Still Here: A Secret Baby Romance (10 page)

“
I
should’ve known
you’d take me here,” she said as she stared over spring creek.

“Best fishing in all of Montana. But mostly I just come out here to relax.” I shrugged my shoulders and looked out over the creek. It wasn’t wide, but it was part of what I considered to be my home.

I loved it.

“Is work that hard?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You said that your father was making your life difficult. Is that true?” she probed, concern on her face.

“What? Oh, I said that to help Brandon get out some of his frustration. I didn’t really mean to say it was that bad,” I explained.

“But yeah, he’s back in town and he is convinced that I can’t do anything right,” I added.

He lit into me this morning, telling me that I wasn’t using his contacts. I preferred to go through proper channels but he insisted that his contacts were hard fought and won.

Kept telling me he was just trying to make it easier for me to be successful.

I wanted it my own way or I didn’t want it at all.

But I couldn’t just tell her that. She wouldn’t understand. Hell, she’d probably judge me for what my father was.

Everyone else did.

I grabbed a flat rock and skipped it across the creek.

“I remember the first time you brought me down here, you told me it was to go fishing. Said you wanted to show me how,” she said.

“I remember too, you’d been a champion fisher, but I didn’t know it. Caught ten to my three. And you grinned the whole time. Fleeced me from the start.”

Her face fell, “I was the one who got fleeced in the end.”

“What do you mean, Rose?’ Was she talking about why she left because I knew that couldn’t the be case. I still had no idea what cased her to run off like that. I was tired of hearing that it was some how this was my fault. That her leaving was all because of me.

The truth was that she decided to run away from me and never look back. That was on her. Not me.

It was a mistake I was desperate to make her see.

“I don’t want to talk about it. Not yet. I made a promise to Jess that I would give you another chance. That I would try to see the man you are now.”

“Do you like what you see?” I asked as I pulled her into me. It was warm for a spring night. Almost like we’d skipped over spring entirely and just jumped right into summer. I could hear the spring peepers croaking up stream.

“I, I think I do,” she said as she looked up into my eyes.

Kiss the girl, my brain shouted. I didn’t hesitate. I bent down and kissed her hard, all of the pent up lust escaping through the meeting of our lips.

She’d been feeling it too, I know she had. I could tell by the way she wet her lips, by the heavy lidded looks she was giving me.

Even the purr of her voice betrayed her.

She wanted me just as much as I wanted her.

“Rose,” I whispered into her ear as she broke the kiss. “Don’t turn away from me again, Rose.”

Her body was so warm against mine. “What do you have to lose?” I asked.

“My dignity.” It staggered me. I wasn’t expecting that answer, but I couldn’t blame her.

Hell, I knew what she was talking about. No other woman caught and held my attention like she did. I’d torn through half the town looking to lose her memory after she left.

I was known for those exploits. The things I did, the way I treated those women. I didn’t call any of them afterwards.

They were disposable, but she wasn’t. How could I make her see that.

“Rose, I would never take your dignity from you,” I said slowly. I didn’t push away from her, I didn’t let go, but I didn’t pull her closer either.

“How can you promise that? I’ve heard the rumors. I know the man you used to be, and from what I’ve been told you haven’t changed much.”

“If you really believed that you wouldn’t be here right now, would you?” I asked, my eyes flashing.

I would steal all the kisses I could from her, but I wouldn’t leave her feeling like I’d taken advantage of her.

I wanted this to be her choice. Not the night or the attraction to be to blame. It had to be all her.

I would show her one hell of a night if she would just look up into my eyes and say yes. Dammit, that’s all I needed from her. One more night.

“I don’t know what to believe. Sometimes I look into your eyes and I see something more. But sometimes they are just… hungry.”

I was hungry for her, that’s for damn sure.

“Do you want me?” I asked.

“What?” she blinked back at me, unsure of what to say.

“Don’t worry about anyone else is saying, Rose. Listen to this,” I pointed to her heart, “and this,” I pointed to her head. “You tell me what you want. I’ll do that. But I’m not going to answer to the townsfolk or anyone else. Just you.”

I knew I had her all confused and turned upside down, but I didn’t care. I wanted her to know that no matter what I cared about what she thought. Not anyone else.

I’d sworn off their opinions a long-ass time ago.

“I don’t know what I think,” she admitted. But I wasn’t going to take that for an answer.

“You do know, Rose. You just need to listen. You need to trust.” I caressed her cheek and waited for the answer.

“I do want you,” she admitted, finally. “It might be the end of me but I do.”

I closed the space between us and kissed her, hard. I wasn’t going to let her get away. Let this moment get away. Dammit, no matter how hard I tried my mind kept going back to her.

So did my heart.

She knocked the wind out of me the moment I saw her. I had to convince her to let me love her the way I wanted to.

She might not see it yet, but she would eventually. I was sure of it.

The sun had long since gone down, the blanket of stars looking down on us as I kissed her. As I willed her to feel what I was feeling.

She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me even closer.

“My place?” I asked after another long moment.

“I have an apartment, it’s closer,” she answered. My place was all the way across town.

“Where?” I asked.

“Off of spruce,” she said as she kissed my neck. “Got the keys yesterday, all it has in it is a bed.”

“That’s all we need.”

H
is hand found
the door knob as he pressed me up against the door, his body covering mine. It swung open and we tumbled inside, unwilling to let anything come in-between our bodies.

Even reason.

I didn’t care when he threw me up against the wall and gave me what I guessed would be a bruise on my elbow, or when he pulled me away from it and picked me up. I wrapped my legs around his torso and let him carry me into the bedroom.

We were a tangle of limbs and clothing and steaming hot breath as we fought like hell to pull off every piece of clothing we were wearing. They somehow ended up in a jumble on the floor as we danced across the floor onto that bed.

Well, bed was a little bit generous. It was nothing moe than a mattress on the floor, but it didn’t matter.

I didn’t care about the furnishings, I just wanted a soft place for him to take me.

He was going to take me, that much was clear. I wanted it. He wanted it. We were crazy.

It was stupid. I was making another mistake, but I didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t want to hear reason. It would be too much to ask for right now.

My heart was doing the talking and it was telling me to take everything he was offering and then some.

It was like we were young all over again without jobs or responsibilities and it felt amazing. If I could just hold on to that feeling a little longer I wouldn’t ask for anything else.

We ended up on the bed, him on the bottom, me on his lap while we kissed and felt the warmth of our bare bodies against each other. It was easy. So easy.

I slid him into me and took control, grinning as I watched the way his lips parted. Just that little bit of relief he was looking for. I rocked up and back on him as he grabbed my hips and helped me along.

It was quick and it was hard and it was perfect. I looked him right in the eyes as I slid up and down him. I didn’t need foreplay or anything else. We’d teased each other the entire ride back to my place and I was ready to take him. All of him.

“Rose,” he said that deep gravel quality back in his voice. “Dammit, Rose. You feel so good.”

I purred at the compliment and increased my pace. I wanted him to feel good. I wanted to feel good. We’d both get exactly what we were looking for. Exactly what we needed.

I panted hard, our bodies hot and steamy, the smell of his sweat clean and sweet. It only served to increase my arousal, his body perfectly matched against mine.

“Wyatt,” whispered into his ear, trying like hell to match his husky tone. “Wyatt, I want you to come.”

Fuck, it sounded hot. I was going to cum too, I knew I was going to cum. I could barely hold it any longer. Just the feeling of him inside of me pressing against me, his body up against mine was enough to send me into a state of perfect pleasure. But I wanted to come with him. I wanted to hold out for it.

“Fuck,” he swore as he buried his mouth into my neck his teeth coming down hard against my skin.

He felt so good against me, so good. I couldn't stop, I couldn’t control myself, I couldn’t do anything.

But scream with the orgasm that hit me so hard it rocked my world.

He groaned into my throat and came with me, his body shaking hard as he thrust into me as hard as he could.

It was so good it should’ve been illegal.

He should’ve been illegal.

“Damn, I was just hoping for a goodnight kiss,” he said as he sat up, I was still on him, his cock still inside of me.

He wrapped his arms around my back and pulled me close, kissing me.

I could feel his heart beat beating against my chest. I could hear his breaths as I buried my face into his shoulder.

I held on to this moment as long as I could, but after a while we had to separate.

“Do you want me to go?” he asked as he bent down to put on his clothes.

“Why don’t you stay?” I asked. It was an innocent question, but I knew what it meant.

And I knew how Jess was going to gloat as soon as she found out.

Dammit.

“
S
tay away from her
.” My father’s voice was so distinctive I knew it before I saw him or anyone else in the room.

“Excuse me?” I asked as I turned to see him standing in the doorway. Fucking hell. Could he keep his nose out of my shit? If not the business than at least my personal life.

“Leave her alone. I don’t want you going near Rose Shannon, do you hear me?” he asked, more like demanded.

“Well, I don’t think I care about your opinion,” I said as I grabbed my coffee and took a sip. I was still wearing the same pair of jeans from yesterday, the shirt one that I kept in my desk for these kinds of situations.

“I know the way you are, Wyatt. I know what you do. I know how to treat women. Don’t do that to Miranda’s daughter. Anyone but her.” My father shook his head pointed at me. He was angry.

I grinned and said what I’d been waiting to say for thirty years, “I learned it from watching you, dad.”

I swore he was going to haul off and smack me, but he just stood there with his hands balled into fists. It wouldn’t be the first time we’d gone to fisticuffs. Or, more than likely, the last.

“I put up with a lot of your shit, kid. But if you use her up and spit her out the way you do women-” I was done with his shit. I wasn’t listening to any more of it.

“My intentions are honest, Dad. I’m not going to do that to her.” I wasn’t going to back down either. He couldn’t forbid me anymore I wasn’t a kid.

“See that you don’t. I made a promise to her momma that I would look out for her when her dad passed. I don’t aim on breaking it.”

“You talked to her mom?” I knew the two of them had history. Hell, I knew that Jack stole her right out from under his nose. But that was before I was even born. A lifetime ago.

“Called her to give my condolences. She loved Jack Shannon better than me, but no one loved her more than I did. Doesn’t matter that there is a lifetime between us.” I saw a softness in my father that I’d never seen before in my entire life. “Haven’t talked to her since.”

“Maybe you should go see Miranda. Talk to her?” Whatever softness fell over his face quickly left it as he brushed the thought away.

“No, it’s a burnt bridge. It doesn’t matter. I have Milly,” he said.

“I thought her name was Molly?” I asked sarcastically. We both knew that we didn’t know or care what her name was.

“Shit, you’re right. Whatever. She probably found her way down to the islands without me,” he said. I knew he was right. And that he’d be finding a new one soon enough.

“Just, don’t give me a reason to have to beat your ass, son.” With that he turned and walked out of my office.

It was the closest I’d ever get to a heart to heart with my father.

But he was right about one thing. I wasn’t going to take Rose for granted. I was planning something for her. The perfect third date. I just had to made sure that it all went according to plan.

I picked up the desk phone and dialed.

“Hello, public works,” the voice on the other line said.

“Hello, Adele, how are you doing, darling?” I asked. She was a year from fifty and happily married, but even a girl like her liked a little sweet talking.

“Wyatt?” she asked her voice hopeful. “I’m doing just fine, thank you for asking. What can I do for you today?”

“Can I talk to Jeremy? I need a favor.” I asked.

“I’m sure he would do anything for you, hon,” she said as she put me on hold.

It was going to be a night neither of us would ever forget.