Wild Temptation (Wild #1)(60)
Author: Emma Hart

“I still don’t understand.” Frustrated tears burn my eyes. Why won’t he let me go? It would be easier if he would. I never came here to stay. I never came to take this anywhere other than the end, but he’s making it impossible.

He’s making me need to stay.

“I’ve never met anyone else so perfect for me—inside and outside of the bedroom—and I’m not letting you go. I’m gonna take you any way I can get you, baby girl. Any way at all. Even if that means it’s on your terms.”

“You’re crazy,” I whisper, a tear falling down my cheek. “You don’t get what my addiction is, do you? You don’t get how I could destroy you, me, and everyone around us. I could hurt us all without batting an eyelid because that’s what my addiction is. It’s just too tempting to fight.”

“You’re the biggest temptation I’ve ever been faced with. I’m not going to let you hurt us. Do you see that?”

“No, because you don’t know.”

“So tell me.”

I shake my head and drop it to his chest. I finally give in to the restlessness of my arms and wrap them around his waist. I draw in a deep, shuddery breath against him. “I can’t. I’m just…not ready. I’m not ready for a lot of things. I don’t think I’m ready for us.”

“I wasn’t ready for you when you walked into that f**king shoot, but here we are. Truth is, I’m not just a sex addict anymore. I like to think of myself as a sex-with-Liv addict these days.”

A laugh leaves me. “I’m not surprised. We do it enough.”

He smiles against my neck. “Come on. You trust me. I trust you. If we’re f**k buddies with a little undefined extra for now, then that’s what we are.”

“I don’t have a choice, do I?”

“No, you do. Until tomorrow when my plan B is to barge into your bedroom and make you come so hard you forget why you should say no.”

I sit up straight and look him dead on. “Do I get to choose plan B?”

“If you really want to.” He smirks.

“In that case… Oh, crap. No. I’m not here tomorrow.”

Tyler runs his thumbs under my eyes. “You’re not? Where are you?”

“California. For the Balfour shoot. Again.”

A slow, easy grin spreads across his face. His dimple appears and his eyes light up. It’s the most spellbinding smile I’ve ever seen on him. “You got called back? That’s amazing!”

“Yeah, I only—”

He pulls me against him gently. His lips brush across mine in a succession of soft kisses. I run my hand up his chest and sink my fingers into his hair at the same time that he cups my ass and lifts me onto my knees. He lies back on the sofa, taking me with him, and wraps his arms around my body while keeping the same easy rhythm of our mouths.

Nothing is rushed about these simple, easy kisses. It’s the purest connection we’ve ever had, and I’m thrilled and I’m scared at the same time. As he holds me tighter, I realize that I’m more thrilled than I am scared.

“Mmm,” I hum when he kisses the corner of my mouth.

“When do you go?”

“Hm? Go where?”

Tyler laughs, bringing me out of my slightly dizzy haze. “To California.”

“Oh. I fly at, like, ten tomorrow morning.”

He runs his hands down my back to my butt and taps it lightly. “Come on. I’ll help you pack.”

“You’re not going to drag me into your room and strip me naked?”

“Liv, if I wanted to strip you naked, I wouldn’t have to do it in my bedroom.” He sits us up with a grin. “And as much as I’d love to, you need to pack.”

“I’ll be fine. It won’t take long for a few days.”

He clasps my hands with his and pulls me off the sofa, leading me to the door. “I’m going to make sure you have everything you need. I know you’ll forget something important.”

I step into the elevator after him. “No, I won’t. I need makeup, clothes, a phone charger, shoes, a hairbrush, and a toothbrush.”

He smirks, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind me. His hands trail lazily across my stomach, and he presses a firm kiss to my skin where my neck meets my shoulder.

“And your vibrator.”

My skin hums after his words. “Why do I need my vibrator?”

“So you can use it and think of me.”

“And if I get searched at security?”

“Then we’re all gonna have a bloody good giggle at your expense. It’s going in the suitcase, and you’re going to use it, and you’re going to think of me.” He nips my neck. “Got it?”

“Got it.”

21

California is hot. Really, really hot. Compared to Seattle, it’s another world.

And standing here below the burning sun, pretending I’m not covered in sweat so thick it could be another layer of skin, is next to impossible. Thankfully, the photographer calls a break and one of the girls runs over and hands me a water bottle. No one else is suffering the way I am.

But hey. That’s what you get when you put a northern girl in a southern climate when the North is pretty much still in winter.

After ten minutes, a wipe-down, and a reapplication of my makeup, I head out to the waterline. The photographer is a nice, friendly, thirty-something woman who’s famed for her beach shots. It’s evident to see—the positions she asks me to contort my body into is practically f**king yoga. I’m half tempted to ask if she’d like to shoot me in the downward dog position.

Of course, she’ll likely give the other girls, who are holed up in different hotels, the same instructions. I just have to hope none of them can do yoga, because then I’ll be pissed off. Right now, my fitness regimen is all that’s keeping me balanced. If I hadn’t been doing basic to medium yoga for three years, I’d be flat on my ass.

After an hour, we call time on the shoot and I head back to the hotel. I wrap a towel around my shoulders, more to keep the sun off me than anything, and head up to my room. It’s not the best hotel in the state, but it has amazing views of Santa Barbara and its pier. Heading down there is on my plan for tonight.

Go to the pier, grab a glass of wine somewhere, then back to my room. Maybe for my vibrator.

Knowing I’m hours away from my family, my friends, Tyler—it’s surreal. This is only the second location shoot I’ve been on that’s taken me this far away from my home.