Page 31 of Billionaire Unreachable: Wyatt
No, she fucking wouldn’t!Shelby worked too hard to be cooking when it wasn’t necessary.
“How about you take a break, and I’ll take you out for dinner,” I suggested, surprising myself with that offer.
She turned her head toward me and smiled so broadly that I could see a very small, very adorable dimple in her right cheek, which wasn’t exactly a flaw. Unfortunately for me, it made her even more attractive.
“Are you trying to take me out for that dinner you rejected over a year ago?”
She was joking, but I felt a small twinge of guilt anyway.
“What if I am?” I challenged before I could think about my response. “What if I said that I might regret turning down the opportunity to get to know you a long time ago?”
Why in the fucking hell had I just admitted that out loud?
Was the exercise depriving my brain of oxygen right now?
This female was dangerous. I needed to stop blurting out exactly what I was thinking before I considered the repercussions of those words.
“Then I’d probably admit that I don’t really think that you’re a superficial asshole anymore,” she said earnestly. “In fact, I think I misjudged you, Wyatt.”
“You didn’t,” I warned her. “But I’d still like to take you out for dinner anyway. You don’t have to cook when it’s not necessary for your job, Shelby.”
“I don’t really mind doing it, but I think I’ll take you up on that offer. Honestly, I could go for takeout and an earlier night than last night. I’m a little tired. I didn’t sleep very well,” she confessed. “I guess I’m still trying to understand why someone would break into my apartment just to destroy some of my pictures, and steal the only two really nice sets of underwear I had.”
She looked so forlorn that I wanted to tell her that I’d give her my credit card so she could replace her missing lingerie, but I managed to keep my mouth shut this time.
“Were you afraid last night?” I asked with a frown. “I have a state of the art security system. No one is getting into this house without me knowing about it.”
She looked so bereft and confused about the burglary that it would probably tug at my heartstrings if I actually had a heart.
Shelby shook her head. “No. I felt safe here and not as incredibly creeped out as I was at my apartment. I guess I’m still just trying to understand why it happened in the first place. I can’t think of a single person here who would want to do something like that, Wyatt. It makes no sense to me.”
I decreased my speed, and started my cool down. “We’ll figure it out, Shelby. Try to put it out of your mind for a little while, and give your brain a break for one evening. I know an expert who can help investigate this. I’ll also put my security on your tail when you have to go somewhere.”
If Marshall couldn’t dig up any information on this situation, then the details were unfindable. The man had connections everywhere, from the top levels of the government to the darkest of locations.
“You’d do that for me?” she asked with a puzzled expression on her face. “Do you think it’s really possible that someone is watching me?”
Hell, yes, I thought it was entirely possible that she had a stalker.Fetish crimes didn’t just happen for no apparent reason, and my gut was telling me that this wasn’t a bunch of kids that did it out of boredom. The destruction of her pictures wasn’t random. Someone had methodically found every picture she was in, and had made damn sure that photo was destroyed.
I was also starting to think that there was very little I wouldn’t do to make sure this woman was safe.
Maybe I didn’t know her well, but I sensed that Shelby Remington wasn’t generally high strung, and for some damned reason, it irked me to see the worry etched into her expression.
“I’m just trying to cover all of the bases,” I said, unwilling to see her stress anymore over a possible psycho who might be following her. If she actually did have a stalker, that bastard wasn’t going to get anywhere near her. “And yes, I’d do that for you. It’s not a big deal to dig for information or to put some of my security on your tail.”
“You really are a good guy, Wyatt,” she said, her tone genuine and sweet.
“Don’t start thinking that I’m something that I’m not just because I want to keep you safe, Shelby,” I cautioned more harshly than intended. “You’re Kaleb’s cousin. He’d do the same for me.”
Her face fell, and her disappointed expression made my gut ache, but I couldn’t take my words back.
They were, after all, the truth, and after almost forty years of being an unfeeling jackass, it was very unlikely that I was evergoing to change.
Shelby
“That’s probably the best Thai food I’ve ever had,” I told Wyatt honestly as he made himself a drink after dinner. “I didn’t even know that little restaurant existed until tonight. I’m glad you decided to order there.”
Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised when Wyatt had suggested delivery from a small, casual, hole-in-the-wall place that he swore had fantastic Thai food.