Tyson: An Ariel Kimber Novella

by Mary Martel

  She tore her lips from mine suddenly, breaking the kiss but not going far from me. Her mouth just inches from mine, she sucked in a lung full of air deeply that caused her chest to expand and I groaned as her breasts moved against my chest.

  "Ariel," I said huskily, knowing I needed to stop this soon before things got too heated and became out of control. I didn't think she was ready for things to go much further than kissing and I didn't want to push her or do anything that might make her uncomfortable. We had the rest of our lives together to get to know each other in a deeper manner and there were six other guys besides myself she had a relationship with. I didn't want to be the one to overwhelm her or the cause of her withdrawing.

  In a bold move that caught me entirely off guard because I hadn't thought her capable of it, she swung one of her knees over my legs to press it into the mattress on the outside of my thigh and she climbed into my lap.

  My hand in her hair immediately loosened as her heat came into contact with the hardness that was my dick and I dropped my hands to her hips. I pushed her hips back slightly, moving the lower half of her body away from my dick before I gave into the urge to hold on tight and rub the fucker up against her.

  "Ty," she said hesitantly as she gave a tug on my hair, jerking my head up and my eyes moved away from my hands on her hips to meet her vibrant green eyes. "Did I do something wrong? I thought you liked it."

  My head twitched and that wasn't the only thing. Couldn't she tell just how much I liked it? Maybe I had moved her back in enough time before she fully grasped exactly what was going on in my pants.

  "I liked it," I told her honestly and I really wished I hadn't had to say it out loud. I wasn't embarrassed but I didn't want to say or do the wrong thing to embarrass her.

  She tilted her head to the side and studied me curiously. "Then, why are we stopping?" She asked. "Why are you pushing me away?"

  All this talking and her having moved her tits off of my chest had served to cool my system down and, though my dick was still hard, I no longer felt like I was out of control and might do something I shouldn't have.

  "I need to be careful with you," I told her authoritatively.

  She pursed her lips angrily before asking, "Who says so?"

  "Ariel," I started but didn't get any further.

  "I don't want you to be careful with me, Tyson." She whispered fiercely. "I want all of you to forget about how you met me, to forget about the things you saw that pretender woman do to me or the things you know that I've gone through so you can treat me like a normal girlfriend and not someone you think you have to treat like a fragile, useless thing."

  I frowned at her.

  "What the hell are you talking about?" I asked her.

  "Everybody treats me like I'm special and not the good kind of special but the kind that needs to be treated with kid gloves all the time because there's something wrong with me. Well, I'm ready to be done with all that because I'm way over it. I don't treat any of you differently because you're a little broken or weird or whatever. I treat you all the same and I don't let your pasts get in the way of that. I want a clean slate, too."

  She looked so damn serious with her lips pursed angrily and her body held rigid. She was pissed and there'd be no getting out of having this conversation with her, no matter how hard I tried. I didn't want to talk to her about any of this because she was right, we did treat her with kid gloves all the time and I honestly didn't see the gloves coming off any time soon. Except for maybe with the twins. They were over slow and cautious and ready to go, saying she was more than comfortable with us and that they thought we were too careful with her. I even agreed with them sometimes but I wasn't willing to be the one to test the waters and have it backfire on my ass.

  "I don't think we should be having this conversation right now, girl." I told her something I really wanted her to agree with me on and let it alone.

  I should have known not to get my damn hopes up. She was far too stubborn for her own good and definitely for mine, that's for damn sure.

  "When do you think the right time will be to have this conversation then, Tyson?" She asked sarcastically. "Never, maybe?"

  Never worked just fine for me if that's what she wanted. I kept my mouth shut because I didn't think it wise to share that with her.

  "Or," she hissed out, "maybe you'd like to wait and we can talk about in, oh I don't know, say, twenty-five years from now. Get serious, Tyson."

  Oh shit. This was not going well at all and it was safe to say my dick wasn't hard anymore. At least there was that.

  She put her hands on my chest and gave me a shove before sitting back and swinging her leg over me and climbing out of my lap.

  Yeah, this was not good, not at all.

  God damn it. I did not want to do this with her.

  I laid back on the bed and rubbed my hands over my tired eyes. It was like she had come here looking for a fight with me and wasn't going to stop until she got what she wanted out of me.

  "Fuck this," I muttered, not about to give in and be a dick to her no matter how much she acted like she wanted it.

  "No, Ty," she hissed. "Fuck you."

  Yeah, I thought, fuck me.

  I sat up and swung my legs over the side, ready to get up and get the fuck out of here until after she was gone. And, if she didn't leave but ended up in bed with someone else, well, then I would just have to really get the fuck out of here and maybe go to Julian's or Damien's.

  "What are you doing?" She asked my back as I stood up from the bed.

  "I'll tell you what I'm not doing," I said quietly, "and that's fighting with you."

  "I don't want to fight with you either," she whispered.

  "Then, what the fucks your problem?" I shot back as I turned around to face her. I placed my hands on my hips and glared down at her.

  Damn it. Now I was doing exactly what I said I wasn't going to do.

  "I came here because I want you to stop avoiding me and I wanted to work this out with you because it's been bothering me to think you're upset with me. And now it's worse than it was before."

  I shook my head. "We already talked that over and moved past it. That's done. You don't need to worry about that anymore."

  And that was no lie. We were done with that and should be in the clear but, for whatever fucked up reason, we were worse off than where we had started.

  "I.... I... Ty..." she stammered while looking confused. "I'm so messed up."

  My head jerked when she'd said that and I studied her carefully. I had no idea what the hell she was talking about, she looked the same as always.

  "How're you messed up?" I asked her in a quiet voice, wanting her to answer me without the bullshit this time.

  "I," she said and then stopped. She swallowed loudly before lifting her hand towards her face. She hesitated before trailing the tips of her fingers down the pinkish white scar that curved around the apple of her cheek.

  Watching her make that move had my body getting tight and my chest seizing.

  "He did this to me," she said quietly. "Left his mark behind for me to wear every day for the rest of my life. But it's worse, Ty, so much worse."

  "How's it worse, baby?" I whispered as I uncrossed my arms and moved back towards the bed, back to her.

  I sat down on the edge of the bed with one leg bent into the bed, my other leg over the side of the bed with my foot on the floor and my upper body turned Ariel's way.

  She lowered her hand from her face to press it into her middle where she moved it around to several places, stopping and pressing in deep in certain places. My eyes watched her move and it got hard for me to breathe as her hand roamed around her belly. I knew what she was doing and why she stopped where she did.

  "Left his marks on Dash," she whispered in a voice that wobbled. "I see them when I close my eyes. I see him plunging that knife in over and over again every time I close my eyes."

  "Baby," I whispered as I reached for her.

  She sco
oted back on her knees, just out of arms reach.

  "I close my eyes," she said in that quiet, wobbly voice, "and I see his arms wheeling around in the air and the look on his face right before his body connected with the cement. The noise it made. The blood that immediately pooled out of his head. I see it every time I close my eyes and you know what, Ty?"

  She stopped speaking and looked at me with those big green eyes of hers that were filled to the brim with raw emotion and none of it was good.

  "What?" I gritted out roughly, my voice clogged as I choked on my emotions.

  She pressed her hand back into her belly as she shook her head slowly from side to side.

  "I see her head as it made contact with the corner of the counter and then her sprawled on the floor with her blood pooling around her head and I feel like a horrible person because I'm glad they're both dead because it means they can't hurt me anymore. And... and," she held her hands up helplessly in front of her body and she looked at them like she had no idea how they'd gotten there. "And I need you to tell me I'm not a terrible person, Tyson. You weren't there when she died, you didn't see it, but you were there when he died, you saw it, too. And you did not care at all. You didn't try to hide that you didn't care he'd died and, I might not have understood it at first, but I don't think you're a terrible person because of it. So, why do I feel like a terrible person? Why can't I shake this? They were both awful people and, I would never say they deserved what they got, but-"

  I'd heard enough and was done with this shit. She had no reason whatsoever to feel like a terrible person. If she was a terrible person, then I was the goddamn devil.

  I shoved her hands out of the way as I reached for her. I shoved my hands in under her armpits and lifted her up. I hauled her across the bed and dropped her into my lap. Her side was to my front with both her legs draped over my thigh and her ass firmly in my lap. I wrapped my arms around her, one of my hands went low on her back and the other one moved to the back of her head. I pushed on her head and she got with the program as she got my meaning. She collapsed against me, her arms going around my middle as she stuffed her face into my neck.

  Immediately, wet hit my skin where her face was and I silently cursed.

  Jesus fucking Christ.

  "It's gonna be okay, baby," I assured her quietly as she burrowed into my body and I held her tighter.

  My eyes went to the door when I heard it creak open. Uncle Quint stood in the door, staring at Ariel in my lap crying. She didn't even know he was there. Uncle Quint's face got tight, his mouth pinched and he shook his head slowly before backing out of the room and closing the door quietly behind him. I didn't know what the hell that meant and I didn't give the first fuck. He was probably just being his normal brand of nosy asshole that had no problem bursting into my space without knocking in order to keep tabs on Ariel.

  What an asshole.

  "You're not a horrible person," I told Ariel as I pushed my Uncle out of my mind and focused solely on the sad and confused girl in my arms. "Those two, your fake mom and Chuck, they were the horrible people, girl. Not you, though, never you."

  The wet coming out of her eyes had started to soak into my t-shirt there was so much of it.

  I laid back, taking her with me and, so lost in her own despair, I didn't even think she noticed I was moving her around.

  I rolled to my side and held her tightly in my arms and pressed up to my chest, front to front, our legs tangled together.

  I held her there until she stopped crying and the shaking stopped. Eventually, she lay there, still and unmoving with her hand fisted into the back of my t-shirt. One side of the neck of said t-shirt completely soaked in her tears.

  I lifted my hand to her face and brushed the hair back out of her eyes, tucking it back behind her studded ear.

  Her eyes were scrunched closed tightly as if to keep the world around her out if only she didn't have to look at it. Her beautiful face was finally red and splotchy from something outside of embarrassment and I felt bad for thinking she looked better when embarrassed and was glad she hadn't made the unnecessary effort to put on makeup today because it would have been smeared all down her face.

  "Do you feel better now that you've got that out of your system?" I murmured.

  I hoped like hell she said yes and wasn't disappointed when she muttered back, "Yeah, Ty, I feel better now."

  She didn't sound very convincing but I'd give her the benefit of the doubt and take her word for it. She'd just cried her eyes out over feeling guilty she was glad two people were dead when they didn't deserve her guilt. She didn't need me to give her shit on top of that.

  "Okay, girl," I mumbled back, not contradicting her even though I didn't believe her, giving her what I thought she needed. And I was glad I did it when her eyes opened and she looked up at me with green eyes full of relief and a small smile on her lips.

  "Thanks, Ty." She whispered. “Sorry I cried all over you and got your shirt wet. I don't know what's wrong with me right now."

  I shrugged my shoulders, letting her know I didn't care and it was no big deal to me.

  "It's just a shirt, girl," I told her. "I've got plenty of them and I know how to use a washing machine to get your snot out of this one.

  Her arms around my back tensed, her green eyes flashed and she snapped, "I didn't get snot on you, Tyson. That's gross. I can't believe you think I'd be that gross with you."

  I grinned at her broadly and her body started as her eyes dropped down to my mouth and her lips parted sweetly.

  "You okay, girl?" I asked, wondering if she was staring at my mouth like that because she wanted to kiss me or if I had something stuck in my teeth.

  "Yeah," she mumbled and said no more.

  My grin grew until it turned into a smile and my lips twitched with suppressed laughter.

  She liked it when I grinned at her and she definitely wanted to kiss me. I had been noticing this more and more lately, her staring at my mouth like that after I smiled at her and I liked it a whole hell of a lot.

  “Do you want me to put my tongue in your mouth?” I asked her seriously.

  "Do I... Do I, what?" She sputtered as she looked at me in horror.

  My smile stretched as wide as it could get.

  "My tongue, girl," I said around my smile. "Do you want me to put it in your mouth? You keep looking at my mouth like you expect me to do something with it. So..." I trailed off and shrugged like it was no big deal to me either way. Which was a straight up lie.

  She glared at me as she moved to push herself away from me. I didn't let her go but held on to her tighter.

  "Tyson," she growled low and adorably in warning.

  I wanted to laugh in her face. There was nothing threatening or scary about her at all.

  "I don't mind," I told her generously. "In fact, I'm fairly certain I'll enjoy it as much as you do, maybe even more."

  "Tyson," she hissed like an angry cat. "This isn't a joke."

  She was right, it wasn't a joke. In fact, it was pretty fucking serious.

  "If you want more of that," I told her seriously, "all you need to do is speak up and say so or make your moves. No one will turn you down if that's what you're worried about. Unless it's the twins or probably my Uncle, then there's a good chance you might not have to put yourself out there to get whatever it is that you want. They'll probably go for it before you become brave enough to do it on your own."

  Her eyes skirted to the side as color once again hit her cheeks.

  Jesus.

  "Umm..." she mumbled. "Dash kind of put the brakes on the physical too. He doesn't think I'm ready."

  "Are you?" I asked bluntly and her eyes shot back to me. "You don't have to make the first move with me, girl, I'm not going to make you do that shit. But, that being said, I'm also not going to make any move on you though until you tell me you're ready. I don't want to push you too far too fast and fuck this up with you. I think you and I both get we've got baggage separately and now we've
got baggage between us. We need to be careful so this thing we've got building between us stays good and never goes sour."

  Her fingers trailed lightly down my back in the whisper of a touch and any amount of amusement I had been feeling immediately faded at the feel of her soft touch on me again. Again, when she'd initiated it.

  "Thanks for taking care of me, Tyson." she said quietly. "Just now like you always do. You're the best friend a girl could ask for."

  I frowned at her and told her harshly, "I don't want to be your friend, Ariel."

  She flinched when I said her name.

  I sighed. I mean, yeah, we could be friends, but first and foremost, I wanted to be her boyfriend. And I wanted her to call me her boyfriend before she thought to call me her friend.

  "Yeah, you do, Ty." she told me authoritatively. "You want to be whatever I need you to be; whatever's best for me is what you want to give me. You and I both know it's true and you shouldn't try to lie to either one of us."

  I narrowed my eyes on her. She had no problem meeting my eyes now and the seriousness in them caught me off guard. She was all over the place tonight and I was too slow to keep up with her mood swings.

  I opened my mouth to demand an explanation to her fucked up words but snapped my mouth shut when her hands roamed further down my back, stopping briefly when she came into contact with the waistline of my jeans.

  She drew in a breath sharply before her hands went lower and she palmed my ass in her hands.

  "Ariel," I hissed as my dick twitched back to life.

  Not this shit again.

  God damn it.

  What the hell was she doing?

  "This is me telling you, Tyson," she murmured as her eyes dropped down to my mouth once again. "That I'm ready to take things to the next level. And you're going to give me that without worrying it's going to change things between us or drive me away because that's not going to happen."

  I wanted to believe her, I really did. But it sounded too good to be true.

  "How can you be so sure?" I whispered fiercely, wanting the answer almost as much as I wanted to stick my tongue back in her mouth. Almost, but not quite.