Chapter 29
Twenty-Nine
Tessa
Iwas standing too close to Wyatt when I heard the gravel shift in the drive, and I couldn’t ignore how the heat of him pressed against me or how the tension from our kiss hadn’t burned off yet.
A car rolled into the yard without hesitation and stopped near the barn. The engine hadn’t cut like whoever was driving already decided they weren’t leaving.
My stomach dropped hard with recognition, and I hadn’t needed to see his face to know who it was.
“Tess,” Colin called, and his voice hit me like cold water I hadn’t braced for.
Every nerve in my body went tight at once, and fear and anger and something far worse tangled together in my chest until I couldn’t separate them.
I stayed still and silent, not trusting what would come out if I spoke.
Wyatt moved first, only one step, a smooth, controlled step, but still enough to put himself directly between me and the open space of the yard without making it obvious.
My hand lifted without permission and caught the front of Wyatt’s jacket because I needed the solidness of him to stay upright, even if I wouldn’t admit that out loud.
The second I realized what I was doing, I dropped my hand like it burned.
Colin saw it anyway, and I knew it by the way his eyes tracked the movement and by the way something cold and sharp slid into place behind the smile he wore as he walked closer.
He dressed cleanly, and he moved easily, and he still looked like a man who thought he had the right to show up wherever he wanted.
“Well,” he said lightly, “this answers a few questions,” and I didn’t miss the satisfaction curled under his tone.
Wyatt’s attention stayed locked on Colin like nothing else in the world existed at that moment.
“You should leave,” Wyatt said, and his voice calm in a way that made my skin prickle with warning.
Colin laughed quietly, and I heard the disbelief layered under it.
“That’s not your call,” Colin said, and I hated how familiar his challenge sounded.
“It is right now,” Wyatt replied, and not even a flicker of doubt in him.
I found my voice through the tightness in my throat because I couldn’t stand being silent anymore.
“Colin, you need to go.” My voice shook, and I hated that it did.
He didn’t look at me at first because he’d been too busy studying Wyatt. Like he was measuring a threat.
Then he slid his gaze to me, slow and deliberate, and took in my posture. My nearness to Wyatt and the way our bodies didn’t quite separate.
“You look occupied,” he said, and I’d heard the nasty edge curling under the words.
“Busy even,” he added, and my face heated despite myself.
Wyatt hadn’t moved, but I felt the tension in him shift and tighten like a cable taught before snapping.
“I came to check on you,” Colin continued, “you didn’t answer your phone, which isn’t like you.”
“That’s because I didn’t want to talk to you,” I said, and my honesty raw and unfiltered.
His mouth curved faintly as if he found that amusing.
“You usually don’t cut me off completely unless something’s distracting you,” he said, and his eyes flicked straight to Wyatt again.
“Or someone,” he added.
Wyatt’s voice dropped lower, and the warning in it wasn’t subtle anymore. “She told you to leave.”
“I’m talking to her,” Colin snapped, and irritation bled through the calm he was trying to hold.
“Not you,” he added, like that settled something.
Then his gaze sharpened on my face as he lined up his next strike.
“So it’s true,” he said, and his voice turned too sharp to ignore. “You really did sleep with him.” The words tore the air right out of my lungs.
My breath hitched despite trying to stop it, and silence stretched tight between the three of us until it’d felt like it might snap.
Wyatt shifted, not forward and not back, but just enough that his presence felt heavier and more deliberate as though he claimed space without claiming me.
“That’s none of your business,” Wyatt said immediately, and the force behind the words was undeniable.
Colin’s smile turned brittle as his eyes flicked between us.
“It became my business the second I saw you two together in that fucking barn,” he said, and the venom behind the confession made my stomach drop.
“I didn’t imagine that hand on his chest, and I didn’t imagine the way you were looking at him like you’d already chosen. ” My skin flushed hot with exposure.
“You don’t own me,” I snapped. My voice was louder than expected.
“I never said I did,” Colin replied smoothly, “but you don’t disappear unless you’re tangled up in something you know you shouldn’t be.”
Wyatt’s jaw flexed hard enough that I saw the muscle jump, and the air between them felt charged and dangerous in a way that scared me.
“She told you to go,” Wyatt said again, his tone colder than I’d ever heard it.
“I’m speaking to her,” Colin replied, and I hated how he pretended he had a right to my answers.
“And I think she has clearly told you she doesn’t want to listen,” Wyatt told him, and the warning wasn’t subtle anymore.
Colin smiled again, and this time it was almost indulgent.
“I’ll forgive you,” he said to me, “I’ve had slip-ups.” The casual cruelty and the way he shrugged made it even uglier.
“People make mistakes when they’re grieving,” he said, and the way he framed my body and my choice as weakness made my hands shake.
“You don’t get to forgive me for anything.” My voice was raw and shaking with fury.
Wyatt moved then in a way that told his restraint shattered.
He took a full step into Colin’s space, and his hands came up and fisted into the front of Colin’s shirt.
The sound Colin made when Wyatt yanked him forward was sharp and startled, and it sliced through the yard like the crack of a whip.
My heart slammed against my ribs because I’d never seen Wyatt like that, never known what he was capable of once he stopped holding himself back.
“You don’t get to talk about her like that,” Wyatt said, his voice low and shaking with contained violence.
“You’ll leave now,” Wyatt said, and there hadn’t been a single ounce of bluff in him this time.
I stepped forward without thinking, and my hand closed around Wyatt’s forearm like I could ground him back into control.
“Wyatt, please don’t,” I whispered, and my voice cracked because I meant it in every way possible.
He hesitated just long enough for me to feel the trembling power under my palm.
Then he shoved Colin back hard enough that he stumbled two full steps before catching himself.
Colin stared at him in shock, and the truth finally landed in his eyes that this wasn’t a game he controlled anymore.
“Enjoy it,” Colin said to me again, voice been thinner this time. “While it lasts.” The threat was brittle instead of confident.
Then he turned and climbed into his car and tore back down the drive in a spray of gravel and fury that echoed long after the engine faded.
The yard fell silent again, and I realized I was shaking so hard I could barely stay upright.
Wyatt didn’t turn to me right away, and his shoulders were rising and falling too fast like he was still burning off the violence he barely kept in check.
The heat between us twisted into something darker and sharper now, and my body reacted even while fear crawled under my skin.
“You scared me,” I said, and my voice was barely more than a breath.
“I’d do worse to keep him away from you,” Wyatt said, and the honesty in it scared me even more.
“You can’t,” I whispered, my hand still on his arm like I was afraid to let go.
He looked at me, and the intensity in his eyes made my breath hitch all over again.
My pulse stuttered because he’d been right.
The space between our bodies was charged with everything we weren’t saying and everything we’d already done.
For one dangerous second, I thought he might kiss me again, and I knew with terrifying clarity that I wouldn’t stop him.