Chasing The Wild (Crimson Ridge Book 1)

The lock clicks on the door and Layla stands before me, hands tucked behind her lower back leaning against the wood, hitting me with the biggest green eyes.

She looks like a fucking goddess.

I’m going out of my mind. This is the moment, right here, when I’ve officially lost it.

We’re locked in this tiny bathroom together and I don’t know how long it’s going to be before Kayce or his pregnant girlfriend comes looking for where we’ve both gone, but I couldn’t breathe without getting Layla alone.

Seeing what just went down, watching those assholes dare get close to her again, that’s when it all clicked for me.

I can’t fix what my grandfather did, no matter how often I’ve tried to right the wrongs of the past. These two men are intent on being just as predatory and abusive to others. Hayes didn’t need more than a second to realize what they were doing, right out in the open because they’ve grown cocky and consider themselves bulletproof. This time, they were their own downfall, and I certainly wasn’t about to stop him from making that arrest.

Not this time. Not when it comes to my girl.

“You ok?” I close the short distance between us, needing to touch her. Needing to check that she’s alright.

She nods, her hands fly up to fist the front of my shirt, and I drop my head into her neck.

“So much better now.” She hums, arching, giving me greater access to that sensitive spot right above her wildly fluttering pulse.

Her voice is a little thick and raspy with the drinks she’s had tonight. I’ve tried to keep count, but without drawing undue attention by staring at her the entire time, it was impossible to know for sure. As far as I can tell she’s not out of her head, or too far gone to make decisions.

At least, I hope to god the fact Layla followed me here doesn’t feel like a choice fueled by alcohol and lust when she wakes up in the morning. We might have been inseparable for weeks, but I couldn’t handle thinking that she might regret the risk attached to a moment like this.

Though, I’m not sure I’m capable of letting her leave my arms right now.

Sucking in a deep inhale, she smells like the only good thing in my life. The thing I’m so close to losing forever.

“Did you see what happened out there?” Her voice sounds raspy and sexy, and that reminds me I’ve been too entranced, nuzzling her neck, inhaling her scent like a madman, and haven’t actually responded out loud.

“I did. Those assholes are done.” I hate that right now I’ve only got a rapidly evaporating number of minutes alone with her, yet Henrik and Alton Pierson are who we’re talking about. “Sheriff Hayes will make sure something sticks to them this time.”

“That girl.” Layla’s fingers slide up around my neck. “They gave her something.”

“Hayes had one of his off-duty’s grab her. He saw what they did.” My lips brush a hot, wet, seeking trail over her neck, and Layla whimpers. Fuck, it lights my body up to be able to touch her even though it has only been a couple of days. “Please don’t stress, they’ll make sure she’s taken care of and is safe.”

“I’m sorry, Colt. Tonight has been so messed up.”

Don’t I fucking know it.

“I know. God, I know. But you’ve got nothing to apologize for. What can I do to make it better, angel? Tell me.”

“Unless you can erase everything outside…” Her fingers toy with the hair at my nape and I already know I’m about to make a reckless fucking decision.

One hand comes up to the front of her neck, settling over the slender column of her throat, and she makes a needy little noise.

“As much as I wish it was possible, I can’t get rid of anything on the other side of that door…” My fingers flex in the way I know she loves, giving a little bit of added pressure that draws out another whimper. Lips hovering over hers, I’m damn well lost, all I see and breathe is this stunning girl. “But I can help erase those racing thoughts filling your head. Do you want that, sweetheart?”

“We can’t… it’s too risky… not in here…” Layla’s pink tongue darts out to wet her lips, and I groan. There’s nothing that could keep me away from her right now.

I’m so fucking gone for this girl.

Fuck the whole world on the other side of that locked exit.

I crash our mouths together and hoist her against me. Devouring every little needy noise she makes and the way our bodies fit so fucking perfectly. Spinning us both, I drop her onto the counter beside the basin. There’s not a lot of space to move, but there’s no goddamn way I’m letting that stop me.

“You’re going to have to behave and keep quiet.” Biting her lower lip, I slide my palms to ruck her dress up over her thighs. I want to spend forever tasting her mouth, but right now, I’m starving for more than just her kisses. I need her shattering on my tongue, and I need to get inside her, and we’re already being risky enough by spending this long in here.

Dropping down onto one knee in front of my girl, that position allows my palms to skate across her skin at eye level. From here I can soak up every shaky breath and quiver she emits above me. “Do I need to stuff your mouth with something, or can you be a good girl and keep quiet for me?”

I know, without a doubt, she’s turned on as all hell right now. There’s not enough time for everything I want to do, so for the moment I gotta ignore my intensely painful hard-on pressing against my fly and get my mouth on her.

“Oh god. I want you so bad.” Layla pants, looking down at me.

“I know, baby. It’s been hell for me, too.” I drag her hips forward to perch on the edge of the counter, then press her knees wide.

“We can’t do this.” She protests, but that morphs into a gasp when I roughly hook my fingers beneath her panties, pulling them to one side, and cover her pussy with my mouth.

I don’t have the luxury of endless minutes to argue this out. The longer we talk, the less time I’ve got to make her fall apart, and I’m a man fucking possessed. Feasting on her sweet cunt, letting her hold me tight against her swollen clit as she makes desperate, strained noises above me.

It’s taking everything in her not to be loud, I can tell.

She’s so goddamn sexy and perfect and tastes like mine.

Just as her thighs start shaking and her fingers dig into my scalp—just as she’s almost fucking there—a heavy pounding bangs on the door.

Layla jerks above me, but I keep going. Stiffening my tongue to massage her clit faster and harder.

“Layla? You in there?”

“Oh my god,” she whispers, panic causing her to go rigid. She pulls my hair, trying to get me off her. For a split second the thought crosses my mind. We should stop. I should stop. But that door right there is locked and I’m struggling to find any last shred of reasoning to deter me from this course.

Her taste is already on my lips, and I’m intent on seeing my perfect goddamn girl fall to pieces for me. No. There’s no fucking way, I’m already in too deep.

“Layla?” There’s more banging. It’s Kayce, who is drunk, on the other side of the door while I’ve got my tongue shoved in Layla’s pussy and she’s about ten seconds from soaking my face as she unravels like a dream come true.

“Uhh… yeah?” She finds her voice, sounding more than a little shaky, meeting my eyes as I look up at her from the only place I want to be. I keep going, sucking and licking her clit, and shake my head from side to side. Layla draws in a sharp inhale when I dig my fingers into her soft flesh and work her relentlessly.

With my eyes, I let her know exactly how this is going to play out.

I’m not fucking stopping.

“Are you all good in there?” My goddamn son is still on the other side of the door.

“I’m—” I can tell she’s about to come. Whimper. “I’m ok.” Gasp. “Be out soon.” Her voice cracks and there’s a hitch in her tone. She sinks her fingers into my hair, holding tighter, directing me exactly where she wants me.

Goddamn I love this girl.

“Ok. I’m gonna go try to find my dad. He’s disappeared somewhere, but I guess we should leave, if you’re ready to get outta here.”

I see it in her face. The scrunch between her eyes. The way her cheeks flush and the second her jaw drops open. Her climax tugs her under, body tightening as her pretty lips hang open.

“Ok. Yes. Yesss.” She sucks in a breath and it hits. The force of her orgasm makes her thighs squeeze my head, and her body jerks as the waves roll through her.

I don’t waste another second.

Christ. I have no idea if Kayce is still standing somewhere just outside, but holy shit, my dick is rock hard and leaking pre-cum. I have to have her right here and now, fuck the consequences.

If a shitty bathroom in the back of a bar when Layla’s had one too many shots is all we get, then it’ll have to do.

Dragging her limp body off the counter, I twist her around, draping her torso over the flat surface to face the mirror, devouring the way her tits threaten to spill out the top of this dress that was obviously designed to worship her body.

“God, you’re a fucking vision, angel.”

“I need you, Daddy. So bad.” She watches me through hooded eyes in the mirror’s reflection as I free myself from my jeans.

Fisting the hem of her dress, I drape it up over her lower back, exposing her ass. Tugging her panties to one side again, I’ve got my cock in one hand, and glide it through her slickness to coat the head and nearly fucking die at how hot and wet and velvety she always feels.

“Christ. I missed your perfect little cunt.”

“I missed your cock.” Her teeth catch her bottom lip, and I hold her mossy green eyes in the mirrored reflection as I press forward. It’s heaven. Right here with her, under these shitty fluorescent lights, being wrapped in her gaze as I shove forward into her tight, silky heat. It’s always perfect with her.

We mold and fit together without question, and it’s so much more than just sex, but holy fuck, if it isn’t always so soul-destroyingly incredible with this girl.

“Ffuuuck.” Her eyes roll back in her head as I push forward.

“You’re so fucking wet.” My teeth are gritted. “Always so fucking wet.” The feel of her is too much. Fluttering and clenching around me already, like she’s still coming from my tongue before, or maybe she’s so worked up she’s already on the edge of coming again.

We’re both wrapped up in the heat and desperation of this moment. Layla has her bottom lip trapped between her teeth, looking at me in the mirror the whole time as I thrust, and the urgency to have my girl takes hold. It feels like forever since we last did this, the temptation to draw everything out beckons, but it’s too easy to completely lose track of time when I’m with her.

“I’m so close…” Layla whimpers, and that strikes a match. I don’t know what fucking takes hold of me, but maybe it’s the fact I know that this time is most likely to be the last time I ever get to be with her.

“You want to come?”

She makes a pleading noise. Her cunt tightening around my length as I punch my hips against her ass.

“Then let me hear it. Nice and quiet for me.” My eyes hold hers in the mirror as the filthy, wet sounds of our fucking echos off the tiles. “Shhhh. Be a good girl. You’re doing so well. We don’t want anyone to find out I’m fucking you in here.”

“You feel so good.” Her whisper floats out, horny and soft as silk.

“Quietly, baby. I want to hear you begging. I want to hear you saying my name.” Goddamn the way she grips me tighter each time I tell her to be quiet.

“Please. I miss you.”

“You want me to fill you up, angel?”

“I want that so bad. Yes.”

“Do you want to walk out of here knowing your pretty little pussy is leaking my cum? Want to feel me running down your legs?”

Layla bites her lip so hard I worry she’s going to end up bruised. But holy shit. Holy shit. The way she flutters and tries to suck me deeper. I’m seeing stars, and the pressure and need to blow inside her velvety channel is already locked in at the base of my spine.

“Please. Please, Colt.”

Hearing my name in that sweet little breathy whisper is what drags us both toward the edge.

“That’s it, you’re doing so well. Taking me so beautifully. You’re always so fucking perfect.” Beneath me, the girl who holds my entire battered and barely functioning heart in her hands is falling apart as I quietly murmur praise and talk her through it.

“Colt… Colt… Oh god. I…”

“I know, angel.” My jaw is clenched tighter than ever, and my fingers dig so goddamn hard into the swell of her hips. Maybe it’ll be the last thing I can leave as a reminder of us. Every brutal thrust forward reminds me that it won’t be enough, because even if she walks out of here full of my cum and with bruises where my fingers have been, those temporary things will be gone all too soon. “I just want to own every inch of you and mark you as mine. You’ve got me going insane for you, angel.”

Layla whimpers, eyes turning that deep shade of green. I know she’s about to fall apart, and I know it’s right there.

“Colt—I—”

She’s biting back what wants to come out.

I know it because I’m doing the same thing.

Shaking my head, I grunt. “I’m not going to say those words. We’re not going to, baby. Not here. Not in a bathroom. They’re right there on my tongue. You know they are, and they’re all yours, but it won’t be like this because I would hate myself forever.”

With that, I surge forward, snaking one hand beneath her panties to find her clit, and I pinch down on the pouting bud beneath my calloused fingers.

Layla’s mouth drops open in a silent cry as she clamps down around my cock. Her climax drags mine out of me at the same time, and I’m cursing beneath my breath as I pump into her. Cum spurts in thick ropes, and time stands still for that moment when it’s just our two bodies tumbling through that haze of pleasure and bliss together.

God, I don’t know how long we’ve been in here. My brain is blank and my cock doesn’t seem to get the message that we have to end things. I’ve gotta get Layla cleaned up and sneak her out of here before it’s obvious she’s been in this bathroom for a very fucking long time.

“Stay there, baby.” I ease out of her and grab a couple of paper towels, tidying up quickly and tucking myself away. Helping her stand up, I turn my girl around to face me.

Her eyes are glossy. Both with pleasure, and I suspect, a whole lot of emotion.

I go to lower myself down, to help clean her up, but she stops me before I can sink to my knees and shakes her head. “No. Leave it. I want to feel you there.”

Goddamn. I let the air whoosh out of my lungs, the crumpled paper falls discarded to the floor. Cupping her face in my palms, I seek out her lips.

This time when our mouths connect, it’s slow and sensual and feels like divine torture. There’s so much emotion flowing between us. It’s written there in each achingly soft glide of our tongues as they slide and twine, each tiny flex of her fingertips as she clings tightly onto my wrists.

When I draw back and rest our foreheads together, Layla makes a pained noise. “Why does this feel like goodbye?”

Fuck. I know we still have to drive back to the ranch together tonight, and she’s not gone from my life just yet, but my girl is right. This feels like something so much more than a desperate need to dive into each other while locked away in a bar bathroom.

Clearing my throat, I rest my lips against her brow. “I shouldn’t admit this, so please don’t say anything back, Layla. But one look at you, and I’m lost inside you. I’m sinking deeper, but it’s the opposite of drowning. For what it’s worth, whatever this is, I want it so bad it fucking aches.”

Layla’s eyes scrunch closed.

My thumbs brush her cheeks. I can’t seek out her eyes, otherwise there is no chance of finding it within myself to walk away. “I’m going to go out there and make sure everything is clear. Wait a few minutes and then you should be ok to come out, alright?”

She nods. Her throat works down a heavy swallow.

And that’s all we’ll get.

I have to leave her, even though it fucking kills me to do so.

As my fist closes around the door handle, I suck in a long breath, pausing… contemplating if there’s a potential version of this moment where I get to walk out of here holding her hand and we go home together. Where it’s us and not the awkward drive back up the mountain pretending there’s nothing entwining our hearts.

But I know that’s not the case.

Assholes like me don’t get that.

Layla has got her whole life ahead of her.

So, I turn the lock and slip into the dimly lit, empty hallway outside.

Alone.