CHAPTER 27 #2
Then he took the smallest step back, and my chest heaved as I gulped for air like I’d been drowning.
The bass from the speakers hammered in time with my pulse between my legs.
Every nerve ending screamed for his touch, but I tore my gaze away from him and caught Maggie’s wide-eyed stare, her lips parted in disbelief.
I registered the tiny smile that quirked on her lips as she tried and failed to look anywhere but between me and Colt.
Beyond her, Hunter and McCoy were leaning against the bar, the former smirking openly and the latter pretending to have a sudden, fascinated interest in the shelves of whiskey. I hadn’t even noticed them come in.
But the real realization hit me as I looked past them and noticed the entire damn bar staring at us with shameless curiosity. I knew what I looked like. I knew they’d seen me shaking and breathless, dress rucked high, and body screaming for the man who they’d all watched break my heart once before.
Colt’s voice crashed through the noise around us, low and certain, and it reeled me in like a hook in my ribs. “You want to dance?”
His hand hovered at my waist, not quite touching me, but so close I could feel the heat radiate through the thin sheen of satin. I felt the potential of that contact burning brighter than all the neon overhead, brighter than the eyes of everyone in the bar that tracked us.
“Yeah.” I nodded, slipping my hand in his.
His thumb stroked the inside of my wrist as we started moving through the crowd. He didn’t rush, didn’t push. His body shielded mine as he led me, and I let myself fall into step behind him as if there was no other place for me to be.
Colt led us to the edge of the dance floor, where the lights dropped lower and the sound system vibrated through my body, and he pulled me in a half circle until I was facing him, the crowd swallowing us in their periphery.
He paused, studying me with an intensity that made me want to squirm.
He was cataloging everything. The flush in my cheeks, the way my breath stuttered, the rigidness in my stance.
His lips curled slow and wicked as he pulled me into him, pressing my body firmly against his.
“I really do love this dress,” he said roughly.
I felt like I was coming out of my skin as he lifted my hands and let them fall against his shoulders. “You know everyone is watching us, right?” I whispered, as his hands settled on my hips.
“Let ’em watch.” He drew me impossibly closer, one hand moving to splay between my shoulder blades, and suddenly it was just the two of us in the amber light, his body hard against mine, and the music a dull roar beneath the pounding of my heart.
Colt was slow and careful, his hands firm as he guided me in a lazy two-step.
Every movement was hell-bent on making me feel his body and his intent, the solid muscle under his shirt, the heat of him where our thighs brushed.
It was less a dance and more a declaration, and every time I blinked, I saw the years unspooling behind his eyes—the ache, the regret, the need.
We said nothing as we danced, then the song shifted to something slower, and Colt’s grip on me changed.
He let his hand move lower, tracing the curve of my spine, his palm flattening over the small of my back.
Our hips lined up, and it hit me that the only thing keeping me from melting into him was my own stubborn pride.
I lifted my chin and caught his eyes, dark and stormy under the brim of his hat. “We shouldn’t do this.”
He smiled, teeth flashing. “We already are,” he said, and spun me before his arm banded tight around my waist so I landed flush against his chest. A gasp poured from my lungs as he dipped me low.
He held me there for only a second as I giggled, and I felt so unlike the girl who’d sworn she would never let Colt Calloway break her heart again.
All I could see was him, the way his hair curled at the nape of his neck and that tiny little scar on his jaw. All I could remember was what it was like to trust the steady and unyielding way he held me, as if I was the only thing in the world that could break him.
That feeling terrified me, right down to the soles of my boots. It was reckless. I was spinning out, fast and wild, and I knew I should dig my heels in, pull away before we caught fire and burned us both clean through.
But he pulled me upright, lifted my feet from the ground as he pinned me to his chest, and all I could do was smile. His breath fanned out over my neck, and my eyes fluttered closed.
“I missed you. All damn day.”
I wanted to tell him I’d missed him too, that I spent every minute since our last touch thinking about the next one. But I turned my head, letting the brim of his hat shadow my face from the rest of the world, and whispered, “You saw me this morning.”
He laughed, and it was so warm that I found myself searching his blue eyes. “Yeah.” He nodded. “But it wasn’t enough.”
The song shifted to something with a faster beat, drawing bodies to the dance floor like moths to a flame.
Colt’s fingers tightened around mine as dancers swirled around us, and I stumbled forward, my balance betrayed by the alcohol in my blood and the anticipation in my veins mixing with something far more dangerous.
A cowboy in a pearl-snap shirt whirled his partner past us, nearly knocking into us, and Colt’s hand shot out to steady me, his grip firm on my elbow. When our eyes met, the naked want in his gaze burned through me.
“You wanna get out of here?” he asked, his voice rough, but I caught sight of Maggie’s arm flailing above the crowd.
“We’re being beckoned,” I said, nodding toward the back table where she sat with the boys.
Colt’s jaw tightened as he glanced over. “Damn it,” he muttered, but his hand found the small of my back as he guided me toward them. Colt didn’t slow as people glanced up at us as we passed. He tightened his grip on me until we finally reached the back corner.
I slid into the booth beside Maggie, and Colt dropped into the seat on my other side, close enough that his thigh pressed against mine. He sprawled back, arm resting along the top of the booth behind me.
Across from us, McCoy and Hunter had claimed the other side of the booth for themselves, and twin grins cut across their faces as they watched us.
McCoy clinked his whiskey glass against the tabletop and shot me a wry salute.
“Well, hello there, Blaire. You didn’t even say hi to us before you ran off to the dance floor with Colt. ”
Maggie slid a glass in front of me, her eyes saying everything her mouth didn’t need to.
I took the shot Maggie offered and tossed it back, grateful for the burn as they stared at me. “Hi, McCoy,” I said, then swung my gaze to Hunter. “Hi, Hunter.”
A grin lit up Hunter’s face as he leaned forward to get a better look at me. “Damn, Blaire,” he drawled. “You look hot tonight.” His brown eyes sparkled with a mischief I’d always loved about him. “Don’t you think it’s about time you gave the other Calloway brother a chance?”
There was a dull thwack beneath the table, followed by a yelp. Hunter jerked upright, his beer sloshing over the rim of his glass. “Ow! Jesus, Colt. What the fuck?”
Colt only grunted, his expression unrepentant.
“Don’t talk to her like that.” His hand moved from the back of the booth to rest firmly on my knee under the table.
My breath stuttered at the possessive heat of it, and I wondered if the others could see how I tensed, how every nerve in my thigh was suddenly tuned to the movement of his thumb on my skin.
Hunter sucked his teeth, squinting at me and then at Colt, before his face broke into a wolfish smile. “I’m just speaking the truth. She looks hot.”
McCoy, who had been watching the exchange with slow amusement, cut in smoothly. “They both do,” he said, tipping his head in Maggie’s direction. “Hell, what was the plan here, ladies? Make every man swallow their tongues when you walked in?”
Maggie laughed as she bumped her shoulder into mine, and Hunter paused with his glass almost to his mouth, his gaze lingering on Maggie like he was memorizing the weight of her laughter.
I’d never seen him look at anyone like that.
Hunter was a shameless flirt, but this was different, more focused, suddenly unsure.
I couldn’t help it. I needed to push back against him as I watched the way he stared at my friend. “Well, we did toast to bringing the Calloway brothers to their knees when we got here,” I said with an innocent shrug, and Maggie snorted into her drink.
Colt’s grip on my knee tightened, his hand sliding just a hair higher, and I felt the warning in it as much as the promise.
But it was Hunter who zeroed in on the challenge, his jaw tightening as he leaned across the table. “You may have my brother walking around like some pussy-induced zombie, but I don’t fall so easily.”
McCoy nearly lost his drink, choking on a laugh.
“Oh, honey. I’ve known you a long time,” I said as I looked away from Hunter to Maggie, then back.
I reached for Hunter’s beer without breaking eye contact, and his jaw flexed as I pulled it toward me.
But he didn’t stop me as I took a long, slow sip, then set it back down in front of him. “I’d put my money on it.”
McCoy was still laughing at the exchange, his shoulders shaking in silent amusement, but Hunter turned to Maggie and his normal bravado withered into something else as they stared at one another.
The shift was so obvious even McCoy noticed it, his smile morphing into genuine curiosity as he watched the two of them.
Color bloomed on Maggie’s cheekbones, and she brought her drink back to her lips as she looked away from him. Hunter blinked, shook himself out of whatever stupor he’d wandered into, and smirked in a way that was pure damage control.
But I barely registered it because Colt’s hand had abandoned all pretense of subtlety and slid higher on my thigh, his intent torching straight through me.
He squeezed, not hard, but with the easy authority of a man who knew exactly how to handle a wild thing, and everything in me went bright and tight and wordless.
I leaned into him, feeling the way he canted his hips slightly to put his mouth close to my ear.
“Behave.” Colt growled the warning, and the command in it made me desperate to shift in my seat.
I angled my head, met his stare, and let him see every ounce of dare in my blood. “Make me.”
He squeezed my leg, hard enough that I almost moaned, but I bit down on my lip instead. The weight of Colt’s hand, the closeness of his body, the way his words slid through me— I wanted it, needed it, and I wanted to push back until he lost control.
I opened my mouth to say something else, to bait him until he had no choice but to pull me from this table and put me in my place, but Maggie blurted, “I need to go to the bathroom.”
Colt let out a slow exhale as I looked over at Maggie. Her gaze held mine, a silent SOS I knew by heart.
“I’ll come with,” I said, and Colt let his hand trail down my leg before he stood to let us out.
I could feel him watching us even though I didn’t turn around, and Maggie waited until the bathroom door closed behind us, before she faced me, her voice barely a whisper and her eyes panicked.
“What’s going on?” I asked, walking closer to her hesitantly. “Should I have not said what I said? I was joking.”
“I almost slept with Hunter.” The words tumbled from her lips, and she pressed her palm to her mouth as if she could stuff the secret back down her throat. “Holy shit. I can’t believe I said that out loud.” She stared at me, eyes pleading.
“Okay.” I nodded. I wanted to say something to make it better, but Maggie had barely told me anything when it came to her and Hunter. “It’s okay.”
“It is not okay.” She shook her head and moved to the sink.
She ran her hands under the cold water before pressing them to her neck, as if she could cool the heat of her shame.
“He is my sister’s ex, Blaire.” She looked up at me in the mirror with big, haunted eyes.
“It’s not just that I almost slept with him.
I wanted to. I still want to, and I can’t. ”
“Okay.” I stepped closer to her. “Why don’t we get out of here? We can go back to your apartment and binge some movies. We can stop on the way there and get us both a tub of icing to eat our feelings.”
She laughed as she straightened and turned off the tap. “No.” She shook her head. “Colt would kill me if I stole you away tonight.”
“Colt will be fine.” I shrugged, and I meant it. As desperately as I wanted to go with him, I would leave right now with her.
“No.” She shook her head again before she fixed her lipstick in the mirror. “I’m going to go back out there. I can’t avoid him forever, and I don’t want him to think I left because of him.”
Maggie exhaled and reached for the paper towels. She tore off three, dabbed at her neck, and tried to piece herself back together. “I— I needed to get that off my chest,” she said. “In case I do something stupid.”
I twisted my fingers against my lips as if I were locking them with a key. “Your secret dies with me.”
“And yours with me.” She laughed as she reached for the door.
“Yeah. I don’t think I’m doing a very good job keeping it a secret.”
We both laughed, but the second we stepped out the door, we froze. Colt stood against the opposite wall, one boot propped behind him, arms crossed over his chest. His hat was tipped low, but it was impossible to miss the way his eyes were already on me.
“Excuse me, Maggie,” he said, but his eyes never left mine. “I’m going to need to borrow your friend.”
“All yours,” Maggie murmured, slipping past him before she glanced back at me.
Her footsteps faded down the hallway, and the air between Colt and me thickened until each breath felt difficult to draw in.
His jaw tightened as he pushed off the wall, one slow step after another, until the heat of him radiated against my skin.
I retreated until my back pressed against the bathroom door I’d just come through, the cool metal a shock against my feverish body.
The corner of his mouth lifted in a smile that promised both pleasure and punishment, and my pulse hammered wildly at the base of my throat where his gaze now lingered.
“What are you doing?” I asked as my eyes searched his.
“You told me to make you behave.” He braced his hand on the doorframe above me. “So, I’m going to.”