Page 8 of The Wildest One

“What am I doing right now? Or what do I want to do?”

“Right now.”

“I’m chasing you like a puck.”

I laughed. “Why?”

“Because I want more.”

“Of what?”

“You.”

A reply that rocked me so hard.

“But you know nothing about me.”

“What you’ve told me, which has only been a little, is nothing more than a fucking tease. That’s why I’m saying, I want more. Your name, what inspired it, your age, birthplace, college—it’s not enough, Jolie.”

I brought the drink up to my lips, my hand not stable, so I added my other hand too. “I find that so funny.”

“You do?”

“This bar is filled with women?—”

“And not a single one interests me. Before I saw you, my plan was to finish my beer and leave. You changed that. I told you, as soon as my eyes landed on you, all I wanted was to talk to you.”

I couldn’t believe a word of what I was hearing. Not that he was lying, but that he was saying these things to me.

Regardless of how mind-boggling this was, the more he spoke, the longer I could look at him—and that was something I wanted more of.

“All right, Beck. What do you want to know?”

He crossed an arm over his chest. “You’ll tell me anything?”

“I’ll welcome the questions. Whether I answer them? That’s up for debate.”

He huffed out some air as he smiled. “Are you single?”

“Wow.” I glanced around us. People were moving so fast; no one was listening or even paying attention to us. “You’re going right in …”

“If I was going right in, my hands would be on your body, and my lips would be on yours. This is nothing more than a conversation.”

He had a kind of charm I’d never experienced before.

I attempted to swallow. “I’m beyond single.”

“You say that like there are different levels.”

“There’s the desire to date, but doing nothing about it.” I held up a finger, signaling this was level one. “There’s actively seeking out dates.” I added a second finger. “And there’s wanting nothing to do with dating.” A third finger joined, and I waved the bunch in the air. “I’m in thewanting nothing to do with datingphase.”

“Why?”

I sighed. This topic was rearing its ugly head again, but this time, it was in front of an audience that filled me with the most nervous energy. “Time.”

“As someone who spends a lot of that on the road, I can appreciate your stance.”

“Are you single?”