by Marla Monroe
“Nice. You went all out on this side.” Tyler turned a circle taking in the state of the art stereo equipment housed in floor to ceiling shelves that were filled with books and little knick knacks.
“I wanted to be comfortable and after the, um, shooting, I didn’t want any reminders, so I had the place completely remodeled. I didn’t even leave the walls where they were.” The fact that the apartment he was currently living in was only comfortable and not as up-to-date as hers had her stomach churning with embarrassment
“I don’t blame you one bit. You basically eat, sleep, and live this bar, so it goes to reason that you should have a nice oasis for when you’re not working in it.”
Tyler kept surprising her.
He got her. Even the few female acquaintances she did have didn’t understand why she’d spend so much money fixing up her apartment when it was over a bar. Why was this man still single? It worried her that there was something buried deep inside of him that would eventually come out to bite her.
“No TV?” he asked with a silly grin pulling at the corners of his mouth.
“Nope. I don’t watch much TV, so if I want to watch a movie or the news, I use my computer. It’s over behind those cabinet doors.”
“Don’t really blame you. Not much on worth watching these days. I’m bad about vegging out when I stay in a motel and watching bad movies until three or four in the morning. Not good for me, but I get bored.”
“Well, we can’t have you getting bored here. I’ll turn on some music.” Celeste walked over to her stereo and made a few selections that would be good dance music. She took a guess and lined up three slow songs. She didn’t think he wanted to rock out.
“Unchained Melody” began, the first notes taking her breath as Tyler’s eyes shifted at the sound to stare into hers. He walked the three steps it took to bring them within inches of one another. Celeste drew in a deep breath and once again his amazing scent filled her with something that felt like longing. What did she long for?
Before she could answer her own question, he took her into his arms and moved them to the slow, sensual rhythm that thrilled her all the way to her toes. Patrick Swayze, he wasn’t, but the man could dance. He moved with her, smooth steps and slow, easy glides that had her on the verge of tears. She felt as if they were making love on the dance floor. Tyler kept them from touching more than a brief instance throughout the entire song. When it ended, Celeste’s body ached to press against his.
The next song began and that wish was granted when he pulled her tightly against his warm, hard form to move to the notes of Percy Sledge and “When a Man Loves a Woman.” While before they were making slow sensual love with the music, now they were consumed with the need to get as close as possible as they touched and slid up and down each other’s body.
He caught her small gasps with his mouth, mapping her mouth with his tongue then sucking on hers as if his life depended on it. Celeste wanted to jerk their clothes off so that they were skin to skin, but Tyler didn’t let her more than a fraction of an inch away from his body.
“Tyler.” Her voice came out breathy with a pleading quality to it.
“Celeste.” His had deepened and had a growl to it.
When the third song came on, Tyler picked her up and swung her around to Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight.” They danced the first few seconds like that before he let her slide down his body until her feet finally found the floor. She didn’t wait for the end of the song. Instead, Celeste took his hand and led him to her bedroom where she turned around and lifted her hair so that he could lower the zipper of her dress.
He didn’t jerk it down or even smoothly pull it in one swift movement. Tyler took his time. He revealed her back one slow inch after the other, kissing each spot on her back as he did. Everything inside of Celeste melted, making it nearly impossible to remain standing. How could she stand when her bones were a puddle surrounding her feet?
“Oh God, Tyler.”
“Shh. Let me enjoy this. I’ve never been offered anything so special or amazing before. I want to remember this for always.”
He stole her breath and then wrapped another golden string around her heart. Losing him now would hurt far more than anything she’d ever experienced before. His gentle nature and sensual courting captured her so securely that Celeste wondered if she’d ever truly be free again. But did she really want to be free?
I wouldn’t trade this for the world. Even if he rides away into the sunset one day, I will never regret it.
When he finally reached the spot just below the sway of her back, he was holding her up with one arm around her waist since she couldn’t do it on her own any longer. The dress slid down her body to crumple at her feet. Tyler swung her into his arms and laid her gently on the bed before standing back up and watching her without moving.
She wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but she made sure he could see her desire on her face. She poured it out of her eyes and parted her lips to run the tip of her tongue around them. Still, he stood there looking down at her.
When she thought she’d go crazy if he didn’t touch her or at least say something, Tyler kneeled on the floor and took one of her feet into his hand and removed the sandal before massaging her foot with his hands. It felt so damn good. Amazing. She’d never had her feet massaged before. He worked his way up to her ankle then her calf. When he made his way back down to her foot again, he leaned over and kissed her toes, then her ankle, and then moved to the next foot.
Still, he didn’t say a word. When he’d finished with that foot, Tyler kissed his way up her body, stopping to lick the ticklish spots at the juncture of her thighs and pelvis. He moved farther north to stop and twirl his tongue in her belly button. When he nibbled his way up her abdomen to press open-mouthed kisses to the undersides of her breasts, Celeste couldn’t take it any longer. She cried out and wrapped her arms around his head as he sucked in one taunt nipple and teased it with his tongue.
“Tyler! Please. I need you. No more playing.”
He let go of her nipple but still didn’t say anything before he wrapped his lips around the other nipple and tugged on it. When he added his teeth and gently pulled on it again, she came unglued and cried out, bucking as the shock of an orgasm poured through her.
It wasn’t a thunderstorm like he’d given her before, but it surprised her to the point that she stopped breathing for several seconds, then tears escaped as she gasped in once again. Where had that come from? He hadn’t touched her pussy with his mouth or fucked her and still she came in a way she never had before.
Who was this man?
Chapter Eight
Everything about Celeste screamed the one. Her strong backbone, her sexy body, her honesty beyond the norm. She didn’t pretend to be someone she wasn’t, yet even after she’d told him she didn’t do relationships and especially not with employees, Celeste had given in when she knew there was something between them. She was strong, determined, and committed, but not hardheaded or stubborn. Where had she been all his life?
Once again, doubt crept in to remind him that he’d thought all those other women had been the one, as well, like Amanda.
But Celeste is different. I can feel the difference all the way to my toes. She feels like home to me. Not this place, not this town, her.
She was long talks under the moon and stars while sitting on a front porch somewhere. She was early morning coffee in bed listening to music and reading the Sunday paper. He could see growing old with her. She was real to him, not an image he’d formed in his head of her, but down to earth, Celeste. He saw her. Did she see him?
“God, Celeste, that was beautiful. I want to do it all over again, but if I don’t get inside of you soon, I’m going to come in my jeans.”
“That would be sexy as hell, too.” She continued to fight to catch her breath, the words sounding winded.
“Are you crazy? That’s not sexy.” He kissed the tip of her nose.
“Sure it is. I
f you get that turned on over me and I make you come in your jeans, that’s sexy and delicious. I’d have to lick you clean again.”
“Woman, you undo me. I swear I’ve seen the best of you and you make a liar out of me.” He buried his face against her neck, breathing in the musky scent of sex and sweat and Celeste.
His dick grew thicker, if that was even possible. He was so turned on at that moment he wouldn’t have thought he could get any harder.
“Hurry up and undress, Tyler. I need you inside of me. I want to feel you fill me up again.”
He nearly fell off the edge of the bed trying to scramble off as fast as possible. Thank God she found him amusing because though he managed to tear his shirt off without incident, the same couldn’t be said about his rush to remove his jeans. He had them all the way down before he remembered he hadn’t taken off his boots.
Celeste burst out laughing, rolling back and forth on the bed as he cursed while he struggled to pull his boots off without sitting down. When he ended up sitting down anyway—hard—on the floor, she drummed her feet against the bed and howled.
“Dammit, Celeste! Don’t just lay there laughing your fool head off, help me. I’m hurting here.” His fussing wasn’t very convincing since he was struggling not to laugh, as well.
She inched off the bed and pulled one of his boots off before moving the other one. He had the damn things off in a tenth of a second once the damn boots were gone. Then he picked her up and tossed her back on the bed and followed her, pinning her to the mattress with his pelvis and thighs.
“Now that we’ve made it through that alive and without a major injury, what do you say we move on to better things?”
“I think that would be wonderful.” She wiggled her bottom so that her pussy rubbed against his hard cock.
“I’m sorry I took the seriousness out of it, Celeste. I don’t see this as a joke or a quick romp. Although I’ve waited so long it probably will be quick. I meant for this to beautiful, like you.”
She smiled and put a finger up to his lips. “The fact that we can laugh and joke and have fun with this makes it so much more special, Tyler. Otherwise, it would be just that, a romp that was wonderful and amazing, but not the special connection that we seem to have.”
He couldn’t say anything in response to that. His throat felt as if a thousand rocks were lodged in it. She was perfect. How many times could he think that?
When she pulled his head down by his ears and kissed him, Tyler lost all control, growling as he devoured her mouth. He reached between them to make sure she was ready for him and found her pussy wet and slick with her juices. He tested her with two fingers, groaning at how tight she was.
“Fuck me, Tyler. Let me feel you inside of me.” Her words broke the last finger hold he had on his control. Her dripping pussy called to him. He answered with a quick thrust of his cock deep inside of her warm, wet cunt. He would never be the same after her. If she didn’t see that their relationship meant more than sex, he would be a dead man walking. She already had his heart and was fast taking hold of his soul, as well.
“Fuck, you’re so damn tight.” His words sounded guttural even to his own ears, like he was some wild animal learning how to speak.
“Harder, Tyler. I want to feel you in my throat.”
“Gonna’ blow if I don’t slow down, babe. Give me a second and I’ll give you anything you want.”
Tyler slowed his pace, groaning at how difficult it was, but wanting to last longer than a six-second rodeo. She deserved a long hard ride, not some fumbling fuck up. He wanted to take her riding on his bike then make love to her while her pussy was still vibrating from the bike’s motor. He wanted to skinny dip in a lake with her then screw like rabbits in the water, making waves that disturbed all the fish.
“Please, Tyler. Please. I need you.”
Ah, hell. He couldn’t ignore the pleading in her voice. Those three words, I need you, tore through him and made him feel ten feet tall and growing. He began to move faster, deeper, harder. His hips slapped against her thighs and ass.
“Hell, yes. God, Celeste. So fucking good.”
He slammed into her hard enough it moved her up the bed and his cock head hit her cervix with each thrust. If he’d worried that she didn’t like that, just looking into her eyes each time he touched it proved that she did. Her eyes rolled back and she arched her neck as he buried himself deeper each time.
“I’m gonna’ come, babe. Come with me. Now!” He reached between them and rubbed her clit with little flicks of his finger until she screamed his name as he came yelling hers in unison.
When he’d spent himself to the point of exhaustion, Tyler dropped to his elbows and then rolled them over so that she lay draped half on and half off of his chest. He felt completely satisfied for the first time in his life. All was right in his world.
* * * *
The thump, thump, thump of Tyler’s heartbeat against her ear as her head rested on his chest. She counted as the racing beast slowly lost its rush and settled into a normal rhythm once again. She had no doubt that hers followed suite. How had something so unexpected been both fun and serious at the same time?
“I don’t have words.” Tyler’s husky voice echoed in her ears from his mouth and his chest.
“Me either. I’m comfortable, though.” She realized he would probably think she was talking about her position lying on top of him. “With this, with us, I mean.”
A long staccato sigh hissed from Tyler’s lungs. Had she said something wrong? Maybe she shouldn’t have shared that so soon. Celeste didn’t believe in hiding things or beating around the bush when it came to confessions.
“Thank fuck. I’ve been lying here worried that you were disappointed and rethinking us seeing where this relationship thing takes us.”
She chuckled. “Relationship thing? That’s an interesting way to put it. Is that like the emotion thing or the caring thing?”
He retaliated by popping her bare ass with his open hand. “Don’t make fun of my limited vocabulary. Remember, I joined the military instead of going to college.”
She pushed herself up to rest against her hands. “Don’t talk down about yourself, Tyler. That’s one thing I don’t like. I’ll call you on it every time. I’m sure you learned a lot more intricate and serious things than if you’d gone to college to study how earthworms make fertilizer or the importance of the Oxford comma.”
“Yeah, but I don’t always have the big words to describe things, like how I feel right here in this moment.” He stared up at her with a question in his eyes.
“That’s okay, Tyler, because I don’t have them either. I just know I’m comfortable being with you and that’s a first for me in a long time.”
“I vote we agree that it was some good shit and take a nap for now.” Tyler’s mischievous grin showed off his twinkling eyes.
“I can agree on that. Besides, we had the pillow talk, so it’s safe for you to fall asleep.” She threw her hands back to cover her ass when she felt his hand move back there.
“Go to sleep, brat.”
Celeste couldn’t go to sleep just yet. She had too many questions circling in her head, like could she let herself fall in love again? and was it already too late? What if it was and he didn’t fall in love with her? Just because he thought they were good together didn’t mean he would grow to have deeper feelings for her.
I’m going to drive myself insane worrying over it. Maybe all I can do is wait and see what happens between us. I can’t make him love me, and I can’t stop myself from falling because I’ve already started the freefall.
Everything inside of her screamed that he was genuine and worth the risk. Though she’d thought Burt was genuine and worth it, she hadn’t had the gut feeling she had now. Nothing had squeezed her lungs when he’d smiled at her. But then again, she hadn’t realized until later that his smiles had never reached his eyes like Tyler’s did.
Soft snoring noises tickled her ear, making her gig
gle before she could stop herself. A quick look assured her that she hadn’t woken him up. Celeste had to move her head to rest on his shoulder since the snoring vibrated against her ear when he inhaled.
Funny how snoring didn’t bother her but actually made her happy. Would it always be that way if they managed to stick together? What would it be like to grow old with Tyler? She could see them holding hands sitting on a swing and talking about the latest gossip.
But I don’t see us living here. It isn’t important to me anymore. I’m ready to move on, but what will Tyler want to do? He might like the idea of running a bar. Most men would.
The more she thought about them, the more she started to worry again. Maybe Tyler had the right idea. She didn’t need to stress out over the subject, she needed to take a nap and see where things were when they woke up.
A lot could change in the blink of an eye or during a longer nap. She hoped her heart could take whatever she woke up to later. She prayed that Tyler wouldn’t be different from when they’d eaten chicken pot pie together earlier. Change might be good for the soul, but it could play hell on a heart.
Chapter Nine
“How are you doing?”
Celeste smiled when Tyler leaned over the bar to check on her. They’d spent the rest of the day and night in her bed and had only come up for air when it was time to ready the bar to open. She was doing pretty damn good.
“Great. So far it’s slow for a Monday night. Everyone is pretty laid back right now.” She looked around at the half a dozen or so men sitting at the bar or scattered around the room. “Might could have managed with one waitress tonight, but you never know. Things could get busy later.”
“Heading outside to do a sweep of the parking lot. You know the drill, flash the lights if you need me before I make it back in.”
