Page 139 of Wild Like Us

“Kits—”

“What would you need the rope for?” I want to hear her say it. The air thickens between us, arousal brewing.

“I want to know what it feels like.” She glances down to her wrists where my hands still clutch them tight. “I like when you do this.”

I step closer. Our bodies flush up against each other, and I bend down just slightly so that our lips are a breath away. “Do you like when I kiss you?” I wonder.

“Yeah. I like that, too.” She pulls back to see my eyes. “Do you like when I kiss you?’

“Sulli,” I groan and lean into her lips, kissing her deeply in a better reply. She sinks into me. Her back knocks into one of the canoes, and while we kiss, I step her to the side so they don’t tumble. Crickets chirp loudly around us.

I could stay in this moment forever. Never leave.

Never really want to.

But then I hear a voice that punctures my reality. Rips me from it.

“I’d say I hate to interrupt, but I don’t. And I need to talk to my cousin for a second.”

Sulli and I break apart.

Shit.

In her shock—at the sight of Charlie fucking Cobalt—she stumblesintothe rack of canoes.

They all go down like Jenga pieces. Too quickly to even try to right them, but I stop one from falling on Sulli. Canoe upside-down, Sulli and I hold it above us, our pure shock on each other.

How did I miss him coming in the store?

I ease my gaze on Sulli. Trying to reassure her. But her cousin just saw us making out—this isbad.Another canoe drops on top of the one we’re holding.

Sulli and I support the impact, but I hear a loudercrack.

We look up and see the large fissure.

“You can put the canoe on your business card,” Sulli tells me.

I’d laugh if behind the canoe wasn’t a complete shit show.

“What the hell?!” Chuck yells from deep in the store as we pull the canoe off our heads. But he doesn’t emerge to check on us.

Setting down the canoe on top of the others, footsteps pound through the store’s entrance. “What’s goin’ on?” Banks asks, looking between all of us.

Oscar Highland-Oliveira stops short by Charlie and eyes the canoes. “Everyone alright?”

Anger surges. Oscar doesn’t always provide his location change, and usually I let it slide because he’s dealing with a difficult client. But after the cougar attack, I specifically told him and Farrow,you go anywhere, use comms and give your location, no excuses.

Besides this event being avoided, I should have that intel in case of real emergencies in Yellowstone.

I zero in on him. “Why didn’t you tell me you were on your way here?”

Oscar frowns, skepticism in his eyes. “I lost connection on the road. By the time I came back, we were already here, and Banks just saw us parallel-park outside.”

Charlie stares through me.

I don’t avoid his gaze. I’ve never been intimidated by him, and I’ve always found ways out of impossible situations. But my mistake isn’t a typical one that I ever make.

I’ve given a twenty-two-year-old the perfect ammunition to cause ultimate chaos.