Rise of the Notorious (12 page)

“But that’s just it.” Linc frowned, trying to find a way to explain it. “If you really wanted to help her, you’d leave.”

“I can’t do that,” Wyatt asserted, leaning back in his chair now and watching his friend cagily. “I want to get her back.”

Linc stared at him for a moment, acknowledging that this wasn’t a surprise and yet he still found himself stunned by it. “But you left her.”

“I didn’t
leave
her.” Eyes hardened to bitter steel, Wyatt stared down at the beer in his hands as he came to terms with the emotions roiling inside of him at that moment. The hate, the fury, the violence…the helplessness. The loss. “I saved her from something that would have destroyed her.”

Linc blinked at his friend’s ominous admission, unsure he’d heard him right. “Saved her from what, exactly?”

Wyatt looked up with an edgy smile. “One day, maybe I’ll tell you. Today’s not that day.” He rose to his feet and patted Linc on the back before slinking out of the bar.

Linc stared after him in bewilderment. What in the
world
had the man meant?

When he stormed
into her office, she feigned annoyed surprise. She had to do something, anything, to counter what she felt just at the sight of him. He looked dark, dangerous, and downright mean.

“What do you want, Wyatt?” Madison asked, eyeing him imperiously.

Instead of answering her, he slammed her office door shut and approached her desk, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans sourly. “I want to talk to you.”

“Well, I don’t want to talk to you,” she replied effortlessly, already reaching for the phone on her desk. “Leave before I call security.”

He laughed at her—dark, cynical laughter that shivered through her bones and set off warning signals in her brain. He was in one of his moods, a mood she’d long ago known how to ride out, how to embrace, how to tame. But now, with all that stood between them, all the tension and the madness and the bitterness…what would happen to her now if she attempted to brave the flames?

“Why is it always threats between us, sweetheart?” He began to pace before her desk, filled to the brim with volatile and restless energy. His conversation with Linc just minutes before had riled him up, had released the beast within him that was eager for a fight. And he had some hefty punches to throw before he went down.

Madison stared at him, hating him for still having this hold over her. Hating herself for not being able to let go. “Must I ask you again, Wyatt? What are you doing in New York? Why won’t you just leave me alone?”

He stopped and turned, those eyes that had always haunted her filled with both longing and rage. Rage over what came between them, what had destroyed the only good thing he’d ever known.

“I came to New York to help Win, but I’ll be damned if I leave without making you realize that what’s between us isn’t over.”

Madison’s heart jolted and ached, and she struggled to maintain some semblance of control. Her gaze held his, intense and feral, as she said the first words that came to her mind, to her heart. “How can I trust you?”

He hesitated, the brutal storm within him simmering as he acknowledged her question, digested it, understood it. He accepted the challenge that he would have to earn back her trust, and that it may be an impossible task. It was worth every risk he faced to accomplish it.

“The night before Cyrus’ funeral, when I told you that I still loved you, did you believe me?”

She bit back a curse and avoided his eyes, the memory of that moment consuming her with fiery grief. She knew she wasn’t over him, had known for awhile now.

What she felt for Wyatt was, and had always been, an explosive, greedy longing that tore through her like a horrible storm. While her shattered heart demanded answers for his sudden desertion all those years ago, it was also bursting with this intense love that had never gone away. She knew it never would.

In the end, though, her natural instinct for self-preservation overrode any other desire. Trusting him could very well be her downfall, and she put her duty to her family’s business over everything else.

Saying nothing, she shook her head.

He could tell she was lying to him, could see it on her face. His admission had shaken her deeply, and knowing that fact quelled some of the restlessness plaguing his spirit.

“I can be patient,” he told her, his voice oddly level and calm now. “You’ll come to me, sweetheart. And when you do, we can have a real conversation and move past all of this.”

Before she could find any words to say to him, he left, leaving her office door wide open. Her mouth fell open and her breath came out in a shuddering rasp as her emotions boiled over to claim her, cloaking her in spontaneous desperation. No, this time he wasn’t going to get away from her. Not after that, not after ripping out her heart and shoving it back into her face, forcing her to examine her own feelings for him that had never faded, never died.

Jumping out of her chair, she swept from her office and out into the hallway, spotting him standing just outside the elevator, patiently waiting a ride up to his floor. She stalked up to him and grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling him in aggressively and crushing his mouth with her own. Without hesitation he responded to her, his hands sliding over her back and grasping at her hair, letting her wild emotions rule his own.

Relief gripped his heart like a fist and then let go, releasing him.

The answering wave of passion that poured out of him should have frightened her. Instead it only caused hers to rear up and match his own, just as it had the many times before when they’d come together.

She cried out as he suddenly shoved her up against the wall in between two of the elevators, her back pressing into the buttons so the lights illuminated behind her. Around them, the entire floor was dimly lit and silent, the work day long over and the others all gone. It was just them, and their urgency.

He dragged at her clothes, consumed by the madness she sparked within him, the complete and utter loss of all control. It was a sensation he welcomed, one he reveled in and had missed with a desperation he couldn’t explain. When he pulled away so he could stare into her eyes, seeing the amber in them hot and bright with desire, he tore down the walls of his heart and bared it to her.

“I need you to believe me, Madison,” he grunted, his hands gripping her waist, his fingers digging into her flesh and sending her mind reeling with a dark and primal need.

Her head fell back against the wall as she smiled, the movement of her lips red-hot and sinful. Her laugh was vivid and real, deep and untamed, as her eyes met his once again. “Convince me, Wyatt. It better be damn good.”

She kissed him again as the elevator doors to their right slid open. She dragged him inside with her, throwing him against the back wall as the doors shuttered closed.

L
ike clockwork, each day he rose before the sun. His entire life had been built upon this same structure, rising at dawn and beginning work before the first rays even crested over the city skyline.

But these days, Grant found himself lingering in bed just a little bit longer, stalling just a few more minutes so he could savor these brief moments. Moments when he could watch her sleep, tendrils of her hair falling over her face and her lips curved into a peaceful smile as she dreamed. He brushed at her hair, his fingers sliding gently over the skin of her cheek as he leaned in to kiss her. It wasn’t his intent to wake her, but he couldn’t help himself. When she was lying beside him like this, it took every last ounce of practicality in his bones to convince himself to get out of bed and leave her.

Quinn’s smile deepened as she felt his lips over her own, her mind waking from the haze of sleep. Her eyes slowly opened and met his, the room around them lit only by the dim, early morning glow filtering in through the windows.

She leaned into the kiss, her eyes closing again as she reveled in this moment of both dreamy slumber and blissful consciousness.

He slowly moved over her, pinning her beneath his body as the heat began to flood through his system, the burning need for her he couldn’t shake. His sudden urgency jolted her into awareness, startling her awake as she responded to him, matching his need with her own. Her hands grasped at his bare back, her heart beginning to race as his mouth cruised over her neck, then back to claim her lips once again.

When his cell phone alarm went off, he grunted and had the violent thought of throwing the device out the window. But Quinn gently pushed him away, her gypsy eyes warm as she grinned.

“Duty calls, Mr. Vasser,” she reminded him playfully, biting her lower lip as she watched him reach over to grab his phone and turn off the alarm. The muscles beneath his long, lean torso and arms shifted with the movement, and she had to bite back the urge to keep him with her, warm and safe in his bed.

But no, his life didn’t allow for that. He was needed by his family, by his hotel, and she wasn’t selfish enough to keep him from them.

He tossed his phone back on the nightstand impatiently and returned to her, frustrated heat in his eyes as he immediately resumed what he had been doing before the interruption. She giggled against him and then gasped when he nipped the tender spot beneath her left ear with his teeth.

“I need to get out of bed,” he groaned, tightening his hand in her hair and kissing her again, still unsatisfied.

“You do,” she panted as she held him closer, enjoying the sensation of his hands cruising over her skin. “You have that meeting with Senator Shaw.”

He pulled away from her with a grimace. “That is today, isn’t it?”

She nodded, reaching out to smooth the frown lines from his brow as she smiled. “Linc needs you for this. It’s important.”

“I know.” Grant sighed, resting his forehead against hers as his eyes closed. “When he showed me those text messages, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. For a sitting senator to threaten this way…”

“That’s why you’re going to get to the bottom of it today,” Quinn said cheerily, wanting to see him smile. “I’m sure it’s all just some big misunderstanding.”

He opened his eyes and stared at her, humbled as always by her sunny optimism. “I hope you’re right.”

He kissed her one last time before he slid out of bed, imagining the cold shower he was going to have to take to cool the heat still rushing through his system.

Before he could disappear into the bathroom, she called out to him.

“I almost forgot. Linc asked me to find out the name of Senator Shaw’s opponent, he thought it might be important.”

Grant turned around to face her, rubbing the back of his neck. “What is it?”

“Jack Morgan. He and his father were both in the Army.” She shrugged, hugging her knees to her chest beneath the blankets. “That was all I was able to find out.”