Then She Saved Him

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 2

Wyatt kept checking his cell, but the text message never changed:

You have a match.

Meet Camille Blake.

(all over again)

The logical part of his brain was shocked. It kept snagging on logistics like, what were the odds of this happening? Out of (presumably) thousands of singles on An Indecent Apposal, how had he been matched with Cams?

But the rest of his brain (probably the section that was ruled by other parts of him) was triumphant.

I love being right, he thought, striding down the Four Seasons’ opulent hallway, black Chucks silent on the thick carpeting. Love. It.

How many years had he known Camille was meant to be with him? Eight? Ten? Longer? Probably longer.

Maybe even a lot longer.

“f**k,” he muttered, the realization damn near knocking the breath out of him. He’d wanted beautiful, curvy, stubborn as hell Camille Blake for as long as he could remember wanting anyone.

And now he was about to know everything she craved. Everything she needed. He only had to scroll a little farther down to know every last secret.

“Double fuck.” Raw want warred with shock, and briefly, he flashed back to the first time he’d seen Camille.

He’d been six or seven so she’d had to be seven or eight and even then she had stared him down like a damn queen. At the time, he’d found her to be the slightly terrifying older sister of his best friend. They hadn’t always gotten along.

In fact, at that moment, they weren’t getting along at all. She’d called him a manwhore at the Blake family Christmas party and he might have said something about how she’d need a team of surgeons to remove the stick from her ass.

But all of that will change, Wyatt told himself, pulling a keycard from his jeans pocket. The app guaranteed it. An Indecent Apposal’s whole deal was finding your soulmate, which meant Camille was his. His.

He stopped at the end suite’s double doors and flashed the keycard against the lock. It clicked open and he stepped inside, grinning…and then frowned.

The hotel suite was well and truly destroyed. Chairs were flipped, pictures had fallen off the walls, an upturned champagne bottle still dripped champagne onto a glossy-topped table, and two people (thankfully still mostly clothed) were passed out on the Oriental carpet.

“This is going to be expensive,” he muttered. But the important thing to remember was it could’ve been worse.

It would’ve been worse if he hadn’t been there. When his younger half-sister, Kylie, had decided to throw a birthday party for her best friend, Wyatt had known things would get rowdy. When he found out her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Dawson Gauvin, had invited himself along, he knew things would get out of hand—and he’d been right.

Luckily for Kylie, Wyatt had made sure to reserve the suite under his name. When the news of the party leaked (and it always leaked), he’d get the blame and no one would blink an eye. According to the tabloids, Wyatt was playboy trust-funder. According to his father, he was a waste of space. According to his little sister, he was the one person who kept her from losing it.

Being an heiress to the Murphy fortune came with a lot of pressure and Kylie did not do well with pressure. She bottled up her feelings until they eventually exploded, usually resulting in a wild party binge—and risking the wrath of their father. Kingston Murphy had political ambitions, and while he couldn’t control or hurt Wyatt thanks to the fortune he’d inherited from his mother, he could control and hurt Kylie. Yeah, stepping in and shielding her wasn’t ideal, but she’d grow up soon enough. He was positive her partying was just a stage.

Wyatt shut the door behind him, making it only a few steps before stepping on broken bits of glass. Yeti could’ve stepped on that, he thought, sighing. And speaking of Yeti…where is the overgrown sofa?

It was after seven in the morning. The dog was probably desperate to pee. Wyatt tossed the glass bits into the trash. God knew the hotel bill was going to be bad enough, but somehow adding a Yeti-sized accident just seemed over the line.

Especially when there were better uses for it.

He carefully walked around the foot of the bed and spotted the Wolfhound-mix lying on the carpet, chewing someone’s shoe. Yeti looked up, tail wagging, and the stiletto heel—or rather what was left of the stiletto heel—landed with a wet thump.

“Was it good?” Wyatt asked him, bending over to rub the dog’s floppy ears.

Yeti wagged his tail again, bashing it against the bedframe. The half-dressed guy, still facedown on the floor, moaned. “f**k’s sake, Mom, who’s at the door?”

Wyatt sighed. “I’m getting too damn old for this.”

“Oh don’t say that.” Kylie wandered through the door that separated one side of the suite from the other. Her eyes were bloodshot and swollen. He couldn’t tell whether it was from being hung over or if she’d been crying.

“No one’s ever too old for birthday parties,” she added, sidestepping a small puddle of puke before hopping up onto the bed. “Besides, you’re way more awake than the rest of us.”

“I didn’t drink as much either.”

“True. I think you should start bringing a date to our parties. Having someone makes everything better.”

Wyatt fussed with Yeti’s collar so he wouldn’t have to meet his half-sister’s eyes. Technically, he agreed with her. It was why in a moment of weakness—and fine, yes drunkenness—he’d accepted the invitation Jamie had sent him. An Indecent Apposal wasn’t a regular app. You had to be invited, you had to fill out an incredibly specific questionnaire, and you had to be honest.

Wyatt took an uneven breath, remembering how he’d had to write down everything he wanted in bed.

And out of bed.

And very specifically in his steam shower.

Kylie hooked a strand of dark hair behind her ear. “I bet a girlfriend would make you less grouchy.”

“I have lots of girlfriends. Open any gossip site. They’ll tell you all about it.”

“Gross. That’s part of your problem. They’re not real.”

Briefly, he tried to picture Camille at last night’s party and…failed. This wasn’t her sort of thing.

It was also partly why they’d argued during Christmas. The tabloids and gossip sites weren’t the only people who thought he was a party-driven womanizer. He hadn’t told her about Kylie and what was really going on. The only person who did know was Jamie, his best friend and Camille’s younger brother.

But that’s going to have to change, he realized, straightening. She’d have to know the truth. The idea should’ve been freeing and yet his skin went cold.

Kylie wrapped both arms around her legs, resting her chin on her knees. The effect made her look even younger than twenty. Though she had her mother’s big blue eyes, they both shared their father’s dark hair and height. Looking at her often reminded Wyatt of Kingston. He wondered if she ever felt the same way when she looked at him.

“Last night got totally out of hand,” Kylie said, pulling her knees closer. “I feel like crap.”

“You gotta slow down, Kylie.”

“I know. I’m sorry. Things have been really hard lately. Mom’s been crying a lot and Dad’s…Dad.”

He got that. He got it so much his chest twisted tight. “It’s not for much longer. You’ll graduate in another year.”

“And then I’m supposed to work on his presidential campaign.”

“Kylie—”

She shook her head as if chasing away bad thoughts, long hair streaming around her shoulders. “I’m glad you came with us last night.”

“Are you?” The muscles in his neck loosened. He hadn’t even realized how tense he’d been.

“Yeah. I don’t know where I’d be without you.”

From the other room, Dawson moaned. It sounded like he had the mother of all hangovers and Wyatt couldn’t stop his sudden grin. “I don’t think Richard Cranium is glad I came along.”

“Don’t call him that!” She slapped one hand over her mouth, unsuccessfully trying to hide her laugh. “He hates that nickname.”

“Only means I’m going to use it more. Did he make you cry?”

“Lots of things make me cry.”

Which meant he had.

Wyatt flexed his hands, feeling the knuckles pop. “You know, the family that murders together, stays together.”

Kylie rolled her eyes. “You’re such a good influence.”

She’d meant it as a joke, but later Wyatt thought it was probably the truest thing she’d ever said to him.