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RILEY

I was the kind of girl who’d been dying to be an adult since she was ten. I was sure it had everything to do with my mom leaving when I was so little. It wasn’t the urge to grow up and leave home that some young people had. It was more out of me trying to take the place of my mom. I wanted to fill her shoes–or at least those of a real mom–and create that sense of home that I never had. I wanted to make a family of my own, one with a mother–me–and a father. Kids. Holidays. Soccer games. Ballet. Swim lessons. All of it. I wanted to be there for my kids when they came home from school. Bake cookies for the various holidays .

Instead, since Mom ran off, it’d been me and my dad. No homemade treats. No mom hugs. As an adult, I could make what I wanted and not just sit on the sidelines.

So the satisfaction of getting to go to a bar before I was twenty-one went beyond every college kid’s desire to party. It made me feel like I finally arrived. I crossed that finish line into adulthood that I’d been gunning for since I was a young girl.

Maybe having a guy eat my pussy was also part of it. Oh… and finger me in a public restroom. Especially when the guy was the one whose bar I was visiting. He wanted me.

His texts the night before had been demanding. Possessive. Naughty.

I loved every one of them.

Every minute at work seemed like five, but the time finally came. I strutted through the door at Cody’s Saloon wearing a crop-top, short skirt, and cowgirl boots like I owned the place.

And–oh my God–if Cody and I really became an item, I kind of would.

But I was getting way ahead of myself.

He’d mentioned about me being his mate. That our bodies were made for each other, or something like that, but I’d been too intoxicated by his nearness to ask questions. Not just nearness. His mouth and fingers. Like he said, I’d been come drunk, too sated by all the orgasms.

After all that, I had no idea what he meant by any of it.

My takeaway had been that our bodies were super compatible, so I’d thought it was just about sex. Then he’d refused to take my V-card.

The whole thing felt like a fuzzy dream, and I wasn’t sure if I’d made it all up. What girl had a guy like Cody follow her into a restroom and make her come… and nothing else? After everything we’d done so far, which wasn’t all that much but a lot for me, I still hadn’t seen or touched or sucked his dick.

I’d gone out on a few dates before. Matt had asked me. I’d said yes. We’d gone to get ice cream at the Sweet Cow seasonal drive in. I’d known what was up. I’d known when he kissed me and told me I wasn’t good at it that it was over.

It had sucked, but it had been clear cut.

Cody?

Confusing!

The moment I walked through the front door of Cody’s and spotted him behind the bar, his eyes snapped to mine. By his look alone, I knew he’d meant what he said .

He was real. The thing between us was real. I could tell by the intensity of his gaze. The way his eyes flashed amber even across the bar, as if I glimpsed his wolf lurking beneath all that hard-packed muscle.

A half dozen other men looked my way, too. I was sure I looked like fresh meat–dressed to kill, young, and not a regular. Some faces I recognized. It was a small town, and Dad was deputy sheriff. But these were adults, not kids. This was… different.

One man smiled as he approached. Stood right before me. “Hey, pretty girl. Never seen you before.”

Yeah, I hadn’t seen him before either. While he didn’t send up any creepy vibes, I realized this was how adults picked each other up. Bars. Bad lines.

“Nope,” I replied with a fake smile, hoping it would get him to look for a little fun elsewhere.

Of course, Cody picked up on what was happening. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his body go taut as he sent a dark look the guy’s way. Next thing I knew, he barreled out from behind the bar and shouldered the guy out of the way. More like body-slammed him because he got knocked back a foot, sloshing his beer in the process.

A possessive hand settled around my waist.

“Taken,” Cody snapped at the guy while keeping his eyes on me. He tipped his chin down, met my eyes, and expected the guy would leave, which he did. “Riley.”

It was as if the entire confrontation never happened. Or that he pretty much peed on me, so the guy knew I wasn’t looking for fun with anyone but Cody. Just like at the bowling alley but a hell of a lot less subtly.

Damn. I loved how that felt. Being claimed by a possessive male. By the very hot owner of the most popular bar in Cooper Valley. An older man.

“You look incredible.” He leaned down as if to kiss me but then seemed to think better of it, sending a quick glance around before he ushered me–with that big hand settled gently at my lower back–to a barstool at the bar. Before I could climb up on it, he lifted me by the waist–like I weighed exactly nothing–and gently settled me on the seat.

So. Those muscles weren’t just for show.

“Are you showing off?” I murmured.

“Definitely,” he growled in return. “Working?” He offered me a wink before circling around the bar. He leaned down on his forearms right in front of me.

His gaze held mine. There was the look that made my stomach flip. The dark look. The intensity. As if he could see past my “I’m a grown-up” facade and see the nervous girl. The inexperienced virgin. To see me .

“I’m glad you came, sugar.”

Cue the blush because I remembered his dirty texts from the night before. I definitely came.

My cheeks turned fiery hot. I couldn’t help but smile because he hadn’t meant that at all. Not entirely. “Quite the place you got here,” I commented, trying to get my mind out of the gutter.

He grinned. I swooned.

“I forget you’ve never been in here before.”

I shrugged. “Everyone knows me in Cooper Valley or at least knows I’m not twenty-one. No way my friends and I could try to get a drink. I wouldn’t get past the door, and then someone would tell my dad.”

God, I sounded like I was thirteen going to a middle school dance and sneaking a cigarette.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to bring him up,” I muttered.

He cocked his head. “Your dad? Why not?”

“I bet the other women you date don’t have to deal with an overbearing, gun-toting father.”

“True.”

“Cody!” His name got yelled down the bar.

Cody pushed up to standing and turned his head. The other bartender caught his gaze. The line of people waiting for drinks was three deep. He nodded before grabbing a glass, loading it with ice from the chest below the bar, then using the tap to fill it with soda.

“Gotta go pour some beers.” He set the drink in front of me. “What do you want to eat? Burger?”

I nodded. That sounded so good. After a day with toddlers, I wanted more than carrot sticks and fish-shaped crackers. “With cheese?”

He nodded. “Fries?” he asked.

“Yes, please.”

He wrapped his knuckles on the bar. “Stay right there, sugar.”

Over the next half hour, I watched Cody at work while I ate my dinner. He filled pitchers and poured shots. Collected money and chatted it up. He was easygoing and calm, even in the craziness of the bar. When it was hectic with customers, he remained steady, quick with a joke or a smile. He glanced my way often, as if checking I was still there. One guy started talking me up, but Cody came down the line to stand before us. “Move it along, Paul. She’s taken.”

Taken.

I didn’t know if it was that one word, the glare, or the growly voice that had Paul tip his cowboy hat my way and run scared. They had a different effect on me, though. That dominance made my panties damp and my nipples hard. Either the earlier guy and Paul were meek men, or Cody was just that possessive or both, but I was starting to see the kind of man that drew me in. Got me running hot.

“Hey, tiger. Been a long time.”

I blinked and realized I wasn’t the only one with hard nipples. The woman who’d sauntered up to the bar beside me was in a tight t-shirt, tight enough to know she’d be able to feed her children with ease with huge boobs and very pointy tips. She might poke someone’s eye out with those things.

I also realized that the tiger she spoke to was Cody. It was her turn to sit her forearms on the bar, which only put that t-shirt elasticity to the test. There was no question she knew what she was doing.

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes then give her credit. If she had it, she should flaunt it. But at Cody?

“Hey Tessa.” Cody wiped the bar top and tossed down a coaster. “Wine spritzer?”

She gave him a megawatt smile. “You remember what I like. I remember what you like, too.”

Maybe I was still a kid because I felt like gagging. And clawing her eyes out. It was clear they’d been together in the past. He’d done things with her he hadn’t done with me.

Oh shit .

I set my burger on my plate and wiped my mouth with my napkin. Had he gone down on her, too?

I glanced at her body–lithe and thin–and the snug Daisy Duke jean shorts she had on. I would think a quarter would bounce off that butt. And her legs… long and toned. She was beautiful, bold, obviously experienced… and Cody’s age.

They probably had a lot in common.

All of a sudden, I felt like a girl in her mother’s closet trying on her high-heeled shoes and makeup. I wasn’t fierce. I couldn’t hip check the woman and growl taken. She’d probably claw my eyes out with her talon-like fake nails. Sure, I felt like I’d been taken by Cody, but had he been taken by me?

Cody sat a glass on the bar, filled it a third with wine, added seltzer with the soda dispenser, then set it on the coaster. “All I’m offering is the drink.”

His gaze flicked to me, which had Tessa turning her head to look down at me. I was a foot shorter sitting on the stool.

She cocked her head, her blonde hair styled with thick curls, slid over her shoulder as she took me in. I wasn’t sure if her sparing me only a second or two of her time was a good thing or a bad one. Either she found me lacking or didn’t give me much notice.

Both stung .

She was who Cody should be with. Why wasn’t he claiming her ? Why didn’t he say she was his mate? It was obvious she wanted to be. Was I all confused about the mate thing because I was young and na?ve? Did Tessa know and want it? Want him?

It seemed so.

“You sure?” she practically purred. “I can meet you in the storeroom again.”

“All good, Tessa.” He looked to me, his gaze flicking to my mouth and back to my eyes. Winked. “I've got what I need.”

Tessa turned to me again, studied me a little more closely this time. Her fake eyelashes fluttered as she narrowed her gaze. Okay, it was time to go. I might be able to get through the door, but I was playing at grown up here.

“Thanks for the burger, Cody.” I climbed from the stool. “I need to get going. I have to be at work early tomorrow.”

Tessa sniffed. “Yes, it’s probably past your bedtime, isn’t it, sweetheart?”

“Tessa,” Cody warned. He looked troubled, like maybe he agreed I was too young. “I’ll see you later, Riley.”

That was it. See you later. As in a brush off. I’d heard that sentence from Matt and Ethan. Knew it meant they definitely wouldn’t be seeing me later.

A slow smile spread across Tessa’s face. One of success. Of power.

She won, that was for sure. She just didn’t know there really wasn’t any competition. Because I had no doubt that she would get her way, get Cody in the storeroom, and have him call her his mate by last call.