Page 24 of Untamed

“Yes.” I give her a look and then start unhooking the netting that acts as a door. “It’s been a while since I’ve done this, and I’d prefer to keep you inside the vehicle.”

She climbs in, and I don’t stop myself from taking a good look at her ass as she does. When she looks up at me, she catches me, but instead of hiding from it, I just shrug and hook her in.

“Were you looking at my ass, Hayes Black?” She’s holding back a grin as she watches me.

“It’s a nice ass,” I tell her, climbing into my side. “Why wouldn’t I look at it? Anyway, you have a hole in your jeans.”

“I have a lot of holes in my jeans…”

“No, I mean on your ass.” I grin over at her. I don’t know how she didn’t feel it when she was getting dressed. But there’s a big ass rip under her left butt cheek. “I got a lovely view of ass cheek when you were climbing in.”

“You’re lyin’.”

“I’m not.”

Her face turns about ten different shades of red as the engine turns over, and she tries to discreetly check the underside of her ass like I can’t see her. But when she feels it, she groans and drops her head back on the seat. I can’t help but laugh.

“Hayes.” I glance over at her as we start driving. “This is not funny. I got gas this morning. I have been walking around with my ass out!”

That gets me laughing even harder.

“Can you not feel the air on your ass?”

“No!” She shoves me hard, causing us to swerve. “At least, I couldn’t. Now that I’m aware of it, I can feel the damn hole.”

“Careful, woman.”

“No more looking.” She points a sassy finger in my direction.

“Aye, captain.” I give her a mock salute. “You know, Pops saw us last night.”

“What do you mean?” She grabs onto the netting as I hit a hill a little harder than I needed to, sending us into the air for a second. “Like when we were fighting?”

I nod. “Scared the shit out of me. He announced himself after you left. Said he was just making sure you hadn’t done any damage with the strangling.”

She laughs. She does that a lot lately, and I soak it up.

“God, that’s embarrassing.”

“Eh,” I say with a shrug. “He’s caught me doing worse things.”

“Oh, gross. I don’t want to know.”

“I was a bit wild when I was younger,” I tell her, pushing on to tease her. “Didn’t really hide it either.”

“Your poor parents.” She smiles over at me. “I don’t even want to know how many girls got caught in your bed. Or how many parents caught you sneaking out of their houses in the middle of the night.”

“I was stealthy. Never got caught sneaking in or out.” I wink over at her.

“You were out of control. Like a wild animal.”

“I was a lone wolf.” I howl to the sky. “Untamed and unclaimed.”

“Jesus Christ.” She groans and rolls her eyes, but I can see that little grin threatening to pop out. “This is why I’m not surprised you haven’t settled down in the past decade.”

“River.” I clutch my chest and look at her with a shocked expression. “I said I was wild when I was younger. What makes you think I haven’t changed my ways?”

“You think I didn’t see all those women throwing themselves at you at the bar every weekend?” she asks, an eyebrow shooting up. “I was ignoring you, but I wasn’t blind, Hayes Black. I’m actually kind of surprised you haven’t made your way through all the women in town.”