by Sami Lee
“I’m glad you didn’t know. I was ashamed of myself for the mess I’d made of my life. You always used to tell me how smart I was, how I could do anything I wanted. But I ruined everything, and I would have hated for you to know that.”
“But at least I would have known you weren’t marrying him because I was”—he let out a bitter laugh—“replaceable.”
Summer recalled thinking earlier that evening how very irreplaceable Ty had turned out to be. She pushed up on her hands and looked into his face. “That’s one thing you’re definitely not, Ty Butler.”
She dipped her head and met his lips with hers, using her tongue and teeth as well to kiss him for all she was worth. He responded with lazy hunger, groaning into her mouth and moving his hands down to squeeze her backside. Now that the emotions were spent, the confessions made, all that remained was the bone-melting desire that only he could elicit. Summer squirmed on top of his hard body, feeling tight and hot everywhere.
Ty lifted her dress and cupped her bare ass. Summer responded with a grind of her hips that brought her throbbing sex against the solid ridge in Ty’s pants. He murmured against her mouth, “You know that thing I said about not doing anything? If you keep wiggling around like that, the deal’s off.”
“There was never any deal.” Summer ground into him again, feeling the flutter in her clit that told her she could come from this alone, while they were both fully clothed.
But she didn’t want it like that. She wanted him naked. Levering herself up until she straddled his thighs, Summer reached for his waistband. “I think it’s well past time we got these pants off.”
“If you insist.” His words were sardonic but the delivery was breathless. Summer felt him watching her with avid interest as she unzipped his pants and drew them down and off his legs. The sight of him hard and more than ready made her cunt contract and release.
Not yet. She wanted to take him to heaven first, as he’d so often done for her. She wanted to give him the blowjob of his life.
Shifting on the bed so her body was at right angles to his, Summer took hold of Ty’s cock. She pumped him up and down, a slow, knowing stroke, as she looked into his glittering eyes and showed him her intent. A breath stuttered out of him as she lowered her head and swirled her tongue around the broad tip. A pearl of precome greeted her, and Summer lapped it up.
He drove his fingers through her hair, telegraphing his need. Summer showed him some mercy and swallowed the tip of his erection into her mouth.
“Summer.” Her name was a benediction on his lips as hers wrapped around his staff. She sucked softly, swirling her tongue around his circumference. Ty let out a tortured moan and lifted his hips off the mattress.
Summer raised her head, delaying the moment when she would take him to the back of her throat. Ty made a frustrated sound, but she merely smiled, moving her hands to his shirt where she undid all the buttons and spread the fabric.
She loved his body. He was strong and fit without being bulky, and his skin was golden and smooth. She’d come to see his tattoos as part of him, not a blemish but an artistic finishing touch on an already beautiful canvas. Summer drew a circle around the yin and yang symbol that marked his hip, to the right of his straining cock. Her fingers brushed his hardness as she trailed upward. She explored the ridges of his stomach, the planes of muscle in his chest. His nipples too, which grew erect as she brushed her fingertips over them. Finally she came to that cracked heart on his left pectoral.
Summer ran her fingertip over it, tracing the design. Then she bent her head and pressed her lips against the fissure running through it. She knew a sharp pang of regret for all the years they’d lost, the years that he’d spent with other women. “Whoever she was,” she whispered. “I hope she was worth it.”
He sucked in a breath, but didn’t reply. Summer pressed her lips to the tattoo once more before moving downward. She was through teasing him. All of a sudden she was impatient to give him as much pleasure as she was capable of giving.
When she had her hand around the base of his shaft once again, she looked up at him. “Tell me how you want it, what you like best.” She wanted to do it right, be the best he’d ever had.
“Don’t you know by now, Summer? I just want you, any way you’ll take me.”
Her heart beating painfully, Summer lowered her head and took him into her mouth, no teasing preamble this time. She took him deep, sucked him hard. She pumped the root of his shaft with one hand, cupped his balls with the other.
Whenever she glanced up, she found Ty watching her, his eyes glazed with lust and his mouth moving, uttering dirty words of encouragement. He didn’t touch her, didn’t grab her hair or her ass, which was thrust high as she worked him, the dress having fallen to her waist. He simply gave himself and watched her take and take.
At last he cursed loudly and arched his back, releasing himself. His seed splashed into her throat, and Summer swallowed it thirstily, lapping at every last drop. When she knew he was done, she sat back on her haunches and grinned. “That was good for you.”
“Hm-mm,” Ty muttered drowsily. “Gonna have to get another tattoo. On my dick. It’ll say ‘Summer’s Property’.”
Summer laughed, almost drunk with self-satisfaction. “Sounds painful.”
“I shouldn’t have let you take me all the way,” Ty said. “Now I’m going to have to wait twenty minutes before it’s hard enough to get in your sweet pussy.”
Summer reached for the side zip of her dress, drawing it down and wiggling out of the garment. Ty’s gaze remained glued to the way her braless breasts jiggled as she disrobed. Summer smiled. “Twenty minutes, huh?”
Ty smiled back, the familiar devilish twinkle appearing in his eyes. “Did I say twenty? I meant fifteen.”
Next Summer reached for her panties, making slow, deliberate work of removing them. “You want to try for ten?”
“Forget ten. Time’s now been cut to five,” Ty said with a mock growl as he pulled her on top of him.
Chapter Eleven
Ty was on edge.
He shouldn’t be. Not after a sex session that had gone on half the night and run into the morning as well. But no matter how many times he sought relief from his emotional turmoil in the welcoming heat of Summer’s body, the calming effect was merely temporary. When he came to, he still felt things he was afraid to express.
Afraid—ha! He wasn’t afraid, he was scared shitless. Of Summer, the five-foot-two-inch cutie pie who held his heart clutched tight in her hand.
It had been after ten before Ty had managed to drag himself out of bed and head into town to buy them some brunch of baked goods and fruit. While he was there, he stopped in to see Aaron. He’d signed the contract. The house on the hill was officially his.
He should have told Summer the minute he got back. I bought the house I showed you. One day I want us both to live in it. But his palms had started that weird sweating again, and Summer had greeted him with a searing kiss that made him forget about the house and the pastries too—for a while.
Now they’d finally eaten and had retreated to the small, paved courtyard that served as Summer’s backyard, sharing a rattan love seat that sat in the dappled afternoon sunlight. Ty had her foot in his lap, and he was idly stroking her instep, thinking there’s more room at the house. She’ll be happier there. Tell her.
“This is, by far, the laziest day I’ve ever indulged in.”
Ty roused himself from his brooding to look across at Summer. Say something. Say what you mean, God damn it. All that came out was a glib retort. “You call going six rounds with me lazy? Babe, I can hardly move I’m so wrung out.”
Summer laughed, tilting her head back in a way that drew Ty’s gaze to the smooth column of her throat. There were several purplish marks there, love bites he’d given her last night because he’d had trouble reining in his passion. So why were his words so damned restrained by comparison? I love you, Summer. I don’t want this to be over. It was all he had
to say, but the man who rode Pipeline in rough swell was too chicken-shit to say them.
And his own reticence was really pissing him off.
“I’ve had the best time this week, Ty. I’ll always cherish it.” Her smile was wistful, her eyes dreamy. But she spoke in the past tense, and it made Ty’s heart contract. “I hope you don’t forget about me completely when you go back to your crazy, exciting life.”
“Jesus, Summer,” Ty muttered. Did she not think she was exciting? Didn’t she know how crazy this was—the two of them acting like what they had was nothing more than an enjoyable affair when it was so, so much more than that?
At least for him.
And that was the crux of it, the reason he was so shit scared to tell her the truth. The same thing that had held him back from blurting it last night, when she’d kissed his heart tattoo and said, Whoever she was, I hope she was worth it. The words had remained trapped in this throat, unspoken. It was you. It’s always been you.
He was afraid she didn’t feel the same way. That for Summer this had been nothing more than a fun trip down memory lane, and if he confessed all, a horrified, pitying look would steal across her face.
The first time she’d turned away from him was bad enough. If she did it now it would be so much worse.
“Ty? What’s wrong?”
Absolutely everything. Instead of answering, Ty tightened his hold on her ankle and yanked, dragging her toward him in an abrupt move that made her yelp in surprise. He had her astride him a moment later, her breath fanning rapidly across his face.
Ty watched her above him as he reached for the buttons of her shirt—his shirt from last night. He liked seeing it on her. He liked even more the smoky desire that swirled in her eyes as he parted the fabric with a jerk, exposing her bare breasts.
She moaned and dropped her head back when he took one into his mouth. No gentle preamble, just fierce, insistent sucking that had her writhing on top of him in an instant. He used his thumb and forefinger on its twin, coaxing it to a rigid point with a few firm tugs.
“Oh, Ty. Yes.”
Her hissed words told him he was hurting her a little while he aroused the hell out of her. The satisfaction he got from knowing that frightened him. He released her nipples, resting his forehead on her chest and pulling in deep breaths.
“Don’t stop, Ty,” she husked. “I want more. Please.”
Ty moved his hands to cup her sweet mounds, forcing his touch to remain gentle even as his words came out brutal. “I bet ol’ Duncan the Dud never made you beg like that.”
She sucked in a sharp breath. “No, he didn’t.”
“Because you only respond this way to me.” Ty brushed a thumb over the nipple he’d made damp with his mouth and was satisfied to feel it grow even stiffer with arousal. “I’m the only lover who’s ever made you come.”
“You know it’s true.”
“Say it. Say I’m the best you’ve ever had.”
Despite the response of her body, a response she never seemed to be able to control around him, Summer shrank away from his touch. Or perhaps it was the abrasive, Neanderthal-like way he was speaking that made her pull the fabric of his shirt back over her chest. “Why are you being so callous, Ty?”
The wounded look in her dark eyes shamed him. Pushing out a rough sigh, Ty hauled a hand through his hair. “Because this is killing me, Summer. Aren’t you even a bit upset this is our last day together?”
“Is that what you think? That I’m not sad?” Shoving against his chest, she levered herself off his lap and took her seat beside him again. She stared at the fence that separated her apartment from the neighboring one. “What do you want me to do, Ty? Waste this day thinking about how after tomorrow I’ll probably never see you again?”
“I want you to consider the possibility that never seeing each other again is a sucky idea,” Ty spat. “I want you to promise you won’t fuck anyone else just because I won’t be around for a while.”
Her head snapped around whiplash-fast. “What did you say?”
Ty held up a hand, regret filling him instantly. “That didn’t come out the way I meant it to. But, Sum, the thought of you with another man makes me see red.”
“What do you mean—someone else? You’re still here.”
“Not for long.” He noticed how she flinched and dared to hope it meant she was more upset at the thought of him leaving than the way she’d been behaving indicated. “We need to talk about what you’re going to do after I go.”
She stood and wrapped the material of his shirt tight around her. Her retort was terse. “I’m not going to go out tomorrow and fuck anybody, just to set that record straight.”
“Good.” Her narrowed eyes warned him that his reply was a step over an invisible line but Ty was sick of pussy footing around. “It’s the truth. I don’t want you seeing other men.”
Her indignant scoff echoed off the fence closing in her courtyard. “And what will you be doing while I’m pining here like a pure maiden, hoping one day my big strong man will return?”
“Nothing you don’t want me to do. Your call.”
“You mean…you won’t see anyone else if I won’t?”
“Yeah.” It wasn’t exactly what he’d meant, but it was the gist. The idea of going back to his old ways of meaningless one-nighters held zero appeal, regardless of whether Summer agreed to his suggestion or not. But he wanted to extract the same commitment from her, so he let her think his promise was conditional.
Commitment. There was a word that should have terrified him.
It didn’t.
He wanted Summer in his life from now on, however they could make it work.
“I don’t understand this, Ty,” she said. “You’re leaving tomorrow, going back to your real life, the life you love. We always knew this interlude would end.”
“Is that all it’s been to you? An interlude?”
“Scratching an old itch—your description, not mine.”
Right now, Ty could curse those flippant words. From the first moment he’d felt Summer’s heat clamp around him, their affair had never been that simple for him. “The game’s changed.”
“This isn’t a surf event. We’re talking about my life here, and it’s not a game.”
“I know, I’m sorry. We’re discussing my life here too. We’re talking about us.”
“Us?”
Ty stood and put his hands on her shoulders. He stared into black eyes that swam with confusion and fear. She was afraid to trust him—to trust them. He was afraid too—that she’d let her fear make her ultimate decision for her. His heart thudded hard against his ribs, adrenaline coursing through him like never before. He wet his lips. “I love you, Summer. I don’t want to lose you.”
Her eyes widened at his confession, but other than that response she gave no clue that she’d comprehended what he said. She stood as wordless and still as a statue.
After a while, Ty prompted, “Babe?”
“I heard you,” she whispered throatily.
She’d understood him and she was capable of speech. She hadn’t reciprocated because she wasn’t ready or she didn’t feel the same way. A gaping hole threatened to open up and swallow Ty, but he wouldn’t let it. Not yet. “There’s something special between us, Sum. You have to admit that.”
Mutely, she nodded.
Okay, progress. “Let’s not give it up. Let’s take a chance on it.”
She shook her head, and he wasn’t sure if it was a refusal or an attempt to clear her mind. “I wasn’t expecting this. I’ve been so careful.”
Careful not to let her feelings get away from her, not to let them show. But they were in there, somewhere. Ty had to believe it. She couldn’t give herself to him with such abandon and not form an attachment. She was too innately caring. She’d gift him with her heart if he asked for it the right way, Ty knew it.
If only he was sure what the right way was.
“Come surfing with me,” he said suddenly, in
spiration hitting.
“What?” Summer blinked at him. “Now?”
“Right now.” She used to get it, the joy of taking a risk on Mother Nature, the reward that came with that risk. Maybe he could show her again that life wasn’t all about keeping yourself safe. It was about taking chances and trusting yourself to deal with whatever happened after.
She hedged. “I don’t have a wetsuit, or a board.”
“You won’t need a suit this time of year, and I have your old board in Dad’s shed.”
She stared at him. “You kept it?”
Once, years ago, his dad had asked him if he could give it away. Ty had nearly bitten the poor guy’s head off. “Couldn’t bring myself to get rid of it.”
Out of all the things he’d said, that was the one that seemed to move her. Her eyes softened and shimmered. She covered her mouth with her hand, as though to stop herself saying something. Then she shrugged out from beneath his hands and walked a few paces away.
She was gathering her composure, reining in her emotions. She wouldn’t be able to do that out on the ocean. “Come with me,” Ty repeated with renewed determination.
He waited several nervous heartbeats before she finally whispered her answer.
“Okay.”
Hours later, Summer was still wondering why on earth she’d agreed to this lunacy. She hadn’t surfed in a decade, and it showed. After another unceremonious fall from the board, Summer came up spluttering and angry. When Ty paddled over to her, she glared at him. “I told you I wouldn’t be able to do this.”
“You’ll never do it with an attitude like that. You’ll catch one soon, I know it.”
Ty’s whole wave-guru act had seemed supportive and benevolent at first. Now his constant encouragement for her to try and try again was beginning to sound more like bullying. “It is possible I’ve lost the knack, you know,” Summer griped as she hauled herself back out of the water and sat astride the board for what seemed the thousandth time.
“No one loses the knack,” Ty said. “Just the nerve.”
She sent him a narrow-eyed look. “So you’re saying I’m chicken?”
