My mouth dried, and the easy comfort evaporated as the chill from outside started to permeate through my skin. “Nope, not a one.” Was this what would scare Wyatt off? When he realized how much of a mess I was?
“Any reason?”
Great. The truth bubbled on my tongue, but I hated admitting those words out loud. As if they made them more real.
Except, then Wyatt slipped his hand into mine and squeezed.
And somehow the simple motion coaxed them right from me.
“There was a guy back in high school, Dan Masterson—total bad-boy stud a few grades above me, and I was smitten.” A shudder rippled through me. I hadn’t spoken about this in years. Even my siblings barely knew—for good reason. “He was my first kiss, and I thought for sure he’d be the one for me. Planned out our whole future in my head. But I was…well, whether I was just a curiosity or he was deep in the closet, I’ll never know. He acted like nothing ever happened and spent his last two years there making my life hell.”
My throat thickened, and Wyatt squeezed my hand again. Even though we continued moving forward, I was suspended in time.
“Outed me, spread rumors, jostled me around,” I muttered. “Could’ve been way worse, though. Wasn’t like anyone beat the shit out of me.”
“You come from a big family, right?” he asked. “Why didn’t any of them step in?”
A bitter laugh escaped me. “They would’ve, if I’d let them. I was so damn ashamed that I hid what was going on. Played it all off. Easy to believe when you’re impulsive and a loudmouth.”
Wyatt stopped midstride and let go of my hand. A second later, his arms were wrapping around me, and I found myself crushed against his chest. The steadiness of his arms made my heart ache. The memories throbbed in the back of my mind, the pulse of them as vivid as if I was still that young and dumb and starry-eyed.
Yet, Wyatt wasn’t Dan.
Hell, he was unlike anyone I’d ever met before.
“Yet even that asshole couldn’t dim your brightness,” Wyatt murmured.
Heat stung my eyes. “You mean loudness.”
“Nah, baby,” he continued, the term causing heat to suffuse my whole body. “You’re so damn radiant. You’ve got this presence that’simpossible to look away from, just so full of life. It’s no wonder you were the one to catch my attention.”
Oh god. Emotions rushed through me at an embarrassing force, a dam I couldn’t keep at bay. A few tears slipped past, and I swallowed hard, trying to stop the flow with all my might. The way Wyatt spoke of me—it was how I’d wanted to be viewed for so damn long.
Not the fuckup, the loudmouth, the guy who was always too much.
But as someone worthy of being loved.
Yet I’d never let anyone close enough to even try. Not until him.
I tilted my head up, and he closed the space between us with ease. This kiss was born out of a desperate hunger inside me, one that roared out of control. I wanted to be consumed by it, by him, letting the flames lick me up until I burned and burned and burned.
He kissed me until I forgot where I was, forgot the cold, forgot what had even upset me in the first place. Wyatt’s warmth and steadiness filled in the empty places, the cracks and imperfections until I felt whole. His tongue slipped into my mouth as he lapped at me, devouring me. His hand wrapped around my nape with the firmness I craved, and in a few simple motions, he owned me.
The ache behind my eyes abated, and my soul grew lighter as he clutched me like I belonged to him just as much.
When we finally broke for air, he stared down at me with a tenderness that peeled back my layers until I was bare before him. I loved and hated the feeling at the same time.
“I think we need to bust out the rum,” I commented, my voice a little shaky.
“I could use it,” he said, pulling away to reach behind him and unzip his backpack. He wrestled out a whole-ass thermos.
A laugh escaped me. “You weren’t fucking around, were you?”
“Come on, let’s get somewhere comfortable,” he said, passing me the thermos as he took the lead again. I matched his stride with ease as we headed farther down the trail to where it opened onto the forest. We’d gotten a late start, and already the darker clouds sat upon the horizon, the gilt trails streaking across it. Reds suffused the woods with the setting sun, but I loved hiking a little more like this, an extra thrill with the encroaching night.
I clutched the thermos tight and soaked in the sight of his ass flexing ahead of me, his broad shoulders perfect to climb. God, I wanted him to take me here and now, just fuck me under this sweeping horizon.
When we stepped under the bough of the trees, the shadows increased tenfold. The darkness bestowed a hush on the area that mingled with the winter’s chill. Skeletal branches crawled toward the sky, and the surrounding forest floor formed a bed of brittle fallen leaves.
