“Oh fuck me,” I mutter, already half laughing again. “Fine. Let’s get this over with before someone else shows up and catches me mid-cowgirl.”
Chapter 24
Christian
My girl is panickingas we make our way back to the bar, and it’s fucking adorable. She’s fussing with the hem of her dress like it might somehow erase what we just did in the cab of my truck.
I don’t take her hand even though I want to. God, I want to, but she’s already flustered, and that might push her too far. So instead, I rest my palm low on her back just enough to remind her I’m right there.
Every step and every breath she takes is a quiet little reminder that I’m still with her—still inside her—and that’s the kind of thing my possessive ass feeds on. Not all the showy stuff, but this. The quiet, intimate proof that she’s mine—even when no one else can see it.
“Still feel me, darlin’?”I’d whispered against her neck just minutes ago—her skin still flushed, her lips kiss-swollen, and my cum dripping down her thighs like a secret meant only for us.
She’s wearing me, and fuck if that isn’t the hottest thing.
I’m obsessed.
Fully, irreversibly, can’t-think-straight obsessed with my woman.
I’m pretty sure Piper’s already halfway in love with my brother, but who isn’t? Colt’s the biggest thing to ever roll out of Rosewood Falls, aside from the rodeo queen who married a pastor and somehow got areality show out of it. But as we approach the bar, she suddenly stops—her hand frozen on the door handle and her brows lifting like she just remembered something important.
“Wait… will Trace Montgomery be here too?”
“No, it’s just Colt. He always comes home for a week or two over Cal’s birthday and Christmas.”
“Are you being serious right now?” she asks, eyes popping open even wider. “You knew he’d be here tonight?”
I can’t help but laugh. The way her mind is racing right now is cute as hell. “I did… and I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“That’s the kind of thing a girl needs to be prepared for, Christian,” she says, half laughing, half mortified. “I just wish he didn’t catch me on top of you.”
“He didn’t see anything,” I murmur, brushing my knuckles gently along the back of her hand.
“You seriously couldn’t keep your hands to yourself for one more hour?”
“With the way you were eye-fucking me across the room? And in that dress?” I let out a low whistle. “Darlin’, I was barely holding it together as it was. There was no chance in hell I was making it another hour.” I bump her shoulder playfully with mine, just enough to make her smile. “Besides, he already knows all about you, so you don’t need to worry about a thing.”
“As Travis’s ex-girlfriend? Or…”
“Or?” I ask, trying to coax an answer out of her.
“Or your…” Her teeth catch her bottom lip, and she looks at me like she’s unsure how to label us. I get it. We’re existing in this complicated space where we’re caught between what we are and what we’re waiting to be.
The second Travis knows, we can stop pretending this is anything less than forever.
I close the distance between us, my hands finding their home on either side of her face. My thumbs trace her cheekbones as I hold her gaze.
“Colt knows you as mine because that’s exactly what you are.” She blinks, lips parting on a soft breath. “He knew you as the woman Iwanted, then the woman I couldn’t have. And now?” I lean in closer until our breaths mingle in the space between us. “Now he knows you as the only woman I’ve ever loved.”
She brushes the tip of her nose against mine, and everything just feels... right.
“You two really are close, aren’t you?”
“I helped raise him,” I murmur. “Can’t get much closer than that.”
The truth is, Colt’s more like a son to me than my kid ever was. It was my job to pack his lunch and tie his shoes before he learned the loops himself. I’m the one who dropped him off for his first day of school, watching as he clutched his backpack tight, while our dad worked himself into the ground trying to keep the farm afloat. I was the one sitting through countless guitar lessons, watching his tiny fingers learn to dance across the strings. I got to watch Colton grow into someone good. Someone who’s honest to the bone with a heart that’s too damn big for his chest. But I was lucky enough to help shape that heart, and that’s something I wear like a badge of honor, even on the days when I feel like I’ve failed in every other way.
Especially on the days when being Travis’s dad felt like a title that was never really mine.
