by Marie Force
“I may keep you around then.”
“The Beatles and Nirvana. There’s an interesting combo.”
“I’m an interesting kind of guy.”
“If my dad didn’t already love you, he would after hearing you love the Beatles. That’s all it takes to win him over.”
“That’s good info to have. Might come in handy someday if I want to kiss up to him.”
“Why would you want to do that?”
He glanced over at her, seeming to gauge whether he should say what was on his mind. “You know. In case . . .”
“Of what?”
“If I maybe want to marry his daughter, it would be nice if I asked his permission.”
Hearing him use the M word hit her like a punch to the heart.
“Should I not have said that?”
“It’s okay.”
“If it’s okay, why is your voice all high and screechy?”
“My voice is not screechy.”
“You aren’t hyperventilating, are you?”
Charley laughed at the genuine concern in his tone. “No, Tyler, I’m not hyperventilating at the thought of marrying you.”
“Really? You’re not?”
“You sound disappointed.”
“I’m . . . I’m not sure what I am. This is a good thing, right? That you’re not hyperventilating?”
“I’ve heard hyperventilation isn’t good for one’s health, so yes, it’s a good thing that I’m not hyperventilating.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
“You’re sounding a bit screechy.”
“Charley! Stop torturing me and quit talking in circles. I’m getting dizzy.”
“What was the question again?”
“I haven’t asked you the question, but if I did, what would you say?”
“You want like an answer now?”
“A gist would be good. Are we in the maybe zone or the hell-no zone?”
“Definitely maybe.”
“Definitely maybe,” he said, grinning widely. “Those might be my new favorite words.”
“You’re easy to please, Tyler.”
“Not always, but you please me, Charlotte. You please me very much.”
—
They got to Boston in plenty of time to attend a matinee of Beautiful, the Carole King musical, which Charley absolutely loved. After the show, they checked into an elegant suite at the Ritz-Carlton, and Charley was appropriately dazzled. At the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the Boston Common, Charley took in the view of the park and the city and the water in the distance.
Tyler slid his arms around her from behind. “Good?”
“Fantastic.”
“I’m glad you like it.” He kissed her neck and the hot spot behind her ear that made her go weak. “I was thinking about seeing if the bed lives up to the hype before our dinner reservations. Unless you want to go shopping or something.”
Smiling at his shameless flirting, she turned in his arms and hooked hers around his neck. “We really ought to make sure the bed is comfortable before we’re stuck with it for the night.”
“It would be the responsible thing to do.” He slid his hands down her arms to link their fingers, walking backward as he led her into the bedroom. The blinds had been lowered but not completely drawn and candles flickered on the bedside table.
“I’ve been set up,” she said.
“Guilty as charged.”
“I like being set up by you.”
He put his arms around her and hugged her in close to him. “Sometimes I still can’t believe you’re saying stuff like that to me. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted you.”
“How long?”
“I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want you. You were so untouchable though.” As he spoke, he continued to kiss her neck and his hands moved restlessly over her body, setting her on fire. “So aloof and out of reach.”
“I wasn’t.”
“Yes, you were. You weren’t ready for this. I get that now.”
“You intimidated me with your intensity. Pushing you away was easier than letting you in.”
He gathered up the skirt of the dress she’d worn for their trip to the big city and had it up and over her head in a matter of seconds, leaving her wearing the red-and-black lace bra and panties set he’d given her for Christmas.
Watching the bob of his Adam’s apple and the flare of heat in his eyes as he took in the sight of her was madly arousing. And knowing he loved her made it possible for her to give herself to him completely, letting him sweep her under into the sea of emotion and desire he aroused in her.
He guided her to sit on the bed and then began unbuttoning the dress shirt he’d worn untucked with dark jeans. As he revealed his body to her, it was Charley’s turn to stare at the play of muscles, the trail of dark hair that led into black boxer briefs, the thick bands of muscle that curved around his hips and the hard cock that sprung free when he removed the briefs.
She reached for him, but he stopped her from stroking him.
“Not yet,” he said. “First you.” With his hands on her hips, he tugged her gently to the edge of the mattress, supported her healing leg on a stack of pillows and then dropped to his knees beside the bed.
Charley’s heartbeat was a wild, untamed thing as he removed her panties and used his big hands on her inner thighs to open her to his gaze. For the longest time, he only looked while she incinerated from the anticipation that grew and multiplied until her breathing became choppy and uneven. She was on the verge of begging him to do something when he dropped his head and exhaled against her sensitive flesh.
Was she really going to come from only his warm breath against her tingling clit?
“You’re so beautiful, Charley. You have no idea what you do to me, or what it feels like to finally be able to touch you this way and to tell you how much I love you.” Using his thumbs to hold her open, he punctuated his words with deep strokes of his tongue over her, into her.
She grasped the soft fabric of the comforter, holding on for dear life as he took her up so fast she barely had time to register what was happening before she detonated. That was the only word she could think of to describe the full-body orgasm that ripped through her.
He brought her down slowly, with light strokes of his tongue over her quivering flesh.
Charley had only begun to regain control of her senses when he pushed two fingers into her, rolling one orgasm into another as he sucked on her clit and stroked her from the inside. Before him, she’d suspected sex like this only happened in movies and romance novels. It didn’t happen to real people. It had certainly never happened to her.
His fingers were slick with her wetness when he slid one of them into her anus, with no advance warning, no fanfare, nothing more than the casual press of flesh against flesh until she was crying out from the dark, shocking pleasure that blasted through her like an out-of-control skier careening downhill at full speed.
Charley had never felt anything that could compare with that third orgasm as she bucked against his tongue and contended with the tight squeeze of his finger in a place where nothing had ever been before. By the time he brought her back down to earth and withdrew from her body, she was a trembling, needy mess of raw nerves and emotions that were all new to her.
He kissed her tenderly. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
As if she could move when her muscles and bones had gone liquid. She heard the water running in the bathroom, and then he was back, hovering over her with his huge cock stretching above his navel.
“You okay?” he asked, his brows knitted with concern as he looked down on her.
She could only imagine how she must look after being thoroughly ravished—and apparently he wasn’t done with her yet. “Mmm. Think so.”
<
br /> “Think so? You’re not sure?”
“I don’t think I could move if the place were on fire, but otherwise, I’m good. I’m great in fact. Do you mind if I sleep for the next eight to twelve hours?”
His smile unfolded slowly, making his eyes sparkle. “No way. I’ve got lots of plans for you, and I need you wide awake.”
“That thing you did . . .”
“This?” He reached beneath her to press again on her back door, setting off a riot of sensation that she felt everywhere. “You liked it?”
“You couldn’t tell from the nuclear orgasm?”
Chuckling, he nuzzled her cheek and continued to press rhythmically against her tight opening without breaching her.
Charley couldn’t believe that she was about to beg him to do it again.
But he had other plans, she realized, when that imposing cock pushed against her tender flesh, entering and withdrawing repeatedly.
“Tyler! Stop teasing me.”
“Is that what I’m doing?”
“You know it is.”
His cocky grin told her he knew exactly what he was doing to her and was enjoying every second of it, the sadistic bastard.
“Tyler . . . Please.”
“Is this what you want?” he asked, thrusting into her before withdrawing once again.
“Yes,” she said on a gasp as her internal muscles stretched to accommodate him and then contracted after his abrupt departure.
“How about you give me something I want first?” Reaching behind her, he released the clasp of her bra and was tossing it across the room a second later. Lowering his head, he caressed her left nipple with his tongue before moving to the other side for more of the same. The sensations traveled from her nipple to her clit, making her burn with desire even after coming three times.
“What? What do you want?” At that moment, she’d give him just about anything if it meant relief from the sweet torture.
Propped on his elbows, he gazed down at her, his fingers sweeping the hair back from her face. “I love you, Charley. I really and truly love you. I want to know if you love me, too. I want to know if I’m going to have forever with you. I want you to tell me you’re here with me to stay, that you’re not thinking anymore about how best to leave me when it’s so fucking good between us. You have to feel it, too. You—”
She raised her fingers to his lips to quiet him. “I do feel it, and I do love you, too, Tyler.”
When the time was right and the person was right and the pieces had come together to form a picture you’d never imagined for yourself, it wasn’t all that hard to say the words, Charley discovered. And the deep sigh that escaped from him as he closed his eyes and rested his forehead on hers told her everything she’d ever need to know about how invested he was in her.
“I’m sorry if I put you through the wringer to get here.”
“You, this . . . It was worth everything you put me through and then some.” Taking himself in hand, he entered her slowly, reverently, taking his time probably because she’d told him they’d have the time—all the time in the world. “Tell me again. I need to hear it again.”
“I love you, Tyler. I love everything about you.”
“Fuck, Charley . . . You’re killing me.”
Amused by his reaction, she tightened her muscles around him, drawing a low groan from him before he began to move faster, pounding into her as he gripped her ass cheeks in his big hands, giving her everything he had to give and more than she’d ever dreamed possible.
They came together, straining, sweating, gasping, fingers digging into dense muscle and cries of completion shattering the quiet.
“Charley,” he whispered after he’d collapsed on top of her. “God, Charley . . .”
She stroked his back in small circles with one hand, while running the fingers of her other hand through his hair soothingly.
“Say it again. I’m still not sure if I dreamed it.”
Smiling, she said, “I love you, Tyler. I love you, I love you, I love you. And you’re not dreaming.”
“I have to be.” Cupping her breast, he touched his tongue to the tight tip and began to harden inside her once again. “Nothing this astonishing could possibly be real.”
“It’s real.”
“And you’re not going to leave me at midnight on the thirty-first?”
“I’m not going to leave you for as long as you still want me—masochist stalker perv that you are.”
“I’m always going to want you.”
“Then I guess you’re stuck with me.”
He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed so tight she could barely breathe. “Thank Christ for that.”
—
They dined at a fabulous Italian restaurant in the North End and drank a full bottle of champagne over dinner. Tyler was euphoric after the afternoon in bed with her, during which so many questions had finally been answered. She loved him. She had no plans to leave him. He was stuck with her, and that was all he’d wanted to hear.
As he fed her a bite of chocolate mousse after dinner, he watched her face, memorizing the happy glow, the flushed cheeks, the swollen lips. He couldn’t wait to get her back to the hotel to pick up where they’d left off before dinner.
“Could I ask you something?” he said between bites of decadent mousse.
“Uh-huh.”
“Did I blackmail you into saying something you weren’t ready to say earlier?”
“Not at all. I was ready. In fact, I was planning to tell you sometime during our trip, so thanks for making it easy on me.”
“When did you know?”
She eyed him coyly, smiling in that secretive way she reserved only for him. “Like you want the exact minute?”
The best sex of his life had already turned his blood to liquid fire, but Tyler topped off their glasses with the last of the champagne anyway. Tonight was for celebration. “The exact minute would be good.”
Charley appeared to give his request considerable thought while he fed her more bites of mousse. “If I’m being honest . . .”
“I wouldn’t want you any other way.”
“The first day at your house, when you helped me in the bathroom and were a perfect gentleman. I think it might’ve happened then.”
Tyler stared at her, agape. “That long ago?”
“That was the first time I felt something happen here,” she said, rubbing her breastbone for emphasis. “It took a lot longer for me to accept it for what it was.”
“And what was it?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’ve already gotten me to say it like a hundred times.”
“I still won’t be satisfied when you’ve said it a million times.”
“It was love, you knucklehead. For such a smart guy, you sure can be dense sometimes.”
Tyler laughed at the comment and fed her more of the mousse.
“It’ll take a really long time to say it a million times, you know. Years.”
“Decades,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere, and you’re not either, so feel free to get started on that million any time now.”
She crooked her finger, drawing him close enough for her to whisper in his ear. “I love you, Tyler.”
The words, the heat of her breath skirting over his ear . . . That was all it took to make him hard. While Charley giggled at his befuddled reaction, he signaled for the waiter. “Check please.”
—
He was all over her in the cab back to the hotel, his hand inside her coat and flat against her inner thigh, creeping up, up, up, until she stopped him from going any further.
“Not here,” she said against his wet lips.
Despite the anxious glances from the cabdriver in the mirror that she noticed out of the corner of her eye, Tyler never stopped kissing her, touching her,
arousing her.
“We’re here,” the cabbie said with annoyance when he’d brought the car to a stop outside the Ritz.
Tyler pulled himself away from her to take a fifty from his wallet. “Keep the change.”
“Hey, thanks, man.”
Tyler got out and then helped her, holding her until she got her bearings.
“The last thing I want is for you to reinjure yourself while tipsy from champagne,” he said into her ear, making her squirm against him shamelessly. His black overcoat was unbuttoned, giving her an unfettered view of his smoking hotness in the dark gray suit and creamy white dress shirt that he’d worn without a tie.
“I’m not going to fall. Don’t worry.”
Taking her hand, he led her into the hotel.
“I have to pee,” she whispered—or what she considered a whisper.
“We’ll be upstairs in a minute.”
“Can’t wait that long.” A bellhop pointed her toward the lobby restroom, and she left Tyler with her coat at one of the sofas, kissing him before she walked—or hobbled—toward the long corridor that led to the restrooms. She was approaching the ladies’ room when a man came out of the men’s room and nearly crashed into her.
“So sorry,” he said, taking her elbow to keep her from falling over.
The voice was familiar so Charley looked up at his face and gasped at the sight of Michael Devlin—older, heavier, balder, but definitely him. She recoiled from his touch, her skin seeming to shrivel on her bones.
“Charley? Charley Abbott? Is that really you?”
“No.” She felt like a wounded, trapped animal as she tried to send the message to her legs to get her out of there, away from him. “No.” Walking backward, afraid to take her eyes off him, she stumbled, wrenching her surgically repaired knee. The pain was massive and required her full attention as she stumbled into the ladies’ room, praying he wouldn’t follow her.
“Charley, wait! It’s been too long. I can’t believe it’s you. What’re the odds?”
What were the odds indeed? Someone up there must surely hate her to put him, of all people, in her path on this of all days.
He actually followed her into the bathroom.
“Go away,” she growled, “or I swear to God I’ll have you arrested.” Where her ability to form words was coming from, she couldn’t begin to imagine. All she knew was that she had to get away from him and the threat he posed to her physical and emotional well-being. She lunged for a stall and fumbled with the lock, her sweaty hands slipping over the cool metal twice before she was able to secure it. With tiny beads of light dancing before her eyes, Charley realized she’d been holding her breath. She took deep greedy gulps of air as tears flowed down her cheeks.
