Wright Together, page 6
“Fine,” he said with a sigh. “You win.”
“Oh, I usually do.”
Then, I pulled him inside before he could argue.
I ordered heaps of food and cold Mexican Cokes. Whitton insisted on paying, and I didn’t even argue since it was going on the company per diem.
“To fun,” I said, holding up my glass bottle of Coke.
He clinked his glass against mine. “To fun.”
The food arrived ten minutes later with meat, potato salad, and macaroni and cheese piled high on oversize Styrofoam plates. We dug in, and it was just as incredible as I remembered. I hadn’t been here in years. My throat closed up at the thought.
“Well, you were right. It’s incredible,” Whitt said. He licked the sticky sauce off of his fingers.
“I know.”
“How’d you hear about this place?”
“Gram used to bring me here all the time. She knew the owner before he passed and his son took over.”
“Are you close with your grandma?”
“I was,” I said, emphasizing the past tense.
His face fell. “Sorry. I didn’t know.”
“Yeah. She passed last year.” I swallowed back the lump in my throat. “It was a lot. I still miss her.”
I nearly choked on those words. I hadn’t spoken about my grandma to anyone. She’d practically raised me, been my safe harbor, and when she got dementia, the world turned upside down. Her loss had made everything exponentially harder.
“I’m sorry, Eve.”
His hand reached across the picnic table and covered mine. Electricity shot through me at the touch. The pads of his fingers sent shock waves through my system. It would have been easy to lean into that, but I didn’t want sympathy. Sympathy made me uncomfortable in the same way that adventure made him uncomfortable. I didn’t need to be vulnerable with anyone. I could handle it.
I pulled my hand back with a laugh. “Yeah. It’s fine. She was in her eighties. What can you do?” I jumped to my feet. “You done?”
He nodded, and I snatched up his plate to toss it. But not before I saw the look on his face that said I was a mystery he was trying to solve. I dumped our plates in the trash can and felt Whitt follow me. I really didn’t want to make a big deal out of this. Not when I’d just gotten him to relax some. I was about to put on some heavy bravado when I heard the worst thing in the entire world.
“Evie Jo? Is that really you?”
I groaned. “No, no, no,” I muttered under my breath.
But I turned around anyway to see Rusty Cook eating up the short distance with his long legs. I straightened at the sight of him, my back going up to protect myself. He was a man in his fifties in tattered overalls and a flannel underneath with oil-rig-tanned skin and greasy hair, pulled back into a ponytail. And unfortunately, I’d known him most of my life.
“Evie Jo, that is you.”
“Hello, Rusty.”
Whitt looked between us, adjusting his posture so that he appeared even taller than he was. As if he could be a physical shield between me and this man. I didn’t know how he’d read me that quickly, but I hadn’t wanted to see anyone that I knew from home. Not with Whitt at my side. Not when I was dressed like I didn’t belong here anymore.
“Shoot. I almost didn’t recognize ya,” he said with a head tip in my direction. “Look at that fancy outfit. Ya look like a classy lady.”
“Thank you.”
“Who’s ya friend?” Rusty asked.
His expression wasn’t exactly kind as he looked at Whitt. No one around here liked outsiders. And Whitton, with his fancy suit and shiny shoes, definitely didn’t belong.
“Rusty, this is Whitton. We work together. Just here today for business. We actually have to get going.”
“Well, I don’t wanna keep ya, but I had to come say howdy.” Then, he continued on as if I hadn’t said we needed to leave. Typical. “Saw your pa round church last week. He misses ya, ya know? Good man, your pa.”
I jerked slightly backward at that phrase. A good man. A good man. “I’m so glad, Rusty, but really, we have to go.”
“Course, course. I’m gonna tell him that I saw ya. Ya been down to see him yet?”
“No,” I bit out. “No, I haven’t.”
Whitton didn’t miss my inflection that time. He took the step between me and Rusty, who was still running his mouth off, and cleared his throat. “We’re going to be going. Have a nice day.”
Rusty finally shut up. He looked up, up, up at Whitton’s intimidating frame before nodding. “Oh, sure. Good seeing you, Evie Jo.”
I waved good-bye and let Whitt hustle me out of there. By the time I was back out in the fresh air, I’d let the anger pass, and I was tired all over again. I should have thought about who I’d see at Lee’s, but I’d been so excited to take Whitt out of his comfort zone that I hadn’t considered what stepping into mine would mean.
To Whitt’s credit, he didn’t ask me any questions. He must have seen that I didn’t want to talk about it. Bless him.
“So…” he finally said once we were back on the road. I braced for the worst. “You know the closest liquor store?”
I whipped my head to him. “What?”
“Is there a liquor store nearby?”
“We’re in Texas. There are liquor stores on every block.”
“Good.”
“You want a drink?” I asked in surprise.
I’d heard West joke that drunk Whitt was the best Whitt, but I’d never seen it before. He’d always been buttoned-up Whitt in my presence.
“You said we were off the clock, right?”
“Yes…”
“We should celebrate our success today.”
Just like that, he’d walked away from the complication that I didn’t have any interest in addressing and pulled us right back into the game we’d been playing since he’d gotten back from Seattle.
I grinned devilishly. I could use a drink. “Turn left.”
9
Whitton
“Still can’t believe they had Wright wine in the liquor store,” Eve said as we carried our purchases upstairs. She hefted the bottle of red for me to see. “It has your name on it.”
“Yeah. It’s weird.”
Wright Vineyard had been started by Jordan, Julian, and Hollin as a joint venture. Between Jordan’s business acumen, Julian’s charisma, and Hollin’s vineyard work, it had taken off beyond their wildest dreams. They’d won state wine awards, and they were now distributing into most of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Colorado.
“Is it weird, working at a company of your namesake?”
“I’ve gotten used to it.” I swiped the key card against the door and gestured for her to go in before me.
To be honest, working at Wright was both as weird as she’d made it out to be and more incredible than I’d imagined.
Eve stepped inside, glanced at the bed, and then quickly away.
My eyes landed on it, too.
One bed.
Fuck me. How had my assistant gotten this so wrong?
Not that I didn’t want to hoist Eve over my shoulder, throw her down on the single bed in the room, and bury my cock in her. But there was more than one complication with that scenario. Starting with colleagues and ending with what had happened after the wedding. And everything in between was the way I wanted to wrap my hand around her throat and hold her down as I fucked her…and how that would probably scare her off forever.
I set the bottles of wine down on the desk and shifted my dick while she had her back turned. God, I was going to have blue balls for days if I didn’t take care of this.
“I have an idea!” Eve whipped around a second later.
I quickly moved my hand. “An idea?”
She rummaged through her bag and held up two very small articles of clothing. That was not helping.
“What’s that?”
“Hot tub,” she said with a smile. “Still want to have some fun, sir?”
Yes. Fuck yes, I did.
“I didn’t bring trunks,” was what came out of my mouth.
“I’m sure you brought something to lounge in. You do lounge, right?”
I arched an eyebrow. “I do.”
“Then, let’s go.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Unless she wanted me to fuck her.
“Well, you’re wrong.”
She waggled her eyebrows at me and darted into the bathroom. The door shut with a click, and I pushed my palm hard against my cock. I could not have a boner right now. I couldn’t change out of my suit or else she’d definitely fucking notice. My lounge shorts in a hot tub…it was a recipe for disaster.
A few minutes later, Eve opened the door again, and this time, she was in the tiny scrap of clothing she called a bikini. It was a hibiscus floral pattern in a square neck across her impressive rack with bottoms that came up high on her hips. Every ounce of ink was visible on her voluptuous body. She did a little twirl to reveal the full thong back of the bottoms.
I wanted to bite my fist to keep myself from reaching for her. Because, fuck, I wanted to reach for her. Wanted it something desperately. Her entire ass was on display. This was ten times worse than assless chaps. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Well, Wright, you game? We’re still off the clock.”
I forced down every vulgar thought I had at the sight of her. “Fine. I’ll meet you down there.”
She grinned, swinging a towel over her shoulder. “Sounds good. Bring the drinks!”
Then, she scampered off for the hotel hot tub. Lord help me if there were a ton of rodeo cowboys in the pool. I might have to evacuate the premises.
As soon as the door shut behind her, I stripped out of my suit and turned the shower to its coldest setting. The shock of the change in temperature jolted me to reality. I shivered in the freezing cold and only stepped out when I felt like I could put my shorts on without being at full mast for the entire hotel.
Once I toweled off, I changed into my shorts and a T-shirt and grabbed the alcohol on the way down. This was likely going to be a disaster, but how could I deny her when I’d seen her in that bikini? If she’d been wearing that after the wedding, I might have done whatever she wanted then, too.
I took the elevator to the main floor and swiped my key card to allow access to the pool. Blessedly, the hotel pool and hot tub were empty, save for Eve, who was already lounging in the bubbling water. Her head was tipped back, and I could see the full column of her throat. So much for the cold shower.
The door snapped shut noisily, and she lifted her head. “Took you long enough.”
I shrugged without giving an explanation. It wasn’t like I was about to tell her about the cold shower.
I dropped my towel on a table next to hers and set to opening the bottle of wine. I’d snagged the plastic cups from our room. It wasn’t fancy, but it would do.
I took both cups into the heated water. “Here you go.”
She took the cup. “Thanks.”
I sank into the stone seat across from her and took a sip of the wine. “It’s pretty good.”
“Surely, you’ve had Wright wine before.”
“Of course. They had it at the wedding.”
Her eyes sparkled in the dim light. “Oh, I remember. I think I imbibed half the vineyard.”
“You weren’t that bad.”
“Oh?” She arched an eyebrow. “That’s not how I remember it.”
“How do you remember it?”
She shrugged. “The same way you do.”
“That I very much doubt,” I told her.
I downed the contents of my first glass and set it down on the side of the hot tub. I waited for her to talk more about the wedding. Were we finally going to have this conversation? After all this time, she’d refused to discuss it.
She met my gaze. Her eyes were pensive. “Why didn’t you ask about the guy at Lee’s?”
I blinked at the change of subject. “Did you want me to?”
“No,” she said at once.
“Well then…good.”
“It was good. But I don’t understand why you let it go.”
“The guy was a jerk,” I growled. “He either didn’t realize or didn’t care that you were uncomfortable. I don’t care who he was or why he made you feel that way. All that mattered was that he left you alone.”
She tilted her head. “You know you’re not a real knight in shining armor, right? I can take care of myself.”
“I know you can,” I told her. “But you weren’t.”
“I wasn’t what?”
“Taking care of yourself.” I rested my arms back against the lip of the pool. “So, I did it myself.”
Her mouth opened into a small O before quickly returning to neutral. She took a long gulp of her wine and then hopped out of the tub. I watched her toned ass as she strode toward the table and lifted the bottle of wine.
“Refill?”
I cleared my throat. “Sure.”
She brought the bottle to the pool and poured wine into my cup. She set the bottle down next to the hot tub, then slipped back into the water. She brought the red liquid to her already-red lips and sipped as she watched me intently. I didn’t know what was behind those emerald eyes, but I was transfixed. I couldn’t have looked away if I wanted to.
“You really don’t want to know why he made me uncomfortable?”
Was I interested? Of course. The situation had seemed screwed up. There must be a reason that she wasn’t talking about her family. From that one small interaction, I had a pretty good reason why. But I wasn’t going to force her to talk about it if she didn’t want to.
“Honestly, it was enough to see that he did. If you want to tell me, I am all ears.”
She shook her head. “No, just trying to figure out who you are.”
“I’m an open book.”
She stepped forward until she was between my spread legs. We weren’t quite touching, but the hot tub wasn’t the only thing heating up. I lifted my chin to catch her gaze. It took every ounce of my self-control to not lunge for her when she was this close.
“I don’t think you are,” Eve finally said.
“This is who I am.”
“I don’t think so.” She reached forward with a wet hand and coiled the front of my hair around her finger.
“Careful,” I growled.
She shivered at the word. “Or what?”
And she certainly didn’t stop. Her hand pushed back into my hair, brushing it back off of my face. I reached up on reflex and grasped her wrist in my hand. She froze at the force of the movement. Our gazes locked on one another.
“I said, careful.”
“I heard you,” she said in a breathy voice. I’d never heard it from her before, and it made my balls tighten with need.
“You don’t listen very well.”
“No,” she agreed.
I still had her wrist in my hand. Fuck, I wanted to pull her forward and claim those cherry-red lips. Take her right here in the hot tub. My blood pumped harder in my veins as the time stretched between us.
Then, I released her hastily and shifted in my seat. “What are you doing?”
“I told you, I’m trying to figure out who you are. You’ve been flirting with me since we started working together.”
I scoffed, “You’ve been flirting with me.”
“Well, yes,” she said with a soft laugh. “But you’ve been flirting back.” I opened my mouth, and she covered it with her hand. “Don’t deny it.”
I pulled her hand away from my mouth. “I wasn’t going to deny it.”
“Really?” she asked, surprised. “Then, what do you want?”
“The same thing I wanted last time.”
This woman drove me entirely mad. I knew if I had her even once, I’d never want to let her go. Sex would be fun, but would it be enough?
“What if I can’t give you that?”
She took the final step into me. Our chests nearly touching. Her other hand worked its way down my bare chest. My Adam’s apple bobbed as she moved lower and lower.
“You’re going to be the death of me.”
Her grin was devilish. “You can’t deny you want this.”
I grasped her harshly by her hips and jerked her forward into my lap. Her legs slid onto either side of mine. She settled down harshly against my lounge shorts, which, as expected, hid nothing. My cock was hard and ready for her. And she realized it as well. Her eyes widened in shock and then to satisfaction. A slow Cheshire cat smile painted on her lips as she sank her weight fully onto my lap.
“Fuck,” she gasped.
She shifted her hips side to side, as if to get comfortable. The friction only made me lengthen against the surface of her very tiny bikini bottoms. I gripped her hips harder.
“I’m a relationship guy, Eve.”
“And I’m over relationships. Guess we’re at a stalemate.”
She was saying one thing, but she meant something else entirely. She meant, Come over to my side. Come to the dark side. Give up relationships and get lost in me instead. I could see it all over her tempting mouth and in the shine of her diamond eyes.
This was what had happened after the wedding. I said that I wanted more. She’d said this was all she had to give. Someone had fucked her up so bad that she refused to consider any other option. And I knew all too well that outside of a relationship, my sexual preferences weren’t desired.
One of us had to break.
It might as well be me.
10
Eve
There was no sweet seduction. Whitt slid his wet hands up into my hair and crushed our lips together.
The tang of red wine coated his tongue as he delved into my mouth. We’d kissed…once. A soft thing on my doorstep after the wedding. More a good-bye than a start to anything. It had been an opening gambit to a long game.
