Red Consumed

by Allyson Lindt

  Wyatt gave him that hungry-wolf grin. “I’m giving you the list, and then I’m waiting. I’ll be in those cities, and in a week or three, you’re going to call me.”

  “I will?” Parker had to force out the snort of disbelief. His mind insisted he wasn’t that naive, but Wyatt’s tone was compelling. And as wind swirled around them, Wyatt stood close. The scent of his cologne mingled with sunshine and flowed through Parker’s senses.

  If Fiona weren’t in the picture, this would be a different scenario. Parker would yield, to see what this man would do. But she was, so it didn’t matter.

  “You will,” Wyatt said. “Because the sex isn’t the same when it’s just the two of you, and she hasn’t told you a quarter of the things she fantasizes about.” The phoniness was gone, replaced by a low growl of conviction. “Public blow jobs will only sate curiosity for so long. Hers and yours. Besides, you won’t be happy with monogamy. And I mean you, specifically.”

  “Bullshit.” Parker was willing to listen to Wyatt’s bravado to a point, but none of this was true. So why was he still here? Why didn’t he turn and walk away and meet Fiona at the edge of the park?

  Because desire compelled him to hear this out until the end. His pulse roared in his ears, and his nerve endings danced with need at how close Wyatt stood.

  Wyatt searched his eyes, as if looking for evidence of exactly that. “Maybe it is. Maybe it’s not. You’ve spent your adult life seeing the world and fucking who and when you want. Now you’re done, because you have the woman of your dreams?”

  “Yes.” Because that was how relationships worked. And he’d imagined the waver in his own response.

  “But you’re thinking about what I’m saying, and you’re wondering if I’m right.” Wyatt stepped closer, his nose almost touching Parker’s. “So you’ll make her think it’s all for her. Call Wyatt, just this once. It’s okay. We’ll be okay. And it will be, because you’re curious too.”

  “Not about you, I’m not. I know what you are.” Fuck this man, for climbing into his head, and fuck his own body, for reacting and betraying him. Indignation and lust raged in Parker. He clenched his jaw to keep them from spilling out.

  “You don’t know me any better than I know you. But I believe you know enough. And you want another taste anyway.”

  “Not all of us have a secret desire to be dominated.” Parker wouldn’t back down. He wouldn’t be manipulated. And he definitely wouldn’t give into the impulse to remember what it felt like to kiss Wyatt.

  “It’s true. You, for instance, want to explore. Watch. Play. Your suppressed desire is pleasure. You want more, and you keep denying yourself.”

  “I’m not denying anything.” Don’t back off. Don’t let him get under your skin. Too late. Parker closed the last few centimeters between them and crushed his mouth to Wyatt’s.

  He saw the shock in Wyatt’s eyes, but it morphed to satisfaction in a blink. That wouldn’t make Parker pull away. He poured everything into the kiss—the fury, lust, and frustration.

  Wyatt rested a hand at the back of his neck, holding him captive, and Parker didn’t care. He devoured Wyatt’s mouth, biting his lips. He ground against Wyatt’s hard body.

  The voice in the back of his head told him to stop, but that was the one thing he didn’t have the desire for. Heat flooded through him, drawing his cock to life. Reminding him what else he loved about what he did.

  Exploring.

  He dropped a hand below Wyatt’s waist, to cup his length through his trousers, and smirked against the kiss when Wyatt’s erection jerked against his touch. The low growl—he didn’t know whose it was—heated his blood further.

  “Are you fucking kidding me with this?” Fiona’s disbelief shattered the moment, and Parker’s thoughts splintered into a million pieces.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  FIONA DIDN’T KNOW WHO she was more furious with.

  “Red, wait.” Parker sprinted to her side and grabbed her arm.

  She jerked free. Correction—she knew exactly who she was mad at. Wyatt didn’t matter. The arrogant asshole probably planned to be here before she turned him down. But Parker...

  She glared at him.

  “Don’t run off in a huff.” Wyatt’s request drew her attention.

  She turned her ire on him. “Is this where you give me a bullshit story about how this was your doing, and not to blame him?” Why would she assume that? Oh, right. Because it didn’t make sense, and it would throw her off balance. Whatever Wyatt was up to, he wouldn’t be upfront about it.

  “No. Definitely not. He kissed me,” Wyatt said. “But last time you stormed away, things went downhill fast.”

  She cringed at the reminder and the whisper of concern under his smug words. “So make sure that doesn’t happen again. Follow me. You’ve got a lot of practice.”

  Anger flashed in Wyatt’s eyes, but something else lay underneath.

  Fiona refused to think past the fury inside. She resumed walking toward the edge of the park.

  Parker stepped in her path. “Hear me out, please?”

  “Why?” The question was raw in her throat. “I’ll apologize over and over again for the fact that—” She clamped her jaw shut, not willing to spill in front of Wyatt that she was struggling to move past him. “Everything we’ve talked about. And then you go and do this? After everything you’ve said?”

  “I didn’t— He was— He happened to walk into the same place I was filming, and we were talking,” Parker said.

  Fiona felt like her scowl was frozen in place. “Mouths and tongues were definitely involved.”

  “That was...” Parker frowned.

  She raised her eyebrows, waiting for him to offer up some brilliant explanation.

  “I was thinking he’d be a good tour guide, after all.”

  Fiona couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “At least you more or less led with that. Like last time. You realize that despite your suggesting it, it’s always been his idea.”

  Behind Parker, she saw Wyatt fighting a smirk. She pointed a narrow-eyed glare at him, and his face went blank.

  “I do realize,” Parker said. “And I also heard Nick.”

  “That’s not making me any happier. Do you remember there’s this big huge conflict-of-interest thing? Oh, and that you and I are a couple?” It was odd to approach this argument from the side Parker usually took. Except he didn’t argue with her lingering infatuation. He was frustrated, but shouting wasn’t his thing.

  She never expected this was why he tolerated her crush. She didn’t even know what this was that she’d walked in on.

  Parker looked behind him, then back at her. “You don’t have to leave with me, but can we talk without an audience?”

  That was a good idea. She nodded, and they moved a few feet from Wyatt. A tiny part of her brain asked why they didn’t go back to the hotel to talk. Or anywhere that Wyatt wasn’t.

  Because she didn’t want to. If Parker wasn’t pushing him away, she didn’t have to either.

  Wyatt lied to you.

  So she wouldn’t trust him. It was as easy as that. “What’s going on?” she asked Parker, in a softer voice.

  “He walked into the sandwich shop as I was wrapping up filming. Said he was trying to avoid you and didn’t know I’d be there. I think he was telling the truth.”

  Fiona shrugged. It sounded plausible enough. “How do you get from there to groping him in the middle of the park?”

  “He started talking, like he does, and I got irritated, like I do...”

  “So this was a dick-measuring contest, with a hands-on round?”

  Parker pursed his lips. “I don’t know what it was. Compulsion. Lust. Aggravation. And you’re not the only one feeling the pull.”

  “Oh.” Fiona’s anger slipped. She tripped through highlights in her memories. Sure, Parker and Wyatt pushed each other, and watching them together sent tingles racing over her body, but the mutual distaste... Except it had faded. Right before they
found out Wyatt lied, it was gone. Was her boyfriend infatuated with someone else? She didn’t have any right to feel the ping in her chest, but she did.

  Parker grasped her fingers, and she didn’t pull away. “It’s not like y—like I want to run away with the guy. He’s slimy, but he’s sexy. If you argue that, I’ll know you’re lying.”

  “I won’t.” She had too many thoughts and emotions tumbling through her head, to make sense of them. Another chance. The loud, insistent, nagging voice pointing out she could have both, for a little while. Get Wyatt out of her system.

  “Besides”—Parker squeezed her hand gently—“maybe I can learn a few things from him.”

  “Like...?” The best angle for ass-slapping for maximum sting and minimum risk?

  “How to relax in front of the camera again. How to shake off whatever’s making me freeze up.”

  Right. Except Parker wasn’t meeting her gaze. It was close, but it wasn’t eye-contact.

  “I’d like to see you happy with your views again,” she said. “Get back on track in the competition.” And apparently, sex with the Big Bad Wolf was the way to do that.

  “I hate to interrupt,” Wyatt said, doing exactly that, “but if you two don’t need me...”

  Need was a strong word. Want was more appropriate.

  Parker looked at him. “Where are your travels taking you next? I was wondering if you’d like to show me around town.”

  The corners of Wyatt’s mouth twitched up in an unformed smile. “Probably North Carolina. We have an office near Beaufort, and I’m training some sales associates.”

  They were actually doing this. Fiona’s mouth went dry, and her pulse hammered in her ears. Nick’s voice nagged in her head, pointing out relationships didn’t work this way. Bringing in a third person—who’d lied his way into their lives—wasn’t spice; it was stupid.

  Fortunately, she wasn’t Nick. Despite his words and reason, she didn’t want to see past the possibilities.

  “We have to keep this discreet,” she said. At least part of her brain was working.

  Wyatt’s smile emerged. “So I’m clear—I don’t want any misunderstanding—you’re not talking about the tour-guide part of things when you say discreet.”

  “I’m talking experimentation.” Great. She couldn’t bring herself to be an adult and say sex.

  “We’re talking about fucking.” Parker didn’t seem to have any issues with it. “Anything physical.”

  “Couldn’t agree more,” Wyatt said. “If Fiona gets this contract—and I’m going to breach protocol and tell her odds are good, because she’s good, and I had nothing to do with that decision—getting caught is my ass as much as it is hers. This is just between the three of us.”

  The skip in her chest should have been at the confirmation she was probably about to secure this sale, but it wasn’t. “This doesn’t mean the past is forgiven, though. I don’t trust you. Neither of us does.”

  Wyatt gritted his teeth and sucked in a breath through them. “That’s not going to work for me.”

  Parker barked a laugh. “You expected otherwise?”

  “Trust flows both ways. You don’t trust me, you’re more likely to betray me. If this gets out at all... we covered what happens.”

  “You haven’t earned trust. If that’s a deal breaker, the deal is broken.” Fiona hated the taste of the words, but she did have some semblance of sanity left in her skull. “But like you said, exposure hurts me, too.”

  “Fine. I’ll put it this way. If you want to experiment”—he looked at her—”you have to trust me. You have to do what I say and believe that I’m not trying to hurt you. Pain... maybe. That depends on you. But not betrayal.”

  The implication sent daggers of desire dancing along her nerves, and she swallowed the impulse to moan at the possibilities. “I’ll give you everything in the bedroom, actual or metaphorical. Outside of that, you earn it.”

  “I’ll take that for now.” He looked at Parker. “You’re okay with this?”

  “I am.”

  She didn’t know if she was bothered or relieved by Parker’s lack of hesitation.

  “Send me your itinerary. I’ll rearrange filming to match,” Parker said.

  Wyatt nodded.

  “We should get going.” Parker tangled his fingers with Fiona’s.

  “Fiona. A moment.” Wyatt’s request stopped her. Again.

  She both loathed and was compelled by how easily she reacted to his commands. She looked at him, lips pursed in expectation.

  Parker squeezed her hand.

  Wyatt moved close. She felt his heat through clothing. Saw the different-color flecks in his eyes. Smelled that tantalizing scent of cologne. He didn’t touch her, but his gaze held hers. “Next time we see each other, I’m not going to hold back. I want to feel you again. Your tight pussy clenched around my cock. Your nails digging into my flesh, as you ride that edge of pleasure. And I won’t play backup or be content to watch. Not next time. I’m going to mark you, so you remember. Make you scream until you’re hoarse. Ensure you have trouble walking when I’m done. Do you have an issue with that?”

  She’d protest, but she couldn’t find her voice. Anticipation, hot and damp, pulsed between her legs. She bit her bottom lip, to hold back the why wait? “No,” she said.

  She swore she heard Parker’s breathing quicken.

  Wyatt smiled that same dangerous, devour-her smirk that always scrambled her thoughts. “Good.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ANTICIPATION HUMMED over Wyatt’s skin after he returned to his hotel. He’d spent his afternoon with Parker instead of working, and it turned out to be worth it. He’d have Fiona again. But that meant work still waited.

  He wasn’t fond of how Parker got under his skin, though. A simple kiss, and Wyatt was hard. A follow-up grope, and he wanted to make out. That wouldn’t do. There was sex, and there was moving on, especially when it came to Parker.

  Wyatt stripped off his suit jacket and hung it in the closet, followed by his shirt and his trousers. Fuck, he was still half-hard, like a horny teenager who didn’t get off.

  He grazed over his cock, and his need sparked to life at the touch, yanking back vivid images from the afternoon and before. Memories of Parker stroking him through his pants. Of Fiona’s faint scent and how it lingered even after she was gone. Of what it felt like, to slide inside her. Watching her writhe in pleasure.

  Even of what Parker tasted like.

  He stroked in time to the flashes across his senses, harder with each staccato frame. Fiona’s gasps. Watching her wrap her lips around Parker’s cock. Her mouth crushed against Wyatt’s.

  He came hard, coating his hand and startling himself with the abrupt intensity. It was a jerk-off. It wasn’t supposed to steal his breath.

  But maybe now he could get some work done.

  He cleaned up, then tugged on some slacks and a polo shirt. Less than five minutes later, his laptop was on the desk, and he was settled in, reading and prioritizing the emails that came in while he was out.

  A loud jangling filled the room, and it took him a second ring to register it was his hotel phone. Anyone who wanted to talk to him and knew him would use his cell. Must be the front desk.

  He grabbed the receiver. “Yeah.”

  “Hey, handsome.” Devin’s voice clawed over him like nails.

  Wyatt’s first impulse was to hang up, but he needed to know how Devin got his room information. “Afternoon.” He kept his tone cool.

  “You never called me back.” Devin sounded wounded.

  “Can’t say I ever would have.”

  “That’s fair. Thing is I wanted to talk to you.”

  Once upon a time, Wyatt fell for the smooth, assured tone. He’d learned. “I assumed that was why you called.”

  “I missed you.”

  “No, you didn’t.” It was difficult to believe Devin missed anything but fucking with someone’s head. Wyatt had sat through the hearing. Saw the things Devin
did, both psychologically and physically, to the women he stalked.

  “You wound me. Anyway, when you didn’t get back to me, I stopped by your office.”

  Wyatt’s stomach dropped into his shoes. This was the second time Devin had done that since being released. He knew things about Wyatt. About their past together. Not the sex—big fucking deal—but the reason Wyatt was compelled to testify against him to begin with. The way Wyatt found out about the stalking. “How’d that go?” he asked.

  “They told me you were out of town.”

  “Hmm... So, how’d you get my hotel info?” Wyatt was tired of beating around the bush.

  “Your assistant. Sweet girl. Chatty. Friendly. Tried to assure me you didn’t hire her just because of how fuckable she looks in a pencil skirt. But you and I both know it’s for the afternoon quickie.”

  “Sharon excels at her job, which has nothing to do with fucking me.”

  “Right. Her job. So she and I got to chatting, and I mentioned that I know you.”

  Acid surged up Wyatt’s throat.

  “Because you were working with me on a sale before your promotion,” Devin said.

  That was only about half a percent less concerning.

  “And she said I could talk to your replacement.” Devin sounded conversational, as if he were discussing the weather, rather than giving a detailed description of how he’d gleaned private information about Wyatt’s travel plans. “I told her I had some questions for you. She knew what I meant. Once you start working an angle with someone, you want to finish with them. She may have let it drop that you were at the call center.

  “Turns out your tastes haven’t changed a whole lot, when it comes to lodging. Found you on my second call to business hotels near the offices out there, and it was easy to get someone to patch me up to your room.”

  Wyatt winced at the run-down. It seemed innocent, but it wasn’t. It also sounded disturbingly like the way he’d tracked down Fiona and Parker when they weren’t personally open about their whereabouts. Maybe Devin and I are more alike than I think. He silenced the nagging voice. “What can I do for you?”