WYLDER

by Kristina Weaver

  What? Wait a minute. Is this guy really telling me that he’s willing to be patient with me and understands my troubles? The thought is so alien all I can do is stare at him, my mouth hanging open.

  Lyon chuckles when all I can do is gape and gently closes my mouth, stroking a finger over my chin.

  “Deal?”

  “I, you, this isn’t real. Are you real?”

  I need to know because I dated Cole for so long it was like being married as a teenager, and the guy was not what I would call patient. He lost his mind when I blew him off for cheer squad and made it so impossible for me I quit at the beginning of senior year to avoid his tantrums. Guys, from my experience, are not patient or understanding. They want attention all the time.

  “Yep. Far as I can tell. Soooo, are you down with that, because I have to tell you, Lay, I am not just walking away from you now that I found you, and I don’t agree with this whole no-fun thing.”

  “But what about your classes and partying and having fun with your friends?”

  “Eh, I’ve partied hard enough in my high school days to be partied out, and besides, what do I need to go looking for if I already found you? Now, eat your fries, woman. I want to attack those beignets, and I can’t be a gentleman if it takes you forever to eat your food.”

  The fries are gone in minutes, Lyon’s eyes closing when I wipe the plate clean and still have room for dessert. I haven’t had anything to eat since a breakfast of muesli because I’m trying to cut down on food expenses, and I think he knows that from the earlier comment I let slip.

  It’s so embarrassing I want to crawl under the table, but pride can’t beat the dessert, and I groan when the first sugary bite hits my tongue.

  “Oh my God.”

  “Told you.” He grins, shoving an entire square into his mouth and chewing with moans that make my everything pulse.

  I should so not be thinking about sex when he makes those sounds, but I am. I so am, and the tightening in my lower belly is sweet as we continue to eat and make complete pigs of ourselves.

  “I can’t,” I moan when he holds the last one out to me, waggling his brows comically.

  “Come oooon. It’s the last one.”

  “I can’t, Lyon. Oh God, it hurts,” I whine, clutching my belly because it’s full to bursting.

  Lyon sighs and finishes it off, giving me a sad look.

  “I’m gonna have to teach you how to handle dessert, Lay. There’s no such thing as quitting on the last sugary sweet morsel,” he opines with a sorrow that makes me laugh and hold my aching stomach with a whine.

  “Stop. How do you eat that much, Lyon? My word, I think I’d explode.”

  His eyes go hot, and I feel tingling sparks between my legs when he smiles and just licks his lips, my eyes feasting on the slow erotic movement of his pink tongue.

  “We’ll discuss exploding on our tenth date.”

  “What?”

  Okay, I’m pretty sure that if we’re dating, I won’t make it to date five without being all over him. I may not have liked penetration when I was with Cole, but I liked kissing and the touching and some of the naughtier parts of non-full sex.

  I want to kiss him already, and I don’t even know him all that well. What the heck will I be like after a few more nights spent talking and sharing our secrets?

  “Aw, don’t worry, baby, I won’t make you suffer all the way through. I’ll eat you out by date six. That’s a promise.”

  His drawl is dirty and not so much suggestive—because there ain’t noting suggestive about that outright statement of intent!—as it is a wicked tease that has me shifting around in the booth and tightening my lower half.

  “You shouldn’t say those things. I’m not going to just stop everything for you and sleep with you on a whim, even if you are cute,” I warn him.

  I may want him, and yes, I feel the sexual tension between us very clearly, but I won’t make the same mistake I did once and just go for it because it was the accepted thing to do.

  I want sex to mean something this time, not just me wanting intimacy while the guy I am with takes his pleasure and makes me feel like a dud. Cole broke me down very easily, and part of our break-up was about me not being happy with him after the way he handled my first time.

  I was disillusioned and mad, angry that he’d used me when we’d been together for so long, and he should have cared.

  Now I know that time doesn’t make it any better. You either love someone or you don’t. I’m not sure I want a love relationship right now, but I do know that I need to care about Lyon and I need to know he cares about me before I go any further.

  “I’m sorry, babe. I was being an ass, and I am truly sorry. We don’t have to do a thing, nothing you don’t want to do. I promise. Just give this a chance, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  He did kiss me on our first date, I recall, laughing. He kissed my cheeks and pecked my lips, and it was perfect.

  Chapter Three

  Lyon

  Another day has passed, and I’m sore from sitting in that chair beside Leila, my body not used to the long stretches of inactivity or the tight space.

  The doctors came by this morning to check on her, and there’s no change. Leila has normal brain function, the frostbite she suffered on her little feet is healing, and her fluid intake is good.

  They can’t tell me why she won’t wake up, but they reassure me that with the trauma she suffered previous to being put in that freezer, it’s more than understandable that her body is keeping her under so she can heal without feeling all the pain.

  I lost it then, demanding to know exactly how severe her injuries were, but seeing as I’m not her husband, I couldn’t get a damn thing out of them. I’m lucky they let me stay and even luckier they talk to me about her condition this much.

  I don’t know what to do most days. All I can do is sit and watch. And wait. It’s the waiting that’s killing me though because no matter how much I tell myself she’s going to be fine, I have this niggling fear that she won’t ever look at me again, and it’s my fault.

  None of this would have happened if I had stayed with Leila years ago. We’d have been married already with at least one kid, and she’d be pursuing her career as a curator or whatever she decided she wanted to do with her degree.

  If she decided she wanted to work after the kids.

  Shit. Just thinking about what we could have had makes the old anger and pain come back in a rush, the resentment I still feel making it hard to keep myself together.

  The family has been by a lot. Mom comes every mealtime and makes me eat. Danny has been by three times, and my brothers stop in just to check on me, but with work and those other two women needing help, I understand that they can’t hang around.

  The only one who’s been in for more than half an hour is Lori. I haven’t told her anything about Leila, and she doesn’t push me, just sits and holds her hand, asking her to come back so she can meet her.

  Wolf finally told me the whole story about that night, and I will be forever grateful to Lori that she risked her life pulling Leila out of that freezer when all indications pointed to her already being dead.

  Those few precious minutes after she dragged her out of there saved her life. The doctors say if she’d been exposed to the cold much longer, she would never have made it. They fought to get her core temperature up and stabilized that entire first night.

  So, yeah, I owe Lori a lot because I don’t know what I would have done if I’d had to walk into that freezer and see her dead body curled up the way Lori described it to Wolf.

  I think I’d have gone mad. I know I’d have lost it and been worthless if it had ended like that.

  I’ve learned a lot in the last few days too. After two days of no information, Bear came in and spent a while telling me everything. Leila and Lori were both taken because Noni’s nephew found out that I’d had a connection with her back in college eight years earlier.

  The asshole confessed
that he initially took her when he couldn’t get to Lori and hoped she would still be in contact with me. When it became clear after days of hurting her that she wasn’t and hadn’t heard from me in a long time, he got bored and then shoved her in the freezer, his method of getting rid of his victims.

  I want to kill him. I really do, but Bear just shrugged and said he wouldn’t survive lockup so why bother. That doesn’t help, but at least I know if…no, when Leila wakes up, she won’t have to testify.

  The other women have been taken home, and everything is on track again. Bear told me to take my time, that he didn’t expect me back at work until I was ready, even when I refused to tell him about Leila, so I have that, and I love my brother for his newfound understanding.

  All I have now is time, and yet I wish to God it would speed by because the waiting isn’t something I can do much longer. All I do is think, and that way lies memories I don’t want.

  “Stop! Oh God, are you trying to make me fat?” Leila laughs when I offer her another hot dog.

  She took the job Pop gave her, thankful and ready to work, and has been here two days now, so, technically, this is our third date, and I have three more to go to test my theory that she’ll let me touch her.

  I want her so much it hurts to be around her and not do anything, but I will respect her wishes and wait, even if my balls do explode from the buildup.

  I haven’t had sex in months, haven’t cared about it at all, not even with the offers being thrown at my handsome ass, but one look at her and I’m dying to do something as simple as kiss her lips.

  God, do I want to kiss those lips that are petal soft and look suck-able enough to eat. I want to spend hours tasting her mouth, even if we don’t do anything else. Even if my cock does hurt and never goes down around her.

  “One more bite.”

  “No. I already picked up a pound since I met you! It’s terrible.”

  “You’re tiny, Lay. You can do with some meat on them sexy bones, and besides, I can’t eat all this alone. Mom packed enough to feed five people,” I moan, needing to feed her because it’s become clear to me she isn’t doing well financially, and knowing Lay, as I do from long hours of talking, she’ll starve to afford books and the other shit no one thinks about.

  We’re both on scholarship, but there the similarities end. My pop makes sure all his boys are well supplied and taken care of. We don’t even live in the dorms because he didn’t like the state of some of the buildings.

  Lay’s parents are doing their best, and they’d probably overextend themselves to give her more money, but she refuses to ask, saying that she can take care of herself and they don’t need the stress.

  That’s one of the things I adore about my girl. She’s sweet at heart. She doesn’t like others being unhappy, and she spends large chunks of her time visiting her sister, Mika, and talking to her mom with the minutes her dad provides every other week.

  I haven’t met anyone yet. It’s too soon, and I understand Leila’s reticence there, but I am dying to help out some way, and so, I feed her.

  “No. Lyon, I can’t. Why don’t you ask Lynx if he’s hungry?”

  “And tell Ma I gave your food away? She’d slaughter me, Lay. Do you want my ma to kill me?” I tease, hoping she takes the hint and at least takes the cookies home with her.

  “Agh, fine. I’ll keep the cookies for later, but the hot dogs will be soggy by the time I get back from class. Give them to Lynx. Please?”

  I give in with a pout but smile secretly when she shoves the tin of cookies in her bag and carries on typing, answering the phone on the second ring while I call to Lynx and shove the hot dogs his way, barring him from the office because I don’t care if he wants to talk to Lay. This is my time.

  “So, I’m going to watch Hawk play soccer tonight down at the park. Wanna come with me and keep me safe from the loose women who hang around there?”

  Her frown has my mouth twitching, and yeah, I admit it. I feel good seeing her get all jealous. I need her to be possessive and stake a claim because, as much as I want her, I want her to have me.

  My Lay is a strange, strange woman. She burns hot and cold regularly, but I don’t mind. I like every side of her.

  “I can’t. I’m so sorry. It’s just that I have a paper to write, and it’s due tomorrow, and I haven’t read a word of the material, and if I don’t hand it in—”

  “Hey! Hush,” I say, laying a finger against her lips to stop the nervous chatter. “It’s okay, babe. I asked on a whim. I wasn’t gonna go anyway. Hawk’s an arrogant enough ass as it is. He doesn’t need me to cheer him on. I just wanted to throw it out there in case you were free.”

  “You’re not mad? Because, so far, all our time together is you making time for me, not the other way around. I just don’t want to let you down, but—”

  “I’m a big boy, Lay. I knew what we were getting into when I asked you out, and I know that you have a lot on your plate. I’m just happy you let me see you when you do. Now stop frowning and kiss me goodbye. I have a class to get to,” I say, giving her a pouty kiss when she just stares at me. “Call me when you can, and tell Mika I say hi. If you want.”

  Class is boring as hell, and all I think about while I pretend to give a damn about mathematical formulas is the way she looked this morning when I went to fetch her and drove her to the site offices.

  She’s running herself ragged, and I can damn guarantee she doesn’t sleep more than a few hours a night. She’s carrying a huge course load, spending every afternoon with Mika, and then attending classes and working on her papers.

  I want her to chill out, but I can’t tell her to do that without making her feel like I don’t see how important it all is to her.

  “Hey, big brother.”

  I grin as soon as I walk out of my class and hear that voice, scooping Sparrow into my arms with a shout of delight. I haven’t seen or spoken to her in a while, and I miss the imp.

  “Hey, beautiful. Whatcha doing here?”

  “Visiting you, bonehead. Mom’s giving me the evil eye, and Harrison is at football practice, so I thought I’d hang out with you today.”

  “Aw, how nice. I’m a last resort,” I grunt, putting her down and slinging an arm over her slim shoulders.

  She’s fitted out in dark jeans, a frilly pink T-shirt, and a pair of boots that just look wrong, and yet she looks great, I think as I steer her out of the hall and we walk for my car.

  “You know I didn’t mean it like that, Ly. I’ve just been so busy lately that when I realized I haven’t seen you in a while, I got sad. Besides, Mom says you have a girlfriend,” she laughs, dodging when I swipe at her.

  “I do not,” I tease, because I know she isn’t going to fall for it and it will drive her crazy.

  “You liar! Tell me everything.”

  I ignore her demand until I have her in my truck and I’m pulling out.

  “Where’s your car?”

  “I took the bus, so you have the honor of taking me home.”

  Ooooh, so she doesn’t have her car again and is at loose ends, little sneak.

  “Mom or Pop take your keys?” I ask, chuckling at her disgruntled glare.

  “Pop. It was only one ticket, Lyon, and it wasn’t even my fault,” she whines, glaring out the window. “They only did it because they don’t want me going over to Harrison’s so much.”

  Now, I know my little sister, and I know that telling her she’s not being fair isn’t the way to play this. Sparrow is a Wylder to the core. Tell her she shouldn’t do something and she’ll do it just to show you she can. Try to talk in circles and she’ll cut you down at the knees.

  But I understand Pop’s point, and I get Mom’s annoyance at the amount of time she’s out of the house. Soon Sparrow will be out of the house and in college. This is Mom’s last year with her princess, and she’s well aware of that fact.

  “Sparrow, I get it, okay? I know Mom and Pop can be hard to get along with, especially because it’s about
a boy, but don’t get mad at them. They just want some time with you, kid. Mom’s already got five boys all out of the house, Pop’s working a lot lately, and she’s all alone at home. Spend some time with her while you can, because next year isn’t going to be about going home. You’ll be lucky if you have the time, kid.”

  Her chin tilts, and I see that stubborn glint in her eye before she sighs and seems to deflate.

  “I guess. It’s just…I love Harrison, and he’s going to UCLA. He’s already had his acceptance letters, Ly. I have to go here with you boneheads, and I only have a few months left with Harri. I can drive over to see the parents all the time, but I won’t see Harri unless he comes home, and that won’t be all that much.”

  I get it. If I’d enlisted when I wanted to instead of holding off, I’d have only had so much time with Lay, and I would have used every minute of it on her, not family or friends.

  Damn, I hate when she makes sense and that I relate. As it is, I just treasure what time I do have with Lay, and we go to the same school.

  “Yeah, I get it. Sorry, Sparrow. I don’t mean to lecture. I just don’t like you and Ma fighting. She loves you.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’ll talk to her. Now, shut up and feed me, loser. Ma’s been sending all the cookies for your new girl. Soooo…”

  I laugh at the abrupt change in subject and give her an amused look. Clever minx.

  “She’s my one,” I say simply, pulling to a stop outside my building. “Come on. I’ll make you something upstairs.”

  She groans and gags, insisting she’ll die if she has to eat my slop and only answers when we’re in the kitchen drinking sodas while I slap sandwiches together.

  “I want to meet her.”

  “Nope. Sorry, kid, she’s already running herself into the ground with her schedule. What time she has is mine,” I say, ignoring her pout.

  “But you’re my best brother, Lyon.”

  “I’m the only one who takes your shit, Sparrow. Best my ass. I’m a schmuck, but I love you, and you’re my little sister who I will do anything for. Usually. Not this time though.”