With mild interest he observed Ray as he made his way toward the woman, a predatory look on his face.
Canton twisted his large frame in the high-backed stool to face the bar. Six months ago he would have been doing the exact same thing as Ray.
He liked tall women, as he himself was six foot four. She should have been his type. She once was his type. Tall, leggy, sexy, blonde. He mentally ticked off the physical attributes she had that usually stirred his interest and libido. He glanced over his shoulder once more and saw Ray was talking with the blonde.
Just as Ray was now doing, Canton would have leaned down and been totally in her intimate zone. Would have given her whatever smooth words she needed to hear to feel special, to know that the adult games he wanted to play with her had nothing to do with pool, darts or spades.
That she was special to him. That she was the one.
If only for this one night.
He would have crowded her in, given her a taste of the infamous Wilde charm, confident that he’d have her where he wanted. Would have led her away from the bar to wind up at either her place or one of the local motels for the night.
But lately, he hadn’t been interested in any of that. Not since his father had passed away, leaving the care of Brick and Riley, his two younger siblings, to him and his brother Tiber.
His brother and sister weren’t small children; they were something worse: teenagers. Riley, the youngest and the only Wilde female, was a senior in high school and Brick, his young brother, was in his sophomore year at the university.
Not to mention his breakup with a woman he’d once considered marrying. He knew that Ray, as well as his brothers, thought she was the reason for his state of celibacy, but he knew it wasn’t her. He’d come to realize over the past six months that he had in fact dodged the bullet with his fiancée, Anne. Fate had stepped in and actually saved him from possibly making the biggest mistake of his life.
But even to himself, he didn’t delve too deeply into what was at the core of his ennui, for lack of a better word.
Lately no woman had captured his attention long enough to make an impression on him. Not even long enough to bed her.
And although he and Anne had broken off the engagement, he knew that she was still there, waiting, wanting him to return. But under her conditions: not only that Canton move out of the family home, but that they buy their own place and also move the wedding date up.
There was no way in hell he was going to do that. His family needed him.
He soon found out why she was so hell-bent on moving the wedding date up.
Canton shook his head, throwing off the heavy thoughts and sting of malcontent.
Family came first. It was a part of the Wilde creed. It was a creed that his pop had drilled into Canton, as well as his brothers and baby sister. And if the woman who purported to care about him didn’t realize that, well, then, he had in fact dodged a bullet with her.
His family meant everything to Canton.
Unknown to him, a smile creased his rugged features when he thought of the youngest Wilde, Riley. She was growing up so fast. Kicking and raising hell from the time she came from her mother’s womb, she’d been as much of a Wilde from the moment she’d come into the world as his biological brothers.
And now, with Pop gone, all she had was Canton along with his two brothers to look after her. He and Tiber, the oldest, had made a promise to his father that they’d always look after her, that no one would hurt her. A promise he intended to keep.
Because that was what family did. Took care of each other.
It was amazing what responsibility did to a man, Canton thought with a grunt. Made him grow up quick, fast and in a hurry. Also showed who the real deal was when it came to those who loved you. Separated the true from the fair-weather. But he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Besides, after he ended it with Anne, he hadn’t been interested enough in getting “back out there” with anyone. Not exactly soured on love, but damn sure a lot more cautious when it came to trust.
He glanced at his watch, ready to call it quits for the night. He really wasn’t in the mood to get “laid” as Ray suggested. Casual sex was the last thing on his mind.
But until Ray decided what he was doing...or who he was doing for the night, he’d wait for his friend to give him the word before he left him to his own devices.
Still looking in the direction of Ray and the blonde, Canton knew it wouldn’t be long before Ray gave him the go-ahead to leave.
Until that time... Canton took another long drink from the bottle, his glance casually strolling over the clientele, bored and ready to say screw it and leave. Ray was a big boy; he could handle his own business.
At that moment, Ray gave him the signal and Canton shook his head, one side of his mouth kicked up in a grin.
“Well, no sense in hanging around,” he murmured to himself, and drank the last of his beer.
Just as he was ready to turn away and settle his tab, his glance caught that of a woman who stood near her seat at one of the small round high tables, near the bar. He hadn’t noticed her before.
She turned to fully face him and their gazes collided. In the act of removing her jacket, she paused, the garment dangling from her fingers. For a long moment she stood there, simply staring at him with her large doe-shaped eyes.
From where she and the woman with her sat, in one of the few well-lit areas and a small distance from where he was, Canton could see her clearly.
Unlike the leggy blonde in the tight red dress and stilettos, she wore a pair of skinny jeans that molded round hips and a plump butt, and ended where she wore knee-high boots.
The shirt she had on beneath the jacket was simple, but man oh man what it did for her curves. Made of some type of clinging material she’d only partially buttoned, the opened collar dipped to a pair of truly beautiful, full breasts, the crests overflowing the top of her bra, just a bit. He wasn’t close enough to get a really good look, but dear God... His glance slid over her, seeing how she’d tucked the ends of the shirt into her jeans, showing off a nicely nipped-in waist.
He raised his glance, back up the length of her body until he reached her beautiful round face.
But it was her eyes that got him.
Large, and from his distance appeared light brown, or maybe it was just the dance of light that hit them that made them so. Either way, they had a slight tilt in the corner. A small round nose and full, luscious lips that, along with the shape of her eyes, gave her the appearance of a sulky child.
Her pretty cocoa-brown-colored skin reminded him of silken, rich, decadent dark chocolate... Canton wondered if her skin was as soft as it looked. His palms itched to find out. His fingers rubbed against his palms.
Her hair was swept on top of her head in a topknot of some sort, but ringlets of light brown curls framed her heart-shaped face, giving her even more of a look of a pouting adolescent.
Again, his gaze swept over her body.
But any hint of a childlike appearance was negated by her body. She had a body that could raise the dead.
He lifted his glance to meet her sultry eyes and felt his breath hitch and lodge in his throat.
She returned his gaze.
First, she bit the corner of her mouth, as though in deep thought, before tugging on the full bottom lip and finally letting it go.
Canton could not look away.
Goddamn.
Their glances held for what seemed