by Alisha Rai
“When did he say this?” Tatiana knew her tone was sharp, but she couldn’t help it.
“Yesterday. Yesterday morning, when we spoke.”
Yesterday morning. Before she had marched into Wyatt’s office and revealed her connection to Ron.
Suspicion pulsed through her veins, followed by anger. Anger…and a tiny, tiny speck of anticipation? No. “Oh. Really.”
“Yeah. Hey—where are you going?”
Tatiana stomped toward the door. “I’ll come back later. I have to see someone.”
“Do you want to eat breakfast first?”
“After, maybe.” She might work up an appetite…kicking Wyatt’s ass.
Chapter Eleven
You ran out on me. We’re not done. Call me back.
Tatiana tightened her grip on her phone.
I was going to wake you up with my face between your thighs, sucking your clit. Tie you down first so you’d have no choice, eat you all day long. Call me back.
The elevator opened. She pressed the button to end her voicemail and shoved the phone into her jeans pocket, holding on to her mad in the face of temptation. They weren’t done. But probably not in the way Wyatt meant.
Esme was the only occupant of the waiting room today. Busy at her desk, she glanced up when Tatiana thundered into the waiting room. The older woman’s look of polite inquiry relaxed into welcome. “Ms. Belikov. How nice to see you again.”
Wyatt’s assistant had been kind to her. That was the only reason she managed to swallow her temper enough to speak civilly. “Nice to see you, too. Is Wyatt in?”
“Yes—ah. Ms….?””
Tatiana waved one hand and strode to the door of his inner sanctum. “No need to announce me. Cancel his appointments.”
“But Ms. Belikov, Mr. Caine said—”
Ignoring Esme, she opened the door, wishing it wasn’t so heavy. She’d give anything to really fling it wide. Maybe with smoke and crashing music announcing her appearance.
Even without dramatics, her entrance caught Wyatt's attention. The man looked up from his desk and froze at the sight of her. For a second, she caught a flash of something—happiness? Excitement?—on his face before his cool, controlled mask descended. “Well. Hello.”
“Surprise.” She kicked the door closed behind her, keeping her gaze locked on his, though she was tempted to check out the way his broad shoulders filled out his blinding white dress shirt. It was important to never take your eyes off a predator. Especially a sneaky one.
“You got my messages, I’m guessing.”
“I got both of them.”
“Both?” His brow furrowed.
“Yeah. Nice imagery on the second one there.” Nice imagery, but no sign that he was yearning for anything more than chastising her for running away.
“Are you…okay?” He gave her a quick onceover. Like an automatic response, her body heated and warmed for him, just as it had the last time she’d walked into his office.
Yesterday, however, she hadn’t known how good of a lover Wyatt had become. Now, her skin was itching to feel his hands on her one more time. Focus. “Swell.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” He leaned forward and placed his arms on the desk. His strong forearms were revealed by the rolled-up sleeves of his shirt. He fiddled with a pen between his long fingers. Was it the same pen that had fiddled with her? “Tatiana—”
“How could you not contact me before this?” The words flew out of her mouth, filled with all the anger and annoying lust boiling inside of her.
He blinked, and the confusion on his face only made her madder. “Before this? I called you when I woke up...”
“I’m not talking about today. Before before!”
He opened his mouth. Closed it again. “I don’t think I get what you’re saying.”
Fists. Her hands were fists. “I want to throw something at you. But I’m scared I’ll miss and hit your window. Can you go stand in front of the wall please?”
“No. Tatiana. Calm down, and let’s talk.”
Oh, that tone. She hated his let’s-be-reasonable tone. How had she forgotten that tone?
Yet she still wanted to bone him. Argh. “You knew.”
“I knew what?”
“You knew Ron was my brother. Before I told you yesterday.”
He winced, his body deflating in his chair. “Figured that out, did you?”
That he didn’t even bother to deny it made her anger flare brighter. “Why else would I be here?”
A heavy silence descended before he cleared his throat. “Why, indeed.” His hand fidgeted on his desk. The flash of gold caught her eye. Her necklace was instantly recognizable, as was the familiar stack of papers next to it.
He followed her gaze. “You forgot something.”
Funny. She hadn’t realized she’d left the expensive trinket behind. Nor did she particularly care. Tatiana walked to the desk. Instead of reclaiming her jewelry, she went for the letters.
Wyatt got there before her, his big palm slapping down and sliding the pile toward him. “No.”
“They’re mine.”
“You gave them to me.”
“You gave them to me first.” Tatiana barely resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him. He’d probably take it as an invitation. “Besides, I changed my mind, you lying—”
Wyatt made an exasperated sound. “You have the same eyes.”
“What?”
His lips tightened. “I was down on the floor one day and see this baby-faced boy dealing cards. This boy with your eyes.”
“Lots of people have green eyes.”
He glanced down and shifted a paper. “‘I love your eyes. I could spend hours drowning in them, an emerald sea at dusk.’” His smile was wry. “Cheesy, but a twenty-year-old kid can’t be anything but, can he?”
Her heart leapt at the sound of the words he’d written so long ago coming from his very adult mouth. There was naughty stuff in those letters, yes. But pure sweetness was interspersed between the racy promises of sex and kink.
He’d deny it to his dying day, but her tough rebel had been a hopeless romantic.
Wyatt shook his head at her, as if he was disappointed. “Do you really think I would confuse your eyes with any other human being on the planet? No. He had your green eyes. Your coloring. Your nose, the line of your jaw. The similarities were striking enough to investigate.”
“When was this?”
No longer the image of a powerful and controlled businessman, he squirmed. Like a small boy called on the carpet by his principal. “Two years ago.”
Her legs felt watery. She braced herself on the desk. “That was before he found me.”
“Yes.”
“Wyatt. Did you…did you have anything to do with Ron tracking me down?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
He sighed. “Fine. I had a private investigator dig around a little, found out his mother had given a baby with your birth date up for adoption. I made sure that information was made available to him, anonymously. He was the one who pursued it.”
Did he think she was stupid? Finding one’s birth family wasn’t an easy lark, or she would have attempted it eons ago. The enormity of his actions staggered her.
She’d figured that he’d simply known about hers and Ron’s relationship. Not that he’d engineered it. He was the reason she had her brother and sister-in-law and nephew, hell, even her bitter old mother, in her life. “That’s unbelievable.”
“It’s a small world.”
“Why would you do something like that?”
He shuffled the papers again and quoted softly, “‘I can’t imagine a world without you in it. Sometimes I think I’ll die if I lose you.’”
She didn’t want to hear what he’d said at twenty. She wanted to hear what he was saying now.
He continued. “You weren’t just an old flame, Tatiana. You were my first. First best friend, first love. When we ended it, things were going
badly, but…” He shook his head. “You can’t just wipe away your first.”
“Why…why didn’t you find me then? Why didn’t you pick up the phone and call me and tell me about Ron yourself?” That was what really galled her. The second he’d come back on her radar she’d booked a flight to see him on a pretense. Okay, fine. She got tipsy and nostalgic, and then booked a flight to see him on a pretense. Same thing.
His smile was sad and a little wistful. “I told the PI to only tell me if you were alive and well, and if you could have a connection with this kid. I didn’t want your phone number or your address or even your email.”
Her pride smarted, and she raised her chin, ready to blister his ears, but he spoke before she could. “But then I changed my mind.” He reached inside his shirt pocket and withdrew a tattered scrap of paper. “Didn’t you wonder how I got your cell phone number? I’ve had it for years. Just this, nothing more. It was safer than having your address, because I knew I would write you some blubbering letter when I got lonely or when I thought of you. This…this, I could just keep.” His long fingers caressed the paper. “You don’t know how many times I’ve almost picked up the phone. When you stormed in? I was sitting right here, psyching myself up to call you.”
“Why didn’t you? Why was it so hard?”
“Because I was too much of a coward to take a chance on falling for you all over again. Hell, I lasted, what, half an hour yesterday? Before I was seducing you into my bed? Lying to myself, telling myself it would only be sex, when I knew…”
“Knew what?”
“Knew that you and I…we’re so much more, Tatiana. I fought it because I barely survived losing you once, and our parting was mutual then. I have people who depend on me now, who rely on me. You’re a distraction I can’t afford.”
Stung, she reared back. “I’m no femme fatale.”
“No. But what you said last night, that wasn’t a joke. I always needed you more than you needed me.”
“That’s not true,” she rasped. Didn’t he get it? He was hurting her, clawing away at her.
“How could it not be? You were this beautiful, golden angel. And I was…me. You could have done better. Everyone knew that.” He lifted his chin, proud even in his vulnerability.
She pressed her fingers to her temple, trying to parse through the glut of information he was shooting her way.
First things first. “I’m no more an angel than I am a whore, Caine,” she growled. “Then, or now. But, I’ll grant you, I do demand full attention. I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”
A muscle in his jaw clenched. “No. I realized when I woke up this morning, that maybe it’s not. I’d somehow forgotten.”
“Forgot what?”
“How happy it always made me to be distracted by you.”
Unable to stand another second of this without doing something with her restless hands, she grabbed hold of his tie and pulled his delicious, surprised face across the desk. He half rose, making a startled noise as she devoured his lips, giving him a kiss filled with every emotion warring within her: gratitude, annoyance, irritation, and yes, hope.
He’d given her a brother. Even though her family had always been a point of contention between them, he’d made an effort to investigate a man who happened to look similar to her and make sure they were reunited. Because he’d remembered, a decade later, how much she’d wished to meet her birth family.
Their kiss was long and lingering. He braced his hands on his desk and leaned farther over the wide expanse to get closer to her. She finally drew away. “Apologize,” she whispered.
He scowled, his lips wet from hers. “For what?”
“For not telling me about my brother earlier. For quietly pulling strings behind the scenes like a control-freak wizard.”
“I was trying to—”
“Apologize.”
He glared at her. “You never let me get away with anything.”
“Nope.”
“Fine. I’m sorry—umph.”
He’d barely finished speaking when she took his mouth again. This time the kiss was hot, wild, and out of control.
She separated from him, giving him a parting lick across his lips, and released his tie. He didn’t straighten right away and his eyes were dazed enough to stroke her ego. “Thank you,” she murmured. “For giving me more family.”
He shook his head as if to rid the cobwebs from his brain. “I don’t want your thanks. If anything, I should be thanking you.”
“For what?”
“For following your impulse to come here. I used to criticize you for playing it safe, for playing by your parents’ rules, but you were always ready to risk more than I was. Otherwise you never would have taken a chance on me all those years ago.”
She gave a small sniff. “Oh, Wyatt.”
He rifled through the letters. “Why did you keep these? For all these years?”
“Because you never forget your first.” He’d always hold a piece of her heart, just as, it appeared, she held a piece of his. Because he was a good man, a kind man, and there was a reason she had loved him so much when they were young. “You really are wrong. You needed me enough to write those. I needed you enough to keep them. It was a two-way street with us. Always. Even if we pretended otherwise sometimes.” Blast it, those were not tears making her vision foggy.
He swallowed, his mask slipping, as it tended to around her. “Why did you give them back to me, then?”
Tatiana gave a half laugh and dashed an arm over her eyes. “At the time, I might have been thinking in terms of closure. But I think really, deep down…I simply wanted you to know I kept them. That they—you—meant a lot to me. Then. And always.”
His broad thumb rubbed the wetness on her cheek. “Tatiana Belikov, confess. That’s not the only reason you left these.”
“Oh?”
“No. You knew I’d start wondering why you kept them. Wondering whether you ever really got over me. Realize I never quite got over you.” He cocked his head, his natural arrogance returning. A smirk played on his firm lips. “Track you down. Demand we see each other again, because whatever we have between us is too explosive not to explore.”
Had a tiny part of her entertained exactly the scenario he painted? Well. Possibly. “Wow. I must be pretty manipulative.” She bit his thumb when it strayed too close to her mouth, not bothering to be gentle.
A slow smile crossed his face. “You’re as manipulative as I am, woman.” The underlying admiration took the sting from his words.
“I admit nothing. Except…our break up wasn’t painless for me either. It’s easier to strip yourself physically than it is emotionally.” She gathered up the letters and closed the file, resting her hand on top. “These are mine.”
“I wrote them.”
“Yeah. To me. They’re mine. I may not read them on a regular basis, but I like to know I have them. That I was loved like this.”
Wyatt placed his hand over hers. “They’re yours.” He raised an eyebrow. “So. I left you three messages. Not two.”
Three messages. “Did you? What did you say?”
“You should listen to it.”
Intrigued, she pulled the phone out of her pocket and redialed her voicemail, passing over his previous saved messages to get to the final one.
You and me, Tatiana, we’re always going to crash into each others lives. I figured that out a couple years ago, and I’ve been fighting it all this time.
A pause. I think we need to talk about some stuff. We also need to give the universe a break. I don’t want to wait another ten years.
There went another tear, leaking out of the corner of her eye.
Let’s see each other again. Call me. Please.
She hung up when it became clear the message was over. Trying to think past her excitement was tough. “Oh.”
“Let’s get to know each other now that we’re all grown up. Distract me, Tatiana. Please. I need it.”
“Oh.”
Calm yourself. Don’t be impulsive. Impulsiveness will only… Oh, fuck it. Sometimes the only way to get ahead was to take a leap. “I don’t need to discuss it. I already know my answer.”
His grin was blinding. “Yeah? Come give it to me, then.”
Her eyes narrowed at his cockiness. “You think you’re winning.”
“I told you.” He lifted her hand to his lips. “I’m the house. I always win. But I’ll make sure you share in the prize.”
“Hmm. In that case, my answer is…” She disengaged from him and linked her hands primly in front of her. “I would like to go on a date.”
Left holding air, Wyatt blinked. “A…a date?”
“Not right now. Right now, I think I’ll go check out of my hotel. Ron invited me for breakfast, and I’ll probably end up staying with them for a couple of days. See the sights. Spoil my nephew. But tonight. I’d like to go out on a date tonight.”
“Is this…?” He squinted at her. “Is this part of a game?”
Tatiana laughed. “No. No game. I want a nice, respectable date. In public, where we have to show off our social skills and behave like normal, boring people. Dinner. A show, perhaps. Is that so crazy?”
A slow smile curled his firm lips. “No. Not crazy at all. I like the idea of a date. I can pick you up at six? Text me the address.”
She released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “Good. That sounds good. Get ready, because you’re going to have to be civil to my brother.”
He frowned and opened his mouth, but she beat him to it. “If you want to see me, you’ll definitely have to learn to be nice.”
Looking annoyed, he subsided. “Fine.”
“Oh, and I almost forgot,” she exclaimed, totally making things up as she went along, “we won’t be having sex with each other. Not until the fourth date, at least.”
“What?” He reared back. “You can’t be serious.”
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
“What, you’re such a good girl now?”
