“Why don’t we go inside then, if it’s just casual business talk?” I nodded toward the door.
“That sounds good to me.” Max smirked and Paige rolled her eyes.
There was only room for us to move in a single-file line down the cobblestone pathway to the apartment and then down the short hallway into the apartment. Paige stood in front with Max in the middle and I took the back. No one said a word until we opened the door.
“Gee, Max, I don’t think you’ve ever seen this place in the daylight. It probably looks a lot different to you when you’re not stumbling and trying to get to Valerie’s bedroom to use her and run home,” Paige said with added sarcasm before she picked up Dexter. The cat hissed as soon as he saw Max.
“It is a very charming place that you have here, Paige,” Max said, pasting a very fake-looking smile on his face.
“I’m sure you’re very charmed.” She smirked, petting Dexter’s head as the cat glared at Max.
I stood in the middle of the living room with my hands at my sides. I wasn’t sure where to go or what to do. The last time I came face to face with someone that was fucking my girl, it was a teammate, and that ended with me in a career-ending injury.
“Are you okay, Wes?” Paige stared at me, tilting her head ever so slightly.
“Right as rain.” I forced a smile.
Max nodded and turned toward me. “Okay, I guess I’ll just cut right to the chase. I know that you and Valerie are trying to put on some sort of act here that you’re a happy couple that just happened to have some wild night in Vegas and wound up married.” He took a step closer to me, his expensive shoes barely making a sound on the wooden floor. “It’s all very touching, your whole valiant cowboy thing, but I don’t buy it.”
“Excuse me?” I wanted to smack the cockiness right off his face. Who the hell did he think he was to tell me what I was and wasn’t? He was the one who was making late-night phone calls to Valerie and then running off.
“I don’t believe some guy would just marry a random girl he met in Vegas unless he wanted something. Usually it’s money. You probably assumed that Valerie had it and then it was too late to go back on that promise once you stupidly walked down the aisle with her and then realized that she wasn’t going to wine and dine you.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “But I’ll admit, you got a pretty good gig out of it. The good ol’ boy gets to come back to Chicago and hang around this apartment all day while she works. Not bad for some kid from the backwoods of Alabama who lost his scholarship to Tuscaloosa State and had no future.”
“How the fuck did you know that?” I asked, trying to keep my cool, but the guy irked me to no end.
Max let out a single laugh. “It’s called the Internet, Wes. That and I have a great set of people who do background checks. I wanted to know exactly who I was dealing with before I approached you with this business proposition.”
“Okay, really what the hell is going on here?” Paige stepped forward and Dexter let out a large hiss, swatting his claw forward. Max dipped out of the way just before Dexter’s claws got a hold of his suit coat. Too bad, I would have enjoyed seeing that thing ripped.
“I’m just about to make Wes an offer,” Max said, pulling out a thick manila envelope from his coat. “I’d like to help you speed up the divorce process.”
I stared at the envelope before he pushed it in my direction. I’d seen a lot of bad movies that started out with a thick envelope and didn’t trust the slimy guy one bit. “What the hell is this?”
“Open it up and you’ll see.”
I stared hard at Max for a second. I didn’t want to take the damn thing, but I also didn’t want to seem scared, so I snatched the envelope from his grasp and pulled out a piece of paper. “Martin Hensley Law Offices? Are you suing me now? For what?”
He groaned. “No, you backwoods hillbilly, it’s a divorce lawyer. I’m just going to have him speed up the process with everything, faster than that liberal nitwit Goldman. All you have to do is give him a call and things will be done.”
But the piece of paper wasn’t the only thing in the envelope. I looked farther inside and saw a huge stack of bills. More money than I’d ever seen. “And, uh, is this for the lawyer fee?”
Max let out another slight laugh. “We’ll just say that money would be for your time. That way you can leave now. Get the first flight back to Alabama or Vegas or wherever you’d like. Leave Valerie a note or however you’d like to end it and just got on with your life.”
“Why the fuck are you doing this, Max?” Paige interrupted. “You’ve never given two shits about Valerie unless you had her on your back.”
He glanced in my direction before he looked back at Paige. “Because maybe it took seeing Valerie with someone else to make me see what I’d been missing all along. And if I can use my resources to change things between us, get rid of both of our past mistakes and move forward, then I’m going to do it.”
“How fucking romantic.” She rolled her eyes.
“What if ...” My hands were shaking. No matter how hard I tried to get them to stop, I couldn’t. There was more money than I could even count staring back at me and it was hard to walk away from it. “What if I don’t want your money or your lawyer’s info. What if I want you to take it all back?”
Max smirked. “You won’t.”
And with that he patted me on the back like we were old friends and walked out the door, leaving me standing there, staring at the manila envelope and wondering what the hell I was going to do next.
Later That Night
I had a secret compartment in my duffle bag. When I was younger it was where I used to hide my candy bars so my dad wouldn’t find them and now I was hiding an even bigger secret from Valerie. Part of me wanted to go to Max’s office and drop it on his desk and give him the finger. The other part of me thought maybe I should listen and take the money. Maybe I could make it out to California and maybe Valerie would actually be better off without me.
That didn’t make the whole situation feel any cleaner. I could barely look at Valerie. I felt like I was betraying her. Maybe it would be better just to leave her.
I got out of the bathroom after brushing my teeth, ready to go to bed for the night, but when I opened the door Valerie wasn’t propped up in bed on her laptop like she usually was. This time she was lying in bed wearing nothing but a dimpled smile and her silk bed sheets.
I wasn’t wearing anything but my boxers and instantly I hardened at the sight of her. It was impossible not to. I’d been trying for days to be romantic. Light kisses before bed, cuddling, and all those types of things, but there was nothing compared to the sound of her moaning against my neck or her fingernails digging into my skin. The thought of it alone made me even harder.
“Valerie ... you’re ... uh... not working?”
“I spend every night in this bed on my laptop and you put up with me. You kiss me. You cuddle me, but we haven’t really gotten down to business since we joined the Mile High Club.”
“I just thought with the divorce you might not want to do that ...” I tried to maintain my composure and tried to think about something other than the fact that she was slowly dropping the sheet from her breasts and how badly I wanted to crawl across the bed and kiss her.
“And I told you that I’m still willing to try this dating thing. You’ve taken me on the tourist tour of Chicago. Bought me dinner. Made me breakfast, and now ...” She dropped the sheet and climbed across the bed until she was kneeling on the bed in front of me. She ran her finger in a line from my pecs down to the waistband of my underwear. My whole body shook from her touch and I wanted more. “I want all of you, Wes.”
Valerie licked her lips before she slowly pulled my boxers down and then slid her tongue along my shaft before she took my cock in her warm mouth. I moaned, tilting my head back. “You ... don’t ... have ... to ... do ... that.” I tried to concentrate on saying the words, but it was difficult to think about anything, except the way
her tongue rolled against me.
Of course, she didn’t stop. I really didn’t want her to either. She was damn good and I thought I might blow a hole through the back of her head soon. I had to physically grab the back of her head and force her to look me in the eyes. That was when she finally removed her lips from my shaft. “Do you not like it?”
I shook my head and laughed even though it wasn’t really funny. “No, I like it too much. That’s the problem.” I kicked my boxers off and tossed them aside before I gently pushed her back onto the bed and crawled on top of her. “And if I’m going to get off ...” I breathed down her neck until my mouth was at her nipple, which instantly hardened under my mouth. “Then I want to get off inside of you.”
I put my hands on either side of her hips and leaned up, looking into her eyes. “But if we’re going to do this, no kinky stuff. I want this to be real. Just me and you. Slow. I want to feel every part of you. Are you okay with that?”
“I want you any way you’ll take me,” she murmured.
“I’m yours,” I whispered.
I kissed her slowly. I wanted to take my time. I didn’t need to rush it with her. I wanted to savor every moment, but Valerie had other ideas. She nibbled at my bottom lip and I had to keep from moaning as my cock pressed against her wetness. She was already ready for me.
I moved down until I was between her thighs and she eagerly spread her legs for me. I hooked my index finger inside of her and circled my thumb on her clit in a simultaneous motion that instantly had her moaning and coming on my fingers.
Her thighs trembled around my hands as I kept moving and before I knew it she was coming again, shoving her fist in her mouth to muffle her moans.
“Darlin’, if you’re going to muffle it I’d rather you use something else than your fist to do it.” I slowly slipped my hand out of her and she whimpered, moving her fist out of her mouth. “Come here.” I sat up with my legs out in front of me.
“What are you getting at?” she asked.
I helped her to a sitting position and then guided her onto my lap. Slowly I slipped inside of her, every inch that went in causing a wave of pleasure to hit all the way down to my toes. I moaned as she gripped onto my shoulders, crossing her legs behind me as she faced me. “This is what I was getting at.” I clutched her ass, rocking my hips forward to meet hers. She gasped, the sweetest sound right into my ear.
I buried my face in her neck, kissing a line down her neck, collarbone and then finally putting her sweet nipples into my mouth, sucking on them until they budded. She gasped, burying her face into my neck and leaving light kisses on my shoulders while her hips moved against mine. Each slow thrust sent another wave of pleasure through me.
I wasn’t used to this slow, sweet sex. Usually it was about getting the girl off multiple times in as many positions as possible. With Valerie I wanted to enjoy every part of her and savor every moment before I had to leave her.
“You’re so beautiful,” I whispered. “Every part of you.” I kissed a trail from her breasts up her neck until I was at her lips again. Her mouth slightly opened and she moaned loudly into mine as I felt her come hard on my dick. I gripped tightly on her ass.
“Oh, God, Valerie, you’re so fucking beautiful.” With that I let go and came inside of her, my body shuttering as she cried out, coming again..
She collapsed onto my chest, her head against my heart that was beating so fast I thought it would burst out. “That was something, Wes.”
“Yeah, it was ...” I could barely get the words out; they came in shallow breaths. It could have been because I was worn out, but I suspected that the real reason was because that I actually wanted to say something else. The words that I said later, when I knew she was sleeping.
“I love you.”
The Next Day
I was in love with Valerie Wilder. I think somehow I knew it the first moment I laid eyes on her. People say that love at first sight is bullshit. The same people who say that probably have never experienced it.
Valerie left early in the morning for work as usual, but Paige was there, sitting on the couch and petting Dexter like some evil villain. “So, you took Max’s money, but you’re still hanging out here and still fucking my roommate?”
I groaned. “Are we really going to have this conversation?” I put my hands out to the side and stared at her. “He shoved the money at me and walked out. What the hell was I supposed to do?”
Dexter jumped off her lap and she stood up. She may have been a foot shorter than me, but the way she looked at me, I couldn’t help but feel intimidated. Her eyes narrowed and her upper lip curled like I was the lowliest person on the planet. “I don’t know, how about if you actually care about Valerie you would find out where Max works, march down there, and say you don’t want his dirty money or his divorce lawyer.” She crossed her arms over her chest. This time she wasn’t trying to use her body to turn me on but to intimidate me.
“And another fucking thing, Mr. Wild Wes. If you love Valerie so much, if you’re giving her the time of her life in the bedroom, taking her out on these romantic dates, why aren’t you pushing for her to stop this divorce? Why don’t you just spit it out and tell her how you feel about her?”
I raked my hands through my hair, letting out a deep breath. “It’s not that easy.”
“Why? Do you have some sort of a problem with speech or something? I’ve heard you talk plenty of times. It’s not that hard, just say ‘Valerie, I love you, I don’t want to get divorced so let’s keep up this crazy-ass marriage thing we have going on.’”
“Do you know how many times I’ve tried to convince her to try and work this out? You know she’s stubborn. You know she wants what she wants. I haven’t signed the divorce papers, because I’m hoping that maybe she’ll change her mind and forget about it. Maybe she’ll come to her senses and realize that I’m hers and I’m not going to leave her. Ever.”
Paige blinked, dropping her hands as she stared at me. At first she didn’t say anything for what seemed like forever. Then she took a deep breath and let it out slowly before she spoke. “If she’s not going to listen to you, then you need to show her all of these things. I know you’ve been trying and I see that. She’s never had something like you in her life before and she’s afraid of falling for you. All she’s had are guys like Max. I don’t want to see her hurt by you or Max, so if you don’t want to be a jerk like him you’d better show me that you’re not like him either by leaving right now and getting your country bumpkin ass to his office and returning that money.”
I sighed. “Yeah, that’s probably the smart thing to do.”
“You bet your ass it’s the smart thing to do. His office is on Dearborn, so the L should get you there.”
I smiled. “I know exactly where his office is. The pompous asshole attached his business card to the envelope with a note that said, ‘Call me if you need anything.’”
An all-out bitchy grin appeared on Paige’s face. “And what a wake-up call he’s gonna get.”
***
Standing outside of the building, I wasn’t sure if I was making the right decision. The entire ride over I debated if this was the right thing to do. Of course Paige basically pushed me out the door and even gave me a leather laptop bag to put the envelope in so I wouldn’t look like a lunatic carrying around a manila envelope full of money. Not to mention that would make me a moving target to get mugged.
“I guess it’s now or never,” I said to myself as I walked in the revolving doors into the building.
Immediately a woman in a navy blue skirt suit approached me. “Can I help you, sir?”
I removed the business card from my wallet. I must have stared at it a million times on the L, wondering if I was doing the right thing. “Yes, I need to see this person.”
She took the card and read over the information. “Very good, sir, right this way.”
I followed her until I saw a familiar, smiling face.
“Wesley, are you
back for that ring?”
I returned the smile to the woman behind the counter. “Well, not exactly that ring. Can you maybe show me what you have in the next carat size up?”
Want to know what happens next? Stay tuned for The Wild Side in which we go back into Valerie’s point of view. Will she stay with Wes? What happens when she finds out that he took the money?
Want more Valerie and Wes?
Keep up with all of the books in the Forever Wild Serial
One Wild Night
Wild Hearts
The Wild One
The Wild Side
Wild For You
Wild
About The Author
Magan Vernon is a Young Adult and New Adult writer who lives with her family in the insurance capital of the world. When not writing she spends her time fighting over fake boyfriends via social media.
You can find her online at http://www.maganvernon.com
Want more information on Magan’s upcoming novels?
Sign up for her newsletter
Or follow her Social Media
Facebook
Twitter
GoodReads
Pinterest
Blog
The Wild One (Forever Wild #3) Page 4
