Page 59 of Chasing the Wild
It’s like the air instantly crackles to life the moment his fingers connect with the soft wool. He hasn’t touched me, but theproximity and nearness of him sends an ache pulsing through my core.
“That doesn’t mean I’m anything special.”
He clutches the blanket tighter in his fist. “Layla.” His voice is thick and acts like a line straight to my pussy when he says my name. “They only see one thing when they look at you.” Colt’s lips curl in a snarl.
I wish there was a way to prove beyond a doubt that I don’t care what they see. But this man won’t take what he wants, and I won’t force him to do something he’ll regret. Wretched tension and longing bind the two of us together in the shadows.
Unwrapping one hand from my blanket, I reach out and nudge the brim of his hat up with my forefinger. Tipping it back, allowing myself to melt underneath the heavy intensity of his stare, I exhale. “I’m not looking their way, cowboy. There’s only one man I’m interested in, and he’s one I can’t have. So, what does that make me… a pathetic slut, or a masochist?”
He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment, before letting out the sexiest groan, the sound reaching out and humming in my blood.
Liquid fire pours down into my toes as I finally breathe life into the words we’ve both been feeling and can’t seem to find a way to express. I’m back in that place where I know I’m being too brazen in talking to him like this, but the truth is clamoring to burst out of me.
I don’t want Colt to remain under any kind of illusion. How badly I want him to know… that I’m completely and utterly disinterested in anyone but him.
The foolish, pining mess that I am for this man.
Maybe, just maybe, there’s a way we can play in the shadows while they linger around us, just a little longer. Before dawn creeps in and things have to go back to how they were before.
“Do you like what you see?” I drag my bottom lip between my teeth. Giddy, fluttering hope occupies my chest.
Colt sucks in a sharp breath. A warning, maybe. “You know the answer to that.”
That gruff tone and those glittering, darkened eyes combine to send a throb intensifying between my legs. His hand is so close to touching my thigh, the skin tingles with each agonizing second of lingering proximity.
“What if you didn’t have to cross a line, but could still take what you want? What we both want?” I bite my lip harder. There’s no mistaking the fact he hasn’t let go of the blanket. He wants me to stay right here, so close he must be able to hear my pulse thumping in my throat.
“Layla.” The rough way he exhales my name sends an explosion of butterfly wings in my stomach. “I’ve spent my whole life being selfish, I can’t…”
“But you want to?”
“Yes. When it comes to you… so badly, I don’t think you want to know.”
My stupid little heart does a kick, and my stomach swoops, and I turn a blind eye to all signs warning me to beware the dangerous cliff edge I’m inching toward.
Fuck it, this is insanity, and I’m lost in this forbidden moment, buried beneath the snow and the time of night when things can so easily be hidden away.
“I heard a saying once…” My fingers unclench from the blanket, allowing it to fall open and reveal my figure. Reaching out, I lift his hat off his head, setting it on my own, not missing the flare that catches light behind his honeyed eyes.
“You touch a man’s hat, you’re either planning to fight them or fuck them. So, which do you want with me, cowboy?” Colt takes in my appearance, giving my scantily clad form a long look. I don’t know if it’s too dark for him to see my hard nipplesthrough the thin material of my shirt, but every inch of my skin incinerates as his eyes roam freely.
“Plan on fighting?”
He makes a gravely noise in the back of his throat. Another warning.
“You willingly placed your hat on my head… so, is the real reason you gave me yours in town the other day, the second option?”
He sinks fingers into his hair, mussing those curls up more and goddamn my knees go weak. “I’m not a good man, Layla. Don’t say shit like that when you’re out here at night… dressed in…” Colt drops his hand to scrub over his mouth. “Fuck, when you’re walking around tempting me.”
Every part of him is coiled tight.
I’m a fool for him.
“You know some of the bars where I worked…” I let go of the blanket completely, allowing it to flutter to the floor around my ankles. “We were hired as entertainers.”
He doesn’t just look at me, he consumes every inch of my body. As if this is the first and last time he’ll get the chance to properly lay eyes on me ever again.
“Were you a stripper?” The question barely gets past his gritted teeth. It’s obvious he hates the idea, but is too curious to stop himself from demanding the answer. His fingers ball into fists on top of his knees, fidgeting as if it’s taking everything not to reach forward and grab the backs of my bare thighs before he settles on clutching the edge of the seat on either side of his hips.
