To Claim a Wilde. Kimberly Kaye Terry
1
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
“Hey, Canton, check her out, damn. Man...now that’s what you call fine as hell!”
Canton Wilde barely refrained from wincing at the sound of his friend’s booming voice that he could still hear over the loud pumping music being blasted by the massive speakers throughout the building.
Ray was a great friend, great employee, great drinking partner and overall great guy...but volume control, especially when he’d been drinking, was definitely not his strength.
Or something easy to ignore.
The fact that Ray was doing his damnedest to find a candidate for Canton for a one-night stand didn’t make it any easier to ignore either his friend’s loud voice or his intentions.
Yet he’d allowed Ray to convince him to come out for “game night” at one of their favorite watering holes.
He glanced toward the woman Ray was obviously talking about, his beer halfway to his mouth, giving her a casual once-over.
The tall, striking blonde was eyeing him as though he was manna from heaven and her last supper.
He ran an assessing glance over the woman, head to toe, as she posed, cue in hand, butt reared out as she leaned over the pool table, readying her shot.
Already tall, she wore red stilettos that matched the barely there body-hugging scarlet dress, which left nothing to the imagination.
The plunging neckline pushed and pressed up a truly mouthwatering set of breasts, Canton thought, in pure masculine appreciation.
Probably fake.
But hell, she wore ’em well, he thought.
As she leaned over the cue, he knew it was all for show; she’d angled herself to give Canton a good long look at what she had to offer. She was poised for maximum effect, showing off her full hips and round behind.
He briefly wondered if her ass was fake, too. With the growing trend it wasn’t out of the ordinary. He liked a nice rear end on a woman, just like the next man. But he preferred the real deal. One that was firm, but soft to touch.
She made the shot and flipped Canton a triumphant smile, showing perfect winter-white teeth.
She turned to her pool partner, another female, and gave her a high five for the well-made shot before hopping up on her stool.
She wrapped her long hand with its dagger-length crimson-painted nails around her glass and took a delicate sip of her drink.
Canton’s attention, oddly, focused on her long nails, and how perfectly sculpted they were...and how unappealing they were to him.
Something else new for him.
Before, he would have been imagining what those nails could do on his body.
She casually positioned her shapely legs at a perfect angle for Canton to see that she was sans panties. Then flashed him a wink.
If the vibe the blonde was giving off hadn’t been an indication of her interest in him, definitely the audacious flash of bare ass and show of her kitty was, as she returned his stare, boldly and equally assessing.
Her full crimson lips turned up in a seductive little grin...a calculated grin, as she held his gaze.
Canton knew immediately that she was down for...whatever.
But Canton was not.
As attractive and obviously willing as she was, Canton just wasn’t interested.
He gave her a barely discernible nod of acknowledgment for the well-played shot and with a small salute of his beer, brought the bottle to his mouth and turned away.
As he shifted away, Canton noticed her crimson lips turn downward in a soured look of irritation and a hint of embarrassment.
He just wasn’t interested. Not in a one-night stand and definitely not with a woman he didn’t know, not tonight.
In fact, he hadn’t felt the need for that type of adult play in a while. Had it been six months ago, and had he been a single man, no doubt about it, it would have been a different scenario playing out.
But a lot had happened in his world over the past six months, things that made a man look at the world in a slightly different way.
“What the...” He turned at Ray’s incredulous tone. “Are you serious?” Canton barely refrained from truly laughing out loud at the disbelieving look that crossed his friend’s dark brown face. Unknown to him, Ray had been watching the entire exchange.
“Man, you have got to be kidding me!” He shook his head, momentarily at a loss for words. “I thought you were a Wilde!”
Canton’s eyes narrowed as he swallowed the beer lodged in his throat.
He turned to the bartender and nodded his head for another before turning back to face his friend.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean, Ray?” he asked, mildly interested in Ray’s response. “Because I’m a Wilde, I have some obligation to screw any willing female?” he scoffed.
“Uh, yeah... Hell yeah, that’s what it means,” was Ray’s unrepentant reply, forcing a rusty laugh from Canton.
Canton turned back and accepted the beer the bartender had placed in front of him.
“Well, if you don’t want her...” Ray allowed the sentence to hang, his look a cross between hopeful for a chance at the blonde and disgust for his friend’s lack of interest in the willing woman.
With a half grunt, half laugh, Canton nodded his head. “Go for it,” he encouraged, with casual disregard.
Ray took one last swig of his own beer and laid it on the bar counter and turned to face him, a neutral look on his handsome face.
“Man, you need to get laid. How much longer are you gonna think about...stuff?” his friend asked, his voice as calm as his expression. “How much longer are you gonna hold on to—”
“I’m good,” Canton interrupted, before his friend went down that particular path. “Go handle your business, Ray.”
Canton chugged half his beer down with a grimace. The reason for his state of mind lately wasn’t a subject he wanted to talk about, even with his best friend.