Page 48 of Lost and Lassoed

You never knew with her.

The guy was lucky there wasn’t a baseball bat anywhere in the vicinity.

I dragged Teddy toward the back door, ignoring the fact that she was doing her best fish-out-of-water impression. People moved out of our way, and I bumped the back door open with my hip.

We were welcomed by the cool Wyoming night air. It didn’t matter that it was the dead of July, nighttime in the mountains always had a chill.

Once I heard the door shut behind us, I let Teddy go. And just like I knew she would, she tried to go back in the door, but I blocked her.

“Get out of my way, August!” she shouted. “I need to make sure that piece of shit gets kicked out of here!”

“He will,” I said. I put my hands on her shoulders. “Joe’s got it covered.” Teddy let out a huff. Her eyes were wild and her chest was heaving. “What the hell were you thinking, Teddy? What if he’d decided to push you back and you got hurt?”

“It would’ve been worth it!” she yelled. “Let me back in there.”

“No.” She tried to shove past me, but I still had my hands on her shoulders, and I held her in place. Her tongue darted out over her lips, and I tracked the movement.

A white bra strap had fallen down her shoulder, and for some reason, I pulled it back up. As I did so, I reveled in how her skin felt under mine. I wondered if the air had gotten thinner out here.

I skated my hands down her arms to her waist and pulled her closer to me. “Are you okay?” I asked.

She nodded. “I’m fine.”

“You’ve gotta stop squaring up with men who look like they eat raw eggs for breakfast, Theodora.” This wasn’t the first time I’d watched Teddy get in a man’s face—I wasn’t sure she had any sense of self-preservation—but it was the first time I’d been worried that she might get hurt.

She rolled her eyes. “Why?”

“Because it’ll be embarrassing when they lose.” That pulled a smile out of her. I didn’t get a lot of smiles from Teddy. We didn’t get along very well, but damn, she was pretty.

I smiled back at her—something I didn’t do very often—and the air shifted again.

Teddy dragged her hands up my arms, and when they landed on my neck, something in me snapped. I pulled her body to me until there wasn’t any space between us, and then I slammed my mouth down on hers.

I kissed her like I’d been waiting my entire life for this moment—like I might die if my mouth wasn’t on hers.

And she kissed me back.

I would’ve kept going—I would’ve done more than kiss her—but right then the back door to the Devil’s Boot opened and a crowd of tipsy patrons flooded out. I pulled back from Teddy and tried not to groan at the sight of her swollen lips.

Teddy’s eyes were searching my face. Normally, when she looked at me, her eyes were like daggers—icy blue daggers. But right now, they were soft, smoldering, and dangerous. They made me want to kiss her again.

Maybe that’s why I did it in the first place—because for some reason, I wanted to. I didn’t want things very often. I didn’t have the time, but seeing Teddy tonight—touching her, being alone with her, seeing how she looked in the moonlight—caught me off guard.

“Gus?” she said quietly. I blinked a few times, her voice and theclamor of the people in the alleyway with us yanking me out of my thoughts. Shit. I’d kissed my little sister’s best friend—who I didn’t even like.

And I wanted more. Apparently, my drinks had been a little too strong. But so was this feeling rising inside me right now. It was too powerful. Too much. I knew it could consume me. I don’t know how I knew, but I did. And I had too much else at stake, including the future of Rebel Blue, to let it in.

“I—I—” I stumbled over my words for a few seconds. “This never happened,” I said finally. “Forget this ever happened.”

And I turned and went back inside.

Chapter 23

Gus

“Hi,” she said when she saw me.

“Hi,” I said back. We were in the kitchen. I thought that when I saw her in the light of day, I wouldn’t want to kiss her anymore, but I did. I wanted it so badly I felt like I couldn’t think straight.

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