Too Bad So Sad

by Lani Lynn Vale

  Tyler looked even more amused.

  “Whoa, T. What the hell are you doing here?” Dad asked, looking surprised to see his friend. “And why the hell are you talking to my daughter?”

  Tyler’s eyes crinkled at the side when he grinned.

  “I was patrolling the neighborhood because I got a burglar alarm in the house eight lots down,” Tyler pointed over his shoulder. The only house that would’ve bothered putting one in was the huge two-story house that started where the driveway ended and extended out all the way onto the lake. It had massive pilings that extended down into the water, holding up a deck from heaven. “Saw your truck and thought I’d stop in to say hi. I haven’t seen you in ages.”

  Dad extended his hand to Tyler, who took it and shook hands with him.

  “What about the part about you talking to my daughter?” Dad asked.

  Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it.

  He did it.

  “Your darling daughter decided to trespass on my property last week and steal some moss off a tree.”

  I felt my dad’s gaze burning into my cheek.

  I flushed and looked away.

  “Reagan Rose, what have I told you about that?” he said slowly.

  I shrugged. “Not to get caught.”

  Tyler snorted, as did my father.

  I glared at them both—but Tyler harder.

  Okay, so my father would never in his life say that.

  But…whatever.

  “You know damn good and well that I didn’t say that. That was your stepmother. That wasn’t me,” Dad countered.

  I bit my lip and tried not to laugh.

  “She’s sorry.” Dad sighed.

  I sniffed lightly. I was so not sorry. I was far from sorry.

  Tyler snorted. “Yeah…no, she’s not.”

  I found my lip twitching into a semblance of a smirk but immediately smoothed out my features. It wouldn’t do for him to know that he made me laugh.

  “Honestly, I’m just surprised that she’s talking to you.” Dad shook his head. “The last time she got caught trespassing, she was hauled into jail and only told the arresting officer her name. They thought it was a stall tactic and I was called. Then I had to explain that she was incredibly shy and never talked to anyone, not even her friends sometimes. They let her go with the understanding that she wouldn’t trespass anymore.”

  I mashed my lips together.

  Okay, so I knew better. Sue me.

  My dad sighed.

  “I gotta go. I’d offer to take you out to lunch for your troubles, but I have to meet my wife to go shop for a new car. Ours was totaled last week when some dumbass ran off the road and smashed into it while she was at work.” Dad pulled his keys from his pocket. “It was nice seeing you, man.”

  Tyler and Dad shook hands and I walked away. “Love you, Dad.”

  “Love you, too,” he called from my entryway. “I’ll lock it.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  There’d be no point in locking it. The people that lived on the lake were all over the age of seventy. The only two younger people in this entire community that I’d seen were Tyler and me.

  “Bye, Reagan. Nice talking to you,” Tyler called out.

  I flipped him off over my shoulder and he chuckled.

  His stupid chuckle could still be heard after my father closed and locked the door.

  The bastard.

  ***

  I shuffled reluctantly into the restaurant—one a town over from Hostel that looked so fancy that I felt totally out of place just walking into it—and went to the hostess stand.

  “Welcome. Do you have a reservation?” the cute little blonde asked.

  I nodded. “Cree.”

  Janie had made the reservation and told me in no uncertain terms that I was to go, or there’d be hell to pay.

  I decided to go…but only because I really did want to start dating again, but I knew I wouldn’t do anything about it on my own.

  Sadly, Janie was a hundred percent right.

  I needed help.

  I was socially awkward, and even worse, I got extremely anxious when talking to people, even more so when I didn’t know them.

  I already knew how this date would go.

  I would sit there, not talking, occasionally spitting out a one- or two-word reply to the questions he asked. And, if all went well, he wouldn’t think I was a total freak and might even ask me out on a second date since it was so obvious how shy I was.

  “Right this way,” the hostess gestured with the palm of her hand.

  I followed her and let my eyes skip around the room, one person after another, wondering who my date was.

  I didn’t see a solo diner throughout the entire room.

  Not one.

  A sick sense of fear knotted into my throat and I worried that he might’ve stood me up.

  “Your date isn’t here yet,” the woman gestured to the table. “But when he gets here, I’ll send him right over.”

  I smiled and took a seat, trying not to let my nerves get the best of me.

  I was being stood up. I just knew it.

  Pulling out my phone, I texted Janie. Are you sure you told whoever he is eight? Because nobody is here and I’m five minutes late.

  She instantly replied.

  This was Kayla’s pony show. But, I think it was Parker who got you the date. Surprise. She said she told him to tell his friend eight. Don’t worry. It’s not that late yet.

  I looked at my watch and saw it said 8:06.

  He was six minutes late.

  I felt something akin to panic roll up my throat and would’ve gotten up to leave had the chair in front of me not been so rudely pulled out, making everyone in a two-table radius turn to look in our direction.

  “Fancy meeting you here, trespasser.”

  I looked up to find Tyler sitting across the table from me, dressed for work still, staring at me with an unholy glee in his eye.

  “Go away, I have a date,” I told him honestly.

  Tyler grinned. “You have a date? With who?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s another blind date. Don’t touch his silverware. Nobody wants your boy cooties on their cutlery.”

  Tyler’s eyebrow raised and the laugh lines around his eyes became more prominent when he did. I wanted to lick them.

  Oh, God. I had the hots for this man and it was burning me up inside.

  You weren’t supposed to be attracted to a person who pissed you off. In fact, I was fairly certain you were supposed to like the person that made your vagina rev with need.

  I crossed my legs and swallowed, smoothing the linen napkin down over my legs.

  “I’m pretty sure that my ‘cooties’ are harmless. You, on the other hand,” he looked pointedly at my fingernails—which still had dirt underneath them from this afternoon—and curled his lip. “He might be scared to touch you.”

  I glared at him. “What are you doing here?”

  “Can’t a man eat?” he questioned silkily.

  The waitress came over and smiled, but for once didn’t pay much attention to the man—nope, her eyes were all for me. And I wasn’t oblivious to her obvious perusal. “What can I get you?”

  I swallowed. “A sweet tea. He’s not staying.”

  The waitress’s mouth quirked. “Is that right?”

  Tyler immediately interrupted me.

  “I’m her blind date. Yes, I’m staying. I want a sweet tea, too. But make it a big glass. I’m thirsty as hell and I don’t want to run you ragged,” he explained sweetly.

  I bared my teeth at him when she walked away. “What do you mean you’re my blind date?”

  Tyler’s lips quirked. “Parker was asking another man at the station when I walked in. I told him I wanted to take you out again. He said okay because he didn’t want to do any asking anyway and that was that.”

  I rolled my eyes hea
venward. “God, what did I do to deserve this?”

  Chapter 6

  Sometimes I feel like I need a cup of coffee for each person I have to deal with in a day.

  Reagan

  I was disappointed.

  Surprisingly, the date went fairly well after he stopped being all smug and shit about knowing I was his blind date while I hadn’t a clue.

  Admittedly, it was the best date I’d had in a really long time—not that I’d be informing Janie of that—nor Tyler for that matter.

  Janie already had a big enough head as it was. She didn’t need me adding to her big head to prove that she was knowledgeable in the way of Reagan Rose.

  She was a great friend, but give Janie an inch and she’d take a mile.

  Needless to say, as I walked in my door and closed it behind me, I was thinking that this wasn’t how a date was supposed to end.

  He’d followed me home, watched as I got into my house and left after he’d seen my lights turn on. I knew that because I watched him through the window as I flipped them on. I’d seen his eyes follow the movement of my body in the window before giving me a chin tilt and backing out of the driveway.

  Now, as I stood in my living room, I felt nervous.

  My entire body vibrated with need—need for a man who drove me up the fuckin’ wall.

  God, everything about the man made every single part of me sit up and pay attention.

  I wasn’t sure I liked it since I’d never had this feeling for another human being, ever.

  I wanted him so bad I could practically taste it.

  It was a bittersweet feeling this way because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to yell at him or fuck him.

  Angrily, I walked away from my front door and stripped off my nice pants and shirt, tossing them in the vicinity of the laundry hamper that was getting overly full. I’d have to go wash some clothes tomorrow.

  The only problem with that was that the shared laundromat for the cabins was all the way on the opposite side of the park and I’d have to lug the clothes all the way out to my truck, fold them there and try like hell to get them back to my cabin without having to refold them again.

  It was a precarious process and I hated doing it. Hence the reason the pile was growing ever-larger by the day.

  Clothes were the bane of my existence. I’d never gotten the hang of folding them and despite my good intentions, more often than not, they just ended up wadded up in the laundry basket until I was ready to wear them.

  Hooking my fingers in my panties, I was about to shove them down over my hips when I heard two sharp knocks at my door.

  Eyebrows furrowing, I started toward the door and flipped the curtain partially out of the way to see who it was.

  Tyler’s dark eyes met mine and I knew then that he was feeling everything that I had been feeling, too.

  It was all there, written on his face and set deep in his eyes.

  He wanted me just as much as I wanted him.

  I unlocked the door, opened it and stared out at the man standing there in the shadows.

  His chest was heaving and I could see the obvious bulge in his uniform pants.

  He wanted me.

  I wanted him.

  We met like two angry people fighting for what they wanted—each other.

  Neither one of us gave an inch.

  I didn’t want to want him—at least that was what I logically was trying to tell myself.

  But, physically? I realized rather quickly that life didn’t always give you what you wanted. It gave you what you needed. And right now? I needed Tyler more than I needed anything else in this world.

  When my bra was wrenched over my head without unhooking it, causing the bones in the cups to scrape painfully up my side, I didn’t even complain.

  Couldn’t, really.

  Not with the way my internal organs were rioting over who should be in control.

  Like my heart—it was beating so fast that I could feel it pounding against my chest.

  My lungs were heaving, trying to catch up with my brain, which was firing on every available synapse.

  My fingers itched to claw at him, but before I could reach for him, he caught both of my wrists in one hand, lifted them high up over my head and slammed them against the wall that I hadn’t even been aware we were near.

  “This is only happening once,” he growled. “I’m not doing it ever again.”

  I laughed in his face. “We’re going to do it a whole lot more than once. But only for tonight. By morning, you’re gone.”

  I had too much to do in my life right now than to have Tyler in it, dictating how I lived it.

  No way, no how. It wasn’t going to happen.

  “Shut up and kiss me,” he ordered, slamming his mouth down on mine.

  He tasted like beer and cinnamon—from the cake that he’d shared with me.

  Originally, he hadn’t intended to have any. But when the waitress came out with what appeared to be about half the damn cake as a slice, I forced him to help me.

  He did, but he stayed on his half of the cake and I stayed on mine.

  We’d been completely cordial and hadn’t once let our feelings shine through.

  Honestly, if it hadn’t been for that lingering touch of his as he’d helped me from the table as we were leaving, we’d have appeared as business partners there for a business meeting it’d been that civilized.

  But now? With his ravenous mouth on mine, pillaging it freely? Yeah, polite and cordial Tyler was gone and out-of-control Tyler was introducing himself to loving-it Reagan.

  “You’re young. You annoy the shit out of me and you do things that are not okay, despite the fact that they’re minor infractions, they’re still illegal. Your father is one of my friends and my life is too busy to deal with you on top of it.”

  I let my mouth run down his bearded jaw, stopping at his Adam’s apple to offer it a kiss before moving on to the column of his throat.

  All the while, I explored and he continued to list his reasons why this wasn’t a good idea.

  But, when he got to the part about being too busy to deal with me, I bit him.

  He cursed and I felt his hips—hips that pushed the long column of his cock into me—jerk.

  “Fuck,” he cursed. “This is the worst idea in the history of bad ideas. God.”

  “Stop bitching and fuck me.”

  He didn’t. Not at first.

  He moved to my breasts.

  My impressively small breasts that had always made me somewhat self-conscious.

  But Tyler didn’t act like they were too small.

  In fact, he seemed not to care about that or my kinda-too-large nipples, either.

  Or the freckle on my right boob that looked like a tiny heart.

  He just bent down and captured one nipple in his mouth, bringing a hand up to cup my breast and feed himself.

  I felt my knees go weak at the first pull from that delicious mouth and he moved, pressing his hips into mine at the same time as he hauled me farther up the wall by my hands.

  He used the strength in one arm only to lift me completely off my feet, using just his hips to pin me against the wall right where he wanted me.

  The new position also lined my breasts up with his mouth so he no longer had to stoop down. Making me think he liked this position better anyway.

  A moan slipped from my mouth when he bit down lightly on the turgid peak and I closed my eyes as stuff started to happen between my legs that had never happened with an actual man before.

  It had, of course, happened with my battery-operated boyfriend, but never with that one person who I allowed to get this close to me.

  “I’m going to come,” I announced, unsure what to do.

  But then that choice was taken right out of my hand when Tyler switched to my other breast and ground his hard cock into my core.

  I detonated, unable to do anything else.

  I
started to come and I didn’t stop until I felt like everything and everyone had changed—the world around me included.

  I blinked open my eyes, staring down breathlessly at Tyler’s lust-filled eyes and knew that once wasn’t going to be enough with the man.

  I’d have to have him.

  Tonight. Next week. Next month.

  I’d wait for him to get his act together. I’d wait for him to come to me.

  But I’d also be sure to give him the space he needed to come to terms with what was happening between us.

  In the meantime, I’d thoroughly enjoy him while I had him tonight and hope that held me over for the time it took him to pull his head out of his ass.

  “You back with me, baby girl?” he rasped against my breastbone, drawing kisses down a slow path along my chest.

  “I think so,” I said breathlessly. “But I don’t think you can top what just happened. We should probably stop now.”

  He chuckled. “We’ll see.”

  And see we did.

  Moments after I’d made that declaration, I found myself face down over the arm of the brown leather couch in the middle of the cabin.

  The padding was thick and soft, giving me enough cushion to…smack.

  I jolted up, shoving my hands into the couch and started to scramble away from the fire on my ass, but Tyler halted me with one big hand around my hip. “Don’t move.”

  I stilled at the scariness in his tone.

  I don’t know what made me still. I don’t know why I even wanted to listen to his command.

  All I knew was that I did and there wasn’t a single thing that my conscious mind could do about it.

  He smoothed the same palm that had just caused me pain up and over my ass and let it linger on the handprint that I knew was there for a few long moments before moving it to the split between my ass cheeks.

  “Your juices are covering your ass. If it wasn’t for these panties, they’d be running down your thighs,” he murmured, sounding amused.

  I swallowed and dropped down so that my body was once again laying on the couch, my face pressed against one cushion, mouth slightly parted.

  Anticipation ran rampant through me and I wanted nothing more than to beg him to tell me what would happen next.