His to Love (Fireside #1)

by Stacey Lynn

  Lie, lie, lie. The kid was currently picking his nose and wiping it on the back of the seat in front of him. And on my armrest.

  Ohmygod.

  I shuddered and turned back to her.

  Tyson looked up and smiled at me, humor dancing in those dark blue eyes of his. “What a great idea.” His voice rumbled through me and hit some spot deep inside. Had I looked at her, I figured both of us would look the same, with our jaws dropped to the floor at that deep timbre.

  “Oh, I think he’s okay…”

  “Mommy, I have to poop.”

  Bright hot pink flooded her cheeks. She didn’t look at Tyson before she unbuckled her belt and murmured, “Of course.”

  As she stood, she smiled at me but it didn’t reach her eyes. I shook off her annoyance at my interrupting her and Tyson. I wasn’t even thinking about him.

  Lie.

  Kids just made me nervous. Especially sick kids.

  “Excuse me.” Acid clung to her words as she passed me in the tiny, cramped aisle.

  My smile widened. “Sure.”

  With a huff, I plopped down in her seat—because no way was I sitting by that kid again—and quickly re-buckled.

  “You look like you barely survived.”

  “Oh…huh?”

  “The kid. He scares you.”

  A piece of my hair dropped into my eye, and I blew it out of my line of sight. “Of course not.” I tucked another piece of hair behind my other ear. Why…why, of all days, did my hair have to act like I stuck my finger in an electric socket?

  “You fidget when you lie. You always have. And I also know you’ve always been scared of little kids, but not why.”

  That knowing tone, the fact he knew so much about me when all he ever did was lie to me, made me cringe. Why did he have to be on my flight? All on a day that I was flying home, getting ready to see my father and my childhood home for the first time in ten years, and when I wasn’t ready. I hadn’t had enough time to prepare myself to see my father, or my mom for that matter. But as much as I tried to prepare myself for seeing my family, considering I’d see Tyson Blackwell again wasn’t even on my radar. I never thought I’d see him again—much less sit next to him in a cramped seat on an airplane.

  I snapped my head to the man sitting next to me, intent on telling him off, but words clogged inside my head and I was lost in an ocean of blue. It was his eyes, or his shirt under his suit, or maybe it was just him. Not that he was blue. He was just…

  He was the most incredible-looking man I had ever seen. Straight out of a GQ photo shoot. And so far, he had seen me panting like a dog in heat, sprawled out on the floor in front of him, and possibly drooling.

  Fantastic.

  “All right,” I rasped, leaning in. He did the same, and I caught a whiff of cologne that should have been illegal for every woman’s nose. It was intoxicating. Addictive. Spicy and I didn’t know what else, I just knew I wanted to lick the taste off his neck.

  “Fine,” I agreed again while I tried to ignore his closeness. “Kids make me nervous, they always have. They’re always in your way. They’re fast and short and you trip over them. They’re loud, they’re messy, and they’re always…” I rubbed my fingers together and made a face, “sticky.”

  One side of his lips quirked up. They were sexy full lips, too, and I almost got distracted. “Sticky?”

  “Yes. From food or glue or snot…I don’t know. They’re just…” I shivered again. And then I shut my mouth. What kind of twenty-eight-year-old woman had an aversion to small children? But I had never spent any time around them when I was growing up, and I simply wasn’t used to them.

  Still, I had to have sounded like a lunatic.

  Tyson didn’t seem to mind. He leaned closer. His knee brushed against mine, and I had to fight not to jerk away from him. “They’re just what?”

  “Scary,” I hissed back, more loudly than I intended.

  Tyson threw his head back and laughed. It sounded like magic.

  I wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

  “What other fears do you still have, Blue?”

  I cleared my throat. No way was I admitting all my fears to him. No way. No how. I gave him enough and he was not going to take anything from me all over again.

  “Just one. You share one of yours and I’ll share one of mine.”

  I suddenly wanted to know every single thing about Tyson that I never knew before.

  I grinned. I couldn’t help it.

  “Will you tell me the truth?” I asked, and watched something dark flash in his eyes before it disappeared.

  “Absolutely.” His fingers clasped together and then his index fingers came together, making a point at the top. His chin rested on them for a second. “Snakes. I hate snakes.”

  I scoffed. “That doesn’t count! Everyone hates snakes.”

  He shrugged. “There’s my one. Your turn.”

  His knee nudged mine and I sighed. I gave in so easily. I had always been weak around him.

  “Fine,” I conceded and then muttered, “Flying.”

  I looked down at my clasped hands, but I didn’t look away quickly enough before I saw the concern in his eyes. That sparkle of his evaporated and I felt him lean closer. His nose almost brushed my cheek and his breath skirted across my skin.

  “You doing okay now, though?”

  A shiver rolled through my body. I couldn’t do this. Couldn’t be here, not with him.

  Still, I pressed my lips together and nodded. I had only two more hours on this plane. Taking off was always the worst part anyway, and I’d managed that just fine.

  “I’ve missed you, Blue.”

  A chill cascaded down my spine, and I jerked back, unprepared for the way he assaulted my senses with his light touches, deep voice, and delicious scent.

  I couldn’t do this. Not with him. I couldn’t lose myself in the familiarity of Tyson. Not again.

  I wasn’t headed home to rekindle a childhood romance. I was going home to spend time with my mom before she died.

  Pulling back, I looked at the seat in front of me. My body shifted away from him, and I felt him tense next to me.

  “Not going to talk about it?” he asked, and I frowned.

  “Talk about what?”

  Taking my chances at getting lost in all that sexiness, I slowly turned my head and faced him.

  Leaning closer, Tyson said, “Come on, Blue. I’m still freaking out that you’re here next to me. Ten years and you just fall into my lap…I had no idea where you went, and now we’ve got two more hours on a plane together, and we can’t talk about what happened?”

  “No.” My shoulders tightened. I bristled at Tyson’s shocked expression and turned back to stare at the seat in front of me.

  “You’re serious? Do you have any idea I looked for you? How long I went and pounded on your family’s door so I could see you? And you just left and gave me nothing? And now…still nothing?”

  I felt his anger increase with every word and I closed my eyes, inhaling a slow breath.

  Through my shock at seeing him again, seeing how handsome he’d become, I had forgotten who he was…what he did to me—but I shouldn’t have.

  Everything about the past snapped into my mind like a rubber band. The night my father tossed a file folder onto my bed and forced me to look at photos of the two of us together. And then he proceeded to explain to me how Simon Blackwell, Tyson’s father and a detective for the Detroit PD, had spent the previous four years investigating my father and his business dealings. When he continued to come up short with evidence, he grew desperate, threw a Hail Mary pass, and decided to use his own flesh and blood. Simon forced Tyson to date me just so he could gain any nugget of information about my family that he could get.

  My father had proof of Tyson’s betrayal, wrapped up in pretty glossy photos.

  That night, as a punishment for dating some boy behind my father’s back, sneaking off and lying for the previous year, and apparently putting my
family and my father’s entire organization at risk, I was put on a plane and shipped to Colorado.

  “Stop, Tyson.”

  His hand covered mine and his fingers wrapped around my wrist. Tugging on it, he forced me to face him. “Tell me what happened. Where you went. And how you could do that to me.”

  Tears burned my eyes and I quickly looked away. All the instant comfort evaporated along with the oxygen levels. “Stop this.”

  “Not until you start talking.”

  Overwhelmed with emotion, I glared at him, “Did you ever like me at all?” I watched the blood drain from his face.

  “What the hell?”

  Blood rushed to my ears and funneled my long-forgotten anger. “I loved you, and you used me. For all of it.”

  His head snapped back like I had slapped him.

  I felt like I had been punched in the gut. I hadn’t thought about this in years and it was too much.

  Before he could respond, I pulled my hand out of his grasp, unbuckled my seatbelt, and stood up. Then I headed toward the restroom, balancing myself on the backs of the seats while I fumbled along, my breath increasing all over again.

  Whoever invented planes was an asshole.

  Once I was done washing my hands, I hesitated before leaving the restroom. I couldn’t sit next to him. Not anymore. If I hadn’t taken the time to fully appreciate how much Tyson had changed before, I could certainly do it when I closed my eyes. He was so much…more…than the kid I used to think I was in love with. Stronger. Darker. Sexier.

  Tyson had only improved over the last ten years, and while I fixed my straying hair and saw my ruined mascara in the mirror, I felt like time had done the complete opposite to me. While living in Colorado and working on Aunt Eleanor’s farm had been fun, I now had pale age spots appearing just beneath my eyes from too much time in the sun and not enough sun protection. The same spots now speckled the backs of my hands. The hard work made calluses grow on previously spotless and regularly manicured hands and fingers. On the farm, and out in the country, manicures were pointless, and years ago I’d begun chewing my fingernails instead of trying to find a pair of clippers in one of Eleanor’s numerous junk drawers.

  I was no longer the same girl he had known. I was harder, stronger too, physically, but I had only opened my heart to one man and I never wanted to risk that again.

  I certainly didn’t want to do it then, either. Not with Tyson.

  With a long exhale, I forced myself to open the lavatory door and head back down the aisle.

  As soon as I got back to our row, I noticed the aisle seat was still open. Next to me, the snot-nosed kid kicked out his leg, almost hitting me in the shin. Tyson arched an eyebrow and gestured toward the seat. Whatever shock he had displayed earlier was gone behind a hard mask, daring me to sit next to him.

  I didn’t take it.

  “Excuse me,” I said to woman whose seat I had hijacked earlier. “You can have your seat back now if you’d like.”

  She smiled wide, fluffed her hair, and I didn’t look at Tyson when I heard him laugh again.

  I would take snot-nosed kids any day of the week over Tyson Blackwell.

  They were much less terrifying.

  Chapter 2

  All my limbs trembled as I stood at the baggage claim. I could feel him staring at me. I should have been used to it. Those blue eyes had been on me for the last two hours, never once looking away from me.

  At one point I was certain he was going to jump out of his seat, throw the kid into his vacated one, and sit next to me.

  It didn’t happen. I hated that a small part of me was disappointed.

  “Which luggage is yours?”

  I jumped at his voice behind me and kept my eyes on the carousel. “I’ve got it.”

  “Yeah, I know. Gabriella Galecki…you’ve always got everything under control, don’t you?”

  Not when he was touching me, like he was doing then. His arm wrapped around my waist and he pulled me toward his chest. My back to his front…I closed my eyes and imagined the way it used to be. When I was still naïve and young and thought he hung the moon.

  Those days were fantastic, but I couldn’t get lost in them again.

  I struggled to break free from his hold when he did the dumbest thing. His lips pressed against the side of my neck. It shot a spark of fire straight inside of me, hitting the best places, and I froze.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, hating the breathlessness in my voice. Darn him! Ugh!

  “Just wondering if that was where your button still is.”

  He stepped back, let go of my waist, and I steadied myself before I fell forward.

  “What are you talking about?” I glared at him over my shoulder. Big mistake. Huge. He was too damn sexy for his own good.

  God must hate me.

  He smirked and pointed to the spot on my neck, right above my collarbone where his lips just brushed. “Your ‘on’ button…the one that made you go all wild for me.”

  Yes. Yes…that button. It still worked if the pulsing at the apex of my thighs was any indicator. Although, it might have just been him, too.

  I scowled. “Leave me alone.”

  “Not until you talk to me.” His eyes narrowed and darkened. “Ten years, Blue. I deserve an answer.”

  I looked back at the carousel and spied my seafoam green luggage. It was pretty, light-colored, and made traveling more fun. I took a step forward and reached for it when his hand covered mine. Before I could protest, Tyson grabbed the largest bag, yanking it up easily. I went slack-jawed, watching how even through his suit coat, I could see his biceps flex before he set it down.

  I was too stunned stupid to thank him.

  “That the only one you have?”

  I shook my head. “One more.” I wanted to kick my own ass. Why was I engaging him? Letting him help me? Nothing good would come from this, I knew it. I didn’t even understand why he was bothering.

  He turned his back to me, and we waited among the throng of tired travelers. He quickly grabbed his own two bags before he nestled my last two suitcases quite nicely next to his.

  “Thank you,” I finally muttered, my manners returning while I reached to stack my cases. “It was good seeing you.”

  Another lie.

  My Catholic guilt was building every moment around him. Lust. Lies. Jealousy. My mother’s priest would have been so proud.

  Without giving me time to argue or get away, Tyson reached for the handle of my largest suitcase. He had a duffel bag thrown across his chest, my suitcase in one hand, and his in another. He started walking away from me, out toward the line of taxis, and by the time I realized what he was doing, I had to run to catch up to him, pulling the rest of my bags behind me.

  “What are you doing?” I asked when I reached him.

  He let go of his suitcase and lifted his hand.

  “Tyson!” I snapped.

  His eyes darted to me before he looked back at the line of taxis coming our way. He didn’t even look at me like he recognized me, and I couldn’t quite place why that stung so much.

  It took thirty seconds of him ignoring me, while I stood there gaping at him, before a taxi stopped in front of us. As soon as the trunk popped open, Tyson moved to the back of the car, and tossed my luggage inside.

  “Where are you going, Blue?” he asked, an arrogant grin on his face as he passed me on the curb and grabbed his own suitcase.

  “Not anywhere with you.” I crossed my arms over my chest and tapped my foot repeatedly on the pavement. Had he always been a bossy asshole? I couldn’t remember. Maybe I was too young to know any different.

  “Get in the cab.”

  My nose twitched, my foot tapped harder. “No.”

  His lips curved at the ends right as the taxi driver asked, “Where to?”

  Horns honked in the background, the sounds of annoyed drivers who were pissed we were not getting in the car. We were holding up the line, but I didn’t care.

  Thi
s was asinine. Stupid.

  “Not getting in the car without you,” Tyson said, a wicked gleam in his dark blue eyes. He crossed his arms over his chest, mirroring my stance, except his smile told me he found this funny.

  There was nothing funny about this.

  “Lady, I gotta get moving,” the cab driver shouted in his thickly accented, Middle Eastern voice.

  I had lost. I knew it. Besides, it wasn’t this man’s fault that I happened to know the most conceited man in Detroit, possibly all of the state. Or world.

  “Fine,” I huffed and pushed past Tyson. Sliding into the backseat of the car, I quickly told the driver the hotel where I was staying and the address.

  Tyson slid in next to me, victory plastered all over his cocky face.

  As the taxi pulled away from the curb, I felt the burn of tears in my eyes, and I looked out the window.

  I would never let him see how much he affected me. There was too much at stake with my family right now for me to have anything to do with Tyson.

  Not that I wanted something to happen, anyway.

  Lie.

  Argh. I pressed my head against the window, closed my eyes, and spent the next thirty minutes ignoring the man next to me.

  —

  “You’re kidding me.”

  Tyson grinned. “Nope.”

  I stared at him in the lobby of the Apollonio Hotel and felt my eyes cross. “You are not staying here.”

  He shrugged. It was full of nonchalance and cocky swagger. My fingers itched to smack him. To grab him by the lapels of his suit and shove my lips against his just to wipe the smirk off his face.

  Bad idea. Bad, bad, bad idea.

  I needed a drink. Or twelve.

  “Told you before…I’m not leaving you alone until you tell me what happened. And, what that tantrum on the plane was about.”

  I ran my fingers across my forehead and sighed. “Can’t we just…I don’t know…not talk about that? Or just pretend we don’t know each other?”

  He slowly shook his head back and forth. Determination heated his eyes, and I hated this. Being too close to him was dangerous. Telling him the truth was worse. It took me years to get over Tyson. Being stuck on a farm in the middle-of-nowhere, Colorado, didn’t help give me other things to think about. Besides my aunt’s goats and chickens, I’d had no one to talk to. No one to help me forget about the boy who had broken my heart.