Page 52 of Tempting Wyatt (Triple Creek Ranch #1)
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
ivy
THE FIRE CRACKLES, FLICKERING AND throwing golden sparks into the inky night as Willow, Wyatt, Isaac, and myself lounge around the fire pit near the main barn.
While I did some baking with Laurel, Willow had gone fishing with her brothers, saying she was going to try and soften the blow for when I was ready to talk to Wyatt.
I couldn’t tell if it worked, but he does seem more relaxed.
A little closer to the cowboy camp, the wranglers and ranch hands appear to be doing the same as us. Isaac pulls out a guitar and strums a little. Of course he plays guitar.
I already feel bad for the poor girl who falls for that smooth operator someday.
Willow passes out marshmallows. Wyatt declines but I take two because when in my life am I going to have a chance to eat s’mores at a campfire with real cowboys?
After Isaac laments the lack of biting fish on their fishing trip today, and Wyatt and I detail my first encounter with Jasper to the soundtrack of Willow’s uncontrollable laughter, a relaxed vibe settles over us.
“That poor sweet donkey,” Willow says on a laugh. “He probably thinks his name is ‘Damn it, Jasper.’”
I nod, giggling softly. “Pretty sure that’s how Wyatt greets him regularly.”
Wyatt smiles and I hope he let himself enjoy fishing with his siblings today.
From across the fire, I watch as he stretches his legs out, boots scuffing against the dirt, a half-empty bottle of beer dangling from his fingers.
Those expert fingers I can’t stop thinking about every time I look at him.
I breathe in deeply trying to clear my mind.
The night smells like charred wood, cool air, and sweet burnt sugar.
Next to me, Isaac sets his guitar beside his chair.
“Now, Ivy,” he drawls, his easy, teasing grin on full display. “Be honest with me. A city girl like you ever met a cowboy as charming as yours truly?”
I pretend to consider this. “I met a rodeo clown once. You two could be cousins.”
Willow snorts into her beer, and Isaac presses a hand to his chest, feigning pain. “Damn, girl. Wounding my pride right here in front of everybody.”
I grin, but out of the corner of my eye, I catch Wyatt’s grip tightening on his bottle.
Either it’s a trick of the light or his muscles ripple with tension beneath his skin.
Isaac tells a dirty joke about a rodeo clown and then nudges my shoulder with his. Then he leans toward the fire suddenly.
“Is that, do you see something in the fire? Like a jacket? Is that my jacket?”
Willow looks at him like he’s lost his mind. “It’s just firewood. There’s no jacket in there.”
Isaac grabs one of the long metal skewers we’ve been using to roast marshmallows and pokes what does look like the sleeve of a sturdy brown jacket.
“I swear that’s my jacket. It’s been missing for days.”
I pull my marshmallow back and try to focus on the object he’s looking at but the flames burn too hot to stare for long.
“Wy,” Isaac calls out across the fire. “Did you see my jacket in with the wood when you started this thing?”
Wyatt’s expression in unreadable. “Not sure. Don’t think so.”
His lips look like they might be fighting a smirk.
“I swear that’s my jacket in between those logs,” Isaac proclaims.
Wyatt shrugs. “Weird.” When he takes a drink of his beer, I see it. His eyes gleaming with mischief.
Isaac left his jacket at my cabin, then it disappeared, now it’s burning up in a bonfire Wyatt started.
I start to call him out but Isaac interrupts me.
“Oh, wait,” he says, leaning toward me with gleaming eyes reflecting firelight. “You got a little something there, city girl.” He reaches out with a thumb to wipe what is no doubt sticky marshmallow from the side of my mouth.
I’m reaching up to help remove whatever embarrassing goo I’ve got on my face when a sudden movement from Wyatt’s direction blurs toward me.
Before I can clock what’s happening, he leans forward, grabs me by the waist, and lifts me clean out of my seat.
A startled squeak bursts from my lips as he deposits me on the other side of him—away from his brother.
Then, with a pointed glare, he stares Isaac down across the fire.
A simple message, clear as a branding iron pressed to hide: Back off.
For a moment, they don’t look like brothers. They look like bulls about to lock horns in the pasture until one accepts defeat.
Tense silence stretches between us, broken only by the fire snapping and the distant subtle movement of cattle.
Willow lets out a snorting sound like one of her horses. “Guess that answers that then.”
Adjusting myself, I straighten my spine, and turn to him. “Did you—did you just pick me up and move me like a sack of feed?”
Wyatt takes a sip of his beer and says nothing.
I let out a disbelieving laugh, shaking my head. “Are you serious right now? Did we not discuss the manhandling the other night after the side-by-side incident?”
Willow is chewing her lip as if holding in laughter while Isaac appears oddly delighted.
“Well, well, look who finally decided to throw his hat in the ring. Thought you were gonna let me have all the fun, big brother.”
Wyatt shoots him a look that could curdle milk, and Willow lets out her previously stifled giggles. My cheeks heat, and not from the fire in front of us.
“There is no ring in which to throw hats,” I tell Isaac before turning to his neanderthal brother. “Have you lost your mind or do you turn into a caveman after sundown? You can’t just—just manhandle me like that!”
Wyatt only arches a brow as if to say, looks like I just did. I glare at him openly, but he still doesn’t say a damn word.
I narrow my eyes further, heat creeping up my throat. “You’re the opposite of a normal human, you know that? Most men are all talk and no action. You seem to be all ridiculous actions with no explanation.”
I’m on the verge of a hysterical tantrum, but what the hell was that? I remind myself that I’m an adult and turn away from him. “Fine, be broody and silent like usual. I don’t care.”
But I do care. I care enough that a moment later, when he stands and walks away from the fire into the shadows beyond, I follow him, irritation sparking beneath my skin like a struck match.
I tell the others good night quickly, then catch up to him at the barn.
He frowns. “Thought you were mad. Now you’re following me?”
“Yeah, clearly, I’m the one being weird. Pretty sure you set your own brother’s barn coat on fire. You don’t get to just walk away after pulling that stunt. What’s going on with you? Explain yourself.”
Wyatt stares toward the darkened mountain range but doesn’t respond.
“I mean it.” I step in front of him, tilting my head back to look up at him. His face is a mask of restraint, but his eyes—those dark, stormy eyes—hold a heat that makes my heart race and my breath hitch. “What the hell was that about back there?”
He exhales slowly, then runs a hand down his face. When he finally speaks, his voice is rough, gravel over dirt. “Do you have any kind of feelings for Isaac?”
The random question confuses me. “For Isaac?”
He stares, unblinking. Waiting.
I consider teasing him but the tension rippling off him is too powerful to risk this going in the wrong direction.
I consider my words carefully. “Yeah. I have some feelings for him. I feel like he’s the brother I never had.”
Wyatt’s relief hits me like bricks. He exhales slowly, his steady gaze unwavering. “And me? You got some kind of brotherly feelings for me too?”
I gape at him. “Are you insane? I told you from the minute we met all I can think about is climbing you like a tree. In fact, if you’re not too tired from today I was thinking—”
He cuts me off with a searing kiss on my lips. “Fuck,” he breathes between kisses. “I’m losing my goddamn mind over you.” He bites out another “fuck,” then comes in for a long, deep kiss, sliding his tongue against mine until my knees go weak.
He steadies me as my body sags against his.
“Lord help, rancher,” I gasp. “Warn a girl before you kiss her like that.”
He pulls me in closer, the heat of him warming me in the cool night air. “You’re all I think about, angel. The way you felt coming on my fingers. The way you taste on my tongue.” His gaze drops to my lips, then back up. “I haven’t been able to think straight since you got here.”
I swallow, pulse pounding. “The feeling is mutual.”
His hand lifts, fingers tracing the edge of my jaw, slow and deliberate, effectively silencing anything else I was going to say. “Every single fucking second, I’m fighting how much I want you.”
“And what do you want to do with me now?”
He points to the stables. “Bend you over in the tack room and make you scream my name loud enough for everyone on this fucking ranch to hear.”
My breath hitches, but I don’t step back. Couldn’t if I wanted to.
His jaw ticks. “But I can’t.”
My lips part, my heart hammering against my ribs. “Why not?” My voice is embarrassingly breathless.
His fingers curl around my jaw, bringing my face closer to his. “Because if I start, I’ll never fucking stop.”
“Then don’t stop,”
The night pulses around us, thick with unspoken words, unspoken promises. And when I sway toward him until our foreheads touch gently, Wyatt does exactly what I’m hoping he will.
He kisses me again.
Hard and deep, his mouth claiming mine with a fierce determination.
And this time, there is no stopping.