Page 42 of Billionaire Unreachable: Wyatt

So yeah, maybe I did want to hear that he was looking forward to seeing me and not just my seafood gumbo.

Wyatt:Shelby?

I straightened my shoulders, reminding myself that I had to be realistic. Wyatt and I would never be in a romantic relationship of any kind. I didn’t expect him to be attracted to me like I was to him, but would it really hurt for him to tell me that he wanted to seeme?

We’d formed some kind of weird truce or friendship. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was on his side, but it was something.

Of course, it wasn’t the same as my incessant desire to strip off all of his clothes and beg him to fuck me, but it wasn’t…nothing.

Wyatt:OK. You win. I don’t really care what you made for dinner today. I’m looking forward to seeing you tonight, goddammit!

I snorted quietly as I saw his irritated response because I hadn’t answered right away.

For Wyatt, that was almost a declaration of devoted friendship or something.

Me:Thanks. I’m looking forward to seeing you, too. Later.

I put my phone back into my pocket and got ready to head back to Del Mar.

I was so satisfied by Wyatt’s text that I might just have to make his favorite dessert for him tonight.

Wyatt

“Nobody can figure out anything about this break-in,” I told Shelby reluctantly a few nights later. “I’ve put the best people I know on the situation, but there’s not even a suspect.”

I went to pour myself a glass of whiskey as Shelby tapped away on her computer at the kitchen island.

I knew she was working on her cookbook, something she did often after dinner.

I’d finally decided that I had to be upfront with her, even though I hadn’t wanted to tell her that I couldn’t fix this situation, a fact that was frustrating as hell.

I was the head of one of the most successful corporations in the world.

I also helped to successfully rescue hostages in dire situations.

And I still wasn’t capable of discovering who in the hell had broken into Shelby’s apartment.

Marshall had come up empty so far, so there was really no other option but to keep looking. Shelby was in contact with the local authorities and they didn’t have a single lead, either.

“Then we’ll just have to let it go,” she said as she looked up from her computer and watched me at the bar. “It’s not your fault, Wyatt. You tried, and I appreciate everything you’ve done. It must have been a prank or a one-time event. I can live with that.”

“I can’t,” I said hoarsely. “I don’t like the fact that someone did something like that to you, and we can’t catch the bastard.”

It haunted me that someone had possession of and could touch something so intimate that belonged to Shelby. And I couldn’t even consider the possibility that the perverted fucker could be jacking off with those items while he thought about her.

I’d definitely developed one hell of a protective instinct toward Shelby, but it was far different from the way I wanted to protect my family.

It might be an unwelcome proclivity, but it was something I couldn’t control.

And fuck knew I’d tried.

“Nothing else has happened,” she contemplated. “I’m not even really nervous or that creeped out anymore. I can’t let one person’s actions control my life forever, and I’m going to have to find another place to live.”

“Not. Now,” I said in a graveled voice. “There’s no reason why you can’t stay here longer.”

“Do you really want me here?” she asked in a skeptical voice.

Did I want her here?

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