by Sami Lee
Given the warning, nobody could describe this kiss as a surprise. But the touch of his lips on hers was a jolt to Summer’s system all the same. Ty brushed his mouth over hers, teasing her lips apart before slowly wetting them with the tip of his tongue. Summer moaned, the sound strangled. Ty responded by dipping his tongue into her mouth, too briefly, before drawing back and nibbling on her lower lip.
Summer’s hands went to his shoulders, and the corded strength beneath her fingers made her tremble in an innately feminine way. He was strong, so much stronger than he used to be. And he kissed even better than she remembered. There was no escaping his grasp, had she possessed the fortitude to try. So Summer allowed herself a moment of surrender. She tilted her head back and let her lips fall apart, an invitation no man could miss.
And when it came to women, Summer suspected Ty missed nothing. Giving her what she couldn’t help but want, he deepened the kiss, turning it into a melding of tongues and lips and teeth. His hands on her back circled, inching downward until he gripped her bottom. He brought her against him, and she felt the hard column of his manhood thrusting against her stomach. An answering rush of heat gathered inside her, so swiftly Summer sucked in a breath. Arousal, for her, was rarely so fast in coming, so enveloping. The liquid warmth spread outward, until her toes curled in her shoes and her breasts tingled and swelled inside her bra. She pressed her body against his, alleviating the ache and exacerbating it as well.
A chair scraped over the linoleum floor, the shopping bags rustled. The next Summer knew, the wall was at her back. Ty pressed her to the cool surface with the solid heat of his body as the kiss moved from hot to scorching. The soft nibbles became sharp little bites to the tender flesh of Summer’s lips. Summer gasped, the unexpected pinching sensation adding an edge to her desire, an urgency. She arched against Ty, needing more. Pleading for it.
Her blouse was a loose fit, and it was an easy task for Ty to slip his hand beneath the hem. Summer held her breath as his touch inched upward, over her waist, her ribs. When he found her breast and cupped it, she whimpered in relief and need. The heavy weight of his hand felt so good, but it wasn’t enough. When it came to Ty Butler, too much had never been enough.
When his thumb brushed over her distended nipple through the silky material of her bra, Summer couldn’t prevent the pleasured moan from vibrating in her throat. Nor could she help it when her thighs parted, wrapping partway around him. He angled his lower body forward, so the hard column of his erection flexed against the front of her slacks. Summer’s clit responded with a hot pulse that caused wetness to gather in her panties. He kept up the rocking motion of his hips, teasing her into wishing there was no fabric between them. Vivid pictures came to her. Ty unzipping her pants and his hot length sliding over her throbbing flesh, sinking inside her clenching pussy.
So this is how it happens. He could take her right here, up against the wall the way he said he liked it. It was insane how much Summer suddenly wanted that, fast frantic sex such as she’d never had.
With a plaintive cry, Summer wrenched her mouth from beneath Ty’s. He let her break the kiss, but the hot shuddering breaths he blew against her turned cheek were equally arousing. “Jesus, Sum.”
“Ty.” Summer’s heart thudded against her sternum. His hand was still at her breast, his thumb rhythmically stroking. It was impossible to think straight. But she had to. The alternative was madness. “What are we doing?”
We not you, because there was no denying she was participating in this craziness. What had come over her?
Ty buried his face in her throat and inhaled, as though cataloguing her scent. “I never forgot how you smell, like exotic flowers and hot fantasies.”
She’d always remembered how he smelled as well. Like the ocean and sunshine. And forbidden fruit. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”
“Why not? Haven’t we earned the right to scratch this old itch?”
“Is that all it is?”
Ty drew back and looked into her face. His expression was inscrutable. “What else do you want it to be?”
Oh, no. He wasn’t making her play that game. She wasn’t going to spill her guts about her lack of experience with casual encounters only to have him say that was all he could give her. “What I want isn’t relevant.”
Ty gave her a quizzical look, as though the notion made no sense at all. With an ironic turn of his lips, he took her nipple between thumb and forefinger and deftly tugged. Summer couldn’t silence the needful gasp his move caused. “Seems like the only thing that is relevant right now.”
“I can’t do something that makes this little sense. Please, Ty. Let me go.”
His expression sobered. Muttering a succinct four-letter word, Ty released her and stepped back. He turned away and scraped his hands through his hair, giving Summer a moment to adjust her mussed clothing.
When Ty spoke again, his voice vibrated with frustration. “You’re making everything more complicated than it should be.”
“It is complicated.” At least for her. “I’m not one of these women who can give you sex and laughs and still be your friend the next day.”
“You make me laugh.” Ty half-turned and showed her a faint smile. “And we were friends once.”
“That was a long time ago.”
“Funny. All of a sudden it doesn’t feel like that long. You’re still holding your place on the ‘things Ty can’t have list’.”
“I’m sorry to ruin your track record,” Summer snapped.
He laughed, the sound devoid of mirth. “No you’re not. You like the sense of power it gives you to deny yourself the things you really want. That’s not power, Summer. It’s just a waste.”
“What is it you think I’m wasting?”
“Us. This chance to finish what started when we were kids.”
“An affair,” Summer concluded dully.
“We’re both adults. What’s stopping us? I haven’t been your sister’s boyfriend in over a decade. You still hung up about what your father thinks?”
“No.” Even as she gave the denial Summer wasn’t sure it was true. She pictured taking Ty around to the new house her father shared with Dianne, them all sharing a tense Sunday lunch. With it she imagined all the progress she and Rex Campbell had made in accepting each other’s differences slipping away. “I’m just not very good at casual relationships.”
And a long-term thing with a man who spent his years traveling the world and partying was out of the question.
“No practice. I could help with that.” His grin turned wolfish. “You never know, you might even have fun for a change.”
“I have fun.”
“Sure you do.”
Summer was saved from having to defend what was a very weak position by the jingle that heralded the opening of the front door. Saved by the bell—again.
“Morning, Summer,” Penny called out, causing Summer to check her clothes once more for suspicious wrinkles.
Ty’s laugh was derisive. “You’ve always cared too much what people think of you.”
“I don’t need to hear any more of your opinions about what’s wrong with me.”
“Tough. I’ve got one more.” In only one stride, Ty was standing over her, his face looming above hers. He peered into her eyes, and Summer had the unsettling feeling he would look right into her soul if she let her guard down.
Finally, he said, “You’re scared.”
Of course she bloody was, but as she hadn’t yet been able to articulate exactly why she was so terrified, she was hardly going to admit her feelings to Ty. “I’m being sensible.”
“Now where’s the fun in that?”
“Oh, sorry.” Penny had appeared at the entrance to the kitchenette. Summer used the excuse to break the searing eye contact with Ty. Penny’s expression lay somewhere between amused and curious. “Would you like me to leave again and give you two a few minutes?”
“No need. Ty was just on his way out.”
“Seems
that way,” Ty said. Then with a quick glance of acknowledgement for Penny, Ty grabbed his shopping bag and left.
Into the silence that followed the front door closing, Summer muttered, “I have fun. Don’t I, Penny?”
The pause told Summer more than Penny’s answer. “Sure.”
“You don’t have to lie.”
“Really? ’Cause I kinda had the feeling I should.”
Summer pushed out a sigh. “I need to go out. I need to date more.” If she’d had sex anytime in the last fourteen months, she might not have reacted like a combustible substance the second Ty had touched her.
“No argument here.”
“If I kissed men all the time, that wouldn’t have felt so…overwhelming.”
Penny smirked. “Mr. Billboard kissed you?”
And then some. Summer sent Penny a look that told her she did not want to talk about it. Resolutely, she said, “Set me up with that guy you told me about.”
“Are you sure?” Penny gave a pointed glance to the doorway through which Ty had exited. “Because it doesn’t seem like you need me to set you up after all.”
“Oh, I do. Believe me, that”—Summer waved toward the door—“is not going to happen.”
“If you say so. I was going to go out with Bryan tonight—I’m sure he’ll bring his brother if I ask. He’s a lawyer by the way. Very gainfully employed.”
“See—a lawyer! That’s what I need.”
“You’re in legal trouble?”
“No, I mean he has a regular job. I need to date a regular man. Someone who’s going to be here beyond the end of the season. Someone with a normal, stable career. Someone who shaves daily.”
Someone who didn’t make her feel like her world was moments away from being spun out of control.
“Okay, I’ll set it up,” Penny said.
“Good.”
It was for the best, Summer told herself. Ty thought she could have sex with him a few times and then say so long, see you around. No regrets. No sadness or pain. Summer doubted it. Her feelings for Ty had always run deeper than that, and despite the years and emotional baggage she’d collected, Summer feared she hadn’t changed much in that regard.
Yes, that was the source of the fear. From a young age she’d learned losing people was hard, and it was so painful getting over Ty last time, Summer knew she didn’t want to go through it again.
Better to date the lawyer and keep her heart, and her sanity, safe.
Ty knocked back the remains of his rum and coke and slammed the empty on the table beside him. Almost immediately, a woman wearing a tight-across-the-tits T-shirt with Leyton’s Headland Pub printed on it and a denim miniskirt sidled up to him. “Can I get you another one, Ty?”
Ty looked at her with vision that was a lot blurrier than it had been last time he’d seen her. Or was this a completely different woman to the one who’d delivered him a drink before? Deciding it didn’t matter, Ty gave the unidentified female a wink. “Sure, babe. Same again.”
He went to give her a twenty, but instead of taking it in her hand, she invited him with a cant of her hip to slip it into the front pocket of her skirt. Amused, Ty did it, feeling heat and softness against his fingers as he did so.
He’d felt heat and softness that morning too, when he’d kissed Summer. When her tongue had tangled with his, and when her taut breast was cupped in his hand.
Abruptly, Ty snatched his fingers back out of the woman’s pocket. If she noticed the ferocious scowl that must surely have crossed his face, it didn’t seem to bother her. The woman headed to the bar, putting an extra swing in her step to make sure Ty watched her ass as she left. Not wanting to insult her, Ty watched nice and close. Heaviness gathered in his groin.
Thank fucking Christ. He might actually be able to get it hard enough to fuck a stranger tonight, to fuck the memory of Summer’s hot kiss from his mind. That’s what he’d come out for. To drink enough to forget that Summer Campbell had rejected him—again. He was really beginning to hate déjà fucking vu. All he needed was to find a willing woman and bury himself deep until he forgot all about how Summer had felt pressed against him, squirming so desperately the jut of her hard nipples scraped against his chest, kissing him so savagely his lips still felt singed.
His groin grew laden and hot, but the woman was completely out of sight. Ty’s stirring hard-on wanted Summer, not the brunette in the miniskirt.
God damn it.
“Well, if it isn’t Leyton’s Headland’s prodigal son. Haven’t seen you darken the door of this pub in forever, butthead.”
Turning at the voice beside him, Ty blinked at the sight of his old friend standing only meters away sporting a huge grin. Nobody, but nobody other than Aaron Sanderson got away with calling Ty butthead. “Hey, you ugly prick. I thought you’d stood me up.”
“Some business I had to finish.” Aaron stepped forward and clapped him on the back. “I see you got started without me.”
“I was in a drinking mood.”
“In a foul mood anyway. You didn’t like a single one of the properties I showed you this afternoon.”
“Maybe you’re just a crappy estate agent.”
“Ouch! Geez, mate, ease up.”
“Sorry,” Ty muttered, wincing. He was in a foul mood. A double dose of rejection and a permanently hard dick could do that to a guy. “Actually you’re a terrific agent. And your cheesy mug looks great on the side of a bus.”
“Says the man whose ass can be seen blown up to the size of a semitrailer on roadsides everywhere.”
“Hey, those billboards advertise board shorts.” Ty burped loudly. “My ass just happens to be in them.”
The two men looked at each other. Aaron’s lips were the first to twitch, and despite his bad mood, Ty’s followed suit. Soon they were laughing, reminiscing about old times and discussing the newest up-and-coming surfers on the tour.
When the woman of the tight T-shirt returned with Ty’s drink, she gave Aaron the same once-over she’d afforded Ty. Wasting no time, Aaron turned on the charm, ordering a scotch for himself and managing to convince the woman to keep them coming with no more incentive than a smile.
When she left, Ty mock-frowned. “You bastard. She was quite happily checking me out until you got here.”
“You snooze, you lose. But I might be convinced to share, if she’s up for it.”
“Oh, shit. Last time we did that it was with…”
“Jasmine Campbell.” Aaron spoke her name on a sigh, the way many men might say Angelina Jolie. “Who could forget Jasmine?”
Ty grunted, feeling morose once more. Thoughts of Jasmine always engendered thoughts of Summer. The two were inextricably linked in his memory, but not in a way that Aaron would understand. His friend’s mind would go straight for the filth, threesomes and sisters and all that. Ty wasn’t about to start talking about Jasmine and end up admitting anything about Summer.
Summer, who found him as resistible as rotten cheese.
Two drinks later, Ty was feeling more than a little buzzed, enough that he knew he’d have a headache tomorrow, but not so much as to cause a black out. The voice of caution kicked in, telling him he ought to grab some water and slow down on the rum.
Then all cautionary whispers faded to nothing when Summer walked in.
It took one to know one, so Ty could tell immediately she was drunk. He also noted that she had some other guy’s arm wrapped around her, and it was like watching a scene from a movie he’d seen too many times. The instinct to go over there and punch her date in the face was frustratingly familiar.
Fighting the idiocy that came with drunkenness, Ty quashed his urges. Summer was with Penny and some other man, obviously a double-date situation. Besides, he was done trying to cajole Summer into satisfying both their needs.
He was totally and completely done.
Chapter Five
How was it possible to be in perfectly decent company and still feel so alone?
It wasn’t the
first time Summer had asked herself that question. Tonight, she’d thought the alcohol might help. She wasn’t a big drinker, not believing that a few empty giggles were worth the inevitable morning-after suffering, but tonight she’d imbibed more than usual.
It didn’t help her fit with the foursome any better. She’d never performed well in group situations, she was too quiet to stand out. She preferred to be by herself with a good book, or with one other person she truly liked.
Like Ty. Summer hated to admit it, but she did like him, despite his tendency to be annoying and arrogant. That was why it was damned bothersome, this fear of hers. She’d always liked him, she was intensely attracted to him, and she needed to have sex. A quick affair with Ty was the perfect solution, really. If only she could behave like an adult and not like an eighteen-year-old every time she got near him.
Darn it, Summer. Stop thinking about Ty.
“It’s okay you know,” said Greg Danvers, Summer’s perfectly nice, perfectly acceptable date.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t mind that it’s not working between us.”
Summer flushed with embarrassment. Had her lack of interest been so obvious? “I’m sorry.” She propped her elbow on the bar and her chin into her hand. “I’m not very good at dating.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’m not really ready.” At Summer’s curious expression, Greg put his light beer back on the bar and elaborated. “I had a messy breakup last year and my brother’s been hassling me to get over it. The thing is, I don’t think I am ready to be over it.”
Summer blew a delicate raspberry. At least she hoped it was delicate. “People should mind their own business.”
“Yeah, well.” Greg gestured toward the other barstool where his brother sat, Penny practically in his lap. “They seem to be enjoying themselves. That’s something.”
Summer hoped this wasn’t another short fling that fizzled quickly, leaving Penny more depressed than ever. Summer lifted her glass of house white, a mysterious blend that was all the pub sold by the glass. With a wry twist of her lips, she toasted. “To true love.”
