HERO: An Unfit Hero Novel

by Faiman, Hayley

  “Yes,” I hiss.

  “Fuck, yes,” he agrees.

  No other words are spoken. His slow and hard thrusts change. Everything about the way he’s moving flips. It’s as if something changes instantly. He pulls back and slams deep on a groan, and then his thumb slips inside of my back entrance and he lets out a growl before his thrusts come in short, hard, hot motions. He fucks me. He fucks me hard, and I welcome every single slam of his hips against my ass.

  My hips jerk, my orgasm crashing through me with little warning. Wyatt buries himself deep inside of me with a long groan and then I feel his cock twitch. We stay frozen in our positions for long enough to catch our breaths, then he slowly slides out of me, his thumb slipping out of my ass and I let out a moan when he does.

  I collapse back on my stomach, and close my eyes, inhaling and exhaling deeply trying to calm my still racing heart. Wyatt leaves the bed, but I can’t do anything other than stay where I am.

  The bathroom door opens, closes, then opens again and I feel the bed dip. Wyatt kisses a path from my lower back all the way up my spine until I feel his warm chest against my back and his lips just below my ear.

  “I have to get ready for work, I gotta pick up Rylan. Stay as long as you want, hell, stay all day and I can just pick you up here,” he murmurs.

  Rolling onto my back, I look up into his eyes, his chest hovering above me, his light brown eyes focused on nothing but me, and his brown hair mussed up and gorgeous. I sigh at the simple, yet monumental moment that is right in front of us.

  He lowers his head, maybe feeling the same way as I am. His lips brush over mine once, twice, three times before he slants his head and his tongue slips past my lips and sweeps through my mouth. I sigh, wrapping my legs around his waist and pull him down on me, needing to feel his heavy weight.

  Wyatt groans, his lips slowly breaking the kiss, then he moves his lips over to the side of my ear, where he always seems to end up. He sighs, his breath warm against my already heated skin.

  “Stay here forever if you want, sugar,” he murmurs.

  I laugh softly, knowing that he isn’t truly serious, but loving the words anyway. “I have to go see MawMaw today, take her to the store and stuff. I’ll come back here when I’m finished. What time will you be home?” I ask, my lips finding his neck and I can’t stop myself from tasting him there.

  He hums. “Around six,” he grunts, his voice raspy and deep. “You gotta stop, sugar, or I’m gonna have to fuck you again, then I’ll be late.”

  I stop, reluctantly. He dips his chin, his lips finding mine and kisses me, his beard tickling my face and I giggle. He leaves the bed for the second time, except I know he won’t be back here until tonight and I can’t hide my disappointment.

  “You go get tested?” he asks, his voice hesitant.

  I don’t blame him either, I kind of flipped out about it when he broached the topic. Sitting up, I tug the sheet over my naked breasts.

  “I did, I’ll know in about a week,” I call out.

  I hear him moving around the bathroom, then the water in the shower starts. He peeks his head out from around the door, a huge smile on his face. He looks young in this moment, and it dawns on me that I don’t know his real age.

  “How old are you?” I blurt out.

  He blinks, then frowns slightly before he smiles again. “Thirty, and you?” he asks.

  “Twenty-five,” I answer immediately.

  “Good. Oh, and I went and got tested, too,” he mentions. He turns around, his perfectly sculpted ass on display before he turns his head to look back at me. “Next week I’m fuckin’ you bare, sugar. Goddamn, it’s like fuckin’ Christmas.”

  I open my mouth to respond, but he steps into the shower and closes the door behind him before he starts to sing some country song. I smile at his words. Like Christmas. He’s crazy. Completely crazy. He’s mine, too and I don’t know if I should be thinking of him as that because I know it’s only temporary, but fuck it, I am. He’s mine and I am definitely his.

  WYATT

  Leaving Exeter in my home, naked in my bed, was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in the whole fucking world. I did it, though, and I just have to get through today’s workday, then I can have her again.

  It’s new, which is extra exciting, but I also know that she’s real. I don’t think she’s playing, or faking anything about herself. She hasn’t told me a lot, but what I’ve seen is genuine and I have completely enjoyed everything about her, even her bout of jealousy, which was hot as fuck.

  Checking my rubber gloves, I look up at the pole and let out a sigh. I’m going to be spending the day up in the bucket again. I know my entire body will be aching by tonight. I grin, wondering if Exeter will give me a massage, then I shiver, imagining her small soft hands rubbing my entire body.

  “Your rubbers good?” my foreman asks, walking up to me.

  I finish my check, then lift my chin. These rubber gloves and sleeves are my lifesavers. If a wire happens to be hot, and there’s a hole, even a pinhole in these, then I could be electrocuted and die, or lose a limb.

  I’m pretty sure Exeter would like to keep me whole, so even though I always check my rubbers, today I double check them.

  “They’re good,” I grunt.

  “Get this shit up and running. You been watching the news?” he asks as we walk away from the rest of the crew and toward my bucket truck.

  I frown, honestly, I haven’t been looking at the weather reports at all, which is unlike me. I’m a lineman that keeps his pulse on mother nature, she’s a fickle bitch, but the weather can make or break a man in my line of work.

  Some years it’s feast or famine, and we’ve had hurricanes consistently in the past couple of years so we’ve been on a steady incline workwise. We just came home from one, and now I’m wondering what else is on the way. By the look on my foreman’s face, it’s nothing good.

  “Hurricane’s coming, it’s headed straight for Florida and they’re saying it’s going to make its way all the way up the east coast and to New York. It’s fucking huge already, due to hit in a week,” he explains.

  “Fuck,” I groan.

  He nods. “Could be two weeks before they even let us go, you know they don’t like to send us long before it hits.”

  Lifting my hand, I place my palm on my hard hat and let out a sigh. “Yeah.”

  Shit.

  “Worse yet?”

  I hold my breath and wait. “There’s another one formin’ right behind it, could be two in a goddamn row, in the same fucking path.”

  “Damn,” I whistle.

  “No fuckin’ shit,” he grunts.

  I lift my chin, my silent thanks for the update, then I head toward the truck. The rest of the day, my mind is completely preoccupied, not only with Exeter, but now with this news of these hurricanes. I don’t want to leave her for a few months, not when we’re still getting to know one another.

  Mentally, I decide to push our relationship on an even faster path. I don’t give a fuck what that says about me. I know that I want her, that she wants me, and that’s that. She’s going to be living with me eventually anyway, I’m just going to speed up the timeline. She’ll have to get over it.

  I don’t really talk to anyone for the rest of the day. Once we’re at the yard, I wave to the rest of the crew and me and Rylan walk over to my pickup. We climb inside, hot and dirty from a long day’s work.

  “You okay?” he asks.

  Shrugging, I start my truck. “It’s that Exeter chick?” he asks.

  I almost tell him everything, that I’ve been fucking her and I’m going to demand she moves in with me, but something stops me from telling him. I don’t know what it is, but it almost feels like if I talk about her, I’ll jinx it.

  “She’ll come around,” he murmurs.

  Driving him home, I think about the fact that he’s getting married tomorrow. I don’t know how he turned into the man that he is sitting next to me. He was always the stoner in
school, my goof-off cousin that was too smart to be dealing dope and acting like a goddamn fool.

  Then, his life changed in an instant, that car crash changed everything and five years later he’s sitting next to me, about to marry a woman who is pregnant with another man’s baby. He’s taking on that woman, and that baby, and doing it proudly. He’s going to give them his last name and he’s clean and sober.

  “Rylan?” I call out, pulling up in front of his house after our silent drive.

  He stops, turning his head to look over at me. “Really fuckin’ proud of you, cousin,” I murmur.

  A slow smile spreads on his face and he shakes his head once. “That girl is turning you into a bitch,” he chuckles, but he doesn’t leave, he levels me with a look, and I can’t decipher it immediately. “Thanks though, Wy. Couldn’t be this man without you.”

  He doesn’t allow me to respond, and I’m fucking thankful for it. I watch him jump down from the truck, then jog inside of the small duplex where his woman is waiting for him. Pulling out onto the street, I grin as I head toward my own house, where I have a woman of my own waiting for me.

  Chapter Thirteen

  WYATT

  Exeter’s car is parked along the curb in front of my house when I arrive, and I let out a sigh of relief. I haven’t been able to really text her today, and I wasn’t sure she would be here like I’d asked. She seems a bit hesitant, and I can’t quite read her yet.

  Climbing out of the truck, I send Cindy a text letting her know that I’ll be at the first address in twenty minutes. She confirms with a kissing face emoji. I roll my eyes as I climb the steps to the house. Wrapping my hand around the doorknob, I push it open.

  “Sugar, it’s me,” I call out, wondering why she didn’t have the front door locked.

  Frowning, I move through the house, but she’s nowhere to be seen. That is until I hear the sliding back door. Walking from my bedroom, I see her standing in the kitchen, a glass of water in her hand, her head tipped as she drinks.

  “Where were you?” I bark.

  Anger courses through my veins, a type of anger that I’ve never experienced before. She jumps, holding her water glass out and spills some on the floor, but is careful not to spill on herself. Her wide eyes find mine and she lets out a heavy exhale.

  “You scared me,” she points out. I grunt. The feeling is very fucking mutual, but I don’t say that. I wait for her answer. “I was out in the back, soaking up some sun before you came home. Your yard needs some work,” she says, scrunching her nose.

  “Don’t give much a fuck about a fancy yard,” I state, my anger subduing a tiny bit, but not much.

  She rolls her eyes, setting the glass in the sink, then shuffles her bare feet toward me. “You should, it’s a cute little yard.”

  “Not planning on living here after the weekend, so it doesn’t much fucking matter,” I growl.

  Exeter tips her head back, her eyes round as she looks up at me. “You’re not?” she asks.

  I shake my head, lifting my dirty hand to cup her cheek. “I’m not,” I nod.

  “Where will you live?” she asks before wetting her lips with her tongue.

  I can’t stop my smile, it’s slow and I’m sure maybe a little wicked looking. “With you,” I state. I hear her small intake of breath as she gasps. “Until whichever house we pick closes escrow, then you’ll be moving in with me,” I announce.

  “You’re crazy,” she laughs.

  Reaching out for her, I wrap my hands around her waist and tug her against my chest. My chin dips and my mouth finds her smiling one. She may think I’m crazy, fuck, I probably am insane, but I don’t care. I’ve found her, and I’m never letting her go. Exeter is mine, she’s already tried to run, tried to push me away more than once, and I won’t allow it anymore.

  “Ain’t crazy,” I state. “Just a man who knows what he wants, when he wants it, and how he wants it.”

  My eyes stay connected to hers, watching and waiting for her to say something, to deny that whatever this is between us isn’t bigger than the both of us. It is. This is unstoppable, no matter how hard she pushes, a man like me will only take so much and I’m not a patient man, not when it comes to her.

  “Wyatt,” she breathes.

  Taking a step toward her, I reach out, wrapping my hand around her waist and tugging her against my chest. Dipping my chin, I press my lips against her own.

  “You’re mine, sugar. You belong in my bed every fuckin’ morning, naked and satisfied. I know what I want, and it’s you.”

  “We barely know one another,” she breathes.

  I shake my head. “Don’t matter. Knew you were different the fucking second I laid eyes on you in Pardners.” Her face pales slightly at my words, but I ignore it, taking a step back, I grin down at her, attempting to ease her a bit. “Ready? We’re already gonna be late.”

  “Okay,” she says, her voice hesitant.

  Moving my hand from her waist to her hand, I wrap my fingers around hers and tug her behind me. She follows, though I can tell it’s a bit reluctant. She’ll get over it. We make our way outside and I help her climb into the pickup before I jog over to the driver’s side and jump up inside.

  The drive to the first property is in silence. I glance over to Exeter every so often from the corner of my eyes. She looks like she’s lost in thought and I wish that I could read her better.

  “You heard from your cousin?” I gently ask as I turn down the old dirt road that leads me to the first place.

  She turns to me, her face nothing but sadness. “She’s getting help, which is so desperately needed.”

  “Maybe she’ll be out soon.” I shrug.

  She shakes her head. “She won’t. She shouldn’t be.” I don’t say anything else. Family is a bitch, and I have a feeling Exeter and her cousin have been through some serious shit in their lives. “How’s your MawMaw?” I ask.

  She shrugs. “Feisty.”

  Pulling into the gravel circle drive, I park behind Cindy’s black BMW. It’s covered in a thick layer of dirt and I wonder why she has such an expensive car to show property out here, it seems wasteful. “That’s your realtor?” Exeter asks, her head turned toward the front of the house.

  Cindy is standing on the front porch, wearing a miniskirt, five-inch heels, and a top so low that I can practically see her nipples. Fuck.

  Clearing my throat, I open the door deciding not to answer her question. I can already tell that this is going to be uncomfortable as shit, though why I thought it would be anything but, I don’t know. I was stupid to use her, especially with Exeter in tow.

  Walking over to the passenger side of the truck, I open the door and hold out my hand to help Exeter down. Her eyes don’t meet mine and I let out a sigh. Once she’s on her feet, I slide my hand around her waist, and tug her against my side.

  Cindy takes a step down to greet us, her lips trembling and her step faltering, but it only lasts a second. She plasters on her perfect smile and holds out her hand.

  “I’m Cindy, I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you before, hun.”

  “Exeter White,” she murmurs, taking Cindy’s offered hand.

  Cindy releases Exeter’s hand and shifts her gaze over to me. “This is the first place, Wyatt. Though I think you’ll like the second place better,” she smiles.

  “Doesn’t matter what I like,” I shrug. “Matters what Exeter likes.”

  I make it clear who and what Exeter is to me so that there can be no doubt. Sure, I fucked Cindy, but we were never anything but physical. I’ve fucked a lot of women in this town, none of them are Exeter and none of them mean anything to me, not like she does.

  “Well then, shall we see this first place?” Cindy asks, turning on her toes and begins to walk back up the front porch stairs.

  Taking a step forward, Exeter doesn’t move with me and I pause, looking back at her. “It only matters what I like?” she asks.

  Knitting my brows together, I dip my chin. “Yeah, su
gar. I could give a fuck about anything more than a roof over my head. You’re going to have to live here too, I want to make sure it’s what you want.”

  “Wyatt, I never agreed to that, and I can’t pick a house. That’s too big, and it’s not my money. I can’t,” she protests.

  My lips turn up into a grin. “Sugar.”

  “Don’t sugar me,” she says, narrowing her eyes.

  Closing the short distance between us, I lower my chin. Brushing my mouth across hers, I slide my tongue over the seam of her lips, nibbling on her plump bottom lip.

  “Exeter,” I murmur against her mouth. “You’re mine, whatever home you like I’ll buy, and you’ll move in, because I’m all in, sugar.”

  She sighs, opening her mouth and I take the moment to slip my tongue inside and taste her. I’m sure Cindy is steaming at the front door, but I could give a fuck, the world ends and begins with the woman in my arms, everything and everyone else can fucking wait.

  Slowly, I break the kiss and look down into Exeter’s blue eyes. She looks vulnerable, and a little sad, but she sinks her teeth into her bottom lip with a sigh. “You know you’re crazy?”

  I shrug. “I know what I want.”

  “You think that’s me,” she states.

  Pressing my lips against hers one last time, I take a step back, my gaze still focused on hers. “I know what I want, Exeter. I know it’s you, don’t try to convince me otherwise.”

  Turning from her, I grip her hand in mine and pull her up the porch steps and into the home where a pissed off looking Cindy is waiting for us.

  EXETER

  The first home is, nice. It’s a little older, but clean. Cindy walks around, pointing out different features, but I know without a doubt that this isn’t Wyatt’s home. Glancing up to him, I watch as he looks around, his face impassive. It’s a barndominium, it’s small, narrow and he actually looks like a giant walking around in the space.

  “This property is on twelve acres, which includes a small pond and a small seasonal stream,” Cindy babbles.