His voice came after a pause, low and certain. “Every damn day.”
I didn’t move. Didn’t breathe. Didn’t dare.
“Despite what you said, I’m not poetic. Can’t put it into words and any I’d use wouldn’t be adequate. Would make it feel smaller,” he said. “And this... doesn’t feel small, Brownie.”
I closed my eyes, let the warmth of the fire and the man beside me sink into my skin.
For the first time in a long while, I felt something like stillness.
Like the storm had finally passed.
Chapter 16
My Hero – Foo Fighters
Tally
Another morning waking alone, desperate for the feel of a large, calloused hand on my stomach. Loneliness enveloping me when I knew it would never truly be there. Contemplating the meaning of my thoughts, I rolled onto my back, stretching my sex-ached limbs.
A cobweb hung from the wooden rafter, fluttering a dance like a whispered promise. I smiled, glancing at the window cracked open an inch. Wilder and his insistence on fresh air in the room.
Turning my head to my nightstand, I noticed a piece of paper. Reaching for it, I read the untidy scratch of words.
Brownie,
Didn’twant to wake you after putting you through your paces last night. Must say it was some of my best work.
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help grinning. It felt good not to have to hide it for once. The secret smile he elicited just by being…him. Touching my lips, I continued reading.
There’s something I need to do. I’m sure you can guess what it is. Maybe it’ll be the worst decision I ever make, but maybe not. I did wear a pink tee once that did nothing for my eyes.
See you later, Wilder x
Letting the note flutter onto the covers, I let out a long sigh. Not sure whether it was one of relief for him that he’d decided to visit his dad, or whether it was for myself. I felt a release in my chest that he hadn’t left without a word. Not after what we’d experienced the night before. The emotion and intensity, the way we’d both lost ourselves in each other so that we could forget the noise.
If that was all we had then so be it. I would treasure what it was. I would miss it, too, because of what it was. All the things that I knew we could never really be.
“This is not getting the day started,” I muttered to myself. Throwing my leg out of bed, I felt the wonderful ache of incredible sex in my limbs and another smile ghosted my lips. If nothing else the memory would keep me warm for a time.
Gunner had sent Ruthie home with a heavy cold, so I was helping by finishing up some paperwork for another horse that would be leaving us the next day. It was a task I was more than happy to do because the temperature outside had dropped at least two or three degrees. I was still struggling to get the warmth back into my fingers even as I typed.
All day I’d struggled to get my head into work, my mind constantly drifting toward Wilder. Wondering how his visit was going. Whether he’d got the answers he so desperately needed.
When the door opened, I expected it to be Gunner, but when I saw who it was, heat was restored to my veins. Not the exciting, fiery, frenzied, passionate kind. The ugly, angry heat that came with the arrival of my damn husband.
“What the fuck do you want?” I spat out, pushing my chair away from the desk. “I thought I’d said everything there was to say. Unless, of course, you have the signed papers I’m desperate for.”
“And good afternoon to you.” He ran his eyes over the office, taking everything in. Assessing, with his beady little blues that I’d grown to hate.
“How the hell did you get in here without one of my bosses seeing you?”
“I always have been stealthy.”
Shuddering, I reached for my phone. “I have nothing to say to you, Declan, so I’d like you to go.”
Scrolling through my contacts, I paused when I got to Wilder’s name. I wanted to message him, but he wasn’t around, was he?
I clicked on Gunner’s name instead.
