by Nikki Duncan
“Not initially, but I don’t think the unit members were entirely random applicants.”
Taryn tried to recall all the names of his team members, but there had been a lot of them and she’d been more concerned with Sidney and Tyler.
“How do you mean?” She pulled a can of Dr Pepper from the refrigerator and took the pills.
“The current FBI Director had a personal hand in my deal. The team that became Breck’s to command was his idea. He’s never admitted it to me, but I think he handpicked us.”
It was more a familiarity that bled through into his tone than any actual statement, but, “You talk like you have more than a professional relationship with the director.”
“Lana, the journalist you met earlier, is his daughter.”
“And she’s a friend of…”
“Aidan. Only they’re engaged.”
“And Aidan’s twin was…”
“Liam.”
She leaned against the counter instead of sitting, aware that if she sat again she’d give in to the pressure and lay her head on the table. If she did that, she’d likely be asleep within seconds. It had been a long day, hearing about Sidney extended it. There would be many more stress-filled ones to come.
Stretching her neck, trying to loosen at least a knot or two, she ran the faces of his team through her mind again. “I’m usually good with faces and names, but I can only picture Kieralyn.”
“Consider yourself lucky. You only met one of the significant others.” Tyler closed the dishwasher he’d just finished loading and faced her. “Our group’s getting pretty big these days.”
After a quick scan of her face, he cocked his head and watched her closer. He studied her so closely she wondered if he saw beneath the surface calm she’d fought to maintain all night.
“How bad is your headache?” he asked at a near whisper.
“I’m fine.”
“You’ve been massaging your neck since before you went upstairs with Sidney. Now, you’re squinting more than actually looking at anything.” He took her drink, that she’d only taken one sip of, and set it on the counter beside her. Then, taking her hand, he led her to the kitchen table and pulled a chair out. “Sit. Cross your arms on the table and lay your head down.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Show you a little gratitude for taking care of Sidney and Ryder.”
Staring into his eyes, her already shallow breaths shortened more. His touch, for the time it lasted, buoyed her strength and gave her a hint of what support tasted like. It wasn’t the only taste she was curious about where Tyler was concerned.
“Taryn. Sit down before you fall down.”
“You saying you wouldn’t catch me?” Was she flirting with him? He was handsome, but she’d been too distracted with finding Sidney to think about anything else. Exhaustion or headache, she must be in real bad shape if she was flirting, because she didn’t flirt. She had no time for men who would complicate her life. Tyler was a walking complication.
“If I have to.” He pulled a chair out, turned it so the back was to the side and waited. When she sat, he put his hands on her shoulders to guide her. “It’s avoidable, though.”
Sinking onto the chair, she allowed her guard to lower and accepted his help. She was always in control but only because she’d never found anyone worth trusting. Tyler may not be that person, but he was offering. She was tired enough to accept.
Following his earlier instruction, she rested her head on her arms on the table. The moment her neck was no longer working to support her head she found relief from the throbbing knots. The pounding in her skull persisted though.
Tyler moved in close, warm at her back. He laid her hair over her shoulder and then his hands came down on her shoulders, not heavy but not wimpy. Then his fingers moved.
First, his thumbs pressed with an easy weight along the edges of the bigger knots. Her muscles sighed, or maybe it was her, beneath the pleasure of attention.
Next, his long, lean fingers joined, squeezing her muscles, holding the pressure a moment when he met resistance. As he moved his hand to a new spot, he slid the pad of his thumb along the line of tension.
Kindness and caring filled his touch and her heart lapped it up hungrily. For so long she’d been the one to take care of others. She didn’t even think of what she might need personally. Tyler wasn’t an answer but the connection she felt in his touch awakened the question what if.
Melting beneath his power, her neck muscles released their fist hold on her spine.
With a small moan, she rolled her shoulders, stretching the tightness between her blades. As if he sensed the need, he eased his hands down, keeping the weight of his touch constant. A ball of stress rolled beneath his finger, but it didn’t escape his notice. He rested his thumb over it and pressed.
“Too hard?”
“You could go harder,” she murmured.
“Tell me when it’s too much.”
“Okay.” The two syllables turned into a long groan as pleasure coursed the length of her back. The man had magic hands she wasn’t sure could ever be too much.
Time and responsibilities disappeared until the only thing that existed in the silence of his kitchen was the two of them and the impact of his hands on her body.
From the base of her back he ran his thumbs up either side of her spine. Her shirt lifted, granting the cool air access to her heated skin. She arched beneath the sensations and realized how long it had been since she’d been aroused.
She didn’t think arousal was his intention, but it was another result. Her breathing wouldn’t fully settle into a steady rhythm, but her body began to anticipate his moves.
“Tyler,” she whispered.
“Too much?” His voice came across higher than normal and cracked at the end.
“No. It’s…perfect.” Man. She sounded winded and on the verge of orgasm and he hadn’t even touched her skin.
The thought entered her mind the moment his fingers moved up the back of her neck. Temptation taunted her. The headache had been replaced by desire and as much as she wouldn’t mind exploring it she couldn’t start anything with Tyler.
He suspected her of being a thief and could easily decide to fight her for custody. Indulging in the desire he awakened was too dangerous.
Tyler pulsed with need. The need to pull Taryn against him so she felt his desire. The need to pull away from her and focus on their many issues. The need to be friends and the need for her to be an enemy. He hated conflict but Taryn had flown into his world with an ample supply.
Her responses to his touch beckoned him, urged him closer to the first need. Soft and supple, her muscles moved fluidly beneath his fingers. As he slid them up her neck, worked along the edges of her long hair, he yearned to see her hair loose and falling around her shoulders. Like in the picture he’d seen of her on stage in her fishnet stockings, heels, short tuxedo shorts and a tight jacket that showed off her tiny waist.
Even then, when she’d been simply a suspect and completely out of bounds, he’d felt a rush of arousal. Now, still a suspect, she was even more taboo because of her relationship with his kids.
He’d easily set the attraction aside while looking for Sidney. It eased back over dinner and then he’d looked into her pain-filled eyes. The headache had been evident, but beneath its layers he’d seen her concern over what might be. Her fear that she’d lose the kids.
Her pain called to him most and had him setting aside professional distance. The distance would have helped his sanity because the first touch of his hand on her shoulder had begun his unraveling.
Unlike the meeting of their hands, the act of touching with new intention had moved through and filled the microscopic holes of incompletion he’d never noticed. The longer he massaged her, the more fully she relaxed beneath his hands, the more completely his defenses scattered.
His fingers massaged the sides of her neck, feeling the beat of her pulse behind her ear. His thumbs slid
up and into her hair, feeling the silkiness of the shiny strands.
Quick as a blink, the image of Taryn spread out before him, with her hair fanned wide around her head and shoulders, breathed life to his imagination.
She arched her back, releasing a tiny moan that challenged his control. He would love to spread her out on the table and feast for hours.
With a shudder, she pushed up from the table.
He pulled back quickly and stuffed his hands in his pockets, pushed the denim away from his body, hoping to hide his arousal. He cleared his throat to ensure the ability to speak clearly.
“Better?”
“Much.” She stretched her head from side to side and rolled her shoulders. The smile that graced her lips spoke of satisfied bliss. “Your hands are magic.”
He smiled back.
“You should see what I can do in bed.”
Shit. He’d just suggested his willingness to take the massage further.
“Maybe I shouldn’t.” She backed toward the entrance to the hallway. “Things are complicated enough without adding sex into the mix.”
“True.” Thank God one of them was keeping a clear head. Tyler was pretty certain he’d have swept her up and carried her to bed at the smallest encouragement.
“Thanks for the massage. You didn’t have to do that.”
“You didn’t have to be upfront about Sidney and Ryder.” Still needing to cool off. Tyler moved to the fridge and pulled out a cold beer. Water just wouldn’t cut it. “Want one? I could also offer wine.”
“I’ll just finish the Dr Pepper.” With the calm of a completely unaffected woman, Taryn retrieved her soda and took a long drink.
Afraid she’d retreat to her room with it, and oddly uninterested in being alone, he asked, “Why were you so upfront about the kids?”
“You were there. You have resources I don’t when it comes to finding people. Ultimately, Sidney would’ve been hurt more than you or me if I hadn’t involved you, and I don’t think you’d have listened if I hadn’t told you.”
He sat at the table and listened closely. Every answer mattered. And potentially held secrets. He wanted to know everything. “So you did it for her.”
“Tyler,” she sat across from him, strong and vibrant like she’d been when he first saw her, “you still seem to doubt me when I say everything I do, I do for those kids. I didn’t give birth to them, but they’re my life.”
“All of it?”
“No parent can say their children are their entire life, or they shouldn’t, but they’re certainly the core of it.” She looked at him then, much like she had before opening up about Sidney, as if she was measuring his worth. When she spoke, it was with a mixture of determination and defeat. “You’re going to fight me for them, aren’t you?”
“If we can’t come to a civil agreement on our own, yes.” With his intentions stated, a knot released in his gut. Several remained, but at least she knew what he wanted.
“What do you consider a civil agreement? And how much say are you willing to give Ryder and Sidney?”
“I don’t know, Taryn. Your life, theirs, is in California. Mine is here. My family and the team that gave me a second chance is here. But I don’t want to be a father only on school breaks and summers.”
“You want them to move here.”
“I want it to be a consideration.” His words were more diplomatic than his heart, because his heart wanted to make demands.
“This is their first year in a new school. I don’t want them pulled from that and their activities. Sidney has a lot of friends and is more involved in extracurricular activities, but Ryder’s finding his place.”
“How long’s left in the school year?”
“Nine weeks.”
Nine weeks. It wasn’t so long, but it was longer than he wanted to be away from them.
It would take half that at least to make any progress in the courts, and that would only add stress to the kids. They’d been abandoned by their mother. He didn’t want to take them away from Taryn, but he wouldn’t live without them.
“Will you give me a copy of their schedules?”
“Will you promise to let them finish the year where they are?”
“I don’t want to be without them, Taryn.”
“I get that. I’ll share their schedule with you and you’re welcome to our guest room as often as you want, but I need them to have some stability in all this.”
“Deal.” It was easier than he’d hoped. And damn if that didn’t have him looking for the shoe of dreaded discord to fall.
Chapter Five
Two weeks had passed since they’d met Tyler. He’d flown home with Taryn and Sidney that next day to get an idea of the lives they led. Hoping to make things a little less stressful, or so he’d said, he stayed at a hotel for the few days he’d been in town. After the encounter in his kitchen, she’d willingly accepted the excuse and the space it offered.
Sidney had instantly accepted Tyler and believed everything he said. Ryder was more hesitant. He was glad to be getting to know his father, and he hadn’t missed a Skype call since Tyler went back to Miami, but his thoughts and impressions were closely guarded secrets. Taryn spent every Skype call just out of Tyler’s view, but close enough to see his face filling the screen.
She’d avoided any repeat touches while he’d been in town, but every night for the last two weeks she’d studied him, studied the way he sat, his facial expressions, the way he talked to the kids.
When the kids came into view on his screen, his caramel eyes lit up, his voice’s tone lightened like whatever he’d seen that day at work no longer mattered. For Taryn, watching from the sidelines, it was her body that lit up and her spirit that lightened. While her heart grew heavier.
She liked him more all the time and dreaded their eventual showdown. It made no sense how he could impact her so powerfully, but he did. Because of that, she never allowed herself to be available to Skype with him, but complete avoidance was impossible. The safer bet was to stick to the phone. Except with the phone her imagination was free to run with where he was sitting and whether or not he’d showered recently and how he was dressed with the workday done.
Considering the time difference that put their calls close to midnight his time, she always pictured him in bed. That certainly did nothing for her need to keep him at a distance or out of her imagination.
The kids, Sidney more than Ryder, had talked Tyler into staying at the house during his next visit.
Pulling up to the Arrivals curb at the airport, Taryn tried to tell herself she could be in the house with Tyler and not give in to the things she’d dreamed about. She hoped she wasn’t lying to herself.
At his gate, she slipped the car into Park and texted him her location. He hadn’t responded, hell, she wasn’t sure he’d received the message, before he exited and headed straight for her.
Instead of having his face stuck in a screen, something she’d quickly realized was common for him, his head was high, his stride was purposeful. His blond hair was shorter than it had been during last night’s Skype call and his face looked leaner.
After tossing his bag and laptop case into her backseat, he slipped into the passenger seat. “Hi,” he greeted her while pulling his phone from his pocket. She should have known he wouldn’t stay off technology long.
“Hi.” Braced, she looked his way. He’d lost a few pounds he couldn’t afford and his eyes were shadowed, at least they appeared to be with his head ducked to his phone. “How was the flight?”
“Turbulent, but I’m glad to be here.”
“The kids are looking forward to seeing you.” Mentioning the kids right off was her way of setting the tone for the visit: kids, first and foremost. There could be nothing between them that didn’t revolve around the kids.
“Both, or just Sidney?”
It hurt her to see how he struggled to connect with Ryder, when they had so much in common. Now that she saw his face when he asked—pinche
d lips, sad eyes and a deep sigh, the man broke her heart.
“He talks about you. Enough to make me think hunting you down was his idea.” She merged into traffic and headed for her first exit. “But like I’ve said before, Jenny’s leaving broke something inside him. He’ll take more time than Sidney, but he’ll come around.”
“I hope you’re right.” Tyler slipped his phone back into his pocket and turned toward the passing scenery. “How’s the new act coming?”
“New act?”
“Sidney said you were working on a new illusion that promised to be off the hook.”
Taryn chuckled. “She’s upset I won’t let her in on it.”
“What is it?”
“Transportation.” It was all she’d say because the only people who knew how her tricks worked were the ones doing them with her.
“A person or a thing?”
“Both.”
“At the same time and from the same place?”
She glanced his way briefly. He still faced out the window, but his questions weren’t as innocent as he pretended. “You’re still trying to pin those thefts on me and you think my new act, if you can figure it out, will help you prove my guilt.” She should’ve known better than to trust him to play fair or believe her claims of innocence. “I bet that would make it so much easier for you to get custody of the kids.”
“That’s not my intention.”
“What? Proving I’m guilty or taking the kids? Tell me, Tyler, did you agree to stay with us so you’d have more time with the kids or are you working an angle in your investigation?”
“Can’t I do both?”
“I’m not sure you can without hurting the kids, but you do what you want.” The top of her head itched, which it always did when she wanted to fly off and spew every thought in her head. Instead of wasting her breath telling him she wasn’t a thief, she faced the road and only the road. Ignoring her attraction promised to be easier than she’d thought. “In fact, feel free to look around the house while you’re here. I’m sure I have receipts to account for anything you find. I have a thing about people getting paid for the work they do.”
