by V. T. Do
I tried not to let my imagination run wild. Especially since I knew nothing could happen tonight when she’d been drinking. Grabbing the pair of sweats, I shoved them back in the drawer and let out a tiny groan.
She was testing my self-control. That was all it was. I turned on the lamp on the bedside table and got under the covers. And then I waited.
Five minutes later, she walked out wearing nothing but my shirt and her panties. I could see the red outline of them through the white shirt. It was obvious her favorite color was red. Red like burning hot. Red like passion... I averted my eyes and felt her climb in bed next to me.
“Can you turn off the lights?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
A click, and then the room was bathed in darkness. I felt her shift on her side of the bed, but didn’t look over at her. I kept my gaze trained to the ceiling. Another bout of restless shifting.
Then I felt her small body curl into my side. “Is this okay?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I replied, my voice sounding gruff. I wrapped my arm around her, and she placed her head on my chest, listening to the frantic beat of my heart.
Before I knew it, I fell asleep with her body heat engulfing me. When I woke early the next morning, she was gone. The place where her body had been was cold, and it was hard to tell when she had left.
Chapter Nineteen: Beyond Reason
Emery
Aunt Helen said nothing when I came home at the crack of dawn. She was already awake, sipping on hot tea, when I walked past the kitchen where she sat.
But the look in her eyes told me she knew more than she let on. No doubt Preston had filled her in on my make-out session with Wyatt in the driveway. It couldn’t have been more than two weeks since we shared our first kiss, but it felt like a lifetime ago.
I had thought the first night I spent with him was the last time I would ever step foot inside his apartment. Yet here he was showing up where I was, texting me, and making me feel things I wasn’t supposed to feel. How was I supposed to get over him if he kept reminding me of how good it felt when I was in his arms?
And I couldn’t figure out why he was doing it. Why he was being so persistent.
I shot Aunt Helen a smile, and gave me one back, ever so polite. “Good morning,” I greeted.
“Good morning, child. You look like you have a hangover.”
I grimaced. That was because I did. A small one. “I drank last night.”
“Do I even want to know how you got your hands on alcohol?”
I shook my head. “Probably not. I think I’m going to shower, and maybe sleep this off.”
“That’s a good idea.” And with that, she turned back to her tea, and I was dismissed. I took the stairs up to my room and went into my private bath. There I stripped off the clothes I had worn to the party last night and hopped in the shower, still thinking about my aunt.
The thing about Aunt Helen was, I could never tell how she was feeling. Was she angry that I drank or, at the very least, disappointed?
She was never my legal guardian, and she had never disciplined me as a child. That job belonged solely to my grandpa. But now that he was gone, it was hard to tell where we stood, especially since he had been the only link that connected us to each other.
I always thought we’d had an amicable relationship. We lived more like roommates than family most days, but that was what she was to me—family.
It was weird to think about how little I knew of her as a person.
Shaking the thought away, I turned off the shower when I was clean and wrapped a white towel around me.
Then I walked back into my room and lay down on my bed, burying my face in the pillows. If I could stay like this all day, I would.
I barely slept last night. I hadn’t wanted to sleep. I’d wanted to savor the moment of being in Wyatt’s arms while I still had the chance, and when I’d finally closed my eyes, it was only for a few hours.
I woke up early, before the sun was up, and dressed in the dark. Thankfully, Wyatt didn’t wake, and I left.
I let out a groan and closed my eyes.
There was nothing I could do about Wyatt except keep my distance. Only now that thought sounded more like a sad tune, and its meaning had been lost since the moment I decided to kiss him in that bathroom.
The more I tried to think of reasons why we would never work, the more persistent my heart became that maybe we would.
I was getting whiplash from all this back and forth. And it was with those thoughts bouncing around in my head that I fell asleep.
***
When I woke up, my mouth felt dry and my hair was still damp on the side I’d slept on. And I wasn’t alone in my room.
Letting out a gasp of surprise, I looked up and met Joey’s brown eyes. And even though she drank more than I did last night, she looked better than how I felt.
“Is that for me?” I asked, pointing at one of the two coffee cups she had on my desk.
“Yeah. How are you feeling?”
“Like shit,” I replied, grabbing the cup and taking a large gulp.
“Me too. Did you know Cole showed up with Wyatt last night?”
I nodded. I remembered us dropping Joey and Cole off at his apartment. “Did you spend the night with him?”
“Yeah, though I wouldn’t have if I knew I was going to get a lecture this morning.”
“What?” I asked on a laugh.
“Yeah. He thinks because I’m sleeping with him, he can now lecture me on my safety.”
I grimaced. “He has a point, you know.”
“Oh, come on. Not you too. We established before we went that you were the DD. We had it all figured out.”
I tapped my fingers on the warm cup, playing with the cardboard sleeve. “I had a drink last night,” I admitted.
Joey shrugged. “So? One drink is not going to affect your driving.”
“Except I still don’t know what it was that I drank, but it was pretty strong. I was hiding in the bathroom trying to sober up when Wyatt found me.”
“Seriously?”
I nodded. “And you were in even worse condition than me. I mean, beer pong, Joey? You suck at that game. Did you know Cole had to carry you out?”
“I... didn’t know that,” she said quietly.
“Are you going to talk to him?” I asked. She shrugged. “I think you should. He was worried about you, that’s all.”
“I’ll think about it. But tell me about your night. Did you spend it with Wyatt?”
I blushed and looked away. I still hadn’t told her I’d slept with him. How would she react if she found out last night wasn’t my first time in his apartment? “Yeah, but I left early this morning before he woke up, so I don’t know how he feels about last night.”
“Well, from the way Cole said he’s been acting, it’s obvious that you’ve gotten under his skin.”
“What did Cole say?”
“That’s he’s been distracted for weeks, and Wyatt’s never distracted. In fact, Wyatt became distracted about the same time you became distracted.” I looked up and met her eyes. “What are you hiding from me, Emery?”
I guessed I hadn’t been that good at keeping my feelings from showing on my face. Joey saw right through me. “I had sex with Wyatt.”
Her eyes widened. “Are you serious? Did he know it was your first time?”
“Not until after.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” She sounded hurt. I thought I would be too, in her shoes. We’d always told each other everything. But I hadn’t wanted to share my one moment with Wyatt with anyone, not even Joey. I shrugged.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.
Like always, she could read me so well. I shot her a smile. “I’m still processing it.”
“Okay, just answer this question for me. Was he any good?” The smile on her face told me everything was fine between us.
“It was... he was amazing.” Even I could hear the sigh I let out at the
end—there wasn’t anything I could do to hide it. Whenever I thought about that night, all the reasons I told myself about why Wyatt and I would never work seemed less like my self-preservation kicking in and more like excuses.
“You’re lucky. Sometimes I wish I would have waited until I was a little older before handing over my V-card.”
I winced, remembering the night Joey came over and told me about it. It was our junior year in high school. And it had been in the back of a pickup truck, as cliché as that sounded. She said having sex with the quarterback of our football team hadn’t hurt, but it wasn’t anything to write home about.
Having only Joey’s experience to go off of, for the longest time, I had expected my first time to be like that as well. But Wyatt had obliterated all of my expectations, and it seemed like he had done so effortlessly.
“Are you going to see him again?” she asked.
“I suppose I might, since it’s obvious how crazy Cole is about you.”
Her lips tilted upward in a small smile. “You think this thing with Cole will work out?” She sounded hopeful, so unlike the girl I grew up with. Who knew Joey could be a romantic?
“I think so. You have to forgive him first, you know, for lecturing you.”
She laughed. “Come on. Don’t tell me I overreacted. I don’t need that in a boyfriend.”
“Is that what he is?” I asked. Joey had had men in her life for more than just a night. But they never lasted. And I’d never heard her call any of them her boyfriend.
“We haven’t talked about it.”
“But you want him to be?” I asked, playing with the ends of my towel.
“Yeah,” she admitted, sounding surprised. As if she had never really thought about it.
“Well, don’t make him grovel too much.”
“Whatever,” she murmured, kicking my shin playfully. “Go get dressed. We’re going to spend the day together. And I want to hear about you and Wyatt, and why you’re so determined to keep him at arm’s length.”
I opened my mouth, but the look she gave me shut me up. “Whatever,” I said, repeating her words back to her. Joey just smiled.
***
I met with Aunt Helen in the library that night. It felt like forever since we’d last sat down and read together, but I knew I had stopped coming to the library at night after the first night Wyatt and I spent together.
Aunt Helen looked surprised when I walked in, but then her expression became unreadable. I smiled at her, and she smiled back as I went to the shelves and looked through the horror section.
Reading horror wasn’t something I indulged in often, but right now Stephen King seemed to be what I was in the mood for. Reading romance would have reminded me of Wyatt, and I was really trying to stay away from thoughts of him.
Aunt Helen eyed the book in my hand, but she didn’t say anything. We read in silence until it was close to her bedtime. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw her close the book she’d been reading and place it on the small wooden side table, and felt her eyes on me.
I marked the page of my book and looked up. She looked like she wanted to say something to me. “What?” I asked.
“Preston tells me you’re seeing someone. I was wondering if you were thinking of bringing him home for dinner some night.”
“Oh. I’m not seeing him.”
“Why not?” I couldn’t tell if she was happy about the news or not.
I shrugged. Because I’m afraid he might hurt me. And I don’t want to be hurt. Wyatt texted me this morning, but I hadn’t responded.
“How do you feel about him?” she asked.
“He’s...” Unpredictable. Irresistible. Tempting. “Different.”
“Different how?”
“Different from anyone I have ever met.” And that was the truth. If we ever got together, I knew it wouldn’t be because he was using me to go further in his career. He was driven, and he would go far on his own merits.
I had looked him up when he mentioned owning a business with Cole. And I hadn’t realized that he owned a multimillion dollar business until that Google search. He didn’t need my connections or family name. And yet he was trying so hard to get me. I might even entertain the idea that he was truly as attracted to me as I was to him, but the warning he’d given me still rang true.
There was no future for us.
“Do you like him, Emery?” my aunt asked softly. I had never heard her use that tone before.
I nodded. There was no point in lying. “Yes.”
She nodded, but didn’t say any more. Standing up, she patted my head as she walked past me and out the door. I didn’t know what to make of that. Was she happy for me? Sad? Did she see what I saw whenever I thought about Wyatt and me?
I didn’t know.
And I couldn’t go back to my reading after that. I went to bed early that night, and lay awake until I couldn’t anymore, falling into a restless slumber that had me yawning through my morning classes the next day.
I was falling for Wyatt, and maybe I just wanted him to feel for me what I felt for him. Because if that was the case, then I knew he would do whatever it took to make us work. That what he felt for me wasn’t anything he could control. That it was beyond reason, and there was no way to come back from it.
Chapter Twenty: Take a Chance on Me
Wyatt
Emery was ignoring me.
That much was obvious when two days had passed without a single word from her. My calls were being sent to voicemail, and I wouldn’t be surprised if my texts had gone unread. It was driving me crazy.
It wasn’t that I didn’t know how to find her. It was that the things I had to do in order to see her felt... desperate. And I was not a desperate man. There was nothing about me that said that, yet I was willing to throw out my composure just to seek her out.
I looked down at my phone and frowned when another one of my calls went to voicemail. Cole found me in my office just seconds later. “Have you eaten lunch?” he asked in lieu of a greeting.
I shook my head, looking back to the screen of my laptop, noting that it had gone black. I shook the mouse and watched the computer come back to life, the same reports I was supposed to be reading still nothing more than a jumbled mess.
I needed to get my head on straight. This thing with Emery was messing with my concentration.
“Let’s go,” Cole said. I turned off the screen and stood up. I couldn’t go back to the reports now.
I grabbed my jacket hanging on the chair and walked over to him. “Where are we going?”
“I’m taking Joey out for lunch. You should join us. This will give you the chance to get to know her.”
“I take it she’s not mad at you anymore?” I grinned.
He shook his head. “I’ll never understand women. She said I was lecturing her, when all I did was let her know how dangerous going to that party was in the first place.”
My assistant, Cody, looked like he wanted to say something when he saw me walking out. I shook my head. “Take your lunch, Cole. I’m doing the same.”
He shot me a sheepish smile and nodded. I wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t taken his lunch break yet. He hardly took any breaks during the work day. When we rode the elevator down, the place was crawling with people. And I spotted Joey right away. She was standing near the door, texting someone on her phone. Emery perhaps.
I caught Cole’s attention and nodded to Joey. He smiled and walked over to her, and I followed behind. Joey was an attractive girl. She was also very different than Emery. She was only a little taller, which meant not tall at all, considering she barely reached my shoulders. She also had short blonde hair that said she meant business and the biggest brown eyes I had ever seen on anyone, reminding me a hell of a lot of Bambi.
She was curvier than Emery, and she wore those curves well. In another lifetime, had Cole not shown interest in her, I might have found her attractive. Now, all I saw was her best friend, a girl who haunted my every waking
thought, and who was ignoring me like I was a disease she didn’t want to catch.
Joey noticed us when we got close, smiling when she caught sight of Cole, but what made me pull up short was how her eyes widened a fraction when she saw me, then they turned knowing. Emery must have filled her in.
“Hey, beautiful,” Cole said, wrapping his arms around her and planting a not-so-chaste kiss on her lips in front of everyone.
When he pulled away, Joey’s eyes lost focus for a fraction of a second, before she turned them to me.
“Hey.”
I nodded. “How’s Emery?”
“She’s been... busy.”
I shot her a look. Emery was not busy. Not the kind of busy most other people were.
Joey laughed. “I’m telling the truth. She has been busy. She’s starting her own charity, you know.”
No, I didn’t know. Cole cleared his throat when I didn’t say anything. “Ready for lunch?”
Her eyes softened when she looked back at him. “Yeah.”
We walked out of the building and to the waiting car at the curb. Joey stopped and looked at Cole when the driver came around and held the door open for us.
Using a driver wasn’t something Cole and I did often, but it was necessary when we were meeting potential clients or investors and we were going to be drinking. Plus, it was convenient.
“After you, my lady,” Cole chirped.
Joey laughed. “What a gentleman.”
I was the last to get in the car. Cole and Joey sat side by side, his arm wrapped around her. If I’d thought before that Cole’s attraction to her was one-sided, that was gone now. I’d had my doubts about her, only because my first impression of her was that she was cold. Joey was smart, there was no doubt about it, but she had the same look about her that Cole did. A look that said she’d seen a lot of shit in the world, and she would do anything to get to the top.
But looking at her now, I realized that if anyone was capable of loving Cole and keeping him in line, it was her.
The drive to the restaurant was quick. Surprisingly, we ran into very little traffic, and when we got inside, Joey requested a booth seat.
