Thunder - Willow Summers Page 0,16

have been ruined. I would have been forced to wear the purple one, and it’s a little frumpy.”

His gaze traveled her heart-shaped face, taking in her full, pouty lips, currently parted as her chest heaved. Her wide-set hazel eyes, speckled with green, were deep and trusting, yet they burned with the fire of intelligence and passion.

Without him meaning to, his hands slipped down her sides, feeling both the silky material of the dress and her smooth skin. Her flesh erupted in goosebumps and her pupils dilated, desire soaking through her expression.

A warning signal shot through him, but before he could disentangle gracefully, sparing her feelings, she ripped her hands away and took a wobbly step back.

“My bad.” She wiped off her arms like she was covered in cooties.

A grin wrestled his lips. Clearly she wasn’t as worried about sparing his feelings. “You okay?”

“Yes. Sorry about that. I’ll get the hang of these.”

This time he did offer an arm, pleasantly surprised when she hesitated in taking it. While most men might’ve been pissed a woman didn’t want to touch him, Colton was relieved. He wanted tonight to go differently than these gigs normally did. He didn’t want to regret helping her, which he would if she started coming onto him. Besides, he didn’t want to have to reject her. It sounded like enough men had burned her.

“So I don’t have to dead-lift you again,” he said.

Her small hand wrapped around his forearm. “Thanks,” she said, a blush bleeding through her makeup.

“We should stop and get you a different pair of shoes. If you want to wow him, falling on your face isn’t the way to do it.” He extended his other hand toward his car, parked five spots away.

“We don’t have time.”

“We can miss the actual wedding. You won’t get to meet him there anyway. Unless you want to see him actually tie the knot?”

“No, I don’t care. Yeah, we can miss that part, I guess. Assuming he won’t notice.”

“He won’t,” Colton said with conviction, though he wasn’t so sure. Madison didn’t know the bride, and hadn’t spoken to the groom in ten years or more. The fact that the guy had invited her to his wedding was a sign that he’d never forgotten her. Maybe he still felt bad for how things had ended all those years ago. Or maybe he’d still had feelings for her at the time of the breakup, and he’d allowed peer pressure to influence him. Both of those feelings would’ve faded had he hooked up with her on social media for old time’s sake, as people did, and found out she was an ordinary woman of moderate beauty leading an ordinary life.

But she wasn’t.

Not by a long stretch.

Colton had friended her with Dick’s gym profile, as they did with a lot of their prospective clients, and browsed her pictures. Even when she was in yoga pants with her hair up in a messy ponytail—or especially when—she was a knockout. Her photogenic, easy smile and the cute little dimple on her chin would make any man take notice. Her body was fit and toned—he’d just witnessed an impressive display of that strength—and when she wore business suits with reading glasses, she had a naughty librarian vibe.

Oh yeah, this guy was wondering what might’ve happened if he’d held on, Colton had no doubt. He would notice she was missing, which meant the best strategy was to make him wait for her appearance. She needed the upper hand.

He glanced at Madison as she gingerly made her way along the sidewalk.

She seemed like an honest person who didn’t want to play games. She’d said she didn’t want the groom back, and he believed her. No, she just wanted this horror show from her past to recognize that she had some worth.

Colton would do better than that. He didn’t do any job by halves. She’d leave that place as the belle of the ball. He’d make sure this ex rued the day he was too weak to stand up for his girl in front of his friends.

They didn’t call him Thunder for nothing.

“Do you always flex when you walk?”

Colton came out of his reverie, noticing Madison staring up at him with a perplexed smile. “Is that something muscle guys do?”

“Sorry, I was thinking about something else. Here we are.” He motioned at his car.

Her eyes widened. “Oh wow, a Porsche? I was thinking you were leading me to the blue car.” She pointed at the next car over, a ten-year-old