Wild For You: Forever Wild #5 (2 page)

By the time we got back to my apartment I’d realized we missed lunch and I was starving. Luckily
it was as if Wes read my mind.

“Hungry? I can cook us something.” He dropped my heaping box of office supplies near the front door. I didn’t have an off
ice or a real space to work yet; I’d have to work on that. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to take all the office supplies when I just sat with my laptop on my desk in my tiny bedroom most days.

“Yeah, that sounds good.” I followed him into the kitchen.

“Chicken and grits okay with you? I don’t think we have much else. I need to grocery shop.”

I laughed. “That’s completel
y fine. You’re the only one who ever cooks in this house and you’re better than me and Paige.”

He smiled. “Well I’ll just have to teach you how to cook
then.”

“You can try, but you know how people that can’t dance have two left feet? I think I have two left hands when it comes to cooking.” I held up my hands.

Wes grabbed both of them. “I think you need to have a lot more confidence in yourself. You’re always portraying yourself as this bombshell when we’re out in public and then we get behind closed doors and you turn into this damsel in distress.”

I dropped my
hands. “I’m not a damsel in distress. I was taking care of myself just fine before you came along.”

“I know, I’m just trying to
get a little rise out of you. Get some of that thunder back that I like so much.”

I felt my cheeks flush as I looked at him. Was this what it was always like with a husband or boyfriend? I wasn’t used to this much flirt
ing and attention and the more of it I got from Wes the deeper I fell. I just hoped he was starting to feel the same way.

“How’s this for thunder?” I pulled him by his belt loops until he was pressed against me, keeping my eyes on his.

“Something tells me you’re not in the mood for cooking anymore ...” He leaned over, whispering into my lips.

I ran my tongue across his bottom lip. “Maybe I’m in the mood for something better.”

He put his hand on the nape of my neck, tugging my hair back. “And what is that?”

“I’m not playing games, Mr. Wild. I want you.” I kissed him, wrapping my arms around his neck
and pressing my body against his.

Wes wrapped his free arm around my waist and I gasped into his mouth when his fingers tiptoed down to my ass, running his hand down it before cupping it.

I took the break in our kiss as the chance to peel his shirt off. I’d never get sick of seeing him without his shirt on. All the time in the gym had made his body even more defined and he was like a true work of art. I traced a line down the center of his stomach.

He smiled
, a slight laugh escaping his full lips. “This kind of reminds me of when we first met. You tracing my abs with that ‘fuck me hard’ look in your eyes and biting your lip.”

“Is that what this look is?” I didn’t even realize I was biting my lip, but stopped as soon as he said something.

He nipped at my bottom lip, the same spot I was just biting, before running his tongue across it. “Yeah. That’s the look. The one that makes me want to throw you down right here on the kitchen floor.”

“Hmmmm...” I undid the button on his pants and slowly unzipped it. “I still have some rug burn on my back from when you threw me down the other night. I think it’s time I took charge.”

I pushed him backward, walking with him toward the recliner, and shoved him onto it. He quickly pulled me on top of him so I straddled him, with my thighs pressed against his. He tugged my skirt up around my waist, running his hands along my bare thighs.

“Yeah, I think this could work,
darlin.’” His thumb grazed the front of my panties, instantly making everything quiver between my legs.

I
started to unbutton my shirt, inwardly cursing and wishing that I would have just worn a dress; it would have been much easier.

“Here, let me do that,” Wes whispered, his hands working quickly to get each tiny button undone before he peeled my shirt off and tossed it on the ground. Getting undressed was way easier in sexy romance books and movies than it was in practice when you just wanted to get down to fuck.

“Hold on.” I slowly stood up and unzipped my skirt, tossing it to the side before I stepped forward.

Wes gripped
my hips before I could straddle him again. “Wait a second, darlin’, you just did half the work and I didn’t get to have any fun.” He smiled, gripping harder onto my hips as he leaned forward, his warm breath right on my panty line, before he grabbed my underwear with his teeth, pulling them down to the middle of my thighs and then taking it off the rest of the way with his hands.

I gasped. My panties
were barely off when pulled me to his face and kissed a line down my center until his tongue was inside of me. God, the man knew how to work his tongue.

I gripped tightly onto his hair, bucking my hips forward while he sucked hard on my clit. I was glad that Paige was working because I couldn’t hold it in when my orgasm took hold. I
screamed, “Oh God, Wes!”

I thought he would stop and then we would move forward, but he kept going, sliding a finger inside of me while his tongue drew circles around my clit. And then I heard him humming. The vibration of his lips on my clit made
my whole body quiver. I clutched harder onto his hair as another orgasm took hold.

“Oh
, Wes, I love you.”

I didn’t mean for the words to come out and once I came down from my orgasm and my knees stopped shaking, I realized what I really just said. Shit. I just told him how I felt about him.

He stopped moving his tongue and slowly lifted his head up, looking into my eyes. I didn’t know what he was thinking. He wasn’t smiling or frowning and his smoldering stare looked right into me. “Do you mean that?”

I could have lied and pretended that I didn’t know what he was talking about. I could have said it was just a heat of the moment thing and I didn’t know what I was saying mid-orgasm. But I took the chance. If he wanted to leave, even though I knew I was completely in love with him, I had to take the chance and tell him.

I nodded, biting down on my bottom lip.

He pulled me
down on top of him, his eyes intensely focused on mine. “Good, because I’ve been trying to figure out a way to tell you that I’m completely in love with you since for a while now.”

I blinked. I wasn’t expecting that. The man who I once thought of as a mistake was turning into the best thing that had had happened to me and now he felt the same way about me that I did about him. “Are you sure?”

He put his arms around my waist, keeping his eyes focused on mine. “Valerie Wilder-Cockrell, I love you. I think I’ve been in love with you since the moment I first met you in Vegas. There’s no one else I’d rather be with. You’re everything to me.” He pushed a stray strand of hair behind my ear and let his fingers linger on my jawline. “When I said that I was yours, I meant it. Forever. I’m yours.”

I leaned forward and kissed him. I couldn’t get enough of him. He was mine and I was his and now he knew how I really felt about him. I wasn’t going to hide anything from him. He really was mine
, all mine.

I reached down and made quick work of pulling his pants and boxers down, trying not to break our kiss. He laughed into my mouth. “Need some help there?”

I pulled back. “No, I got it.”

He moved his hands and quickly shucked off his pants and boxers. “I know. I just wanted to help a little bit.”

“Show off.”

He grinned
, grabbing my hips and pulling me forward. “No, I just wanted to move things along so I could finally make love to you.”

“Well, when you put it that way ...” I shifted my wai
st up, guiding him inside of me. He moaned, pulling me against him and gripping tightly onto my ass.

I bucked my hips forward
, meeting his, and with each movement his eyes stayed on mine, never leaving them. It was as if his looks alone were telling me over and over again that he really did love me and that he wasn’t going anywhere. I’d never felt so emotionally or physically connected to someone like I did Wes and just the thought of it made every part of my body shake. He held me tighter, guiding my body in sync with his.

It wasn’t long before my body quaked again, another orgasm taking hold
, and I tilted my head back, gasping with pleasure.

“Every time you do that, it’s hard for me to hold
it in,” Wes whispered, panting with each breath.

“I want to
make you come.” I gripped his shoulders, quickening our pace and grinding my hips against his. Even though I just came, I could feel another one on the brink of eruption. Wes held me tighter, pulling me closer and burying himself in me. As I felt his piercing hit my Gspot, it was all I needed to erupt, throwing my head back and moaning.

His body quaked underneath me and he growled,
pulling me closer as we finished together before I collapsed, laying my head on his shoulder. We didn’t say anything, just stayed silent, matching our breathing as he ran his fingers down my spine and placed feather-light kisses on every inch of skin his lips could reach.

“Does this mean you want to keep me around?” he asked, breaking the silence.

I sat up, keeping my eyes on his. “Of course I do. I love you Wes. I know it’s crazy since we met in Vegas and got married on a whim and everything about this relationship says that it shouldn’t work, but I want to make it work. I need to make it work because I love you. God, I’m hopelessly in love with you.”

A large grin spread across his face. “There’s nothing hopeless about being in love with you. I’ve had more
hope being with you than I’ve had in a long time. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

I smiled. “
You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. No husband my mistake, I’m keeping you by choice. I want you to stay married to me, what do you say? Think we can make this crazy relationship work?”

He lightly kissed my lips. “I know we can.”

The first big meeting with my new PR firm actually happened at Abbi’s house in the suburbs. It wasn’t as much of a meeting as it was the fact that one of her kids was home sick from school and she couldn’t go anywhere else so we all decided to meet at her house.

Abb
i lived in an absolutely cookie-cutter neighborhood. Her husband was a lawyer making well over six figures, so they lived in one of those houses that they always showed on house hunting shows for people who couldn’t actually afford it, but they wanted to live there. I parked in the driveway next to Pam’s minivan and walked up the cobblestone path to the red door of the large, two-story home. It may have looked like something that could have been on TV or in a magazine, but as soon as I rang the doorbell and Abbi opened the door it was a madhouse.

Abbi stood in the doorway wearing a pair of old sweatpants and a gray Illinois
State University hoodie with a Bluetooth headset on her ear, talking to a client instead of to me.

“Yeah, Phil, I know that isn’t what you ordered and I’m looking into it now.”

“Come in,” she mouthed to me and motioned for me to come inside.

I took my shoes off by the door even though I may have n
eeded them for the landmine of Legos that lined the wooden floors of her foyer and lead a trail were Abbi walked, dodging each little death trap.

I stepped over them and followed her through the large living room
, where her son was lying on the couch with a blanket over him and some war videogame playing on their projection TV. She stopped once we were in the kitchen and Pam was sitting at the breakfast bar on her laptop. The large, white kitchen with all of the stainless steel appliances was a cook’s dream. Wes would have loved it, but for Abbi and her family it was more of a place to store take out and another place for Lego landmines. I grabbed my foot as soon as my toe came in contact with another death trap.

“Watch out for those, they bite,” Pam said, glancing at me from her laptop.

“Yeah, you’re telling me.” I sat down on the stool next to her.

“Want to see what I’m working on while Abbi deals with Phil and his cheese crisis?” Pam raised her eyebrows.

I shrugged, setting my laptop bag on the counter. “Sure, why not?”

She turned the laptop screen toward me and I was staring at myself. It was one of the pictures from the photo shoot. The first one in which we weren’t even posing, but Wes was tucking a strand of hair behind my ear and talking to me. There was obviously a little bit of photo shopping done since my hair wasn’t frizzing at all and my eyes popped, staring at him as he looked back at me like there was something unspoken between us. I could feel the sexual tension
bursting out of the picture.

“Wow, the photographer is good,” I whispered.

Pam shook her head. “It’s not the photographer. It was all you and Wes. Watching you two pose together felt like we were all interrupting some private moment. You guys definitely have something.”

I smiled, looking away from the computer. “Yeah and I think so too.”

“Really?” Pam raised her eyebrows.

I nodded. “Yeah, I don’t think the whole divorce thing is going to work.”

“Yes!” She pumped her fist and turned her head, cupping her hand over her mouth like a megaphone, “Abbi you owe me fifty bucks!”

I raised an eyebrow when she looked back at me. “Did you two make a bet on my marriage?”

“Not a real one. It was all in fun.”

Abbi turned off her
headset, setting it on the counter, and stood on the opposite side of us, like she was about to serve us breakfast or something. “Valerie’s not getting a divorce?”

“You two did make a bet on me!”

Abbi laughed. “Oh come on! We were joking and I’m actually happy that I lost. I like seeing you happy with Mr. Wild.”

“Which is what I think his model name should be. Instead of Cockrell
, he should just take on your name and be Wesley Wilder,” Pam said, tapping her computer screen.

“Valerie has
gone wild for the Cockrell,” Abbi said, putting her hand out like she was writing it on a billboard. “I think it has a nice ring to it.”

“You guys are supp
osed to be the mature ones and you’re making wild cock jokes, wow.” I laughed.

Abbi put her hands down. “Okay, enough with the jokes, I really am happy for you, Val. Even though I thought the whole thing was crazy
, I think it’s going to work out great. And especially once everyone sees you two on a book cover, I mean holy hotness!”

Pam laughed. “Yeah, I’m afraid that my author is going to leave me to have you as a publicist. She’s already talking about asking you for coffee to get to know more about you for her character.”

“Good, maybe we can switch and you can take Max then,” I muttered, half-joking and half-serious.

Pam and Abbi’
s eyes widened, looking at each other and then back to me. “Have you talked to Max lately about everything?” Pam asked.

I shook my head. “I saw him before going to the hockey game with my sister and he actually gave us the seats in his executive suite. He was acting really pleasant and I think it really got to Wes.”

Abbi rolled her eyes. “Uh yeah, I don’t think I’d be happy if my husband’s ex fuck buddy was giving him gifts like that.”

“But he’s a client. What was I supposed to do?”

“Politely decline. You’ve worked in PR long enough that you should’ve been able to come up with some excuse to keep it professional,” Pam said.

“Easy for you to say. How many times have you been in a situation like that?” I asked.

“With an ex fuck buddy?” Pam looked at Abbi. “Okay, never.”

“Ha!” I pointed at her. “Not as easy as you think.”

“Well, then what are you going to do? Are you going to keep him as a client when you’re staying with Wes and having this nice happy family life?” Abbi blinked hard.

“What other choice do I have? His commission alone pays for my rent.”

Pam turned to her computer, pulling up a document. “I mean, we can try and work something out if you really don’t want to have him as a client anymore. Maybe you can take two or three of mine and I’ll take over his account.”

Abbi shook her head. “For Max Green she is going to need about five of your clients to make up for that.”

I sighed. “It sucks, but Abbi is right. And I really should put on my big girl panties and just deal with it. It won’t be long before he has a new girlfriend anyway. And it’s not like we were really a thing. I was just his dirty little secret. He can’t be that disappointed that I’m with someone else.”

Pam stared at her computer. “A rich businessman and a male stripper love
triangle. This really is like something out of one of my client’s books.”

I shoved her arm. “If you tell her about my personal life and it ends up in some bestselling book and then turns into a movie, I’m going to punch you in the boob, hard.”

“But what if you’re played by some really hot blonde and there is a car explosion or something? Then would you think about it?” Pam raised her eyebrows, turning slightly toward me.

“Absolutely not.”

“Fine.” Pam let out a big, sarcastic sigh. “Then I guess she can go back to her original plot lines and you can never be portrayed on the big screen.”

“I have enough drama that I don’t need it acted out, thanks.”

Abbi grabbed her BlackBerry off the counter. “Okay, now that we’ve had our girl time in, we really should work. Let’s head to my office, aka the dining room, before I have another conference call.”

I grabbed my bag and
, just as I put my hand on it, I felt my phone vibrate. I slipped the phone out of my bag and my mouth dropped open when I saw the name on the screen: Max Green. It was like he knew I was talking about him. He could have for all that I knew; he was sneaky like that and always knew what was going on around him.

I could have ignored the call, but I knew better. He was a client, a big one, and I couldn’t fuck things up. I slid my phone unlocked and put it to my ear. “This is Valerie.”

“Hello Valerie, I was afraid you might ignore my call.” His voice was as smooth as caramel, like always; he practically purred into the phone.

“I would never do that.”

Pam and Abbi stared at me, waiting for me to tell them who was on the phone, but I just shook my head.

“That’s good because I was hoping we could meet today. I wanted
to discuss some talking points before a charity golf outing.”

“Oh, that’s fine. We can talk about that later this afternoon if you’d like. I’m about to go into a meeting, but I can call you afterward.” I tried to keep my voice calm, but my palms were sweating. I was always outwardly confident
, but too many guy troubles had me turning into a teenage girl.

“I would actually prefer to go over these in person. You know my handwriting isn’t the best and I could use someone who knows what they’re doing to go over these talking points with me,” he pushed. His voice didn’t strain at all, just kept the smooth, even
tone.

I blew a large puff of air through my nose, trying to think of an excuse
, but I didn’t have anything. “Okay, I have meetings today in the suburbs, but I can do tomorrow morning if that works for you? I’ll be at your office around eight?”

“I’m sorry, Valerie, tomorrow I didn’t plan on going into the office since I
have the golf outing in the afternoon, but we can meet at my condo instead. We can still plan for eight? I’ll let my doorman know that you’re coming.”

His condo? The man never invited me to his condo even when we were casually screwing. This had bad news written all over it and I had to get out of it.

“We can really schedule another time, I know you’re a very busy man.”

“Valerie.” His voice took on a bit of an edge to it. “I need you before this golf outing. I’d prefer to meet with you today, but I understand you do have other clients. I thought when you told me
that you wanted to keep a professional relationship with me and I trusted you with my company’s PR that you would make time for me. If you can’t handle this one simple task then just tell me and I can look for a new publicist.”

He knew exactly where to hit me, in the wallet. I couldn’t afford not to have him as a client and he knew it. I was screwed.

“Okay, Max, I can meet you at your condo tomorrow morning. Just give me the address and I will see you at eight sharp.”

“Very good, Valerie.
I look forward to it.”

By the time he rattled off his address and we ended the call I turned and saw that Pam and Abbi were still standing in the kitchen and staring at me wide-eyed.

“I guess I have an appointment tomorrow morning,” I said, sliding my phone into my bag.

“An appointment at his condo. That sounds more like he wants to get in your pants than anything else,” Pam said.

“If he does, then he’s going to be very disappointed because I’m keeping it professional. He wants to go over some talking points before he goes to a charity golf outing and that’s all I’m going to do.”

Abbi stared at me hard. She could see right through me and I knew I couldn’t hide anything
from her. “Are you sure you can do that? Do you want me or Pam to go with you?”

I straightened my shoulders. “No. I don’t need a babysitter. You guys said that you took me on this new business venture with you for a reason. You needed to keep Max as a client and he wants me as a publicist. I just have to put on my big girl panties and do the job. And if he doesn’t like that then it’s too bad.”

Abbi nodded slowly. “I guess if you’re confident then we’ve got your back. Right, Pam?”

Pam raised her eyebrows as if to say
, “Are you serious?”

“Right
, Pam?” Abbi asked again.

Pam shrugged. “Hey, I was all for you hooking up with Max Green from the beginning.”

“Pamela!” Abbi smacked her in the arm.

“Ouch!” Pam held her arm. “That was before Wild Wes came into the picture, of course. But, really if you think you can handle him, then you do what you have to do, and if you need an out I’m only a phone call away to take him
over and trade a few clients with you.”

Abbi smiled. “We’ll make this work.”

I sucked in a deep breath, slowly letting it out as I nodded. “Okay. I think I’ve got this.”

Pam stood up, grabbing her lap top. “And in case you don’t we’ll go over your talking points over coffee in the dining room.”

“That works too.”