Careless

by Cheryl Douglas

  Tori was so caught up in her tirade that she didn’t even see the crowd of reporters moving in on her. Questions were soon coming at her from all directions.

  “How long has someone been stalking you, Tori?”

  “Do the police have any suspects?”

  “The man you’re in love with, is that the police lieutenant you were with earlier?”

  “Are you engaged, Tori?”

  “Will this affect the upcoming tour?”

  “Will you have to cancel any dates?”

  “Have you set a wedding date?”

  “Will there be heightened security at the venues?”

  “Will your fiancé be with you on the tour?”

  Avery rolled her eyes and muttered, “You see what you started.”

  “I’m sorry, I—”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll handle this.” Avery beckoned her husband over. “Can you walk her out and make sure she has a safe ride home?”

  “You got it, darlin’.”

  Avery bared her teeth when she looked at Tori. “And remember, whatever they ask… no-freakin’-comment. Think you can handle that?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Tori lowered her head, embarrassed she’d turned Luc’s elegant party into a three-ring circus. “I’m sorry about this,” she whispered to Ty when he put his arm around her and pushed aside the microphones and cameras being thrust in her face.

  “You’ve got nothin’ to apologize for, Tori. You’ve been to hell and back these past few months. To tell ya the truth, I’m surprised it took this long for you to snap. You need a lift home?”

  “No, Jay’s gonna take me to—”

  Ty pressed his finger to her lip to silence you. “You’re gonna have the hounds of hell on your trail if you’re not careful.”

  Jay made his way toward him. “What the hell’s goin’ on?”

  “Are you the fiancé’s brother?” one reporter asked Jay before thrusting a microphone in his face.

  He pushed it aside. “No comment.”

  Tori had never been so humiliated in her life. Now she would have to release a statement admitting there had never been an engagement. Not only had she embarrassed herself, but she’d dragged Mike into her mess. If he wasn’t angry before, he would be now.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Mike was sitting up watching a Law & Order rerun when a soft tap on the door drew his attention. He muted the set and muttered a curse. He didn’t want to see or talk to anyone right now. He just wanted to lick his wounds in private. Tori had made it perfectly clear she didn’t think he was good enough to take the place of the wealthy actors and athletes who typically decorated her arm. He was just a regular guy… who would never be enough to satisfy a woman like her.

  He opened the door and, as soon as he saw it was her, tried to close it again. But she stuck a designer stiletto in the crack, blocking his movement.

  “I love you.”

  It took a minute for the words to register before he finally eased the door open. “What did you say?”

  “I love you so much,” she whispered. “I have for a long time. I was just afraid to admit it.”

  He took a moment to revel in those words before reaching for her hand to pull her inside.

  “I’m so sorry about tonight,” she said, reaching up to pull his head down to hers. She kissed him before pulling back to look him in the eye. “You’re gonna hate me when you find out what I’ve done.”

  His first thought was of her date. “If you let him touch you—”

  “No, it’s nothin’ like that.” She drew back and held his hands in hers. “I came down pretty hard on Avery at the party. I told her how I felt about you and from here on in I’d be the one decidin’ how to live my life.”

  Mike held her close as he lifted her off the ground. She’d been brave enough to declare her feelings for him publicly, even after he’d walked out on her. “I’m sorry I walked out on you.”

  “No,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. “It’s not your fault. This is all on me.” She sighed when he set her down. “I hope you won’t hate me, but...”

  He framed her face with his hands. “Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is you and me and what we have.”

  Tori winced. “The press thinks we’re…” She bit her lip as though she could barely stand to say the word. “Engaged.”

  Mike couldn’t contain his laughter, not even in the face of her obvious discomfort. “And you thought I’d be mad?”

  “You’re not?”

  “Honey, by tomorrow mornin’, everyone’s gonna think I’m the luckiest bastard on the planet… bein’ engaged to you.”

  “I didn’t tell them we were, I swear.” She flattened her hands against his chest. “I just said I was in love with you, and of course, they took that and ran with it.” She closed her eyes. “I’ll release a statement in the mornin’ lettin’ everyone know we’re not engaged. I’ll tell them we’re just…” She looked up at him, obviously hoping he would fill in the blanks. When he said nothing, she said, “Dating? Seeing each other?” She sighed. “You got to help me out here. What the hell am I supposed to tell people?”

  “Tell them that I love you.” He brushed a kiss against her cheek as he whispered in her ear. “Tell them that I want to spend the rest of my life with you, as your husband, your best friend, your lover, the father of your children…” He’d never been so sure of anything in his life, and for the first time, the thought of a lifetime commitment didn’t scare him. It reassured him. It gave him hope there would be someone by his side through the rough times, someone to share his triumphs and grieve the tragedies with him. Someone who would have his back. Always.

  “Tori, I never thought I’d feel like this.” He took a deep breath as he pulled back to look her in the eye. Her eyes were wide and glistening with unshed tears when he said, “I thought marriage and commitment were for other people. Those poor suckers who were afraid of bein’ alone. I wasn’t that guy. I liked my life exactly the way it was. Until I didn’t anymore.”

  She looked at their joined hands before looking up at him.

  “I saw somethin’ in you from the very first moment I met you, and it scared the hell out of me ’cause I wasn’t supposed to feel that way about a girl like you.”

  “A girl like me?” She raised an eyebrow. “You wanna explain, Lieutenant?”

  He loved that she challenged him and didn’t go along with everything he wanted. She made him explain himself, she pushed him out of his comfort zone, she forced him to put her first, but most importantly, she made him want to be a better man because she brought out the best in him.

  “You were so different from all the other girls I’d dated.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You say that like it’s a bad thing. I met some of those sock puppets, remember?”

  He chuckled. “Would you just let me say what I have to say already?”

  “Who’s stopping you?” Her mouth turned up in a small smile. “Talk already. I know how much you love to hear the sound of your own voice.”

  He knew this woman would always keep him on his toes, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. She was perfect for him… exactly the way she was. He cleared his throat. “As I was sayin’… from the first moment I saw you, I couldn’t stop thinkin’ about you, and it seemed everywhere I turned, there you were. I’d see your gorgeous face every time I turned on the TV or passed a magazine stand. I stopped listenin’ to my favorite radio stations ’cause they kept playin’ your songs and they’d get inside my head. I’d hear those words about love and lust and forever, and I’d wonder if I ever crossed your mind when you were writin’ those lyrics.”

  “You did,” she whispered. “All the time.” She smiled. “You know that song I wrote, ‘Done with Jack’?”

  The party anthem soared to the top of the charts months after their night together. It was a song about the regrets that followed a night of hard drinking. “You don’t think I know that was yo
ur way of gettin’ back at me?”

  She laughed. “Okay, that one was obviously about you.” The amusement left her eyes when she said, “What you don’t know is how many of the others you inspired… ‘Lonely Tonight,’ ‘Missin’ Him’… Hell, I could go on and on.”

  “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, baby. You make me laugh. You remind me not to take life too seriously, and I need that. I need someone who’s gonna remind me my life isn’t all about my job.”

  “It’s not, ya know.” She stood on her tippy toes to press a kiss to his lips. “My life has been about my career for a long time now too, but I want that to change because of you. I want to make time for you… for us.”

  “Promise me,” he said, holding her gorgeous face between his hands as he wondered what good deed he’d done in a previous life to be given this incredible opportunity to love a woman like her. “Promise me we’re gonna make time for each other, that we’re gonna make this relationship a priority.”

  Her eyes fell to the middle of his chest. “If I had my way, I’d spend every night in your arms, but we both know that’s not possible.”

  He’d fallen in love with a woman who would only be able to share his bed half the time. Letting her go for weeks or months at a time was going to be the hardest thing he’d ever done, but knowing she was coming home to him made it worth the sacrifice. “I know. I can live with that.”

  “For how long?” She blinked back the tears. “How long before you get tired of waitin’ on me to come home? What happens when some hot little honey turns your head and—”

  “Never gonna happen.” He loved that despite her beauty, talent, wealth, and fame, she still had her insecurities.

  “Promise me?” He could tell how hard she was trying to maintain her composure. “If I had your love and lost it, I don’t think I could handle it. Hell, last time I only had your body and I was barely able to bounce back.”

  He grinned. “That works both ways, you know.” He’d never been insecure about where he stood with a woman before, but he’d never had this much to lose either. “I know there are millions of guys out there who’d give anything to take my place.”

  “No one could ever take your place,” she whispered. “Not ever.”

  The promise of forever on those sweet lips had him wanting to drop to one knee and make that engagement official, but he knew they still had to figure out how to integrate their lives before he could ask her for that kind of promise. “Can you spend the night?”

  She smiled. “Why? Were you thinkin’ about kickin’ me out again?”

  “My home is your home from now on.”

  “That goes both ways, ya know.” She looked up at him from beneath her long, dark lashes. “Um, so you never really said, do you like it at my place?”

  “I love it. Why?”

  “I was thinkin’ when we get back, maybe you could stay there, you know, if you want to.”

  He chuckled as he wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and tilted her face up to his. “Darlin’, are you askin’ me to move in with you?”

  “I don’t wanna be alone anymore, Mike. I’m tired of comin’ home to a big, empty house, hearin’ the echo of my footsteps, eatin’ breakfast alone. I want to know you’re there waitin’ for me when the plane lands. I wanna curl up in your arms, fall asleep, wake up, and make love to you as the sun rises over our own private paradise.”

  He leaned in to nuzzle her neck. “God, I love the sound of that.”

  “So you’ll move your stuff in while I’m gone?”

  He looked around the condo that had been his home for the past seven years. He felt more at home in Tori’s house than he ever had in this place. “I guess I’ll have to rent this place out.”

  She took a step back, just out of his arms. “You’re gonna rent it out, not sell it?”

  “What difference does it make?”

  She walked over to the window and pressed her hand to the glass.

  She was standing in the same place she had been two years ago when he realized he couldn’t let her walk out of his life until he showed her how he felt about her. If only he’d been brave enough to tell her back then. He would have saved them both a lot of grief. He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “What’re you thinkin’ about?”

  “If you’re not sure about this… about us…”

  He kissed her neck. “Now why would you say that?”

  “You wanna hang on to this place in case it doesn’t work out, right?”

  “You can’t be serious.” He smiled against her cheek. “Trust me, that was the last thing on my mind. I have no doubt you were meant to be mine.”

  He let his hands skim over her shoulder and down her arms, watching the thrill bumps rise on her skin as his hands moved to her zipper. The slow slide of the dress brushing the silk fabric of her black undergarments heightened his anticipation. This was his chance to rewrite history, to make up for the last night they spent together here, and he intended to erase the painful memory with an image so sweet she would still want to remember it years from now.

  He kissed her neck, letting his tongue slide over her shoulder as he doubled back to let his teeth gently graze the subtle indent that elicited the sweet little moan he lived to hear.

  She rolled her head back against his chest and sighed. “I love the way you make you feel.”

  “Works both ways, sweetheart.” He flattened his hand against her stomach, pressing her back into his chest. He would never take this for granted again. Knowing the way she made him feel compared to the way he felt when he was alone and missing her. He didn’t want to experience that emptiness again in his lifetime.

  He turned her into his arms, needing to show her what he couldn’t find the words to say. She was his, heart, body, mind, and soul, just as he was hers. His tongue traced the soft curve of her neck as he drew the delicate skin into his mouth, nibbling and licking until her nails were digging into his shoulders and her head was pressing into the pane of glass at her back.

  “Please,” she whispered.

  She didn’t need to utter another word. He was right there with her, needing to solidify the bond that was four long years in the making. He carried her into his bedroom as his lips found hers again, engaging in an erotic duel both were content to lose before he finally set her down on the mattress.

  “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, tracing a fingertip down her cheek. “So perfect.”

  “Careful, Lieutenant…” She grinned. “I just might get used to this sweet talkin’ and start expectin’ it all the time.”

  “I intend to remind you every day that you’re the best damned thing that’s ever happened to me.” He edged back just enough to pull his T-shirt over his head before slipping her dress off. A black satin corset-style undergarment woven with silver threads and matching panties had him reaching for her again. “Sweet Jesus,” he muttered.

  She stretched her arms over her head before asking, “You like?”

  “I love… it… you…” He looked her in the eye. “The life we’re gonna have together.”

  She held her hands out, reaching for him, but he held his finger up. “As much as this turns me on, you wearin’ nothin turns me on even more.”

  “In that case…” Her hands worked the hook and eye closures running the length of the corset as she watched him strip his running shorts off. She hooked her thumbs in her panties and slid them down her legs.

  He smiled when he caught sight of her colorful tattoo. “I don’t think I’m ever gonna get tired of seein’ this.”

  She smacked his shoulder as he came down on top of her. “You better not, ’cause it’s there to stay.”

  He reached into the drawer and sheathed himself in record time as he sought the sweet evidence of her arousal. He closed his eyes and savored the moment… lost in her sensual cries filling the room, her musky scent lingering in the air as he drove her higher and higher, his name on her lips as she l
et go.

  “Kiss me.”

  He held her head in his hands as his mouth found hers. His body was like a heat-seeking missile and he realized a moment too late her body should have come with a warning label tonight. The fire, tautness, and her subtle urging united, making him feel as though his head could explode from the erotic stimulus.

  He wanted to slow down, to enjoy every second, but his body took over when his mind shut down, urging him to take her hard, fast, relentlessly until there was no room left for doubt. They’d had mind-blowing sex before, but nothing prepared him for this. She met him stroke for thrust, her eyes wild and frantic as though she was trying to decide how far they could push each other before one or both of them surrendered to the inevitable explosion.

  “Mike… yesss…”

  She was the first to plummet, and he found himself saying a silent prayer of gratitude. There was no way he could have conceded defeat when the stakes were this high. Taking care of her was suddenly the most important thing in the world to him, and disappointing her was not an option he would ever consider.

  “Let go,” she whispered, gliding her hands up his back.

  As if he had a choice. His body had wanted to pass the finish line full-throttle the second she clenched him in her tight heat. Now that he’d given her what she needed, there was no way he could beg or bargain for one more second. “Ah… baby…” He threw his head back, barely able to suppress the guttural moan that threatened to slip past his lips. If not for the fact his niece was sleeping right next door, he probably would have shattered glass with the raw intensity of a release that never wanted to end.

  Mike took a moment to catch his breath before pressing a kiss to her lips and making his way into the bathroom to get cleaned up. He splashed cold water on his face as he looked at his reflection in the mirror. He couldn’t wipe the grin off his face if he tried. He was finally getting everything he wanted and he wouldn’t let himself screw it up, not this time.