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“Thank you for telling me…but even though you very eloquently set me straight, I can assure you…be it Wyatt, or any other man for that matter, if they want to be with me that is a choice they can make for themselves. I’m not going to be responsible for forcing anyone to do anything they don’t want to do. Nor am I going to manipulate a man into staying with me if he doesn’t want to be with me." The hidden implication that Delilah would do both of those things hangs heavy in the room."I do have control over that much and I refuse to play games, Ms. Williams.”
She doesn’t raise her voice or lose the cool cadence of her normal voice. She might as well be talking about the weather. But there’s a chill embedded in the words that whips a person across the face and stings worse than it would if she screamed.
“As for whether or not I am in love with Wyatt,” I step a little closer to catch all of what she is about to say, “is of no concern to anyone but me since ‘I love you’ is not a question but a statement that needs no answer to be valid and true. Do you want to stay until I can find Wyatt or leave a message for him?”
Delilah’s face is priceless but not enough for my liking. “I think it’s past time for her to leave, personally.” I step forward causing both women to gasp out in surprise.
I step into Callie and wrap my arms around her before lowering my head to capture her mouth with my own. I don’t rush the kiss and take my time exploring the inner treasures I’ve uncovered. I eventually pull back enough to take Callie’s expression in fully before turning back to Delilah.
“Which guard did you sleep with to get past the front gate this time, Delilah?”
The woman I’m accusing gasps in utter shock that someone would talk to her like this. She doesn’t seem as cool and in control now but rather flustered and upset. I wonder if it’s because she got caught speaking to Callie or because I called her out on fucking one of my men. I leave just long enough to shout for Eli and another guard that I already had on my payroll before the Phoenix company came on board.
The entire time we are sitting and waiting for them to come in, I hold Callie in my arms and stare Delilah down. As soon as they come in the room I am talking, “Please see that Ms. Williams finds her way out and go through the camera feed so we can find out which guard let her in. And fire him immediately.”
I wait until they’ve taken her out before I turn to look at Callie. My little Peaches. She looks everywhere around the room but at me. I take her by the chin so she has no other option but to look at me.
“You might be strong and sure enough to be alright with other women coming on to your man -and I have to admit that’s pretty hot- but I’m not. I know exactly what those other men want when they look at you and baby…I would kill to keep you.”
Chapter Seven
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Callie
I can’t hide my shock at what he’s saying. Maybe he means it in a general sense and I’m taking it too literally when he says ‘you’. Or maybe he’s trying to tell me something, some hidden code, about someone else in his life. He might be over Delilah but not this mystery woman.
I knew to expect something from the woman since she all but promised to try something last night when we all took that picture. And didn’t that just bite me in the ass. The media went with the love triangle and said that the two of us are fighting over Wyatt. Which made me puke a little in my mouth just to be honest.
No one else might have heard her when Wyatt was telling the photographer about how he only had eyes for me, but I did. I heard her when she whispered like a hissing viper. “We’ll see about that.” So, I was waiting for something to happen when she surprised me and knocked on the door. I didn’t really put it together on how she got past the front gate but according to Wyatt, she slept with someone to do it. While talking to me about wanting Wyatt back. How do you sleep with someone and in the same hour try to be with someone else? How does that even work? How is it alright?
And now Wyatt is acting all odd and weird.
“Remember who I was. It’s who I still am under the makeup and Hollywood hype.” He smiles at me but it doesn’t reach his ice-blue eyes. “Remember that, Peaches.”
Before I can try to figure out if that’s a threat or not, his mouth is covering mine and his tongue is demanding entry. I stupidly let him in, blaming my shock on my consent and not the fact that Wyatt is a really good kisser. It’s not because I like the feeling of his mouth on mine or the way his tongue glides against me or that the feeling causes a curl of heat to bloom inside my belly for no good reason at all.
After, I make an attempt to stay away from him for a little while, hiding out in my room for the night since we don’t have anywhere to be or any carpets to walk. But my solitude doesn’t last long and the next day I have to go through the whole process to dress to impress again. We walk the carpet, make the rounds and smile like damned fools all so we can spend three hours watching other people walk across a stage. Wyatt is one of the presenters and for the first time in days, I don’t have eyes on him or am sure where he’s at one hundred percent of the time.
If something happens to him while I can’t watch him, I’m never going to live it down with my brother, and definitely not my father. By the time we're back home, I’m so wrung out from anxiety and nerves that I’m practically dragging. I could have kissed Wyatt when he turned down going to the afterparty I was so thankful.
It’s after one by the time I slip into the shower and wash all the pretty off me. I can’t express my enjoyment in washing all the makeup and hairspray away until it’s just me, bare and pink and plain like usual. At first, it was fun playing dress-up and letting Wyatt parade me around. Even if none of it is real, it was stillfun. But it’s also a lot of hard work and it’s wearing on the body and mind, all that smiling and peopling.
I let the warm water wash over me with no fear that I’ll have to put up with Wyatt again until tomorrow afternoon. He has an interview and a press thing with some of his co-stars. A noise has me stilling and listening harder. I was put in a room on the opposite side of the house Wyatt’s room is in. That way we could give him that little amount of privacy if nothing else. No one but my brother and Geo is supposed to be on this side of the house and both of them are on duty tonight. I go back to rinsing my hair when I hear something again. This time I pull the shower door open just enough that I can look out.
It's not impossible that my brother is looking for me or wants to go over something I might need to know about before tomorrow. The noise comes again and this time I turn the water off and grab a towel. The noise happens again, and I come around the corner…and immediately find myself in a fight.
Instinct kicks in immediately -thank God- letting my body go on autopilot and blocking the hand holding the knife that comes swinging at me. The guy doesn’t expect me to come out swinging so the knife goes flying out of his hand evening the playing field between me and him. I get a shot off, aiming a well-placed fist at his nose before he pushes me off him and into the wall. Both of us grapple with one another knocking over a table with a lamp on it and into the dresser.
I catch the corner of the dresser with my hip and fight back the bloom of pain that radiates out from me. And elbow him in the stomach. I immediately turn around to continue fighting when the guy pushes me hard enough to make me lose my balance this time. I prepare to go down fighting when arms come out to catch me. I start to fight the hold but it feels different.
“What the fuck?! You’re in a fucking towel!”
“That’s hardly the most important thing going on right now, Wyatt!”
I lurch for the man, but Wyatt isn’t letting me go. And the room is filling up with more and more people. The guy takes off and flings himself through the nearest window.
“You’re in a fucking towel, Callie!”
