by Leigh Landry
“You do realize this is the third time in three days that you’ve brought me food, right?”
“What can I say? I make a great delivery guy.”
He sure did.
Lauren tried to contain a smile. “I thought I also said I was fine and didn’t need anything?”
Tyler shrugged and flashed a full-blown smile. “I guess I missed that part.”
She narrowed her eyes playfully. “Liar.”
“I’m bad at following orders?”
Lauren laughed. “That is maybe the worst lie I’ve ever heard from you, soldier, but I’ll accept your offering anyway.” She took the bag and nodded inside. “Want to come in for a second? It looks like I could use some help with these supplies.”
His face tightened. “I don’t want to overstep.”
“You aren’t. I promise.” She looked down at herself. She was wearing sweatpants, her T-shirt was covered in dust and dog hair, and her hair was falling out of the messy bun on top of her head. Thankfully she’d put on a sports bra that morning. “I’m not exactly dressed for company, though.”
He scoffed. “I’ve seen you eat taffy with braces. You can’t scare me.” His eyes turned serious, and he added, “If you’re sure.”
He hesitated in the doorway, so Lauren handed him Millie and grabbed the front of his shirt to pull him inside.
“I’m sure,” she said.
That grin of his was going to be the end of her.
Especially since she’d made up her mind that this thing between them was never going to work. Ghost Brandy hadn’t chimed up in agreement, but Lauren was pretty sure she’d be on her side with this.
Tyler nuzzled Millie and followed Lauren to the kitchen. He was absolutely adorable holding that dog in his big, solid arms.
Shit, he was making this difficult.
“So you never actually told me how the rehearsal went. Am I supposed to not ask about it?”
Lauren put the bag on the bar and shrugged. “You can ask. Today.” It still stung, but a little less than it had the night before. “It wasn’t exactly my best moment.”
“Not all moments can be your best moments.”
“Since when did you become a life coach?”
“I’m just saying you should cut yourself some slack. I’m sure it was good enough even if it wasn’t your best.”
“Yeah, well, it wasn’t.” She pulled the plastic fork packets and fortune cookies out of the bag and tossed them on the counter. “But I’m okay with it. Or I will be. It wasn’t like this was a career path I’m missing out on or anything. It was just an unexpected thing that sounded like fun.”
He stared at her for a second, then said, “I think it was more than that, and they’re fools if they don’t scoop you up.”
Lauren met his stare, and every cell in her body wished he’d scoop her up right then and there.
She cleared her throat and dug in the bag again. “Thanks.”
Being this close to him and staring at each other, reminded her of the last time they were in this house together. All she could think about now was how she sure wouldn’t mind making out with him in a closet again.
A second later, she remembered the deal he’d made with her yesterday—the deal she wasn’t letting him slide past. She pulled her hand out of the bag and leaned with both arms on the bar to meet his gaze again.
“So, I did the audition. Talk.”
He looked confused. “We are talking.”
“Uh-uh. Nice try.” She shook her head. “I auditioned. You said we could talk about whatever I wanted after that.”
“Right.” He cleared his throat. “Forgot about that.”
Lauren laughed. “You are without a doubt the worst liar I have ever met.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You should. Although, after last night, I’ve had enough blunt honesty for a while.”
“It couldn’t have been that bad.”
“No.” She shook her finger at him. “You aren’t switching the subject here.” She leaned forward and stared at his brown eyes that seemed to get darker by the moment. “We’re talking about what happened yesterday. Getting it all out in the open. I don’t want things to be weird between us after this, so let’s just both admit the kiss was a mistake and go back to being lunch buddies and bonding over my dead sister.”
Tyler flinched, and Lauren regretted taking that too far. Again. But she wasn’t going to apologize. She needed him to agree with her and take this seriously, even if it meant him being mad at her for a few minutes.
“It wasn’t a mistake. Not on my part.”
It was Lauren’s turn to flinch.
She’d figured a night alone would give them both some time to realize this was ridiculously weird. That they were just emotional over the task and their shared grief. That this was some sort of transitional attraction. Like a rebound relationship.
Since her body wasn’t buying that theory for one second, she’d been counting on Tyler to be the voice of reason.
“Don’t you think the timing of this means something is wrong with it?” she asked. “That this is all mixed up feelings, and maybe we should take a step back until we’re both over our grief? Or something?”
He held her gaze, then took her hand in his. “No.”
She looked down at their hands to avoid his intense stare, because he was making her doubt everything she’d been so sure about earlier that morning.
Or maybe she hadn’t been so sure at all. Maybe she’d been working hard to convince herself she didn’t have real feelings for him, despite the fact that her heart knew otherwise. Despite the fact that she doubted her own judgment in men. Even in Tyler.
“Then why now? If this is real, why not before now?”
Tyler laughed. “Who said it’s just now?”
Her head shot up. “Isn’t it? For you, I mean?”
His mouth crept up into a tiny half smile as his eyes softened into dark pools. “Lauren, I’ve had a crush on you for almost ten years.”
She’d never considered, not even for a minute, that Tyler might have shared the feelings she had for him.
She gave him a teasing smile. “Just ten?”
“Two words,” he said. “Taffy and braces.”
They both laughed.
Lauren found her voice again and said, “I think I’ve had a crush on you since that morning Brandy refused to get up, so the two of us watched old Star Trek: Voyager episodes on cable in our pajamas. We both sat on the living room floor, while we ate Lucky Charms.”
“You remember that?”
“Sure,” she said. “I’m surprised you do.”
“Of course I do. You’re as much home for me as anything or anyone else here.”
Her heart actually ached when he said that. She’d been self-rejecting all her life. Meanwhile, Tyler and her family had been here all along. Eating Lucky Charms with her and stocking the fridge with cream sodas. Waiting for her to realize where she belonged and join them. Just like in that photo.
“That doesn’t mean this is a good idea.” At this point, Lauren wasn’t sure she could spot a good idea even if she came up with one.
But Tyler didn’t have her ex hanging out in his head, and he wasn’t plagued by her self-doubt. His pupils widened, and she swore the temperature of his hand still holding hers rose at least five degrees.
“I think it’s an excellent idea.”
She rolled her eyes and pulled her hand away to finish taking out the rest of their food. “Of course, you do,” she said playfully.
Tyler walked around the bar and took the Styrofoam container from her hands. He placed it on the bar, then took both her hands in his as he moved in to close the space between them. That clean, fresh scent that she now associated with Tyler filled her nose and head.
Lauren’s heart raced and a wave of heat rushed through her whole body. He tilted her chin up, his eyes dancing with want, and she had the sudden urge to make it so he never wanted fo
r anything ever again.
“Let me show you how good an idea we could be.”
He was still inching toward her, their noses almost touching now. When he traced a finger softly along her jaw and brushed her hair away from her face, she nodded her agreement.
His lips met hers, softly, gently, as they explored each other, like they were kissing for the first time again. Lauren’s skin tingled and twitched, all the way down to her toes.
He pulled away to look at her again, taking in every feature on her face while she stared back at him in awe. Her breath was rapid and ragged with anticipation. She had never wanted another man the way she wanted Tyler in that moment. Every part of him.
She grabbed the fabric of his shirt and leaned forward, pressing her hips against his.
After another hungry look into her eyes, Tyler’s mouth crashed against hers, and a wave of heat washed through her. She matched his kiss with more intensity and desire than she’d ever felt before. His tongue entered her mouth, and she drank him in.
Their bodies pressed together, and he turned them both so he could lean into her with the bar behind her. They kissed furiously while his hand slid up her sides beneath her T-shirt. His thumbs grazed her breasts under the fabric of her sports bra.
He froze for a second to look up at her. He was as breathless as she was.
“Are you sure?”
She was dizzy and her heart was pounding, but she nodded and said, “I’ve never been more sure of anything.”
Tyler gave her a devilish grin, then lifted her in one gentle motion onto the bar counter. His hands worked quickly to pull her shirt over her head. Before her shirt hit the tile floor, his mouth was on her stomach. She threw her head back to try to gulp more air as he kissed her, and his hands slid under her sports bra again, his thumbs artfully circling her nipples beneath the fabric.
Lauren pulled his shirt over his head and ran her hands over his chest and shoulders. Tyler’s chest and shoulders.
For all the years she’d wanted him, she’d never let herself imagine him—imagine them—like this. Hers.
She dug her fingers into his back, claiming him, and he lifted his head to kiss her mouth again, using the weight of his own body to push her back onto the cold bar countertop.
“You don’t need these.” He shimmied her sweatpants and underwear off and let them fall to the floor.
The countertop was cold and hard on the skin of her back, but Lauren didn’t care. She wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled herself up to kiss him again. And again. And again. Desperate for the taste of him.
Tyler stopped kissing her long enough to tug her bra up and over her arms and head and throw it across the room. A second later, Lauren gasped and dug her fingers into his hair when his mouth replaced his hands on her breasts. His hands now slid up and down her thighs, and she shivered against his touch. She felt his satisfied grin on her right breast before his tongue circled her nipple. She let out a little moan and called out his name.
It felt so good just to say his name.
She said it again.
Lauren gripped his hair tighter as one hand slid up her thigh all the way between her legs and rubbed her softest parts, spreading her wetness across the entire area. He kissed his way up the sensitive side of her neck, and she went weak, only to be shocked back to life by his finger sliding inside her.
Somehow her hands managed to make their way down to his jeans. She was grateful for her body’s natural response, because her brain sure as hell couldn’t think with his fingers fucking her stupid.
She nibbled on his ear and moaned against him. “You don’t need these either,” she said, while unzipping his jeans and released him from his boxers. He groaned when she wrapped her hand around the length of him.
Her breath escaped her as he slid his fingers out, leaving her empty and aching.
She pushed his jeans down to the floor. Tyler stepped out of them and dug in the back pocket for his wallet. Holding a condom in one hand, he wrapped his arms around her. She straddled her legs around his waist, and he carried her out of the kitchen and into the living room.
“Wait a second,” she said.
Lauren grabbed a fleece blanket to lay over the couch cushions while Tyler opened the condom and rolled it onto the full length of his erection.
He lowered himself on top of her, where she grabbed him and helped guide him inside her. Their eyes locked, and as he slid all the way in, Lauren’s heart clenched under his stare.
She’d never felt so much like she belonged somewhere, with someone, as she did in that moment.
He moved inside her slowly, then placed soft, feathery kisses on her lips. Lauren placed her hands on his face and kissed him with more intensity, which he matched eagerly.
They rocked against one another, filling her with ecstasy she couldn’t remember ever coming close to.
She kissed him, then gave him a grin and nodded to the side. They rolled together onto the floor, the blanket forgotten, with Tyler still inside her until he was on his back on the floor. Lauren positioned herself atop him, her knees on either side and her hands propped on his gorgeous chest. She moved slowly at first, filling every hidden corner of herself with him. She found a comfortable position and rhythm and closed her eyes to revel in the sensation of having him inside her.
Tyler placed his hands firmly on her thighs as she moved against him. Then he slid one hand up until his thumb found the sensitive hidden nub. At first he made small circles with his thumb as she moved, increasing his pressure with each of her strokes. She felt herself climbing, her breath quickening until she could no longer stand it. With a gasp, her body shook. She bent over to meet him with an intense kiss, and he flipped her over on her back and moved against her, finishing off the waves of ecstasy rippling through her entire body. He moved with a fierce desperation until he too gasped in release and collapsed beside her. They both moaned and panted with pleasure.
Tyler raised her hand, their fingers entwined, though she had no memory of when they’d grasped each other that way. He kissed the back of her fingers, and she smiled at him, desperately enjoying the feeling of holding his hand almost as much as anything else.
Almost.
He smiled back and rolled to his side so he could kiss her forehead. It wasn’t enough, so they met for another full kiss, drinking in every last drop of each other.
“So, believe me now that we’re a good idea?”
Lauren beamed at him. She felt like she was smiling with her entire body, right down to her toes. “The best idea.”
He kissed her nose. “I have an even better one. Wait here.”
Chapter 10
Tyler walked down the darkened hallway to the bathroom. He’d found his way down this hall so many times, he could find it even if it was pitch black in the house.
But he was seeing it all in a new light now. No matter how many times he’d been in this house, no matter how many times he’d walked down this hall, this was all new. He and Lauren were making new memories now. Together.
He cleaned up, then paused with his hand on the light switch. From the bathroom doorway, he had a straight line of sight into her room across the hall.
So many times he’d denied himself a peek into that room. Her room. So he let himself have this moment.
But something was different.
Tyler crossed the hall, his eyes glued to the top of the dresser where Lauren had always kept her violin case. But the dresser surface was completely cleared off.
As he peered inside the room, Tyler frowned. No violin on the bed either. In fact, he didn’t see it anywhere.
He switched off the bathroom light across the hall and walked back to the kitchen. It wasn’t his place to say anything, no matter how much it worried him. And it did worry him. A lot.
Tyler knew what playing again meant to Lauren. And he knew she was holding back how much that audition meant to her, too. But having sex with her didn’t give him the right to pry. Not if she was
n’t ready to talk about it.
Still, he was going to have to talk to her about it. When the time was right. He hated to see her hurting.
He found Lauren wrapped in a fuzzy red blanket, smiling up at him, and he forgot all about bands and music and everything but that smile. He grabbed his jeans from the floor and slipped them on. Then, he grabbed the Styrofoam container and two forks.
“Ooh.” Lauren snatched one of the forks before his butt hit the floor beside her. “I don’t know about a better idea, but this is certainly another excellent one.” She attacked the lo mein and moaned with pleasure between bites.
Something stirred inside Tyler that was more than just an urge to roll her over on the floor again. It was a feeling that he was right where he belonged. Of all the times he’d been in this house, as much as he’d loved spending all of his weekends here with Brandy when he was a kid, this was different. This was filling deep parts of him that he’d never known could be satisfied.
Sitting on that floor with Lauren, Tyler felt whole. He was home.
He took a bite and nodded in agreement. “Way better than Lucky Charms.”
Lauren laughed. It was as magical a sound as it was every other time he’d heard it. Maybe even more now.
Tyler couldn’t quite wrap his head around how they got from Lucky Charms to lo mein, but he knew one thing as she watched Lauren eat Chinese food naked, wrapped in a blanket beside him: he was grateful they were here.
* * * * *
“Your parents are coming back tonight?”
“Yup.”
Lauren dumped the rest of the empty containers and plastic utensils in the trash and put the leftovers in the fridge. She’d eaten from this particular Chinese restaurant many times, but it had never tasted nearly this good. The company definitely helped.
“So you’ll be going back to your apartment after that?”
Lauren froze. She didn’t want to get into any of the other reasons she was at her parents’ place right now. She especially didn’t want to talk about her ex. Plus, there was the whole thing about her not actually knowing when she was leaving or where she was going from here.
He noticed her hesitation and leaned in for a small kiss. “Just wondering where I should call.”
