The Wild One (Forever Wild #3) (4 page)

After a “quick” stop
, as Paige claimed it was, to some smoothie place, we were back at the apartment. I was ready for her to go off to a yoga class or to get her nails done or whatever she did during the day so I could just be alone. I just needed some time without her to figure things out. But I never thought I’d be happy to have Paige by my side when I saw a man in a dark blue suit standing at the gate to our apartment building: Max fucking Green. The same guy who showed up a few nights ago. The rich Yankee who just wanted to fuck Valerie and I was pretty sure she wanted to be with as soon as I signed the divorce papers.

“V
alerie isn’t here, douchebag. She’s at work,” Paige quipped, stepping out of her car.

Max smirked, an expression that I wanted to smack off of his cocky face.
I barely knew the guy and I already hated everything about him: his Chicago accent, the way he slicked back his hair, and the way he treated Valerie like she was just there for sex. The guy needed to be punched, but I also knew if I did that he’d probably have his legal team up my ass.

“Don’t worry, Paige, I’m not here for Valerie. I’m here to see Wes.” Max’s smirk turned into a small smile and I swallow
ed a mouthful of air, causing me to cough violently and pound on my chest.

“You okay there, cowboy?” Max asked, raising an eyebrow as he leaned against the fence, crossing one leg over the other.

“I’m just fine, Yankee.”

“Awww, it’s sweet that you have a crush on Wessy here, but sorry
, dude, he’s married to Valerie. You’ll have to go to Boys Town and find another cowboy to go on the down low with.” Paige used an extra cutesy voice to rub it in and I had to hold back a laugh. The girl really was a bitch, but when she liked you, she could be cool when she wanted to be.

“I’m not here to approach him for sexual favors, Paige. I’m here to talk to him about
a business proposition, so if you’d please excuse us, I’d like to talk to him alone.” He stared at Paige hard, as if she were the lowliest of creatures that were beneath him. I may not have particularly cared for Paige most of the time, but I couldn’t help balling my hands into fists and it took everything I had to keep them at my sides. No one deserved to be talked down to like this guy did to people.

“Do you want to talk to Max alone, Wes?” Paige turned to me.

“I don’t know, depends on what he’s got to say.” I unclenched and re-clenched my fists before shoving them in pockets.

“It’s just some casual business talk. Paige can join us if you’d like and we can take the conversation inside, or you can meet me at my office. Whichever you’d prefer.” He kept his tone casual, but I didn’t trust the guy as far as I co
uld throw him, so I knew I might need someone for back-up.

“Why don’t we go inside then
, if it’s just casual business talk?” I nodded toward the door.

“That sounds good to me.” Max smirked and Paige rolled her eyes.

There was only room for us to move in a single-file line down the cobblestone pathway to the apartment and then down the short hallway into the apartment. Paige stood in front with Max in the middle and I took the back. No one said a word until we opened the door.

“Gee, Max, I don’t think you’ve ever seen this place in the daylight. It probably looks a lot different to you when you’re not stumbling and trying to get to Valerie’s bedroom to use her and run home,” Paige said with added sarcasm before she picked up Dexter.
The cat hissed as soon as he saw Max.

“It is a very charming place that you have here, Paige,
” Max said, pasting a very fake-looking smile on his face.

“I’m sure you’re very charmed.” She smirked, petting Dexter’s head as the cat glared at Max.

I stood in the middle of the living room with my hands at my sides. I wasn’t sure where to go or what to do. The last time I came face to face with someone that was fucking my girl, it was a teammate, and that ended with me in a career-ending injury.

“Are you okay, Wes?” Paige stared at me, tilting her head ever so slightly.

“Right as rain.” I forced a smile.

Max nodded and turned toward me. “Okay, I guess I’ll just cut right to the chase. I know that you and Valerie are trying to put on some sort of act here that you’re a happy couple that just happened to have some wild night in Vegas and wound up married.” He took a step closer to me, his expensive shoes barely making a sound on the wooden floor. “It’s all very touching, your whole valiant cowboy thing, but I don’t buy it.”

“Excuse me?” I wanted to smack the cockiness right off his face. Who the hell did he think he was to tell me what I was and wasn’t? He was the one who was making late-night phone calls to Valerie and then running off.

 
“I don’t believe some guy would just marry a random girl he met in Vegas unless he wanted something. Usually it’s money. You probably assumed that Valerie had it and then it was too late to go back on that promise once you stupidly walked down the aisle with her and then realized that she wasn’t going to wine and dine  you.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “But I’ll admit, you got a pretty good gig out of it. The good ol’ boy gets to come back to Chicago and hang around this apartment all day while she works. Not bad for some kid from the backwoods of Alabama who lost his scholarship to Tuscaloosa State and had no future.”

“How the fuck did you know that?” I asked, trying to keep my cool, but the guy irked me to no end.

Max let out a single laugh. “It’s called the Internet, Wes. That and I have a great set of people who do background checks. I wanted to know exactly who I was dealing with before I approached you with this business proposition.”

“Okay, really what the hell is going on here?” Paige stepped forward and Dexter let out a large hiss, swatting his claw forward. Max dipped out of the way just before Dexter’s claws got a hold of his suit coat. Too bad, I would have enjoyed seeing that thing ripped.

“I’m just about to make Wes an offer,” Max said, pulling out a thick manila envelope from his coat. “I’d like to help you speed up the divorce process.”

I stared at the envelope before he pushed it in my direction. I’d seen a lot of bad movies that started out with a thick envelope and didn’t trust the slimy guy one bit. “What the hell is this?”

“Open it up and you’ll see.”

I stared hard at Max for a second. I didn’t want to take the damn thing, but I also didn’t want to seem scared
, so I snatched the envelope from his grasp and pulled out a piece of paper. “Martin Hensley Law Offices? Are you suing me now? For what?”

He groaned. “No, you backwoods hillbilly, it’s a divorce lawyer. I’m just going to have him speed up the process with everything, faster than that liberal nitwit Goldman. All you have to do is give him a call and things will be done
.”

But the piece of paper wasn’t the only th
ing in the envelope. I looked farther inside and saw a huge stack of bills. More money than I’d ever seen. “And, uh, is this for the lawyer fee?”

Max let out another slight laugh. “We’ll just say that money would be for your time. That way you can leave now. Get the first flight back to Alabama or Vegas or wherever you’d like. Leave Valerie a note or however you’d like to end it and just got on with your life.”

“Why the fuck are you doing this, Max?” Paige interrupted. “You’ve never given two shits about Valerie unless you had her on your back.”

He glanced in my direction before he looked back at Paige. “Because maybe it took seeing Valerie with someo
ne else to make me see what I’d been missing all along. And if I can use my resources to change things between us, get rid of both of our past mistakes and move forward, then I’m going to do it.”

“How fucking romantic.” She rolled her eyes.

“What if ...” My hands were shaking. No matter how hard I tried to get them to stop, I couldn’t. There was more money than I could even count staring back at me and it was hard to walk away from it. “What if I don’t want your money or your lawyer’s info. What if I want you to take it all back?”

Max smirked. “You won’t.”

And with that he patted me on the back like we were old friends and walked out the door, leaving me standing there, staring at the manila envelope and wondering what the hell I was going to do next.

I
had a secret compartment in my duffle bag. When I was younger it was where I used to hide my candy bars so my dad wouldn’t find them and now I was hiding an even bigger secret from Valerie. Part of me wanted to go to Max’s office and drop it on his desk and give him the finger. The other part of me thought maybe I should listen and take the money. Maybe I could make it out to California and maybe Valerie would actually be better off without me.

That didn’t make the whole situation feel any cleaner. I could barely look at Valerie. I felt like I was betraying her. Maybe it would be better just to leave her.

I got out of the bathroom after brushing my teeth, ready to go to bed for the night, but when I opened the door Valerie wasn’t propped up in bed on her laptop like she usually was. This time she was lying in bed wearing nothing but a dimpled smile and her silk bed sheets.

I wasn’t wearing anything but my boxers and instantly I hardened at the sight of her. It was
impossible not to. I’d been trying for days to be romantic. Light kisses before bed, cuddling, and all those types of things, but there was nothing compared to the sound of her moaning against my neck or her fingernails digging into my skin. The thought of it alone made me even harder.

“Valerie ... you’re ...
uh... not working?”

“I spend every night in this bed on my laptop and you put up with me. You kiss me. You cuddle me, but we haven’t really gotten down t
o business since we joined the Mile High Club.”

“I just thought with the divorce you might not want to do that ...” I tried to maintain my composure and tried to think about something other than the fact that she was slowly dropping the sheet from her breast
s and how badly I wanted to crawl across the bed and kiss her.

“And I told you that I’m still willing to try this dating thing. You’ve taken me on the tourist tour of Chicago. Bought me dinner. Made me breakfast
, and now ...” She dropped the sheet and climbed across the bed until she was kneeling on the bed in front of me. She ran her finger in a line from my pecs down to the waistband of my underwear. My whole body shook from her touch and I wanted more. “I want all of you, Wes.”

Valerie licked her lips before
she slowly pulled my boxers down and then slid her tongue along my shaft before she took my cock in her warm mouth. I moaned, tilting my head back. “You ... don’t ...  have ... to ... do ... that.” I tried to concentrate on saying the words, but it was difficult to think about anything, except the way her tongue rolled against me.

Of course
, she didn’t stop. I really didn’t want her to either. She was damn good and I thought I might blow a hole through the back of her head soon. I had to physically grab the back of her head and force her to look me in the eyes. That was when she finally removed her lips from my shaft. “Do you not like it?”

I shook my head and laughed even though it wasn’t really funny. “No, I like it too much. That’s the problem.” I kicked my boxers off and tossed them aside before I gently pushed her back onto the bed and crawled on top of her. “And if I’m going to get off ...” I breathed down her neck until my mouth was at her nipple
, which instantly hardened under my mouth. “Then I want to get off inside of you.”

I put my hands on either side of her hips and leaned up, looking into her eyes. “But if we’re going to do this, no kinky stuff. I want this to be real. Just me and you. Slow. I want to feel every part of you. Are you okay with that?”

“I want you any way you’ll take me,” she murmured.

“I’m yours,” I whispered.

I kissed her slowly. I wanted to take my time. I didn’t need to rush it with her. I wanted to savor every moment, but Valerie had other ideas. She nibbled at my bottom lip and I had to keep from moaning as my cock pressed against her wetness. She was already ready for me.

I moved down until I was between her thighs and she eagerly spread her legs for me. I hooked my index finger inside of her and circled my thumb on her clit in a simu
ltaneous motion that instantly had her moaning and coming on my fingers.

Her thighs trembled around my hands as I kept moving and before I knew it she was coming again, shoving her fist in her mouth to muffle her moans.

“Darlin’, if you’re going to muffle it I’d rather you use something else than your fist to do it.” I slowly slipped my hand out of her and she whimpered, moving her fist out of her mouth. “Come here.” I sat up with my legs out in front of me.

“What are you getting at?” s
he asked.

I
helped her to a sitting position and then guided her onto my lap. Slowly I slipped inside of her, every inch that went in causing a wave of pleasure to hit all the way down to my toes. I moaned as she gripped onto my shoulders, crossing her legs behind me as she faced me. “This is what I was getting at.” I clutched her ass, rocking my hips forward to meet hers. She gasped, the sweetest sound right into my ear.

I buried my face in her neck, kissi
ng a line down her neck, collarbone and then finally putting her sweet nipples into my mouth, sucking on them until they budded. She gasped, burying her face into my neck and leaving light kisses on my shoulders while her hips moved against mine. Each slow thrust sent another wave of pleasure through me.

I wasn’t used to this slow, sweet sex. Usually it was about getting the girl off multiple times in as many positions as possible. With Valerie I wanted to enjoy every part of her and savor every moment before I had to leave her.

“You’re so beautiful,” I whispered. “Every part of you.” I kissed a trail from her breasts up her neck until I was at her lips again. Her mouth slightly opened and she moaned loudly into mine as I felt her come hard on my dick. I gripped tightly on her ass.

“Oh, God, Valerie
, you’re so fucking beautiful.” With that I let go and came inside of her, my body shuttering as she cried out, coming again..

She collapsed onto my chest, her head against my heart that was beating so fast I thought it would burst out. “That was something, Wes.”

“Yeah, it was ...” I could barely get the words out; they came in shallow breaths. It could have been because I was worn out, but I suspected that the real reason was because that I actually wanted to say something else. The words that I said later, when I knew she was sleeping.

“I love you.”