19. Wyatt
19
WYATT
The cave isn’t much, but it’s dry. Now that I’m not terrified of being split in two by a lightning bolt, I unwind slightly. My shoulders droop and my hand unclenches.
“Fuck, that was close,” I exhale shakily. “Glad you saw this place. Can’t say I was paying much attention.”
Matthias grunts, but he’s concentrating on the floor. He’s moving sticks and kicking sand. “What are you doing?”
“Clearing you a space.” He straightens and nods in satisfaction at the small area he’s created. “Here. Sit down.”
I do as he says, staring at him warily. “Why did you do that?”
He drops down beside me with a shrug. “You like to sit down in storms.”
My mind flashes back to that penultimate summer between us. The one with storms that sent us down to that old shelter every other week. Fitting, given what followed. “You remember that?”
His eyes flick up to meet mine. “I remember everything.”
I go to push him on that, to ask him what he believes happened—for his version of that night. But a crack sounds, far too close, and instead, I shuffle into his side. “Shit. I hate this.”
“I’m here.” He hesitates before sliding an arm around my shoulders. I draw closer gratefully, letting him hold me. “Maybe we should talk. That always used to help.”
The words are on my tongue. Just ask him. But I can’t. They aren’t coming.
“Why don’t you tell me about Jackson?”
I frown up at him. “My brother?”
“Yes.” He rolls his eyes and I fight the urge to pinch his side, just like I used to. But instead, I ball my hands on my lap. “Your brother. Tell me about his accident.”
“Why do you want to know?”
“I want to know everything I missed.”
Those words hit my chest and I inhale deeply. Fuck him for making me feel things, for making me want to share this intimate part of me.
I shouldn’t, but I do anyway.
“He was in a car accident. Stupid friends driving like idiots after a big game. His leg got smashed under the dashboard when they hit a tree. They couldn’t save it.”
“Fuck. I’m sorry.”
“It is what it is. Or at least that’s what Jackson says. It’s why I left work that day. He was airlifted to a hospital. I thought he was dying. I thought I was losing him?—”
Matthias is quiet, saying nothing as the rain pounds down outside.
“You should know this, given it’s why I was fired. I left and didn’t explain where I was going. We were in the middle of court and I just walked out. And when I got back, I heard that you terminated my contract.” Matthias inhales as if to speak, but I stop him with a wave of my hand. “And Jen, when she realized I needed to care for him full-time, she left.”
I don’t elaborate. He doesn’t need to know how she screamed at me. How she tried to manipulate me into leaving my brother in that fucking hospital, to just wash my hands of him.
“I always hated Jen,” Matthias says, staring at the opposite wall.
“You didn’t even know her.”
He grunts. “I just got a vibe that she wasn’t good enough for you. I didn’t like that.”
For a moment, I don’t know what to say. “Guess you were right in the end. She couldn’t stand beside me when I needed her most. That’s fine though. It’s not like anyone else did either. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that Jackson pulled through. Everything else was taken from me, but I didn’t lose him.”
Matthias’s hands flex open and closed. “I’m sorry, Wy.”
“You should be,” I bite out, feeling that bitterness move through me. This is why I don’t want to talk about the past with him. Any part of it. Because it leaves me feeling raw and angry. Because it makes me feel angry, ugly things, when for the first time in a long time, I’m feeling the opposite. “You made an already horrific situation a million times worse by firing me. I get it, I do. And I shouldn’t have expected you to make an exception for me but…”
My voice trails off as I realize that’s exactly what I expected him to do. I expected our shared past to mean something. For him to fight in my corner just as he once had.
Instead, he betrayed me.
Again.
I should’ve known better.
“I—” Matthias clears his throat and his arm brushes against mine. “Wy, I didn’t fire you.”
“Don’t,” I say warningly, feeling my eyes start to sting. I can’t do this right now. I can’t listen to any more of his lies.
“I won’t. I can’t. I want you to know this. I promise. I didn’t have anything to do with it. The executives decided on it, and when I returned from abroad, I tried to reverse it, but you’d already left.”
“You’re lying,” I whisper.
“No. I’m not.” I can feel his gaze burning into the side of my face, but I don’t let myself look at him. “I need you to believe that I’m not. I went fucking crazy when I came back and found out what they did. Believe me. The last thing I wanted was for you to be out of the job on top of everything else.”
I let out a shaky exhale and squeeze my eyes shut, but it’s too late. Everything I’ve been trying to suppress comes rushing back to me.
The phone call. The clinical voice describing the accident, urging me to hurry to the hospital.
Running out of the courtroom. Not stopping until I saw my brother’s broken body in that hospital bed. Collapsing in a chair. Refusing to leave until they confirmed he’d pull through.
Crying with Jackson when he woke up to realize he’d lost his leg, that his dreams of being a professional baseball player were over.
Jen’s face when I returned home. The screaming matches. The empty closets when she left.
The way my heart was cracked open when I found out Matthias had fired me. It was bad enough what he’d done to me before, but this…this almost seemed worse. The final nail in the coffin that had been my life.
I can barely breathe, the past coming up like a nightmare to haunt me.
When I finally open my eyes minutes later, Matthias is standing up, looking out of the cave.
“The storm’s passed,” he says gently. “It’s just sprinkling now. We can go.”
I glance up at him, all of his revelations spinning in my mind, making me almost dizzy. Is he telling the truth about work? If so, why has it taken him so long to tell me?
“Are you serious?” I ask, more about his revelation than the announcement that the rain has mostly stopped.
“I am. We can head back to the villa now.”
That’s not the question I wanted answered, and I think he knows it. I push myself up, wiping off the seat of my pants and moving toward him. His shoulders are so broad and straight, like he’s never doubted himself for a minute of his life. And yet here I am, right now, making him shrink away.
From me.
His eyes meet mine, eyes flashing with something I can’t read before he steps out of the cave and into the sunshine. A light mist hits us as we walk down the wet beach, my eyes swiveling from the beaten path to Matthias himself.
He’s wet, his hair drooping slightly, moisture sitting against the curve of his neck. I want to lean over and lick my way up it, to hear him moan my name.
Fuck. His admission in the cave…it changes things.
Some things at least.
He really didn’t have me fired? He tried to get my job back?
It never occurred to me that Matthias might’ve fought for me. I can’t quite process it.
When was the last time anyone fought for me?
We pick our way back toward the villa, moving past a fallen palm tree. We skirt around it, our hands brushing as we walk, and when I nearly trip over a root protruding from the sand, he reaches toward me and grabs my hand tightly.
I don’t pull away either. I let our fingers twine and wrap around each other until we’re finally back to the villa. The doors were left open, water puddling on the tile floors from the wind and rain, but it goes ignored as he pulls me toward the kitchen.
We stop near the large island and our hands part as he hands me a bottle of water from the fridge. I twist the cap off and gulp it down, realizing I’m thirstier than I thought before handing it to him. He takes it, our fingers brushing, and he finishes it off. With the empty bottle sitting between us, he reaches over to swipe a drop of water from my bottom lip. His thumb lingers there and my lungs squeeze, trying to capture air.
Breathe, Wy. Just breathe.
Before I can overthink it, I lean forward, nipping at his thumb roughly, pulling it between my lips, sucking on it deeply. His breath catches and his pupils dilate, black eating up his irises as he watches me.
“Wy.”
I force him to hold my gaze as I hollow out my cheeks. He shifts where he stands, a shaky exhale leaving his lungs.
His thumb falls from my mouth, and I wet my lips. “Do you still need time to breathe or can I do what I want to you?”
He swallows, a tremble moving through him. “No. Make me breathless. I don’t need air when I have you.”
Those words, they sink into me as I lift his hand where it’s frozen between us and pull it back to my lips, pulling his forefinger between my lips, sucking on it, rolling my tongue along the knuckle. His nostrils flare when it pops out, wet and slightly pink. I do it to his ring finger and pinkie too, relishing the way he tries to stay in control. But I can see him crumbling, can see him letting those tethers loose.
“You’re still breathing,” I say slyly as Matthias shivers. “Maybe I’m not doing a good enough job.”
I lick up his palm and nip at his wrist, teasing him about things I’m not yet ready to do. Not yet. But fuck, if the way my cock is responding is telling me anything it’s that I want to try.
I will try it all with him.
Matthias’s eyes are hooded now, his chest heaving as I lick up his middle finger, pretending it’s his dick. My tongue swirls along his fingernail and then I bite down roughly, making him grunt.
“You’re torturing me.”
“Good,” I say as I move toward him, pressing close and dragging my hard cock against his. My hand moves up to his jaw, holding it roughly, my lips hovering right over his.
My hips arch up and his moan hits my mouth just as I lean forward and capture it. He sinks into me as I push my tongue into his mouth, sliding it into every corner, tasting him.
Matthias.
Mine.
A groan slips from me and into him, possessing him. He swallows it, his fingers curling under my shirt, digging into my skin, pulling me closer.
I want to fuck him. Oh god, I want to fuck him. I want to turn him around and shove my cock inside his ass. I want to feel that rim tighten around me as I slam into him over and over.
The thought drives me wild as my body continues to rock up into his. He’s moaning continuously now, my own mingling with his as we work ourselves into a frenzy.
But I don’t want this to end.
I want to draw it out.
I want more.
I want to make him scream.
Abruptly, I pull away and his lips chase mine, whimpering and whining, but I push him back. For just a second he looks hurt until my hands wrench his shirt open, exposing his chest to me. A gasp fills the space between us as I tug it over his shoulders and down his arms.
“You ruined my shirt.”
“Fuck your shirt.”
He huffs as I reach down and fumble with the button on his shorts. “And fuck these shorts too.”
My fingertips can’t get a good grip. They’re shaking so much he has to reach down and help me. But with a coordinated shove of our palms, they’re wrenched down his thighs and he’s naked, his cock slapping his stomach as he kicks his clothes to the side.
I stare down at his dick and wet my lips.
“You’re big, Matt,” I rasp.
“So are you,” he replies, biting his bottom lip. “Show me again. I need to see it.”
I whip my shirt off and with a flick of my wrist, my shorts are shoved off without a second thought. I end up as naked as he is, my cock standing straight up from my body, red and angry. Wanting to come. Wanting relief.
No. Not yet.
Not fucking yet.
Matthias’s eyes slide across my skin as I stroke myself, reaching down to cradle my balls as I do. “Like what you see?”
“Yes,” he breathes, and I feel my chest expand. He likes what he sees. He likes me.
“Good. Then don’t move. I have plans for you.”
I step toward the fridge, bending down to the freezer and pulling out an ice cube. Matthias’s breathing is labored as he waits, and I make a show of it, peering over my shoulder and watching as he admires me. I’m nothing to look at, not right now, but when he looks at me like that…it makes me feel perfect.
I slam the freezer door shut and step back in front of him, pushing that ice cube between my lips and wetting it before placing it on his shoulder.
He shivers as the cold permeates his skin, his cock jerking between his legs as I drag it down to his nipple, swirling it, watching that dark nub pucker.
“Wy,” he gasps as my other hand slides down his chest to his waiting dick, curling around it and tugging. His back arches, thrusting up into my palm as I drag the ice cube to the other nipple, letting it sit there for a minute before leaning forward and latching on to it. His skin is cold under my warm tongue, my teeth raking against it.
He groans as I suck on him, his hands moving into my hair, tugging roughly.
My fist slides up and down his cock, making him tremble and buck, his moans growing louder and louder as I stand up and meet his stare. I don’t stop either. I just continue to work him toward the edge.
“You’re just a desperate little slut for me, aren’t you?” I rasp, and he nods, his cheeks flushed.
“Say it, Matt. Fucking say it.”
“Your slut,” he groans as his hands fall to my biceps, holding on for dear life.
His admission makes my cock lurch forward, wanting him to sink to his knees and suck, but I don’t ask for it. Because I know if he does that, I’ll explode. I won’t last a second. So instead, I drag that ice cube down to his belly button and swirl it around the small opening, watching his abdomen flex, his muscles popping out. He has a six-pack and it shows right now.
I want to lick and bite my way across each bump.
“Wy. Please,” he begs, his fingernails digging into my skin as he holds on to me. I trace that ice cube down to his cock, watching a tendon pop from his skin as he cries out. My name. Wy . A prayer. He’s begging me. But I don’t let up, just continue to tease him until that ice cube is nothing more than water on our skin. He’s shaking roughly now, his entire body on fire, dripping with melted ice and pre-cum.
My cold fingers slide around to his ass dipping between his cheeks and finding his hole. It’s puckered and hot, and as I continue to fist his cock, my own dragging up the side of his hip, my lips lean toward his ear.
“Look how tight this hole is,” I whisper, my words hitting the lobe of his ear and making him buck his hips up.
“You want me inside? You want to feel me splitting you wide open?”
He nods, wild with lust, his hands frantically trying to find purchase on something.
He turns his head slightly, one of his hands landing on my shoulder and then we’re kissing roughly, teeth clashing as my fingertip—just the tip—pushes into his ass. He cries out, his rim flexing against me as his cock jerks in my hand, his cum shooting onto me and the floor. I stroke him through it, collecting his release in my palm and watching as he slumps forward, trying to catch his breath, but I’m not done.
I’m not fucking done.
With my free hand, I spin him around and push him forward, his body bent over the island as I use his cum to lube my own dick. I spread his ass cheeks wide, eyeing that pink hole before sliding my cock up his crack, using him as a sleeve, as my own personal fuck toy. I watch as my dick slides up and down him, listening to the squelch of it, the way he’s groaning.
And then he starts to beg.
“Fuck me, Wy. Please. Fuck me. I need it. I need—oh god. Please.”
I fucking could. I could slide my cock right into him, take him with just his cum as lube, but I don’t.
I’m not ready yet.
I squeeze his cheeks tighter, giving myself the much-needed friction, and the sight of Matt bent over, his plump ass taking my dick is all I need to explode. My release hits his lower back as I shake and tremble, my fingers digging so deeply into his ass cheeks I know he’ll have bruises there later.
I fall onto him, my cock still cradled in his ass, my forehead meeting the top of his spine as I press a kiss to his sweaty skin.
“Perfect,” I say, and he moans as I slowly step away. “Now, let’s shower. And this time, Matt, we’re showering together.”
* * *
When we finally emerge from the bathroom, exhausted and skin wrinkled, I make a beeline for the bed. I collapse face-first on the sheets, a loud moan slipping free. “Do you think these sheets were made from actual silk? Like the kind that caterpillars make.”
“I think you mean a silkworm. Not a caterpillar.”
I glower at him. “Same fucking thing.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Matt,” I grunt, and he lets out a chuckle.
“Is the bedding at home not up to your lordship’s standards?”
“Fuck off,” I murmur as I take him in, still standing away from the bed. He looks contemplative, and I wonder if he’s considering leaving me. After everything that happened today, he better fucking not. But before I can open my mouth to chastise him, he slips beneath the covers.
“Took you long enough,” I grumble as I scoot over, my body curling against his. My nose brushes against his bicep and I can’t help but playfully bite at it. He tenses up in surprise, but I’m having none of it. With a gruff Scottish accent I murmur, “Lemme in ya bastard. That chest of yours is broad enough for me head.”
“That sounds like shit.”
“Better than your accent.”
“Your accent is literally my accent.”
“Nah,” I smirk. “Mine is normal. Yours is all posh and shit.”
His lips twitch. “Posh…and shit? That sounds like a compliment and an insult rolled into one.”
“Nope. Just an insult I’m afraid.”
He grins as he lifts an arm. I scoot over so I’m right in there , his right pec the perfect pillow for my cheek.
“Are you seriously doing this?” He sighs, but I know he loves it, really.
“I used your ass as a cock sleeve. So, yeah. I’m going to use your body as a pillow.”
I throw a leg and arm over him, and he huffs in surprise.
“I didn’t take you for a cuddler.” His voice is slightly strangled.
“Shut up. It’s not cuddling, I’m trapping you so you can’t run away. You are annoying like that.” My jaw cracks as I yawn. “Now go to sleep. We’re going exploring in the morning. For real this time.”
“We are?”
“Yep, after I explore your body some more, that is.” A choked sound meets my ears as sleep beckons me forth. “And no working. You wanted us to have a honeymoon, and we’re damned well going to have one. If I have to tie you down and make you enjoy yourself, I will.”
In the final seconds before the darkness claims me, I swear I feel his lips ghost against my temple.
He whispers a few words.
“Anything for you, Wy. Anything and always.”
Or maybe I dream it.
Fuck if I know.