Ty put his hand back to the steering wheel. She watched him from the corner of her eye. The muscles in his jaw had become tense. His arms were rigid against the wheel. They sat in an awkward silence for the remainder of the journey.
The car stopped outside his house, and Leah waited for him to get out before relaxing. It had been a mistake to tell him about Kyle. Clearly he didn’t want someone with baggage, especially the emotional kind.
“Are you coming in?” he asked, leaning through the open car door to look at her.
“I don’t mind waiting,” she replied, shifting in her seat.
“Okay.” The door was shut, and she was left to her own devices.
Leah stared down the street, taking in the pretty front gardens, manicured lawns and polished cars. She wondered how many of the residents thought Ty and Jerry might be an item, how many rumors were circulating, how many women gossiped about the cute gay couple down the road. Her smile widened. How many fantasies would be ruined when they discovered he was actually straight and seeing her?
The smile disappeared. She hadn’t considered the fact that she might not be the only woman he was seeing. They’d spent a night together, but bumping into each other at The Mall had been pure coincidence as far as she was concerned. He had become uncomfortable when she’d talked about Kyle. Perhaps it was because he knew he was the same sort of man.
She shoved the intruding thoughts to one side and concentrated on her breathing and the feel of her pulse. After a while, she glanced to the house. The sun had begun its descent, shattering the sky with streaks of orange and red, casting the building in an eerie glow. Uneasiness settled in her veins.
Leah fidgeted in her seat. He’d taken the keys with him, leaving her with only her thoughts, which were ruining her mood more than it already was. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself out of the car.
With a clenched fist, she knocked on the front door. Jerry opened and Leah’s heart sank.
In this light, he was more handsome than she’d given him credit for. The solid lines of his jaw had been freshly shaven, and his dirty blond hair had been styled into a pompadour, adding to his height.
“Hi.” He grinned and crossed his arms over his chest, exaggerating his biceps and pecs, which bulged beneath the white T-shirt he wore and skewed the black motto emblazoned across the front.
“Hi,” Leah returned, and tried to peer past him.
“Let her in already,” Ty called from the shadows. Jerry stepped to the side and gave her a mock bow. Ty stepped closer to them. “Do you want a drink? I’ve completely lost my phone.”
“I’m fine,” Leah said, hugging herself and following Ty through to the kitchen. He mumbled something about finding his mobile and jogged down the hall as Jerry entered the room. Leah pressed her lips together and surveyed the room, looking everywhere but at him.
Jerry stood in the doorway with a smirk on his lips, watching her. “Sorry about last night,” he said.
“Oh, that’s okay.” She tried to dismiss him.
“Ty says I was an utter bastard.”
“Alcohol does that to some people.”
“I guess. Sure you don’t want a drink?”
“Honestly, I’m fine. He probably won’t be long and then we’ll be out of your hair.”
Jerry shrugged. “It’s his house.”
“You going out?” she asked after a brief silence.
“Dunno yet.” He slunk into the chair opposite her. “So how long have you known Ty?” he asked, raising an eyebrow and one corner of his lips.
“Umm…” She looked around the room, taking in every clean inch. “I started working at the school in September, so ten months, I guess.”
“He said there was a sexy new teacher there.” Jerry winked and Leah felt her skin begin to crawl. “How well do you know him?”
Leah narrowed her eyes and scrutinized his intentions. “Not very,” she said, treading lightly around the words.
“Yeah, that figures. Not many tend to stick around once they get to know the real him.” He laughed as if he’d told her some corny joke, but Leah hadn’t gotten the punch line. “Mind you,” he said, still chuckling to himself, “he doesn’t usually do more than one-night stands, so I guess you must be different.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Leah pushed herself away from the table. She walked out of the kitchen, so desperate to get away from him that she didn’t see Ty and bumped into his chest. Her fingertips curled into the soft cotton of his top, and she took delight in the heat that he radiated, the reassurance of a safe place nestled beneath her touch.
“You okay?” he asked, kissing the top of her head and wrapping a protective arm around her.
She nodded and smiled, looking up at him with wide eyes. “Just wondering what was taking you so long.” She let her palms slip down his body until they rested on his backside.
“Sure?” he asked, throwing a glance at Jerry. Linking his hands in hers, he brought them down to their sides. “I found my phone. We can go now.”
“Can I use your bathroom first, please?”
He let her go and she didn’t hesitate before walking quickly away from Jerry.
* * * *
“You want to tell me what the fuck that was about?” Ty snapped, his sights squarely set on his housemate.
“Conversation.” Jerry shrugged, heading for the door, but Ty stood in his path. The two men squared up to each other, and this was a contest Ty wouldn’t back down from.
“I told you to leave her alone.”
Jerry let out a snort of laughter. “I give it a week before you’re bored with her and toss her my way. That or she’ll see your collection and freak.” He pushed past and grabbed a jacket. “I’m going out.” The door slammed as he left, rattling against its frame.
Ty looked at his phone. The temptation to end things grew with each passing day, but had become more urgent since bringing Leah home. He put the phone in his back pocket.
Rubbing his face, he walked to the front room, stopping when he got to the bottom of the stairs. Leah was stood at the top, arms folded across her chest and an expression on her face that told him she had heard every word. Or at least the important parts.
The tension in the air was palpable. They stared at each other, silently daring the other to speak first.
“Sorry about that.” It was Ty who spoke, not moving his eyes from hers. He took a deep breath through his nose, expanding his chest before blowing out in a long, slow exhale. “Shall we go?”
“No,” she said, walking down the stairs. His body stiffened, ready for the blow of being rejected. Standing in front of him, she flattened her palms on his chest, taking in the hard muscle under her touch. She stood on her toes and took his bottom lip between her teeth. “I want to know what this collection of yours is.”
Chapter Twelve
Ty let out a heavy breath, taking her hands in his, and led her upstairs and into his bedroom. He pointed at the bed, and she obeyed the silent order, sitting on the edge, partly regretting her decision to inquire into the collection. She hoped it was something silly like a stash of porn hidden in the bottom of his wardrobe. But what if he had a sex dungeon in a cellar she knew nothing about? What if he had weird fetishes? Her teeth grazed over her bottom lip as she contemplated the possibilities. What if… Memories of Kyle stung the backs of her eyes.
Outside, the sun was beginning to set. Streetlights flickered into life. Orange spotlights hit the pavement, but didn’t make it into the house. The bedroom was shrouded in a soft glow from the two wall-mounted lights. The shadows fell over Ty’s face, and she couldn’t quite make out his expression as he turned his head.
“Well?” she asked, beginning to feel uncomfortable.
“I don’t usually do this so…soon into a relationship. Not with someone like you.”
The corners of her lips twitched into a small smile at the word relationship, but she wondered what he meant, ‘like her’. He walked toward one of two wardrobes against
the back wall. He took a small key from the top and unlocked the door, opening it for her to see.
Leah pinched her lips together between her teeth to stop from giggling as she looked at the cupboard. The door was adorned with hooks, holding up canes, whips, paddles and some items she couldn’t name. She stood up and walked over to get a better look inside. Ty didn’t move, his fingers gripping the door. Leah glanced at him, one eyebrow raised and a smile stretching across her lips.
Shelves had been put in and housed half of the products she would have expected to see in an adult shop. From handcuffs and blindfolds to gags, they all sat waiting to be used. There was also a line of yet more implements, still in their boxes. She picked one out—a pink silicon vibrator, the most innocent-looking toy in the collection. Leah put it back next to a pack of candles.
“You’re not surprised?” he asked, closing the door and twisting the key in the lock.
“So you’re into bondage, or whatever.” She gave a shrug and turned to face him, praying that her nervousness hadn’t shone through her voice, although she feared it might have. He stood only a few inches away, and she could smell the coffee that laced his breath. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you and Jerry share this…fetish.” Leah ran her hand down the wooden frame of the cupboard, clearing the uncertainty that threatened to make its presence known. “I heard him say something about tossing me his way. I don’t mind”—she patted her palm on the door—“trying this, but I’m not doing a threesome. It’s not something that’s ever been high on my list of likes.”
Ty pressed his lips against hers. He slipped his hand to her ass and gave her a squeeze. “I’m glad you said that.” He smiled. “That’s what we’ve been arguing over. I don’t want to share you.”
“The other night in the club…” With his hands gripped in hers, she led him back to the bed. “Is that what you were doing? Looking for someone to bring back here?”
“Jerry and Lance were.”
“And you warned them off me and Rainie?”
“Yes,” he said, kissing her again. She relaxed into him, allowing him to part her lips with his tongue. Baring herself to him, she swept her hands to the back of his head, fisting her fingers into the ash-brown strands, inhaling his scent as they sank onto the sheets. Ty rolled them until he was positioned between her thighs. Bending a knee, she hooked a leg over one of his and kissed him deeply.
“I haven’t frightened you off then?” He pulled away and looked down at her.
Leah laughed. “No.” Lifting her head, she placed gentle kisses along his bottom lip before taking it between her teeth, nipping him then letting go. “At least now I know what it is about Jerry that freaks me out.” She wriggled beneath him, giving a mock shudder.
Ty rolled to the side, leaning on his elbow to look at her. She arched into his touch as he trailed a finger down her center, and gave a small whimper when he stopped at the waistband of her jeans. “He’s not all bad,” he said, playing with the small brass button.
“So how long do you usually leave it until you introduce girlfriends to your collection?”
“Depends…” He shifted his finger to the hem of her top and began to creep under the thin material. “Most of the time, they’re women who I already know have the same…” He took a sharp breath. “Needs,” he blew out, “as me. But if I don’t know them that well, then it could be a few weeks or months.”
“And when you get bored, you…” Her sentence trailed off.
With a finger against her cheek, he forced her to look at him. “I’m not sharing you. In the past yes, but it has always been consensual. Most of the time Jerry had them after me.”
“Your leftovers? Great. Why am I different?”
His lips were on hers. He moved his hand up her body until he cupped her breast, massaging in time to the movements of his mouth. She took slow breaths, and with each one forced her chest up and into his hand. Everything in her tightened, a heavy ball weighed down her core, and she could feel herself becoming wet and ready for him.
“You were a challenge,” he said.
“Me?” she exclaimed with a laugh.
“You were meant to go to the Christmas party. I had it all planned, and you bailed. So I’ve had to spend the past year being content with waiting for you to break something.”
“Well, if I’d known, I’d have broken a lot more, more often.” A giggle resonated through her words. “Anyway, all those times in the classroom on our own… Why didn’t you just take advantage?”
“I wasn’t sure if you felt the same way. You can be very difficult to read.”
“Oh, come off it!” She batted at his chest, stopping to take in the hard warmth. “I couldn’t have been more obvious. What do you want me to do? Bend over a desk to show you what I’ve got?”
Ty growled, throwing an arm over her hip and grabbing at her ass He nuzzled into her neck and nipped at her skin. “Maybe I should add that to the list of things I want to do to you,” he said.
“Inappropriate much?”
“What? It’s the holidays, and we both need to go in at some point. I’m sure we can find an excuse. Paperwork, leaky taps…”
Leah hummed in contentment as his grip softened. She glanced over to the window. It was completely dark, the sun hiding on the other side of the world. “Why do you work at the school? I don’t believe that it’s a job. You have two houses, you own a nightclub—”
“I don’t own a nightclub,” he corrected. “A friend does. I owe her, big time.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” He lifted her top until it rested on the mounds of her breasts. Reaching into her bra, he removed her from the cups, resting his palm on one breast, while he took the other into his mouth. He licked her nipple, swirling his tongue around the sensitive pink flesh, grazing her with his teeth until it was fully erect.
Leah sucked in a breath, pressing her shoulders and head into the pillows, arching her back and pushing her breasts into him. Her knickers were well and truly soaked. Her clitoris hummed and throbbed with a burning desire to be touched.
She grabbed hold of his head and pressed him to her cleavage, reveling in the feel of his licks and sucks and caresses. He pinched her other nipple, rolling it between his thumb and forefinger, tugging it a little.
“Fuck,” she breathed, raking her nails down his back, tugging his T-shirt. She felt utterly powerless beneath him. It was as if he had cast some powerful magic spell over her, keeping her in place.
He stepped away from her, pulling the top over his head and dumping it on the floor. Helping her to sit, he removed her top and used one hand to unclip the clasp of her bra.
“I will never be unimpressed by that,” she said, crushing herself against him, slipping her hands into the waistband of his jeans and digging her fingers into the flesh of his bum. “So…” She shifted her glance to the cupboard on the other side of the room and bit her lip nervously as she contemplated her next sentence. “When do I get to play?”
Chapter Thirteen
Ty stood by the cupboard and watched her. The moment he’d stood up, she’d stripped until she was wearing only her knickers. They were so wet that they had become transparent and he could see the folds of her labia and the slit of her pussy. His cock, already semi-erect, began to strain at the zip of his jeans.
Leah kept her eyes on his, teasing him with a private show. Her slender fingers traced down until she was cupping herself. He picked out the pink vibrator that she’d been fixated on earlier and removed it from the box.
“Do you always buy new ones when you get a new girlfriend?” she asked around small moans, her fingers toying with the soaked fabric of her knickers. She was oblivious to her use of the word ‘girlfriend’. But Ty noticed. Was that how she saw herself? Was that how he saw her?
A shake of his head and he was back in the room, clutching the vibrator.
It wasn’t a question he’d ever been asked before. He wasn’t sure h
ow to explain that usually he made sure they were cleaned and sterilized, but the last vibrator had been so good that the girl had taken it with her when she left. He decided not to answer at all.
His strides were purposeful but careful—his dick was so hard it was almost painful, restricted behind his boxers and jeans. His need for release was more than evident. Each time she whimpered or groaned at her own pleasure, the sound throbbed through him, adding to his discomfort.
She lay across the bed, her head balanced on the edge, long blonde waves tumbling over the sides. One hand gripped her naked breast, playing with her nipple, while the other was between her legs, rubbing her clitoris. Her mouth shaped into a small ‘o’. Leah opened her eyes, moistening her lips with the edge of her tongue.
“Shit,” he breathed, standing over her, taking the vision of her in. His heart thumped until his chest hurt as much as his groin.
“You’re wearing too many clothes,” she complained, rolling over and reaching out to fumble the button fly. She pressed her palm against his thick erection, fingertips tickling his balls, and his cock was grateful for the freedom. Dropping the vibrator to the bed, he tugged his clothes off until he was more naked than she was.
“Are you going to use that on me?” she asked, eyeing the toy.
“I was,” he started, distracted for a moment by the way she wrapped her hand around his shaft, giving long, slow rubs. “But now I’m thinking I just want to roll you over and fuck you.” He tipped his head back and let out a loud groan as she rolled the pad of her thumb over his engorged head, smearing the clear liquid that oozed out of the tip. She stopped. Placing her thumb on her bottom lip, she licked it clean, keeping her eyes on him.
Taking Care Of Leah Page 6
