Page 66 of Billionaire Unreachable: Wyatt

“You were a victim, too,” I growled.

She shrugged. “Not everyone saw it that way. It was guilt by association. Some people had a hard time believing I was innocent and ignorant because we were married and living in the same home. I stayed with Kaleb because I didn’t want to put Aunt Millie in danger. I didn’t leave the house. I couldn’t go anywhere except to testify. Justin may have been the one who went to prison, but I felt like I was living in my own prison there. That’s why I had to move. I had to go someplace where people didn’t recognize my face everywhere I went. It took a while, but I finally realized that I didn’t have to live in isolation anymore here.”

Fuck!I’d known things were bad for her in Montana, but I’d never realized quite how bad they were because it had been a regional story. It must have been pure hell for her to put up with the public abuse while she was still trying to get over that bastard’s betrayal.

“Are you sure you’re ready to go back there again?” I asked with a frown.

“No,” she answered with a weak smile. “I’ll probably never feel ready, but my family wouldn’t be encouraging me to do it if the story hadn’t died down completely. It’s the last thing in my past that I have to resolve. My entire family lives there, and most of the people who know me in Crystal Fork aren’t going to judge.”

My gut was telling me that Montana was a bad idea for her right now, but I’d chalked that up to the fact that I was protective when it came to Shelby.

Kaleb would make sure that Shelby was safe and that she didn’t face any criticism there. He knew the environment better than I did. Marshall had also done a lot of digging into her past looking for anyone who still held a grudge against Shelby, and he’d come up empty-handed. Still, there could be some psycho we didn’t know about who hated her there enough to come here and break into her home.

Maybe that was something we needed to look at more closely.

If going back to Montana was something that Shelby really needed to do to feel like that chapter in her life was closed, I wanted her to do what she needed to do. However, before she went, I had to make sure we’d exhausted any possibility that she’d expose herself to any risks while she was there.

“What happened?” Shelby said softly. “You look so serious. Are you thinking about the fact that someone could dig up my past someday because I’m involved with a very rich and very powerful man. It could happen, Wyatt. My past could expose you to public scrutiny at some point. I’ve never thought about that, but you’re a very private man. It wouldn’t be pleasant.”

The hesitation in her beautiful eyes made my chest ache. Shelby had been through so much in the last few years, and she was obviously still blaming herself for one fucking mistake. “Do you really think I give a flying fuck what anyone else thinks? I’d destroy anyone who says anything about your past without a single hesitation, not because it bothers me, but because it would hurt you. Chase and I have faced plenty of public scrutiny about things that aren’t even true. If the press can’t find a story, they make one up. I’ve learned to ignore the shit that isn’t true and squash anything or anyone that would hurt my family.”

“I don’t care about myself,” she replied matter-of-factly as she reached out and gripped my hand tightly. “I just don’t want anything from my past to ever hurt you, Wyatt.”

I couldn’t remember a time when anyone had ever worried about how I felt. Most people assumed I didn’t have any emotions. “It won’t,” I rumbled as I gripped her hand, not wanting her to pull away from me over something that meant nothing to me. “It’s unlikely that anyone will ever dig up your past, and other than the fact that it might hurt you, I don’t give a shit. For the most part, the press leaves me alone because I’m boring.”

“No. It’s probably because they’re terrified of you,” she said with a small laugh.

She wasn’t wrong. I’d gone after more than one news agency that had tried to dramatize Tori’s first kidnapping, and the news had died down before it had ever really started.

I raised a brow. “I think you’re the only person who isn’t afraid of me. I’m no Prince Charming to anyone except you, Cinderella.”

She smiled until that adorable dimple was denting her cheek. “Because no one else looks very hard. Beneath that cynical, grumpy exterior, I see who you are, Wyatt. It’s almost hard to believe that other people can’t, but I’m not complaining. As hot as you are, it would suck having to peel other women off your incredible body every day.”

“What if I’m not really the princely guy you see?” I asked hoarsely. “I’m not a nice man most of the time, Cinderella, and that’s a hard title for a guy like me to live up to.”

She let go of my hand and smacked me playfully on the forearm. “You don’t have to live up to it. You’re already the hottest and the most thoughtful guy I’ve ever dated, and if you deny it again, you’re going to piss me off.”

I grinned at her, resigned to letting her think what she wanted for now. “I guarantee there will be plenty of instances when I’ll piss you off in the future.”

She shrugged. “Same. I can be stubborn sometimes. I still have some leftover baggage from my past, and I have some odd habits, like my cookie baking in the middle of the night when I’m upset or frustrated. Maybe you should take some of those cookies to your office tomorrow to get rid of them.”

Although I never wanted to see her upset or frustrated again, I wasn’t going to complain about a houseful of cookies. I’d already devoured several of them with my coffee earlier this morning.

“Not happening,” I informed her. “Those cookies are mine, and since I don’t plan on upsetting you in the near future, I’m keeping them.”

Adding another mile or two to my morning run would be worth it if I could keep those cookies to myself.

Her completely delighted laugh reached places inside of me that I never knew existed before. Places that could probably use a little warmth after an extremely long ice age.

“You’re impossible when it comes to my food,” she accused.

“Guilty,” I replied without an ounce of remorse.

Truthfully, I was probably impossible aboutanythingthat involved her, her safety, or her happiness, but I really needed to keep a lid on that shit right now.

Shelby Remington needed to trust me completely after what she’d been through, and I’d be damned if I was going to lose my shit like my brother and my friends did with their women.

I could handle the blue balls and the frustration of waiting if it got me exactly what I wanted in the future.

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