“Who’s been holding out on you?” Denise asks as she takes a seat next to me at the bar and pulls me into a hug.

“My brother, apparently,” Mika says.

“What?” Denise asks. “He’s holding out on you? My God, I thought the reason you weren’t around all that much is because you’d been bopping up and down on Mika’s brother.”

“I wish,” I grumble as Mika hands me my drink. “That is not the case. He has only kissed me. I feel like I went back in time to when you’re celibate until your wedding night.”

“That’s depressing,” Denise says as I take a sip of my drink.

“What’s depressing?” a very familiar, deep voice says.

I nearly spit up my drink as Wilder takes a seat next to me.

“Hey, Pips,” he says and places a peck of a kiss on my cheek.

Pips. It’s taken me a while, but I now love the nickname. It’s said with such genuine affection.

“Speak of the devil,” Mika says with a smirk. Almost a knowing smirk.

“You guys talking about me?”

“No,” I say, just as Denise says, “Yes.”

Wilder picks up my drink and takes a sip, his eyes going wide. “Jesus, Mika, put enough tequila in this?”

“I should have put more given how horny our girl is because you won’t put out.”

“Oh my God, Mika,” I nearly shout as Wilder chuckles next to me.

He wraps his arm around my waist, and he whispers in my ear, sending chills up and down my arms and legs. “You hard up, babe?”

“What? No.” I nervously laugh. “No, I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

“Why aren’t you boning our friend?” Denise asks, leaning over the bar to look at him. “Because she wants it.”

His smile grows wider. “I know she does.” And his hand grips me tighter.

Dear God in heaven, why is this happening to me?

“So then what’s the holdup?”

He casually sips my drink again. “I’m trying to demonstrate her worth to her first.”

Denise leans back and brings her hand to her heart. “Can you teach Derek to talk to me like that?”

“I’ll work on it.” He pops a pretzel in his mouth and nods at Mika. “You good, brother?”

“Good,” Mika says. “Want me to get you a drink?”

“Nah, I’m leaving soon.”

“You are?” I ask, feeling sad, because he just got here, and I thought he would at least stay for a little while.

“Yeah, and you’re going with me.”

“I am?”

“Yup.” Wilder holds my drink out to me. “So drink up.”

Denise leans forward and whispers in my ear, “He has that look in his eyes. A look that says you’re about to get fucked.”

“So, um, we’re back at my apartment,” I say as I stare through the windshield of his Jeep.