“So do I. That’s no excuse. You’re just hiding away. You might have lost her, but in the process, I almost lost you, too. You buried yourself in your work, flying so much the flight attendants know you by name. But you need to clip those wings of yours if we’re going to make this work. I think both of us are trying so desperately to protect our hearts, so afraid this isn’t going to succeed and we’re going to lose everything we have.
“I will let myself fall in love with you, Tyler,” she continued, “but you have to let yourself do the same.”
Tyler swallowed hard, hearing the truth in her words but not knowing quite how to address it. He had held a part of himself back, and he still wasn’t certain he could give all of himself the way he had before. It was a scary prospect, even as desperately as he wanted the life they could have together. But they’d never have the chance if he didn’t give in. Or at least, let her think that he had.
“You’re right,” he said, forcing himself to smile at her reassuringly. “From now on, no holding back. I will let myself love you and you will let yourself love me.”
A brilliant smile lit her face. Before he could react, her lips met his. He was happy to close his eyes and lose himself in the physical contact that had been his comfort these past few weeks. This was the kiss that was supposed to mark the change in their relationship for the better. They were giving in, and he needed to make her believe his words.
He pressed into her, pushing her back to mold her against the concave wall of the capsule. Her mouth was soft and welcoming in juxtaposition to his hard advance. His tongue forced its way into her mouth, demanding she give him more, and she gladly complied. She pressed her breasts against his chest and met his every advance.
How had he been so blind to this for so long? Amelia was perfect for him in so many ways. She knew just how to touch him, just how to handle his every mood. She wasn’t afraid to call him on his crap. And when it came down to it, he’d never been as attracted to a woman in his life as he was to her. From the first day he laid eyes on her freshman year, he’d known he was hers, be they friends or lovers. When they’d decided on friends, he’d shelved the attraction and kept his distance. Why, even now, he was resistant to let go. The minute he gave in to how badly he wanted her everything would fall apart.
At that unnerving thought, he pulled away. The moment their lips parted, the lights of the Eye illuminated and they were suddenly surrounded by its haunting blue glow. Amelia looked up at him, the lights and shadows highlighting the contours of her delicate features. Her smile was devoid of the pink lipstick she’d had on when they entered the Eye.
“Let’s go back to the hotel,” Amelia said, her voice breathy.
“You don’t want to go to dinner?” he asked.
“No,” she replied adamantly. “Take me back to the hotel right now or risk me doing something scandalous to you in this plastic bubble where everyone can see us.”
As appealing as that sounded, Tyler could see the loading platform approaching below. They wouldn’t have enough time to start anything interesting—or at least not to finish it—before the cops arrested them both.
“To the hotel it is.”
* * *
The moment they touched back down on solid earth, they rushed to get a cab to the hotel. Amelia’s heart was racing in her chest the entire way there, and when they pulled up outside the Landmark Hotel, she felt a tightness, like a vise closing down on her rib cage.
It wasn’t making love to Tyler that made her anxious. She had a thirst for him that never seemed to be satiated. It was their conversation on the Eye that worried her. She’d told him that she sensed he was afraid to give himself fully to the relationship, but there was more to it than just fear. Yes, he might be worried about losing their friendship or afraid of getting hurt again, but there was something else. He’d never seriously pursued her before now. Not once in all these years. But the moment a baby had come into the picture, Tyler had been ready to swoop in and claim her as his own.
Which raised the painful question she didn’t really want to face—was Tyler only here for the baby?
Did he really want them to fall in love, or did he just want Amelia to love him enough to stay in the relationship for the sake of their child? She had a miserable track record—she knew that. If not for the baby, she probably wouldn’t have let their relationship go on this long, in truth. She would’ve found some reason why it wouldn’t work. But now she was having feelings for Tyler. Real feelings that went far beyond friendship. Far beyond loving him, but not being in love with him.
But she didn’t get the same vibes from Tyler. It felt more like...an obligation, despite him telling her he was going to stop holding back.
Amelia shuddered at the thought. She never wanted anyone to be with her just because he thought he had to be. Tyler was attracted to her—there was no doubt of that—but could they have more?
The thoughts weighed heavy in her mind, even as they made their way through the stunning eight-story atrium of the hotel. She barely saw it, or any of the other remarkable features about their historic, hundred-year-old hotel. It wasn’t until they reached their suite that Amelia pushed the doubts out of her mind, just as she pushed Tyler’s suit coat over his shoulders. As they had nearly every night since they’d shared a home, she wanted to lose her worries in Tyler’s arms.
His jacket fell to the floor along with her own blue coat. Tyler pulled her into his arms and kissed her until she was nearly breathless. “I’ve never wanted a woman as badly as I want you tonight,” he said, his voice low and rough.
Amelia’s anxiety faded at the sound of his voice. It wasn’t all about the baby. His desire for her was real enough. She gave him a wicked, knowing grin and tugged at his tie. They shed clothing as they made it through the seating area to the large ivory-draped bed. Tyler whipped back the duvet and the flat sheet, then slipped out of his pants and eased onto the bed. Their make-out session on the Eye had certainly fired up his engine, and he was clearly ready for a long, exhilarating drive.
Kicking out of her heels, Amelia didn’t waste any time joining him in the bedroom. She’d been feeling a little feisty when she’d packed for this trip. Beneath her modest dress today, she’d opted for a lacy black demibra with matching panties and garter belt. The sheer black silk stockings were topped with lace that contrasted sharply with her pale skin.
Tyler’s mouth dropped open when her dress fell to the ground and she exposed the sexy lingerie she’d kept hidden all day. She did a little twirl, showcasing the revealing thong cut of the panties before slipping her thumbs beneath the sides and sliding them down her legs. She’d worn them outside the garter belt just for this reason. “Do you mind if I keep the rest on?” she asked innocently.
A frantic shake of his head was all she received in reply. Approaching the bed, she crawled slowly across it, putting the brakes on his rapid-fire seduction. When she reached the hard-carved muscles of Tyler’s bare abdomen, she threw one leg over his torso and straddled him. The movement immediately brought their most sensitive parts into contact, and the sensation brought a gasp of pleasure to her lips and a wicked smile to her face.
“All day?” He groaned. “You’ve been wearing that all day?”
“Mmm-hmm,” she hummed, reaching for the pins holding up her hair. When she removed the third and final one, her red curls spilled down over her shoulders, and she shook them out to great effect.
Tyler’s palms slid up her silky thighs, running his fingertips over the silver snaps of the garters and lacy tops of the stockings. “I...” he began, but Amelia brought a finger to his lips to quiet him.
They had done enough talking for today. There had been too many emotions and too much angst. Right now she just wanted to lose herself in making love to him. He wanted her to let go, and tonight, she would.
Rising up onto her knees, Ameli
a planted her hands on the pillows on both sides of Tyler’s head. Her breasts nearly tumbled from their confines as she moved, but he was quick to offer his hands to support them. As he kneaded her flesh, she slowly moved back, finding his firm heat and easing the length of him inside her hot, aching body.
Sitting up, Amelia rocked her hips forward, the pleasure of the moment forcing her eyes shut. It was better that way, so she kept them closed. With her eyes shut, she could focus on the feeling of Tyler’s hands cupping her breasts and teasing her nipples through the lace. She could absorb every powerful sensation as she moved her hips and forced the length of him deeper inside her body. She could hear Tyler’s murmurs of encouragement, her own soft gasps, the faint squeak of the bed as she moved...
But most of all, she could focus on the feeling deep in her chest. It was there, as she gave herself to Tyler, that she really opened up. He’d asked her tonight to let him in, to allow herself to love him, so she would. As though she’d turned the key in a rusty, old lock, she opened herself up to the emotions she’d held at bay for so long.
It was a stunning moment when the feelings hit her. The warmth of love heated her from the inside out, with tears forming in the corners of her eyes. But along with the feeling was a revelation she’d never expected—she not only loved Tyler, but she always had. No other man would ever meet her stringent qualifications because no other man could be Tyler. He was her better half, the part she’d always searched for and failed to find because she’d refused to look in the most obvious of places.
And now she was giving herself to him, heart and soul.
“Amelia...” Tyler groaned, bringing his hands to her hips. His palms cupped the lace-covered curve of her rear, guiding her movements, and she knew neither of them would be able to last much longer.
She placed her hands on his chest, one covering the rapid tattoo of his heart. Moving more forcefully, she quickly drove herself to the edge. When her climax came, her whole body shook with the strength of it. Every nerve lit up; every muscle tensed. She cried out to the dim room, gasping for breath.
Tyler rode out her orgasm, then pressed his fingers hard into her soft flesh and drove into her from beneath until he shouted his own pleasure.
Unable to hold herself up any longer, Amelia collapsed against him. She buried her face in his neck, their bodies both trembling with the power of their release. She kept her hand over his heart as they lay there, feeling the beat slow along with their breaths.
She had given Tyler her heart. It was too late for her to consider fighting the feelings anymore. She just didn’t have the strength. The thirty days would be up soon after they returned to Nashville, and she knew what her answer would be. She wanted to stay with him and start their family together.
The only problem was that Amelia wasn’t entirely sure if she would ever have Tyler’s love. He would stay for their child. She knew him well enough to know that. But that big fantasy of love she’d always dreamed of? That still seemed out of reach.
She couldn’t have it when only one of the people had fallen in love.
Ten
“London was amazing,” Amelia said to her coworkers seated around the conference room table of From This Moment. It seemed like forever since she’d been in the office, although it had just been a week. As Natalie had insisted, she didn’t come in over the weekend. She’d been right about the jet lag. Friday, she’d nodded off whenever she had a quiet or still moment. “I take back every ugly thing I said about Tyler.”
“I told you,” Gretchen said. “What was the best part of the trip?”
“That’s a hard one. The food was great. Seeing all the historic landmarks was nice, too. I think I ate my weight in scones.”
“Has your morning sickness gone away?” Bree asked.
“Actually, yeah.” She hadn’t felt anything even close to queasiness since they’d gone to London. She’d had more energy, too, which had been nice to have on the trip. “I was so happy to be able to eat. Our hotel was beautiful. Everything there is so different, yet familiar. Well, aside from driving on the other side of the road. I very nearly got hit by cabs two or three times because I looked the wrong way before crossing the street. They even have big painted letters on the street that say ‘look right’ for idiots like me.”
“You’re probably not the only one to nearly get hit,” Natalie noted.
“What about the lovin’?” Bree asked with a sneaky smile. Amelia could tell she wasn’t the least bit interested in discussions of scones or old churches. “You’ve got a look about you today—a rosy, well-loved look.”
“Bree!” Amelia complained, but she couldn’t help smiling. Things had changed between her and Tyler in London. Once they’d both agreed to let down their barriers, their physical and emotional connection had become stronger than it had ever been. She still had a mountain to climb where Tyler and his emotions were concerned, but they’d made significant progress. “I do think we’ve had a bit of a breakthrough in the relationship.”
“Are you in love?” Gretchen asked, perking up in her chair. “He has until Wednesday to make it happen, and judging by the fact that you can’t stop smiling, I think Tyler was successful.”
“I think he was, too,” Amelia admitted.
“Have you said it to him?”
Amelia wrinkled her nose. “No. I want to wait until we reach the end of the thirty days and make it official. Besides, I’ve never said that to a man before. I’m a little nervous.”
“Make him say it first,” Natalie noted, her eyes never leaving her tablet.
That probably wasn’t a bad idea. She still had her worries and reservations about how Tyler felt. Outwardly, he hadn’t given her any reason to doubt he had feelings for her, but she couldn’t shake it.
“Oh, I have gifts!” Amelia announced. “Hold on.” She scuttled back to her office and returned with three goodie bags. Each held a Union Jack tin of buttery shortbread cookies, a canister of English breakfast tea and a sleeve of French macarons she’d bought at the Ladurée bakery inside Harrods department store.
Everyone was cooing over their gifts when Amelia’s phone started to ring. She looked down to see her sister’s number. That was odd. She and her sister weren’t particularly close. Whitney took more after their mother, and they didn’t see eye to eye on very much. They rarely talked on the phone unless it was a special occasion like a birthday or a holiday, and even then, it was a stilted conversation. The women around the table were closer to sisters than her biological one.
Amelia hit the button to dismiss the call. She would call Whitney back when the staff meeting was done. She’d already avoided too much of her work duties around here lately.
“I thought you guys might like them,” she said, feeling her phone buzz with a voice mail message. Before she could say anything else, a text from her sister popped up.
Call me right now!
Amelia sighed. “Do you guys mind if I step out for a minute and call my sister back? She seems to be freaking out. I’m sure my parents have just done something to set her off.”
“Sure, go ahead,” Natalie said. “I’ll just start going over the weekend wedding with them. We can talk about how the catering went when you get back.”
Amelia slipped out of the room and went to her office. A discussion with her sister meant sitting—and eventually taking some pain medication for the headache it would inevitably set off. She pulled a bottle of Tylenol out of her drawer and swallowed a couple with her bottle of water. Her lower back was already bothering her today, so she might as well take some pain relievers and kill two birds.
The phone rang only twice before her sister picked up. “You’re married?” Whitney nearly squealed in her ear. “And I find out on Facebook. And pregnant, too! Are you kidding me? I know we aren’t super close, but you could at least have done me and our par
ents the courtesy of telling us this directly before it hit the internet.”
Amelia was so stunned by her sister’s sharp accusations, she didn’t know how to respond at first. It actually took her a moment to even process what she was going on about. Facebook? How the hell had any of that information gotten on Facebook? Of course she would’ve told her family, when she was ready to. Someone had just beaten her to the punch. She swallowed hard and tried to collect the wild emotions that had just been jump-started in her veins. “What are you talking about, Whitney?”
“A woman named Emily posted, and I quote, ‘So excited to hear that my little brother Tyler has settled down and started a family with his best friend, Amelia. We’ve been waiting years for those two to get together. And a baby! So exciting!’”
There were no words. Her sister’s fury was nothing compared to the hot blades of anger running through her own veins. He’d told his family. And his sister had put it on Facebook, tagging her so her own family and friends could see it.
They’d had an agreement. No one was supposed to know until they decided what they were going to do. Things had been going so well. The trip to London was amazing. She had finally let go of the last of her reservations and let herself fall in love with her best friend. There was absolutely no reason to go behind her back and tell his family.
Why would he do such a thing? Was he afraid that when the thirty days were up, she was going to walk away? Tyler was the kind of man who won at all costs. Was this his backup plan? A way of strong-arming her into doing what he wanted in the end? Did he think she would be coerced into staying with him if all their friends and family knew they were married and having a baby?
“Amelia!” her sister shouted through the phone when she didn’t get a response. “What the hell is going on? Is it even true?”
There was no point in lying about it. That would just cause more confusion and lead to more phone calls. “Yes, it’s true. I’m sorry I didn’t call, but I didn’t expect the news to get out before I could talk to everyone about it. Listen, I can’t talk right now, Whitney.”
Thirty Days to Win His Wife Page 13