Ilaughed against his skin, loving the feel of his stubbled jaw against my lips.“Not that long.”
“Anyamount of time is too long with you,” he countered, always arguing, alwaysneeding to be right. And I loved that about him because I was the same way.
Hekissed up the column of my throat, forcing my head back. His teeth grazedagainst the underside of my jaw. I gasped when his hand palmed my breast, histhumb brushing over my nipple, making it peak, bringing it to life like everyother part of my body.
“Iwant you all the time,” he murmured. “I can’t stop thinking about you. I can’tstop wanting you.” His head lifted so he could meet my gaze and drown me indesire and feeling and him. “You’re my weakness. I see you across the kitchenand I crumble. I lose my train of thought and I forget what I’m in the middleof doing. I see you and there is only you. You’re going to get me fired.”
Mylips lifted in a love-drunken smile. “Then I could have your job.”
Hestole the desire straight from my lips by kissing me to oblivion. His fingerstugged at the thin straps of my flowy, floral maxi dress. “Why am I not surprisedthis is your play?” He laughed against my skin, his scruff tickling my throat.“But the joke’s on you. If you would have dangled sex in front of me monthsago, I would have gladly handed it over to you.”
Ipulled my arms free from my dress and it slinked to my waist. He didn’t botherto wait for me to acclimate, his hands moved to the back of my strapless braand deftly flicked it open. I tugged at his shirt, not wanting to be the onlyone topless.
“Nowwho’s the liar?” I asked, totally breathless.
Forcingmy eyes to stay open, I took in the sight of him and all his glorious tattoosin the natural sunlight from his big kitchen windows. God, he was breathtaking.
Itraced my fingers over the very realistic eye drawn over his right pec, asingle tear welling up in the corner of it. On the other side, an anatomicalheart had been reimagined with fissures snaking out in every direction. Itlooked so real, except it was shattering, breaking apart into little, destroyedpieces of itself. The words forgive, focus, and fear made a triangle beneathhis ribs. And all of it was connected by intricate designs and meaningful swirls.
Myfingers traced over the word triangle curiously. “What does this mean?”
“Mymom,” he rasped, his eyes intently watching my fingers move over him. “It’s areminder to forgive the people that have hurt me, focus on the things I wantmost and rise above the fear.”
Imade a sound in the back of my throat, feeling oddly convicted by the words hechose to live by. I could learn a thing or two from them.
“Andthe bird?” I asked, trailing my fingers to his neck.
“Moreof my mom. It’s like a memorial to her.”
Mythroat dried out until it was sandpaper and gravel. “You were close to her?”
Hejerked his chin once and it seemed like the one simple movement took everythingout of him. “She had her demons, but she loved me. She wanted to take care ofme, she just… couldn’t.”
Tearswet my eyes. I laid my hand over the broken heart on his chest, knowing withouta shadow of a doubt that it symbolized the real one hidden beneath skin,muscle, and bone. My voice was a strained whisper, grating against the rocks inmy mouth. “I’m so sorry, Wyatt.” The words were so inadequate, so completelywrong. I was sorry, yes. But I was more than that too. I was devastated andgrief-filled and angry on his behalf. I wanted to take him back in time andshake his mom until she got it together, until she saw how fucking precious herson was and how desperately he needed her to take care of him.
“I’mokay,” he told me. And I believed him. “It was a long time ago. But I… I don’tthink I’ll ever stop missing her.” He blinked against glassy eyes. He pointedto the toque next, the giant chef’s hat tattooed on his side. “I got this theweek Killian left Lilou. It was my promotion present to myself.”
Andjust like that we’d moved on so effortlessly. His eyes cleared, and his voicesteadied. He’d slid back into his comfortable skin. His hands caressed up mysides and settled on my back, bringing us closer together.
“Thatdoesn’t surprise me.” I leaned to the side, to get a good look at it. “I’msurprised there isn’t an ‘I Hate Kaya’ tattoo somewhere on you.” I checkedaround the other half of him. “Or something like ‘Sous Chef Must Die’…anywhere?”
Heshrugged, nipping at my collarbone with his teeth. “Again, I feel as thoughyou’re missing how much I rely on you. How I’ve always relied on you.” His headlifted, and our gazes slammed into each other in a head-on-collision that wouldshut down an interstate for hours from the force of the impact. “How much I’vealways liked you.”
Mybelly flipped. “Lies,” I accused.
Shakinghis head slowly, he pressed a sweet kiss to my lips. “Day one, Kaya. You walkedinto the kitchen—all cotton candy blue hair and sharp teeth—and I lost myfucking head. I had never seen someone so cutthroat and sexy all at once. Iburned everything I touched that night because I couldn’t concentrate onanything but you.”
Iremembered that night. I had been a ball of nerves, ready to puke at anysecond, but my own screwups had been ignored because Wyatt’s mistakes were wayworse. Killian had chewed his ass all night.
“You’venever said anything until now.” My words were a whisper of disbelief. I thoughtabout all the times I’d been mean to him, snapped at him, challenged himunreasonably. God, I’d been a vindictive bitch all these years.
Ithought about our texting through the years. And our recent make outs. Ithought about the way I let him win sometimes. How I’d practically killedmyself working so he could transition to EC easier.
Okay,maybe I hadn’t been horrible the whole time.
“Youhad a boyfriend,” he reminded me. “Or I had a girlfriend. Or God, you weresleeping with fucking Charlie.” His face wrinkled with disgust. “The timing hasalways been off for us.”
Itstill was. He didn’t want to admit it but working together and sleepingtogether was a bad idea. And then there was Sarita… This was what I would call apickle.
