Something Wilder

by Christina Lauren

She’d spent the first nineteen years of her life being tolerated and planned around, but here, with Leo, she was finally the center of someone’s world.

Lily answered Leo with a kiss she hoped told him the things she sometimes still struggled to say.

“Promise me we’ll be happy here forever.” He nodded and brought his forehead down to rest against hers. “I promise.”

Lily knew all about mirages in the desert, when light bent and refracted and moved through warmer air, causing the eye to see something that wasn’t there. She’d seen this particular mirage before, so it took her a moment to get her bearings and realize that this time was different. This time, it wasn’t a trick of the light or the air, or even wishful thinking. This time, Lovesick City Boy was walking right toward her.

“He manages a Petco,” the Beard cut in with a sneer. “Is your name Walter?” Lily asked. He looked up at her, annoyed but confused. “No? I’m Terry.” “Then I suggest you stop interrupting and wait until the name Terry is called. Sound good?”

Seeing Lily wasn’t unlike being transported back to that first day at the Wilder Ranch, when she’d emerged from the barn and his world had instantly tipped upside down.

only the stark recollection that he’d had the perfect love once and had pushed her away.

Wave after wave of realization left Leo wondering if he would ever get over the fact that it was Lily. Right there. Lily Wilder was just right there.

He’d loved Lily so deeply that it changed his biology. Standing here now, it seemed his love for her hadn’t gone away, it had just been vacuum-sealed and stored. Back in her presence, the physical memory of his infatuation was released in a deluge, gasping to life, and adrenaline flooded his bloodstream.

how that same control meant that he would spend hours figuring out her body in ways she hadn’t even understood yet,

That body used to belong to me, Lily marveled. That man was mine.

that no matter who called dibs today, Leo had been hers first.

“Had to remind myself that once upon a time I was good at something other than sitting at a desk.”

Whether he was aware of it or not, he was looking at her like she was the prize at the end.

Finally, he was able to tell her: “Missing you was physically debilitating.”

“I had to let you go once,” he told her. “You think I’m letting that happen again?”

He was always so calm, always adaptable. She realized, watching him, that he met challenges as if they were an expected part of his path. By contrast, she resented every tiny roadblock.

“I think the problem is that I’m not the kind of person to fall in and out of love.” And now her pulse was pounding. The implication landed heavily. But she asked anyway: “What do you mean?” “I mean, I fell in love once and stayed there.”

Leo would love Lily Wilder forever.

Just because thoughts are loud or constant doesn’t mean they’re right.”

For Lily, To hell you ride.