As for me? Not happening. Never had, never would. I knew who I wanted. Who my wolf wanted, and she was standing right in front of me.
I needed to show Audrey exactly how superior she was to every female here. I also needed to somehow prove to her she wasn’t another notch on my bedpost as she thought. She definitely had me filed in the player category.
The trouble was, there wasn’t much evidence against that theory at this point. When she’d walked in, I’d been flanked by four women, all eager to get in my pants. A previous night, I’d have taken any one of them up on her offer. If she asked around, everyone in town who knew me would attest that I was a one-and-done kind of guy.
Dammit. It wasn’t because I wasn’t into the long haul with one woman, I just had never come across her before. I was no monk, so the women I’d slept with in the past had been fun. And that was it.
But now… fuck. I’d screwed up. Big time. I needed to get off the distract-her-with-sex train and get to know her. All of her, not just that beautiful, curvy body. To be her best friend. Not because Rob ordered me to but because that’s what mates were. Everything to each other.
Why did that suddenly make me feel like she was out of my league?
Because she was smart—a doctor—and here I hadn’t even been to college. I practically burned rubber getting off the ranch at eighteen to join the rodeo circuit, and I never looked back. Up until now, I’d relied heavily on my physical prowess and my ability to charm the panties off every female in a three-mile radius. I’d had no skin in the game in the past. I’d been having fun, spreading orgasms across the country. I hadn’t been trying to make anyone fall in love with me. I hadn’t found my mate.
Now I was face-to-beautiful-face with her.
“Are you going to ride it?” she asked, her eyes glassy as she stared up at me through her sexy-as-fuck glasses. She was slightly tipsy, which I loved, but it made my job of proving I was into more than just pounding between those sweet thighs of hers even harder.
“Me? No.” I grinned.
“Oh, right. Of course not. You’re still hurt, right?” Her palm brushed over my side, like she was seeking the wound, so I flinched away. I couldn’t have her discovering there was no injury. In fact, I should probably put a bandage on the area next time I was with her. Especially since I was hoping we’d be naked and horizontal for that reunion.
“You want another drink?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No. I’m driving. Have to sober up.”
“I’ll get you a bottle of water, then. Stay here.” I started to leave her, then turned back. “On second thought, I don’t trust Markle not to bother you.” I took her hand. “Come with me, darlin’.”
Her laugh was low and throaty. A normal human probably wouldn’t have been able to hear it over the music, but I did. It sounded like warm summer rain. A full moon run. Sunset on the back of a horse.
I elbowed my way in at the bar and charmed a female out of her stool before she realized it was for another woman. Then I picked my sweet doctor up by the waist, lifted her, and plopped her down on the stool. I shifted slightly so my thigh was between her knees.
Yeah, I might’ve been showing off my strength more than I should. But she was tipsy from the one shot of tequila, and I guessed not tremendously experienced with men. I didn’t think she’d notice or remember how easily I could manage her weight.
I ordered two bottles of water and slid my body closer to hers, the heat from her inner thighs on mine, my hand at her lower back. “How’d you end up in Cooper Valley, Doc?”
The bartender returned with the drinks, and I cracked open a lid on one and handed it to her. She drank a few sips, then rubbed her full lips together. “I always wanted to live somewhere this beautiful. I love the mountains. And the sky. It’s so big here in Montana.”
I smiled. Big Sky Country was certainly Montana’s motto, but she’d said it with reverence that I suddenly saw the area through her eyes. It was true, the expanse of open blue sky against the rugged mountains made this a magnificent place to live. Sometimes I forgot how lucky I had it having a place, a home… a fucking pack, to return to.
“Where are you from?”
“I grew up in Columbus, Ohio. But I moved from Chicago, where I did my residency.”
“What’s your area of expertise?”
“I’m an ObGyn.”
Oh yes. I should have remembered that from a comment she made when we met. “You deliver babies?”