Barbeque? Ellie’s stomach flipped and she shot Tyson a narrowed look. He wouldn’t have tried to blow off a family barbeque for her, would he?
“Actually, Mom, I probably won’t make it today.”
Shit! He had!
“What?” His mother’s face fell as he she looked between the two of them. “You both have other things to do?”
Oh, the hell was she getting blamed for this!
“Actually, no,” Ellie said quickly. “Tyson just volunteered to show me around town, but I really should get back to the house soon anyway. I’ve got some work—”
“Nonsense.” Sharon adjusted the box of cupcakes in her hand. “Go see the town, Ellie. And then why don’t you both swing by the barbeque later? It’s not for a few hours yet. Your brothers will be there, Tyson, and your dad is looking forward to seeing you.”
Panic shot through Ellie and she felt her brows lifting. Going into town alone with Tyson was one thing, meeting all of his family was another.
“Oh, no, I…” Decline politely. How the hell could was she going to pull this off? “I don’t… I wouldn’t want to intrude on family time.”
“Not intruding at all, dear. We’d love to have you. Unless you don’t want to come, of course.”
Going from bad to worse here. “Oh, no…we’d love to come.”
Tyson cleared his throat. “Mom, we—”
“Great, then we’ll see you both at two.” Sharon grinned and kissed Tyson on the cheek, before waving and continuing on her way.
“I can’t believe you did that,” Ellie hissed. “You tried to blow off your family barbeque off for me!”
“Ah, hell, I was going to call her later. I didn’t mind skipping it, Ellie.” He sighed. “Look, I can still call her in a bit and let her know you’re not comfortable. We don’t have to go.”
“Oh no. You’re not making me the bad guy here. We’ll go to the barbeque.”
“Lovely. I’m sure my brothers put her up to this.”
“Your brothers?” she repeated. “How could they have anything to do with this?”
“You’re the talk of the town, sweetheart. And since they know I’m with you this morning, they probably told Mom to invite you. I’m guessing we would’ve gotten a phone call, even if we hadn’t run into her. Everyone wants to meet you.”
Ellie shook her head and glanced back into the cake shop. “Oh. Well, thanks for the warning.”
“That and my brothers want to check you out.”
Ellie nearly choked and shot him a look of disbelief.
“Just a little joke.” He winked and opened the door to the coffee shop, muttering not quite under his breath, “Sort of.”
Great. So she not only had to lie to Tyson, but his family as well. At this rate, she may as well have stayed in Chicago and just lied on the witness stand.
Tyson gestured for her to enter first and she did, giving him another quick glare. Her frustration faded, however, the moment she inhaled.
The shop smelled heavenly. Vanilla, sugar, and cinnamon all tickled her nose, and Ellie’s mouth started to water.
“Hey, guys! Good morning!” A perky voice called out. “Or, oops, probably close to afternoon now, huh?”
Ellie discovered the shop owner standing behind the counter. The pretty, plump blonde watched them with blue eyes full of inquisitiveness.
“Probably is closer to afternoon.” Tyson grinned and stepped to the counter. “How are ya today, Kate?”
“Doing good, Tyson. Thanks.”
“Glad to hear it. Kate, I’d like you to meet Ellie, she’s staying up at the Bakemans’ house. And Ellie, this is Kate, the owner of this place.”
“Nice to meet you, Ellie.” Kate’s smile widened as she reached over the counter to shake her hand. “You’re the talk of the town.”
“I am? Really?” Ellie struggled to keep her voice even. She’d thought Tyson had been kidding earlier.
“Well, you know how it goes. New girl in town. Pretty. All the boys are curious.” Kate’s cheeks turned red and she gave a nervous laugh. “Anyway, what can I tempt you both with?”
All the guys? Talk of the town? Maybe picking a smaller town wasn’t the best idea…
Ellie kept her smile pinned on as she lowered her gaze to the case of sweets. And then her thoughts did a one-eighty.
“Oh God…” she said fervently. “Umm…I’m going to need a minute.”
“Sure, just let me know when you’re ready.”
Carbs. Lots and lots of carbs. Cupcakes, large and small round cakes, cinnamon rolls, doughnuts… God, when was the last time she’d indulged in something so sinfully decadent?
Back in Chicago, she’d always avoided the hell out of sugar. Eating as healthy as possible and teaching her hot yoga classes at least five times a week.
In Wyattville, she still managed to practice yoga, though instead of a sweltering studio, it was on a cold floor in a quiet house early in the morning.
“Live a little,” Tyson murmured against her ear. “The cream puffs may just make you cream your panties.”
Ellie choked, her cheeks burning even as her pulse quickened. Her gaze darted up to see if Kate had heard, but the other woman had walked to the other end of the counter and was scribbling on a pad.
“You’re terrible,” she muttered, elbowing him in the stomach and mock scowling up at him. “What if she’d heard you?”
Tyson grinned. “Kate grew up with us. She’s more than used to the Wyatt brothers by now, sweetheart.”
“Are your brothers as depraved as you are?”
“More so. Well, at least Todd is.” His smile faded a bit. “Trevor is just a little…darker.”
Ellie bit back a groan. The Wyatt boys sounded like trouble all around—and she’d only met one of them so far.
“So, anything look good to you guys?” Kate called out, setting down her pen and walking back their way.
“Anything? Try everything,” Ellie said and then groaned. “Oh…why don’t I try one of the chocolate éclairs.”
“Good choice. They’re pretty popular.”
“Definitely good choice,” Tyson echoed and leaned forward again. “That custard filli—”
Ellie jammed her elbow into his stomach again and held her bright smile for Kate. This time the other woman’s eyes did widen a bit and her lips quirked.
“And how about you, Tyson? What’ll it be?”
“I’ll have the vanilla bean cupcake, Kate.”
“All right. I’ll get those ready for you both. Here or to go?”
“To go,” he answered.
When Kate went to fill their order, Ellie couldn’t resist turning her body toward his and whispering, “You’re a vanilla kind of guy, huh? I have to say I’m a little disappointed, Sheriff.”
He arched a brow over dancing eyes. “Somehow I don’t think you’re referring to cupcakes anymore?”
She made a non-committal murmur and bit back a giggle.
His head dipped and his lips brushed her ear. “I’ll have you know I go from vanilla to red velvet in under ten seconds.”
Her amusement died as all kinds of images flickered in her head. Being tied to the bed. Spankings. Handcuffs…
Oooh, that’s right, the sheriff probably has a nice pair of handcuffs.
“Here you go, guys. Thanks for coming by.” Kate came holding out a plain white paper bag. “It was nice to meet you, Ellie. Have fun while you’re in town, and hopefully I’ll see you again.”
“I’m sure you will,” Ellie replied, ruthlessly shoving aside any images of Tyson and just how not vanilla he might be.
Tyson winked at Kate, before turning away from the counter. “She’ll be back. I’ll see to it.”
“Don’t you have a reputation or something to uphold?” Ellie grumbled, stealing the bag from his hand. “What if she tells everyone how perverted you were in there?”
“Nah, Kate’s not a gossip. If it had been Lisa Thompson, I might be a little worried.”
<
br /> “Still. I mean, as sheriff, aren’t you supposed to set an example, Tyson? Not run around making lewd comments to the new girl in town.”
He laughed softly. “Was that lewd?”
“Totally.” Pulling her éclair from the bag, she lifted it to her lips and took a bite.
Oh. My. God.
“Sugar orgasm, huh?”
She nodded and licked a tiny bit of chocolate from the corner of her lip.
Tyson’s gaze followed the movement. “You know, I think you might like lewd.”
She swallowed the bite and glanced up at him. “You know…you’re probably right.”
He held her gaze as he pulled out his cupcake, then ran his tongue over the fluffy white curves of the frosting.
Ellie couldn’t drag her gaze away from his mouth, from what his tongue was doing to that damn cupcake. And then he thrust his tongue straight into the middle of the frosting. When he pulled it free again, white cream clung to the tip.
God, it was like he’d just gone down on a cupcake. It’s what she’d wanted him to do to her last night. What she was hoping he’d do tonight.
Her pussy clenched as his tongue disappeared back into his mouth and his gaze flickered with pleasure.
“Sugar orgasm?” she choked out, mimicking his question from a minute ago.
“Definitely,” he said quietly, his voice a bit raspy now. “Sweet and moist. But not quite as decadent as that taste of your pussy I sucked off my finger last night.”
Holy hell! Had he really just said that? Ellie’s knees wobbled and her panties grew damp. The way he spoke to her was so damn erotic. So shocking. And she loved every minute of it. Loved it so much she wished they weren’t in the middle of the damned street in a small town.
But two could play at this game. She caught his wrist and pulled it forward, dipping her head to swipe her tongue over the swirl of frosting on his cupcake. Dragging the sweetness off with her teeth and closing her eyes and moaning.
“Ellie,” he growled.
She laughed and opened her eyes again, meeting his smoldering narrowed stare. “You started it.”
Tyson scowled. “You’re right. And now I’m going to end it before I do something on Main Street that’ll have me arresting myself.” He caught her hand with his free one and started them walking again. “Come on, let me show you the beach.”
Another giggle escaped her throat as they walked toward the end of the street.
Giggling. It was such a weird concept—she’d never been the type to giggle with boys. Definitely not with James.
Though, James had made her pulse race too. He’d given her the butterflies in her stomach. But they were nothing like what she experienced with Tyson.
And, after the fact—or even late into her relationship with James—she knew any pulse racing and butterflies had been more fear based.
She’d been drawn to James because he was the ultimate bad boy. She just didn’t realize how bad until later.
“You’ve gone miles away, Ellie.”
“What do you mean? I’m walking right beside you,” she said lightly, and took another bite of the amazing éclair.
“You know what I mean.”
“Guess my mind went off into left field. It does that sometimes.”
“What was in left field?”
For a moment, just a split second, she had the craziest urge to tell him everything. The impulse hit so hard that she had to bite down on her tongue to keep herself from blurting it out.
And then it was gone again, replaced with the realization that Tyson was first and foremost an officer of the law. Once he heard her story…
“Nothing important,” she finally answered and pulled her hand away. Giving herself a bit of emotional, as well as physical distance to try to give herself a better perspective of the situation.
Tyson bit back a curse as he watched her do it again. Watched Ellie bring down the shutters on whatever she was hiding. But she couldn’t quite mask the unease in her eyes.
His gut twisted and he bit back a sigh. Dammit, for a while there he’d forgotten he didn’t completely trust her. She’d just been an intriguing woman with whom he could be himself and have fun. And who he just happened to want to fuck until her eyes crossed.
He didn’t want it to be more complex than that. Why the hell did it have to be? But his cop instinct told him it was, and that whatever she was hiding made her not trust him much either.
They stepped onto the trail that curved around a small inlet that would ultimately drop them on the beach.
“You know,” she said suddenly. “I’ve never actually seen the ocean before.”
Tyson’s gaze jerked to her, his brows shooting up. “Never? You serious?”
“Yeah, kind of crazy. But…until Wyattville, I never really traveled anywhere that was close to the ocean.”
“How far is it from Brooklyn to the Atlantic? Surely not that long of a drive.”
Her lips parted and something that looked an awful lot like disbelief flashed in her eyes, before her lips flattened into a tight smile.
“Well…no, it’s not too long of a drive.” She hesitated and then seemed to relax a bit. “There was this one time, when my cousin and I had just turned twenty-one, we got in her Mustang to head to Atlantic City. Her back tire blew out not even a quarter of the way there. It was late at night anyway, so we took it as a sign that it just wasn’t meant to be and headed back to Brooklyn.”
“And you never tried again?”
“I…my cousin, moved around a lot. I didn’t see her all that often and she was always the adventurous one.” She offered a stiff shrug.
Again Tyson had to wonder how many half-truths were in the story she’d just told. Her body language clearly indicated she was lying about something. But it was a conversation about the ocean, why the hell would she have to lie about that?
“It’s so pretty here.” Ellie gestured to the pool of water that flowed in from the Pacific to form the small inlet. “Do people swim in it?”
“Yeah. It’s real popular this time of year. The inlet is a little calmer than the ocean, with all the waves, so lots of parents bring the little kids,” he replied. “In fact, the place will probably be packed by noon.”
“I’ll bet. Well, we got here just in time then.”
A few minutes later, the trail emptied onto the soft sand of the beach, and beyond that lay the blue sprawl of the ocean. He tossed their empty bakery bag into a garbage can and slowed down as Ellie paused.
He heard her catch her breath and then let it out a moment later on a soft sigh.
“Oh my God. It’s more amazing than anything you see on television.” Her voice trembled a bit. “Sorry, but I have to.”
Tyson was still trying to figure out what she was apologizing for, when she grabbed the bottom of her dress and took off running down the beach. Straight toward the ocean.
Chapter Eight
His mouth curved into a wide smile and his chest bounced with laughter as he watched her. She squealed and then laughed, as she waded out into the water.
“It’s cold!” she yelled, turning to look at him. “And it feels amazing.”
Tyson didn’t reply, just started after her again, making his way down the slippery slopes of sand to the ocean’s edge.
“Come in!” she cried, playfully kicking a spray of water toward him. “Take off your shoes and come in.”
For the moment, he was content to just watch her. Watch Ellie tilt her head back and suck in a breath of sea air as she stumbled through the shallow waves.
She was beautiful. He traced her body with his gaze. Starting with her pale shapely calves sparkling with water, to the thrust of her breasts against her dress, and the huge smile of delight on her face.
He wanted her at this moment more than he had since they’d met. Because this was the real Ellie. No pretenses. Real. Honest. Uninhibited.
It didn’t matter that he had on his leather sandals or was wearing jeans, he wante
d to share the moment with her. Her never having seen the ocean was obviously one thing she hadn’t lied about.
A moment later, with his sandals off and his jeans rolled up, he took his first steps into the water. He let the coolness swirl around his feet as he breathed in the salty ocean air. He felt what she felt. Smelled what she smelled.
Ellie’s eyes opened again and her hazel gaze, alight with wonder and happiness, fell on him.
“I love it,” she said softly. “Can you feel the power of the ocean? The energy and life? The way it sucks the sand between your toes as it pulls back out.”
Hearing her words and watching the joy in Ellie’s face, it was as if he were experiencing the ocean for the first time too.
“I feel it,” he murmured, wading closer to her.
Her smile faded a bit and awareness flickered in her eyes. She’d figured out he wasn’t referring to the water anymore.
He cupped her cheek and gave her a gentle smile. “You’re incredibly beautiful. Do you realize that, Ellie?”
She ran her tongue over her lips, while she shook her head in a tiny gesture of denial. Of his words, or of this moment, who knew.
“I can’t stop touching you. Watching you,” he confessed. “You’ve captivated me, Ellie. Whoever the hell you are.”
Guilt slid over her expression. “Tyson…”
“Tell me.”
“I can’t.”
The two words were barely audible, but they were the admission he’d been waiting to hear.
She might not have been able to say more than that right now, but it was a start.
“You will,” he said quietly, but firmly. “When you’re ready. You can trust me, Ellie. You know you can.”
Her lashes fluttered down, hiding the trace of fear that had flickered in her gaze.
He cupped her other cheek, so that he was cradling her face and they stood just inches a part. “But for now…”
Lowering his head, he allowed his lips to catch whatever response she’d been about to make. Her mouth opened on a breathy sigh as she leaned into him.
Hunger built inside him, burning his gut and racing through his blood. It took all his restraint to keep the kiss light, and not let the intensity of the moment rip away his control.
Going Down: Holding Out for a Hero, Book 1 Page 5