Chapter 35 #2
Wyatt’s head snapped completely to the left, his cheek immediately pinkening from the force of my slap. The palm of my hand stung, but I refused to shake it out. My affinity bristled along my forearms, but that smack was all me.
Wyatt slowly turned his face back toward me, his gaze darkening. “Is that something else he lets you do?”
I slapped him again.
And again.
Both Wyatt’s cheeks were bright red when I finally stopped and he turned his glare on me. His hazel eyes had darkened, his pupils blown out.
That was…interesting.
The air shifted between us. Wyatt’s heavy breathing was no longer just from anger. My chest heaved with the realization. What started as an angry stare down had suddenly changed into a different kind of heat.
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know whether to move the conversation back to anger, or how to push it a bit further into the…something else.
I blamed my next words on my libido.
“Is this what you like?” I asked, proud my voice didn’t shake. “You want someone to hurt you?”
Wyatt swallowed hard, his jaw working before he spoke. “You do that enough without having to touch me,” he muttered, then looked away.
The mood shifted again. The weird energy that’d just filled the air between us was gone. A pang of guilt shot through me, and I resisted the urge to rub at my chest.
I blew out a breath. Watching Wyatt’s entire demeanor shift on a dime like this was…sad. His shoulders were hunched, his gaze on the floor. Before I could convince myself otherwise, I decided to try to reach him one more time. Maybe the slaps had opened something up between us.
“It doesn’t have to be like this,” I said softly. “You hurt me, too, Wyatt.”
“I don’t…” Wyatt ran his hands up and down his thighs, almost anxiously. “I don’t know how to be normal around you,” Wyatt said, still keeping his gaze to the side. “I don’t…I don’t like how things are between us, but I don’t know how to make it any different.”
Okay. This was good. This was really good.
“What would you tell a student in your position?” I asked.
Wyatt’s expression flickered, but he still wouldn’t look at me while he considered the question. “I’d tell them they’re probably suffering from low self-esteem, and that they hold themselves to a higher standard than necessary. I’d tell them that forgiveness goes a long way, and–”
He faltered.
Slowly, I raised my hand until my palm cupped one of Wyatt’s pinkened cheeks, heated from the force of my slap. He closed his eyes for a second, leaning into my touch almost imperceptibly while his shoulders relaxed a fraction.
“I’d tell them their Key is important, and it’s worth it to fix things,” he finished, still keeping his eyes closed.
This amount of irony was insane. Aiden was going to laugh hard when I relayed this story to him.
“You should take your own advice, Wyatt.” I whispered. “I forgave Aiden for being a complete idiot several times. I could forgive you, too.”
“My family isn’t big on forgiveness. It’s not an easy thing for me,” Wyatt replied too quickly.
“You’re old enough and smart enough to know that doesn’t matter. You’re not responsible for your childhood trauma, only how you choose to live now that you’re an adult. We could be a family. A real family, Wyatt. I’ve always…wanted that.” My voice shook at the end.
Admitting things out loud had never been easy for me. Something about speaking things into existence just made them more real.
Also, I had a family. I had Zephyr. And for better or worse, Levi.
Admitting I wanted more than that seemed like a grave betrayal toward the family I’d lost. Especially toward Zephyr.
I’d judged him for so long. Every weekend he spent prowling the bars, staying the night at some random girl’s house, I was terrified I’d lose him.
And now? I was doing the very thing I didn’t want him doing to me.
Wyatt wanted a family, too. He didn’t know how to act around Willow, due to his upbringing. Willow gave him so many opportunities, and he’d shot them all down.
Wyatt’s hazel eyes opened then locked with mine for several seconds. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. The weight of his full attention was just as flustering as that first day I’d met him in the café.
Slowly, his hand covered mine, still on his cheek. I sucked in a sharp breath as his other hand settled on the back of my thigh.
“You want that?” he whispered. “You want that with me, even with what’s happened between us?”
Everything went still.
We stared at each other while I considered that question.
He’d have to grovel, of course, there was no getting out of that. Especially not after he’d insulted Aiden over and over. I could let go of insults toward me, but the ones toward Aiden still made me feel a little murderous. And I wanted to know what’d happened between him and Willow.
Did I still want this? Did I still want this with Wyatt?
…I did.
“Yeah,” I whispered, my voice barely audible in the heavy silence between us.
Wyatt’s breath hitched, and he remained still for just a moment before he nodded to himself, then leaned forward, resting his head against my stomach.
I gulped, then slowly reached out with my free hand, running it through his soft hair before I scratched at his scalp.
Wyatt let out a heavy breath, his shoulders relaxing even further as he melted into me.
It could have been this way so much sooner.
Part of me wanted to be angry with him still.
Demand to know why he’d avoided this, why he’d avoided me for so long.
But the other part of me understood. The same part of me that’d ran from Aiden so many times, that’d pretended I felt nothing for him when I was really head over heels.
Wyatt and I were similar in that way. Avoiding feelings was a problem, sure, but that’s what we did to cope.
At least until now.
We sat in silence for a few minutes, and finally, I decided to try out our fragile truce.
“What happened with Willow?” I whispered.
Wyatt’s shoulders tensed again, and he shuddered out a breath while I deepened the massage on his scalp in an attempt to keep him calm.
“My father hurt me.”
I froze, my hand stilling in his hair as the words sank in.
“Okay,” I breathed. “How?”
“He’s a Telepath,” Wyatt whispered. “He was disappointed in my affinities, that they aren’t as good as they could be.
His earth affinity is very strong. It got stronger when he connected with Lauren, but…
” He breathed out harshly. “But he’s a Telepath first. He would mess with my head.
Spin these illusions to confuse me. I wouldn’t sleep for days. At least, that’s what it felt like.”
My heart pounded.
My affinity stung along my hands, and I imagined it was coiling like a snake inside me, ready to strike.
“Okay,” I said slowly, hoping that would prompt him to continue.
Wyatt rubbed his forehead against my stomach, and I flexed slightly at the tickle.
“But my affinities…they’re stronger than his. My earth affinity…I never use it because it’s just…stronger than I can control. And it…it scares me. I’m fucking scared.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. My mind was racing trying to figure out what the fuck he was talking about. I’d never really seen Wyatt use his earth affinity, but hearing this made me think that had been intentional.
“I caused the earthquake in the islands,” Wyatt whispered so quietly I almost thought I’d imagined it. “Once when Rafe was fucking with me, and then when we went to see Shafer–”
My jaw dropped, though he didn’t see.
I’d thought Zephyr was just being a dick when he implied Wyatt couldn’t control the rumbling. But Wyatt was telling me it was true that he couldn’t control it?
“Why doesn’t your father care about that?” I asked. “Your earth affinity is strong, Wyatt. If you can shake the fucking ground…”
“That’s not all I can do, that’s just the scary part.” Wyatt said, his voice muffled from my stomach. I barely held back a shiver as he pulled back, blinking at me and then looking behind me. I turned in his hold, craning my neck to look over my shoulder at his desk, where–
My eyes widened.
The lilies on Wyatt’s desk were…growing. New blooms were forming right before my eyes, the stems so heavy they began to bend and stretch out across the desk. I touched one of the flowers, gasping softly as it curled into my hand.
This affinity was beautiful. I’d never seen an earth affinate that could do more than move dirt and rocks around. It was like an extension of Wyatt, similar to Rafe’s shadows. The flower stem curled around my wrist, and I turned back to face him with a look of awe.
Wyatt cleared his throat, then dropped his gaze. I tightened the hand I still had in his hair, pulling his head up so he had to face me. He grunted, but made no move to fight me.
This was interesting.
Something told me…Wyatt was kind of into this.
I filed that information away for later.
“Wyatt, this is beautiful.” I breathed. “Why do you let your father get in your head about it? Can he shake the ground and make pretty flowers?”
Wyatt huffed a laugh. “He has shaken the ground once or twice, yes. But I don’t think he can do it all the time.”
“You can learn to control it,” I said, nodding as I began to form a plan. “We can practice. In the islands, somewhere–”
Wyatt scoffed, jerking his head back slightly, but still allowing me to hold him by the hair. “Not happening. I’ll set off a fucking volcano.”
“Okay,” I drawled. “So we go somewhere else. I’ll take us to the Polar Circle. You can hone this, Wyatt.”
“And the healing?” he almost snapped, but I’d learned a lot about Wyatt during this conversation.
He wasn’t being snappy because he wanted to hurt me.
His snappiness was a result of his anxiety.
I could see the difference in him, now. “And the memory scrambling? I put people into a coma for a week anytime I use it!”
My eyebrows raised, because what? I hadn’t known that bit of information. I hadn’t really known he could scramble memories until a few weeks ago, though, so I guess that made sense.
“We’ll fix it,” I whispered.
“How can you know that?” Wyatt demanded, though his hair was still in my grasp. “How can you be sure?”
“I’m not,” I replied. “Just…have a little faith, Wy.”
“In you?” he asked in disbelief.
“In yourself,” I whispered, cupping his cheek again.
Wyatt blinked several times, but didn’t speak again.
I had no idea what else to say to him. He seemed content to let me play with his hair, but knowing what I knew of Wyatt now, I was sure he was deep in thought.
This asshole was an asshole as a way to defend himself, but that wasn’t who he really was deep down.
A loveable psycho like Rafe couldn’t have become such good friends with someone like Wyatt if he really was as mean as he pretended to be.
“I’m sorry I slapped you,” I said in a small voice.
Wyatt scoffed. “I’m not,” he said, sounding amused.
I smiled, leaning forward slightly so I was closer to his ear. “Is that something you like?”
Wyatt breathed out shakily, flexing his hand on the back of my thigh.
“Can we slow down?” he asked, his voice quiet. “Way down.”
“We can take this as slow as you want,” I replied carefully. “We can start over completely, or just…”
“I don’t want to start over,” Wyatt mumbled. “Repairing what’s happened is all part of the process for us, I think. And maybe it’ll do me some good to confront…whatever it is that’s rattling me.”
“You also need to apologize to Aiden,” I said.
Wyatt nodded, ruffling his hair against my stomach. “I will. Aiden and I will figure our shit out.”
“You mean you will figure your shit out about Aiden,” I corrected. You’re the one who fucked up, Wyatt.”
Wyatt sighed heavily before grumbling, “I know.”
“He’ll forgive you. He wants this to work, too.” I said gently.
I froze as Wyatt’s lips touched my bare stomach where my t-shirt had ridden up. I fought back a shiver as he ran his stubbled cheek across my belly-button, then paused.
“I’m sorry I keep using your intimacy with him against you. I’m…jealous.”
“I know,” I said with a grin, then furrowed my brow. “Who told you about Aiden on his knees?” I whispered.
“Who do you think?” Wyatt answered sarcastically.
I blew out a harsh breath.
Fucking Rafe.
“I’ll remove the detentions from your record, if you want.” Wyatt said quietly.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Forget it. It doesn’t matter anymore. If that’s what got us to this…sort of truce, then…fine.”
Wyatt nodded, and we stayed silent a bit longer, me holding back a shiver while he rubbed his cheek against my stomach and rubbed small circles on the back of my thigh.
Eventually, it was time for me to go. If I was late to another Health class, Coach would have my ass on the stair-master, since he knew running laps didn’t bother me.
I pulled back from Wyatt, stopping with a hand cupped on his cheek. He looked up at me, his hazel eyes sad and apologetic.
“I’m rescinding my rejection,” I said quietly. “That okay with you?”
Wyatt exhaled, deflating like a weight had just been lifted off his shoulders. He pressed his face to my stomach again as he nodded, his shoulders shuddering like he might have been crying. He pulled back again, his eyes shining brighter as they met mine.
“We’ll figure this out,” he said, almost as a question.
I nodded. “We’ll figure this out.”