Chapter Fourteen
Wyatt stared at her as if he’d been knocked upside the head with a baseball bat. Oh Lord, she shouldn’t have told him, especially after what she’d let slip during the picnic. Idiot, idiot, idiot. What was she thinking? She wasn’t. She’d been wallowing in misery, feeling as if her heart had been ripped out and shredded to pieces. Wyatt and Zoe… He’d let Zoe see him naked. Something he’d never let Maddie do. Not ever. God, she couldn’t even think about it what that meant.
“You liked me?”
Maddie strode to the portable crib, and laid Jacob inside. Like? No. It had been so much more. It sounded crazy, even to her. How could you have a thing for someone you barely knew? Oh, who was she kidding? From the first time they’d met there had been something about him that stirred her emotions and called to her on the most basic level. Maybe it had been those brief conversations they’d had over the years when they’d find themselves out on the north rim checking vines or fruit readiness, or maybe it had been his offbeat jokes like the ones he’d told the night her car skidded off the road, or maybe it had been him making a point to say hi if they ran into each other. She wasn’t sure what, but it had been there nonetheless.
It didn’t matter that they hadn’t known each other well, or that Gramps had forbidden her from associating with Wyatt. She’d fallen for him in a big way, regardless.
“Maddie?” He rested a hand on her shoulder.
She couldn’t think when he stood this close—it was like she was a mass of jangling wires and nothing connected—but she sure as hell could feel. His breath caressed the back of her neck like a soft kiss. Tiny frissons of pleasure radiated along her nerve endings. And the heady scent of him…her insides went soft and mushy. “Yeah. I liked you. I know it doesn’t make any sense. I—”
Wyatt grasped her shoulders and turned her around. “Really?”
“Yes.” He drew her into his embrace. Brushed his lips over hers, and oh, the sweet tenderness… Maddie looped her arms around his neck and leaned her head on his shoulder. All she wanted was to stay here, close to him. “Is what happened with Zoe the reason you stopped going to Nick’s parties? Why you went off the grid for a while?” It was as if he’d disappeared from the face of the earth for four years, and then bam! He came to her rescue on New Year’s Eve.
He stiffened, and she thought he’d pull away, then he relaxed against her.
“What happened with Zoe was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
His hand glided long, lazy strokes up and down her arms. Maddie sighed.
“I’d had enough of the stares, the comments, and people talking behind my back by that point. So, I buried myself in work. There was plenty of it. Equipment malfunctions, bottling plant issues. You name the problem, we had it. I didn’t have time for a social life, which suited me fine. I wanted nothing to do with anyone.”
What a horrible, lonely existence. “I’m sorry for what Zoe did to you.”
“Not your fault.”
“Still, you didn’t deserve to be treated that way.”
“No.” He drew in a deep breath and exhaled. “I don’t want to talk about Zoe anymore. She doesn’t matter.”
No, Zoe didn’t matter at all. “Let’s go watch that movie I suggested earlier.”
He eased her back and stared, his eyes sharp, almost feral. “I’ve got a better idea.”
Wyatt grasped her shoulders and took her mouth in a flash of heat that promised pleasure, passion. Satisfaction. The ground dropped out from under her and Maddie held on to him for dear life.
His hard, compelling body pressed into hers while skillful hands stroked, teased, caressed every inch of her. Sparks of electricity skated over her heated skin until every inch of her vibrated.
Wyatt let her go and gulped in air. “I promised myself I wouldn’t rush things, and I’ll leave if you want me too, but God, Maddie, I want inside you so damned bad it hurts.”
She wanted it too. Longed for the exhilarating connection she’d shared with only this man. Maddie locked her arms around him. “Don’t leave. I want you to stay.”
He skimmed his mouth along her jaw, down the column of her neck, his teeth inciting wild thrills with hungry nips and bites.
She tugged off his shirt, needing to touch, to own, to possess the whole of him. Maddie ran her hands over his strong arms and hard pecs, exulting in the sensation of sculpted muscle and smooth skin beneath her palms. She made quick work of removing his jeans and boxers until he stood before her.
Wyatt pulled her against him so every inch of his delectable body touched hers, and oh, the feel of him up against her, the thud of their hearts beating together and— “Let me look at you.” She ached to see and taste all of him.
Wyatt froze and stared like a deer caught in car headlights. “No. No way.”
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Wyatt stepped away and dragged a hand through his hair. He couldn’t do this. Couldn’t expose himself. She might understand why he’d always insisted on complete darkness before he’d shed his clothes and climbed into bed with her, but that didn’t mean she could accept the real him.
“Please, Wyatt.”
Compassion radiated from the depths of her gorgeous eyes, and something more, but he couldn’t say what.
“Trust me.”
Did she have any idea what she asked? Still, if they were going to make this thing between them work he’d have to show a little faith. Maddie wasn’t Zoe, and she’d never rejected him. Not once. He stepped back and stood, hands fisted, arms held rigid by his side. Wyatt held his breath as her gaze raked over him.
She smiled. “You’re beautiful.”
He barked out a laugh. If only it were true, but he knew it wasn’t. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
Maddie kissed the jagged scar running from hip to thigh. Trailed her tongue along the puckered ridge. “Exquisite.” She brushed her fingertips over the discolored, crackly patches of damaged skin on his back and thighs. “Magnificent.”
She worshipped him with her mouth, her lips, her hands. “Perfect. In every way possible.”
He groaned, wanting more than anything to believe her, but how could he when he knew better?
Wyatt stilled her when she reached for his hard cock. “Not yet. I want this to last.” For her as much as for him, and it wouldn’t if she continued her sweet torture. “It’s my turn to see you.” Grabbing her T-shirt, he lifted the soft fabric over her head and tossed it on the floor, then unclasped her bra and dropped it. He stared at her flawless skin. “Now this is perfection.” Her breasts swelled.
“Touch me,” Maddie begged. She lifted his hands and laid them on her breasts.
He did as she asked, stroking his fingertips over the lush, round globes, teasing her nipples into taut nubs.
“Wyatt.” Maddie shivered. “Oh God. More. Please.”
She didn’t have to ask twice. He loved her breasts, her hips. Loved everything about her. And the way she gazed at him, as if she couldn’t live without his touch. Maybe, just maybe…
He drew one tip into his mouth, sucking, stroking the sensitive peak. Her head fell back, and she let out a guttural groan.
He liked that too. That little cry she made, and the way her body went pliant in his arms. He couldn’t get enough of it. Wyatt tore at her jeans with unsteady fingers, and wrenched the zipper. He shoved them down to her ankles along with the tiny scrap of silk covering her sex. “I have to taste you.”
“Yes.” Maddie trembled from head to toe as she stepped out of her jeans and kicked them away. “Want you. So much.”
Grasping her thighs, he thrust his tongue inside her tight, wet heat.
“Wyatt.”
He drove her up, tongue stroking, lips nibbling, reveling in her wild abandon.
“No one but you, Wyatt.” Her body shuddered and she shattered into a million pieces. “Only you, Wyatt. Only you.”
Her words shot straight to his heart. He clamped his arms around her and held her tight. “Yes, Maddie. Always.”