Little White Lies (22 page)

Charley squeezed her lips tight.

“Charley Randall, will you marry me?”

23

Charley looked down at Wyatt. So many years had passed—the secrets he still didn’t fully understand yet accepted.

How could she say ‘no’?

She locked her gaze on his, took his free hand in hers, and squeezed as the smile escaped.

“Yes, I will marry you and give you my heart and soul, and everything I can offer you.”

Wyatt slipped the ring from the box as his smile sent a rush of love and power through Charley. She held her hand out to him—the ring fit—if it hadn’t, Charley would have corrected the problem on the fly. “It’s beautiful, Wyatt.” She watched as it sparkled in the sunlight.

Stuart started a chant of “Kiss her! Kiss her!”

Wyatt’s hands cupped her neck. He continued to stare at her as if consumed. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Charley said.

He seized her lips with his. She slid her hands around him as they stood, and the group engulfed them, pressing and pulling the two of them into their fold.

“We’re going to have a wedding!” Lily added her arms to their circle.

In the middle, under all the legs and assorted feet, Chase reappeared and tucked himself between Charley and Wyatt. Excitement flowed, but Chase stopped them all. An eight-year-old only had so much of an attention span.

“Wanna see a trick?”

Charley wiped a tear from her eye as she sniffed. “Absolutely.”

Chase closed his eyes and scrunched up his nose. In one swift move, his body dropped to the floor and folded upon itself like an accordion. His clothes landed in a heap.

Charley assumed Wyatt watched in horror, but noted a look of intense curiosity as Chase turned into his mouse form in front of them.
That is Chase, not a mouse. That is Chase, not a mouse.
She shivered but held her ground.

Lily squealed for good measure, as did Sophie, who’d walked in during Wyatt’s proposal, but her screech actually held merit.

Maggie, who fell into her chair again, bore the expression that Charley would etch into her mind. Someone else had impressed Maggie Reynolds more than she could herself.

One for the record books.

“Okay, Chase, go ahead and come back,” Cael said.

The little mouse turned his nose up to Charley, pointed it to Cael, and returned to Charley.

“He wants his clothes.” Maggie chuckled.

“Oh!” Charley leaned down to the little mouse. “Forgot that part twice now, didn’t ya?” She tapped him on his head with her fingertip.

“C’mon, mouse-boy.” James picked up the Chase-mouse and his clothes. “We’ll be right back.”

They disappeared around the corner, and two minutes later, Chase returned in Chase form, held in James’s arms, one eye half open, the other closed.

“He’s already out, isn’t he?” Charley asked from within the circle of Wyatt’s arms.

A double transformation, by an untrained little boy, in the space of less than ten minutes had to mean complete exhaustion.

James nodded and laid Chase in Sophie’s lap on the couch.

Chase’s eyes fluttered as he leaned against Sophie. “That … was … so … cool.” He dropped into deep sleep.

“Yes, it was,” Charley whispered.

“Celebratory lunch!” Lily called and moved into the kitchen. “Twenty minutes!”

“After Chase wakes up, we need to finish our preparations,” Charley said.

“I agree. But a quick break would be nice, too.” Wyatt leaned down and nuzzled her ear. “Let’s take it together.”

Charley glanced around the room. “We’re going up to the balcony for a minute.”

No one looked at her. Sophie rested with Chase, Stuart at her side. Maggie must have lost herself in thought, with her head in her hands. James and Cael averted their eyes at Charley’s glance.

She smiled at their wordless offer. “You get nineteen minutes,” Charley whispered to Wyatt. “Because Lily is not very nice to people who come late to a party.”

• • •

They walked until they reached the living room door and Charley sprinted up the stairs, two at a time, Wyatt in her wake. The whoosh of a shirt as Wyatt pulled his off along with a snap from his belt came two steps later. She passed through her door and kicked it shut behind them.

From behind her, Wyatt pulled her into his arms and tossed her on her ivory, down-covered bed. She landed in mid-undress, her shirt halfway over her head, laughter bouncing through the room.

Topless, Wyatt pounced on her. He stripped the rest of her T-shirt off her and threw it to the floor exposing her breasts. He ravaged the pale skin with his hands, and coaxed Charley into a frenzy that made her nerves sizzle.

“You taste like strawberry.” Wyatt’s groan matched that of Charley’s need.

Her hands sought the softness of his hair and the strength of muscles in his shoulders. She reached for his jeans—an inch too far away. Her nails raked up his sides and elicited both a moan and a chuckle. He slid up her body until his face loomed over hers, raised up on his elbows, and tangled his lips with hers.

Charley slid her hands between them. She traced a lazy finger around his belly button until she slipped a hand between skin and jeans.

His groan preceded her tug.

Trapped beneath the heat of Wyatt’s body, Charley left him to bite and pull at her as she maneuvered him out of his clothes.

“I want you.” Wyatt said it against her lips. “I’ve always wanted you.”

“You can have me. All of me.”

Charley drew her hands back to Wyatt’s face. His rough stubble had yet to be shaved. He slipped inside her depths with an ease that could only come from two who were meant to be together.

Wyatt circled with his hips, pushed faster as Charley’s body trembled. She matched his groan with a sigh as he drove himself in and out. He filled her in so many ways, touched her deep within. She inhaled his scent—male mixed with a spice she’d call his own.

Their lips remained riveted to each other as they stared into each other’s eyes. Charley arched to take him deeper. He speared her with desire and love. She matched his cadence faster than their hearts beat as they drove each toward the peak of pleasure.

“Wyatt—” Charley gripped his shoulders.

Their lips caressed, pressed and released.

“Tell me.” His breath caught on a gasp, and he repeated his demand with each thrust until she gave him what she knew he craved.

“I love you.”

He pushed her to the edge. Her body tensed with the onslaught, hips pressed against each other as her nails dug into his shoulders.

She stretched out the sensations, let them build and torment her until she wanted to scream.

“Tell me again.” He breathed in once—his eyes fixed on hers. “Tell me again.” The muscles in his arms bunched.

“I—”

“Tell me!” In that command, they both exploded in a fit of passion.

“—love you.” Charley’s slow smile grew with her reach above her head.

Wyatt laid his cheek against her breasts. He continued a slow slide despite the shiver that wracked her body. He’d brought her a level of happiness she’d never experienced before.

He shifted to Charley’s side, pulling her against his body, and wrapped his arms around her.

She reached with her left hand into the air where the aquamarine stone glistened on her third finger.

Wyatt touched the stone. “It’s unique.”

“It’s beautiful.” Charley angled it to hit the lights. It sparkled as she turned it right and left.

“I bought it for you to go with the necklace.” Wyatt fingered the chain she wore around her neck, exposed without clothes to hide it.

“I had to take it off when I found out it was you who’d called us … in case … well … you know.” She pulled the ring closer as he nodded against her. “But otherwise, I’ve worn it forever.”

“I had it that night.” Wyatt’s tone took on a more serious note.

“That night, that night?” Charley turned into him. “Oh, god, Wyatt. I didn’t know. If only—”

“No ‘if onlys’, Charley. Nothing more than todays and tomorrows. My Mom brought that to me. I hadn’t forgotten about it, but Lily made me promise never to give it to anyone else.” His hand caressed her side as he spoke.

“There are still things, though—”

“Yeah, I figured as much. Can we delay them until after we get the bastards who kidnapped my new favorite—uh, what do I call him?”

“Nephew is what Cael and James use, though I think James will use ‘son’ now.” Charley laid her lips against Wyatt’s again.

“I do have a question.” His lips traced a path from her shoulder back to her lips. “Chase reminded me that Sunday is … well … your last day.”

“Yeah, and?” Charley asked as if it were an everyday question.

“So that gives me what? Only two days to live through every possible fantasy with you?”

Charley laughed, smiling against his lips. “Seriously?” She giggled as he dawdled fingertips against her skin, sending a rush of goose bumps along her arm.

“Oh yeah. I have a few ideas, and since you owe me a few years, I’m going to make use of them.” He smiled back at her.

“Okay, I’m game—”

Wyatt’s lips prevented any further words.

• • •

One minute later than they’d been given, Charley headed back to the kitchen as her stomach grumbled its reminder that they hadn’t eaten. Wyatt strolled a few steps behind, a look of pure satisfaction in his silly grin and twinkling eyes.

Lily’s head popped up from her spot at the counter. “You look like a woman glowing with the passion of really good—”

“Bananas.” Charley tilted her head—a reminder to Lily that Chase had ears like an elephant, even when asleep.

Lily mouthed ‘Oh, yeah’ and slid a sandwich in Charley’s direction. “Looks like you could use some energy, too. Expend a bit of it today, have you?”

“A few times.” Charley grinned and pulled herself up on the barstool.

“I’ll take half of that, seeing as how half yours and half of mine is in the near future.” Wyatt slid behind her, rested his head on her shoulder.

Lily smacked his hand with her spatula. “I have yours here.” She pulled another from the cabinet chiller and pushed the plate toward the lip of the counter.

Wyatt pulled himself up onto his own seat.

“He talked in his sleep,” Lily said.

Charley craned her neck to find Chase—she’d given him only a cursory glance as she walked by. He continued to lie in Sophie’s arms. “What did he say?”

James and Cael strolled in. “You guys are really bad, you know,” James said.

“Where’s Maggie?” Charley bit into the ham, tomato, cilantro and mayo creation Lily concocted; it never ceased to amaze her what Lily could do with food.

“Showering,” Cael said. “Said she needed a few and took off after you guys did. She’s using my room.”

Charley noted Lily’s pause, for the briefest of seconds, before she continued her kitchen cleanup. “What did Chase say?”

“He’s a good sneaker-outer,” Lily said. “We’re going to have to keep any eye on him in the future.”

Cael and James intermingled their stories from Chase’s sleep-induced recollection with what other facts and details he’d told them over the course of a couple days. A bramble bush, under which he transformed from mouse to human the second time, gave him the scratches. He’d had plenty of time to regret his clothes hadn’t changed with him. The socks and underwear had been castaways he’d found on the side of the road. Yet, his biggest fear had been getting in trouble for leaving without an adult.

“You guys must be slave drivers.” Wyatt winked at Charley.

“I think we’ve just had to instill so many levels of secrecy in him that, at his age, he hasn’t yet found the line of what to keep secret without guilt,” James said.

Charley nodded as she finished her bite. “I’d agree with that.”

Cael rubbed the space between his eyes. “He said I taught him stuff, Charley, but I didn’t show him how to freely transform and definitely not how to move to an animal. I showed him Boy Scout stuff—getting out of ropes and ties and some survival techniques we learned together from TLC, combined with … well … a little of what I can do.”

“It’s in his DNA.” Maggie came in, walked around the counter, and took her own stool at Lily’s right. “May I?” She pointed to a sandwich.

Lily pushed the tray to her. “All yours.”

“Can you elaborate, Maggie?” Charley took another bite.

“You guys were all taught to wait. I wasn’t. You guys were all taught to keep secrets. I wasn’t.” Maggie dug into her sandwich. “But I do, of course.”

Charley leaned into Wyatt’s shoulder. “Maggie’s a big-time Hollywood body double.”

“Along with a few others,” Maggie said through a mouthful of food.

“Wait.” Wyatt rattled his head. “There are more of you?”

“Somewhere around a hundred, maybe a few more. We don’t know the exact count because most of us live everyday normal lives and pretend we don’t have supernatural abilities,” Maggie said. “Some of us are talented enough to hide it unless our eye color changes, and some can even manage to swing that.”

“She’s right.” Cael dropped his forearms to the counter. “Some of us are on the good side of the law, others not so much. Some smarter than others. Some more talented. Have you ever known someone to up and change jobs, and they were just as good at the second as they were at the first but didn’t have any training that you knew of?”

Wyatt nodded.

“Probably one of us,” James said. “Some of us prefer to stay under the radar because when we give up our secret, the bad guys like to look for us to … keep us for themselves. Foreign governments … our own … the mob. We can take our skill and use it for good or evil. Those of us here use it for good.”

“I do, too.” Maggie’s statement came out a whine. “Britney and Halle both needed doubles.”

“And Benji, too?” James smirked.

“I did not double as the dog.” Maggie clenched her teeth. “Just because I can doesn’t mean I do.” She emphasized her point with a finger to the granite.

“No, of course not.” James’s voice grew deep and sad. “And just because you do … oh, yeah, that’s right … you don’t.” He pushed away from the bar and stalked out of the room.

“You’re going to need to play nice, Maggie.” Lily waved one of her more shiny blades in Maggie’s direction.