Ain't She Sweet

by Marie Force

  Max took comfort in those words from someone he’d always looked up to and respected. As Caden wrapped his hand around Max’s finger, he smiled, relieved to have the next six days with his son to look forward to. The rest would work itself out. Somehow.

  —

  While Megan opened a mountain of gifts and fully examined each one before moving on to the next, Charley was happily relegated to the sidelines as Nina and Hannah, her other attendant, tended to the happy bride. That would never be her. Not in a million years did she want what all the other women in her family seemed to want—home and hearth and husband and babies. The thought of it made her queasy.

  Although, despite the queasiness, Charley was astonished to realize she’d actually missed Tyler during the afternoon with her family. Jeez, what was that about? When was the last time she’d missed a man?

  A sharp pain in the vicinity of her heart was a reminder of the last time . . . Michael Devlin, the man she’d fallen hard for in college only to discover she was one of many women he was stringing along. His deception had hardened her heart, and she’d never forgotten the painful lessons learned during her sophomore year at UVM.

  No one close to her had even known about him. He’d insisted on secrecy for reasons that became apparent after his web of lies was uncovered by one of the many other women he’d professed to love. Charley hadn’t even told Ella about him, mostly because she’d been embarrassed and made to feel foolish by a man she’d thought she loved. Not only had he broken her heart, he’d stolen money from her, too. How sad was it that the only real “boyfriend” she’d ever had turned out to be a con artist of the highest order?

  Ella had known about what Michael had done. The entire campus knew. But no one knew Charley had been one of Michael’s victims. Others had pressed charges against him, but Charley had remained silently locked in her own private agony, too ashamed to speak up. She’d believed him when he said he loved her, that she was the only woman he’d ever love, that they were destined for a life together. Because he’d been the first guy she loved, she’d given him the gift of her virginity. Even hearing he’d been convicted on fraud charges a year and a half later hadn’t soothed the ache she carried with her to this day.

  Thinking about him now made her burn with rage, as if it had happened last week rather than years ago. Michael had been run off campus by a mob of angry women, and she’d never seen him again. But the damage he’d done hadn’t been tempered by time. If anything, it had hardened her into the woman she was today—cynical, slow to trust new people and unwilling to risk more than she had to lose. He had stolen her belief in fairy tales and happily-ever-afters. Even seeing her siblings falling for their perfect partners hadn’t softened her to the idea of love for herself.

  Never again would she be in such a vulnerable position with a man, including Tyler. As much as she liked him—and she liked him a lot more than she’d ever expected to—she wasn’t capable of loving him or any man.

  That she was even thinking about shit from a lifetime ago was a sign that it had been the right thing—the fair thing—to put Tyler on notice about what wasn’t going to happen between them. Thanks to what Michael had put her through, Charley handled her interactions with men with an overabundance of fairness and honesty. She never led anyone on. She never let them believe they were going to get anything more than a good time from her.

  That was how she’d become a serial dater. Of course the fact that she didn’t get “involved,” so to speak, was how she’d also gotten a reputation for being easy when it came to sex, which wasn’t necessarily true. Yes, she liked sex. She even loved it under the right circumstances, but she didn’t give herself to just any guy who expressed an interest. There had to be some sort of interest on her part, too.

  Despite what people liked to think about her, in the last five years, she’d had exactly three lovers—all guys she’d had long-term sexual relationships with. There’d been no dating, no promises, no talk of love or forever or any of the trigger words that sent her running. The first two sex-buddy relationships had died out over time. The third had been ongoing until she got hurt, and Tyler stepped up to care for her.

  She wondered if man number three knew she’d been hurt or if he wondered why he hadn’t heard from her. Probably not. Sex-only relationships didn’t include checking in between hookups, which was how she liked it.

  As if she’d conjured him from her musings, Tyler came into the room looking windblown and sexy in a black sweater and faded jeans. The sight of him had her questioning her own rules. Maybe just this once . . .

  No. No. No. Never again.

  As Tyler said hello to the others and crossed the room to her, Charley thought about the first date he’d saved for her and how much she wanted to let him take her on a romantic overnight trip to Boston. Maybe she’d allow that much in addition to whatever happened between them physically, but nothing more.

  “Hey,” he said when he reached her, right where he’d left her hours ago. His gaze drank in the sight of her, paying attention the way no one else ever had—except her mother, of course. “You’re hurting.”

  “A little.”

  “Let’s get you home to your pills.”

  “You make me sound like an addict.”

  “You’re far from an addict.” He retrieved her crutches and helped her up, putting an arm around her until she got her balance.

  “Thanks.”

  “No problem.”

  Charley looked up to find every set of eyes in the room on her and Tyler, watching them with interest. She wanted to say, Show’s over, but she held her tongue and walked slowly toward Megan. “Congratulations. You got some beautiful gifts.”

  Megan got up to hug Charley. “Thank you so much for the place settings and the crystal. I love them.”

  Charley didn’t bother to mention that Ella had handled the gift buying for her. “You’re welcome. I’ll see you next weekend, if not before.”

  “Oh we’ll be up to visit before then.”

  “Don’t worry about me. Enjoy your big week.”

  Charley hugged the others on the way out, each of them promising to come visit her in the next few days. Her mom handed Tyler a basket. “You won’t have to worry about dinner tonight.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Abbott.”

  “Call me Molly.” Watching her mother hug Tyler, Charley experienced an odd sense of concern over the way her family was taking to him as if he were already one of them.

  “Thanks, Mom,” she said when her mother kissed her good-bye.

  “Call me if you need anything.”

  “I will.” It took ten long minutes to reach the mudroom, where Tyler helped her into her coat.

  “Let me put the basket in the car, and then I’ll come back for you.”

  “Okay.”

  As she watched him dash out into the snowy darkness, it occurred to her that by continuing to stay with him she was giving him hope that he shouldn’t have where she was concerned. A sense of panic overtook her. She looked back to see if her mom was nearby, but no one was there. Everyone was in the family room with Megan.

  She shouldn’t go with him. She should stay with her parents until she could return to her own place. It was the right thing to do despite how much she’d enjoyed the time she’d spent with him at his house.

  Her brother Hunter appeared out of the darkness and stepped into the house. “Hey, Charl. How you feeling?”

  She cleared her throat of the emotional lump that had settled there. “Good.”

  “I gotta tell you. I really like Tyler. He’s a good guy.”

  “Oh, um, thanks.”

  Tyler came in the door. “Ready?”

  She needed to talk to him, to tell him their time together had to end, but she couldn’t do that in front of Hunter. She wouldn’t embarrass Tyler after all he’d done for her. But they were going to
talk tonight, and she would tell him it was time for her to go home.

  “Yeah,” she said, “I’m ready.”

  CHAPTER 13

  You got to be brave. If you feel something, you’ve really got to risk it.

  —Mel Brooks

  As they drove up the mountain in silence, Charley’s nerves multiplied exponentially. The thought of telling Tyler she wanted to leave made her feel sick. This was exactly why she didn’t get “involved” with men. Inevitably, she always wanted out, and it was much easier to escape when there were no feelings involved.

  He had them for her, and she couldn’t deny she’d begun to have them for him.

  “What’re you thinking about over there?”

  His deep voice startled her. “I . . . um . . .”

  “Did you have fun today?”

  Grateful for the reprieve, she said, “I did. You?”

  “It was great. Your brothers are insane on skis.”

  “They’re insane off skis, too.”

  “I’m exhausted. That’s what I get for trying to keep up with them. I hope I can move tomorrow.”

  “You’re in good shape.”

  “Skiing always makes me sore the next day. Different muscles.” He yawned loudly. “How do you feel about an early dinner and a movie in bed?”

  Now would be a great time to tell him she wanted to move to her parents’ home until she recovered enough to go to her apartment.

  “Charley?”

  “Um, sure, that sounds good.” He was tired and hungry. What she had to tell him could wait until tomorrow.

  When they got to his house, Tyler helped her get settled on the sofa, doled out her pills and then went to heat up the lasagna her mother had sent home with them. They ate that, salad and bread on the sofa in front of the fire he’d lit.

  “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?”

  Charley nearly choked on her bite of lasagna.

  “And don’t say it’s nothing because something has been different since I got to your parents’ house to pick you up.”

  She leaned forward to put her plate on the coffee table. Her heart beat fast, making her feel breathless. The last thing she wanted was to hurt him when he’d been so good to her.

  Tyler took hold of her hand, running his thumb over her knuckles and setting off a reaction she felt everywhere. “Whatever it is, just tell me.”

  “I want you to know how much I appreciate everything you’ve done for me.”

  Groaning, he closed his eyes and leaned his head against the sofa. “Don’t, Charley.”

  “Don’t what?”

  “Give me the gratitude speech before you tell me it’s over between us. You said you were going to give me a chance, but you haven’t.”

  “I’m such a cliché,” she said with a sigh, wishing for just that moment that she could be someone different for him.

  “What? Why in the world would you say that?”

  “Because I’m going to say it is not you. It’s me. It’s most definitely me. You’re great and handsome and sexy and so nice. You deserve so much more than what I can give you.”

  “I want to understand, Charley. I want to know why you think you’re incapable of this when this is already happening. We’re two weeks into it, and as far as I’m concerned, you’re doing fine. I’ve never been happier than I’ve been since you came to stay here. I hate that you got hurt, but I love taking care of you.”

  “You can’t love taking care of me,” she said, her voice catching on a sob.

  “Why not, honey?”

  “Because! I told you! I don’t do this. I don’t do boyfriends or relationships and I don’t do love. Any kind of love.”

  “And I told you I’m okay with that. You told me your rules, and I intend to play by them.”

  Charley shook her head. “I see the way you look at me.”

  “How do I look at you?”

  “Like you want things I’m not capable of giving you.”

  He raised their joined hands to his lips, setting off a firestorm of sensation that flooded her senses with awareness of him. “What I want most from you, right now, is something you’re perfectly capable of giving me.”

  “Sex.”

  His soft chuckle made her want to punch him. There was nothing funny about this conversation. “That’s second on my list.”

  “What’s first?”

  “Time. I want to spend time with you doing exactly what we’re doing right now—eating dinner in front of the fire, planning to watch a movie and turn in early. I want to take you on that date in Boston, but we don’t have to call it a date if you’d rather not. I want to go to your brother’s bachelor party on Thursday night—and yes, I was actually invited. I want you to ask me to come with you to his wedding next weekend. On Christmas Eve, I thought maybe you could come with me to my parents’ house. My mom does a big dinner every year. Christmas Day is all yours to decide what we do. Whatever you want to do with your family is fine with me. So you see it’s not really all that complicated unless we want to make it complicated.”

  “Everything about that is complicated.”

  “How so?”

  “All that time together, families involved, important events.” Charley shuddered. “It would be like having a boyfriend.”

  “You say the word boyfriend the way other people say herpes,” he said with that adorable smile that set her heart to racing.

  “I don’t want a boyfriend.”

  “I don’t want herpes, so we’re on the same page.”

  “I fear you aren’t taking me seriously.”

  “I take you, Charlotte Abbott, as seriously as it’s possible to take anyone.”

  “That’s exactly what I’m afraid of!”

  With his free hand, he caressed her face, gently dragging his thumb over her jaw. “You have no reason whatsoever to be afraid of me.”

  “I’m beginning to think I have every good reason to be afraid of you.”

  Still smiling, he shook his head, leaned in and kissed her cheek on the way to her mouth as he brought both hands to her face, holding her in place so he could kiss her more intently.

  How did he do this to her? How did he make her forget that she hadn’t intended to kiss him again? How did he make her forget that she’d planned to tell him they couldn’t do any of this anymore? When he kissed her, she forgot everything other than how he made her feel. Her hand found its way around his neck because she couldn’t seem to get close enough to him.

  Somehow he managed to arrange them so he was lying on top of her without breaking the kiss or causing her any pain. She wasn’t sure how he did that either, but with his erection pressed tight against her core, she couldn’t spare the brain cells to figure it out.

  He stopped only to pull her sweater up and over her head before he kissed his way down her neck to nuzzle the tops of her breasts. “God, Charley. You’re so sexy. You have no idea what you do to me.”

  She arched into him, wishing she had the wherewithal to tell him to stop. This had to stop. Soon. Soon she would say it, but not quite yet. Not when he was easing the strap of her tank top down her arm to expose her breast. Her nipple tightened immediately, and she held her breath, waiting to see what he would do.

  Tyler cupped her breast and ran his thumb over her nipple, making her gasp from the sensations that rocketed through her. “Could I ask you something?”

  “Now?”

  “Right now.”

  “Um, okay . . .”

  “When was the last time you had a real, honest-to-goodness boyfriend?”

  She hadn’t been expecting that question and had no idea how to answer it. Did she tell him the truth or make something up?

  “Tell me, Charley.”

  Something about the open, honest way he looked at her made it impossible for her
to lie to him. “Never.”

  “Not once ever?”

  She bit her lip and shook her head.

  “How have you gotten to age thirty without having had a boyfriend?”

  “I’ve never wanted one before. Except for once, and there was nothing real or honest-to-goodness about that.”

  His brow lifted, which was when she realized she’d said too much. “What happened that one time?”

  “Nothing I want to talk about now or ever.”

  “Is that why there’s been no one else?”

  “Partially.”

  “What’s the other part?”

  “I’ve told you before. I’m not cut out for relationships and all the crap that goes with them.”

  “What crap?”

  “You know.” She tugged her tank top back up. If he was going to force her to have this conversation, she wasn’t going to do it with her breast hanging out. “The dance. The bullshit. The empty promises. I’m not interested in any of that.”

  “Someone hurt you, Charley.” There he went again, pretending to see inside her. “Who was he?”

  “Stop.” She shook her head. “We’re not going there.”

  “How can we move forward from here if I don’t know what I’m up against?”

  “I’ve told you I don’t want to move forward from here.” She cupped him intimately, making his eyes bug before he groaned. “Isn’t where we are good enough for you?”

  “Where we are is great for me, but it could be so much better if you’d just trust me when I tell you I’m for real here, Charley. I’m not out to hurt you. That’s the last thing in the world I’d ever want to do.” As he spoke, he caressed her face so tenderly and the way he looked at her, as if he’d give her anything if only she’d let him . . . Though he continued to throb in her hand, he drew back from her, forcing her hand to drop to her side. “Will you do something for me? Just one simple thing?”

  “Nothing with you is ever simple.”

  That drew a grin from him complete with small dimples she hadn’t noticed before now. Damn, they were cute and sexy, too.