Safe With You (10 page)

He moved back down running his hands from my knees up my thighs, pushing them apart.  He followed his hand
s with hot kisses up my inner thighs.  I leaned back on one hand while the other fisted in Wyatt’s hair urging him closer.  He chuckled lightly and moved the fabric of my bikini bottoms aside and I felt his breath on me.

I didn’t think it could get any better than what he’d done last night, but I was wrong.  The man could work wonders with his tongue and almost embarrassingly
soon I was begging him, “Wyatt…I’m so close.”

“I know
, baby…let go for me.”  His words sent me over the edge and he didn’t stop until my body stopped quaking and I gave a gentle tug on his hair.  I laughed as he rose up to kiss me.  “I’ll never want to stop doing that, baby.”

“Thank God,” I sighed.  He pulled me back into the water with him and
I rubbed my body against his feeling him hard against my stomach.  He put his hands on my shoulders and I knew he was trying to put some distance between us.  But there was no way I was letting that happen again.  I would tie him up if I had to…hmmm, interesting thought.

I took his hands off my shoulders and put them back on my ass.  “
I am taking advantage of you tonight, Wyatt.  I’m not letting your hard work go unrewarded.”

“
Taryn…” he started.  “Sshhh,” I said pressing one finger to his lips and trailing my other hand over his chest and down his rippled abs to the waistband of his swim trunks.  He groaned and gripped my ass tighter when my hand moved inside his trunks and slid over him.  He buried his face in my neck, his breathing harsh, while I brought him as much pleasure as he had given me.

When we finally got out of the pool
much later, Wyatt wrapped a towel around me and placed a kiss on my forehead.  “Stay with me tonight?”  I asked.  He laced our fingers together and squeezed, “Nothing could keep me away.”  That night I slept better than I could ever remember, wrapped in Wyatt’s arms, snuggled against his chest, his breath rustling in my hair.

I was alone again when I woke up and was slightly pissed off about that until I heard my mom’s voice down the hallway.  Oh, shit.  I sat up quickly and looked around for any evidence that Wyatt had stayed in here with me.  I breathed a sigh of relief that my mom hadn’t walked in to find me sleeping in the same bed as my bodyguard.  Against Wyatt’s wishes I had slept in only a tank top and panties.  I had wanted as little as possible bet
ween us.

So, now I pulled on my short robe and belted it around my waist before leaving my room.  I found my mom,
dad, Wyatt and Dominic in the dining room chatting and drinking coffee.  “Hi!” I said giving her a hug and my dad a kiss on the cheek.  “Hi sweetie, I’m glad you decided to join us before lunchtime,” she teased.  I rolled my eyes and glanced over at Wyatt.  He had a polite smile on his face and nodded at me.

“Mr.
Hunter was just giving us the details of your exciting time trapped here in the apartment,” my dad said and I nearly choked on the coffee I was sipping.  Dominic reached over and thumped my back, “Yeah, he was just saying we needed to get out today because you’ve been so bored here.”

“Oh, right,” I replied and caught Wyatt’s mouth turn up in just the slightest smirk.  “So we can go do something today?”
I asked wanting the conversation on safer ground.

“Yes.  I thought we could have a girls
’ day.  Shopping and lunch with Lindsay and Lisa.  How does that sound?” My mom asked me.

“It sounds perfect, Mom. 
Are you working today, Dad?”

“As much as I would love a girls
’ day, I do have work to do,” he joked.

We met Lindsay and her mom, Lisa
, at the restaurant.  Over lunch I grilled my mom on everything that was going on with Dad and his decision to run for President.  She said exactly what he had already told me – that he hadn’t made a decision yet, and we would need to discuss it as a family because it would mean big changes for all of us.  I knew he had always wanted this, and his popularity was at an all time high right now.  I also knew the only reason he wouldn’t run would be to spare me the public scrutiny.  I made the decision then and there that I couldn’t let that happen.

Wyatt and Dominic had come out with us, of course, and
it was hard to remember to act like he was just my bodyguard.  However, after we got up to leave and my mom took a good look at Wyatt’s ass and then raised her eyebrows at me, I didn’t think I needed to pretend anymore. 

“Did your mom just check out his ass?”
Lindsay whispered to me when we got outside.  I covered my mouth with my hand and nodded.  “I think she knows.  I just hope she keeps it from my dad.”  The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping and catching up on gossip from Lisa before going home to a wonderful dinner prepared by Rosa.

I knew Wyatt would never
venture into my room with my parents here, so after putting on pajama shorts and a t-shirt and brushing my teeth, I went across the hall to Wyatt’s room.  I saw Dominic down the hall headed into the kitchen and he smirked at me.  “Sleep well, Miss Ross.”  I rolled my eyes at his use of my formal name and slipped into Wyatt’s room closing the door quietly behind me.

I heard the
shower running in his bathroom, and I really wanted to go join him.  Instead I climbed onto the bed putting my phone down on the nightstand and flipped on the TV, finding something on HGTV.  A few minutes later I heard the shower shut off and Wyatt came out with just a towel wrapped around his waist.  His hair was wet and wild and there were droplets of water still on his chest and arms.  When he saw me he paused rubbing another towel over his hair and his mouth tightened.

“
Taryn, what are you doing in here?”  I snapped my eyes up from where they had lingered on his chest.  “What?”  He chuckled lightly and shook his head at my obvious ogling.  “You shouldn’t be in here.  Your parents are right down the hall.”  I scooted off the bed and walked over the stand in front of him tracing my fingers over the defined muscles of his stomach.

“Actually
their room is way on the other side of the apartment.  Sooo….”  I trailed off as I leaned forward to lick a drop of water off his chest.  He gripped my upper arms tightly, but didn’t push me away, and he warned me in a low rough voice, “Taryn, baby, you can’t do things like that.  I only have so much self-control and you’ve almost used it all up.”  I had really just intended to hang out for a while, so I backed away with my hands up in surrender.

“Okay, okay.  I’ll behave.”  He released my arms and placed a kiss on my forehead before grabbing a pair of boxer briefs.  His hand was on his towel, but I stopped him before he could let it drop.  “If you want me to keep my hands to myself, then you need to get dressed in there
,” I said pointing to the bathroom.

Chapter
Twelve

Hidden Camera

Later after introducing Wyatt to the joys of House Hunters, we lay snuggled together on top of the covers, both on our sides facing each other with our legs entwined.  I was running my fingers through his thick hair, and his hand was tracing patterns on my upper thigh.  “Can I ask you something?” He said.  “Of course,” I replied.

“Why me?”
He said in a voice laced with hesitation as if he needed to ask the question but was afraid to hear the answer.  “When we first met I sensed that you don’t open up easily, and Lindsay mentioned that you only really trust your family.”  I raised an eyebrow, “Lindsay, huh?  What else did she ‘mention’?”  Now I was the one afraid to hear the answer.

“
Well…she might have warned me not to hurt you.  Threatened me actually.”  I laughed imagining my petite cousin going up against all 6’3” of Wyatt.  I realized Wyatt was still looking at me intently and he really needed my answer.  I rose up on my elbow and traced a finger over his eyebrow and down his cheek.

“Why you?
  It’s kind of hard to explain, but I’ll try.  Lindsay was right that I don’t really let anyone know me, really know me.  But right away I knew, I just knew, that you would be different.  I was certainly intimidated by your hotness at first.”  Wyatt chuckled at that.  “My hotness?”  I nodded, “Mmm hmm.  Hot Coffee Guy.”  He outright laughed at that.

“Seriously though, I remember the first time I looked over and you were looking right at me.  It was like you could see right into my soul.  That might sound
silly, but for me it was an instant connection.  For whatever reason, I trust you more than I’ve ever trusted anybody.  I don’t know what it is, Wyatt.  I just know I’ll never want to be with anyone else.”

I had been looking down during my little speech and now I peeked up through my lashes to see his reaction.  He was so deep in thought I could almost see the wheels spinning in his mind. 
“So why me?” I turned his question around on him.  His eyes came back into focus and he gazed at me like he was seeing me for the first time.

“I’ve told you what my life has been like since my brother died.  It was like the world was in shades of gray, until I saw you.  You were in vibrant brilliant color.  The more I saw you and then talked to you, the more my world filled back up with color.
  I knew it was wrong to want you, but I couldn’t stay away.  I couldn’t go back to living without color.  Without you.”  My eyes filled with tears at his beautiful words, and one escaped to fall down my cheek.  Wyatt brushed it away and then traced his thumb over my bottom lip, following it with a gentle brush of his lips against mine.

We were still wrapped up in each other, and I knew I should go back to my room soon,
when my phone beeped.  It was well after midnight, and as much as I wanted to ignore it I had to make sure it wasn’t Lindsay with some kind of emergency.  So I rolled away from Wyatt and grabbed my phone off the nightstand.

Ryan:  Hey babe.  You ready to talk yet?

Seriously?  This was borderline stalkerish, and I really wanted to tell him to fuck off, but I decided ignoring him was probably the smartest thing to do.

“Everything okay?”
Wyatt asked me with a concerned look on his face.  I forced a smile onto my face and sat up, “Yup.  I just have to pee.”  By the time I closed the bathroom door behind me my phone beeped again.

Ryan:  I see you need some motivation.

What does that mean?  Before I could ponder Ryan’s cryptic message, another text came in with a video attached.

Ryan:  Fundraiser at my parents’ place tomorrow.  6:00pm. Be there or this goes public.

I couldn’t imagine what could possibly be on that video that would compel me to go to his dad’s fundraiser, but my curiosity got the best of me and I tapped the screen to play the video.  The screen lit up with me…and Wyatt…on the steps of the pool.  My loud moans filled the bathroom and I watched frozen in place as Wyatt kissed his way up my thigh.  When his hand reached for my bikini bottoms my phone dropped from my hands, crashing on the floor and breaking apart, and I stumbled back until I ran into the wall.  I clasped my hands over my mouth and my eyes filled with tears.

I barely had time to recover before Wyatt opened the door. 
“Taryn?  What’s wrong?”  I dropped to my knees to reassemble my phone, letting my hair fall in front of my face so he couldn’t see my expression.  “Um, nothing.  I…I just dropped my phone,” I mumbled, praying that he wouldn’t notice the tremor in my voice.  “I should get back to my room.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”  I could feel his eyes on me and I imagined the concern I would find there if I looked at him.  I just nodded and stood up, making sure to flip the light off so he couldn’t see me well. 
I hugged him and gave him a quick kiss before slipping out of his room and into mine.  I knew I wouldn’t sleep tonight, and I couldn’t stay with him while I tried to figure this out.

Most of the night was
spent pacing the floor in my bedroom, racking my brain for a way out of this.  A million questions raced through my mind.  First and foremost was how in the hell did Ryan get that video of us.  And what did he want from me?  He didn’t need money, so it had to be something else.  I was terrified that what he wanted was me.  How far could I go to protect my reputation, Wyatt’s privacy and my father’s public image?  Yes, I was an adult and it was perfectly acceptable for me to engage in adult activities.  But what little I saw was basically a sex tape – I wasn’t sure a presidential campaign could survive a sex tape.

I finally lay down around 5:00 am, and I heard Wyatt come in about an hour later.  I was facing away from the door and I kept my eyes closed and my breathing even as he sat on the bed and gently
brushed my hair off my face.  He had to have wondered why I left so abruptly, but I just couldn’t tell him about this.  Not yet.  When he left my room a few minutes later, I decided it was time to wake Lindsay up.

Me:  Wake up.  I need you here now.

Lindsay: 
What’s up?

Me:  Just get here.  Code Red.

Code Red was something Lindsay and I
came up with when we were kids.  We were only supposed to say it if it was a ‘drop everything’ emergency.  Neither of us had used it in years, but this situation seemed appropriate.