He got to his feet and shook the sand off himself before heading back through the trees. Charlie looked down at her broken vines, feeling useless. Not only could she not tie a simple knot, she’d created more work for Tyler. She wanted to pull her weight and for him to see her as his equal, but she just simply didn’t have the skills he had.
No, she told herself. You just need to practice. You’ll get it eventually.
Resolute, she started attempting the knots again. She thought she had it, but one tug at the vine pulled the whole thing apart.
“Fuck it.”
She inhaled deeply through her nose, trying to bite down on her frustration, and practiced it again. She didn’t want to be the one responsible for their lifeline falling apart. Another couple of attempts got her no further, and she became aware of Tyler’s large form standing over her.
“You’re doing it all wrong,” he said. “You need to loop the vine under the knot before you wrap it back around.”
“That’s exactly what I was doing! The damn thing just doesn’t want to stay done up.” Heat, tiredness, and hunger had frazzled her nerves down to raw edges, and every word he spoke sent spikes of irritation through her. “It’s not me, it’s these damn vines.”
“That’s bullshit, Charlie. You’re doing it all wrong.”
Her temper exploded and she jumped to her feet, throwing down the vine she’d been working on. She glared at him. “Fine, you do it, then! You’re the expert on everything, after all.”
He put his hands on his hips and shook his head at her. “You don’t much like being told what to do, do you Charlie?”
She stopped and stared at him. “Err, pot, here’s kettle,” she said, placing her fingers to her face in the shape of a phone.
He cocked an eyebrow. “Yeah, cute,” he said, dismissively. “But the thing you’re forgetting is the whole reason I am here is to tell you what to do. Plus, I know what I’m doing. You don’t.”
“Another thing you like doing is pointing out all my failures.” She could feel herself starting to get riled, her heart stepping up a notch, her muscles tensing. What was the matter with this man that he constantly felt the need to try to make her feel unworthy?
“If you’re doing something wrong, I’m going to tell you. I’m not here to coddle you, Charlie. I’m here to keep you alive.”
“Yeah, cause I’m just a job to you, aren’t I?”
His eyes narrowed, dark and angry. “What do you want me to say? I’m here because of you and that show. If you hadn’t been so desperate for publicity, you wouldn’t be here either.”
“No one forced you to take the job, Tyler. You didn’t have to be here either. Do you think I want to be here? That I even wanted to do the damn show? Yeah, ’cause I just love the idea of people willing me to fail, to want me to fall on my ass and hopefully do so in the tiniest bikini possible. Jeez, isn’t that every girl’s dream? This isn’t what I wanted from my life.”
“You could have done anything you wanted. You had the world at your feet, and the position we’re in now is purely because of the decision you made.”
Angry tears clouded her vision. “I’m so sorry I ruined your life, but what else am I supposed to do for money—even if we get off this island? Go and work in a store somewhere? No one would employ me. Apart from the whole ‘party girl’ image, I’m also now the daughter of a man who ripped people off for millions of dollars.”
“You know what your problem is? You need to stop trying to be what everyone else expects you to be, and figure out who you are for yourself.”
“Yeah, and what the fuck are your issues, Tyler, because you don’t exactly seem well adjusted yourself?”
He closed the gap between them, his body towering menacingly over hers. Sweat shone off his naked chest, light and shadows highlighting the curved muscles of his pectorals, and the ridges of his abs. Heat radiated from him, pouring over her skin. The tension between them was palpable.
He stared down at her angrily and she shifted, uncomfortable under his gaze, but not wanting to step back and appear to have been the one who had given in first. She refused to be intimidated by him. But he reached out and wrapped a hand around the back of her neck. His fingers laced in the hair at the nape and he dragged her against him. His mouth crushed against hers in a fierce kiss, his tongue plunging into her mouth as if he were trying to penetrate her that way. She kissed him back, meeting his ferocity, their tongues clashing in battle.
He pulled her body against his, hips rocking together. She felt his hardness against her stomach and stood on tiptoes to grind herself against him.
Tyler broke the kiss, his fingers tightening in her hair to pull her head back, forcing her to look up at him. He glowered down at her, his expression like the tumultuous clouds that had breached the horizon just before the storm. “Fuck, Charlie. What are you doing to me?”
His hand on the back of her neck pushed her down, so she landed on her hands and knees. The hot sand scorched her skin, but Tyler dropped down onto the sand behind her, his presence erasing any thoughts of discomfort.
His arm wrapped around her tiny waist, pulling her backward to fit her bottom against his crotch, then he reached across her body and his hand was back in her hair again, pulling her blonde locks into a ponytail and securing it with his fist. The pull on her hair sent pain through to her scalp, but it only served to heighten her senses, the thrill of him holding her making her core clench with desire.
“I’m going to take care of you, Charlie,” he growled over her shoulder. “Stop resisting and let me.”
She could only whimper in response, wanting him so badly. She pushed backward on him, wanting to feel him hard against her, but his hold on her hair kept her still.
With his other hand, he yanked down her shorts and bikini bottoms, exposing her skin to the sun and sea breeze. He tugged on her hair again, forcing her chin to lift, her back arching downward, which in turn raised her backside to him. She felt him nudge between her legs, his hardness meeting her soft wetness, and with a shove of his hips, he pushed inside her. Pleasure made her head swim, and she cried out as he thrust hard, his hold on her hair tightening to stop her falling forward.
“Take me, Charlie,” he gasped. “Let me in.”
Considering their current position, she didn’t think he was talking physically.
With one hand tight in her hair, the other gripping her hip, he rode her furious and hard. She felt his anger, his frustration. This wasn’t romantic, it was hungry and desperate. He was frightened, too, she realized. He was doing everything he could to protect her physically and emotionally, but she wasn’t doing the same for him.
“Oh, God, Tyler,” she gasped as her orgasm built. “I’m so sorry.”
His fingers tightened in her hair, pain shooting through her scalp. She deserved it. She deserved the pain. He was only trying to take care of her, and she’d fought him every step of the way.
Their hips slapped together, the sound of flesh smacking drowning out the ocean waves. His heavy breaths turned to angry grunts, and his pace increased, driving deeper and harder inside her. He grew even larger, as though the whole of her pelvis was filled with nothing but him, and she could focus on no other sensation than his length plunging in and out of her.
“I’m coming,” he groaned.
“It’s okay, it’s okay.”
And he exploded inside her, just as her own orgasm took hold, her inner muscles holding him tight as they rode the wave together.
Chapter Twenty
Her fingers twisted in the smattering of dark hair on his chest as they lay together on the beach.
“So, are you going to tell me what that was all about?” she asked him, unable to just let things go. “I thought we’d gotten over all of this controlling business.”
His hand closed over the top of hers. “I wasn’t trying to control you, Charlie. I was trying to keep you safe.”
“I realize that, and I’m sorry I’m so hot-headed about
things. I’ve been judged my whole life, and I hate that you think I’m some useless, stereotypical blonde, too.”
“I don’t think that about you. You know I don’t.”
“So why the over protectiveness?”
“I’m not ...” He trailed off, his hand subconsciously reaching to rub the scar on the bridge of his nose. He was shutting down on her again, and she was certain if she knew what he was hiding, she’d be able to understand him.
She pushed herself up to prop herself on her elbow and look down at him. “Talk to me, damn it. If things are ever going to work between us, then you need to talk to me.”
“I ...” He hesitated again, as if needing to force the words out. “I just can’t stand the thought of losing someone else I love.”
“Love?”
But he didn’t answer.
“Who did you lose, Tyler?” she asked gently. “Does it have anything to do with the scar you keep rubbing?”
He snatched his hand down and wouldn’t meet her eye. She waited. He finally lifted his eyes to hers, and she saw a deep sadness, and something else, a haunting that frightened her. It was that haunting she needed to know about. That was at the cause of how he acted.
“Tell me,” she pleaded. “Just tell me.”
“You’ll hate me if I do.”
“I won’t, Tyler. I could never hate you.”
“Okay,” he said, defeated. “I guess you have the right to know. But if you do decide you hate me, I completely understand. I hate myself enough.”
“Tyler,” she started. But he lifted a hand to stop her and pushed himself to sitting. She moved herself to sit beside him.
“I was married once, a long time ago. We got married right out of high school, and everyone told us we were too young, that it would all go badly. But I was in the Marines, and we wanted to set up home. I wanted to know I had someone waiting for me, wherever I was stationed, whatever dangers I encountered. But it wasn’t just that. We were in love, truly in love, not just some kind of young puppy love. She liked doing all the same things I did. She was outdoorsy, enjoyed adventurous stuff.” He gave a slight shrug. “Anyway, a couple of years passed and we were still happy. Sure, we had the occasional fight, but what couples don’t? The time came when I had some leave and we had a little money saved up, so we decided to do something exciting and head to a ski resort I knew in Wyoming. I convinced her to go off-piste, told her it would be a thrill. Except it all went wrong. The snow was too powdery. It sent her flying into the air and she hit a hidden rock. She was wearing a helmet but it wasn’t enough. She had bleeding on the brain. She fell into a coma for three days and then was taken off life support. She didn’t make it.”
“Oh, Tyler. I’m so sorry.”
He shook his head. “It wasn’t as if it was your fault.”
“But what about the scar? You said that would make me hate you?” She was confused.
“I let her go first. I should have scoped the track, let her come after me, but I was trying to push her. We were racing each other. When she hit the rock, I didn’t know how bad it was. I was still heading downhill, but I turned my head to see what had happened and I saw her lying, half-buried in the snow. I tried to stop, but the snow was so powdery, I just drove my skis deeper. She wasn’t that far away from me, but trying to get uphill in the powder was almost impossible. It took me almost a half hour, while she was lying, in the freezing cold, not moving. I called out her name over and over. I could even see the piste from where we were. People were skiing past us, I could see them through the trees and bushes, but no one heard me or saw her. I finally reached her and I unclipped her skis and tried to carry her toward the piste, yelling for someone to help us the whole time. I fell while I was carrying her, smacked my face against a tree.” He touched the bridged of his nose where the scar was and the slight disjoint in the shape. “But that didn’t matter. I think I hit her head at the same time. I can’t be certain, but I probably made her head injury worse. I could have been what killed her.”
“You don’t know that, Tyler.” Her eyes had filled with tears at his story. She only wanted to make him feel better, to offer him some kind of comfort. This was the guilt he had carried around with him for so long, that he’d been the cause of his young wife’s death.
But Tyler didn’t want to hear it. “It was my fault, whether the fall made things worse or not. It was my idea to go off-piste and then I goaded her to go faster. I always wanted more—bigger, faster, scarier—whatever was the biggest adrenaline rush. My need for adrenaline caused her death.”
“She was a grown woman, Tyler, and you said you guys were into the same thing. If that was the case, then she was probably chasing her own adrenaline rush. It wasn’t your fault.”
He turned to look at her, his dark eyes fathomless and focused on hers. “Charlie, I didn’t tell you this to try to get you to convince me of that. Nothing you say will ever make me stop wishing I’d lived that day differently.
Of course. She was thinking too much of herself if she thought a few simple words would change years of guilt he’d been carrying around with him.
“The reason I told you,” he continued, “is because I want you to understand why I act the way I do around you sometimes. I’m terrified of losing you, Charlie. I’m terrified of history repeating itself and me making a mistake that takes your life.”
She touched the back of his hand gently. “I’m an adult, Tyler. You’re not responsible for me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I’m here because I was employed to take care of you, remember?”
“That was a lifetime ago. Everything’s changed since then. I’ve changed since then. We’re equals, Tyler. Partners. You’re not responsible for my survival. Only I can be responsible for that. I didn’t even realize until now. My whole life I’ve been relying on other people to support me and get me out of holes I’ve been in. But not anymore.”
He shook his head. “You don’t understand. It’s not because I was employed to take care of you that I feel the way I do, that this situation has brought all those feelings from years ago rushing back, that I’ve been acting like a huge controlling, over-protective jerk. It’s because I love you, Charlie. No one has made me feel the way I feel about you for a long, long time. I can’t help being overprotective. I’m so terrified that at any minute I’m going to lose you. I don’t think I’d recover if that happened.”
She stared at him, tears filling her eyes once more but for a whole different reason this time. “You love me?”
He nodded. “Pretty much from the moment I saw you wearing those stupid little shoes on the runway.”
She pressed her lips together, trying to suppress her emotions, but they all burst out at once, laughing, crying. She flung herself into his arms, wrapping her own arms around his neck and pressing her face into his broad throat. “I thought you were checking me out,” she spoke against his skin. “And then you told me off for my footwear.”
“I was checking you out. I had to hide it somehow.”
She laughed again and smacked him on the shoulder. “I knew it!”
He smiled at her and took her hand. “So what about you, Charlie? What do you want from life?”
She shrugged. “All I’ve ever wanted is a family around me. To have somewhere I feel like I’m wanted. To know that whatever happens, I’ll have people who are there for me. Right now I have no one.”
He pulled away from her, stared into her eyes, and spoke softly. “You have me.”
Chapter Twenty-one
They took sips of water to stay hydrated as they worked under the shade of a palm until the raft started to come together. Charlie was already tired. She couldn’t imagine having to swim any distance if something happened.
“Maybe we should wait until tomorrow,” she suggested. “I’m exhausted.”
“You won’t need to do anything, Charlie. I’ll paddle the raft. Hell, I’ll swim behind it and push it across if I have to.”
“
I don’t want you to do that!” The idea of him being in the water for any length of time alarmed her.
“It won’t come to that. Now, shall we see if this baby floats?”
Together, they hauled, dragged and pushed the raft down the beach toward the waves lapping on the shore. The raft left a deep, dark groove in the white sand. Charlie took off her sandals and stuffed them down the back of her shorts for safe keeping. She didn’t want to lose them in the water.
Tyler pushed the raft deeper. A couple of waves tried to push him back to shore, but he put the substantial power of his body behind it and kept heading deeper. The front of the raft lifted with an incoming wave, threatening to push back again, but then it dipped down and headed out deeper. Tyler threw his body onto the raft, riding it like surfer would his board. When he’d mounted the break, he kicked and paddled to turn back to her. She stood watching, her hand at her mouth, nibbling on her now non-existent nails.
“Looks like it floats,” he called out to her, a pitch of excitement in his voice. He lived for this sort of thing. She wished she could share some of his enthusiasm, but the whole thing still terrified her.
He beckoned to her. “Come on, Charlie. No time like the present!”
She groaned and made herself wade into the sea. A couple of waves broke up her thighs, and she automatically jumped when they hit. Finally, she was deep enough to swim, so she lowered herself into the water and swam toward where Tyler waited with the raft. He grabbed her when she got closer, placing a hand firmly in the middle of her bottom to push her up.
Soaking wet, she climbed aboard. Tyler waited until she was settled, before he pulled himself up as well. The raft bobbed gently on the ocean.
“See, told you this would be fine.”
She smiled at him, trying to look braver than she felt.
He continued, “And the other island doesn’t even appear to be as far from here. I think we’ll manage it in a couple of hours as long as nothing goes wrong.”
Dangerous Encounters: A Romantic Suspense Boxed Set Page 40
