She waves away the idea. “Hon, I believe you make your own luck when it comes to who you drag between the sheets. That man loves you. I’ve seen the way he swoons over you like there’s no other woman in the room.” She touches my hand with her pinky, dusting me with ashes in the process. “Now that’s something I’ve never had before. I think when I grow up I wanna be you.”
My phone buzzes. It’s Wyatt.
Ready for that hike?
I smile at the screen, happy to have this little part of him—now to get the rest.
Ready and willing. Meet me at Prescott Hall? My body tingles and warms as if it’s coming back to life after a long hibernation.
He texts right back. Be there in ten.
“I’d better go.” I pull Jemma into a long, strong hug.
“Don’t be afraid to share your feelings, hon. Sometimes a little honesty can take you right where you want to be. Trust me. Your big sister knows best.”
In this instance, I truly believe it with all my heart.
Time to share a few feelings.
Hopefully Wyatt and I can mend both our hearts—together.
Wyatt drives us up the winding switchbacks that lead to the crest trail lined by a heavy stream. We drive just past the Witch’s Cauldron and hop out, the cool mountain air filling our lungs with springtime. The sun kisses my shoulders with a deep warmth I haven’t felt in months, so I opt to leave my jacket in the car. There isn’t a drop of snow on the ground as wildflowers push through the earth, peppering the landscape with color. The evergreens sway in the breeze as their needles sizzle against the clear blue sky.
Wyatt and I didn’t say much on the drive up. It didn’t feel like us, the old us. But I’ll gladly take the new us if that’s what we’ve morphed into. I’ll take any part of Wyatt that he’s willing to give me. I’ll be his friend, his hiking buddy, the girl who carries his groceries. I’ll be anything Wyatt will allow me to be so long as I get to be in his life again.
“You ready to do this?” He offers that killer grin as he glances at the trail, and my heart warms. Wyatt can light me up on the inside with his smile alone.
“I’m ready to do anything with you.” I bat my lashes before blinking into my right mind. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.” I don’t think we’re at that level in our relationship anymore. I don’t know if we ever will be.
“Hey, it’s okay.” His arm finds it’s way around my waist. “I want you to be yourself around me. I like that.” He squints with a pained expression. “I like the playful version of you, Marley. You bring out the best in me,” he says it sober with a touch of sadness, and I want to thank him for not phrasing that last sentence in the past tense. “Let’s head on up.”
Wyatt and I walk hand in hand up the dusty trail, outlined with wild lavender laden with bees. We hit the crest and find a bench that holds a view of all of Jepson down below. It’s stunning. Breathtaking. And it reminds me of something I can’t quite put my finger on.
Then it hits me. “I think Annie mentioned she and Blake like to come here.”
“Is this their special place?”
“I think so. It’s so beautiful. It should be someone’s special place.”
He gives my hand a gentle squeeze as if agreeing with the idea.
We find a seat on the bench, and Wyatt scoots in close, his lips pressed tight with that same pained smile. Here it is, our big moment of reconciliation—or at least that’s what I’m hoping.
“I’m sorry,” we both say at the same time.
“Why are you sorry?” I’m shocked at first, then, in an unsettling moment, I think maybe he’s officially breaking things off with me. A sincere rejection usually starts off with those exact words.
“I’m sorry I didn’t hear you out,” he continues. “That I put so much credence in what Monica had to say.” He closes his eyes as remorse saturates his features.
“Can I ask what she said? I already know she’s not my biggest fan.”
“She said…” He touches his hand to the back of his neck pausing a moment. “She said coeds—sorority girls, play a game where they bed older men. I believe the term she used was ancient. So when the article came out, and I saw the buzzword, I panicked. I thought I’d been had.”
“Oh, my, God.” I drop my head in my hands. This can get worse. “When I wrote that, my version, I listed Subject One as Ancient History. It was Will. Will is Ancient History. Anyway”—I give a hard sniff into my knuckles—“Cat Alice admitted to rewriting and uploading the article. She said she was very sorry and to extend her apologies.” Like that makes everything better.
“Really?” His head inches back as pissed as I was when I found out. “Why in the hell did she do it?”
“She’s hurt. Will hurt her. I hurt her. We had a huge blowout the prior afternoon. She said she regretted it the minute she hit publish—but apparently not enough to take it down. She changed my password, making sure I couldn’t. And—I’ve since been kicked off the paper, so I’ll have to find another way to make amends to you.”
“Please don’t.” Wyatt gently pulls me over, and I settle into his lap.
My body molds to his chest as he warms my back. My eyes close just soaking in the feeling of Wyatt’s body so intimately touching mine.
“This feels like home.” I nuzzle into his neck, so close to his lips I’m trembling for them.
“It feels better than home.” He drops a hot kiss to the top of my head. “It was wrong of me to refuse to hear you out.” He pulls back until we’re facing one another again. “Marley, please forgive me. I swear I will never let anything else, no matter how shocking”—his eyes widen a moment because we’ve sort of hit the ceiling at shocking—“come between us.”
“You mean there’s still an us?”
His eyes settle over mine focused and sharp as lasers. “There is if you want there to be.”
“I do.” Tears come too quick for me to blink them away. “But about that contract—”
“It’s history.” He touches his cheek to mine a moment, and the temptation to kiss him grows like a wild fire. “I want something deeper. Something real. I want that with you, Marley—nobody else.”
“That’s what I want—exactly that.”
“So our age difference doesn’t bother you?”
Is he kidding?
“What age difference?” I’m serious. It’s like we’re one and the same.
“Good.” His chest rumbles beneath me as he sheds a silent laugh. “I want forever with you, Marley. Will you be my forever?”
“Yes! God yes.” I smooth my thumbs over his cheeks. “Can I kiss you now?”
“There’s one more thing.” His Adam’s apple shoots up and down as he examines me pressed against the sky. “Damn, you’re beautiful. I want to say something that I haven’t told another woman since my mother died.”
“Oh?” A part of me demands to be terrified, but it’s impossible to feel that way when I’m with Wyatt. “I’m flattered already. Should I be?”
“Yes.” He pulls me in tight with a laugh caught in his throat. “Maybe. What I’ve been dying to say since before any of this transpired”—his petal green eyes press into mine with a tenderness that melts me like snow—“Marley, I love you.” The whites of his eyes glisten in the light as tears come—“I’m madly, insanely, deeply, unapologetically in love with you.” He tilts his head back and shouts, “I love Marley Jackson!” The sound of his voice echoes from the mountaintop, rioting all the way to the sky. He dots my neck with a kiss. “I love you, Marley. What we had was lightning in a bottle, and I want it all back. You’re mine. I need you every day. I need you in my bed, in my heart, in my life. For the first time in so long I feel whole again. I haven’t felt this way since I was a kid.”
“Since your mother passed away.” I nod into him, tears streaming down my face, hot and wild. “Wyatt, I love you, too.” I touch my lips to his and press in without anything more. “I was going to tell you the night before everything fell apart
, and we sort of got a little crazy beneath the sheets. It’s safe to say, you wore me out.”
He tweaks his brows, proud of the fact. “That’s something you can get used to.”
“I really do love you.” My finger glides over his lips. “I have never meant those words more in my life.” I dig my fingers through his hair and draw him close.
Wyatt sinks his mouth over mine, and in an instant devours me. His tongue runs wild, moving his affection through me like an unstoppable bullet train.
God, I’ve missed this.
I’ve missed Wyatt like a man dying in the desert misses water. And, here he is, delivering the life-giving spring straight into my mouth.
The urge to giggle takes over, and I don’t fight it. I pull back and take in this beautiful man with dark hair and dimples that had me edging out of my mind the first time I saw him at the Black Bear. He’s all mine.
“I guess this means we’re officially in love.” I graze over his cheek with my teeth.
“And we always will be.”
Wyatt and I fall into a kiss that seals our newfound affection in a way that words could never convey. His deep throated kisses, the soft tender lashings of his tongue, the passion-fueled frenzy as we take one another in with rabid impatience—it all shouts I love you from the top of the mountain, echoing loud and clear right down to our souls.
Wyatt
Marley and I make a quick stop at her dorm to pick up a few things. I’ve convinced her to spend the night—actually, no convincing was necessary. Marley is one hundred percent on board with staying over.
“You mind if we hit the Black Bear? Blake is playing tonight.” I round my hand over the wheel. “Plus, I sort of want to show you off.” My lips fidget with a smile, but I try not to give it.
“By all means.” She leans in and gives the hair just above my neck a quick tug. “And I’m about to do the same. Be ready to be claimed once and for all, Wyatt James. And don’t think for one minute I’m above peeing a circle around you once those sorority girls start trolling. I’ve seen the way they look at you. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if I have to throw my naked body over you just to protect you.”
“Naked?”
“Yeah, well, I figure it’ll give them less to grip when they’re trying to tear me away.”
A dark laugh rumbles from me. “I’ll be holding you too tight to ever let that happen.”
We park and head inside. It’s a body-to-body kind of night. I’m sure there’s a fire code or two being overlooked, but everyone has a drink in their hand, so the bar is happy.
“Wyatt, my man!” A hard slaps emits over my back, and I turn to find Bryson and his wife, Baya.
“What’s going on?” I offer up a light sock to the arm.
“What is going on?” Baya’s eyes widen as she inspects my arm around Marley’s waist. “Everything okay?”
Marley pecks a kiss over my cheek. “More than okay. I think we’ve finally straightened everything out.”
“I’m so glad.” Baya tears up as if she’s been rooting for us the entire time. It’s nice to know that maybe she has been. That maybe she sensed Marley and I belonged together before we did.
Annie and Blake head over with Ryder and Laney by their side.
“Dude.” Blake offers up a knuckle bump. “I’d better get on stage, but I wanted to say I’m glad to see you two together.”
“Are you two together?” Annie whispers to Marley apprehensively.
“We’re most definitely together,” I say, dropping a kiss to Marley’s temple. “I’m in love with this woman right here.”
“Aww!” Baya and Laney sing in unison.
“You know what I’m in love with?” Ryder takes a quick swig of his beer. “The fact two of my buddies have started a lucrative business with me.”
It’s true. We had a sit down with a small army of attorneys and made it legal. Capwell, Edwards, and James Media Services has officially launched onto the scene.
Ryder ticks his head. “I think I have our first intern.” He gives a stern nod toward Bryson and Baya. “Owen is coming to town.”
Bryson takes a mean breath, expanding his chest wide as a table. “Owen is Aubree’s brother.” He looks to me as if this might register on some level. “She’s the one who tried to kill Baya a year and a half ago. Anyway, Owen’s a good guy. I’ve got nothing against him.”
“Neither do I,” Baya is quick to add.
“My sister, Piper, is coming down this summer. I’m sure she’ll need to keep busy. It looks like we’ll have two built-in interns.” Piper is going to be a handful, but, even so, I’m looking forward to having my little sister around fulltime.
“And”—Bryson lifts Baya’s hand between them—“I think we might have a built-in client.”
Baya shifts her gaze to Marley. “Only if my partner in crime agrees.”
“How can I not?” Marley runs her finger down my tie. “Besides, I have a way of getting one of the owners to do my bidding.”
I drop a kiss to her lips. “I think we should leave so you can begin to sway me.”
“One song.” Blake flicks my arm before bouncing to the stage.
“This is for my brother and his one true love. I’m glad to see you both so damn happy.”
I lean in and touch my lips to her ear. “That’s exactly what you are—my one true love.”
The 12 Deadly Sins start in on an achingly slow song, and the crowd starts to migrate as people find their dance partners. But I’ve already got mine for life. We make our way deep into the crowd and slip into one another’s arms. There’s no place I’d rather be.
“Hey, stranger”—I graze over her ear with my teeth—“you still looking for a one-night stand?”
She shakes her head. “I’m looking for love—and thankfully found it. I think maybe that’s what I was looking for all along.” Marley wraps her arms around my neck. “You still have a thing or two to teach me, Professor James?”
“I’ve got a lesson I’m dying to give you.” I grind my hips into hers. “It’s pretty hard. It’ll need your full attention.”
Marley clasps on tight as we sway to the music. Her hair, her body, the way her eyes make the world fade to gray—everything about Marley Jackson is poetry in motion. We dance for what feels like a perfect eternity with her in my arms the way I like it, the way I need it to be.
“You are amazing.”
Marley mewls like a kitten as her eyes lock with mine. “And you are about to get very, very lucky.”
“Let’s get out of here.” I clasp her hand as we thread our way through the crowd. My body has been craving hers for the last few weeks. I almost took her right there on that hike this afternoon.
We head out into the cool night, the thick scent of cigarettes and beer mingle in the air.
“Well, look who’s here—together.” A voice gripes from behind.
I turn and spot Monica with a long, black coat wrapped tightly around her. She looks as if she’s headed to a funeral. Her eyes give me that shifting gaze, the one that says I’m disappointed in you and sorry all at the same time.
“We are together.” I pull Marley close. No sense in hiding anything. “Look, Monica, Marley didn’t publish that article. It was a malicious attempt to keep us apart by someone who was angry with her. And, just so you know, nothing or nobody can possibly achieve that.” My hard stare, my stern words, they both act as a warning. “One more thing—if people don’t respect Marley, they don’t respect me.”
“I get it.” She holds up her hands a moment before turning to Marley. “I apologize if I’ve been anything but civil to you this semester.”
“No apology necessary.” I can feel Marley edging into me as if she wants to bolt to the parking lot.
“No, it is.” Monica stuffs her hands in her pockets. “I thought we could have something, Wyatt, but I guess our time has come and gone.”
“I guess it has.” Now it’s me who wants to bolt.
She looks at M
arley. “I probably shouldn’t disclose this, since it won’t be official until next week, but it looks as if Rags to Riches has bypassed the competition by a mile. You and your teammates will have the prize money to share. Congratulations.”
“Oh, my, God! Ten thousand dollars! I don’t even care that I have to split it with Will! That’s terrific! I can’t wait to tell Baya.” She touches her hand to her chest. “Thank you for letting me know.”
Monica gives an uneasy nod. “I really am happy for the two of you. Be good to him. I’ll be watching,” she whispers, heading into the bar. Something tells me she’s being sincere. And I’m glad. I wish Monica nothing but the best.
“Let’s go home.” I kiss Marley, twirling her in my arms into the night. “How about after finals you move to the ranch with me for the summer?”
“Really? Finals are next week!” She jumps and arches her head back as far as it can go. “Yes! I would love, love, love to move to the ranch with you!”
“I have to warn you, though, I may never let you leave.”
“I may never want to.” She softens into me. “I know I won’t.”
I pick her up and toss her over my shoulder. Marley bubbles with laughter all the way to the car.
Things are as they should be.
Finally.
Marley sits beneath the sheets with her laptop open as she pecks away at the keyboard.
“What’s up? Working on a paper?” I ask as I bring us both a midnight snack from the kitchen, more like a 3:00 AM snack. I sneak in a quick 3:00 AM kiss to go with the grapes and ice cream I managed to excavate from the fridge.
“Oh, just updating some old files. You want to see?” She gives a coy smile.
Her hair is messy. Her makeup slightly smudged just the way I like it. We spent the last four hours servicing one another, making love like it was our last night on earth, the first night of the rest of our lives, and it is. It’s going to be a beautiful life with Marley by my side.
“Yes, I want to see.” I hand feed her a grape as her head bows back. Her neck elongates to receive it like a goddess, and I’m spellbound. “Let me check it out.”
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