Andthen he kissed me. No more than the slow brush of his lips against mine. Itwasn’t anything earth shattering. Or it shouldn’t have been. It was thebriefest taste of his mouth. His tongue was there only enough to remind me thatit had the power to undo me. To totally upend me.
Toruin me for all other men.
Hishands grasped my waist, forcing me to acknowledge their presence and theintense way I liked them on me. His teeth scraped my bottom lip, pulling abreathy sound from the back of my throat. His scent filled my senses, making medizzy with the headiness of him.
Istopped caring about our rivalry and our history and the constant competitionbetween us. I stopped worrying about my future and my life goals and justsettled in this moment. This was what I wanted. This right here. Him.
Wyatt.
Histouch and his taste and the wicked things I knew he would do to me.
Ithad been too long for me and I was tired of feeling like I’d thrown away my onegood chance at a committed relationship when I’d walked away from Nolan. Iwanted to feel wanted. I needed to feel needed. I desperately desired to feeldesired.
MaybeWyatt could make me feel all those good things and more.
Theproblem was I still needed to be able to walk away from him when it was over.
Theback doorbell rang, snatching all my hasty, lust-filled choices out of my handsbefore I’d gotten the chance to make them. Because Wyatt was gone. The loudbuzz broke the spell and he’d moved, striding across the kitchen like his feetwere on fire.
AndI was left to slide off the counter into a puddle of confusion and abandoneddesire.
“Whatthe hell was that?”
Therewas no one there to answer. Wyatt was already outside.
Iknew he wouldn’t answer anyway. It was his mission in life to torture me. Thiswas another level in our game.
MeaningI shouldn’t let him corner me like this again. Now that rational thought hadreentered my sex-starved brain, I knew I couldn’t let him win. But moreimportantly, I knew I wouldn’t be able to walk away if this happened a secondtime. At least not with my dignity still intact. I wouldn’t be able to push himaway. Or deny him what he wanted.
Orconvince myself it wasn’t what I wanted.
Becauseit was.
Oh God,I wanted it badly.
Thankfully,I was saved from abandoning all my best laid plans and recklessly throwingmyself at him when the rest of our coworkers started trickling into thekitchen. We quickly got to work prepping food for the night after we sufferedthrough our morning meeting and Wyatt’s drill sergeant like pep talk. He mightas well have looked us all in the eye and said, “Don’t fuck up.” I knew hethought he was being motivational, but he was only succeeding if he wanted usmotivated by fear of him killing us for messing something up.
Thatwas usually the impact he left after his hour-long power trip. But, I had hisentire body plastered against mine only a little while ago and was too busyhyper-focusing on getting over that incredible feeling to worry about theconsequences of well-done filet mignon. I felt bad for the rest of the crewthough.
Bythe time Dillon and I snagged a break close to opening, I was a sweaty,frustrated, horny mess.
“Youseem… out of it today. Are you okay?” she asked as we stepped outside into thecool spring breeze. The trees had just started to bud around the plaza, dottingthe industrial brick and stone with brushstrokes of green and white. The sunwas warm on my naked arms and my bandana covered head. It calmed some of myfrantic nerves and soothed the riotous confusion inside me. I wanted to lay ablanket down and take a nap in the perfection of the day.
Mostof all I wanted to forget about the weird energy between Wyatt and me. The barelythere kiss. The feel of him.
Theway I’d called him chef. Not like he was my boss. The word had spilled out ofme as a gift. An offering. Worship.
Iturned to Dillon and debated what to tell her. “Vera’s letting me cook with herat Sarita Sunday nights. She’s… training me to take over.”
Dillon’smouth dropped open and I couldn’t help but laugh at her shocked expression. “Noway!”
Inodded, a gleeful smile taking over my face. “I know! It’s crazy. And so kindof her.”
“Howlong has this been going on?”
Ishrugged, remembering my inspiring night waiting tables. “I’ve only done itonce so far. I’m going again this week.”
Someof our coworkers pushed through the door heading behind the building to smoke.Dillon leaned forward and dropped her voice. “Does Ezra know?”
