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“Well, if you don’t want her...” Ray allowed the sentence to hang, his look a cross between hopeful for a chance at the blonde and disgust for his friend’s lack of interest in the willing woman.
With a half grunt, half laugh, Canton nodded his head. “Go for it,” he encouraged, with casual disregard.
Ray took one last swig of his own beer and laid it on the bar counter and turned to face him, a neutral look on his handsome face.
“Man, you need to get laid. How much longer are you gonna think about...stuff?” his friend asked, his voice as calm as his expression. “How much longer are you gonna hold on to—”
“I’m good,” Canton interrupted, before his friend went down that particular path. “Go handle your business, Ray.”
Canton chugged half his beer down with a grimace. The reason for his state of mind lately wasn’t a subject he wanted to talk about, even with his best friend.
“You need to get back out there, Canton.”
At the look Canton gave him, his friend shrugged, gave him an “I tried” type of glance, spun around on his booted feet and left.
With mild interest he observed Ray as he made his way toward the woman, a predatory look on his face.
Canton twisted his large frame in the high-backed stool to face the bar. Six months ago he would have been doing the exact same thing as Ray.
He liked tall women, as he himself was six foot four. She should have been his type. She once was his type. Tall, leggy, sexy, blonde. He mentally ticked off the physical attributes she had that usually stirred his interest and libido. He glanced over his shoulder once more and saw Ray was talking with the blonde.
Just as Ray was now doing, Canton would have leaned down and been totally in her intimate zone. Would have given her whatever smooth words she needed to hear to feel special, to know that the adult games he wanted to play with her had nothing to do with pool, darts or spades.
That she was special to him. That she was the one.
If only for this one night.
He would have crowded her in, given her a taste of the infamous Wilde charm, confident that he’d have her where he wanted. Would have led her away from the bar to wind up at either her place or one of the local motels for the night.
But lately, he hadn’t been interested in any of that. Not since his father had passed away, leaving the care of Brick and Riley, his two younger siblings, to him and his brother Tiber.
His brother and sister weren’t small children; they were something worse: teenagers. Riley, the youngest and the only Wilde female, was a senior in high school and Brick, his young brother, was in his sophomore year at the university.
Not to mention his breakup with a woman he’d once considered marrying. He knew that Ray, as well as his brothers, thought she was the reason for his state of celibacy, but he knew it wasn’t her. He’d come to realize over the past six months that he had in fact dodged the bullet with his fiancée, Anne. Fate had stepped in and actually saved him from possibly making the biggest mistake of his life.
But even to himself, he didn’t delve too deeply into what was at the core of his ennui, for lack of a better word.
Lately no woman had captured his attention long enough to make an impression on him. Not even long enough to bed her.
And although he and Anne had broken off the engagement, he knew that she was still there, waiting, wanting him to return. But under her conditions: not only that Canton move out of the family home, but that they buy their own place and also move the wedding date up.
There was no way in hell he was going to do that. His family needed him.
He soon found out why she was so hell-bent on moving the wedding date up.
Canton shook his head, throwing off the heavy thoughts and sting of malcontent.
Family came first. It was a part of the Wilde creed. It was a creed that his pop had drilled into Canton, as well as his brothers and baby sister. And if the woman who purported to care about him didn’t realize that, well, then, he had in fact dodged a bullet with her.
His family meant everything to Canton.
Unknown to him, a smile creased his rugged features when he thought of the youngest Wilde, Riley. She was growing up so fast. Kicking and raising hell from the time she came from her mother’s womb, she’d been as much of a Wilde from the moment she’d come into the world as his biological brothers.
And now, with Pop gone, all she had was Canton along with his two brothers to look after her. He and Tiber, the oldest, had made a promise to his father that they’d always look after her, that no one would hurt her. A promise he intended to keep.
Because that was what family did. Took care of each other.
It was amazing what responsibility did to a man, Canton thought with a grunt. Made him grow up quick, fast and in a hurry. Also showed who the real deal was when it came to those who loved you. Separated the true from the fair-weather. But he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Besides, after he ended it with Anne, he hadn’t been interested enough in getting “back out there” with anyone. Not exactly soured on love, but damn sure a lot more cautious when it came to trust.
He glanced at his watch, ready to call it quits for the night. He really wasn’t in the mood to get “laid” as Ray suggested. Casual sex was the last thing on his mind.
But until Ray decided what he was doing...or who he was doing for the night, he’d wait for his friend to give him the word before he left him to his own devices.
Still looking in the direction of Ray and the blonde, Canton knew it wouldn’t be long before Ray gave him the go-ahead to leave.
Until that time... Canton took another long drink from the bottle, his glance casually strolling over the clientele, bored and ready to say screw it and leave. Ray was a big boy; he could handle his own business.
At that moment, Ray gave him the signal and Canton shook his head, one side of his mouth kicked up in a grin.
“Well, no sense in hanging around,” he murmured to himself, and drank the last of his beer.
Just as he was ready to turn away and settle his tab, his glance caught that of a woman who stood near her seat at one of the small round high tables, near the bar. He hadn’t noticed her before.
She turned to fully face him and their gazes collided. In the act of removing her jacket, she paused, the garment dangling from her fingers. For a long moment she stood there, simply staring at him with her large doe-shaped eyes.
From where she and the woman with her sat, in one of the few well-lit areas and a small distance from where he was, Canton could see her clearly.
Unlike the leggy blonde in the tight red dress and stilettos, she wore a pair of skinny jeans that molded round hips and a plump butt, and ended where she wore knee-high boots.
The shirt she had on beneath the jacket was simple, but man oh man what it did for her curves. Made of some type of clinging material she’d only partially buttoned, the opened collar dipped to a pair of truly beautiful, full breasts, the crests overflowing the top of her bra, just a bit. He wasn’t close enough to get a really good look, but dear God... His glance slid over her, seeing how she’d tucked the ends of the shirt into her jeans, showing off a nicely nipped-in waist.
He raised his glance, back up the length of her body until he reached her beautiful round face.
But it was her eyes that got him.
Large, and from his distance appeared light brown, or maybe it was just the dance of light that hit them that made them so. Either way, they had a slight tilt in the corner. A small round nose and full, luscious lips that, along with the shape of her eyes, gave her the appearance of a sulky child.
Her pretty cocoa-brown-colored skin reminded him of silken, rich, decadent dark chocolate... Canton wondered if her skin was as soft as it looked. His palms itched to find out. His fingers rubbed against his palms.
Her hair was swept on top of her head in a topknot of some sort, but ringlets of light brown curls framed her heart-shaped face, giving her even more of a look of a pouting adolescent.
Again, his gaze swept over her body.
But any hint of a childlike appearance was negated by her body. She had a body that could raise the dead.
He lifted his glance to meet her sultry eyes and felt his breath hitch and lodge in his throat.
She returned his gaze.
First, she bit the corner of her mouth, as though in deep thought, before tugging on the full bottom lip and finally letting it go.
Canton could not look away.
Goddamn.
Their glances held for what seemed like forever.
Then moments later, she smiled as though she’d come to some decision.
Timidly at first. One side of those ripe, full lips of hers lifted, slowly. Then the other.
Then it grew.
Naked of any color, besides a shine of gloss on her full lips, her smile was breathtaking. And damned if Canton could look away. No one, ever, had captivated him the way this woman had with just one look. A mutual exchange of nothing more than a glance and a smile.
He felt an answering grin lift the corners of his own mouth, upward.
Canton hadn’t felt like this in a long, long time.
He felt...light, happy for no damn reason on earth besides looking at her.
His body hardened, every thing about him focused on her. His cock thumped against his zipper, hardening, reacting to her.
As though she knew his thoughts, her eyes dipped for a moment in a charming display of shyness before reconnecting with his, her pretty full smile still in place. The effect on his body was unlike anything.
His cock hardened to pain, but Canton welcomed it as though it were a homecoming of sorts.
Beneath the bright light, Canton could have sworn he saw color blossom on her cheeks. As though she knew what she had done to him.
The little vixen, he thought, as a laugh escaped his mouth.
She was his.
Right then, right there, he decided.
It made no sense, no rhyme or reason.
If he weren’t so focused on her, he’d think of what Ray would say, think, if he knew.
Probably that Canton had lost his mind. Moments before, he’d assured his friend the last thing on his mind was a woman, one-night stand or otherwise.
He hadn’t lied.
In a blink of an eye, fate had something else in mind.
He felt it in his gut. His Wilde instinct.
His family were firm believers and followers of the Wilde instinct. An instinct their pop had trained them, from childhood onward, to believe in and follow.
The Wilde instinct was a part of their DNA as much as the height and blue eyes all the Wilde men shared.
That same Wilde instinct told him in the far recesses of his mind to get out now, if he wasn’t ready. Now, before it was too late.
He placed the empty beer bottle behind him, blindly, never losing eye contact with the woman.
He was ready. He’d never been so ready in all of his life.
* * *
“Girl, come on, loosen up, let’s have fun! But that can’t happen if you keep turning your nose up like that!” Alyssa Thomas groused to her best friend, Naomi McBride, as soon as the skimpily clad, weary-looking waitress placed their drinks in front of them, collected the money and left.
“And for the love of God, please, take that jacket off! I swear if you fiddle with the buttons one more time...just one more time—”
“What? What will you do?” Naomi challenged.
Alyssa narrowed her eyes. “I’m gonna fight you like a man!”
That made Naomi laugh, as it had been Alyssa’s favorite threatening phrase since they were children.
She snorted, shooting Alyssa a glance. “Really? And how long have you been threatening me with that?” she said and both young women erupted into laughter, remembering.
They’d been friends from childhood, ever since Naomi had stood up for Alyssa to the school bully. Not by fighting, but with her words, something Naomi was very good at doing.
At the end of her sophisticated tirade against the bully—well, she’d thought it sophisticated at the ripe old age of seven—the bully looked as though she were about to go “in” on both her and Alyssa, not impressed at all with Naomi’s serious words.
So Naomi, with her young face set, hands on hips, told the bully that she’d “fight her like a man” if she ever looked like she wanted to beat Alyssa up again.
She’d no idea where the crazy threat had come from, she thought with a laugh. She’d been just as scared, if not more, of the class bully, but she’d forced the fear away as she stood up to the much bigger girl, not backing down.
Words were all she had, as she knew the girl could beat her up.
Even at a young age, Naomi had used her words as her sword. Either it was the crazy threat or the way she said it that made the bully back away, mumbling about how they’d better stay on their side of the playground. It had become Naomi and Alyssa’s private laugh for fourteen years.
After sobering, Alyssa pinned her friend with her signature look. Naomi refused to squirm beneath her friend’s piercing gray eyes, feeling like a specimen under a microscope.
“Quit staring at me like that. And giving me that cray-cray look of yours. Gives me the creeps,” Naomi groused.
“What look?” Alyssa asked, feigning innocence, holding her cheeks taut as though holding back a laugh.
“You know what look. Don’t even try it. The same look you probably give to one of the frogs in your lab, rubbing your hands together in glee, right before you start slicing into the poor little guy,” Naomi mumbled, making Alyssa’s tinkling laugh ring out.
Which in turn made Naomi grin. Her friend’s light, infectious laugh could make anyone smile. Unlike Naomi’s laugh, big and full, a laugh she’d always been self-conscious about. It was just so...big. Only a few had heard her full laugh, and even fewer had made her laugh that way.
“Poor guy, huh? You know, if you want to be a doctor, you’re going to be doing a whole lotta dicing yourself. And not on anything so mild as a frog’s anatomy!”
“Yeah, but I’ll be in the biz of healing and helping children...not dissecting and murdering innocent amphibians!” she quipped, and both women chuckled.
