by Susan Stoker
Paisley strode into the room, her heels clicking on the hardwoods. “Duke is all squared away with dinner. Now, where were we?” The teasing tone trailed off as she took in his face. Ty watched her slip on a mask and a too-casual voice. “Regrets already?”
For all that things had been complicated between them, they’d never had anything false. Ty didn’t like feeling it now. Didn’t like knowing he had anything to do with causing those shields to go up. He wondered about her exes and what scars they’d left on that big heart of hers. As she lifted her chin in a defiant move he recognized as her fake-it-til-you-make-it courage, he realized he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t walk away. Not yet.
So he crossed the room, sliding his hands into the silky fall of her hair. “No regrets,” he murmured and kissed her again.
She might not know it, but she was giving him a gift, and he wanted to cherish it. Cherish her.
On a sigh, Paisley melted into him, twining her arms around his neck as she opened for him, ready and eager as she’d always been. That surrender stoked the fires dampened by doubts. Hauling her closer, he angled his mouth to take the kiss deeper. She met every demanding thrust of his tongue with one of his own, urging him on. She was sweetness and light and everything good he’d never thought to have again, and Ty wanted to drown in her. He chased the sensation, desperate for more.
As tenderness bled into something darker, more savage, Ty wrenched his mouth away. No. No, he wasn’t going to unleash his demons on her. Not like this. He was better than that. Pressing his brow to hers as he fought to catch his breath and find some shred of control.
“What’s wrong?” Her hands skimmed over his shoulders, soothing, even as she gasped for breath.
God, that touch. How had he managed to forget what she could do to him? Searching for words, he couldn’t stop his hands from kneading at her nape, her hip. “It’s…been a very long time for me. I’m not sure I can be gentle.”
Paisley pulled back, staring up at him with night-dark eyes and kiss-swollen lips. “Then don’t.”
Ty stared down at her with hungry eyes, but still he radiated uncertainty. Sweet, sexy man. She could address that.
“I haven’t been a virgin for a very long time, as you well know. I won’t break, Ty.” She nipped at his mouth, hoping the little sting would reassure him. “Take me.”
She felt the moment his tether snapped. He hauled her to her toes, savaging her mouth until she was unbalanced and breathless, as desperate as he was. It was glorious. His big, broad hands were everywhere, sliding beneath the hem of her dress to cup her ass and press her against his straining erection. She wanted skin on skin, wanted the flex and strain of muscle over her, in her. Spearing her hands in his hair, she dragged him closer, feeling a dark satisfaction at his groan.
Tearing his mouth away, Ty trailed it down the column of her throat. His lips were a fever as they claimed her, and she dropped her head back to give him better access.
And she heard the jingle of dog tags.
“Wait,” she gasped.
He froze in an instant, proving he still had some control.
“We have approximately ten seconds before canis interruptus.”
Ty solved the issue by scooping her up so she could wrap her legs around his waist. “Which way?”
Dizzy at the feel of him behind the fly of his trousers, she directed him down the hall. He moved fast, those long, muscular legs eating up the distance with just enough time to boot the door shut on Duke.
His confused, mournful bark sounded in the hall.
“Don’t mind him, he doesn’t know what’s happening. I never bring anyone home.’’
Something flashed in Ty’s eyes as he let her slide down his body. Then he was on her again, yanking down the zipper of her dress and peeling her out of it. Paisley had never been more grateful for her choice of underwear.
He took in the black lace with a reverent curse. “You sure as hell didn’t have these in high school.”
Preening just a little, she did a turn. “You like?”
“Fuck yes.”
God, when was the last time a man had looked at her as if she were some kind of goddess? She was going to enjoy this immensely.
He slowed, fingers flicking open the clasp of her bra and drawing it down and away, until the cool air kissed her bare breasts. Her nipples drew taut and achy.
“You always did have the most magnificent breasts.” Ty lowered his head and sucked one rosy tip into his mouth, circling it with his tongue.
Feeling an answering tug deep between her legs, she threaded her hands in the hair at his nape to keep him there. His hands roamed south, dipping into her panties and slipping between her drenched folds. His blunt finger was a welcome intrusion against the ache he built with his mouth. Pumping her hips to the rhythm he set, she began to chase the high. He’d always known how to touch her, how to work her into an absolute frenzy. He added a second finger as he began to circle her clit. It was too much and not enough.
She whimpered his name.
“Come for me, Paisley.”
She wrote romance. Had crafted countless love scenes. She’d always thought orgasm on command was a ridiculous fiction. But as he growled the order against her ear, his voice a rumble she felt all the way to her core, she shot up and over, crying out as her body clamped tight around his fingers.
He gave her no quarter. Before her walls had even ceased to flutter, he’d stripped off her panties and spread her on the bed. With molten eyes, he looked down the length of her body as he crawled toward her. His nostrils flared, a predator scenting his prey. It felt wicked and arousing and absolutely wonderful as he spread her wide and settled between her thighs. Lowering his mouth to her center, he laid waste to whatever was left of her, until she screamed through a second release that left her boneless and brainless.
When he stretched out over her, she had a moment to wonder when he’d gotten naked and donned a condom. But she stopped caring as his crown nudged her sensitive entrance.
Ty braced himself above her. “Okay?”
“I will be if you’re inside me in the next three seconds.’’
He thrust into her in one hard stroke, and Paisley screamed.
Holding himself achingly still, he searched her face. “Did I hurt you?”
“No. No. God, dont stop.”
Dropping his mouth to hers, he kissed her. She tasted her own release as he began to move, setting a steady, ruthless rhythm that shook the bed. She met him beat for beat as he plunged into her with a fevered desperation, as if hell itself were on his heels. As tension began to coil inside her once more, she wrapped her arms tighter, holding onto him with everything she had. On a roar, he broke apart, and the feel of his release had one more orgasm ripping up from her toes.
Ty collapsed on her, just managing to catch some of his weight on his forearms so as not to crush her. As delicious aftershocks rippled through her, she found enough energy to run her hands slowly over the slope of his shoulders, appreciating the up-close-and-personal feel of them draped all over her. When she could move again, she wanted to map them all with her tongue.
Smiling, she pressed a kiss to the side of his throat. “Yep, definitely better than we were at eighteen. And we were damned good then.”
He made a noise and roused himself enough to peer down at her. “You look very smug.”
Paisley stretched, squeezing her inner walls around his cock, still buried inside her. “Three orgasms and headboard banging sex seems worth some smug.”
His fingers against her cheek were shockingly gentle. “You’re okay?”
Because her throat wanted to close up at the tender touch, she forced a smile and continued stroking his back. “I’m pretty freaking fabulous.”
He flashed a cocky grin that made her heart turn over in her chest. “I live to serve.” Kissing her once more, he heaved himself off her to go take care of the condom.
When he came back, she’d burrowed under the covers and
flipped them back in invitation. “Come back to bed.”
One brow winged up. “You want me to stay?”
For one wild, reckless moment, she wanted to say yes. Instead, she patted the mattress beside her. “I told you I had no expectations beyond the night. But the night isn’t over, and I’m nowhere near done with you.”
He crawled in beside her, and there was no awkwardness. He simply pulled her against him as he had so many times before. Their bodies remembered what time and distance had dimmed. Paisley couldn’t help but notice that his eyes looked less haunted and more like the boy she’d loved.
In the wake of stupendous sex, it was far too easy to wipe away all the years apart. To indulge in the fantasy that he wouldn’t be walking away again. That this would be the start of something new between them. But for the life of her, she couldn’t quite make herself let it go. If that made her a fool, she was the only one who’d suffer the consequences.
Ty woke tangled with a warm, naked woman. Paisley lay all but boneless against him, her hand over his heart, legs twined with his. His face was bent close to the riotous waves of her hair, as if he needed the comfort of her scent even in sleep. It was a helluva delicious scent, all mingled with his. The combination made him feel smug and possessive.
He’d stayed the night.
Did it even count? They’d barely slept, turning to each other again and again, until just before the thin rim of dawn began to peek through the window. Passing out from sheer exhaustion wasn’t exactly a true choice. It was more like a nap.
But the truth was, he’d have chosen to stay anyway. He’d wanted to wake up with her like this. It was an indulgence they’d never had in high school, one he’d always craved. He had no business craving it now. No business indulging in anything when it came to Paisley Parish. But he couldn’t find it in him to regret last night.
The dog scratched at the door, whining.
Paisley stretched and snuggled in closer, her breasts pressing against his chest and giving fresh inspiration to the morning wood that had been at half-mast. He trailed a hand down her back to curve around her lush ass. She wiggled against him, skating her own hand down his chest to curl around his dick. Ty groaned and thrust into her touch.
“Okay, so maybe there’s a reason to be awake,” she rasped.
Duke scratched again, whining.
“Maybe if we ignore him, he’ll go away,” Ty suggested. He could roll her over, be inside her in seconds.
Paisley moaned. “Whattimesit?”
He glanced at the clock, startled to realize it was far later than he’d thought. “Nearly eleven.”
He’d actually slept. Dreamlessly. For the first time in longer than he could remember. No nightmares. No rocketing out of sleep, ready to fight. Before he could process the implications of that, Duke began to paw at the door in earnest.
“If this is what it’s like to be a parent, I’m glad I skipped it,” Paisley muttered.
Duke yipped.
She removed her hand and shoved up. “He’s lucky he’s cute. And we’re lucky he doesn’t have opposable thumbs. I don’t think either of us wants seventy-five pounds of enthusiastic canine bouncing on the bed.” Brushing a kiss to the underside of his jaw, she rolled away. “I’m going to go let him out, do the breakfast thing. I’ll be right back to pick up where we left off.”
She shrugged into a silk robe in some peachy pink color that diverted his brain to more interesting ways to begin the day than breakfast. Scrubbing both hands over his face, he watched her leave and settled back against the pillow, plotting exactly how he wanted to seduce her again. They could follow that up with a shower—together, of course. Then pancakes. Surely she had the makings for those. And maybe there was a river walk somewhere in Nashville. They could take Duke and—
Ty froze.
Pancakes? Long walks with the dog? What the actual hell? He wasn’t this domestic guy. This wasn’t a relationship. They weren’t just picking back up where they’d left off eighteen years ago. That was insanity. Half a fucking lifetime had passed since then. This was just nostalgia and natural chemistry combining into something explosive.
Really fucking explosive.
She’d rocked his world last night. And it had been…well, it had been more than he’d expected. More than either of them had been prepared for.
Then again, he’d never been prepared for Paisley. She’d always been the greatest surprise. Once upon a time, he’d been open to that. He’d believed she’d be his greatest adventure. For a long time, she had been. Loving her had been easy. Being with her had been a joy and a privilege. But that was before, when he’d had something to give her.
He wasn’t that guy anymore. She deserved the world, not some broken-down soldier who’d left half of himself in a hellhole on the other side of the globe. He could and had faked it for a little while, but he couldn’t do that long term. And he didn’t want to see her face when she realized that he wasn’t who she remembered. Didn’t want to look into those big, brown eyes and see pity for the shell he’d become. Or worse, disappointment.
She hadn’t asked him for more than the night. But if he was thinking like this, what was Paisley, with all her inherent romanticism, thinking in the light of day? She was a romance author. She’d always loved love. That absolutely hadn’t changed in the last two decades. Sure, going into last night, she’d made the parameters clear, but what if she’d changed her mind? Could the girl he’d known, who’d wanted romance and marriage and forever, really have grown into a woman who didn’t want those things, deep down?
He couldn’t do more than this. Not even for her.
It was the temptation to try that pushed him out of bed. He knew his limitations. He understood better than anyone else what he was and wasn’t capable of. The limits he’d set were for the protection of others as much as himself. He didn’t want to hurt anybody, least of all a woman who’d once held his heart. There was no future here. No new start borne of a chance reconnection. He wasn’t going to suddenly turn into a hero from one of her novels.
So he needed to do what he hadn’t been strong enough to do last night.
He had to walk away before he added her to his list of failures.
The moment the back door opened, Duke rocketed out, making a lap around the perimeter of the yard before sniffing out the perfect spot to do his business. Paisley hugged herself against the chill. Her whole body felt deliciously loose and used. So very well used.
Ty had stayed.
In truth, she hadn’t quite expected that he would, which was why she’d embraced her inner sex goddess and kept him busy as long as physically possible. He’d been as insatiable as she, but Paisley couldn’t quite shake the idea that he’d been running from something in her bed last night. He’d lost himself in her. Not that she was complaining. He’d learned a thing or three since he was eighteen. This growly, dominant version of him was totally working for her. She’d need to soak for a week if she expected to walk properly, but that would be after another orgasm or three. If she was being greedy, who could blame her? He’d grown up hot AF and knew what to do with it.
Duke raced back inside, turning circles of joy until she placed his bowl of kibble in the stand. He dove in, bolting down the food without even chewing. He’d be finished before she got back to the bedroom, but she could hurry fast enough to shut the door. She’d make up for ignoring him later. Mama had a sexy man in her bed, and she intended to make use of him again. Maybe she could convince Ty to stay another day. A full twenty-four hours of debauchery sounded like a magnificent use of a weekend.
Pleased by the prospect, she pushed into the room. “I was thinking—”
Ty was half-dressed when she walked inside.
Her nascent plans died a swift death, and she tried not to let the disappointment show. This was what he’d signed on for. One night. He’d given her what she’d asked. But it still stung to see him buttoning his tux shirt, obviously getting ready to go.
“Leavin
g so soon?”
He started pulling on his shoes, those nimble fingers tying the laces with quick efficiency. “I need to be getting back.”
Retreat.
There was no other word for this.
What had happened between the sleepy, naked Ty she’d left in her bed ready for another round and now? Maybe he’d gotten some kind of call about something back home?
“Is everything okay?”
“It’s fine. I just need to get going.” His words were businesslike, matter-of-fact, as if they hadn’t just spent the last twelve hours exploring every intimate inch of each other.
No sparing of her feelings then. The feelings she wasn’t supposed to have caught during this little interlude. And she hadn’t. It was just nostalgia and orgasms talking.
Paisley crossed her arms and tried to keep her tone light. “At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’m not looking for anything serious here, Ty. You don’t have to run off.”
He rose to his feet with that silent, fluid grace his training had instilled. Paisley wished she didn’t find it so sexy.
“I’m not running anywhere. And you said that before. Why is that? I’ve never known anybody more serious about relationships than you.”
That had been true once.
She shrugged. “That girl was a long time ago. After my second divorce, I decided that serious and I don’t work. My expectations were consistently out of line with reality.” Her ex-husbands had made that abundantly clear, and she hadn’t been willing to lower her standards for a long-term partner. “So I learned to keep things light and fun and short term. That works for me.”
It tasted like a lie, one she’d been living by for a long time. But what else could she tell him when he was poised to walk out her door? The idea of letting him walk out of her life again had something akin to panic fluttering beneath her breastbone. It wasn’t just about the sex. She’d missed him. But she had a feeling that saying so would just make him run faster.
Because this felt like the only opening she’d get, she strolled over to him, keeping her tone casual and flirty. “I’d love to pursue that short term with you.” Not above using feminine wiles to woo him to her way of thinking, she trailed her fingers down his arm. “I think we’d both find it mutually beneficial.”