Wild Temptation (Wild #1)(81)
Author: Emma Hart

My lips form a wide grin. “Okay. I think my need for information is sated. For now.”

“Good. And now I guess we have to get to my gritty stuff, right?”

I nod. “I fessed up. Now it’s your turn.”

“Okay.” He grabs his mug of tea and drinks half of it before setting it back on the table. He settles his arms around me again, linking his fingers on my back, and looks up. “Let’s see… When we were little, Tessa and Aaron were constantly following our parents around. They wanted to know every last bit of the business. My dad tried for about a year to get me interested, but I just didn’t care. I didn’t have the right head for it.

“Then we got older, and while they started internships and work experiences, I started sleeping with girls. Yeah. I was that knobhead.” He laughs. “I studied photography at A-level in college just to make up the number of courses I needed to take and fell in love with it. It was so calm and quiet compared to my rowdy, devil-may-care personality. It was a great contradiction. Soon, I started doing it all the time. I begged Uncle Brandon to let me work in the photography department in the New York office when I was eighteen and he agreed. I guess he was happy I was finally showing some interest.

“Anyway, I went back home after the summer and hit uni. I took photography classes and teaching classes. I wanted to make sure I had a backup in case I never made it freelancing. I didn’t want to get jobs just because of who I was. I wanted to do it because I’d earned the f**king right to.”

“I get that.”

He nods. “Anyway, I graduated after a few years and walked right into a teaching job. It wasn’t anything huge or well paid. Just evenings and weekends, but it was enough to get some experience. I loved it—loved showing other people how to get the best out of the camera.”

“Wait. You told me you hated it.”

“I lied a little. I never really hated it though. I just loved freelancing more. I worked them side by side for a few years.”

“So why did you stop?”

He runs his hands down my back, still linked, and settles them at the top of my butt. He watches me for a moment, his face getting ever more serious.

“Tyler. Why?” I prompt him again.

He sighs and rests his forehead again mine. His eyes are closed, like he doesn’t want to look at me as he tells me.

“I slept with one of my students.”