Page 93 of The Naughty List

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Wyatt fedme breakfast in bed and then convinced me to take a shower with him. I wanted to jump his bones because apparently, I’ll always be needy and wanton around him, but Wyatt just kissed me gently and washed every inch of my body with care. He said I needed time to heal, and while I disagreed with him wholeheartedly, he wouldn’t be persuaded otherwise.

I had him drop me off at my apartment after telling him I had some last-minute Christmas shopping to do. Truthfully, I hadn’t doneanyChristmas shopping, on account of my whole depression and being totally over the holiday season. But as cheesy as it sounds, Wyatt has brought back the joy and warmth I once loved about this time of year. That’s not to say I’m not still grieving my mom or that I don’t miss her every day. But the pain is slowly being replaced with good memories of my mom. She would have loved Wyatt.

With that thought, I smile to myself and push my shopping cart through the aisles searching for the perfect gift. He’s already way outdone me both in thoughtfulness and number of gifts, but I still want to get himsomething.

My phone rings and I see it’s Casey. I grin thinking about telling her all about Wyatt and me. She’s been the biggest fan of our relationship. She even calls us “Wyber,” though I told her that sounds more like a cleaning product than a cute combination of our names.

"Hey, lady, what's up?" I ask.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah…I’m just shopping. Areyouokay?”

“I take it you haven’t been online yet today?”

“No. I’ve been with Wyatt.” I can’t help the grin that spreads across my face just thinking about all of the sweet, sexy moments we shared the last twenty-four hours. There’s silence on the other end of the line instead of the high-pitched squealing I expected. “Casey?” I ask, checking to see if the call was dropped.

“I’ll meet you at your place in fifteen minutes.”

“Wait, what? Why? I’m out shopping…”

“This is more important. Just…go straight home. And don’t check social media.”

“Casey…”

“Trust me, babe. Please? I’ll see you soon.”

I hang up and stare at my phone. I’m tempted to open any one of my social media apps or check some of the news sites I follow, but Casey’s urgent, almost desperate tone makes me put my phone away and abandon my cart instead. There’s a pit in my stomach growing bigger by the second as I drive home.

Casey is already parked outside when I pull up. She gets out of her car and immediately throws her arms around me. “We’re going to get through this, okay? Before you freak out, just know that I don’t think Wyatt had anything to do with it.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I ask, my voice betraying the rising panic deep inside of me. “Just spit it out already,” I snap.

“Not here.” She drags me by my arm up the two flights of stairs to my apartment and waits impatiently as I unlock the door.

“Okay, what’s going on? I need answers.”

She urges me over to the couch and sits down with me. Casey pulls out her phone and gives me one last sidelong look before handing it over.

My blood is replaced with ice water as I read the headline of a local gossip website.

Billionaire Bachelor Gets Down and Dirty with the Pigs

With trembling hands, I scroll through the article. There’s a photo of Wyatt and me taken at the dance studio. He’s dipping me low, one hand on my leg and one hand on my back. I felt so sexy in that dress, but now all I see is the cellulite on my exposed leg, my round face, and my slight belly pooch.

The article itself is just one paragraph about how this is either a joke or Wyatt is doing some charity work for the holiday season. It goes on to quote his net worth, which I had no idea about, and his list of accomplishments and awards. Not much is said about me specifically, but it’s clearly implying that I’m a nobody. A fat, undesirable, nobody.

All of those shameful, mortifying, embarrassing feelings from my freshman year crash into me like a tidal wave, taking me down, down, down to the very depths of misery. Who am I to Wyatt? Whatishe doing with a frumpy, boring, sad girl like me? Why did he go through so much trouble just to sleep with me? Surely, he can have anyone he wants, as the article so clearly stated. So why me? And why did I open up to him and tell him all about Devin? He was probably laughing so hard at me on the inside thinking about how he was doing the same thing.

“Ember?” Casey breaks through my racing thoughts. “Hun, I’m positive that this isn’t the same thing as what happened before. This is just petty, cruel, bitter people who can’t get a real story so they spin a bunch of bullshit to make themselves feel better.”

I nod numbly and let Casey pull me into a hug.

“Seriously, Em, Wyatt is completely enamored with you. When he first asked me for your number, he said he found the woman he was going to make his wife. And then when he told me all about his twelve days of Christmas plan, he was so nervous. He said he had one shot to get it right and he couldn’t blow it with you. The guy is absolutely in love with you. I just wanted you to see the article so I could talk you down from the ledge you’re so clearly about to fall off of.”

I nod again, but I just keep seeing those stupid frat guys laughing at me, Devin laughing at me, and then my mind warps the image to Wyatt laughing at me. My phone rings, making me jump about five feet in the air.

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