Free Something Wild: A Reckless and Real Prequel Novella by Lexi Ryan

awkward aura of hookup interruptus around us.
    I shift, my too-high heels pinching my toes. “Well, that didn’t go as I planned.”
    Again, that low, deep chuckle. Can you be touched by a sound? Because his laugh seems to stroke me in all the right places. “I didn’t think you were the type, Liz.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    He rubs the back of his neck. “You’re a nice girl.”
    I snort—loudly—breaking the tension. “God, Sam, can I give you a hint? When a girl shows up at your office without panties, the last thing she wants you thinking is that she’s a nice girl. I’m not nice.” I’m horny. But I don’t say that, because I have a little dignity left. “I’m as dirty as the last trollop you took to bed.” Or I could be. With a little practice and the right teacher.
    He lifts a brow. “I’m pretty sure the last woman I took to bed wouldn’t appreciate you calling her a trollop.”

Sam
    Ever since I left my office tonight, my hands have been itching to pick up the phone and call Liz. I want to do more than call her. I want to have her in my bed, naked, bound, and moaning.
    Her invitation to take her on my desk was almost more than I could resist. But I’m a Bradshaw, and we’re trained very carefully to be mindful of things like cameras. That doesn’t mean I can’t invite her over tonight, though.
    But by the time I walk in my front door, my plans change. Because Asia is waiting for me in my living room, and she says the only words powerful enough to keep me away from Liz.
    “I’ll keep the baby.”

Chapter Nine
    Liz
    I find myself in Sam’s driveway, jacked up on lust and optimism. I have no idea how our night together left him feeling. I’m not even sure what this is I’m feeling. But I know I don’t want to walk away, and I know things would have gone further in his office if it weren’t for those pesky security cameras.
    There’s more to him than a hard body and a dirty mouth, and I feel like I just got a peek at it. I want to know more, to explore him like I explored the woods by the river as a child. I want to get him to open up to me when he doesn’t open to anyone else. And I’m going to tell him so.
    Only I don’t make it out of the car before I see him through the picture window at the front of his house. It’s dark and all the lights are on, framing and illuminating the two people on the other side of the glass like a scene on a screen for everyone to see.
    He has his arms wrapped around a woman—a beautiful woman in a tiny black dress and sky-high heels. My heart stutters in my chest and I can’t remember how to breathe, and when I try, it hurts. It actually hurts to pull oxygen into my lungs while watching him hold her.
    I force the air in, and suffer the sharp pain of my lungs expanding against the jagged tear in my heart. Any hope I had that she’s a sister or cousin, or that there’s some completely reasonable explanation for him touching her, flees. He brings his hands to her face and lowers his mouth to hers—gently, softly. It’s a kiss filled with all that tenderness I yearn for, the affection men just don’t feel for me.
    I’m frozen, the jagged edge of my heart sawing at the soft tissue of my slowly expanding and deflating lungs. I can’t take my eyes off him—I can’t unsee this side of Sam I just came to believe was there and hoped to resurface for myself. When he breaks the kiss, he lifts his head and looks right at me. There’s so much on his face that he’d typically hide behind his ever-present cocky grin, but I see it now. Hurt. Regret. Terror.
    For a moment, I think he can see me, but then he looks away and I remember I’m concealed by darkness while they’re visible to anyone who might happen by. And he doesn’t care.
    That snags on a piece of my heart and it breaks off, tumbling to the pit of my aching stomach. He didn't want anyone to know about us this weekend, but he obviously feels differently about whoever she