Page 52 of Sweet and Wild

“I’m thinkin’ maybe we might be safer out there with the storm.”

“Poor Wyatt.”

“Poor Wyatt? At least he’s getting laid.”

“Oh, come on. Tell me every single woman who comes through those doors of the B and B aren’t falling all over themselves to spend the night in your cabin?”

“They could fall all over my big, fat cock and I still wouldn’t be interested.”

I shiver at the crassness of his words, liking this dirtier, grown-up side of Colt. “Why wouldn’t you be interested?”

“Because I don’t want just another piece of ass.”

“So, what? You’re just gonna stay single forever?”

“Maybe.”

“That’s kind of sad, isn’t it?”

“You tell me—is it any better than agreeing to marry a man you don’t love?”

I swallow hard and glower. “I never said I didn’t love him.”

“You didn’t have to. I know you when you’re in love, Lemonade. Nothing on God’s green earth could hold you back, yet you skipped town the second things got rough.”

I frown. Is he talking about my ex now or him? Either way, I decide a subject change is in order. “Why didn’t we ever think to restore this shack?”

“Because we didn’t care who we were kissin’ in front of. Everything back then was sweet and wild, and we didn’t even notice we were burning alive.”

I sip the whiskey and pull the blanket tighter around my shoulders, shifting closer to the fire. “Do you ever wonder where we’d be if I hadn’t lost the baby?”

“We.”

“What?”

“Ifwehadn’t lost her. We both lost her.”

“You don’t know that it was a her.”

“You don’t know she wasn’t.”

I nod and stare into the flames licking at the stone walls of the fireplace.

“And no. I try not to think about what might’ve been. There ain’t no sense in that.”

“I do.” I swallow hard and meet his gaze. “I think about the two of us, what might’ve happened if I hadn’t left you. We’d probably have eight adopted children by now, all just as stubborn as their daddy.”

“Me, stubborn?” He arches a brow, trying to make light of the mood, but there is no making light ofus. We were never light. We were fire and heat, and it engulfed us, razed us to the ground. “And what do you mean adopted?”

“Why don’t you think about that?” I frown, changing the subject, wanting more from him than he’s obviously willing to give. “Did your hate for me consume any love you had left?”

“I never hated you, Lemon. God, I never stopped loving you. You left me, and my heart shattered into a hundred-thousand pieces. I didn’t have a hope in hell of putting it back together.”

“Then why didn’t you come find me?”

“And say what? You took off in the middle of the night. You made it pretty clear that you wanted nothing more to do with me.”

“I was wrong. I was a dumb kid, and I was scared. I brought shame on my family, Colt. Everyone in town looked at me like I was worthless, and after I lost the baby, I couldn’t stand the pity in their eyes. ‘There goes Lemon Winchester. Such a shame that girl was so wild.’”

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