Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
WILDER
Sundays aren’t the busiest day of the week but today seemed busier than usual.
Between that and a little extra elbow grease after closing on a thorough breakdown and cleaning—don’t want wayward oil gelling and turning nasty on our day closed tomorrow (this place has my name on it, after all, gotta keep it sparkling)—I find myself leaving the restaurant later than usual tonight.
The summer sun is long gone at this hour, nothing but a sky full of stars and the moon dangling in the sky, blanketed in some clouds, not offering much in the way of light.
The shadows hug the brick walls of the alley where the glow of the lampposts can’t reach, and though it’s only yards to the parking lot—and hardly more than that to where I’m staying—the darkness calls to me tonight, stirring the animal beneath my skin to life, on the lookout for danger.
Prepared to strike should the need arise.
The familiar prickle in my veins demands an outlet, energy coiling in my limbs in an echo of the way it did for the worst four years and seven months of my life.
Difference is that now, nothing is stopping me from expending it.
I channel what I can into cooking, pouring my passion into my dishes, and since I’ve been here, helping the back of house staff at Heights Bites hone their crafts as well.
But a physical outlet would be welcome. I’m hardly getting into scraps, or having to fight for my life these days, but I can’t say the frenetic energy I relied on for so long has gone away.
Looking down, I realize I’ve made a fist with my right hand, the word free etched across my knuckles. First ink I got out of prison.
A promise to myself I’d never go back.
It’s a reminder to keep that part of myself under control.
But at least in NYC I had a way to blow off steam.
Here?
I’m a patient man, but the longer the unrest lives in my blood, the messier it’ll be when it comes out.
I blame that boss of mine. Sassing me with every breath in her lungs, determined to pretend this pull between us can be ignored.
With every heated exchange, the inevitable becomes that much closer.
But if she doesn’t give in soon…
Locking up, I’ve got the key in the door when I hear the screech of tires in the parking lot.
Instinctive reflexes tell me it’s a job, to look for the mark, and if it’s me, to be ready.
But then my settings register, this isn’t the city. I’m not on a job, and neither is anyone else here.
A familiar blue car is the culprit. One that a beautiful girl with curves for days is getting out of.
I can feel the irritation coming off of her from here, something is off with her.
Head down, she stomps across the parking lot, hand fumbling in her bag for her key to the café, not realizing I’m right here. I wait to let her notice me on her own rather than give her a jump scare because I’m not that kind of asshole, but she doesn’t.
When she’s within a couple feet of me I clear my throat to warn her and she leaps back, screaming, hand to her full chest.
“You good?” I ask her.
“Jesus, what are you doing here?”
“I was wondering the same thing.” Head down, my eyes flick up at her beneath my heavy brows.
Flexing her shoulders, I watch her try to work out the discomfort trapped in her own limbs. “Needed a distraction.”
“So you came to me?”
“Don’t flatter yourself.” She rolls her hazelnut eyes.
One corner of my mouth can’t help but lift. “I think your pussy flatters me plenty, bella.”
Her cheeks flush in the low light and she tosses her head of curls with a snort. “You think sex is the answer to everything.”
A shoulder pops as I share some truth. “Good sex is the answer to a lot of things and if no man has ever shown you that, I apologize on behalf of my gender. But I’d be happy to prove it to you whenever you’re ready.”
I watch as a chill goes through her, her teeth sinking into her lip for a quarter of a second—just long enough to hear the sizzle on a sirloin when it hits the flattop—before she shakes it off. “I don’t think it’s going to solve the fact that my sister is a bitch.”
“You two get into it?”
Lexi breathes out a heavy exhale. “You could say that.”
I whistle. “Must’ve been quite the showdown.”
“Not sure if you know this about me, but I don’t really have lines when someone pisses me off.”
“You? Sweet Alexis? You don’t say.”
She rolls her eyes at me, readjusting her stance in irritation, and her bag swings, hitting her side with a thud.
“She thinks she’s fucking perfect, and I may have pointed out how very wrong she is.”
My brows raise, imagining how that went. “It ended well, I take it.”
Lexi sweeps an arm up her body, showcasing her current state of frazzled and possibly lost. “She gets me so pissed off. But it’s Rory’s world and we’re all just living in it.
So I have to play nice and just bury everything she put me through.
All of us through.” Her hands fly with angered animation as she rambles, pointing to the town around us.
“I don’t know how everyone else acts like she didn’t leave us behind.
Maybe Wyatt’s just a better person than me. ”
“Don’t go there,” I tell her, voice low in warning. “You’re fucking great.”
My manager spins, putting her back to the alley wall and dropping her head back against it. “I’m petty, and I’m a mess.”
My head shakes once, with precision. “You’re passionate, there’s a difference.”
Lexi chokes down a noise that might’ve been a wail if she’d let it out. “Passionate? It feels more like hate for my sister.”
“So you’re human. You have feelings. It could be worse, you could have none.” Like the men who raised me. No feelings. No conscience. Nothing but greed, and a warped sense of brotherly honor. “You’re passionate about what matters to you, Lexi. She’s lucky to be on that list.”
Her eyes pop open, boring into mine. “These aren’t good feelings, Wilder. And I don’t think I can keep this down much longer. It’s burning me from the inside out.”
I shrug, eyes still on hers. “Maybe you should let it out.”
“If I do, we’ll never go back.” Lexi spins in place, hands on the brick wall of the alley as she kicks it, sneakered food scraping the rough surface as she lands one.
I watch as she tires herself out, letting some of the rage out on something that won’t fight back.
“Might feel better to take that out on me, Boss. I won’t leave scrapes and bruises the way that brick will.”
Lexi pauses, her upper lip curling as she turns to face me again. “You’ll just leave bite marks that last for a week.”
“You’re welcome.” I shoot her a wink.
“I want to forget about her,” Lexi whispers. Her eyes fly up to mine, and I watch as she swallows, waiting for me to take the reins.
“Do you need me to fuck you, bella?”
“Yes,” she whispers. “Make me forget everything but your cock, Wilder.”
She doesn’t have to ask me any nicer than that. I’m not really a rose petals kinda guy anyway.
I take a step, closing the distance between us, my shadow falling over her as her neck tilts back, back, back, to keep her eyes on mine.
The monster beneath my skin purrs at her gulp.
“Right here on the alley wall where everyone can see you getting dicked down the way you need it?”
She sucks in a shaky breath, eyes closing for a second at the visual, and I just know her pussy is prepping for me. Warmth is spreading between her thighs, making her slick and ready, while her nipples pebble and beg for my teeth, the way her clit likes to be treated rough.
“Or should I take you inside, so no one sees what a dirty fucking girl you are when you take my cock, Lexi? Let you beg for it in private?”
“I won’t be begging for it,” she bites back.
“Once was enough,” I admit, and I watch as her eyes heat, seething. “I’ll never forget how good you look on your knees, bella. It’s almost as good as you looked with my cock in your throat. Imagine how pretty your pussy will be when it’s trying to take me next.”
“You’re insufferable,” she whispers, but she doesn’t budge.
“And you’ve gotten cocky. Just because you’re blessed with no gag reflex you think the rest of you can take me with no problem? You think this tight little ass will stretch for me as pretty as your throat did? That your pussy won’t choke on me?”
Her cheeks flush, and it spurs me on.
“It’s time you got reminded that you might be the boss out there, but in here—” I cup her pussy through her jeans, palming her roughly. “I’m the boss. This pussy is mine. Your pleasure is mine. Your orgasms. Mine.”
I can feel her legs tremble around my hand, and I add more pressure.
“Now make up your mind. I’m running out of patience. Out in the alley or inside?”
Her nostrils flare like they do when she’s extra pissed, and I bite back my smirk. I want her worked up until she’s exploding around my cock. By the time I let her leave tonight, the only name she’ll remember is mine.
And, shit, if my soldier doesn’t like that visual. It knocks against my stomach, breaching the constraints of my waistband and reaching for my belly button, eager to sink inside her.
My hands twitch at my sides, flexing, ready to grab her and yank her pants down, throw her up on my waist and fuck her against this wall until she’s screaming and we give this town something worthwhile to talk about.
The night Lexi woke half the town, bouncing on the pierced cock of a tattooed ex-con.
But she turns and bolts for the door, me right on her heels. I lock the door behind us and chase her up the stairs, hands on her ass, hoisting her up so she moves even faster.
“I still hate you,” she calls back over her shoulder as we round the doorway into the office we share to her dismay. The venom that used to be in her words to me isn’t there though.
“You hate me? Or the way I make you feel?” I ask her, spinning her around so she’s facing me again, and walking her backward until she bumps back against the desk. “Because I think your pussy would say otherwise.” I press three fingers against her denim-clad cunt, and watch as she shivers.