by Fine, L. J.
“They still would have sent you back after what happened to you there?”
“It would have been my word against Daisy’s and I know that they would have sided with her. They would have chalked it up to me making up stories to get out of going to college, or at least that particular college, as they knew it wasn’t something I’d wanted to do. It didn’t matter to them what I wanted.” Once again, she looked down at her hands.
He tilted her chin up with his forefinger and softly kissed her lips. “That’s fucked up, baby. I’m sorry.”
Despite the topic of conversation, his sweetness sent warmth spreading through her chest and she kissed him back before she continued. “I just found a small town and settled in. I was there for about a month when he found me.”
“Doug? What the hell did he want from you?”
“Believe me, I was just as surprised as you are. But I’ve had a lot of time to think about this and my best guess is that he’s still pissed off at me for avoiding him like I did. The thing to understand about Doug is that his ego is way bigger than it deserves to be and he’s obviously unbalanced.”
“Yeah, that might be an understatement. So you think he feels like he has unfinished business with you?”
“I do.” She shrugged. “I think it bothers him that I wanted to get away from him. He’s never actually shown up and I haven’t seen him since that night, thank God. But he started calling me and leaving me these weird messages and then, once he found my address, he started sending me flowers and little notes. It would only take a few days of this before I’d get scared enough to pack up again and move. Ever since then he’s always managed to find me, no matter where I go.”
Dawning comprehension registered on his face as he leveled a look at her. “When we saw Daisy the other day, you think she told him where you are?”
“I know she did. He’s already started.” She gestured to the bright flowers peeking out of the trash can.
A low growl rumbled out of Tyler’s chest as he exhaled heavily. “So you were just gonna take off without telling me any of this? Or even saying goodbye?”
Okay, now he was back to being angry with her? Considering the basis of their relationship and after all the things that had happened in the last few days she was supposed to what? Be a mind reader?
“I was going to tell you all this stuff after the fight, but then I saw you with that girl and figured you didn’t want to be bothered. And I do believe I did tell you goodbye earlier.” She folded her arms across her chest.
That perfect mouth of his twisted down into a grim line.
“That’s such bullshit, Mina. You were just afraid of getting too close to me so you used her as an excuse to run.” He ran a punishing hand through his hair. “And I still cannot believe you’d think anything happened with me and that girl. Like I could ever treat you the way those assholes did.”
Though she didn’t want to admit it, she knew he was right. She had been so afraid for so long to let anyone get close to her, and when she found herself trusting Tyler, actually wanting to let him in, it had scared her shitless. That last arrow of his hit the mark and it pissed her off. So she turned it around on him.
“You were the one who didn’t want to get close to me, if I remember correctly, Tyler. Something about how you just couldn’t do hearts and flowers, wasn’t it? How the hell was I supposed to know you didn’t want to take Pinky home?”
His full lips twitched at the corners and she knew he was trying to suppress a smile. “Pinky?”
“Yes,” she hissed through her teeth, not about to be sidetracked by his adorable expression. “I dubbed her Pinky because I don’t know her name. That girl looked like a goddamn frosted strawberry fucking cupcake with her too-tight, all-pink outfit and all that fucking lip gloss coating her lips.”
It was at this point that she realized she had been spending far too much time with Tyler. His foul mouth was starting to rub off on her.
Or maybe she was just that angry.
Obviously, he wasn’t taking heed of her murderous glare because he barked out a laugh. “Pinky. I like it,” he reached out and twirled a piece of her hair around his finger. “Mostly because I can’t remember her name either. That’s how important she was to me, Mina.”
Against her will, she found herself softening toward his gentle touch and tender expression. Taking a deep breath, she tried again. “I’m going to bring this conversation around full circle. I opened up to you about what my issues were.” She cocked an eyebrow. “Quid pro quo, Mr. Serano.”
“How do you always do that?” he asked, eyes narrowed on her.
“Do what?”
“Argue me into a corner until I have no choice but to concede your point.”
“It’s a gift,” she said with a shrug and a self-satisfied smile.
Sitting back into the couch he pinned her with a glare. “Fine, but after your story this is gonna sound kinda lame.”
She cut him no sympathy. “I’m waiting with bated breath.”
He rolled his eyes but then with a sigh started talking.
“When I was a kid, my parents fought a lot. They could barely stand to be in the same room with each other without one of them picking at the other for whatever reason. It made for a pretty oppressive atmosphere but that was just life in the Serano household.” He shrugged. “Looking back on it now, I know that my mom just wasn’t a happy woman. Wasn’t the warmest or most affectionate person either. There was rarely a soft touch or a kind word and she’d never once told me that she loved me. If she wasn’t picking an argument with my dad, she was griping about something that my brothers and I either did or didn’t do. There was no winning with her.
“I should have known something was up the morning she left.” He gave a wry twist of his lips. “When I got out of bed for school, she was all sunshine and smiles. She was even fucking humming as she packed my lunch, which was completely unprecedented. Humming or packing my lunch. My dad always took care of that kind of stuff. I thought it was odd but it was definitely something to see and I thought that maybe something had changed. Maybe things would get better between them.
“She made a big production of sending my brothers and me out the door that morning, kissing and hugging each one of us as we left.” He smiled sadly, his eyes taking on a distant quality. “I remember being so excited all day. I couldn’t wait to get home to see if her mood had changed or if she’d somehow done a one-eighty to become the perfect cookie-cutter mom.”
Taking a deep breath he blinked and looked back at her. “But of course, when I got home that day she was already gone. No goodbye or go to hell, just all her clothes out of the closet and her car missing from the driveway. When my dad got home from work…” He shook his head. “I’d never seen him so panicked or angry. He grilled us for at least an hour to find out if we’d known anything about her leaving.”
“How old were you?” she asked softly.
“I was six, the twins were ten and Brandon was thirteen.”
Mina couldn’t even begin to imagine what that must have been like. Her parents were definitely no picnic but at least they’d stuck it out with her. Well, she thought with a frown, for a while anyway.
“That night I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and I could hear my dad sobbing in his room. After that day, he never spoke about her or what happened ever again but he was never the same. She’d left him a broken man with four rowdy boys to raise on his own.”
“I’m so sorry. That must have been terrible.”
He shrugged. “Yeah. Eventually the old man put it past him and moved on with his life. He did the best he could.”
She shook her head. “No, I meant that must have been horrible for you. You were probably so young you didn’t even fully understand what was going on.” She felt herself scowl. “I just can’t comprehend how a mother could abandon her own children, much less be gleeful about it.”
Her heart broke for the little boy he had once been.
To never have known the gentleness of a mother’s loving embrace and then to be raised by a weathered and withdrawn father. It was a wonder he had grown into the tender, playful man she knew him to be.
Seemed that they’d both been damaged and rejected from the start. It amazed her how well he carried it, how he rose above it and became his own man no matter what anyone else said or did.
“It is what it is and we dealt with it.” His eyes softened as he regarded her for a moment before they turned anxious and wary. “But this brings me back to you. Or more like my motives for keeping things between us casual.”
Oh no. She had an idea where he was going with this but she remained silent and just let him get it out.
“My whole life, I’ve never taken any of my relationships with women seriously. They’ve either just been my friends or random hookups. I never let myself get close to any of them. Never felt the desire. And to be frank, I’ve just never trusted any of them. But you—” He pressed his lips together and shook his head. “You’re different. I could tell from our very first conversation. You’re not artificial like most of the women I’ve known and there’s just something about you, Mina.” He shook his head again. “But I thought keeping you at arm’s length was the right move because that’s what I’ve always done. It’s all I know.”
He gave her that impish smile and her insides melted to the rapid beat of her heart. “It took sitting through your determined little speech yesterday to realize what total bullshit that was. So I guess we were both lying to ourselves about what it was we were doing together.”
She wasn’t sure she heard him right over the blood pounding in her ears. So just to clarify she asked, “And what is it you think we’re doing together, Tyler?”
That smile broadened. “You’re gonna make me say it, aren’t you?”
When she just bit her lip and nodded, he chuckled and took her hand in his. “Look, all I know is when I’m with you I get so lost in you. It doesn’t matter what any other woman in my life has said or done, they weren’t you.” He broke eye contact and stared down at their entwined fingers, then softly said, “You’re my everything and I don’t wanna lose you.”
Her breath caught as he looked up at her. She could lose herself in the dark, warm depths of his eyes, could stare at him forever. “I don’t want space. All this ‘safe distance’ between us. I don’t want anything if I can’t have you.”
Holy shit. When she had woken up yesterday morning, a hundred different scenarios went through her mind as to how the next few days would go. Some involved getting out of there in time. Some included the terrifying possibility that Doug would find her before she could once again evade him. Some even included going to Chloe for help. But all of them featured her leaving this town and never coming back. Mourning the loss of Tyler and all they could have had together.
Never in a million years would she have pictured it ending up like this, with her heart swelling in her chest and tears springing to her eyes, not from sadness but from unfettered joy. She wasn’t at all used to this feeling.
“What are you saying then, Tyler? I don’t want any miscommunication between us, not about this.”
Bringing her hand up to his mouth, he held her gaze as his eyes darkened. He placed a sweet kiss along her knuckles. “I’m saying that I don’t want you to run from me. I want to give this thing between us a chance, I want it to grow. So I’m saying stay with me and let me love you.”
Love? She sat stunned. That was definitely not a word she had ever expected to hear coming out of Tyler’s mouth. To be honest, she never expected to hear something like that directed toward her coming out of anyone’s mouth—but from him? Surreal. Absolutely surreal.
Looking up at him now, she could see the anxiousness in his expression and realized that she was taking too long to respond. Feeling emboldened by his declaration, she once again rose to her knees, and then swung her leg over his lap so that she straddled him. He settled her onto him, with his hands on her hips as she pushed her fingers into his hair to tilt his head back. “You don’t know how much I want that too.” She studied his beautiful dark eyes for a tension-filled moment. “I’m saying yes.”
The light that flashed behind his eyes at her words was almost eclipsed by the slow, blindingly beautiful, full-on smile he gave her then. “Kiss me then, baby. Make it official.”
That happy glow that backlit his eyes now danced with mirth and maybe even giddiness. Crazy to know that she affected him like this. The exact same way he affected her.
How could she possibly resist that? Closing the distance between them, she covered his mouth with hers. Once again he let her control the kiss, lips soft, pliable and responsive, letting her explore him at her leisure. Not having had too many opportunities like this she delved deeper, cradling his head in her hands, loving the way he tasted, the way his tongue flicked against hers. He groaned deep in his throat as she played with him and when she pulled away they were both breathless.
Gazing at her through hooded eyes, he licked his lips and gave her another lazy, satisfied smile.
“Why do I feel like I just made a deal with the devil?” She eyed him warily with an arched eyebrow.
A low chuckle rumbled from his chest as he grabbed her hips, pulled her into him and leaned forward, tipping her off balance in his lap. “Probably because you just did.”
Before she could reply with some smart-ass comment, his mouth came down on hers in a purely dominating kiss. His warm hands slipped under her camisole and skimmed up her sides, leaving goose bumps in their wake. Sucking her bottom lip into his mouth, those callused palms cupped her naked breasts, thumbs finding her nipples at the same moment he gently slid his teeth over her lip. She shivered.
“Mmm, I like waking you up in the middle of the night. Fewer barriers in my way.” He pinched her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers.
“Ah…” Her head fell back as she arched her body into his touch. Slowly, he worked her top over her head and tossed it onto the couch.
“You’re so unbelievably beautiful,” he whispered before he sucked her left nipple into the wet heat of his mouth. Groaning, she rocked her hips into him as his erection strained inside his jeans.
Pulling away, he blew on the wet peak he lavished so much attention on and the cool contrast had her nipple hardening even more for him.
“Tyler,” she whimpered when he worked his way over to her other nipple to repeat the same torture.
Suddenly, he stood with her in his arms, making her squeal and cling to him in surprise. He just laughed and kissed her lips as he made his way to her bedroom. Stopping at the end of her bed, he let her slowly slide down his hard body to her feet. As he placed long, lingering kisses on her lips, the slow glide of his hands skimmed down her sides and into the tops of her pajama bottoms. His mouth meandered over her neck and collarbone as he pushed the material off her hips so that it slid down her legs to pool on the floor at her feet.
He had on entirely too many clothes. So she remedied that by running her hands up under his shirt, gently raking her nails up his stomach and onto his chest. Reaching behind him, he fisted his t-shirt and pulled it up over his head.
Marveling at his solid heat in front of her, she trailed kisses all over his chest from one side to the other. This was something she thought she would never get to experience again. But now he was hers, hers—and she took her time running her mouth over his skin, savoring the way he tasted when she flicked her tongue out over his nipple. Loving the way he shivered when she bared her teeth against his flesh and bit down.
She ran her hands down the broad, muscular expanse of his back to shove them into his back pockets. He grunted when she grabbed his ass and pulled him into her and she reveled in the power she had over him.
Growling, he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her slowly, adoringly. Feeling the foil packet in his right back pocket, she dug it out and tossed it onto the bed before she went to work on his belt buckle.
Once she got his pants off and he stood before her in nothing but his briefs, she felt better, like they were on more equal ground. She let her eyes travel the whole way up his incredibly fit, lean, muscular body to land on his heart-stoppingly beautiful face and wondered if she would ever, indeed, be on equal footing with him.
It was the hunger in his eyes, the intoxicating mix of lust and love for her that had her silencing that ever-present critical voice inside her head. For whatever reason, this god of a man wanted her and it made her feel like his goddess.
Toeing off his shoes, he stepped out of his jeans, which had pooled at his ankles, and pulled his socks off before sitting down on the end of the bed.
Grabbing her hips, he pulled her toward him until she was once again straddling him. He ran reverent fingers up her spine and over her neck to cup her face in his hands. The kiss he gave her started out as something tender and sweet, but as she settled farther into his lap, grinding down against his erection, the kiss turned into something altogether different. Tender became slow and dirty. Sweet became wet and drugging until she was lost in him.
He broke the kiss and lay down fully on the mattress. At her questioning stare he held his hands out to her and said, “I want you to ride me, baby.”
Crawling up over him, she slid her hands into his, twining their fingers once their palms met. Bracing her weight against him, she tentatively rocked her hips, feeling his hard cock sliding through her slit and bumping against her clit through the thin barrier of their underwear. She gasped and he gave her that lazy lopsided grin of his and gazed up at her through heavy-lidded eyes.