I was too angry to be self-conscious. I balled up my shirt, threw it into the cab of the truck, and put my hands on my hips. “Like the view, Abbey?”
He smirked with the cocky, annoying look he always gave me. “Yeah, I do.”
I huffed. “I don’t want to deal with you tonight.”
He leaned against the truck next to Bradley’s, which I belatedly realized was his. He crossed his muscled arms across his chest. I averted my gaze, so I wouldn’t stare at the bulging biceps and incredible chest.
“Why are you naked out here? If you want more people to come to Sinclair, this probably isn’t the way to do it.”
“Fuck off, Hollin.” I yanked out a gym towel and patted down my skin. “Bradley spilled a glass of wine all over me. I’m getting a shirt.”
He snorted. “Smooth.”
“I didn’t think you were coming out tonight. Missing the one-year anniversary of your own winery for a date.” That was what Julian had said. It seemed low, even for Hollin.
He took a few steps toward me. Always in my fucking personal space. “Jealous?”
“Not in a million years.” I went back to rummaging through the bag to find that damn shirt. “I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to be graced with your presence.”
“Don’t worry, Medina,” he said, his voice silky smooth. “I’ll always be around for you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Save it for your next conquest.”
When I didn’t find what I was looking for, I opened the side of the bag. I sank my hand into it, and it closed around a box at the bottom. I froze.
Hollin must have read my change in body language. “What?”
With a gulp, I withdrew the box from the bag, praying to all things holy that it wasn’t what I thought it was. In the parking lot light, the black box was very clearly for a ring.
“Oh fuck,” Hollin said with wide eyes. “Is that…”
I gaped and popped it open. A glittering diamond ring peered back up at me. It was…not at all something that I would have picked out for myself. I’d always liked simple things. I wasn’t one for grand displays or crazy jewelry. This thing was almost gaudy.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I breathed.
“Bradley’s proposing?” Hollin asked, his voice had an edge to it that I’d never heard before.
“He sure as fuck better not.”
I closed the ring box and threw it back into the bag like it was a grenade with the pin pulled. I shook my hands out. Fear blossomed in my stomach.
“Sure looks like he’s going to.”
“And why do you care?” I snapped at him.
Hollin chuckled. “Still got three dates with you, babe.”
“You’re going to get three dates with me over my dead body.”
“We’ll see.” All confident, as if it were inevitable. He nodded his head at the bag. “What are you going to do about that?”
“None of your business.”
I found the gray shirt I’d been looking for and drew it over my head. It smelled like Bradley, and for a second, I felt nauseated. He’d bought an engagement ring. He must have thought that I’d say yes. I couldn’t even fathom it. Was this his now or never?
Hollin frowned down at my shirt. “Not that.”
He popped open the passenger door of his truck and tossed me a shirt from inside. It was a white button-up, three sizes too big for me. It smelled like musky cologne that made my toes curl in my boots. Hollin. It smelled like Hollin.
For the first time in our long acquaintance, I didn’t argue. I slipped Bradley’s shirt back off and pulled Hollin’s onto my curvy frame. I worked on the buttons, and when I was done, he stepped forward. I stilled, wondering what the hell he was doing. He took my arm in his hands and slowly rolled the sleeve up to my elbow. His eye caught mine for a split second, and I stopped breathing. Then, he switched to the other arm, drawing the fabric up inch after precious inch. My body tingled at every brush of his skin against mine. And I swore that he knew it, too.
He grinned. “Tuck it in, in the front.”
I did as he’d instructed with an eye roll. “This?”
He appraised me with a hungry glint in his eyes. “You look good in my clothes, Medina.”
I took a step toward him. His eyes rounded slightly in surprise before settling back to his arrogant know-it-all look. “When we get back inside, you’re going to keep your mouth shut about everything that happened out here.”
“And if I don’t?”
“I’ll take a baseball bat to your Harley.”
He hissed. “Cold-blooded, babe.”
I arched an eyebrow. Then, I sauntered back inside, as if I hadn’t just seen an engagement ring or been completely frazzled by Hollin Abbey, of all people.
2
Hollin
The last thing I’d expected to see today was Piper Medina, half-naked.
I wasn’t complaining. Not by a long stretch.
When I’d rounded that corner and seen her in nothing but a nude bra, her tits spilling out of the top of it, my brain had short-circuited. Piper had always been fucking gorgeous, but it was her anger that fired me up. The way she held her temper back for everyone but me. As if my very presence lit a fire under her. It was hot. It was why I kept doing it.
My brain came back online the moment I saw that ring though. Piper and I were oil and water. We poked and pressed and fought. We didn’t mix. But one look at that ring, and…I had no fucking clue what came over me. All I knew was that there was no way she was marrying that brain-dead loser. Luckily, she had the same idea.
She wrapped that lush, curvy body in his stupid shirt. I could have let it go. I should have…probably. But when it came to Piper, I always pushed the envelope. Giving her my shirt could have backfire, but what was most surprising was that she let me.
She did up every little button in front of me and looked at me with those enormous brown eyes. I couldn’t help but push it a little further. That look on her face when I rolled up her sleeves…she might have threatened me right afterward, but I’d seen it nonetheless.
Piper Medina might hate me, but she wanted me, too.
And I could live with that.
I adjusted my cock inside my jeans. I needed to stop thinking about her tits in that bra and the way she’d looked, doing up the buttons on my shirt, and those huge eyes as I touched her skin. I had to follow her inside. I needed to talk to Jordan and Julian about my trip. I couldn’t do that with a semi in my fucking pants.
“Get it together, Abbey,” I grumbled under my breath.
After another moment, I rolled my shoulders back and strode toward my winery. My winery. Sometimes, it was too much to consider.
I’d worked at West Texas Winery all through college and after graduation. It was a dump that just happened to have good wine. No one cared about it, and the owners chased the college crowd to cover their debts. When it went under, I swore that I’d get it back up and running again. I loved it too much to let go.
Somehow, I’d convinced my cousins, Jordan and Julian, to drop the money on renovating it. I ran day-to-day operations and had all the experience while they had the business acumen and finances to get it off the ground. Now, we were a year out from the first day we’d opened, and it had never been better.