My Cone and Only

by Susannah Nix

  Rain cast a quizzical look at me. “Y’all didn’t have a fight or something, did you?”

  I shook my head. “He probably just left to hook up with someone. You know Wyatt.”

  I felt guilty about deceiving them. If it had been up to me, I would have happily come clean to my friends and everyone else about our relationship. There was nothing I would have loved more than to tell the whole world about me and Wyatt. To finally fess up to the feelings I’d been hiding for most of my life.

  “Oh!” Kaylee perked up. “I think he might be coming over here, finally.”

  Once again, I watched my friends primp as they prepared for Wyatt’s approach. And once again, I did nothing. I didn’t need to primp in order to get his attention.

  I caught a whiff of Wyatt’s cologne just before his hand covertly squeezed my ass as he eased past me. He didn’t acknowledge me though. Instead, he greeted Kaylee with a hug. Then Megan. Then Rain. Saving me for last.

  As I watched him interact with my friends, I was relieved to see him toning down the flirting a few notches. It was one thing to keep our relationship private, but I didn’t want him leading them on and compounding their disappointment.

  I had to admit he’d been doing a good job of abiding by the conditions of our agreement. Whenever he hugged a woman, he made sure his hands never ventured lower than her shoulder blades. I’d seen him give a lot of one-armed hugs tonight and squeeze a lot of arms and shoulders, but he hadn’t kissed a single cheek—or any other body parts for that matter. Good thing. I’d meant it when I said his lips were for me and me alone.

  He didn’t murmur into any of my friends’ ears tonight, or play with their hair, or use any of his other signature moves on them. Although I’d seen him doing it with a few other women—including Brianna goddamn Thorne—intentionally trying to get a rise out of me. It had worked too. Every time I caught sight of him cozying up to another woman, my fingernails had bitten into the palms of my hands.

  Wisely, Wyatt was being more circumspect with my friends, giving them the same brotherly treatment he used to reserve for me. The disappointment showed on their faces—except for Rain, who’d had a fling with Wyatt back in high school that had pretty well gotten him out of her system—but I was pleased to see he wasn’t toying with people I cared about.

  When he’d finished making his way around the table, he finally turned his attention on me. “Hey you.” His gaze dragged slowly up my body, his blue eyes nearly feral by the time they locked onto mine.

  “Hey you.” I fought to keep my voice light as I resisted the urge to ogle him back.

  He pulled me in for a hug that was anything but brotherly. One of his thighs pushed between my legs as he fitted his hips against me, letting me feel exactly how happy he was to see me. His nose nestled into my hair, and I felt his hot breath as his lips grazed my ear. “You look so fucking beautiful tonight, I’m about to spontaneously combust.”

  Heat pooled between my thighs, and I couldn’t help pressing against him to try and ease some of the ache.

  Before things got too obvious, Wyatt let go of me and turned to Kaylee. “Would you like to dance?”

  While he led her away, I swallowed a mouthful of beer to cool myself down. My gaze followed them as they made circuits around the floor. Kaylee smiled and beamed at him the whole time, never noticing the way Wyatt’s gaze kept returning to me. After one song, he escorted her back to the table and asked Megan to dance next.

  He tossed me a smirk as he took her hand, and I rolled my eyes.

  “Are you sure you and Wyatt aren’t in a fight?” Rain asked me as we watched him spin Megan on the dance floor. “You’re the one he usually asks to dance.”

  I tore my gaze away from him and offered her a shrug. “Maybe he’s just in the mood to mix things up.”

  When Wyatt came back with Megan, he set his sights on Rain next, but she turned him down with a good-natured shake of her head. “Thanks, but I’ll pass.”

  He clutched his heart and made a show of being wounded, but Rain only laughed and shoved him away. “Dance with Andie. Everyone’s waiting to see you two show off some of your fancy moves.”

  Wyatt swiveled on his heel, eyebrows arching as his gaze locked on mine. “Shall we?”

  I responded with a nonchalant nod, as if I couldn’t care less either way.

  Instead of taking my hand, he gestured for me to precede him. As he followed, he pressed his palm into the small of my back. “You’re wearing a dress,” he murmured into my ear.

  “I am.”

  We reached the dance floor, and I turned to face him. My hand tried to shake a little as I held it out to him. A fizzing sensation bubbled in my stomach when his fingers closed around mine, squeezing briefly before he loosened his grip.

  “You don’t wear dresses very often.” He placed his other hand below my shoulder blade and guided me into the circle of dancers, where we fell into step together as easily as breathing.

  “That’s true, I don’t.”

  He spun me a couple of times before pulling me back to him. “I like it.”

  “Do you? I couldn’t tell by the way you’re practically drooling.”

  “You always make me drool. But you in a dress makes me drool even more.”

  We did a move called a cuddle duck out, our hips bumping as he pulled me up against him before I ducked under his arms. As we moved back-to-back his ass rubbed against mine, and my body tightened in response.

  “What happens if we do a flip when you’re wearing a dress?” he asked when I was facing him again. As if he didn’t know.

  “Everybody in the room gets to see what color underwear I’m wearing.” I’d briefly considered forgoing undergarments completely, but it was too risky a proposition with dancing on the agenda. I didn’t want to get banned by Uncle Randy for flashing my naughty bits at all his customers.

  A grin spread over Wyatt’s face. “What color underwear are you wearing?”

  I arched an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  “That’s why I asked.”

  “I guess you’ll have to find out with everyone else.”

  “Like hell,” he growled, his expression darkening. “No one gets to see your underwear but me.”

  My lips twitched into a smile. “Then we probably shouldn’t do any flips.”

  He spun me twice, then his arm wrapped around my neck for a moving dip as he bent me back over his leg, lowering me almost to the floor.

  I responded intuitively to his every cue as he pulled me upright and led me through a complex series of spins and maneuvers. My awareness of him had always been strong, but it was even stronger now that we’d been intimate. I didn’t even have to think about what I was doing. I understood his body, and he understood mine.

  I was already feeling a little dizzy—both from the spinning and from the powerful connection between us—when Wyatt’s arm curled around my neck, and he lowered me into a kissing dip.

  His hair fell around my face as his eyes gazed into mine. My lips parted in anticipation, hungering for contact as his face moved closer and closer.

  Our lips touched in a barely there kiss that only lasted for the length of a blink before he hauled me back to my feet and spun me away from him. His hand clenched mine in a painful grip as our eyes met again before he pulled me back into frame.

  “You’re trying to torture me, aren’t you?” His voice came out in a rough growl, and his chest heaved from more than just the exertion of dancing.

  My own breathing was as labored as his. “Is it working?”

  “Yes.” His blue eyes blazed bright as a gas-powered flame.

  I tried to look stern even as my insides melted into a puddle of molten desire. “Like you weren’t trying to torture me by dancing with every woman here before me.”

  “I was saving the best for last.” His mouth curled in a playful smile, and he yanked me away from the dance floor so suddenly I stumbled into him. His arm wrapped around my shoulders as
he guided me toward the bar. “I’m thirsty. Are you thirsty? Let’s get something to drink.”

  “Okay.” My head was spinning too fast to do anything but follow him. I felt drunk, but it certainly wasn’t from the single beer I’d nursed over the last hour.

  We got in line for the bar behind a group of chattering middle-aged ladies, one of whom I recognized from my aunt Birdie’s Bunco group. Wyatt’s arm stayed draped around my shoulders, and the heat radiating off him licked at my skin, making my whole body vibrate.

  I glanced up and caught him staring at me with a greedy, dark look in his eyes. My stomach tightened, and I licked my lips.

  His free hand clenched my arm, and he steered me out of the line and into the hallway that led to his uncle’s office.

  “The bar’s back that way,” I said as my feet shuffled to keep pace with him.

  “Is it?” He hurried us past his uncle’s closed office door. “Oops.”

  An exit sign glowed above the junction at the end of the hall, pointing out the delivery entrance off to the left. As soon as we rounded the corner, he pushed me up against the wall and his warm, wet mouth covered mine. I moaned against his lips as his hands roamed over my body.

  “Wyatt,” I growled when I felt him hike up my skirt.

  “Andie,” he growled back, daring me to stop him. His fingers crept up my thigh, pushing my skirt up, and I shuddered, knowing we shouldn’t, but wanting it too bad to put a stop to it.

  He shoved his hand under my skirt, and I whimpered as it traveled higher, closer to where I needed to feel him. As he watched me writhe, his lips tilted in a smile of satisfaction. When his finger brushed against my underwear, my head slammed back against the wall.

  He cradled a hand around my skull as his fingers teased at the damp fabric between my legs. “I like you in dresses.” His voice was all smoke and gravel. “Easy access.”

  I glared at him as pleasure mingled with frustration, my whole body rigid and my muscles trembling.

  “You should wear dresses more often.” His fingers pushed my underwear aside, and we groaned in harmony as they slid inside me.

  My hips jerked, desperate for more pressure and more friction. The fever burning in me threatened to short-circuit my brain, but a single lick of common sense remained to remind me of where we were and the dangerousness of what we were about to do.

  I grabbed his wrist. “We can’t do this here.”

  He blinked at me, glassy-eyed, before he seemed to register what I’d said. “Fine.” He removed his hand from my skirt. “Then we need to leave and go somewhere we can do it. Right now.” Wincing, he adjusted the inseam of his jeans.

  I let out a breath as I smoothed my rumpled dress. “You left first last night. I should leave first tonight.”

  He nodded. “Okay.”

  “Make sure you hang around for at least ten minutes after I go, so people know we didn’t leave together.”

  “All right.” His head continued to nod in frenetic jerks. “Go. Hurry.”

  “Don’t follow me out of here in case anyone’s watching. Wait until I’m clear.”

  “Oh my god!” He huffed impatiently, running a hand through his hair. “You’d think we were spies or something.”

  “Hey, if you don’t care about getting caught, then we can walk out of here hand in hand and announce to the world we’re together.”

  My irritation over our situation must have bled into my tone, because his eyebrows drew together, and he hooked a hand around the back of my neck. “You know I want to do that, don’t you? I’d do it in a heartbeat if I could.”

  “Likely story,” I muttered, only half joking.

  “Andie, shit.” He pressed his forehead against mine. “Tell me you believe that.”

  I couldn’t just hear the agony and desperation in his voice, I could feel it vibrating through him. This was hard for him too. It reminded me how lucky I was. He was wonderful in almost every way. Caring and thoughtful and devoted to me. So gorgeous he took my breath away.

  So what if we had to hide our relationship for a while? We knew what we meant to each other. He’d shown me over and over again, hadn’t he?

  “I believe you.” I brushed my lips against his, softly, warmly—but chastely, afraid of heating things up again, lest we throw caution to the wind.

  His fingers tightened in my hair, and I felt some of the tension drain out of him.

  “I’m going now.” I kissed his forehead and unwound his hands from me, backing away. “I’ll see you at my place in twenty minutes, okay?”

  His rough reply followed me around the corner. “If I can wait that long.”

  20

  Wyatt

  I stared at the wall in front of me, picturing Andie’s face as I dragged the paint roller across it. I’d left Andie grading exams at the kitchen table this morning and come over to my brother Manny’s to get his nursery ready for the newest addition to the family. Behind me, Tanner and Ryan were chattering about the creamery’s upcoming Centennial Festival—a subject I had less than zero interest in—so I tuned them out, thinking instead about the new song I’d started writing.

  It was about Andie, of course. But this one was different than the others I’d written about her. It wasn’t wistful or forlorn or bittersweet, because it wasn’t about unfulfilled desires. This new song was hopeful and upbeat. About taking a risk and finding joy.

  I got so lost in my own thoughts, I didn’t realize I’d been painting the same spot on the wall over and over again until Ryan’s big hand landed on my shoulder.

  “You might want to share some of that paint with the rest of the wall,” he said. “I think you’ve got that one patch pretty well covered.”

  “Shit,” I muttered, snapping back to the work I was supposed to be doing. The longer it took us to finish painting this nursery, the longer it’d be until I could get back to Andie.

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d think he had a girl on the brain.” Tanner stood on a ladder by the window doing the brushwork around the wood trim. Of the three of us, he had the best eye for detail and the steadiest hand, so he got stuck with all the edge work.

  Ryan grinned as he rolled mint green paint within a few inches of the ceiling. At six foot five, he was tall enough to reach without a stool. “Wyatt’s always got a girl on the brain.”

  Tanner snorted as he dabbed his brush around the corner of the window casing. “No, he’s always got his own dick on his brain. That’s not the same thing at all.”

  I knew he was trying to bait me, and I scowled as I bent down to run my roller through the paint tray. “Y’all know I can hear you talking about me, right?”

  “Oh, so you were listening.” Ryan scratched his head. “Seemed like your mind was elsewhere.”

  Out of pettiness, I chose not to inform him that he’d just smeared green paint in his hair. “I was tuning you out on purpose because you were boring me.”

  “I guess that answers my question about whether you’re participating in the Centennial Festival.”

  I made a sour face. “Fat chance.”

  It was the hundred-year anniversary of the founding of the creamery, and they were kicking off the celebration with some kind of weekend-long festival at King Town Park, the ice-cream-themed amusement park next to the plant. I didn’t know what it entailed, exactly, just that I didn’t want any part of it.

  Tanner shot me a disapproving look. “Josie said she’s been trying to get in touch with you.”

  I was aware. I’d been ignoring my sister’s texts, because I didn’t want her guilting me into whatever she was trying to wrangle me into. Most likely she wanted the whole family present for some photo op or ribbon cutting or some other damn thing, so we could all stand around Dad and pretend to be one big, happy family with nothing but the town’s best interests at heart.

  After what my father had done to Andie, I wasn’t in the mood to play along with it, even to make Josie happy. I didn’t trust myself to be within restraining-order di
stance of my old man. Far better for everyone else if I just stayed away. At least then I couldn’t cause a scene that would force Josie to do damage control.

  “I’ve been busy,” I said vaguely.

  Ryan shot me a curious look over his shoulder. “Busy doing what?”

  “Fixing up Andie Lockhart’s house,” Tanner answered before I could.

  Ryan lowered his paint roller and turned around to look at me, his eyebrows lifting in surprise. “Andie hired you to work on her house?”

  “She ran into some trouble with her HOA and needs a bunch of repairs done fast.” I shrugged like it was no big deal. “I’m doing her a favor.”

  “I’ll bet you are.” Ryan smirked at me.

  “It’s not like that,” I replied, bristling. I didn’t give a crap about my own reputation, but I didn’t want anyone gossiping about Andie.

  I debated telling my brothers that it was Dad who’d been behind Andie’s HOA problems in the first place, and how his lawyers had threatened her, hoping she’d sell the house so he could make a profit off her inheritance. But I decided not to drag them into it. Tanner already had enough tension with Dad because of work, and Ryan had always had a weirdly good relationship with my old man. Somehow he’d managed to be a better stepfather to Ryan than a father to his own flesh and blood. Go figure.

  “How’s it going?” Tanner asked. “You guys work things out?”

  I knew he was asking about more than just the repairs to Andie’s house, but this wasn’t the time or place to talk about it. “Yeah, we’re good. Everything’s fine.”

  “Work what out?” Ryan asked.

  “Nothing.” I shot Tanner a warning look. Ryan didn’t know how I felt about Andie, and I preferred to keep it that way. “Andie’s HOA was being a pain in the ass, but I talked them around.”

  Ryan gave me a gruff nod of approval. “Let me know if you need any extra hands.”

  Tanner shook his head at me, clearly disappointed I hadn’t followed his advice and confessed my feelings to Andie. Little did he know, I’d done exactly that. I just couldn’t tell him about it.