Gigi stands behind me, Lucas next to her. My mother-in-law stands next to him, with Tina Wilde and her partner on her other side.
Stone, Regan, Beau, Dare, Dina, Tyson, and my cousin Jesse, cluster around them while we smile into the camera set up on the tripod.
A few years ago, I would have bet a million dollars against the odds of this group of life long rivals being a family.
But here we are. After the pictures are done, I raise a toast to our family and my legacy. When everyone else moves back inside for dessert. I stay on the porch to clear my head. I’m grateful as hell for everything I have, but I’m also heartsick at the prospect of Remi moving.
He’s my brother and my best friend. The bullshit that comes with leading this family and running Kingdom would be unbearable if I didn’t have him here.
“Hayes?” Jesse ducks his head out of the door. “I’m heading to my hotel.”
“Already? It’s a shame we didn’t get a chance to talk.” He smiles graciously and I feel like a asshole for avoiding him all night.
“You have a house full of guests. I’ll be back in town for good next fall. We’ll have plenty of time to catch up.”
He’s a couple of inches shorter than me, but he’s built like all the men in our family- broad shouldered, slim hipped and long legged. “Right. You’re graduating. Where are you in school, again?”
“At Tufts. Near Boston.”
I nod my approval. “You playing soccer, still?”
His smile falters a little. “No, I had an ACL injury freshman year. I’m pre-med, now.”
“Sorry, I hadn’t heard.” I guess actively avoiding any mention of his name is a good way to make sure I wouldn’t.
He shrugs and stuffs his hands into his pockets. “It’s all good. I never thought I’d go pro or anything. And I’m excited for med school. I’m going to Baylor.”
“Like Stone.”
He smiles “Yeah, he wrote me a letter of recommendation. I know it helped my application. I owe him.”
I hide my surprise. I didn’t realize that my brothers had kept in touch with him. “Well, congratulations. Thanks for coming all this way.”
He shrugs. “It’s Christmas. I wanted to spend it with family.”
I smile back and nod, but I feel like shit for the way I’ve treated him. I’m grateful that Confidence pushed that mountain of my pride until it moved.
“I’ll see you tomorrow morning at the Wilde’s, right?” he asks.
“Yeah.” I glance at the house and back at him as a thought occurs to me. “Where are you staying?”
“I grabbed a room at the Omni.”
“No way. We’ve got three spare rooms. Stay here.”
His eyes widen and he shakes his head. “I don’t want to put you out.”
“You’re not. You’re family.”
At his skeptical expression, I cut the bullshit. “Look, your parents and I…that’s a dead end. But there’s no reason that we can’t get to know each other if that’s what you really want.”
He smiles, and relaxes. “I do want that. Thank you. I’d love to stay.”
I pat him on the shoulder. “You need help with your luggage?”
“Nope, it’s just a carry on. I got it.”
We walk into the house and I stop at the foot of the stairs. “I’m heading up to bed. Tyson and Dare are still here so you’ll have company if you’re not ready to turn in. The room is the fourth door on the corridor to the left of the stairs. See you in the morning.”
“Hayes, just a second.”
I look over my shoulder and raise my eyebrows in question. “Yeah?”
He stuffs his hands in his pockets and rocks back on his heels. His smile falters for the first time and he opens his mouth a couple times and closes it again before he finally speaks.
“I didn’t take it for granted that you’d be open to my being here. What my father did…it was terrible.”
“Yes, it was.” I add, it’s not particularly gracious, but I spent my daily quota of that already.
He winces, but nods. “I’m nothing like him.”
I hold a hand up. “I know that greed isn’t genetic. Clean slate.”
He shoulders visibly relax and his smile brightens again. “Well, I appreciate it.”
“Then, don’t fuck it up.”. I tip my imaginary hat at him and head toward the kitchen. I grab my wife, a slice of cherry pie, and head upstairs for seconds
Chapter 10
Tyson Wilde
I Dare You
What a night.
I glance around the dark spot lit backyard of Hayes and Confidence's house. I've only seen the old Rivers House in pictures, but this is a far cry from the palatial grounds and manicured lawns that were compared to the famous botanical gardens in Geneva.
But like everything about this new generation, it fits.
It's weird that in the space of three years, we've gone from enemies to friends, to family.
Well...some kind of family anyway. It's all very unconventional. My father and his wife, my mother and her...partner or whatever.
My half-brother with his wife who walks around barefoot even when she's wearing a ballgown, my brother his wife, her daughter.
My sister, her husband and her kids.
And then, there's me. On the outside, without a cluster of my own.
I've always felt like that…. born just as whatever party had brought them all together was ending.
But, I’ve only ever wanted to be a Wilde, in name, word, and deed.
I've worked for Wilde World since I was 14. I've got some real successes under my belt, but my mother still treats me like I’m the runt of the litter. I push back from the railing and roll my neck to loosen the knots that the strange blend of anger and apathy that always results from me thinking too long about my family.
This job I’ve been pursuing in Paris is going to give me a chance to breathe and see who I can be without them. And then tonight, my mother makes this announcement. Not only does she have a man - she's moving to London to head Wilde World's European expansion.
I'm happy for her, but I’m going after the job in Paris to get away from her.
A door on the other end of the verandah opens and a woman steps through it, but she’s too shadowed for me to see who it is.
"It doesn't matter what you say, I'm done. Sign the papers, or a judge will do it for you.” It's Dina, my brother's star employee, and current President of the Tyson Wilde Haters Association. The membership is comprised of disgruntled one-night stands, athletic rivals, men whose women call my name in bed, and guys I've fucked up for disrespecting my sister.
And Dina, for all her talk about forgetting the night we spent together, has proven that I live rent free in her head.
Not that I don’t hate that I can't ever tap that again, because she is fucking beautiful. She made “my seen everything at least once” eyes do a double take the first time I saw her.
Of course, if I'd known she had just been hired by my family, I would have run in the opposite direction.
When we saw each other at the office, she told me in no uncertain terms to keep my distance. And goes out of her way to do the same.
But, as much as she acts like she hates me, I remember how wide open I broke her that night. And if I’m honest, she left a mark on me, too. I don’t typically yearn for women after I’ve slept with them, but there was something about her…
I used the service that paired us twice after that night, and then stopped when it didn’t feel good, anymore. If I wasn’t so generally unhappy with my life right now, I’d think she’d ruined me. Once I get to Paris, and away from all of these people, I’ll feel more like myself again.
“If you think I’m paying you a single cent after what you did, and all the women you fucked in our bed, you are insane,” she snarls into the phone.
Fully aware that if she knew I was here she wouldn’t be speaking so freely, I clear my throat.
“Shit. I have to
go.” The light from the phone dies and she calls out, “Is someone there?"
I don’t respond right away. Not when I have the chance to check her out without her glaring at me.
She’s wearing the same dress she wore the night we met. It’s the first time in almost a year that I’ve seen her in anything but the terrible clothes she wears to work. They do a near criminal disservice to classic coke bottle figure. Her hair is straight and she’s wearing makeup that makes her wide-set brown eyes look sultry, I’ve spent all night remembering how that beautiful light brown skin of hers felt like silk under my hands.
“Who’s there?” she repeats in a more forceful tone.
"Your walking wet dream,” I quip as I step into the light that’s spilling through the window between us.
She groans. "I should have known that on a hellish night like this, I'd bump into the very devil himself."
I laugh, amused by her vexation.
"I don't know why you put so much energy into disliking me and avoiding me, but it's really flattering."
She glares at me. "You know why. What's weird is that you don't do the same. Every time I turn around, there you are."
I laugh again, this time longer and louder. "You can't really think I'm following you, Dina..."
"Aren't you?"
"You need to get over yourself. I'm not even thinking about you. You on the other hand, with all your darting glares and making a show of going in the opposite direction when you see me, seem determined to make people ask if something is going on between us."
She gasps and shakes her head in chagrin "The only thing bigger than your ego--"
"Is my dick." I finish for her.
"Is your lack of tact,” she says primly.
"And - my bank account," I offer.
She scoffs. "You are so sad. You think money and your dick are all you have to give."
“They’re all I want to give.” I correct her.
“Also, sad."
"Well, from what I just heard, seems like you gave more, and it didn't turn out too well for you. So, who's sad and who's right?"
"You don't know anything about me Tyson and the little I know of you --"
"Hey, we've established that what you know of me isn't little at all."
She snorts in disgust. "If I'd known that I was going to walk into work on Monday and see you, I wouldn’t have--"
"Taken it up the ass twice?"
She stomps her foot. "Why are you doing this?"
I grin and take a step toward her. “Because, I know that you like it.”
"Stop it." She says it with flashing eyes, but her voice is husky. And she shifts in her shoes, her thighs rubbing together as she changes her posture.
I smile. "If you want more, I’d be willing to make an exception.
She laughs. "I'll never let you close enough to touch me again.”
“Don't say things like that, I only hear a challenge when you do. And the risk of you falling in love with me after another encounter is pretty high.”
She laughs so uproariously that she doubles over. Intent on making her eat that laugh, I move until I’m standing just inches from her.
She blinks and takes a step back. I grab her forearms and drag her back to me.
"I think you keep your distance because you want me.”
Her pretty dark red lips part and instead of the feisty, angry retort I expect, she just sort of whimpers. And the sound does things to my dick. “I think you’re projecting.”
I laugh, but it thin and false. Because I do want her. The air around us thickens and my eyes are riveted to that luscious mouth. It looks like it would taste sweet, spicy, hot. I want to kiss her. So badly. But I’ll never tell her that.
“You are a liar,” she whispers and then without warning, she lifts up onto the tips of her toes and presses her lips to mine.
I’m not prepared for this full-frontal assault and when her tongue slides over my top lip, I can’t hold back the groan that her honeypot of a mouth elicits. She tastes so good and I want to drown in her sweetness. I wrap a hand around her delicate throat and push her against the wall. Her hands glide up my shoulders to cup the back of my neck. The pulse in the base of her throat jumps under my finger when I sink my teeth into her plump bottom lip and suck it into my mouth.
She whimpers and the sound triggers a frenzy in me. My mind shouts, “more,” over and over until I don’t remember my own name.
I cup her breast and knead it until her nipple furls tight against my palm. Her hips writhe against my thighs and I break our kiss, panting to catch my breath, “I want to suck your nipples. And God, I’m desperate to know what it’s like to fuck you and kiss this mouth of yours at the same time.” I drag my lips down her creamy neck and the way she smells is making me crazy.
“You wish,” she pants in my ear before she shoves me away.
I stumble back a step before I regain my balance and I glower at her, panting and confused. “What the hell?”
She runs her hands over her dress and crosses her arms over her chest. "I was just proving my point.”
“I never said I wasn’t attracted to you,” I hiss while I straighten my shirt and trying to clear my lust addled mind.
She sighs and drops into one of the wicker chairs that dot the porch. “I know a little something about human nature. This kind of chemistry is rare and dangerous between people who have no business being in relationships.”
I laugh. “Who said anything about a relationship?”
Her lips, still glistening from our kiss, tip up at the corners. “Be grateful that I’m just as determined to stay single as you are. Because if I wasn't, you'd be in real trouble.”
I laugh. “You’re crazy.”
"So, you’re telling me that kiss didn’t fry your circuits?”
"I've had better.” I lie again.
She laughs and shakes her head. “Okay. If that’s how you want to play it. But I’ve never felt like that with anyone. I’ve come close once…and trying to forget him led me to do wildly stupid things - like get married. I don’t even want to imagine the kind of carnage you’d leave behind if I let you.”
“So, we’re attracted to each other. Why are you making it sound like that means something?”
“The fact that you pretend it doesn’t, is exactly why you should stay away from me. Think of it as an act of self-preservation.”
I scoff. “I haven’t asked you for anything.”
“Oh, but you did. Specifically, you asked to suck my nipples, and fuck and kiss me at the same time.”
Heat flushes up my neck and blood rushes to my dick just hearing her say those words to me.
“And you’re telling me you don’t want me to?”
She stands up, suddenly. “I knew you'd do this. Touch me and try and to pretend you didn't mean it."
“You’re the one who kissed me.”
"Really?" she asks, exaggerating the R so her lips pucker making them even more delectable. “You want to do this dance, Tyson? Fine. I’m game. But, and I bet you...anything you want...that it's you, not me, who'll break first."
I eye her, intrigued. “I’m starting to think you want me to swallow that hook you keep dangling?”
She walks over to stand toe to toe with me and gazes up into my eyes, all humor gone from her expression. “Maybe I do. Wishing for things I can’t have is kind of my specialty. You’re better off just ignoring me.”
I’m confounded by this woman.
“Good night, Tyson. And Merry Christmas.”
Then she turns on her pretty little heel and walks away.
I sit in the chair she just vacated and am surprised to find it warm from her body.
I replay our conversation and I find myself stuck every time I get to the end of it. She looked me straight in the eye, she didn’t pretend or play coy. And after growing up in a home built on secrets and lies, I find that very appealing.
And terrifying.
I’m not interested in anyon
e taking a deep dive into my thoughts and feelings. I don’t know what she saw that night, but I remember what I felt.
And she’s right. I could find myself in the same spiral of hell I’ve watched all my friends and family go through and that is the last thing I want.
I’ve been served well by being unapologetically self-centered, ambitious, and unavailable. She’s right about one thing, distance is the best thing for both of us.
The sooner I get out of Rivers Wilde, the better.
Chapter 11
Kal
Wilde at Heart
“What the hell is going on?” Remi’s angry voice startles me out of my tranquil doze. I sit up too fast, my feet slip from their perch, and I slide into the soapy hot water. I scramble to grip the side of the tub and stop myself from sliding all the way under.
I glower up at Remi, who’s standing over me like some sort of avenging angel. “What are you doing?”
His scowl deepens and he shakes his head. “You got the job at CNN.”
My stomach falls and I close my eyes against the accusation in his eyes.
“Who told you?”
“Dean. He thought I knew. But what I don’t understand is why you didn’t you tell me?”
“I can explain,” I say my voice heavy with dread. I steel myself and then reach over to snap my before I stand up to get out of the tub.
He steps back to give me room and watches me in a heavy, stony silence while I slip it on and tie the belt.
“I’m sorry. I got the offer and I decided to turn it down. And I just hadn’t figured out how to tell you, or Dean yet.”
He closes the space between us in one stride and grabs me by the arms. “I don’t understand. You’re turning it down?”
I nod, but keep my miserable eyes on his chest, not sure where to begin.
“Why? This is the thing you’ve been working toward your whole career.”
He cups my chin and lifts my head up until our eyes meet. When he sees the abject misery in mine, his expression softens and he slides his hands up to cup my shoulders and squeezes them gently. “You can tell me anything, babe. You know that.”
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