Page 127 of Tempting Wyatt
“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 looklike 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 andmove melike 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—justmanhandleme 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 awayfrom 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 justwalk awayafter pulling that stunt. What’s going on with you? Explain yourself.”
Wyatt stares toward the darkened mountain range but doesn’t respond.
