17. Wyatt
SEVENTEEN
WYATT
It was a long ride home. Long enough for me to lose all the nerve I'd gathered, all the tension that had built up in my body, leaving me wrecked and broken.
Because no matter what had been said, what had been agreed, what was yet to be done, a life had been lost.
Perhaps the first of many. I couldn't live with myself if he hurt another innocent soul. Another person I loved.
But I also couldn't let him run loose, building his criminal empire on the ashes of Mayberry Holm.
He'd caused so much pain. So much anguish. So much fear. He had to be stopped.
"Are you okay?" someone said behind me. I jumped.
I turned to find Ari standing in front of his bedroom door watching me with narrowed eyes and pressed lips.
"Oh," I croaked and cleared my throat. "I'm sorry. I thought... I thought I was alone."
I sat up a little straighter on the couch and wiped my wet eyes before I looked at him again.
"I can go if you want," he said.
I shook my head as I realized he was now standing right behind me, leaning against the back of the sofa.
"No, you can't. This is your home," I said.
"It's yours too." He reached for my shoulder with his strong hand and squeezed, the warmth and pressure soothing a little of the chaos swirling inside me. "How are you feeling?"
I let out a long sigh and stared at the table in front of me. "How should I feel? Like I should be locked up behind bars."
Ari was sitting beside me within seconds, his hand moving from my shoulder to my knee, completely oblivious to the fire he lit inside my body with that simple move.
"Why? You did nothing wrong," he whispered.
I smiled at him and shook my head. "You're too kind to me.
This is all my fault. This has been a chain reaction too long in the making.
Someone was bound to get hurt. I should have done something—anything—sooner.
" I focused on the hand because his eyes were a whole other blaze I couldn't handle.
Not right now. Not this close. "That's not what was supposed to happen when I set up this operation.
It wasn't supposed to get this complicated.
I clearly have lost my freaking mind in my old age. "
"Hey!" He slapped my knee, and he readjusted his seat next to me so he was facing me, one bent leg pressed against my thigh, and even though he was now using both his hands to hold his leg, I still felt his knuckles on my side. "Stop being so harsh on yourself. You're neither stupid nor old."
I scoffed. "I'm definitely older than you," I said and had no idea why. What did that have to do with anything?
"Yeah. Older. Emphasis on -er."
"Pfft, semantics," I mumbled, and he chuckled.
"Semantics are important. Especially if they're the difference between defeated and determined."
I stared at him for a moment trying to understand what he was talking about, but that was a mistake. I realized too late. Because he stared back at me, inches away and more irresistible than ever. More unavoidable than ever.
"You disagree?" he whispered.
"Huh?"
He was far too close to concentrate.
"I'm just saying," he said, "I don't think this is the time to second-guess everything, to blame yourself, to tuck your tail between your legs and run.
He just killed someone. He did. His choices did that.
No one forced him. No one made him go after an innocent old man instead of going after you or your team.
He did. He killed Mr. Rogers. Instead of sitting here wallowing and blaming the wrong person, you should be out there trying to find the way to put an end to him before he kills or destroys again. "
His words, they seemed to take a life of their own. A little ghost of a spell that set my body on edge and my mind spinning.
He was probably the only person on this damn island that didn't think this whole shit show was my fault. He was sweet. Mistaken, of course, but sweet.
I only realized I said the words aloud after they left my body, and I felt my cheeks get warm in seconds. And he smiled something fierce. Something dangerous and seductive.
His smile made the whole room brighter. It made my whole damn heart brighter.
Maybe my defenses were too weak and vulnerable after what had happened this whole week, or maybe I had resisted him long enough. Whatever it was, I could feel my resolve melting away under the inferno of his gaze, and I leaned in. My heart pounded in my chest.
What if he wasn't interested? What if I was the only one who felt it? What if...
He leaned in too.
Emboldened by the small gesture, I closed the distance between us, crashing my lips to his. I brought my hand on his nape and held him tight so I could taste him even if for just a second.
He pushed me back with his kiss, his tongue teasing my upper lip and sending the room around us whirling.
He tasted of coffee and sugar, of comfort and safety. Of home and belonging, and I never wanted to let go. I wanted to stay here, in his arms, hooked onto his lips, until the end of my days. That much I knew in a matter of seconds.
My phone buzzed, and the vibration snapped me back to reality. I pulled away. I looked at Ari, so cute, so willing in front of me, and yet now that I'd come to my senses, all I could see was another mistake.
What was I doing? What did I think I was doing? What right did I have to be doing this? Whether Ari wanted me or not, it didn't mean I got to have him. It didn't mean I deserved him.
"I... I can't," I said, ignoring my phone and focusing on my escape.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, and the fragility in his tone threatened to break me all over again, for different reasons.
I had to get out of here before I did something that I might not regret, but he would. Something that would destroy his life like I'd destroyed Dare's.
I shot up, reaching for the door. I could feel Ari staring at the back of my head, but I needed to leave.
To go. To put as much distance between us as possible, yet the more steps I took away from him, the more I ached.
My body throbbed, my heart pulling me back.
Just like the needle of a compass always finding its true north.
"Damn it!" I muttered and slammed the front door shut.
Ari was frozen in place as I ran back to him, and when I touched him, he sprang back to life. I towered over him, reunited our lips, initiating another, messier dance with our tongues.
His hands wrapped around my arms, settling on my shoulder blades and keeping me in place, pulling me down with him.
The hairs on the back of my neck rose. My heart thundered in my chest as our bodies smashed together, all rough and rushed, yet there was no pain. Just pleasure and the certainty that this had been inevitable from the start.
From the moment I laid my eyes on him, this was bound to happen. I'd held back long enough. I couldn't live with myself if I pulled away now. I could worry about the consequences tomorrow. Today was for doing things to regret another day.
I lay on top of him, and he moaned into my mouth, yet when I tried to ease myself back, he didn't let me. His legs wrapped around my thighs. His cock poked at mine even through the quadruple layers separating us.
A shiver of pure lava coursed through me all the way to my head, making everything but him blurry, dream-like.
His pupils reflected the light from the ceiling, making them look more sinful than sin.
I brushed my fingers under his eyes, over his cheekbones, past his jawline, as if attempting to memorize every inch of him by touch alone.
When I rested my hand on his chest, I could feel his heart trying to outrace mine, a dual beat that hadn't quite synchronized yet but was desperately trying to.
"My God, Wyatt!" he moaned, and it thundered through me.
I touched my forehead to his and caught my breath for a moment while gazing right at him, his eyes becoming one this up close, but even as a cyclops he was the most stunning, most intoxicating creature I had ever laid my eyes on.
“I know,” I panted and ground my hips, the friction between our hard dicks sending us both back into the blissful storm sweeping right through us.
Our lips reunited as if they had a mind of their own, and their only single thought was being merged into one.
The more I explored his face by touch alone, the more I felt Ari’s hands exploring mine. First moving down to the small of my back. His fingers slipped under my shirt and danced right in the middle where I was most vulnerable.
Shivers rumbled through me, making my breath hitch, and a giggle rolled out of me that made me feel twenty years younger.
Ari’s lips stretched into a smile for a moment before he resumed our kiss with even more passion, and he moved one of his hands down to my ass. He let out a long, drawn-out moan as he squeezed my butt cheek, and I swallowed it hungrily as if it was the sustenance I’d been craving all my life.
“Fuck, Wyatt! You’re perfect,” he whispered, and the words filled my chest with warmth and even more need.
I pulled back, breaking the kiss, and Ari looked at me with wide eyes and a gaping mouth.
“Did I say something wron—” he started, and I pulled him up by the hand until we were both standing facing each other. “What are you—”
I grabbed his face with both hands and kissed his cheek before dragging him into the bedroom and locking the door behind us.
When I turned around, he was lying in bed, the sexiest man alive staring right at me, scorching me to the very core. He was like a dream come true.
I stripped my shirt and jeans off walking toward him and towered over him in bed, bringing our lips back together.
“Not fair,” he mumbled in between breaths. “What about me?”
I smirked and straddled him for extra support as I sent my hands to unbutton his shirt and followed their trajectory with wet kisses down his middle.
His nipples hardened right before my very eyes, and I teased them with my tongue over and over again until I could free him of his shirt and continued my journey down south.