by Ann, Natalie
“Do you like when I do that?”
“Hell yeah,” she said, “but I don’t ask for it.”
“Because you don’t always like to do it in return. I never ask a woman to do that to me. If she wants to, she will.”
“I guess we think more alike than I thought.”
“No more thinking,” he said. “Damn, you’re a chatterbox tonight.”
She laughed at him for throwing the words back in her face that she’d always said to him.
The minute her clothes were off, he was down between her legs and spreading her apart, his tongue licking up the length of her, then slipping into her opening while two of his fingers started to pinch her swollen nub.
She squealed it’d felt so good. It seemed she had no control over her body when she was around him. Not even her thoughts. That had never been a good thing in her eyes before, now she wasn’t so sure anymore.
“I like it when you make that sound,” he said going right back to work.
“I can’t help myself.”
He moved his mouth to her nub, his fingers inside of her sliding in and out now. Her hips went up, his fingers curved and hit a spot she hadn’t even known existed, causing her eyes to cross and his name to be torn from her lips.
Her hips were lifting up and trying to keep his hand in that spot as waves of pleasure crashed over her entire body.
When she had nothing else left to give, she fell limp and sated to the bed. “Holy shit, what was that?”
“That was me finding your weak spot,” he said, pulling her into his arms and holding her close.
No, she didn’t like tenderness much, but she wasn’t pushing him away either.
32
Happening Anyway
A few weeks later, Wyatt was leaving his office when he heard a few women talking in the front. “He’s been seeing her for a least a month, I think. No one will confirm it, and she isn’t talking either.”
“It has to be a record for him,” he heard another woman say. “Or maybe this is about the time he ends things. No one has held onto him longer. I bet it’s because she turned him down and now it’s a challenge more than anything. It will fizzle soon enough.”
He walked closer to the two women talking. One office staff, Stephanie, and one nurse he wasn’t sure the name of.
They saw him and stopped, then changed the subject way too fast, making it obvious he was the topic of conversation. “Ladies. Anything you want to ask me?”
He wasn’t one to put people on the spot, but now he was really starting to understand why Adriana wanted to keep this private between them.
In the past few weeks they’d had lunch a few times, once in the cafeteria, the other times walking around and talking.
They’d never held hands. They’d never talked about plans outside of work where other people were around. They’d never kissed.
And she sure the hell hadn’t come to his office again after being confronted over being in it twice before.
It didn’t matter, everything she wanted to prevent was happening anyway and it was the first time in his life he was really feeling that his behavior was causing him to be judged in a way he couldn’t control or change.
He felt the need to defend not only her but also himself.
“No, we’re good,” the nurse said. She’d flirted with him plenty and he hadn’t been interested. He didn’t take out every woman that sent a smile his way and he was learning that was where a lot of the cattiness came from.
“I think you’re more curious than you should be. If you want to know, just ask.”
“Are you seeing Adriana Lopez?” Stephanie asked him. She was more upfront at least, but he’d worked with her a few years.
“Does it matter if I am? It seems regardless of the answer I give you two, you’re going to form your own opinion and talk about it when I’m not around.”
He kept his smile in place when he really wanted it to fall. When he wanted to get mad and be firm. Maybe that was what he should do, but then wouldn’t it give them more food to chomp away at and get stuck in their teeth? For once he wasn’t sure of the right thing to do and didn’t want to tick Adriana off either.
“You’re right, Dr. Fierce,” Stephanie said. She didn’t normally call him Dr. Fierce either, which told him he got his point across.
He left the office for the day. He was done and needed to just get away from the gossip and shit that he never paid attention to before. Or if he did, it never bothered him in the past.
Instead of going home he drove to see Drake. He didn’t often go to his father’s business. He normally didn’t get out of work on time. But today he wasn’t scheduled late and he was leaving.
“Hey,” Drake said. “What brings you here? In your scrubs too. Normally you shower and change before you leave.”
Shit. He’d been so ticked off over what he’d heard that he hadn’t thought straight and just walked out the door before going to the locker room to shower and change. His clothes were still in his locker.
“I guess I’m distracted. I’m glad I caught you, as I know you aren’t normally here. I would have been stuck talking to Jade then. Do you have a few minutes?”
“Of course,” Drake said. “Shut my door and come in.” He was rubbing his hands together. “I feel like you’re coming to the big brother for some advice. This might be a first from you.”
“It probably is. I normally have everything covered in life.”
“Or you don’t care enough if you don’t,” Drake said. “So my guess is this has to do with your new girlfriend.”
“Yeah. Help me out here. You work with Kara. How do you do it? Or how did you do it before everyone found out?”
“That I can kind of help you with. But the truth is, if you don’t mind, maybe I’ll call Kara in so she can give it to you from a woman’s perspective.”
“Maybe,” he said. “Let me hear it from you first.”
“It’s easier for a guy. Or it was for me. First off, I didn’t care if people knew. I knew what I felt for her whether she wanted to admit it to anyone or herself. But this is my family firm and no one was going to say shit to me about it. Or give me shit. You don’t have that luxury.”
“No. But I’m not worried either. It’s not like that. I’m not doing anything to jeopardize my or her job. I’d never do that and neither would she.”
He pushed it away from his mind the one time they’d had sex in the call room. They were just waiting around to be officially dismissed. No worries and no one they needed to be looking after, nothing they had to be doing. They could have been napping just the same.
“I know that. I think that with her too,” Drake said. “So what happened today to have you distracted when you normally aren’t?”
“She doesn’t want anyone at work to know we are dating. If I count back from when I started to show her around—which she did admit was really dating—then it’s been almost two months. She wants it quiet but we do walk around the grounds on lunch if we have a break together. If we see each other we talk but nothing about plans outside of work. No personal contact at all. That is off limits.”
Drake laughed. “Sounds just like Kara. Remember, women are judged more harshly than men when it comes to workplace romances. Especially with your reputation, which I’m willing to bet she has heard brought up a time or two.”
“She has. And when I was leaving my office to shower and go home I overheard two women talking about Adriana and me. They didn’t use our names, but I know it was us. I confronted them and the one actually asked me if we were dating.”
“What did you say?”
“That it didn’t matter what my response was, that I’m sure they were going to say what they wanted about it anyway.”
“Wow. Even with a smile on your face—I bet—you got defensive which isn’t like you. You might have started some more balls rolling downhill.”
“Which wasn’t my intention. But why can’t I defend her? Or what we’ve g
ot? We aren’t doing anything wrong.”
“No,” Drake said and just started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“You. You’re not laughing. You aren’t smiling. You’re sunk. You’re drowning and you’re asking your older brother to throw you a lifeline to pull you in. Oh, how I wish Noah were here right now.”
“Ass,” he said, but did grin. Didn’t Adriana say it wasn’t about pranking or joking but about his relationship with his family? That they knew he’d always make them laugh or smile.
Well, it seemed like his family knew how to do it to him too.
It wasn’t a flaw as much as his character, she’d told him too. It’s what his family used to help him if he needed it.
“Yeah. You’d both be rubbing my face in this. So, any advice or do I have to just get a rag to clean up the mess you’re smearing on my nose?”
“My advice is to follow your gut but listen to her too. She is living it as much as you and most likely worse. Kara worried here too, but it was for nothing. No one said a word when it was known about our relationship.”
“Nor would they,” he said.
“True. And I took that into consideration. It helped having Dad’s and Uncle Grant’s support.”
“I’ve got Sam’s in the hospital,” he said. “That alone would shut some people up.”
“But you’ve told him not to say anything too, right?”
“Yeah. Maybe if he slipped though and people saw she was involved with the family then it’d be different.”
“Or maybe not,” Drake said back, “since didn’t you say that is how Adriana has explained your relationship? Or did in the beginning. That the two moms knew each other?”
“Yeah. Shit. I feel like it’s a no win situation here.”
There was a knock at the door and they turned to see their father open it. “Everything okay in here? You don’t usually come to the office, Wyatt?”
“Just looking for some advice,” he said.
“Love advice from his older brother,” Drake said.
“Why not ask me?” his father said. “I’m the wisest one in this room.”
Wyatt and Drake both laughed, but he did open up to his father too.
* * *
“Grant,” Garrett said, “get in here.” He hung up the phone in his office and waited for his brother to come in. “Shut the door. I need to tell you about Wyatt and Adriana. I have to call Carolyn too. Damn it. I want to tell you both at the same time and this is the only way.”
“What’s going on?” his brother asked. Sometimes you just wanted to go to your twin for things, but his wife wouldn’t get it.
“Wyatt just left. He was in Drake’s office asking for relationship advice.”
Grant started to laugh. “You guys are doing good on this one. Call Carolyn and put her on speaker.”
He hit the button and dialed his wife’s number. If she didn’t answer then he’d have a good excuse to tell Grant first. But his wife picked up on the third ring.
“Garrett. Everything okay? You never call me when it’s getting this late in the day.”
“Everything is great. I couldn’t wait. I’ve got Grant in here too, that’s why you are on speaker. Wyatt just left the office.”
“Wyatt was there? He hardly ever goes to the office.”
“No, he doesn’t. He came looking for relationship advice from Drake. I interrupted them and helped out.”
“You better not have ruined anything,” Carolyn said. “Sometimes you panic. You don’t have that good of a poker face like me.”
He wrinkled his nose and looked up to see his brother laughing. “I just listened. Drake gave most of the advice. What I gather is Adriana is like Kara and wants the relationship kept quiet at work.”
“Makes sense,” Carolyn said. “He doesn’t have the best reputation there. But it’s not that quiet. We know he met Adriana’s father and Maggie. They both loved him.”
“Everyone loves Wyatt,” Grant said. “My nephew could win over a nun with a ruler in her hand after he’d filled her erasers full of chalk as she tried to wipe down the board.”
“Grant,” Carolyn said. “Your age is showing. Those kids don’t know much about chalk and blackboards. It’s whiteboards, markers or computers now.”
“Whatever,” Grant said. “I was trying to make a joke.”
“You didn’t do that good of a job at it,” Garrett said.
“Boys,” Carolyn said back into the phone. “Now isn’t the time. Wyatt, please.”
He laughed when his brother smirked at him. Their wives didn’t get them either. “Sorry,” he said. “I told him to listen to his heart and that he should only let her have her way so long.”
“You don’t want him to get in trouble though,” Carolyn said. “No reason to cause a fight between them.”
“No,” he said. “But there is no reason our son should feel like he isn’t good enough either.”
There was silence on the other end and he thought for sure he had his wife there. “You might be right. For as confident as Wyatt is, he did try to hide the fact he wanted or needed attention. He could be feeling not worthy in her eyes if she is trying to hide their relationship.”
“Exactly. I told him that he should talk to her about it more and go from there.”
“Good advice,” his wife said.
“See. I know what I’m doing. I’ve been married a long time.”
“And spent some of it in the doghouse yourself,” Grant said.
“You too, Grant,” Carolyn said back. “But I’ll let you two go now. I’ll see you when you get home, Garrett. Love you.”
“Love you too.” He hung up and looked at his brother. “So, did I do good?”
“You said the same thing I would. Now they need to work it out themselves.”
“I would like to see Wyatt in the doghouse,” he said. “But something tells me he might have been there a time or two with Adriana. She’s a pretty tough chick.”
“And if he’s been there and is still coming for advice, then he doesn’t care if he goes back as long as he wins her over,” Grant said.
“Sounds like what we both went through a time or two. It is fun to watch our kids flounder a little. As long as they get there in the end.”
33
Deeper Connection
“You’ve been quiet the past few days. Everything okay?” Adriana asked Wyatt. It’d been a few weeks since she’d brought him to her father’s for dinner.
Since he held her in his arms in her bed and spent the night.
Since her heart started to soften and she wondered if she should stop it or not.
Especially since Wyatt seemed not himself this week.
“I think that might be the first time you’ve said I’ve been quiet,” he said to her. They were walking into work from the parking lot. She’d stayed the night at his place despite saying she didn’t want to do it during the week. But they’d gone out to dinner and by the time they’d gotten to his place and ended up in his bed, she’d fallen asleep. She woke up hours later and he pulled her back and said not to leave.
How could she resist something like that when he was warm and sleepy...sexy. His big arm wrapping her up and pulling her close.
He’d convinced her to leave a set of scrubs there in case something like this ever happened. She’d been reluctant and realized it might have been his master plan all along that she was falling for.
“I’d say we wore each other out last night, but you’ve been like this a few days.”
“Don’t say that too loud. Someone might hear you.”
He was grinning when he said it, but she’d caught the sarcasm in his voice. It’d been there more lately when it came to this topic.
“You know why.”
“Yeah, I get it. I wish I didn’t, but I do.”
She frowned. “Did something happen I should know about?” she asked. “Something you aren’t telling me?”
“Fierce. Wait up.�
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“Shit,” he said. “Bye. I’ll talk to you later.”
She moved past him into the building while he waited for whoever called his name to catch up and talk to him.
She couldn’t figure out what was going on with him lately, but it only seemed to happen at work. After hours he was the ideal boyfriend.
They had so much fun together. Had done a ridiculous amount of activities and had a great time. She didn’t want to say he was perfect because no one was perfect.
She was locking her purse up and going to the computer to see what was scheduled for the day when she felt a presence at her back.
“Adriana. How are you doing?”
“Savanna,” she said back. “Pretty good. You?”
“So rumor has it you and Wyatt have been dating. I thought you were just friends.”
“We are friends,” she said back with a grin.
Melissa came over to join the conversation and Adriana had a feeling she wasn’t going to come out of this as unscathed as she would have hoped. “I heard it too. But what I heard was that someone saw you two at the golf course weeks ago having lunch with his brothers. I said no way you were dating that you were friends with the family. I mean if you were dating, why didn’t you defend him when Dr. Jones was going to file that complaint. You were standing right there when he was bitching about Wyatt? Any girlfriend would have come to his defense.”
She wanted to grind her teeth over that shot to her. Thankfully Wyatt had smoothed things over with Dr. Jones. He’d apologized and said he meant nothing by it but then pointed out the fact that many of the patients were more nervous after talking to Dr. Jones than before. Wyatt had told her he hoped he’d gotten through to the guy and realized that maybe he should have had that talk with him prior rather than trying to make a joke or loosen him up.
So though she wanted to defend Wyatt, she was glad she’d kept her mouth shut then as it worked out in the end and Wyatt actually learned a lesson himself. At least he’d told her he did. Maybe they both were growing by being together.