Page 39 of Wild For You

But damn, I can’t peel my eyes off of her.

“We’ll see about that,” I mumble, which seems to please her because she rewards me with a smile.

Throughout the evening, I watch Erin take a nibble here and there, all the while talking and having a great time while throwing secret glances my way whenever she thinks I’m not looking.

What I don’t fail to notice is Ryder hovering around her like a swarm of bees around honey. Honey—that she is all right, just not his.

What’s with women and guys in uniform?

But Erin’s not my business.

I set my jaw and look the other way.

Eventually, everyone says their goodbyes. Shannon’s the last to leave after clearing the plates and whispering in my ear, “We weren’t so bad now, were we?”

I smirk at her. “No, but don’t come back.”

“You know we can’t honor your wish. Tomorrow’s your birthday.” Laughing, she slaps my arm, and then the last of the Boyd clan’s gone.

I close my eyes and lean back, relishing the sudden silence.

Dusk descended a few hours ago. A soft breeze is wafting the crisp air into my face. From the feel of it, it might rain soon. Then again, this is Montana. Our rainy days are numbered.

“You haven’t eaten much yet.” Erin’s soft voice reaches me.

I open my eyes right in time to catch the paper plate she’s thrown into my lap before taking the same spot my dad had just occupied.

Her thigh is almost brushing mine. For a moment, I imagine myself squeezing my hand beneath the thin fabric of her dress, riding my fingers high up her thigh.

“I’m not hungry.” At least not for food.

“Eat,” she says softly but with enough determination to make me want to take a bite. “Organizing something like this was so kind of everyone.”

Following Erin’s line of vision, I peer at the cooling down barbecue and the twenty bowls of delicacies Shannon and Margaret were kind enough to prepare to “help see us through the week.”

“Yeah,” I mumble and take another bite. The food is delicious, and my stomach rumbles in response.

“I can cook up a mean bowl of pasta. But boy, does Shannon beat me to everything else. This is nice.” Erin points at the strings of fairy lights Margaret hung up all around the trees a few hours ago. Together with the countless lanterns, it looks like a canopy of tiny, glowing stars is hovering over our heads.

Under different circumstances, the whole setting would have been quite romantic. I would have poured us a glass of wine, and we’d be having sex on my terrace before we’d finish the bottle.

But not with the pain constantly flowing and ebbing through my body.

“Your family’s great,” Erin says. “They’re supportive, loving—the kind anyone would wish for.”

I nod and push another forkful of food into my mouth, chewing slowly. “I know. The kind you don’t have but have always wanted—until you have them and can’t get the hell away from fast enough.”

She laughs. “They do meddle a bit.”

“You think? How the hell did they manage to march in here without my noticing?” I ask. “And why didn’t you stop them? You should have figured out by now that I don’t like visitors, and particularly not the uninvited kind.”

“That includes me, right?”

Erin’s statement renders me speechless for a moment. It is the truth and yet not quite. I want her to leave, but at the same time I’ve somehow gotten used to watching her in the backyard or hearing her shower running at night.

And then there’s also the lounge chair incident. I haven’t quite been able to get rid of the image of her on top of me. My dick jerks to life again, the way it’s been doing since the first day she arrived here. It’s like my right hand is no longer doing the trick. It wants more.

It wants her.

---