CHAPTER 20
COLT
I n every way possible a man can want a woman, I wanted Blaire Monroe.
And that was so fucking dangerous.
She was so damn beautiful, and she grinned at my friends—my family, like she hadn’t been tossing matches at my self-control.
I watched her now, her long, bare legs stretched out in front of her on the dock, my dock, with the late afternoon sun turning her skin to honey.
I should have been thinking about the pile of work waiting for us on this ranch or the fact that I needed to finish Ruby’s laundry and hit up the grocery store, but all I could focus on was Blaire’s mouth, the angle of her jaw when she laughed, and the way she’d gasped against me a couple hours ago.
It was torture, the way she kept moving through the world like she didn’t know what she did to me.
And all I could do was replay her shudder when I’d pressed my thigh between her knees, her desperate need for relief, and how she’d gasped when I asked her how wet she was going to get for me.
And God, I knew she had been wet.
Her body had betrayed her with every subtle quiver, every catch of her breath, and every flutter of her lashes when she looked up at me.Yet here she was acting like it never happened, and I might have believed her if I hadn’t savored every one of her body’s confessions.
I was a fucking wreck, but I smiled for Ruby’s sake. If she weren’t here, if I didn’t have to keep some semblance of my control for my daughter, I didn’t know what the hell I would’ve done.
The way she looked at Ruby was enough to do me in.
My daughter’s head rested in Blaire’s lap, dark hair being woven into a braid by fingers that moved so tenderly against her scalp.
Ruby’s laughter rang out as Blaire and Maggie entertained her, and my breath caught at how perfectly Blaire fit into this moment, into our lives, like she’d always belonged there.
When she caught me watching, her lip curved into a gentle smile before her eyes darted away.
She bent down, whispering something that made Ruby burst out in laughter.
I didn’t give a damn what secret they shared between them, even if it was at my expense, because everything felt so painfully vivid with possibility as I watched them.
And for one treacherous second, I almost forgot how hard I’d worked to make sure I’d never set myself up for that kind of heartbreak again.
Almost.
“You really need to rein your shit in,” Hunter said from where he sat beside me on the grass.
“What the hell are you talking about?” I shot him a glare.
“Oh, so we’re going to pretend you’re not broadcasting it to the entire county?” Hunter gestured loosely toward the dock. “I don’t think you’ve quit looking at her for even a second since we’ve been here.”
He paused, studying me the way only someone who’d spent every day of their childhood acting as my shadow could. “Jesus, Colt, you’re not even trying to hide it anymore. My money was on you at least making it three weeks before you caved.”
“Fuck off,” I muttered, but Hunter grinned as he knocked his shoulder into mine.
“Hey, if you want to play lovesick puppy, far be it from me to stand in your way.” He shifted the beer in his hand. “But you should hold back a little before you scare her off again.”
Again.
I gripped my beer bottle tighter, hating that Hunter could read me so easily.
The worst part was knowing he was right about everything.
I didn’t have it in me to take another hit like last time.
When Blaire left, she’d taken every part of the boy I’d been, and I wasn’t sure there was enough man left in me to survive her if she left again.
From my other side, McCoy snorted, half listening as he lay back in the sun with his eyes closed. “You should have seen him before you got here. I thought he was going to fuck her in the bed of my truck.” He blinked an eye open at me. “I would’ve made you clean it, by the way.”
I grunted, focusing on the bottleneck in my hand rather than on their faces. They weren’t wrong. I could feel it, the way my control was slipping.
Hunter laughed. “Damn, I really hate that I missed that. Blaire does have some nice fucking legs.”
I slammed the back of my hand against his chest, and he only grinned as he rubbed the spot.
“Ouch, asshole. That hurt.”
“Don’t fucking talk about her like that,” I growled and brought my beer to my lips.
Sure enough, my eyes tracked straight over to the legs in question.
“It’s not like you can talk. Where’s your little shadow, anyway?
” I looked around us for the girl he’d brought with him.
“You know, for a guy who brought a date, you haven’t looked at her once since you got here. ”
McCoy let out a low whistle, rising to his elbows to take us both in. “Damn, we’re getting personal now?”
Hunter’s eyes narrowed, the barest flicker of defensiveness tightening his jaw.
“She ran up to my truck to get something out of her bag,” he said.
“I don’t need to babysit her.” He turned his head back to the dock, and I followed his gaze.
“Not that you would understand since you moved your ex in with you and are watching her like she’s going to disappear. ”
I waited a beat, letting the silence stretch before I leveled my gaze at him. “At least I’m staring at my ex and not her little sister.”
“Oh, shit,” McCoy laughed, leaning forward until he was sitting up beside me. “We’re going there, huh?”
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” Hunter growled, but he was so full of shit. Hunter and Ella, Maggie’s older sister, broke up a little over two years ago, and he’s spent that exact amount of time staring at Maggie like she wasn’t five years younger than him or related to his ex.
“Right.” I nodded before I met his eyes. “So you can see the way I’m looking at Blaire, but you’re blind to your own shit?”
“I have no interest in Maggie. She’s Ella’s sister, for fuck’s sake.”
“Her very hot, very mouthy, younger sister,” McCoy interjected. “Who I would have already had in my bed if it weren’t for the way she looks at you.”
“Fuck off, McCoy,” Hunter grumbled, but he was still looking at Maggie.
McCoy, smelling blood in the water, only laughed. “Hey, Mags, you want to come over here and settle a debate?”
Maggie looked in our direction, shading her eyes. “What debate?”
“Are you kidding me?” Hunter said under his breath, and McCoy’s smile widened.
“We’re trying to figure something out.” McCoy’s voice carried over to the dock, playful and a little too loud, and all three of them looked over at us.
Maggie pulled her sunglasses slightly down her face and gave him a bored, slow blink that would make any cowboy I knew shake in his boots. “Like what?”
“Like, if you had to pick between me and Hunter, who would you choose? I’m older than Hunter, so I’m definitely the most mature, but I’m also tired.” McCoy grinned, and I couldn’t help but smile at the way he was baiting my brother. “Hunter is dumb, but he still has energy.”
“Jesus Christ.” Hunter muttered the curse, his shoulders tensing as he ran a hand through his hair. My brother, who could sweet-talk his way in or out of anything, looked like he wanted to disappear into the grass beneath us.
“And, of course, Hunter dated your sister.” McCoy slipped that in, and Maggie’s spine straightened.
Ruby’s curious gaze bounced among the adults, her small brow furrowed in confusion.
“That would count him out,” Maggie said casually, but she looked anything but. “Plus, I prefer older men, but if your old age is affecting your stamina, I’m out.”
McCoy licked his lips as he looked Maggie up and down, and I thought my brother was going to come out of his skin. “Oh, honey. You don’t have to worry about my stamina.”
“What’s stamina?” Ruby asked, tilting her head back to look at Blaire.
Blaire’s fingers froze where she was rubbing a towel over Ruby, her eyes going wide before she glanced at me in horror.
“Really, McCoy?” I knocked his shoulder, but he only laughed.
“Uh…” Blaire cleared her throat, scrambling, and I would have saved her if it wasn’t so cute to watch. “It means that your uncle Coy can’t really keep a girlfriend because he doesn’t really know how to make them happy.”
Ruby nodded, but Maggie sputtered a laugh into her drink.
“Really, Blaire?” McCoy said, clutching at his chest as if she’d wounded him. “I bet I could make you happy.” He let his gaze linger a second too long on her, always the showman, and then tipped his beer in salute. “If you have your doubts, I can prove it to you. I’m nothing if not accommodating.”
I tried to play it off, but the jab of jealousy landed.
Which was ridiculous because she wasn’t mine.
Hell, I barely had the right to want her after everything I’d done, but that didn’t keep my blood from surging at the idea of Blaire with someone else.
It didn’t matter that I knew McCoy was joking and that he’d never go there with her.
“You’re such a child, McCoy.” Blaire’s laughter caught on the summer air, and I felt every muscle in my body tense at the sound of it.
“I wholeheartedly agree,” Hunter said before he finished his beer, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and climbed to his feet.
His gaze lingered on Maggie for a long moment before he finally turned, and we all watched him go. He stalked toward the truck, shoulders wound tight, and then I caught sight of his date, Alicia, making her way back down to the water. She beamed at him, completely oblivious to his mood.
He passed right by her without saying a word, and she blinked up at us before looking back in his direction. She stumbled a little in her wedges that belonged nowhere near this lake as she walked onto the dock and took a seat by the girls.
But my gaze caught on the woman next to her. The one who looked like this was exactly where she belonged.