“I don’t know. Breathe?” Wren rolled her eyes and laughed. “I’m ridiculous, I know it. But there’s something about him that bothers me. He’s so . . . sure of himself.”
Most women would find that an attractive quality.
“His attitude borders on arrogant. He always smirks at me, like he knows my deepest darkest secrets no matter how much I try to hide from him.”
“Are you trying to hide secrets from Tate?” Harper asked.
“Of course not,” Wren said quickly. “I’ve grown up around firefighters my entire life. They’re nothing special, even Tate.”
Hmm. There was more here than met the eye.
And Harper was dying to know exactly what it was.
THE MOMENT THEY entered the bar, West saw her. Sitting with his sister, her auburn head bent toward Wren’s, her perfect mouth stretched wide in a smile as she listened to whatever his sister had to say.
Lord knew Wren always had something to say. The woman never stopped talking.
Holden and Kirsten had wanted to take him out for a celebratory drink before he started his shift at the Wildwood station tomorrow. Considering he had to be there bright and early at seven in the morning, he had zero plans to get wasted. He wanted to make a good impression on not only his fire captain, but also the firefighters who would be under his supervision.
His little brother and Kirsten, on the other hand, had already downed a six-pack between them at home by the time West had stopped by to pick them up fifteen minutes ago. They were well on their way to Drunkville, and Holden had to be at work tomorrow morning just like West did. But Holden was younger. He’d bounce back easier.
Hopefully.
“Ah, good, Wren’s here!” Kirsten shouted, making West grimace. “And look, Harper’s here too.”
His body went on high alert at hearing her name, and got even worse when he got a better look at her. She was wearing some flirty flower print dress with little sleeves that showed off her slender arms, a scooped neckline that dipped low though not scandalously low. Her hair was up in a ponytail, showing off her neck. A pretty neck he was immediately tempted to kiss again. She sat on the barstool with her legs crossed, the very tops of her thighs exposed, along with the rest of her legs, simple black sandals on her feet. All that skin was bared, on display. Not in a vulgar way. No one could ever call Harper Hill vulgar. But considering he’d had his lips on her skin before, knew her taste, knew the way she’d suck in a breath when his lips touched a particular spot, well . . .
Seeing all that beautiful, smooth skin, he was tempted to put his mouth all over her, all over again.
She has a boyfriend, asshole. You need to rein it in.
Right. He needed to remember that.
Kirsten was running toward the girls while Holden and West trailed after her. The bar was crowded—it was mostly locals at the Forks Bar on a Saturday night and it was still early in the season. West heard a few people call his name and he smiled and nodded, not in the mood to try to make small talk or worse, catch up after he’d been gone for so many years. He suddenly had only one goal tonight:
Get close to Harper.
Catch a whiff of her mysterious scent. Maybe touch her—innocently of course. She was a taken woman. Hell, she lived with the guy. And why that felt like such a kick in the gut, West wasn’t sure. He didn’t want to analyze it too closely either.
“I’m mad at you,” Wren said the moment he approached.
West frowned. “Why? What’d I do?”
“You didn’t invite me to your Gallagher family dinner last night. Though I guess you wouldn’t considering it was men only.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest, clearly bent out of shape.
“It’s not like I purposely excluded you,” West defended, hoping like hell Harper wouldn’t think less of him for not inviting his sister to last night’s lame-ass dinner. He figured Wren would’ve turned him down anyway. Why would she want to hang out with her three annoying brothers? Of course, she’d always tried to tag along when they were younger . . .
“Whatever. I’m sure it sucked anyway. Not like I missed anything.” Wren waved a hand, clearly already over it. Plus, the bartender had just set two shot glasses in front of the girls. Wren grinned madly at Harper as she handed one of the glasses to her. “Bottoms up!”
Harper hadn’t even looked in his direction yet and he was surprisingly butt hurt. He watched as she grabbed the glass and clinked it to the edge of Wren’s before tossing her head back and drinking that shot down in one smooth swallow. She made a sexy little satisfied noise as she slammed her now empty glass on the counter, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and beaming at his sister.
Ah shit. Was that his dick twitching to life? He had no idea watching Harper drink would be so damn arousing. He needed to get himself in check and stat. She was a taken woman. He had no business lusting after her. She belonged to someone else.
The thought alone made his mouth dry as sand.
“I need a drink,” he muttered to no one in particular.
“Want me to order you something?” Harper asked sweetly.