Wrong Place, Right Time (Solitary Soldiers Book 1)

by A. T Brennan

  “Tyler?”

  He jumped at the sound of his name and saw that the entire table was looking at him.

  “You either saw a ghost or you had a stroke, dude. What are you staring at?” Derek, the youngest in the group asked.

  “Not a what, a who,” Stephen said with a grin. Stephen was the oldest of the group and was married with two kids at home. “Blonde or brunette?” he asked knowingly as he nodded to Kenzie and her group.

  “Blonde,” six of the guys chorused immediately.

  “Brunette,” another five of them said.

  “Both,” Derek said loudly and the others laughed.

  “I know the blonde,” Tyler said as he looked around the table. “And I’m pretty sure I fucked up any chance I had with her.”

  “Why don’t you go talk to her?” Stephen suggested. “You’re just going to keep staring at her, you know that.”

  “Yeah, I should.” He nodded and grabbed his beer and finished it off. “I’ll either be right back and buy the next round, or I’ll pick up two next week,” he added and the guys laughed as a few wished him luck.

  He took a deep breath and stood. Even as he was approaching her group, he was nervous. That was a first for him. He was never nervous when he approached women.

  Kenzie heard her name behind her and turned around. The person she saw standing behind her was the last person she ever expected to see.

  “Tyler?” She just stared at him.

  “Tyler?” Melissa asked as she looked between the two of them and then nodded in appreciation.

  “Hi.”

  “Hi,” she said softly and then looked at Melissa.

  “Do you have to go to the bathroom?” Melissa asked pointedly.

  They’d worked out a code where if one of them was uncomfortable they would ask the other to go to the bathroom with them. Melissa was giving her an out and a way to walk away without having to say anything to Tyler.

  Kenzie paused. As she looked at him she remembered every feeling she’d had for him, and it all came rushing back. It wasn’t just his looks that made her flush, it was the memories of how he’d made her feel. It took her a moment, but she realized it wasn’t just the memories of the emotions coming back to her, it was feelings themselves.

  His physical presence could make her breath catch, but it was him that made her pause.

  “No, I’m fine,” she said after a long pause.

  “Can we talk?” Tyler asked after another pause.

  “Yeah, sure.” She nodded and glanced at Melissa before looking back at him. “Come over to my place later on?” She wanted to talk to him but she wasn’t about to leave Melissa alone. They’d made a deal that they would never leave the other alone unless they both had safe ways home.

  “Go ahead.” Melissa shook her head. “I’ve got to go anyway.”

  “Are you sure.”

  “I’m sure.” She nodded and then looked at the three men they’d been talking to. All three were looking a little uncomfortable and very relieved at the opportunity to walk away.

  “We’ll get you a cab.” Kenzie looked over at Tyler. “My place?”

  “Sure.” He nodded.

  The three of them headed out of the bar, and after waving down a cab for Melissa and seeing her off, Kenzie turned to Tyler.

  “Do you want to walk?” she asked. “I don’t live far.”

  “Can you walk in heels?”

  “It’s close.” She smiled. “I’ll make it.”

  “Sure. That works.” He nodded and fell into step beside her.

  “I have to admit I never thought I would see you again,” she said after a long pause.

  “Same.” He nodded.

  “How have you been?” she asked, desperately trying to think of something to say. It wasn’t that she was being shy and tongue-tied, she was just having a hard time thinking of things to say because of everything that was hanging between them.

  “Good, really good.” He glanced at her. “I’m training to be a firefighter.”

  “Really? That’s awesome,” she said as she looked at him, a real smile lighting up her face. “How did that come about?”

  “I got fired from my security job, a week after I started up again. I was trying to figure out what to do with my life and I’d wanted to be a firefighter when I was a teenager. I thought why not?” He grinned. “I went to the firehouse and next thing I know I’m doing the tests. I’ve been in school for three months now.”

  “That’s great. I’m really happy you’ve found something that makes you happy,” she said honestly. “You look at peace. Like you’ve found a part of yourself again.”

  “That’s exactly how I feel.” He nodded. “I feel like myself again.”

  “I’m really happy for you.”

  “What about you? You look at peace too. You look like you found something you’d been missing.”

  “I did.” She nodded. “No real life changing events or epiphanies, I just decided to let go of who I was.” She grinned. “I told you about my real name—”

  “Serena Mackenzie.” He nodded, cutting her off.

  She just smiled, surprised he’d remembered. “She’s gone. When I came here I meant to start over but I just kept on being her with a different name. Now I’m me. I’m not scared of every little thing, and I don’t overthink or overanalyze things like I used to. I’m still a little shy and completely awkward, but why not own it and embrace it?” She grinned as she looked at him. “I’m comfortable with myself for the first time in ten years.”

  “It seems like we both went through a dark time and came out the other side,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m really happy for you, Kenzie. I’m really glad you’re able to be yourself and be happy.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You look beautiful,” he said as they turned a corner.

  “Thanks.” She blushed and smiled at him.

  “Are you seeing anyone?” he asked quietly.

  “No.” She shook her head. “You still with that blonde?”

  “Blonde?” He stopped in his tracks and stared at her. “What blonde?”

  “The one you were dating, when you didn’t call me,” she said as she kept on walking.

  “I wasn’t dating anyone…”

  “That blonde girl you were with. The one after I left your house,” she pressed as she kept walking.

  “Her? No. Wait, how did you know about her?” he asked as he caught up to her.

  “The message.”

  “Message?”

  Kenzie stopped and turned to him. “The message I got when I tried to call you.”

  “I’m trying to follow you, Kenzie, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  With a sigh she pulled out her phone and started to flip through her messages.

  “I called you but there was no answer. I sent you a text and this is what I got in return.” She handed him her phone. “Don’t ask me why I didn’t delete it or your contact info because I have no idea. I just couldn’t.”

  He stared at the messages for a long time.

  “Kenzie, I had no idea you called me, that you sent this message,” he said when he finally looked up at her. “I did meet her and I was at her place, but nothing happened between us. You must have called when I was in the bathroom. I never saw a call or a message.”

  “What?”

  “She must have sent this back to you and then deleted the message and the call from my log.” He handed her back the phone. “I never would have let her send this. I never would have left it at that.”

  She took her phone and slipped it back into her purse, stunned at the revelation.

  “You swear you’re not lying to me?” she asked as she started walking again. This was a lot to take in and she needed to walk, needed to move right now.

  “I swear to you. I’m an asshole sometimes, but I would never do this to you. I honestly never knew you tried to reach out to me.”

  “Wow.” She shook her head. “Almos
t four months of wondering about that solved in three questions.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said as he picked up his pace a bit to catch up to her. “I can’t imagine what that did to you.”

  “It destroyed me,” she said honestly. “I reached out to you, thinking we would either talk things out or you would ignore me, and it would be the beginning or the end, depending on what you were thinking. Then I get that message and I felt like you were mocking me. Like you cared so little about me and my feelings and it was a game to you.” She glanced over at him. “It was kind of the catalyst into my transformation,” she admitted. “So I guess in a way it was a good thing.”

  “Honestly that night was a big part of my transformation too,” he said, but rushed on as she gave him a look. “Not because of her or anything like that, but because I realized what I had become.”

  “What was that?”

  “Fake. I was being fake and I was around fake people. Nothing was real and nothing was true.”

  “You didn’t have sex with her?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “I flirted and did the dance. I kissed her, but that’s as far as it went. It was all fake too.”

  She gave him another look.

  “I mean it was all part of the game. We both said the right things, played the part and lied. It was the same routine I’d done a dozen times, but in that moment I realized it was empty and it was all just fake, and I couldn’t do it.” He shook his head. “I realized that I didn’t want to just move from girl to girl, and I didn’t want to play the games anymore. I wanted something real, something with substance, and that wasn’t it.”

  “Why didn’t you call me? You said you would and you didn’t.”

  “Honestly? I was messed up. I was in the middle of trying to figure out what I was doing and I didn’t feel like I fit in my own life, in my own head sometimes. I didn’t want to string you along. I didn’t want to be that asshole who would call you and then pull back. I wasn’t ready to be with someone, to fully be with someone, and you deserved better than whatever I could have offered you.”

  She glanced at him and bit her lip.

  “I knew you were better than that. I wasn’t in a place where I could give you what you deserved, and I respected you more than to try if I would just end up hurting you.”

  “And you don’t think that maybe you should have told me all of this, or some of this?” she asked. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to wonder? The imagination is a crazy thing, and another rejection from you really hurt me.”

  “I see that, now.” He shook his head. “I honestly thought just leaving you alone was best. I thought that if I called you, I would give in and I’d really end up hurting you.”

  “You hurt me by leaving me hanging.”

  “I know, and I’m sorry about that.”

  “I wasn’t really in the right place either,” she admitted.

  He just looked at her.

  “I was still ruled by my fears and my anxiety. I wasn’t in the right place to be with someone because I wasn’t even sure who I was.”

  “Did you want more?”

  “I thought I did. I felt something with you and I wanted to explore it.” She couldn’t tell him how much she’d felt. She couldn’t tell him that she’d fallen for him. “But again I wasn’t really me, and I was letting people take advantage of me.”

  He looked at her sharply and she shook her head. “I’m not suggesting that anything that happened between us wasn’t completely consensual, not at all,” she corrected. “I just mean that I didn’t want to be the girl you called when you were horny and then ignored when someone prettier came along, but I would have been if you’d wanted me to be. I would have let you string me along because I didn’t think I deserved more.”

  “You deserve the world, Kenzie,” he said as he looked at her. “You deserve everything I couldn’t give you.”

  “You deserve to be happy too, Tyler. You deserve to find peace and to find yourself again, to find your place in the world. You deserve to feel like you’re in charge of your own life.”

  “I do feel that way, for the first time in years.”

  “I’m glad.” She smiled at him. They were half a block away from her building.

  “I don’t know where to go from here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I hurt you, I know that. I don’t know what you want.”

  “And I don’t know what you want,” she pointed out. “Do you know what you want?”

  “Yes.” He nodded. “But I don’t know if it’s the right thing.”

  “What do you want, Tyler?” she asked as she looked over at him.

  “I want you,” he said simply.

  “And it might not be the right thing because?” she prompted.

  “Because you might not want me. Because I don’t know if I can make up for the pain I caused you, and I don’t know if I can be what you need.”

  She just looked at him and then reached out for his hand.

  “How about we focus on the present. Don’t make any empty promises. Just be in the moment and be honest with me. Let’s not think about the past, or even tomorrow.”

  “Just the present?” he asked as he gave her a sidelong look.

  “Just the present.” She nodded.

  “I can do that, and I promise to be truthful. I won’t say anything I don’t mean.”

  She smiled and gripped his hand a little tighter. “That’s all I ask, and that’s my building,” she added as she nodded to it.

  He looked up at it and then over at her.

  She gave him a coquettish grin and quickened her pace slightly. The moment she’d touched his hand she’d felt a pulse go through her. She craved his body, that was true, but she really wanted to experience him again. Her nights with him had been the best she’d ever had, and she wanted to feel him again.

  She led him into the building and down the hallway to her apartment. He waited as she unlocked the door and then pulled him inside.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Once they were inside the apartment she put her purse and her keys on the small antique table next to the door and looked at him.

  Tyler just looked down at her and pulled his phone, wallet and keys out of his pocket, and put them on the table with her purse.

  This time as she looked up at him she wasn’t nervous. She didn’t worry about all the parts of her that weren’t perfect, or doing or saying the right thing. Anticipation and desire coursed through her, and she felt confident and comfortable. When she rested her hands on his hips her grip was strong and steady. She wanted him so much she ached.

  He let his hands rest on the small of her back, pulling her pelvis so it was against his hard body as he looked into her eyes.

  “I haven’t been with anyone else,” he said quietly as he held her close. “Not since you.”

  She looked up at him and nodded slowly. “There’s been no one since you either.”

  She knew she was setting herself up to be hurt again. He was only giving her this one night and that might be it, but she didn’t care. She wanted him, just him, and she trusted him. Even after everything he’d done she knew he wouldn’t lie about this. He wouldn’t put her at risk and she wanted that extra intimacy with him. If this was going to be their last time together she didn’t want there to be any barriers between them.

  He nodded slowly, his gaze moving between her lips and her eyes, and she swallowed in anticipation.

  Tyler certainly knew how to use his body and his eyes when it came to seduction, and she shivered as he looked at her so tenderly, but with so much heat in his gaze at the same time. He could make her feel beautiful and like he wanted nothing more than to have her. It was a very nice feeling.

  He moved his hands up her back and slowly pulled her sweater off her shoulders and slid it down her arms. He let it fall to the floor before putting his hands on her back, gently pulling her flush against him.

  “Tyler,” she moaned as he pre
ssed his body against hers, and she could feel him hard and ready against her stomach. She gripped his hips and tried to keep her breathing even.

  “I want you, Kenzie,” he said softly, his voice husky as he looked down at her, tipping his face so it was angled toward hers but letting his lips hover an inch from hers. “Do you want me?”

  “I want you,” she breathed as she stared at him. Her entire body was tight and a flush moved over her skin. He hadn’t done more than put his body against hers and pull off her sweater and she was putty in his hands.

  She felt as though she was melting as he teased her. His eyes locked on hers, his body pressed right against her and his lips were so close she could feel the heat coming off them, but were just far enough she couldn’t kiss him without moving. His hands skimmed her body over her clothes and his leg gently rubbed against hers. Everything was pretty innocent in pieces, but put together it was almost more than she could handle.

  “Kenzie,” he breathed as he finally bent his head that half inch further and gently pressed his lips against hers.

  She gasped as he immediately deepened the kiss, sweeping his tongue into her mouth as he wrapped his arms around her. He wasn’t being rough with her, but he was showing her his strength and desire, and she moaned against his kiss as she kicked her shoes off. She didn’t want to ruin the moment by turning her ankle.

  His kisses were long, deep and sensual. It was as though he was getting as lost in her as she was in him. Even after all the months that had passed, how he’d ended things and the way he’d hurt her, she was still in love with him. She felt it as he kissed her, as he held her, and she gave in to it. He might never love her in return but she loved him, and she wanted to experience it. She wanted to explore it and feel it.

  He groaned as he pulled her even closer. His need was so apparent, but he was still being gentle with her.

  She just held onto him as she kissed him back. Tyler was a really, really good kisser. Every fiber of his being was exuding sensuality and desire, and she could only whimper against him as she gave herself over to the moment, and to him.

  She loved that he was taking his time with her. How he was putting in the effort to seduce her, and show her how much he wanted her, but she wanted more of him. She needed more, and even as she was about to shift her body against his to show him, he grabbed her around the waist and picked her right up off the ground.