Page 84 of Wildflowers & Whiskey

“Come in.”

The door opens, and Wade leans into the frame. I feel the grin pulling at the corner of my mouth before I can stop it. “Oh,” I say, “so now you know how to knock.”

He lets out a low laugh, the one that makes my skin tingle with how hot he is. He shakes his head as he steps inside.

“I learnt my lesson after last time, though the show was great.”

I sit up, reaching my arms up toward him, gesturing him forward like I have the ability to move him with my mind.

He comes further into the room, unhurried, until he is in arm's reach, where I grab his arm and pull him toward the bed. He makes an unconvincing noise of protest and comes easily enough, his weight dropping heavy onto the mattress beside me, solid and warm.

Wade rakes his fingers through my hair gently, staring intensely into my eyes, like he his searching for something in them.

“How’d your day treat you?”

“It was tiring but good. Helped Naomi for a bit too with the charity stuff.” I tilt my head, leaning into where his hand has rested at the side of my head, his thumb running along my skin. “You?”

“Well, I spoke to Colt today,” he says. “Told him the truth about his mother.”

I go still. “All of it?” I say carefully.

“Not all, no. Just the drug addiction part and what actually happened on the night she left.”

His hand stills in my hair, his gaze drifting past me for a second before finding its way back. It’s a small change, but I notice it.

“The rest…” He looks at me, and we both understand the rest of that sentence without him having to say it. The rest would be too much for him.

I look at him for a long moment, recognising the weariness sitting behind his eyes.

Wade usually presents as unshakable. Solid. The kind of man that carries everything for everyone else yet not letting them see the impact it has had on him.

But tonight, he has left that persona behind. Leaving everything on show for me to see. The worry, the doubt, and the emotional tiredness of everything that he has been carrying.

He’s hiding nothing, and maybe it’s odd for me to say, but I like that he lets me see this version of him.

I move to sit on top of him, legs either side of his hips as he is now flat on his back. I lean low and take his face in both hands. “That was the right thing to do.” Then I lean lower, placing a kiss on his lips.

When I pull back, he’s wearing his fuck-me eyes, which instantly make me a weak woman. Even more so when I can feel his length go rock hard against the fabric of my shorts.

“Do I get a reward for being so brave?” He teases.

“Oh, funny you should ask.” I point a finger at him. “I have the best thing.”

He raises an eyebrow.

“You,” I say grandly, “get to help me pick what I'm wearing tomorrow.”

The expression on his face moves through several stages— excitement, confusion, dawning realisation, back to confusion—before settling on a resigned amusement he's doing a poor job of hiding.

“That's it,” he says. “That's the reward.”

“It's my first rodeo,” I say in a cutesy voice that also irritates me. But it works, because he sighs before saying, “Alright, then. Show me.”

I show him three outfits in quick succession, parading in front of him and receiving the same verdict for all of them. You look good. Said with complete sincerity each time, which is lovely, but also entirely useless. The man has the outfit critique range of someone who has worn the same outfits on rotation for thirty years, which comes to think of it, he probably has.

Luckily for me, this is all a ruse. I knew what I was wearing to the rodeo within days of getting the tickets. I just needed him to not expect my next move. He is always surprising me with things; now it’s my turn to be one step ahead of him.

I look in the ensuite mirror, ensuring all the straps and hooks of the blue lacy number I am wearing are all in the right place, because apparently lingerie makers think it’s a fucking Rubik's Cube. Either way, it looks good. Showing off every curve of my body, doing nothing to hold my breasts in, nipples peeking through the fabric.