Captured Secret (The Captured Series)

by Raynne, April

  Leaving me shaking in the stall, Ty returns with two towels. He wraps one around me and the other one around his waist. His shorts make a big sloshing sound as he drops them from under the towel. “Take off those little shorts, and I’ll get you your panties and a clean shirt.” Ty’s face is still concerned and I try to show him I’m okay with my eyes. I don’t even have time to undress before he brings me a t-shirt and my panties. Once he walks back out, I dry off, pull of my boy shorts and slip on his soft shirt. I look up to find him standing in the doorway as I slip the panties on under his t-shirt. His eyes follow my every movement. I rub the towel over my wet hair and use Ty’s brush to get out the knots. He extends his hand, pulls me back to the bed and tucks me under the fresh covers. Even sick, I enjoy my first view of him walking around without a shirt and only black basketball shorts hanging low on his waist. All my attention is on that beautiful V-cut leading down into his shorts. The tattoo that I saw from the front at his Nan’s house, travels down his right side and leads into his shorts. I can’t help but wonder where it stops. He lies down on his back on top of the covers. I inch over and tuck up, flush to his side.

  “Thank you,” I say, as he rubs his fingers through my hair. Although I feel horrible, I feel so content to be in his arms. Ty always seems so closed off. But, tonight, he has shown me his heart is big and caring. I curse the bitch that made him be so detached. He deserves to be loved and feel love for a woman.

  “You’re welcome, Stella. I didn’t want you to go through this alone. I’m here for you.” I’m starting to wish he was here for me in a completely different way than he meant.

  I wake to breaking that horrendous last fever. A shower is a must, so I leave the room and head over to the studio bathroom. It’s easier to sweat this one out with the cool water running over my skin. Once I’m sure the fever is over, I put back on the panties and the practically see through t-shirt. It leaves nothing to the imagination when looking at my rock hard nipples. Happy that I didn’t wake Ty at this un-godly hour of 2:30 am, I crawl back in bed and fall asleep.

  My internal clock wakes me at 5 am. I get up, text Sam that I’ve been running fevers all night and will not be in to work. I feel a slight chill and take more Advil to nip this new fever in the bud. As I return to Ty’s bedroom, I see he’s curled on his side and looks cold. Gently, I pull the bunched up blanket out from underneath him and cover him up. He’s been up all night with me and has been so caring and patient. I crawl back into his bed and lie on my back. He rolls over until he finds me and pulls me flush with his chest. His muscular leg drapes over the top of both of mine. I’m chilled and it feels good when he splays his big hand over my tummy. I turn my head, and the light coming in from the city lets me see his beautiful face. I take a moment and gaze at his features while he sleeps so soundly. Those lips are so perfect, slightly parted and full. I want to feel them pressed against mine while he pushes his way inside me. I ponder why those lips are off limits to me. It’s a crime in my book. His chest and shoulders are to die for. His skin is soft under my fingertips, yet the muscles are taut and hard. He breathes in deeply, startles, and his eyes flash open. “Stella? Are you okay? Oh, shit, are you running another fever?”

  I smile at his worried look, and say in a hushed tone, “Just a little one, I took some meds. My internal clock woke me, so I text Sam at work and told her I’m not coming in today.”

  His voice is sleepy and sultry. “Please, never scare me like that again, Stella. You’re always moving. You’re always doing something from before the sun is up until the sun goes down. You were so out of it. I’ve never seen you like that, then we woke, and your skin was so red and hot. Sorry, I drowned you in a cold shower.” His hand lazily swirls on my tummy and his fingertips skim the bottom of my breast.

  My voice comes out a bit shaky. “I feel so bad. I’m so sorry, Ty. I know it was a really long night. Thank you again for taking care of me.”

  He tucks my hair behind my ear, runs his knuckles down my cheek over my collarbone and barely makes contact with my nipple. “I was happy to be here for you. Please stop apologizing.” His thumb brushes over my nipple which makes me tense. He whispers, “We’re friends. You would do the same for me, right?”

  “Yes, of course I would,” I reply softly. He rolls my puckered right nipple between his fingers. Pleasure rushes from his touch and makes everything between my legs clench and ache.

  “I’ve told myself,” he pauses and takes a deep breath, “after I’ve touched you like this… that I’m not going to do this to you again.” My breathing speeds up as I watch his eyes gaze at my nipples through the shirt. He has them standing at attention, waiting for more. “But, I get around you, Stella, and my body reacts, it won’t listen. It doesn’t even listen now, while you’re running a fever. I know you don’t want this, but I can’t help myself.”

  When he grinds his hard erection against my hip, I breathe out, “I’ve never told you no, Ty.”

  “No you haven’t, but you should. I’m an such asshole, Stella. I was a selfish asshole Friday night when I was shoving in and out of you, knowing you want more than one night. I was a selfish asshole Sunday when I was dying for you, you finally gave in, and I took what I wanted. You told me to my face you want friendship, along with love. You said you wanted something genuine.” He remembered everything I said? “And look at me. I know that’s not going to happen with me, Stella. I told you. Love is not my thing. You’re so damn sexy, and God, I just can’t keep my hands off you.” He runs his fingertips down my tummy, then along my waist to my hipbone, which makes me shiver.

  “Ty, I love your hands on me. I love everything we’ve done.” I run my finger through the hair over his ear, and moan as he skims his way down my thigh. “I don’t want you to stay away from me. My body craves you. I feel like you flicked a switch in me and I like it.” I do have a hard time saying what I feel, but I feel panicked that he’s going to take this away. I don’t want that. I know this won’t last. I know it’s going to hurt me when it ends. I can’t predict how long this will last, and I’m not even going to try. I just know I want him, and right now, that’s enough.

  “You want me again?”

  “I’m aching for you, Ty, yes,” I whisper and look in his eyes. I can’t help but send a message through my eyes that I care for him, because it’s like a train that just hit me. I’m starting to have feelings for him...strong feelings.

  Ty rolls on his back and scrubs his face with his hands. “Ugh, I told you I do casual, Stella. Casual entails one night, maybe two, and we never see each other again.” I roll on my side and watch him struggle with whatever is going on inside of that head of his. The rejection I’m about to receive is going to sting like a bitch. “I like the friendship we have. I don’t want that to go away. But,” he growls, “when I’m around you, I scold myself with don’t do this, Ty. She wants more, she deserves more, and you don’t have more to give. Don’t touch her, not even innocently. The next minute, I have my hands on you… some way, somehow. If we keep going at this rate, the casual leaves and it becomes…a relationship. And I just…I just …can’t.”

  “My body feels the same, Ty. Don’t take it away.” I hesitate. I just want to say what I really feel for once. That’s just not me, but he’s being honest, so I need to be as well. “We can be casual, Ty, and we can be friends. I enjoy my time with you. It doesn’t matter if we are working, hanging, talking, or the new part of this and giving one another pleasure. I’ll take your casual.” I feel desperate. I need him. I want him. I don’t want to be without him or not be able to have sex with him. I feel doomed at this moment because I’m falling for him. The thought of losing him in any way scares me. We’ve become so close. We have become friends. Not a day has passed without some form of talking, touching, and well, just being us.

  “You can do casual, Stel? Can you do that with me? What if someone else comes along? Will you tell me? Cause I don’t think that I could handle knowing you were with me and then someo
ne else the next night.” Ty rolls back on his side and looks pained. “Fuck, I know that’s not fair. I’m not offering you shit, but I just can’t share you.” Yeah, welcome to my world when I left you at the bar with the blonde.

  I give him a reassuring smile and touch his face. His hand skims my hip lightly over and over. “Ty, it took me forever to want anyone. You just ignite something in me. I don’t foresee myself sleeping around. I’m enjoying you too damn much.” I know I want more than he is willing to give. I might as well go climb a building and just jump off for what I’m agreeing to. I know I’m going to get crushed in the end. I think the building scenario may be a little less painful. I don’t care anymore, I’m tired of waiting. I have almost perfection in front of me. I want to be in the here and now.

  His eyes burn into mine and with tight lips he asks, “What about Jason? He really works hard on you, Stella. And I’ve talked to him. He wants what you want, a relationship, marriage, the whole thing.”

  I think for a minute and reply, “Jason is really a great looking guy. He’s super nice and he has a lot going for him, but I haven’t given into any of his advances for a reason. If I ever want to, I would tell you just like you asked.” I don’t know why I said that, maybe self-preservation. To show that I’m not as desperate as my desperate ass sounds. I don’t want to give into Jason’s advances because I don’t want what Jason wants, with Jason. I want that with this unbelievably sexy and sweet man lying next to me, driving my body crazy from the lack of his touch.

  “It’s not fair to you.” I feel like Ty is wearing his heart on his sleeve right now.

  “I’m a big girl, Ty. I can make my own decisions.” He cools down all the touching and won’t cross that line while I’m currently running a fever. We lie there and I rub his chest and arms until we finally fall back to sleep.

  It was nice waking up in Ty’s world and arms at almost eleven in the morning. Today, even sick was the best day. There were no phones ringing, no data entry on a computer, no driving. We spent the day wrapped up in each other on the couch and had another nap in his bed. I could easily get used to this life. The laughter with him is always easy and one of my favorite parts. I feel completely comfortable and content by his side. The long looks he gives me reveals nothing, yet I know his mind is working on something. He’s told me that he has no problem speaking his mind. I believe he doesn’t and whatever he’s thinking is for him only. I wish he would open up to me. I’ve heard the name Lacey several times, and I believe she’s the one that has him so closed off to anything more than fucking for a couple of nights. I feel like he wants to give me more, but everything tells him not to trust, never to go there again.

  Ty left me to go have dinner with his grandparents, Zoey and Pierce. I’m a girl, with us it comes natural to think about what it would be like to be invited. What it would be like to sit beside him as his. Instead of giving into overthinking, I act like a girl and throw his sheets in the washer on a sterilization cycle. I wrote him a note to put them in the dryer and left to go home.

  I wake up later that night to the chime of a text message.

  Ty: Are you sleeping? If you are, come back over. If you’re not, come back over.

  I smile in the dark at the thought of his face. Everything in me wants to go and stay the night with him.

  Me: I really would love to. But my exhausted body won’t let me leave this bed.

  Ty: I understand. Definitely get some sleep Stel. I’ll see you tomorrow.

  Me: See you tomorrow, Goodnight.

  Ty: Night Stella

  MY INTERCOM LINE RINGS and Danielle, our front desk receptionist asks me to come up front. My heart kicks into overdrive just at the sight of him. Ty stands, leaning on the desk in jeans, a black t-shirt and black combat boots. He sees me come fully around the corner and the smile that spreads across his face is contagious. I’m all grins when he says, “Hey you.” When I first saw Ty, his eyes were what caught my attention, along with that blond hair that he sticks up in a mess of hotness. His body is amazing, and you would have to be blind not to notice that he is the total package. However, what has been turning me inside out lately, is when he flashes that stunningly beautiful smile my way. His mouth drives me wild. Maybe it’s because he keeps it from me that I find myself staring at his lips, teeth and tongue. When he edits, sometimes he drags his tongue on his lower lip and I feel like a guy who has a case of boob lock. I just can’t look away. I find myself mimicking that sweep of tongue sitting next to him. Thank God, he hasn’t caught me yet.

  “I want to take you to lunch, have you gone yet?”

  “No, I was planning on working straight through to make up for being sick, and the lost time yesterday.”

  Ty lifts his eyebrow, letting me know he disapproves of my plan. “Well, then I’m glad I was in the area to save you from overworking yourself today, now let’s go.”

  “Let me get my purse, I’ll be right back.”

  “Do you really need it, Stella?”

  “No, I guess not. But I do need my debit card…”

  Ty pulls me by the hand out of the building, “The less you have the better.” I laugh out loud because he catches me off guard. We walk along the sidewalk and I don’t see his Escalade. He stops near a huge Harley. It’s large and very manly. I know nothing about bikes.

  “Have you ever ridden before?”

  I know my face is surprised. “This is yours?” He nods yes. “I’ve never seen it before.”

  “I store it on the first floor. Every time we’ve been together we’ve needed the Escalade. Come here let me put this on.” I know I look nervous. I have never ridden on a motorcycle before. He slips the helmet over my head and secures it at my chin. He explains to me how to load on. “Stella, you trust me, right? I wouldn’t let anything happen to you,” I nod, my belly is doing somersaults. I load on and when I get to wrap myself around him, the nerves go away. I push my thighs wide and push up against his rock hard ass so I can tuck my dress in between us. We only ride for about five minutes and he pulls into Chili’s. I would have been content just riding for an hour feeling the freedom from the office, and Ty up against me, in control.

  He helps me off the bike. “That wasn’t bad, right?”

  “No, it was very nice. I would have enjoyed just riding for the hour. I don’t really need lunch.”

  “After two days of not eating, I was going to make sure you have something in your stomach at some point today.” He grabs my hand and we seat ourselves in the bar area.

  “So, you were in the area?”

  “Yeah, I met with the owner of a wing joint. He wants calendars that will feature his girls. He wants the months to match what the girls wear. They assured me they’d find suits for the fall and winter look. It’s was just over by Universal Studios.”

  Our waitress takes our order and I lean on my elbows his way. “First, Universal Studios and the Orlando Airport area are not in the area. Second, how did you get out of there without eating and a smoking hot waitress attached to your hip, boss? I can only imagine that you lit up their day, sitting there, being all sexy and smelling delicious.” Oh, my God, did I just effing say that out loud?

  “Hmmm, do I hear a hint of jealousy? I did have to threaten to call the cops if they didn’t let me leave. More importantly, I told you I wanted to make sure you had something to eat after being sick and scaring the shit out of me.”

  “Well, you don’t have to worry about me. This extremely attractive male nurse took over and nursed me back to health very quickly.”

  “I thought you were going to only be with me? And if you wanted to fuck someone else, you were going to tell me.” His reply is in a sultry and grumbly voice. “Is there anything you want to tell me about this amazingly built, smart, and gorgeous male nurse?” He raises an eyebrow awaiting my answer.

  I can’t help but giggle. “I never said that he was amazingly built, smart, or gorgeous. I said extremely attractive.” Very matter of fact, I add, “But, I don’t
have anything to tell you. I told you, if I wanted to sleep with anyone else, I would let you know. Well, this guy didn’t want me sexually. I take that back, he got me all hot and bothered and left me aching because I was sick. So I guess, adding to extremely attractive, I could add that he is very gentlemanly for not taking advantage of a sick girl like me.”

  “I’m sure he would have felt like a dick, shoving in and out of your perfect little body while you were running a fever.”

  “Well, if I talk to the male nurse again, I will tell him that I am a big girl and can make my own decisions. If I could have gone back, Ty, I would have been more persistent and gotten what I wanted from him.”

  He rubs one of my fingertips in between his. “You were persistent, and it made the decision all the more difficult.” He almost looks sad. Don’t laugh, Stella. He’s in serious mode.

  The food is good and my tummy is full. We climb back on his bike and find Sam is sitting on a bench outside the front door of our building. I smile at her because I know she is sitting there to meet Ty. I introduce them, tell Ty thank you, and reluctantly remove myself from his hug to go back inside. Now I have a fake, sad look, and he smiles at me as I mope away.

  The rest of the day goes quickly, and it takes everything I have not to leap into his arms the second I walk into the studio. He’s finishing up with a client, and while they talk, I start a load of laundry. We had a lot of dirty sheets and towels from me staying over Monday night. The young girl and her mom leave, and I could not be happier to have Ty to myself. I envision us having a nice dinner and talking the rest of the night. One can only hope that he wants to shove in and out of my body, as he says.

  Ty returns from walking them out of the studio. He looks my way, his face is not warm, and his eyes are flat. “Emily wants you to call her. Can you also call Tia? She was the attractive girl on Saturday. Tell her that I can meet with her tomorrow, late afternoon for her preview. She needs her portfolio shots soon, and I would like to see what she decides so you can order them. Also, the QuickBooks need to be updated. I know you’re new to entering my numbers, so just text me if you have any questions.” Ty grabs his keys and heads to the door.