” I said, not at all lying. “I want to go home.” I didn’t want to go back to the party and watch loose women crawl all over married men. I didn’t want to watch them make a play for Colt—I didn’t want to feel like he was mine when I was too much of a chicken shit to take what he was offering me.
Colt held out his hand and I grasped it. He hauled me up and brought me to him. If I leaned forward, I would be able to press my forehead to his muscled chest and enjoy the soft fabric of his cotton T-shirt and the firmness of his body. I wanted to breathe in the scent of him, know him the way I knew myself.
All I had to do was say yes. Jump into the unknown with Colt by my side.
He laced his fingers through mine and led me through the clubhouse, but not to the exit. Instead, he took me down the hallway toward his bedroom. “We’ll crash here tonight,” he explained.
I swallowed. “We?”
With his free hand, he reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, his thumb lingering on my jaw. “Yeah. We.”
“I don’t know if I’m ready, Colt. For all this. For you.”
His thumb moved to the center of my chin. “You’ve got the tiniest cleft.” He smiled slightly. “It was the first thing I noticed when you came to me at Dive Bar. Not your eyes, not your mouth. Not your gorgeous legs in those tight as fuck jeans. No. I noticed the cleft. And then you saw me in the alleyway, and instead of calling the cops, you let it be. I knew you were special.”
I tilted my head back to stare into his languid brown eyes.
