Page 105 of She Wolf

“Thank you for meeting me out here,” Gunner says as he stands inside a newly built structure that I’ve never seen before. Made entirely out of solid timber and taking up a good portion of his patio with its overhanging roof and wide serving hatch.

Looks like he might be shirtless as I edge further toward him—can’t complain about that.

“Well, your text was pretty ominous so—oh wow you made me my own Margaritaville?” I gasp taking in the peach sign that saysCoralie’s Margaritasin a coral swirl of letters.

“I sure did.” He stretches over the bar top as I take a seat on an overly padded wingback bar stool—also in peach—to greet me.

“And oh my, are you naked under that apron?” He’s wearing a coral-colored apron that sits dangerously low on his hips, every cut of sinew every divot on show.

“Yes, this is your bar after all,” he says with a wink and flexes all his muscles in a fabulous display of strength and confidence. He bends down to kiss me, capturing my mouth while it falls open, pulling me in so our bodies are flush.

My hands creep up the sides of his torso and he shivers. I slowly trail them around to his sturdy back and down to his solid bubble butt.

His very naked, solid, bubble butt.

“We had such a good vacation; you came back so relaxed, and we were just thrown into everyday life again. I just felt like you needed a treat.”

“Umm thank you that sounds divine, but you didn’t need to go to all this trouble.” He looks divine too as he walks around to the back of the bar, showing off his hockey butt.

I can’t help but smile at the contrast of his white ass cheeks against the rest of his tanned skin. They’re practically glowing and a little giggle pops out.

Without even turning around he says, “It’s never any trouble to do something nice just for you and you might laugh at my white bits but I’m about to trace every line of yours with my tongue.”

My body surges with heat.Yes please, I want that. Gunner with no clothes on and all these margaritas.

He places a little handwritten card into my hand and I peruse the makeshift menu that includes passionfruit, orange, peach, and mixed berry cocktails. I decide right away to try every last one tonight.

Brightly colored cocktail stirrers, paper straws, and sparkly glass accessories fill out tiki mugs, making the little tiki hut look more authentic.

He motions for me to sit and then goes about making up my first cocktail of the night—in a blender no less. Frozen are my most favorite so extra points for him.

Once he’s done slushing, he holds out two glasses, a beautiful aqua color practically glowing in the glass.

“What's this?” I ask as he hands me the pretty drink.

“It’s your classic with a twist. I call it a mermaid margarita.”

I raise my brow, that doesn’t sound very Gunner-y. “You call it, or?”

“Fine. I googled how to make different variations of this sour little thing and it came up as an option. I thought why not give it a try.”

“And you have one too?” I say clinking my glass with his.

“I’m joining you for this one. Then I’ll just stick to my beer, thank you.”

I take a nice long sip while watching him over my glass. His lips pull at the side a little and then he takes an even bigger gulp. I doubt this will be his only one, he seems to be surprising himself with how much he’s enjoying the fancy drink.

We talk about Jack and how when he finally got over leaving the beach house, he was excited to go back to his enrichment camp that’s being run throughout the summer at his school. His three closest friends from class go there too.

“And how was your day?” Gunner asks, holding his now empty mermaid margarita glass.

“Well,” I say swallowing my sip “Anna and Chloe came over for an impromptu lunch and we’ve decided to take some of the wedding prep out of Lex’s hands. Anna has taken maid of honor duty to another level, so we said we’d help her and job one on the list is the bachelorette party,” I say feeling giddy at the idea of a few days of fun.

“Wow you guys are thinking about that already?”

I scoff. “Like it wasn’t the first thing you boys were talking about after Theo proposed.

“True,” he concedes, “It was a good time on vacation so the bachelor party should be epic.”

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