To Claim a Wilde (Wilde In Wyoming Book 6) (2 page)

He felt an answering grin lift the corners of his own mouth, upward.

Canton hadn’t felt like this in a long, long time.

He felt...
light
, happy for no damn reason on earth besides looking at her.

His body hardened, every thing about him focused on
her
. His cock thumped against his zipper, hardening, reacting to
her
.

As though she knew his thoughts, her eyes dipped for a moment in a charming display of shyness before reconnecting with his, her pretty full smile still in place. The effect on his body was unlike anything.

His cock hardened to pain, but Canton welcomed it as though it were a homecoming of sorts.

Beneath the bright light, Canton could have sworn he saw color blossom on her cheeks. As though she knew what she had done to him.

The little vixen, he thought, as a laugh escaped his mouth.

She was his.

Right then, right there, he decided.

It made no sense, no rhyme or reason.

If he weren’t so focused on her, he’d think of what Ray would say, think, if he knew.

Probably that Canton had lost his mind. Moments before, he’d assured his friend the last thing on his mind was a woman, one-night stand or otherwise.

He hadn’t lied.

In a blink of an eye, fate had something else in mind.

He felt it in his gut. His Wilde instinct.

His family were firm believers and followers of the Wilde instinct. An instinct their pop had trained them, from childhood onward, to believe in and follow.

The Wilde instinct was a part of their DNA as much as the height and blue eyes all the Wilde men shared.

That same Wilde instinct told him in the far recesses of his mind to get out now, if he wasn’t ready. Now, before it was too late.

He placed the empty beer bottle behind him, blindly, never losing eye contact with the woman.

He
was
ready. He’d never been so ready in all of his life.

* * *

“Girl, come
on
, loosen up, let’s have fun! But that can’t happen if you keep turning your nose up like that!” Alyssa Thomas groused to her best friend, Naomi McBride, as soon as the skimpily clad, weary-looking waitress placed their drinks in front of them, collected the money and left.

“And for the love of
God, please
, take that jacket off! I swear if you fiddle with the buttons one more time...just
one
more time—”

“What? What will you do?” Naomi challenged.

Alyssa narrowed her eyes. “I’m gonna fight you like a man!”

That made Naomi laugh, as it had been Alyssa’s favorite threatening phrase since they were children.

She snorted, shooting Alyssa a glance. “Really? And how long have you been threatening me with that?” she said and both young women erupted into laughter, remembering.

They’d been friends from childhood, ever since Naomi had stood up for Alyssa to the school bully. Not by fighting, but with her words, something Naomi was very good at doing.

At the end of her sophisticated tirade against the bully—well, she’d thought it sophisticated at the ripe old age of seven—the bully looked as though she were about to go “in” on both her and Alyssa, not impressed at all with Naomi’s serious words.

So Naomi, with her young face set, hands on hips, told the bully that she’d “fight her like a man” if she ever looked like she wanted to beat Alyssa up again.

She’d no idea where the crazy threat had come from, she thought with a laugh. She’d been just as scared, if not more, of the class bully, but she’d forced the fear away as she stood up to the much bigger girl, not backing down.

Words were all she had, as she knew the girl could beat her up.

Even at a young age, Naomi had used her words as her sword. Either it was the crazy threat or the way she said it that made the bully back away, mumbling about how they’d better stay on
their
side of the playground. It had become Naomi and Alyssa’s private laugh for fourteen years.

After sobering, Alyssa pinned her friend with her signature look. Naomi refused to squirm beneath her friend’s piercing gray eyes, feeling like a specimen under a microscope.

“Quit staring at me like that. And giving me that cray-cray look of yours. Gives me the creeps,” Naomi groused.

“What look?” Alyssa asked, feigning innocence, holding her cheeks taut as though holding back a laugh.

“You know what look. Don’t even try it. The same look you probably give to one of the frogs in your lab, rubbing your hands together in glee,
right
before you start slicing into the poor little guy,” Naomi mumbled, making Alyssa’s tinkling laugh ring out.

Which in turn made Naomi grin. Her friend’s light, infectious laugh could make anyone smile. Unlike Naomi’s laugh, big and full, a laugh she’d always been self-conscious about. It was just so...big. Only a few had heard her full laugh, and even fewer had made her laugh that way.

“Poor guy, huh? You know, if you want to be a doctor, you’re going to be doing a whole lotta dicing yourself. And not on anything so mild as a frog’s anatomy!”

“Yeah, but I’ll be in the biz of
healing
and helping children...not dissecting and
murdering
innocent amphibians!” she quipped, and both women chuckled.

“Really, with that vivid imagination of yours with the whole ‘rubbing my hands together in glee,’ as I ‘murder’ poor amphibians, on the real, girl, I’m truly convinced that you just might have missed your calling as a writer!” Alyssa said, and they both laughed.

“Listen, Ne Ne,” Alyssa said, automatically calling her by her childhood nickname of long ago. “We are graduating in a month
and
it’s your birthday!” She paused and gave Naomi a considering look before continuing. “Come on, girl, it’s not every day a woman turns twenty-one! And you promised me on your birthday you’d—”

Naomi held up a hand to stall the rest of her friend’s sentence. “I know, I know, I promised I’d loosen up and, well, umm...”

Alyssa cocked a brow. “And...” she said, allowing the rest of the sentence to dangle, waving a hand encouraging Naomi to continue.

“And find a man to deflower me,” she said, clenching her teeth in an attempt not to laugh.

Alyssa gave up a combo half giggle, half groan at Naomi’s words. “Girl, stop! No you didn’t say ‘deflower’!” Both women laughed outright. “And no I didn’t mean it like that, I just meant have fun, loosen up and well...” Her voice trailed off.

“I’m waiting,” Naomi broke in, when apparently Alyssa seemed hesitant to finish her sentence. Again she felt laughter ready to bubble forth. Maybe this was just what she needed. It had been a while since she had, as Alyssa said, loosened up.

Naomi was celebrating a momentous birthday, and she, as well as her friend, was finishing her senior year at the university, although Alyssa was older than Naomi by a year. Naomi had completed her undergraduate work in three years, shaving off a year, and Alyssa had completed her basic training in the air force for ROTC before entering the university. The two were as close as sisters, and had been since they were children.

“Besides, it’s kinda too late for the whole ‘deflowering’ thing, if you remember?” Naomi reminded her friend.

“Girl, please...that don’t even
count
. Didn’t you know that if the first time wasn’t any good, you get a do-over? What? Yes. A do-over!” she said, snapping her fingers together. “But that ain’t none of my business, though!” she finished with a smirk and lifted her glass to her mouth and took a sip...staring at Naomi over the rim.

Again Naomi laughed.

“Well, be that as it may. My one and only time left a lot to be desired. And not only that, but I haven’t even dated since then. Not that I’ve had all that much experience anyway,” Naomi said with a glum look.

“And whose fault is that?”

“Doesn’t matter. You know school comes—” Naomi replied, ready to shoot with her standard answer.

“First,” Alyssa interrupted and filled in for her, raising a palm. “Yeah, yeah, I know. You’ve always got that answer locked and loaded, girlfriend, ready to fire. But you promised we’d celebrate your birthday and graduation. What better way than to find some sexy beast and let him have his way with you, oooh Papi give it to me,” Alyssa quipped, making goofy kissing sounds as she pooched her lips out. Naomi groaned at the cheesy reference to her favorite, even cheesier, classic romance film, but had to laugh along with Alyssa at her crazy antics.

It wasn’t that Naomi didn’t want to loosen up, as Alyssa said, and have fun. She’d just always been so focused.

Besides, most of the boys her own age just didn’t do it for her. They all seemed so...young.

She sighed. “I don’t know, Lyssa. What if I do
it
and end up falling in love with said guy I do
it
with, quit school, stay around here in Wyoming, have a bunch of kids, and never fulfill my dream of being a doctor? Huh? Huh? What then?” she asked, half joking, half serious. It was one of her fears to stay in their hometown and do...nothing with her life.

“Really, Ne Ne? All that is going to happen? Girl, I swear you’re going into the wrong profession. You should really think about becoming a writer!”

“Ha!” Naomi replied, taking a drink and settling back in her seat.

“Listen, I’m not saying you gotta fall in love with the first guy you get involved with or do
it
with!” She stopped and qualified the statement, as Naomi opened her mouth. “Reallllly do it with,” she said, and Naomi grunted. “Girl, just do it, have fun and move on! Seriously, that’s my motto. Ain’t nobody got time for falling in love!” Alyssa chuckled at her own joke.

“Hmm. I don’t know. Most of the guys I know just don’t do it for me. At all. Not even a little bit,” Naomi replied with a deep sigh.

Feeling warm, she stood up to take off her leather jacket, to which Alyssa shot her an approving look and mumbled, “Finally!”

“And I think you’ve been reading those romance books of yours way too much. Trust me, if it were that easy to find Mr. Right, I would have been married with a bunch of kids a
long
time ago! And besides, what if that did happen, would that be so bad? Tall, dark and fine could be just the ticket for you! Have a hot, sexy brief affair, release some of that tension you carry around like a bad habit. Hmmm.” Alyssa stopped, a thoughtful expression crossing her small gamine features as she took a sip of her drink, lost in thought.

Naomi was contemplative when her friend grew quiet, and she removed her jacket, feeling warm and actually more comfortable than she thought she would feel.

Maybe Alyssa was right.

Maybe a fun rendezvous was all she needed, with a tall, dark— Her thoughts were cut short when she looked up, her jacket in her hand, and met the cornflower-blue eyes of one of the hottest men in Wyoming, Canton Wilde.

She swallowed, hard.

Although she was younger than Canton by at least three or four years, Naomi knew of him. Heck, every female under the age of ninety-nine in and around Cheyenne knew of Canton, as well as his siblings. Not only were they one of the richest families in the area, if not the richest, the men were so hot, so sought-after, they could all collectively star in their own reality show, of the
Bachelor
competition variety.

Tall, he had to be over well over six feet, easily a full foot taller than her own five feet four inches.

From where he stood, the light from the bar showed his full body, face and all. But in reality, Naomi knew what he looked like from memory.

He wore his dark blond hair closely cropped to his well-shaped head, while a stubble of a beard the same dark blond shade shadowed his chiseled squared jaw. His long nose was aquiline. And she knew that the slight bump in the center, he’d gotten being tackled in high school while playing football.

Her glance slid over his beautiful male form.

Casually, he wore jeans that sculpted and hugged his thick thighs and muscular legs. The light from the bar seemed to focus on the center of his jeans, and his zipper, and the distinct bulge thereabouts. Or maybe it was her own lust that had her helplessly gazing at the man’s crotch like some kind of wanton woman.

Whatever it was, helpless, she stared at him, transfixed. She forced her gaze away and met his eyes, his glance hot and filled with something she dare not name...

Was it her imagination, or was she really seeing what she thought she was seeing? Naomi wondered, wetting her lips with a quick swipe of her tongue. And if so, then...dare she?

Why not? she thought, a plan forming in her mind. Why not...proposition Canton Wilde? Not as if it hadn’t happened to him before; she well knew his rep. Besides, who better to really, uh, deflower her than him, she thought, feeling bolder by the millisecond as she allowed the wild thought to marinate in her mind.

She bit her lower lip, wondering if she
dared
to be so bold?

Naomi let go of her lip and smiled.

It was small at first. Just one side of her mouth kicked up.

The stronger the thought took root in her mind, the naughtier, the bolder, she felt.

Empowered, even.

Now both sides of her mouth lifted up, until a full-toothed smile took over her face with a mind of its own.

His bright cornflower-blue eyes widened, and his own very sensual mouth lifted in the corner. Naomi just about melted right there on the spot. Dear God, the man was beyond sexy. He oozed sex appeal like other men sweat.

Question was, did she have what it took to actually go through with what was fermenting in her mind?

They held each other’s gazes, communicating on some odd, unique wavelength that was new, fresh, exciting. One that only they felt, only they knew about.

It was as though they were sharing some secret of the universe that no one else could claim.

The club, the noise, Alyssa, all faded away as she held Canton Wilde’s penetrating, hypnotic deep blue gaze.

Her nipples hardened beneath her gauzy blouse.

As though he knew, though there was no
way
he could tell from their distance away from each other, Canton’s gaze wandered, briefly, to her breasts before returning to her eyes.