I slipped behind the bar and turned the country rock music off before replacing it with a dance mix. Some of the cowboys in the back grumbled until they noticed all the women swarming to the dance floor. Before too long, it was an all-out bash.
I spotted Allie on the dance floor, and headed in her direction when a warm hand wrapped itself around my wrist. I stared in momentary confusion, before recognition set in. “Cowboy!”
He pulled me into his body and hugged me. “Pretty lady. I was hoping I’d run into you tonight.”
I hated the way my body cringed at his touch. He wasn’t the man my body craved, and the little bitch would accept no substitutes. I blew out a rough breath and ran a hand through my new chin length hair. “Here I am. What are you doing here?”
He shrugged. “I had the night off and thought I’d drive down to see what was happening.”
I nodded. “Well, it was good to see you. I’m having a girl’s night or I’d hang more.”
He looked disappointed, but smiled. “I’ll be sticking around tonight. Find me.”
I headed back to our empty table and sat down. The girls were all on the floor, dancing, but I suddenly didn’t feel like it. I felt more like crawling into bed and yanking the covers over my head. I’d been forcing everyone to party with me, trying to forget that I felt like there was a bottomless pit in my chest, but the tactic was losing its effectiveness.
The system I’d been using since I was young had failed me. I hadn’t been able to keep Wyatt at arm’s length and instead I’d fallen hard for the man. Everything about me had changed in a matter of days. Apparently, the men in my life weren’t any different, though, because it had only taken Wyatt a couple of days to be finished with me.
The thought gnawed at me until I couldn’t sit still. I got up and headed towards the exit. I needed fresh air and a break from myself.
“Hey, you heading out?” The cowboy caught me again when I was a few steps from the door.
“Just getting some air is all.” I had hoped to slip out alone, but damned if he didn’t follow me out. I stepped down from the porch and gazed up at the vibrant stars.
“You okay?”
I didn’t look back at him. “Yeah. Just thinking about how pretty it is around here.”
“You thinking of staying?”
I sighed while I pondered that. A part of me did want to stay. At least for a little while. I liked the women I’d met. I missed Allie when we didn’t live nearby. But, then there was Wyatt. I didn’t know if I could run into him and not die a little each time. “I don’t know.”
He grabbed my hand and tugged me around to face him. He was too close. “Come here.”
I pressed my hands against his chest and pushed away. “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Sure, it is.”
I was just about to tell the guy, in no uncertain terms, to get lost when a vicious sounding roar echoed from behind us. I looked back and saw the massive sun-streaked bear coming our way.
The cowboy broke away from me and backed up. “Run!”
I couldn’t help but think that he had the right idea.
CHAPTER 26: Wyatt
I was going to kill the slimy asshole who’d touched my mate. I was going to rip his arms off and beat him to death with them. I charged towards him, happy he’d run. My bear loved a good chase. He’d tried to kiss Georgia, even though she’d been pushing him away. He was as good as dead.
Georgia stepped into my path as I neared and I almost ran her over. When I snarled down at her angrily for getting in my way, I watched her eyes become saucers before rolling to the back of her head. Her mouth fell open and she toppled backwards, flat on her back.
Fuck! The woman fainted more than anyone I ever met. I shifted and scooped her into my arms. “What am I going to do with you, sugar?”
“You hurt her again and I’ll skin you alive, Wyatt Drexel.” Allie had come out and was glaring at me. “She’s good here. If you run her out of town, you’ll have every woman in Burden to answer to.”
I rolled my eyes. “She’s not going anywhere.”
Allie’s face lit up. “Good. Tell her that we gals voted her in as our official party planner. She can’t leave.”
I didn’t care much for their parties and to hear Thorn tell it, he’d rather they didn’t exist. I nodded to Allie, though, and turned to head home with my mate.
I heard Thorn lecturing Allie before I made it out of range. “You can’t just stand there and talk to a naked man like that. You’re mine. You’re not supposed to look at other men.”
Allie laughed. “Calm down, you big ol’ bear. Seeing and looking are two different things. Let’s go inside and see if we can’t find an empty bathroom. Hows about that?”
I held Georgia tighter to my chest and hurried home. I had a lot to say to her and I was betting that none of it was going to be easy. That was one thing I could bank on with my feisty little mate. Nothing about her was easy. Nothing would probably ever be easy.
I made it to my house and toed open the door before kicking it shut and then settling on my couch with Georgia held tightly in my arms. “Wake up, sugar. We need to talk.”
She moaned against my bare shoulder, sending tingles of pleasure coursing through me. “Wyatt.”
I held her tighter and cursed myself for being a giant fucking blockhead. I’d gone to Mom’s house after leaving my group on the mountain in the capable hands of Bill. Martha was still visiting Mom, and the two of them supported Thorn’s argument, reiterating just how selfish I’d been.
I knew I was wrong and I couldn’t imagine there being a worse thing to be wrong about. I’d hurt my mate.
“Wyatt?” Georgia’s voice was confused and weak as she lifted her head. “Wyatt? Where are we?”
I pressed my lips to her temple. “My house. You fainted so I brought you here. How do you feel?”
She groaned. “Like I drank too much. Clearly, way too much. This dream feels entirely too real.”
“Sugar, you’re not dreaming.” I stroked her hair. “I came to talk to you and saw that piece of shit trying to put his hands on you. I’m not finished with him yet either.”
She sat up a little and looked around. I tried to picture my place through her eyes—a wooden cabin devoid of any knick-knacks, sparsely furnished with too many windows to ever really feel warm inside. Her eyes moved back to me and then she scooted off my lap. “Why did you bring me here?”
I instantly missed her body and had to fight to keep my hands to myself. “I needed to talk to you.”
Her pouty lips turned down and she tugged at the hemline of her dress. I struggled to suppress the growl in my chest. It was too short for her to be wearing around town when I wasn’t there. It hugged her curves and left my mouth watering. I wanted to rip it over her head and devour her whole.
“What do you want to talk about?”
“First, how do you feel? You went out like a light. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Her cheeks brightened. “I drank on an empty stomach. Haven’t felt much like eating, I guess. And you shocked me. I wasn’t expecting you to show up while I was still in town.”
“Thorn told me you’ve been throwing parties. He’s more than a little distraught. Allie told me to tell you that you were voted the official party planner, though. She seems excited.”
“Lot of good that’ll do me when I go back home. Look, I’m sorry you had to come to my rescue. Again. I’m fine, though. I’ll go.”
I stood up and blocked the door, not caring that I was still naked. “We haven’t talked yet.”
She waved her hands around. “I don’t care. I don’t need to be formally dumped or whatever, Wyatt. I just want to go.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “You might want to listen to what I have to say first.”
She looked at me and then jerked her face away. “Could you put some pants on? A shirt, too.”
I laughed. Things were lighter for me since I’d realized what a sonofabit
ch I’d been. Once I realized that I was the biggest problem here, there was nothing I wouldn’t do to win her back. “I don’t plan on needing them for a while.”
“What are you talking about?”
I stalked towards her. “I was wrong. I was a dumbfuck for letting you go. I was an dumbfuck for making you stay. I tried to force you into my life, even if just for a couple of days, and I didn’t stop to ask you what you wanted. I let myself think that because you didn’t fit perfectly into my life the way it was, that we didn’t belong together. I was stupid and blind. Too stupid to realize that I was the one who needed to compromise, and too blind to see how much you were trying.”
She met my eyes and absently reached up to tug at the shorter strands of her hair. She looked amazing. The shorter length revealed the smooth delicate expanse of creamy neck.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t treat you the way you deserved and I made you feel bad and that makes me the biggest dumbfuck on the planet. I just saw my parents and how easy it was for them to live together. I thought it should’ve naturally been that easy between us. I never stopped to consider that it wasn’t like that at first for them.
“My mom corrected me. Told me I was an asshole, which was probably the first time I’d ever heard her cuss. She told me that nothing had been easy for them at first. My dad was like me, more bear than man. He’d spent all his time hiding on the mountain. My mom liked the city. She spent her weekends in Dallas, going out with her girlfriends and exploring.”
The shy way that Georgia spoke next shot an arrow through my heart. “How did they make it work?”
I stepped closer to her. “My dad learned to wear clean shirts and shoes more than a day or two a week. My mom learned to love the wild in Dad and with Dad. They met in the middle.”
“What if there isn’t a middle for us?”
The question forced my hand. I threw caution out the window and scooped up my sad little mate.
CHAPTER 27: Georgia
Wyatt grabbed me and picked me up before carrying me back to his couch. He sat with me in his lap, straddling his thighs. I barely had time to blink before he covered my mouth with his and parted my lips with his tongue. It wasn’t like his other kisses; this one held desperation. He used his lips and tongue to convince me that we could make it work. He put everything in that kiss and I felt my heart melting.
“We’re mates. There are no mistakes. You are mine. I will follow you wherever you go. I will move to the city with you if I have to. I will do whatever it takes.”
My throat squeezed as tears filled my eyes. “It’s not real. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The issues that I had been stuffing down finally came to the surface and what spewed out and wasn’t pretty. “I lied. I lied about having my dad around and giving people their weekends off because I’d wanted more time with him. The truth was I only ever saw him a handful of times in my entire life. Each, while he was leaving my mom’s bedroom. He didn’t care about me, didn’t want me. The only reason I got the business was because somehow, he died without a will. He’d never drawn one up, and there was no one else.
“His lawyers made me do a paternity test because they hadn’t realized he even had a kid. He didn’t keep pictures of me on his desk, or brag about me to his friends. He didn’t love me. No man ever has. I’m unlovable. I ruin things and I’m too high maintenance. I spend too much time thinking and men leave. Even my mate didn’t want me. You knew it. You wanted to run. If you really think about it, you’ll still want to. There’s something wrong with me, Wyatt.”
When I tried to get away from him, he tightened his hold and held me until I quit fighting him. “It kills me to know that you feel that way about yourself, Georgia. And that I made it worse. I will spend my life convincing you that this is real, that I want to be with you, that I love you.”
I froze. “What?”
He laughed and pulled my head down until it was on his shoulder. “I said I love you. Because I do. I love you, Georgia. I think it started the moment I saw you. Then, I realized it again when you were fussing at that bear like you’d lost your damned mind. My world narrowed to that moment and I knew that if anything happened to you, I’d die, too.”
“You don’t know me, Wyatt.”
“Yes, I do. I know that you’re kind—to other people anyway, funny, fierce, sexy as hell, and so fucking alive that everyone around you can’t help but feel it. I’m fucking lucky to have you as my mate.”
Tears were falling faster now. My heart was daring to hope, but knowing how easily it could get crushed again made my palms sweaty and my lungs struggle for air. “How can this work? You practically live on the mountain. I can’t do that every week with you. I don’t have that much hair to lose.”
Wyatt wiped my tears away. “I’ll shorten the trips. Only do longer ones on special occasions. Seeing the party you threw around the campfire gave me some ideas, too. Maybe you could come up for a night or two. If you wanted to. You liked the fishing. We could do that and then you could put together something fun at night.”
I blinked at him. “Something fun?”
He shrugged. “Whatever you want. A party or whatever. Everyone loved having you there. The guys kept talking about how much they wished you were on every trip they made. I know you can’t do that and I won’t ask you to. Maybe we can work something out, though.”
“You’re serious?”
“Yes, Georgia, I am. You and me. It’s happening. Forever.”
I shook my head. “I have to go back home for meetings sometimes. I have to… I have stuff there. I… I’ve never done anything like this. You’re going to get tired of me. I’m no good at stuff like this. I stare too much and I get quiet and I get bitchy and I… I’m just not good.”
“Do you like this dress?”
I looked down at it and shrugged. “It’s okay. Why?”
He grabbed the neck and effortlessly ripped the silky material down the middle of my chest. He ignored my scream of shock and tore it completely down the middle until it fell to my sides. “You aren’t supposed to wear little things like this when I’m not around to growl at every man who looks your way.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and felt a little bit of annoyance flare up. “I do what I want. Also, it’s not just men you have to worry about. While you were still up on that mountain, I decided that I’m going to go for women from now on. Men are too much work.”
He growled. “You’re mine, Georgia. Didn’t you hear me? I love you. No other men. No women. Only me.”
I gasped as he took my hips in his hands and pulled me harder into his body. I felt every inch of his hard erection pressing into me and bit back a moan. I wanted him. I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted anything, and in a different way than I was used to. Long term relationship kind of want.
“What if it doesn’t work?”
His eyes softened. “It will. I will do anything for you.” He buried his face in the crook of my neck and shoulder and inhaled deeply. “You don’t have to be scared, Georgia. This is it. You have a man in your life who is going to fight for you, who will not let another second go by without you knowing how much he loves you, who will help you see that you’re the best damn thing that’s ever happened to him. This is going to work. I swear to you.”
My heart felt like it was going to explode in my chest. There was hardly enough room in there for the emotions that Wyatt was stirring in me. Forever. Forever with the man in front of me. I looked at him, at the raw desire in his eyes that obliterated the fear and self-loathing that had been threatening to strangle me over the past few days. “Yes. I want this.”
His grin was wicked. “It was never a question, sugar. I’m not letting you go.”
CHAPTER 28: Wyatt
I pulled Georgia’s face down to mine and held her there, a breath away from the kiss that I needed. “I’ll spend my life making sure you forget every worry you ever had that I could leave you.”
Her eyes fl
uttered shut and a soft sigh fell from her lips. “We can live here.”
I leaned back and watched her. She was stunning. I ran my fingers through her hair and rubbed the ends between my fingers. “I like it like this. It’s sexy.”
She pressed her cheek into my hand and gave me a soft smile. “I’ll have to go back every so often for a few days at a time to sign off on things. I like it here, though.”
“We’ll have to go back. You’re stuck with me from now on.”
“Okay.”
I quirked an eyebrow. “Okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Just…be easy with me, okay? If you do get sick of me, just give me some warning.”
I stood up, wrapping her legs around my waist as I did. I carried her into my bedroom and placed her gently down on the bed. “One day, you’ll see that you’re stuck with me for good. I don’t deserve you, but I’m not questioning it anymore. I’m just going to take.”
Her hair fanned out around her and I hovered over to rub my face against it. Her hands held my sides, her fingertips pressing into my skin harder as I brushed my lips over her ear.
“You smell like the berries from the mountain. Fresh, wild, and a little dangerous. You taste that way, too. One kiss and I have a boner as hard as a rock. You do that to me.”
She reached higher and wrapped her hands around my neck. Her back arched and her chest rubbed against mine. “Keep talking to me. I feel like I’m going to go up in flames.”
“I want to spend the rest of my life waking up next to you. Waking up in the middle of the night, in the morning, from naps, here, there, wherever.”
I pressed my weight into her and trailed my hand from her throat down to her hip. “I’m going to make sure there isn’t a day that goes by that you don’t know what I feel for you.”
She moaned when I pressed into her harder. “Even when I’m old and wrinkled?”
I dipped my head and ran my tongue over my mark on her shoulder. When she shivered under me, I slipped my hand between our bodies and down the front of her lacy panties and slid a finger into her soft, wet folds.
Bears of Burden: WYATT Page 10