Page 20 of Wyatt (The Black Roses MC #5)

Chapter eight

Maizie

W hen Wyatt turns and heads to the backyard, we all stay completely silent until we hear the door shut. Lucy even gets up from the couch and walks across the hall to the kitchen, peeking her head around the corner to make sure he isn’t in there.

She turns back to us and gives us a thumbs-up. “All clear,” she says, then has a seat in her spot.

“Do you think he heard us?” I ask.

Lucy shrugs as though she couldn’t care less either way. Shit, she’d probably prefer he did hear us so we could stop “dancing around this attraction,” as she likes to put it.

Mia and Charlie sip their wine, neither answering my question.

I grab the pillow from behind my back, press it to my face, and scream. When I lower it, my three friends are watching my mini freak-out with soft, understanding expressions. Well, except Lucy. She’s sitting next to me with a smile on her face.

“What’s the worst that could happen if he did hear you? Then he would know how you feel,” Lucy says.

“ I’m not even sure how I feel. On the one hand, I want nothing more than to throw caution to the wind and crawl up his body like a tree frog, and on the other, I’m terrified of the implications and the fallout.”

“A tree frog?” Mia asks.

“I took Colby to the library last week, and he found a book about frogs that I’ve been reading to him every night. It’s the first thing that came to mind.”

“Okay, I’ll drop it then,” Lucy says. “Tell us about your date.”

“It was fine. We ate some Thai food, had a good conversation, got to know each other a little more. There was definitely attraction on his end. But for me…I’m not sure. Fireworks weren't going off. I think I kept things light and open enough for him to feel comfortable enough to ask me out again.”

“What do you think stood in your way? Lack of chemistry or…” Lucy prods.

I’ve never been one to lie to my friends. Well, that’s not entirely true, but when it comes to this stuff, I need someone to talk to.

“And I kept thinking about Wyatt. About how he looked at me, how he’s great with Colby, how seen he makes me feel.

How sometimes when he looks at me, it’s almost as though he’s holding himself back from wrapping me in his arms and kissing the holy hell out of me.

” I let out a breathy chuckle. “That last part might be wishful thinking. But then I tell myself it’s complicated as hell and probably all in my imagination. ”

“The only thing in your imagination is the idea that he hasn’t been salivating over you for years,” Lucy says, not so helpfully.

“He’s a friend. He’s attractive. He’s nice to me and my kid. That doesn’t mean he wants to get in my bed, Lucy.”

“Christ on a cracker. Why are you trying to talk yourself out of this so hard? He’s hot—never tell Jude I said that—and interested. You’re beautiful and have so much to offer. He knows you’re a mom, adores your kid, and has a fucking dog. He’s made for you. What is the fucking issue?”

“All of it,” I exclaim before I lower my voice.

He might have heard what I said earlier, but he might not have.

Yeah, I’m going with that. “My kid loves him, which is great in theory, until he decides it’s too much.

He's technically one of my bosses, so if it does blow up, I could be out of a job, or it would be excruciatingly painful for me to keep working there. He’s a brother—like your men—so if things end between us, it could affect the relationship I have with all of you, too. ”

“Maizie, if you think we’d ditch you if things didn’t work out between you and Wyatt, you haven’t been paying attention,” Charlie says. “We love you, and we’re not going anywhere.”

“But it would be different,” I argue. “I wouldn’t be going to family dinners anymore, and things would be awkward between me and the guys.

What if it doesn’t work out and he starts seeing someone else and they don’t like that I work at the bar or hang out with you guys?

What if she gets upset that his brother’s women are friends with his ex?

What if it gets weird for you guys, trying to be nice to his new girlfriend and maintain a friendship with me?

What if your men make you choose to keep the peace or something? ”

“Wow, this new girl kind of sounds like a bitch,” Lucy says.

“I don’t want to be friends with her.” She sends me a smirk and rolls her eyes.

“Who do you think you’re talking to? Have the three of us ever given you the impression that our men dictate our lives or our friendships?

They would never dream of it. What else is scaring you? ” she prods further.

So many things. So many things that I can’t explain.

“What if I fall in love with him and he sees all the parts of me and decides he doesn’t want me?” I ask in a low voice. Being independent, taking care of myself and my son on my own is safe. No one can turn their back on me like my parents when I don’t meet their expectations.

“Then fuck him,” Lucy says with a shrug.

“If he’s an idiot who would let you slip through his fingers, then he deserves to lose you and end up with whatever heinous asshole you conjured up for him.

” She reaches her hand over and rests it on mine.

“But what if none of that happens and he ends up loving you the way you deserve to be loved and giving you and Colby the world?”

“That scares me, too,” I admit out loud for the first time.

“I can’t tell you what to do,” Lucy says.

Charlie coughs dramatically and Lucy shoots her a withering glare.

“I know how hard it is to let someone in after being on your own for so long. How hard it is to trust someone to see all your messy pieces and not run in the opposite direction. But I also know that if you don’t at least open yourself up to the possibility, you’ll always wonder what could have happened. What you could have had.”

She makes a good point. But I’m still not there. Not saying I won’t be someday, but that day is not today.

When everyone leaves and I make sure the house is locked up, I crawl into bed, exhausted from the day.

Wyatt didn’t say much when he made his exit, just sent me a smile and a wave as he filed out the front door with everyone else.

Lucy made sure to give me one last loaded look before she and Charlie hopped in his truck so he could give them a ride home.

Now that the house is quiet, my mind is loud as ever.

Usually, this is the time I can lie in bed and reflect on the day, relax, and think about tomorrow.

I’m doing a whole lot of thinking, but it’s not as relaxing as usual.

My mind keeps going back to my date and who I was thinking about on said date.

I keep remembering what Lucy was telling me and the way Wyatt left without so much as a backward glance. He must’ve heard us talking.

My mind wanders to the way he looked at me when I was leaving for my date.

When he showed up at my house with his dog and a smile.

He knew I was going out with another man.

If he were as interested as Lucy seems to think, wouldn’t he have stopped me?

These guys aren’t exactly known for not being possessive of their women.

Not that I’m Wyatt’s woman. Not by a long shot.

But he seemed so unaffected watching me leave.

Then again, he could have been putting on a mask.

The same one I wear when he’s around and I don’t want anyone to know how badly I wish I could kiss him with the ease that Lucy does with Jude.

Or have him wrap his arm around me in that possessive way that Knox does with Mia.

I imagine the way his T-shirt hugs the corded muscles of his arms, and the way his jeans sculpt his long legs.

I imagine what’s underneath, and how it would feel to have him without a stitch of clothing on, trailing his smiling lips down my body.

What it would feel like for him to make me come with his mouth then his cock.

I’m feeling hot and uncomfortable under the sheet I have over me. Achy . That’s what this feeling is. Every part of me is craving something I want from him.

I reach over to my nightstand and pull out the vibrator I keep stashed in there for nights like these. Nights where I want to imagine, for a few moments, what it would feel like to be filled by the man who spends so much time trying to make me smile—make my life that much easier, that much better.

I run my finger through my slit, finding that I’m already wet.

The shaft of the vibrator slides inside of me without any resistance.

I imagine Wyatt sitting on the end of my bed, watching as I pleasure myself with the toy.

I think about the burning look in his eyes from earlier.

How his mouth would be parted as he took deep breaths while he watched me move the toy in and out of my dripping pussy.

I may never have seen the faces he makes when he’s in the throes of sex, but I have a vivid imagination.

When I turn it on, my back immediately arches off the bed.

I was halfway there even before I pulled out the toy.

My eyes squeeze shut as I run my hand from my stomach, under my nightshirt, and over one of my breasts.

My fingers twist my nipple to add a touch of delicious pressure—all the while imagining it is Wyatt’s hands exploring what I like, what makes me gasp, and what makes me cry out in pleasure.

It doesn’t take more than a few moments, and my toes are curling, the sensation of my orgasm quickly taking over my entire body. I pulse around the toy and come long and hard with Wyatt’s name on my lips.