Wilder (The Wild Ones 3)

“Oh,” she says somberly, clearing her throat.

I don’t have to say anything. It’s obvious by the tears in her eyes and the defeated way she entered that she’s just gone through the same thing.

Her head thumps against the door, and she stares vacantly up at the ceiling.

“We met two sexy mountain men on the same day. We went on a date with said mountain men on the same day. I guess it only makes sense we’d get dumped on the same day too,” she says quietly as her eyes flutter shut.

I say nothing.

I can’t speak yet.

I don’t trust my voice.

I don’t trust what words are going to come out.

I’m angry and hurt, but I have no right to be. I don’t want to do or say anything I’ll regret when my emotions calm down.

“Not that it matters, of course. It was always going to end,” she adds, her eyelids lifting as she gives me a tight smile.

I nod slowly, feeling like a vacant shell.

“I’ll go start packing our things,” she tells me as she saunters out of the living room as though it’s all fine.

I wish I could play pretend as well as she does.

Instead, all I’m doing is questioning every single thing and wondering why it has to end. He walked away as though it was a little hard, but I was still clinging to these last nine days like they were the most precious thing in the world.

I regretted not throwing myself all-in like Reese did in the beginning. I regretted toeing the water instead of making a splash.

Getting up, I go to grab some clothes. Reese is so distracted she doesn’t even see the ridiculous apron I hurriedly change out of.

“The earliest flight I can book us is for tomorrow morning,” she tells me as I turn and head out of the cabin, never speaking.

The keys are in our rental, and without thinking, I drive directly to Kai’s cabin.

Cougar pounces in front of me, but not even she seems to knock me out of my numb stupor. I bypass her as I head up the steps, and without even knocking, I walk into Kai’s house.

He comes out of his bedroom, eyes dry and expression blank. Swallowing thickly, I try to think of one reason I came here.

“I-I think I’m going to need more closure than that,” I say through a rasp, broken tone. “Apparently, we’re leaving on the first flight my sister can book, and I don’t even know what I want to say—”

He moves so fast that I don’t register the motion at first, but his hand is suddenly in my hair, and his lips come down on mine in the very next instant.

My hands fly to his shoulders, and my arms go around his neck. This isn’t closure. This is the exact opposite of closure. I don’t know what I expected to happen, but this isn’t it.

At the same time, there’s possibly nothing left to say. Maybe this is what I came for.

The kiss is devouring and consuming, even as more tears leak down my cheeks.

He lifts me from the ground, and my back gets shoved against the wall as he starts kissing his way down my neck. I’m only in the air a few seconds, because he drops me back to my feet, as though he wants me as badly as I want him and can’t figure out where to start.

I gasp in air, my fingers tangling in his hair, as he tears down my leggings.

I kick out of them when he lifts me again, leaving my legs dangling as his lips find mine again and he carries me to the bedroom. Our lips break apart as I fall, and my back hits the bed.

I pull my shirt off in a frenzy, and then I watch him undress just as hurriedly, while I shed my underwear as well.

The second he’s naked, I take a moment to commit every line of his devastatingly perfect body to memory. He comes down on top of me, jerking my legs open, everything as rough and desperate as that first time.

When his head dips between my thighs, everything on me clenches in anticipation. The warmth of his breath licks up my center, and my toes curl the second I feel his mouth right where I want it.

My body bows off the bed, but he shoves me down with a hand to my stomach, holding me in place by clamping his other arm around my thighs.

It’s sweet agony and borderline torture, if I’m honest. All I want is to feel him inside me as close as two people can possibly get until Reese comes to force me in the car.

It’s like feeling the dam break after a long, steady build-up when my orgasm crashes through me, spreading through me like flames atop icy surface.