Page 7 of Charm Me

Chapter 4

Wyatt

I hung up the phoneand sighed. My sister, Abigail, was always difficult when I’d come to visit her, but this was the first time she’d refused to see me. Things were getting worse with her instead of better.

There was a large age gap between me and my other siblings, but Abigail and I were only a year apart in age with her being one year older. We were close growing up and until she moved to go to college at NYU, we’d been inseparable. Even then, she came home during every break or I’d visit her as often as I could in between her visits.

Halfway through her senior year of college, she stopped talking to everyone. She cut all her friends and family off without warning. After several unanswered phone calls, I flew to New York for a visit. When a stranger opened her apartment door, I’d struggled to hold back the tears. He’d just moved in a few weeks prior and had never heard of Abigail Strong. She’d moved out and didn’t tell anyone where she’d gone. It nearly destroyed our family to lose all contact with her. And for two years we didn’t even know if she was alive.

When she finally called and asked me to come to New York, I jumped on a plane the next morning. I was ready to wrangle her in and drag her ass back to Montana but when I arrived in New York, I was brought to tears when I saw her. I’d hardly recognized my older sister. She was no longer the fun-loving gentle-hearted girl I grew up with. Something had completely shattered her.

Turned out she graduated with her English literature and creative writing degree and moved to a nicer apartment closer to her agent’s office. She was writing romance novels and her first book was set to release a year later. It broke Mom and Dad’s hearts that they’d missed her college graduation. Abigail had moved on with a career and a life without telling any of us she was okay.

Now fifteen years later, I still didn’t know what happened to her. If the themes from her novels had anything to do with her past, a boy had badly hurt her. I read all her books. Every heroine she wrote had been hurt by a boy and struggled with overcoming a broken heart. They were tragic stories about reconnecting to the world of the living through the love of a good man. Only Abigail never found a good man. If her current refusal to see me was an indication of her current condition, she wasn’t doing well.

I’d hoped as time passed, she’d open up to me and tell me why she cut herself off from the family over fifteen years ago. But the opposite occurred. The longer she was alone in New York, the more she shut us out. And not just from the family, but everyone. Until now, I was the only person she’d talk to, and now it looked like she was shutting me out too.

I leaned against the stone wall of the building behind me. So far nothing about this trip had gone as planned. Between Abigail and the unexpected Zoe Philips, there was no way I’d be able to concentrate enough to make a decision about a new financial management company. I still had meetings with two other agencies this afternoon and all I could think about was Abigail’s refusal and seeing Zoe again.

My pulse was still pumping in overdrive from seeing Zoe this morning. She wasn’t just another pretty face. There were plenty of pretty faces around and none of them affected me quite like Zoe. She was petite and feisty, and fucking hot. I couldn’t get the image of her pale blue dress wrapped around her shapely curves out of my mind.

Her directness caught me off guard, both last night when she fell into my lap and this morning with the way she commanded the room. I struggled to stay focused on the words she spoke. I was mesmerized by the thin curve of her lips and icy blue color of her eyes. Despite my lack of focus, her determination and strength did not go unnoticed.

When she wrapped her hand around the locket she wore, my eyes were drawn to the soft, creamy skin of her neck and the memory of her sweet scent—sugar coated strawberries. And when she looked at me, I saw the flicker of desire in the depths of her light blue eyes.

I was equally distracted by her smooth pink lips, and about the only thing I caught coming out of them was the potential profit she described. Leave it to a man to only notice two things—the sexy woman in the room and talk of money. Fuck, I’m an asshole.

I closed my eyes and tried to clear my mind. But the constant murmur of voices, car horns, construction, and the endless mix of music coming from at least four different places of business clouded my thoughts. How could anyone think in this city when they were surrounded by so much noise?

I opened my eyes and they immediately landed on Zoe. She smiled and it lit up my insides with a raging heat that when straight to my cock. I was done for. I’d do just about anything to spend as much time as possible with this woman before I left Manhattan.

“Whatcha doin’ hangin’ out here, cowboy?” The soft sound of her voice hit me right in the gut, especially with the accentuated twang she added to her words. She didn’t have an accent during her presentation, so I assumed she added it just for me. Oddly, that thought pleased me.

“Just thinkin.” A light breeze blew in my direction and her scent filled me. She smelled so damn good and the urge to press my lips against her skin and taste her overwhelmed me. The noises of the city faded away and the only sound I was left with was my beating heart.

“You don’t say much do you.” She crossed her arms over her chest and looked up at me with a curious grin. Her directness twisted my insides and rendered me speechless.

She was so small compared to my tall stature. Even leaning against the wall, I towered over her with my six feet three inches. She couldn’t be much more than five feet tall. Her heels gave her a boost, but not enough to come anywhere near my height.

Despite her petite size, she didn’t shy away from me. Not here outside her office building or inside the conference room. And it was hot as fuck.

Her professionalism during her presentation impressed me, and it was clear she’d done her research. She’d recognized me as the man from the cab as soon as I entered the room this morning. I noticed her nervousness, but Glen had been clueless to it. She hid the effect our awkward run in last night had on her well.

But outside the office, she let her true fire out. Flecks of flames bounced around those light blue eyes of hers, telling me everything I need to know about how much I affected her.

“Well?” She prodded.

I shrugged and balled my hands into fists to keep me from reaching out to touch her. “I say plenty when I’ve got somethin’ to say.”

She took a step closer to me and her arm brushed against mine. My heart pounded in my chest like a herd of wild horse on a stampede. “You didn’t say much during my presentation this morning. I expected you to have a lot of questions.”

“I’m sure I will, I just need more time to think it through.” I shifted my feet and pressed my back into the wall. She was so close and if I didn’t put some distance between us, she’d learn a lot more about me. I needed to behave like a gentleman and my insane attraction for her was making it difficult. My body was having wildly inappropriate and lust-filled reactions to her. There was something different about her, something more real, raw, and I desperately wanted to learn more about her.

She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. “Can I ask you a question?”

The look in her eyes was fierce and reinforced her determination and strength. I was powerless to deny her. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Why did you call me a pastry with an erotic connotation?”