by Kali Hart
As my mom wraps Wyatt in a hug, I duck in the bathroom to splash cold water on my face. I was a fool to think I could pretend like nothing happened between us this morning in front of everyone. At this rate, the secret will be out before dinner hits the table.
There’s not even a gentle knock at the door before it opens. Wyatt slips inside and locks the knob behind him. He doesn’t say a word. Just steps up to me until our bodies are pressed together. He digs his hands into the hair behind my neck and kisses me. I invite his tongue into my mouth, relishing in the feel of him pressed up against me.
“I missed you,” he says.
The words, whispered so intimately against my ear send shivers throughout my body. I want to believe that they could mean something. Instead, I allow myself to slip into this fantasy a little while longer. Soon, it’ll just be a memory. “I missed you, too.”
“Dinner’s ready,” I hear my brother Luke call.
“We better go before they come looking for us,” I say. My brothers don’t need to know that anything happened between me and Wyatt. It’ll be a secret I treasure on the loneliest days.
Wyatt kisses me again until I can’t breathe. “Just so you know, we’re not finished.”
WYATT
We’re hardly ten minutes into dinner when Katy’s youngest sister drops a bomb on us all. “I’m moving to New York with Jason. Next week.”
After that announcement, arguments erupt from all of her siblings. Her boyfriend couldn’t even be bothered to show up tonight, and leaves Amy as a lone target. I can’t help but feel a little sorry for the youngest Reynolds sibling. But her family makes several valid points about her impulsive decision. All of which she defends and dismisses.
The empty spot beside her at the table doesn’t go unnoticed by Katy, as her eyes keep landing on it. Her fists clench and unclench beneath the table. Whoever this boyfriend of Amy’s is, no one seems to like him.
Amy throws her napkin down onto her untouched plate and storms out.
Katy goes after her, but is left standing in the overcrowded driveway with her arms wrapped around her as her youngest sister speeds down the street. I follow Drew and Luke out the door, but I’m not quick enough. They’re in Drew’s Corvette and chasing after her before I can even offer to make a call.
“It’s not safe for her to drive,” Katy says to me, turning into my open arms like it’s the most natural thing in the world. “I’m worried about her.”
“C’mon.” I take her hand and walk her to my car. Katy’s in no shape to drive. She’s shaking too much, and tears are on the brink. “We can look for her, too.”
Katy nods, then slips into the passenger seat of the Ferrari I rented. I have to admit, she looks damn sexy in that car. As my wife. The thought flickers through my mind before I can silence it. I never thought I’d settle down. Never even considered having a serious relationship. But Katy has me rethinking everything.
“Where do you think she would go?” I take Katy’s hand and squeeze, waiting for her to think.
“Probably that jerk’s house.” She gives me the address, and we speed off down the road. It’s the opposite direction that everyone else went. But if Katy loses her brothers, hopefully we’ll find her.
“Are you okay?” I ask her at a red light.
“I shouldn’t be surprised. Amy’s always doing something impulsive. The day she doesn’t we should be worried.” She lets out a half-hearted laugh, but I can still sense the dread in her voice.
“You think she’s making a mistake?”
“I know she is.” Katy sighs. “But if we don’t let her make it, she’ll never learn.”
We’re still two miles from our destination when Katy’s phone dings. “It’s Amy.”
“She okay?”
“She’s staying with a girlfriend tonight.” Visible relief comes over Katy as her shoulders drop and the tension lines that had been etched in her forehead ease. “We can go back.”
“Or we can go for a drive?” I should take her back to her brother’s house, but I can’t help it. I brace for her to fight me on this. She’s guarded, and I can’t blame her. With the lifestyle I’ve led my entire life, I can’t expect her to trust my intentions. Not yet.
“Okay.”
Shocked by her answer, I don’t give her time to change her mind. I squeeze her hand and speed off to a quiet moonlit ledge with a spectacular view of the city lights. It’s the perfect place to confess that I’ve fallen madly in love with her.
6
KATY
It’s a bad idea. A terrible idea. But my lips couldn’t seem to form the word no. So here we are, racing through the dark roads up into the hills, weaving our way on the outskirts of the city. I have to admit, a part of me is thrilled by it all.
“Do you only drive fancy sports cars?” I ask.
He winks at me, causing the heat between my legs to ignite instantly. “Only sometimes. Are you opposed to fast cars?”
“Nope. This one’s pretty sexy, I have to admit.” And so is the driver. But I keep that detail to myself. Wyatt James doesn’t need anyone telling him what he already knows.
“Think you could get used to riding in a car like this?” He pulls into a deserted graveled lot that overlooks the city. It’s illuminated by the glow of the nearly full moon.
Avoiding his question, as it sparks much too intimate a fantasy that could never be reality, I ask, “Where are we?”
“Special spot. C’mon.” He hops out of the car, leaving me with a tightness in my stomach I don’t care for. How special is this spot? How many other women has he taken here? I try to shake the thought, remind myself that he doesn’t even live in this city.
“It’s beautiful,” I say.
“It’s mine.”
“What?”
“I bought it.” Wyatt leans against the car, drawing me into his arms, his chest to my back.
“When?”
“Today.”
I want to ask why. But with the kind of money Wyatt has at his disposal, he doesn’t really need a reason for impulsive decisions like buying a piece of land in a city he never visits. Instead, I nestle my bottom into his groin. Things are much less complicated when I stop thinking.
“You better not start what you can’t finish, Katy.” That deep growl in my ears has become my favorite thing about him. I’ll hear that in my dreams forever.
I turn and kiss him hard. Nothing sweet or tender in the way our lips collide. Knowing my sister is safe for the night is enough to allow me to let my wild side free one last time. It’s the only way to keep any pesky feelings under lock and key. “How do you want me?” I purr.
He unzips my jeans and shimmies them down my legs. “On the hood of the car.” Before I can kick off my boots, he says, “Leave them on.”
The hood has cooled enough that I’m not at risk of burning myself when I lay my back on it. Wyatt grabs my ass cheeks with his hands, and his head appears between my legs. I lock in my ankles around his neck. We did a lot of things this morning, but this was one fantasy that had gone unfulfilled.
“I need to taste you, babe.” His face disappears between my legs. His teeth rake my lace thong to once side, and his mouth makes quick work of my cunt. It’s so intense the second the tip of his skillful tongue touches my folds that I nearly buckle with ecstasy.
I want to spread my legs apart, but they’re trapped by my jeans and locked behind his head. I’m seeing stars in only seconds, and it’s not the night sky overhead. His names escapes my lips over and over as his tongue works magic on my clit. I grind my hips into his face, gyrating to his rhythm. Relishing in the gentle scrape of his two-day stubble between my thighs.
My body explodes with a pleasure I’ve never quite experienced. My pussy convulses, but Wyatt doesn’t move his mouth when I become sensitive. His lips are pressed against my folds until I completely come down from my high.
He pulls me up from the hood of the car and helps me adjust my jeans. My legs are like overcook
ed noodles that don’t want to stand on their own. “You taste so sweet.” I’m wrapped in his embrace before I can step away. I hate to admit how wonderful, how safe it feels here. My head is nestled against his muscular pecks, and I never want to leave.
“Wyatt?”
He looks down into my eyes, and it’s enough to make my pulse race when it finally just calmed from the incredible orgasm. “Yes, babe?”
“Let me return the favor.”
WYATT
Katy’s lips feel so good wrapped around my cock. The seat is back as far as it’ll go, and she’s taking in every inch with each pump of her glorious mouth. She’s the only woman I want sucking my dick ever again.
The thought should startle me, but instead, it reassures me that I’ve made the right decision. I’m going to keep Katy no matter the cost. The thought of her with someone else should I leave her behind is enough to make me see red.
I lose myself to the dizzy spell she puts me under as the blood rushes and my dick begins to pulse. “I’m going to cum, babe.” She doesn’t stop. She speeds up, and it’s all the invitation I need to blow my load into the back of her throat. She smiles up at me as she swallows every last drop.
I’m in love.
I just have to figure out how to tell her.
“Katy, that was something else.” I wipe away a bead of sweat from my brow. It wasn’t hot in the car before, but the windows of the Ferrari are completely steamed up. It makes me feel like a teenager doing something bad.
She wipes away a single drop of cum on her lips and sucks it off her thumb. That wicked look in her eyes is back. It’s so fucking hot.
“I love you.” The words blurt from my mouth before I can stop them. It’s not how I imagined telling her, and it’s certainly not the right timing. I wanted to take her out to a fancy dinner. Spoil her rotten. Make sure she felt special. I wanted to show her my feelings. Not just spit them out like this.
“C’mon, Wyatt. You’re just saying that.” She rolls her eyes at me with that disbelieving smile of hers. She thinks I’m kidding. That maybe I just love how she sucks my cock.
“Come with me, Katy.”
“What?”
“I leave for the Bahamas tomorrow. Come with me.”
She sits back in the passenger seat and pulls both her hands into her lap. Her eyes dart everywhere but at me. “I can’t do that, Wyatt. I have to be at school Monday.”
“Call in sick.”
An incredulous laugh escapes. “I can’t do that. I won’t do that.”
This isn’t going like I planned at all. I know Katy’s teaching job is important to her, and that she can’t just go with me on a whim. But selfishly, I want her to anyway. I don’t want anyone else, just Katy. I want to show her a life of luxury and ease. “I’ve been picturing you on a yacht all day. You belong there. With me.”
“Take me home, Wyatt.” Her voice has grown cold now, and I fear I’ve crossed a line.
I could argue with her, make her understand how much I care. But tonight, with that icy glare in her eyes, she’s not going to hear anything I have to say.
So I do the hardest thing I’ve done in as long as I can remember. I take Katy home and let her walk away from me. I just hope I can fix this.
7
KATY
The nerve of that man! I toss and turn all night, frustrated by how easily he dismissed what’s most important to me. I can’t just leave a classroom full of students on a foolish impulse to what? Spend a week on a fancy yacht surrounded by model-thin women in thousand-dollar bikinis? It would take less than five minutes for him to realize just how out of place a woman like me is in his extravagant life.
“I saw that you left with Wyatt last night.” Britt, my brother’s wife and my best friend, stares me down from across the booth in Maple’s Diner. She’s bribed me out of my house with free pancakes.
“Yeah.” I poke at the blueberry stack, wishing my appetite would return. “I heard he caught a flight this morning, too.”
It takes about thirty seconds of debate before the dam inside me breaks, and I spill the entire ordeal to Britt. I know I can trust her not to say anything to my brothers. The last thing I want to do is cause any rifts between Wyatt and the rest of my family. I’m the one who let him into my bed.
“Do you love him?” Britt asks.
“What?” She can’t be serious. Sure, I knew Wyatt from years ago. But I haven’t seen him since that break he spent with my family. A couple days isn’t enough time for me to fall in love with anyone, let alone Wyatt James.
“It’s that look in your eyes.” Britt points her fork at me. “You might be able to lie to yourself, but you’re not lying to me.”
I sigh, knowing it’s pointless to argue with her when she’s convinced of something. “I don’t fit into his life, Britt. He’s on some crazy expensive yacht, surrounded by beautiful women who are all probably models or actresses. He won’t even remember me a few days from now.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself.”
I remind her that he wanted me to call in sick for a week at school. “He doesn’t care about my teaching career. He doesn’t care that it’s important to me. That teaching is part of who I am. He just wants me to fit into his life.”
I wait for her to tell me I’m wrong, but the only thing she extends my way is pity. “I’m sorry, honey. I really am. I thought you two had a genuine connection. We all did.”
“What are you talking about?”
“At dinner. Everyone could see it.”
My reflection in the window tells me I turn as red as the ketchup bottle on our table. “Everyone?”
“I also heard he funded over half of your field trip.”
I drop my fork, completely giving up on breakfast now. Britt’s only trying to help. When she doubted my brother Luke, I was the one who talked her through it. But this isn’t the same. Wyatt has always lived his life a certain way, and he won’t give it up for an elementary teacher. “Let’s just go. I need to get my lesson plans finished for this week.”
WYATT
I’ve spent most of my adult life traveling the world, staying in expensive hotels, rubbing shoulders with some of the richest men in the world. But this is the first time it’s ever felt empty. The thrill of chasing the next business deal in some luxurious setting is lost on me.
Because Katy isn’t here to share it with me, none of it matters.
If another skinny woman in a barely-there bikini tries to flirt with me, I might actually jump overboard. I don’t want any of them. I only want my Katy. She should be here, beside me.
Before the next girl can successfully make her way across the deck in those ridiculous stilettos, I hop up from me seat and retreat to my room.
I try to lay down. Relax. I don’t have another meeting for an hour yet. But I can’t seem to turn off my mind. I start pacing, wondering what I can do to win Katy back. She belongs with me. I know it in the depths of my heart. We’re supposed to spend a lifetime together.
Teaching. It’s the most important thing in Katy’s life.
I keep pacing the room, searching for clues.
The answer hits me like a ton of bricks to the stomach. I can’t believe I didn’t realize it sooner. I know how to keep her. I know how I’m going to keep my Katy.
8
KATY
It’s been two weeks since Wyatt left, and there’s still an emptiness inside me. I’m staring out the window as my class reads in silence. We’ll be leaving for our zoo fieldtrip within the hour, so there was no point in teaching a formal lesson. They’re all too excited.
It’s because of Wyatt’s generous donation that we’re able to go to the zoo at all. I don’t even know if he knows that, though. Donating the money was just an excuse to see me. It didn’t mean anything special to me.
He tried to call me a couple of times, but I was too proud to answer him. I deleted his voicemails in the heat of the moment. Now, I’d give anything to retrieve them. To hear his voi
ce again.
“Ms. Reynolds?” One of my students raises his hand from the front row.
“Yes, Charlie?”
“Who’s that?” My eyes follow his pointed finger to the classroom door. A tall man in a sharp black suit stands with his back to the glass slit. My first thought is Wyatt’s here. But that’s ridiculous. Wyatt is probably in France or Greece. Maybe my brother has come to surprise my class. It was his employees, after all, who supported a sizeable portion of the fundraiser.
“I’ll find out.”
The moment I crack the door open, I know it’s Wyatt. His musky, manly scent hits me so suddenly that I’m not prepared for my nipples to harden. I pull my cardigan tighter across my chest to hide the peaks.
“Wyatt, what are you doing here?” I close the door behind me, because a room full of third graders has gone from dead silent to a dull roar of whispers in seconds. Soon, they’ll be insatiably curious and unruly.
He’s talking to the principal, and suddenly I’m on high alert.
“It’s all settled, Mr. James.” The two man shake hands at whatever deal they’ve wielded.
My eyes dance between the two of them, trying to figure it out. If Wyatt came here to arrange some time off for me, I’ll lose it. Absolutely lose it. He tried once to overstep his bounds. But if he tries it again by going behind my back… “Wyatt?”
“Mr. James has made quite the generous donation today, Ms. Reynolds.”
So he came to be recognized for his portion of the fundraising money? Unbelievable.
“I hope the kids will enjoy it,” Wyatt says, his voice smooth and charming as ever. “It’s not much.”
“Not much?” The principal looks taken aback. “Most of these kids have only seen limos in movies. You’re giving them an experience of a lifetime.”
