by T. K. Leigh
Wrapping my arms around him and squeezing him as tightly as I could, I murmured, “I think you already have.”
~~~~~~~~~~
THE REST OF THE day was a complete blur as I haphazardly packed, arranged for Jenna to take care of Meatball, and fled the island for Boston. We sat in silence for most of the flight in Tyler’s company jet, the cell phone Charlie gave me burning in my hand.
“Why did you tell me to bring this with me?” I asked, sitting in a luxurious leather chair across from Tyler, a mahogany table between us.
He peered over the Sunday edition of The New York Times and placed it in front of him. “It’s our only link to him, Mackenzie. If he calls, we’ll be able to run a trace on wherever he’s calling from to find his location.”
“But what if he doesn’t call? He’s brilliant. He can always see four steps ahead of you.”
“There are other ways of trying to find him, if it comes to that. He put a GPS tracker on that phone for a reason…to keep tabs on you. We could use that to our advantage.”
I stared out the window, the sky a beautiful pink color as we began our descent. “I don’t want to lose you.” I felt my stomach clench at the thought, nausea settling in once more.
He grabbed my hand and held it, staring down at it before returning his gaze to me. “And you’re not going to. I promise. It took me years to finally find my lightning strike. I’m not going to let you disappear in the night sky, never to be seen again.”
It was dark when we landed. My eyes were glued to the window as Eli maneuvered the car from the airport, through a tunnel, and emerged into the city of Boston. It was thrilling to be driving through these narrow streets that had been built over a hundred years ago. Everything was so small and compact with more one-way streets than I thought possible. But Eli drove through the confusing streets as if he could do it blindfolded, and I was sure he could.
“Who lives here?” I asked as we pulled up in front of a brick building in an area of Boston that Tyler said was called Beacon Hill. He helped me out of the black SUV and I craned my neck, staring at the three-story house. The entire block consisted of similar homes, some with a dark exterior, some with a lighter one, all of them attached to each other. They all looked like I imagined they would…a part of history.
“I do,” he said, grabbing my hand and leading me up a short flight of stairs. He entered a code into a numbered keypad and the door buzzed as it unlocked. Rushing to a panel inside the darkened foyer, he punched in another code, disarming his security system. I hesitantly stepped inside, Griffin darting past me as fast as his little paws could carry him, obviously happy to be back home.
“I thought you lived in South Padre?” I asked, trying to mask the hurt in my voice. I glanced around my lavish surroundings. It was a completely different vibe than his house in Texas. It was lived in, photos and important tokens in nearly every room. The sinking feeling in my stomach was growing stronger. This was his home.
A chill ran through me at the realization and I rubbed my arms, trying to warm myself. I stood locked in place as Tyler took a few steps through the foyer and past an extravagant winding staircase.
“That was just supposed to be to open the club,” he said. “This is where I lived after leaving the navy and I…” He turned around when he couldn’t sense me following him. “Mackenzie, what’s wrong?” he asked, walking toward me.
“So, this is your home,” I said, looking down at the hardwood floors, avoiding his eyes. My stomach was tense and I would have given anything to disappear, to rewind the clock and stand my ground when Tyler insisted I leave the island. I should have fought him harder. It was not the best time for me to disappear, especially with the restaurant only being open for a week. I felt guilty leaving Jenna alone to run things, but she assured both of us she could handle it. Now, I wished I wasn’t so quick to abandon her to spend time with the man I suddenly realized I hardly knew.
“It is now,” he said, grabbing my hand in his. He brushed his fingers along my knuckles, that familiar spark coursing through me. I should have known it was all too good to be true. Did I really expect Tyler to leave his real home, his family, and his life to live in Spring Break central and run a bar? He said it himself. He was owner on paper of a lot of things, and I’m sure when he got bored, he’d move on to something better. Maybe something younger.
Feeling flustered, I pulled away from him, trying to busy myself with my bags. “I get it. I’m just a waypoint. You never intended to stay in South Padre long term, did you?”
“Mackenzie…” He reached out, but I avoided his touch.
“It’s okay, Tyler. You could have told me you were just looking for a little fun before you wanted to come back home. You didn’t have to lead me on with your whole act.”
I stalked past the staircase, my eyes growing wide when I stumbled on a formal sitting room, a pristine dark sofa and Queen Ann chair against the wall, a large grand piano in the middle of the room. My jaw dropped at the largess of it all and I needed something to settle my thoughts. A wet bar sat in the far corner and I headed toward it, pulling the cap off a crystal bottle containing some liquor. I didn’t even smell it to see what it was. I didn’t care. I just needed something.
“Mackenzie…,” he said, his voice echoing through the room.
“It’s okay. I’m okay. I’ll be okay. This was just supposed to be a one-night thing anyway. I can go back to that. I mean, I like having sex with you, so if that’s all you−”
“Serafina!” he bellowed, startling me. My spine straightened and I slowly turned around to face him. Exasperation was plastered on his face before it settled into a softer, more impassioned look. He took carefully measured steps toward me and I swallowed hard at the intensity in his eyes.
“I said this is my home now,” he crooned. “And that’s because you’re here with me.” He grabbed my hand in his and held it over his chest. “Do you feel that?” he asked. His gaze was even, serene, composed, completely at odds with the hammering I felt against his chest. I was mesmerized, lost in the moment as our eyes were locked on each other, my hand glued to his heart as if I, alone, made it beat.
“Yes, I feel that,” I whispered.
“Mackenzie…” He cupped my cheek, and I basked in the warmth. “Something about being near you makes my heart race faster than it has in years. And I want this feeling to last for as long as possible, preferably forever. It took meeting you to make me realize I was lost. I have been numb for years. I always held out the smallest glimmer of hope someone would come along to make me feel again, just like you did. So, yes, this is my home. Just like South Padre is my home. I’m home as long as I have you. Alaska could be my home. Antarctica, Idaho, a corn field in Nebraska… Fuck. I don’t care where, as long as you’re with me. You’re my home.”
Overwhelmed with love for my beautiful, broken mystery man, I flung my arms around his neck and he pulled me against him, picking me up and cradling me in his arms with ease.
“You’re my home, too,” I murmured against his chest.
“Hold on tight, princess. Time to break this place in.” He winked at me, a mischievous grin on his face. He carried me out of the formal living room and climbed the staircase.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked, laughing as I got a brief glimpse of the second floor before the staircase turned and he continued up.
“To your palace in the sky.” He stepped onto the landing of the third floor, opening the door in front of us. He gingerly helped me to my feet, ensuring I had my footing before releasing his hold. He snapped the light on, a soft glow from the recessed lighting filtering into the room.
Despite the building being over a hundred years old, Tyler’s master bedroom was exceedingly modern. A lush, oversized bed sat in the middle, directly across from the fireplace. A set of bay windows adorned the far wall, and there were a few chairs set up, making a little reading nook. The room was well-appointed, photos of family and loved ones placed on the nightstand a
nd hanging on the wall. My eyes caught a frame on the mantle, and I went to it, picking it up.
Tyler followed, rubbing his hands down my arms as I soaked in the photo. There was a younger and not as well-built version of Tyler standing beneath Chinese lanterns, obviously at an outdoor celebration of sorts. He had a youth about him and I didn’t think he could have been any older than twenty-one or twenty-two. He was smiling. It was a breathtaking smile, his green eyes shimmering. And in his arms was a short, petite blonde, a look of absolute elation on her face.
“Truth or dare?” I asked, staring at the photo.
“Yes, it is,” he said, answering the question he knew I would ask.
“How did she…?” I spun around and tears formed in my eyes, feeling Tyler’s sorrow, his pain, his unbearable loss. I had never experienced pain like he did. I lost my mother and thought I had lost my father, but that was different. They were my parents, not someone with whom I had hoped to spend the rest of my life. Yes, I closed up after everything I had gone through with Charlie, but I didn’t lose him. He was still breathing, still existing, albeit in a completely different sphere than me. What hurt was that he had lied to me, that he convinced me he was one person when he was really just another. But Tyler… He had loved and had that love painfully ripped away. She was so young, so vibrant, so beautiful, and I ached for him. I didn’t know the story, but I wanted to.
“She was murdered.”
I gasped, my jaw dropping at those words. I didn’t know what I thought happened, but I certainly didn’t expect that. Maybe she got sick. Maybe it was an accident. But to know someone intentionally took this poor girl’s life and Tyler had to live with that knowledge, wondering if he could have done something to stop or prevent it, tore me apart.
I met his eyes, expecting to see heartache covering him, but I didn’t. Instead, there was a nostalgic look, his lips turned up in the corner as he admired me.
“What happened?” I asked.
“She was used as a means to an end. There were so many secrets, so much fucked up shit I still have trouble wrapping my head around, and she was the unfortunate victim of months of deceit and hypocrisy.”
He was talking in such vagueness that I didn’t know whether to press for details. I didn’t know whether I wanted to hear the details. He was my mystery man and I thought some things about him were best left untold.
“Tyler, I’m…”
A satisfied smile formed on his lips and I didn’t know what to make of his demeanor. “Mackenzie, it doesn’t matter anymore. I surrounded myself in guilt for what happened to Melanie. I wanted to feel that guilt. I needed that guilt, but I’m letting go of it. Everything happens for a reason. I am absolutely certain of that. If anything was different in my life, one thing at all, I never would have met you. So if Melanie losing her life was one of the dominoes that needed to fall in order for me to cross paths with you, I am so fucking grateful for her sacrifice.”
He splayed his hand on my lower back and folded my body into his. “Because this, Mackenzie Delano…” He kissed my cheek, pulling back and gazing at me momentarily before kissing the other cheek. “Serafina Galloway… This is love. I’ve imagined this exact feeling in my head. I thought I’d been here before, but I was wrong. I was so fucking wrong.”
He crushed his lips to mine, and I lost myself. In that kiss, I felt Tyler… The real Tyler. I felt the confused young man who had lost the woman he loved, the tragic and broken young man who felt empty and alone. And I felt the navy lieutenant who craved the order and discipline of military life to deal with the guilt. Most importantly, I felt the Tyler who was ready to lay everything on the line to convince me he was worthy of my love, that he had finally found his place in the world, and that was at my side.
“I’m yours,” I breathed, giving him the reassurance I sensed he needed.
“Mine,” he whispered, the carnal tone of his voice at odds with the delicate and reverent way his lips moved against mine and his fingers caressed my back.
“Yes. Yours.”
He slowly pushed me across the room, our lips never breaking apart for too long. It was a flurry of clothes and fabric as we undressed ourselves and each other. He lowered me to his bed and buried himself deep inside me, our eyes locked the entire time as he gave me his love, and I gave him mine.
Tyler
JUST AS THE SUN began to rise, I got out of bed and went for a run. I would have liked to say I woke up at that time, but it would have been a lie. To wake up, one needs to sleep, and I didn’t. Not one wink. I had reached the point of exhaustion, so much so that I was wide awake.
A slight fog coated the city that I loved early in the morning on Monday as I ran through the streets I had missed the past few months. People were out walking their dogs. Restaurants were receiving their deliveries. Commuters were emerging from beneath the sidewalk, hastily rushing toward their destination.
Turning off the street toward the riverbank of the Charles, I opened my stride, pushing my pace a little as I tried to make sense of everything. Was Mackenzie’s father the monster Charlie, and everyone else, thought he was, or was he an innocent victim? And what about those burns? With each passing minute, my gut instinct that there was something we weren’t being told grew stronger. I needed to know the whole story, and I had a feeling the only person who could tell it was the man I was tasked with finding…Colonel Francis Mackenzie Galloway.
I slowed to a stop as I approached a large boathouse on the river, my hair standing on end, and gazed at the building where Melanie breathed her last. I had run this exact route hundreds of times after I lost her, always breaking down when I had gotten to this point. I had always felt alone, empty, barren. But I didn’t anymore. The stabbing pain in my heart was nowhere to be found. Instead, I felt light, as if a weight had been lifted from my chest. The remorse had been weighing me down and it took Mackenzie to make me realize I didn’t deserve the life I had relegated myself to living. I deserved to live. Melanie would have wanted me to live.
Finally feeling at peace with the demons that had haunted me since I lost her, I turned around and headed back to my house. I ran up the front steps and entered the code, unlocking the front door. The house was as still as it was when I left. The wood floors creaked under my feet as I headed toward the staircase, dashing up two flights of stairs to the third floor. Pushing open the door to the large master bedroom, my eyes fell on Mackenzie’s beautiful resting form, her eyes blinking open when she heard the hinges creak.
“There you are,” she said sleepily. “I’m getting tired of waking up alone, Tyler.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, going to her and sitting on the edge of the bed, brushing her hair behind her face.
“Exactly what I said. Last night was the fifth night we’ve slept in the same bed. And this morning is the fifth morning I’ve woken up and you weren’t next to me. You’re starting to give me a complex. Is my morning breath really that bad?” She furrowed her brow, the mixture of her sleepiness and the pout on her face warming me with affection.
I leaned down, not caring that I was sweaty and flushed from my run, and briefly met her lips, the gesture simple but speaking volumes. She sighed, closing her eyes, and I would do anything to capture that look on her face.
“I love you, Mackenzie. Morning breath and all.”
“All I want is to wake up one morning wrapped in your arms,” she whispered.
I pulled away, admiring her, Griffin snoring at the foot of the bed. “You will. I promise.”
“Good. Now go shower.” She scrunched her nose. “You’re all sweaty and gross.”
I laughed, raising myself off the bed, and ripped my shirt over my head, sliding my sneakers off my feet. “I thought you liked it when I got all sweaty.”
She opened her mouth, her eyes growing wide. Her cheeks flushed and I loved how this woman I knew so intimately still grew speechless around me at times. I hoped I always had that effect on her.
“I do,” she admitt
ed, her voice sultry as she scanned my body from head to toe, an inferno burning in her eyes. “But I like to be the reason you’re all hot and sweaty, not because you went for a run.”
“Do you want to make me all hot and sweaty?” I asked, stroking her arm as she lay in my bed. Her lips parted, her eyes shining as they bore into mine.
They say that eyes are the gateway to the soul and, at that moment, I was certain she could see into mine. I was no longer pretending to be someone I wasn’t to get close to her. I was finally letting her see me. The real me. The me I wanted her to know. The me I wanted her to love.
“Always,” she said, her lips slowly turning up in the corners.
“Come.” I held my hand out to her and, without hesitation, she grabbed it, raising herself from the bed, the thin sheet falling and revealing her naked flesh. I pulled her toward the en-suite bathroom, the air thick with lust.
A dull ache settled on my skin, desperate to bury myself deep inside her, wanting her touch on every inch of me. Every second that passed, I craved more. More of her sharp tongue. More of her scintillating body. More of just her. Being with her was a high unlike any other. Each time was more intense, more fulfilling, more sublime than anything I could have imagined. We were chasing the dragon together, both of us taking as much as we could from the other so we never had to come down from that all-consuming, earth-shattering, mind-altering high our love gave us.
I strode toward the large shower and turned on the water, allowing steam to build in the room.
“How do you like it?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder at her as she stood behind me.
“Hot,” she exhaled, approaching me. She ran her tongue across my shoulder blades, nipping lightly.
My nerves tingled, a current running through me, setting me on fire.
“Scorching hot,” she murmured.
