Impulsion (Station 32 #1)(9)

Ava blushed and moved deeper into the water.

“I think you broke her heart,” Harley said from just behind them. Both Easton and Wyatt turned to see Harley in nothing but a bikini top and jean shorts.

“I think mine just exploded,” Wyatt said with a slow smile.

Easton shook his head and faced forward, giving Memphis a wry glance that clearly stated their boy was done for. “If you think I’m running some kind of distraction with your sister, you’ve lost it.”

“I’d have to kill you if you did that, Casanova,” Wyatt said, moving off his four-wheeler. “You came,” he said to Harley.

“Your mom kinda made me,” Harley admitted.

Easton and Memphis both looked in their direction at once, just as Wyatt’s eyes went a little wide. Easton and Memphis were well aware of the risk going on with their boy.

“What did she say?” Wyatt asked, with only a hint of concern in his voice. In most cases, he could charm his way out of trouble with his mom. If that failed, his daddy would back him up.

“That I needed to relax. I could get hurt if I don’t.”

Easton nodded once and turned back around, sure that there was no threat anywhere, and started a conversation with Memphis about the work they were planning to do to Easton’s truck.

Right then, Ava, Kate, and the girls with them had spotted Harley and started to yell her name.

Harley started to push out of her shoes.

“Keep those on. Too many rocks,” Wyatt warned. “You want to go in?”

Her smile said she did.

In an elevated voice, he said, “If you’re going to swim in this creek, there is only one way in.” All the girls and Truman started to yell, “Jump! Jump,” in unison.

Wyatt took her hand and led her up the hill of the bank.

“You’re being obvious,” she said with a hint of a smile as his hand tightened around hers.

“Ava and them are too busy giving Easton flirty looks, and Kate is too busy smiling at Memphis.”

“Knowing none of the brothers around will stand for it,” Harley shot back.

“Right, so we just have a good time and don’t worry about what looks like what.”

They had reached the top of the hill. He pulled the rope to her. “You hold the rope, I’ll hold on to you. When I say let go, let go,” he said as he reached for the part of the rope above her head and braced his foot on one of the knots at the bottom.

Sounded easy enough to Harley. She wrapped her legs around the rope and felt her heart race when she sensed Wyatt’s bare chest against her back.

A second later, he swung them out. When he yelled, “Let go,” she didn’t and they landed right back on the bank, with Harley and everyone below laughing.

“You gotta let go, baby. You’re safe,” he said as his hand slid around her stomach. She did feel safe in the cage of his arms, no doubt.

“One more time,” Wyatt said.

It took three times—and her getting over her endless fits of laughter—before she finally let go and fell through the air in his arms.

He never let go. Even under the water, he took his time bringing them to the surface, letting his hands ease across her body. When they both emerged, they heard the cheers from the others.

Harley climbed that hill with Wyatt ten times over, and each time he would pull her behind the massive oak tree and steal a kiss before pulling their bodies together, then swinging them into the water.

After that, they watched the others. The dark creek water hid their hands, which were either laced together or daring to brush across each other. Something about having to be careful, having to hide their affection, made every touch even more sensual, even more heart-racing.

“I think this is the best day of my life,” Wyatt said to her as he slid past her in the water. She smiled over her shoulder at him, noticing that somehow before her eyes the boy she had met long ago was becoming a man.

“I was sure I wasn’t going to see you tonight. The girls pretty much talked Memphis and Easton into a bonfire,” he said with a nod to Easton, who had not left his four-wheeler.

That meant that everyone would be up late, out late, and the chances of either of them stealing a moment alone would be near nil.

“She scared me at first,” Harley admitted, thinking about the reason they had this afternoon together in the first place. “I thought she knew and was looking for a confession.”

Wyatt shook his head. He knew his mother would have come to him first. The family finances were no secret to anyone in this family, especially not Wyatt. He was the oldest of the next generation, and he, his brother, sister, and cousins were all being groomed to take over the business one day. Wyatt knew exactly how much money Claire Tatum had brought to the facility, what any upset would cost them all. Even knowing that could not keep him away from Harley. He loved her. He would gladly give up any family name or legacy for only the promise of having her for the rest of his life.

He knew, though, that it wasn’t his family that would stand between them—it was hers.

Harley had said as much. Wyatt knew when she was at home that her mother put Harley side by side with boys that were set to inherit and accomplish far more than had been dreamed of for Wyatt.

It burned him. When he was away from her, his mind was punishing him. He would see those boys dancing with her, see her parents smiling at them, the power they seemed to have, what they could give Harley that he couldn’t.