“Well, Kansas’ decided lack of interesting locales is my good fortune. We’ve moved a lot of books already.”
“You don’t even know. We’re actually in danger of running out. You’re going to have to start autographing your bookmarks and taking back up orders,” I replied, just as a stunning blonde woman in a tight, turquoise jumpsuit and lots of gold jewelry approached.
“Hi, Mr. Chase. I can’t believe you’re really here! It’s me, Lynn, from your fan group. I came all the way from Wichita just to meet you!”
I watched as Wyatt's eyes widened for a split second, and he swallowed visibly.
“I’m so glad you did, Lynn. It’s great to meet you,” he recovered as she handed over a paperback she pulled from the stand next to him. He opened the cover to begin signing it when another woman came alongside her.
“Oh, there you are, Sheila. Can you believe we’re finally standing in front of the Wyatt Chase?”
“I never thought I’d see the day,” Sheila said, a bright smile on her face. She also grabbed a random paperback from my table, gripping it tightly in her hands while he finished signing Lynn’s book.
“Would you take a picture with me holding your book?” Sheila asked sweetly. I stiffened as he stood and moved toward his banner. Something was setting my Spidey-senses off, but I wasn’t sure why. I kept a close eye on the women as I replenished the piles of swag on the table. Sheila handed her phone to Lynn just as I dropped the last handful of bookmarks onto the table. Without thinking, I rounded the table just as Sheila raised her hand and smacked Wyatt across the face with his book. Of course, Lynn captured the moment for posterity with the camera.
“That’s for Nicole, you rotten pig!” Lynn shouted as Sheila walloped him again, this time over the head.
I was stunned for a second when Sheila smacked Wyatt with his book. I recovered quickly, charging forward and snatching the phone from Lynn’s hand as Wyatt did his best to ward off Sheila’s repeated blows with a copy “Dangerous,” which just happened to be the thickest book on the table. I darted away from Lynn, navigating to the camera roll file on the phone and deleting every picture she took. I tossed it back at her just as two security guards ran up and subdued Sheila. Wyatt was a little roughed up, his hair looking like he’d gotten caught in a hurricane, a bright pink welt developing beneath his left eye.
“C’mon ladies,” the taller of the two men said. “Police are already en route. We have a nice little room for you to wait in.”
Personally, I would have been happy to see these broads led out of the hotel in handcuffs, ruining the event not only for Wyatt but for everyone else in the room. It also meant more damage control to do for Wyatt online, but we’d cross that bridge when we came to it. I moved over to his side, standing in solidarity with him, mean-mugging the women as they tried to sweet talk their way out of trouble.
“Oh, officer,” Lynn said. “No harm was done. Look at him, he’s fine. We were just trying to make a point. We’ll leave, no further incident or drama from us.”
“You have a lot of nerve,” I began, ready to tell them both off, but Wyatt cut me off.
“There’s no need to make this a bigger mess than it already is,” he said to the guards. “Just escort them from the hotel, and that’ll be enough. My assistant and I will disassemble my space, and we’ll leave, too, so everyone can enjoy the rest of the event in peace.”
“Are you sure, Mr. Chase?” the second officer asked as he glanced at Wyatt’s banner.
“Yeah, I’m sure. Just let them go.”
The women looked at him skeptically but followed willingly when the officers walked them away. People around the room were still looking at us and whispering. Gage and Stacy were on their feet and making their way toward us. I waved them off, not wanting to prolong Wyatt’s humiliation. His face was bright red, but he just turned away and slid one of the boxes from beneath the table and started packing his books into it.
“Wyatt, what will our leaving accomplish?” I asked, moving toward his banner, anyway.
“It’ll keep what’s left of my dignity intact,” he bit off harshly. “Do you really think I want to make nice with people after being humiliated? Furthermore, do you think anyone is going to want to drop by now they all know I’m a scumbag?”
I didn’t press the issue for once. I could see he was hanging on to his composure by a string, and the last thing we needed was for it to come unraveled in another public display. I rolled up the canvas image splashed with his branding and book covers, put it in its carrying case, then moved on to breaking down the stand.
We worked in silence, the tension palpably radiating off Wyatt in waves. I moved on to the swag as he went in search of a bell captain to haul all the stuff away.
“Let’s have the car brought around,” he said when he returned. “I know we have the room for another night, but I just want to get the fuck out of here.”
“We still have to get our stuff from the room. We’re not even packed up,” I pointed out.
He blew out a frustrated breath and shoved his hands in his hair, tightly gripping the strands. He was about to explode, I could see it.
“Let’s do this,” I said thinking quickly. “We’ll have them bring around the car, load it up with the stuff, then you can take it to self-park while I go pack everything in the room. You can stay in the car and get your head back together. I’ll handle everything else.”
Wyatt just nodded silently, his mouth still set in a grim line. When the bellman finally came, he stacked our boxes on the pallet, then just walked away. I felt bad for him, but I also wondered just what he’d really done that would make the two women do something so drastic. Had he given me the full story?
I made short work of getting our stuff packed, eager to get Wyatt as far away as possible. Another bellman and a short walk later, I was calling Wyatt to bring the car around again so we could toss the bags in the back.
When he pulled up, his face was darker than it had been before. I rounded the car and gently shoved his shoulder, nudging him toward the passenger side of the vehicle.
“Let me drive. You’re in no condition to concentrate on the road,” I said, my tone firm, but kind.
“It’s probably best you do. Otherwise, I’ll end up with a ticket, then have to come back to this godforsaken place for a court date,” he muttered as he walked around the back of the car.
When we were both securely inside, I pulled away as smoothly as I could, without laying rubber and flipping a middle finger out the window. I don’t know why I was tempted to, Sheila and Lynn were long gone by now, but I was ready to tell everyone in Kansas to kiss my ass if this were the type of residents they had.
No words were spoken the first hour of the ride. Wyatt had reclined his seat, crossed his arms over his chest and closed his eyes as soon as he’d closed the door. I knew he wasn’t sleeping, I could still feel the negative energy flowing from him. I let my mind wander over everything that happened, my own desire to go find and choke the life out of those bitches, then finally, how it had gotten to the point that women who weren’t even involved in whatever happened the year before would go so far as to physically assault Wyatt.
After another hour, when I finally sensed the tension in his body ease, I turned to look at him. His face was much more relaxed, and he’d finally rested his hands in his lap.
“You asleep?” I finally asked, hoping to get him to talk.
“Nah. I’m still too wound up,” he replied as he brought his seat back upright. “I should have asked before, but are you okay? They didn’t do anything to you, did they?”
“I’m good. The closest I got to them was when I ripped the phone from Lynn’s hands. She didn’t try to stop me. At least there’s no photo or video evidence to go viral.”
“Fuck,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Thank you. That’s the last thing I would have needed. I swear, I’m never appearing in public again.”
“This was a one-off, Wyatt. It’s not goin
g to happen again, but I don’t blame you. We can keep your ‘appearances’ to live videos on the internet, and you can focus on putting out more books. Maybe in a few months, you’ll feel better about another event.”
“No, cancel them all for the year. I can be a reclusive author,” he grumbled.
“Not on your life. Aside from it being a treat for the fans who do love you, it’s fun to get out and mingle with people. Forging connections with your peers is also important.”
“We’ll revisit the idea later in the year,” he said firmly. “For now, I just want to focus on the basics.”
“Well, we do have new and interesting worlds to explore,” I said, giving him a sidelong glance and a devilish smile. It earned me a slight smirk before he winced. The red welt under his eye was slowly turning a shade of bluish-purple. She must have gotten him with the corner of the book.
“It hurts?” I asked, taking my hand off the steering wheel, reaching out to gently touch his bruise. He jerked his head away with a curt nod.
“It smarts, but I’ll survive. What’s left of my ego hurts more.”
“You want to go into greater detail about it? I know you said you got inappropriate with a couple of your readers, but I think I need to know more. Was Nicole the woman you slept with?”
“Actually, no. I had the online relationship with her. Clearly, she was the more hurt of the two of them.”
“Or she’s just the one with aggressive friends,” I mumbled. “So, what made her think your online relationship was anything more than a fun diversion?”
“We tried a kind of Dom/sub thing. To me, it was a way of living out both of our darker fantasies.”
“Just how do you do that long distance?”
“It started out with me giving her instructions whenever we talked. Telling her to do little things whether it was polishing her toes a certain color or to try to get the attention of men while she was out at the market. She got off on being told what to do.”
“That obviously wasn’t enough to have it get to this point though, was it?”
“Not at all. We eventually traded phone numbers. That led to me asking her to take certain pictures of herself and send them to me. I didn’t ask for anything risqué... at first. She wanted me to tell her what to wear every day, so I’d have her pick two outfits and send pictures of them to me. Then I’d select her attire for the day. She’d send me more pictures when she was out and about to prove she’d followed my instructions.
“Of course, all the while, we were flirting and talking about sexy things. Once that started to ramp up, she sent me a few sexy shots of her. That’s probably when things really took a turn. I got excited by her willingness to please me in any way I wanted, so I started asking for more and more explicit shots. She was all too willing to comply.”
“What did you do with the photos?” I wondered aloud. I didn’t think he’d have posted them online anywhere. Wyatt might have been a little thick-headed in this situation, but he wasn’t an asshole.
“I deleted them right after looking at them. I didn’t keep anything for fear my phone would fall into the wrong hands. If nothing else, I protected her privacy.”
“Is that all?”
“No, we moved into having phone sex where I’d tell her to do certain things to herself. I got a couple photos of that, too, but I barely even looked at those.”
“Oh, really?” I replied dryly, not believing it for a second.
“I know what you’re thinking, and no, I never pleasured myself to those pics. I only ever used my imagination, and only after we’d gotten off the phone. I never let her listen to me though she begged to.
“Where I really fucked up was when she begged to officially be my submissive. I should have spoken up and reminded her we were just fantasizing, but like a bonehead, I told her to put on one of her favorite necklaces for me and consider it her collar. Instead, she went out and purchased a special choker that she always wore.”
“Yeah, you probably should have taken that seriously and shut it down.”
“I know that, now,” he replied, running a hand through his hair and sighing.
“So what happened? How did it all come to a head?”
“Annie entered the picture.”
“Annie? The other reader from your group?”
“Yeah. She started messaging me, and I flirted with her too. She was kinky as fuck, and I just couldn’t help myself. She pushed so many buttons on my fantasies. She eventually showed up to a signing I did a state over from hers. We ended up in bed for the night.”
“So, you started a relationship with her and cut it off with Nicole?”
“Not even close,” he said, huffing out another breath and shaking his head. “For me, it was just a one-night stand, but unbeknownst to me, Annie had set up her cellphone to record us. She got it all on video.”
I cringed on Wyatt’s behalf. What a skanky thing to do.
“If that wasn’t bad enough, she already had the suspicion there was something between Nicole and me, so… she dropped the video in an instant message to her. Nicole call me non-stop after that, crying about how I’d cheated on her and broke her heart. I was so confused, I couldn’t believe Annie had done such a terrible thing to me, but to bring poor Nicole into it was such a cruel thing to do. On the other hand, I couldn’t understand how Nicole didn’t see we’d only been playing a game. In exasperation, I finally asked her why she thought it was more. She confessed she was in love with me and considered us in a long-distance relationship. She’d already been saving up money to surprise me in Santa Fe.”
I sat quietly for a minute, trying to digest what he was telling me. With regard to Nicole, I could see his point on one hand. It was a little off-center to assume you were in a committed relationship with someone you’d never even met in person. Even my cousin, Molly, hadn’t lost her shit until she met Gage face-to-face. On the other hand, Wyatt had been callous and careless, reckless even, with a real woman’s feelings. Before I’d gotten to know him, I’d have considered it reprehensible and judged him harshly. Now, knowing his overall character, I could only see it for what it was. An immature, self-serving, stupid, yet highly regrettable mistake. With regard to Annie, her behavior was plain despicable. Wyatt was lucky she’d stopped with sending it to Nicole.
The women who’d accosted Wyatt probably thought they were doing the right thing by exacting revenge on behalf of their friend, but I’d also seen enough drama in our industry to know some people just liked to jump into the fray. I had no doubt Nicole was still angry, and maybe she’d even encouraged them to confront him, but there was no dignity in what the women had done to Wyatt. Yet, while I felt sympathy for him as his friend and lover, I couldn’t deny he’d all but asked for what he got.
I guess I’d been quiet too long because Wyatt’s voice broke into my thoughts.
“I suppose now you think I’m a real asshole and want nothing to do with me anymore?” he asked bitterly.
“What? No, not at all. While what happened today is not surprising, considering what you did, I hate that it happened.”
“I just want the whole thing to die a quiet death finally,” he said, turning his head to look out the window at the miles of farmland as we passed. I took it as meaning he didn’t want to talk anymore, so I let the quiet fall over the car, getting lost in my own thoughts about everything he’d told me. He really should have been smarter, but he’d learned from his mistake. I wasn’t worried he’d screw up with his fans again, the price was too high, plus the situation probably helped him mature a little bit.
My mind gravitated to the game he’d played with Nicole. I wondered why it had been easy for him to do with her, to assume the role of Dominant long distance but seemed to be hesitant when it came to us. I wasn’t so sure I wanted him picking out my outfits but giving a choice between two wouldn’t be so bad. I’d polish my nails any color he wanted, hell, I’d even color my hair if he told me to, and I certainly wasn’t above sending him pictur
es to brighten his day.
He had the kink in him, I knew from our time playing with the toys. He didn’t go overboard with them, but he could take control when he wanted to. That was the question. Did he not want to with me? Was there something wrong with me? Maybe Rae was right, and I wasn’t suited for a submissive role. If that was the case, then why did the idea appeal to me so much? What was it about the combination of Wyatt and me that kept us from really letting go and exploring all the nooks and crannies of our fantasies? I didn’t know, but I resolved to find out.
We made it home around ten-thirty. I was still a mixture of anger and self-loathing, but I was trying my best to shake it off. If we weren’t so tired from our unexpected drive home and the negative energy, I’d have suggested we go out and let loose.
“Let’s leave the boxes and suitcases for tomorrow,” I suggested as we got out of the car. “I’m too fucking tired to deal with them.”
“I am, too. Let’s go inside, have a few drinks and try to forget about the day.”
“That sounds like the perfect plan,” I said as we came up to the door. Unlocking it, I led the way inside, so I could make sure everything was safe and sound. I lived in a good neighborhood, but once I’d moved out on my own, I’d never felt totally comfortable until a quick once over of the house was done.
I stopped at the wet bar and poured a couple shots of tequila and pulled two beers from the mini-fridge. Popping the tops on the bottles, I motioned Clarisse over.
“Here’s to a better day tomorrow,” I said as I handed her one of the glasses and picked up my own.
“I second that,” she said before tossing hers back.
I followed suit, savoring the burning sensation at the back of my throat. Clarisse followed me to the living room where we both flopped on my giant sofa. We stayed quiet for a few minutes, letting the alcohol warm us from the inside out, loosening tense muscles and quieting our brains. Or so I thought. I began to notice Clarisse tapping her fingers on her bottle.
I wanted to ask what was on her mind, but I wasn’t sure I was up to any more conversations. I just wanted to sit quietly and let the alcohol do its job. When we finally made it to bed, I dropped to the mattress like a sack of bricks, not even bothering to change my clothes. Blessedly, my sleep was dreamless.
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