She’s a Wild One (The Wilds of Montana #5)

Prologue

PROLOGUE

HOLDEN

Eight Years Ago…

I t’s been the best fucking month of my life.

I’ve spent every spare minute with Millie Wild and all her young, innocent beauty since I ran into her at the farmer’s market four weeks ago. She’s home for the summer from college, and like a moth to an inferno, I couldn’t stay away from her.

She’s too young for me. All my instincts scream that at me daily.

She may be an adult, but I’m pushing thirty, and I should stay away from her. At nineteen, she’s too young.

Not to mention, she’s the only daughter and youngest child of John Wild, my father’s arch nemesis. Our families have a hundred-year-old feud to maintain, so the likelihood of either of our parents sitting back and agreeing to this match is less than zero.

But I’ll be damned if I can stay away from her.

“I don’t want to go back to college,” Millie says with a sigh. We’re not on either of our properties, on the off chance we get caught. Instead, we’re sitting on a pile of blankets in the back of my truck at my good friend Brooks Blackwell’s ranch. The sun has gone down, and the stars are starting to come out.

“We still have a week,” I remind her. Her head is in my lap, and I’m brushing my fingers through her long, soft chestnut-brown hair that feels like silk against my skin. “We’ll do whatever you want before you go. Name it.”

“Except we can’t actually go on a date .” She narrows her eyes up at me. “This family feud shit is stupid, Holden. Who cares if our great-great-grandparents hated each other? Everyone needs to get over it already.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” I drag my fingertip down the bridge of her nose. A coyote howls somewhere off in the distance.

I can’t stop touching her. For a month, it’s been impossible to keep my hands to myself. Whether I’m holding her hand or touching her hair or sitting like this, memorizing her gorgeous face, I need to be in constant physical contact with this incredible woman.

But I haven’t slept with her. Because once we do that, there’s no going back, and I don’t want to push her too far before she’s ready. I don’t ever want to do anything that might make her pull away from me or run in the other direction.

“Holden?”

“Yes, Rosie?”

That makes her smirk. She told me a couple of weeks ago that her favorite flower is a wild rose, and now, that’s how I think of her. My little wild rose. It’s appropriate, given that her last name is Wild.

And when I want to see that sweet smile, I call her Rosie.

“I’m not going to see you for a while, am I?”

I sigh, not wanting to think about what’s going to happen after she returns to Bozeman to go to school next week.

“I wish I could come out there every weekend to spend a couple of days with you, but I have to be here for my sisters.”

She nods, understanding shining in those amazing hazel eyes as she stares up at me. “I know you do. I’m sorry that your dad’s so mean to all of you.”

She doesn’t know the half of it. I shudder to think what would happen to my four little sisters if I wasn’t here to run interference.

“But I’ll see you when you come home for holidays,” I remind her. “And I’ll talk to you every day. We can video chat before bed.”

“Yeah, I’d like that.” She sits up and moves to straddle me, planting her knees on the blanket on either side of my hips.

And just like that, my cock is on high alert.

“Mill—”

She covers my mouth with hers, so gently, so sweetly, that it tugs at my heart.

“Millie,” I try again, stilling her hands when they roam over my shoulders and kiss them both. “Baby girl, if you keep this up, I won’t want to stop.”

“Who said anything about stopping?” She grins and leans in closer, pressing herself against my hard-on, and I can’t help the groan that slips out of my throat. “Holden, I want this, especially before I have to leave and not see you for months. That’s going to be torture.”

I cup her face, and then my hand glides down to her cheek and over her jaw until I’m holding on to her throat—gently, but still holding.

“You need to be completely sure.”

Her tongue pokes out to her lip, and with her eyes boldly on mine, she lifts her sundress over her head and discards it to the side.

Jesus Christ, I can’t look down. She’s not wearing a bra.

My girl is mostly naked, straddling me in the middle of nowhere, offering herself to me with utter love and trust shining in those golden eyes, and it’s almost more than I can take.

“Holden,” she whispers as she tips forward and rests her forehead on mine. “Make love to me, okay?”

And that’s all I can take. Christ, who could say no to this sweetness?

I take her lips, kissing her the way I’ve learned she loves, and then I pick her up and move her so she’s lying on her back on the blanket. My eyes haven’t left hers.

“Before I look at all of you, I want you to tell me how you like to be touched.”

She frowns and bites her lip. “Uh, what do you mean?”

“How do you want it?” I ask and drag my nose up her cheek.

“I don’t know.” She swallows hard, and I pull back so I can see her face in the waning light. “I’ve never done this before.”

Fuck me sideways.

“Oh, baby.” Jesus Christ, I’m gonna go to hell for what I’m about to do.

And I don’t fucking care.

“But I’m really sure,” she assures me and grips on to my T-shirt, tugging it high on my torso. “I want to see you.”

“Me first.”

For the first time since she stripped off that dress, I let my eyes move down, and my mouth goes dry.

My cock has never been so hard.

Her skin, all smooth and bronze from the sun, feels like velvet under my hands, and her nipples are already hard little nubs, just begging for my mouth.

I have to remind myself to be gentle. For this first time, at the very least, I have to go easy on her. Get her good and ready for me.

“Do you trust me, Rosie?”

She nods, but I cover her throat with my hand again and lean in to press my lips to her ear.

“I need your words, baby girl. Do you trust me?”

“I trust you.” Her throat works under my palm as she swallows hard, and the pulse under my thumb is strong and fast. “More than anyone.”

“Good. We’re going to take this nice and slow.”

“Or, we could hurry.”

I smile against her skin as I make my way down her body, kissing her everywhere. She’s so damn perfect. Every inch of her. “No, I’m not about to rush this incredible moment. No way.”

She arches her back as I take a nipple into my mouth, wanting more. Those hips are moving, her long legs scissoring, and I loop my thumbs in her little pink panties and pull them down her legs, tossing them onto her discarded dress.

“Gorgeous,” I groan, but she moves her knees together almost shyly, and I shake my head. “Open those pretty thighs for me, baby girl.”

She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, but she does as I ask, letting her thighs fall to the side as her gorgeous eyes never leave mine.

I press my hand to her chest bone, then slowly drag it down. Her breath shudders when I reach her pubis, and I pause.

“You can stop this at any time.”

“No stopping,” she says breathlessly, her chest rising and falling. “Do not stop, Holden.”

I grin, dragging my hand lower, and when I cup her already soaking-wet pussy, she moans.

“I’m the first one to touch this pretty pussy?” I drag my fingertip through her swollen lips, up around her hard clit, and back down again, reveling in the sounds coming from her mouth.

“Yes.” Her hand dives into my hair as I shimmy down to nudge my shoulders between her thighs.

With one long stroke, I lick her from her glistening opening up to her clit, and her hips arch up off of the blanket.

“Holden!”

“Easy,” I croon before licking her again. “Easy, baby.”

She’s fisted the blanket in her hands, her head moving frantically back and forth.

“Look at me, Millie.”

Instantly, she follows that command. My girl is good at taking orders, and it only makes me want her more. I want to pound into her and brand her as mine.

But first, I have to make sure I won’t hurt her.

I press one finger inside of her, and she moans low in her throat. And when I fasten my lips to her clit and rub my fingertip over that spongy spot, she comes undone, bucking against me.

Not able to hold myself in check any longer, I find the condom in my wallet and toss it next to her hip, then strip out of my shirt and jeans, thankful that Millie and I both took off our boots when we got here. Her hands reach for me, gliding down my abs, and I grin at her.

“Like what you see?”

“You’re so sexy. Holy abs, Batman.”

She licks her lips again, and I grab the condom and slip it on, then kiss up her gorgeous body—Jesus, I’ve never seen anyone more beautiful—and kiss her hard as I lay the head of my cock against her.

“Inside me,” she says, holding on to my shoulders. “Please. Please, Holden.”

“We’ll go slow,” I promise her, easing just the tip into her. It takes all of my strength to hold back and not just pound into her, taking what I’ve wanted for weeks.

“Oh, God.” Her eyes close, and I grip her throat.

“Up here, baby. Eyes on me.”

She complies, and I ease in more. One inch at a time, watching her face as she takes me.

“You’re so fucking amazing.” I kiss her lips lightly, breathing in her gasps. “You’re so beautiful. And all mine.”

“Yours,” she agrees, and I push the rest of the way in until I’m buried balls deep, and I pause here, as if I can freeze this moment in time.

“Mine,” I say again as I begin to move. “God, Rosie, you’re so snug. You’re so fucking good.”

And she’s all mine. No other asshole has been here but me. And no one will be. I’ll make fucking sure of that.

“Oh, God,” she says, her eyes widening in alarm, and I feel her start to ripple around me. “Oh, I can’t. This is too much. It’s too much, Holden.”

“Baby,” I whisper against her lips. She’s starting to tremble, to contract more around me. She’s about to have her first orgasm like this, and I fucking love it. “Listen to me. Listen to my voice. It’s okay. Let go, Mill.”

She looks so worried. It’s adorable.

“Trust me,” I remind her, and then her whole body erupts under me as the orgasm moves through her. She throws her head back, her nipples are hard, and her whole body is tight with pleasure.

It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my goddamn life.

And I can’t hold back anymore. I follow her over into the most intense climax I’ve ever had, and I know that my life will never be the same.

Suddenly, she’s giggling beneath me.

“You think that’s funny, wild rose?”

She laughs again, and it makes me groan because her muscles pulse around me.

“Holy shit, we did it.” She’s smiling up at me so big she could light the night sky. “I’d like to do it again.”

“Give me a few to recover, and we’ll see what we can do.”

It’s the best night of my life, lying out here under the stars on this hot summer night, making love to my girl.

My girl.

My Millie.

My little wild rose.

And when the sky begins to lighten with the promise of dawn, we get dressed, smiling softly at each other.

“I’ll see you tonight?” she asks. “At the usual spot?”

“Of course.” I take her wrist and tug her against me, kissing her hard. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

“Have a good day at work,” she whispers against my lips. “I’ll miss you.”

With nothing but Millie and our amazing night together on my mind, I hop out of my truck and start toward the small cabin that I live in here on the Lexington ranch. I moved out of the family home years ago, but I wanted to be close by for my sisters.

“It won’t happen again.”

I stop short and scowl, my hands fisting when I see my father sitting in the one chair on my porch.

“What are you doing here? We don’t start morning chores for an hour.”

“You won’t be with her again,” he repeats. His voice is hard and mean, just like it always is. “The fact that you’ve been fucking around with a Wild is not acceptable.”

“Dad—”

“Shut the fuck up,” he snaps as he stands to his full height. He might be getting older, but he’s still fit from ranch work, and he’s tall. “Whatever the fuck you’ve been playing at is over. You won’t see that whore again.”

Hot blood rushes through my head. I want to fucking kill him.

“I’m an adult ,” I remind him through clenched teeth. “There’s not much you can do about it.”

“Oh, no?” Now that sick, evil grin slides over his face, and I know I’m fucked. “If you don’t stop seeing that cunt, I’ll kill Charlie.”

My heart stutters. My mind spins. Jesus Christ, he can’t be serious.

“I know she’s your favorite. There are a lot of places to hide a body on this ranch. Animals will take care of it for me. Girls get taken all the time.”

“You’re insane.”

“I’m not fucking with you,” he says, losing the smile. “No son of mine is going to so much as sniff at a Wild. You keep it up, and I’ll kill everything you love, starting with that sister of yours. And then I’ll kill that little Wild bitch.”

Terror claws at my throat.

“Charlie’s your daughter. ”

“Who the fuck cares?”

He smirks, walks down the stairs to the truck that I didn’t notice when I pulled up, and drives away.

When he’s out of sight, my knees give out, and I lower to the top step of the porch, covering my face with my hands.

He would do it, too. He’s not bluffing.

God damn it.