Some Like It Hot (24 page)

She clutched a fistful of his twisted hair and the pain was overshadowed by the intense spurts of pleasure that ripped through him each time her muscles tightened around him.

“Tyrone!”

Her scream of pleasure as she climaxed sent sensations tearing through his insides, and when she went for a second round he released another growl, this one of extreme satisfaction.

Lifting her hips, he gave one final, deep thrust into her, and with that powerful thrust he met her gaze. Over the past three weeks they had given into the irresistible attraction that had overwhelmed them from the first, and now, with an unexpected surge of emotions that had consumed him from the moment she had dropped that final piece of clothing, he lowered his head and kissed her at the same moment that he exploded inside of her, sending his release deep within her womb.

His heart turned over in his chest upon realizing what he’d done, but there was nothing he could do to stop it. Then the thought that he was possibly giving her a part of him that he had never dared share with another woman sent a surge of unexpected tenderness through him. And for a moment, the idea that she could get pregnant filled him in a way he didn’t think he could ever be filled.

And when another orgasm approached its crest, he clenched the muscles of his buttocks, wanting his release to go into the deepest part of her, as yet another wave of pleasure consumed them both.

Sydney glanced down at her watch. “I have another hour before my plane leaves. You don’t have to wait with me if you have something else to do.”

Tyrone tipped his head back as he studied her. Even now, that all too-familiar irresistibility flared between them. Last night had done nothing to tame it. Not that they had tried taming it. They had ridden its crest to get their fill of each other, only to discover their hunger was never ending.

He let out a deep sigh. “We need to talk, Sydney,” he said huskily.

Sydney lowered her gaze, knowing what he wanted to say. They had made love last night, numerous times, without protection. While one part of her wanted to assure him it was all right, that the chances were she hadn’t gotten pregnant because the timing was wrong, another part wished she had. It was the part of her that loved him and had decided that if she couldn’t have his heart, then his baby would do. The thought that she would have a part of the man she would forever love touched her deeply, although she knew the ramifications.

“About last night, Sydney,” Tyrone began, breaking into her thoughts. “I owe you an apology for not acting responsibly, and I will—”

She suddenly reached up and placed a finger to his lips to stop any further words. “We promised, Tyrone, no regrets.”

He met her gaze. “This isn’t about regrets, Sydney. It’s about being man enough to admit a mistake and taking a stand to do the right thing. I should have used protection, and if you’re pregnant I want to know.”

She saw deep concern in his eyes. “Tyrone, I don’t—”

He cupped her shoulders. “No, Sydney. If you’re pregnant it will be
my
baby.
Our
baby. And I will take full responsibility for our child and for you.”

Sydney swallowed hard, fighting the tears that threatened to fall. Tyrone Hardcastle was such an honorable man in every sense of the word, which was why she had fallen so helplessly in love with him. And although he didn’t love her, even now his actions proved that he did care.

“You will let me know one way or the other, won’t you?”

He moved closer and tucked a stray strand of hair away from her face. The look of tenderness in his features caused her heart to ache. “I’m probably not pregnant. The timing isn’t good,” she said softly, trying to reassure him.

“But still, there’s a possibility, and I want to know one way or the other.” He pulled one of his business cards out of his wallet and flipped it over, then took a pen from the top pocket of his coat and wrote a phone number on the back.

“This is my home number. If you can’t reach me there, I’ll probably be at Leo’s.” He handed her the card and met her gaze intently. “Promise that you’ll call me.”

She took the card and slowly nodded. “I promise.”

A smile tilted the corners of his lips and he gently pulled her into his arms and kissed her, deeply, hungrily, and she returned the kiss in equal measure.

He released her but kept her close to him and whispered, “I will never forget these three weeks, Sydney.”

She forced herself to smile at him. “And neither will I.”

Then she caught his face between her palms and kissed him, a kiss she felt all the way to her heart. And for a moment, she wanted him to feel it, too, and to know just how much he had come to mean to her.

And to know that, no matter what, she would never have any regrets.

Three weeks after her return to Memphis, Sydney placed a call to Tyrone to let him know she was not pregnant. She could not reach him at his home or at Leo’s and called his home again and left a message on his answering machine, merely telling him, “I’m fine and everything worked out the way you wanted.” She hadn’t been able to say “the way
we
wanted,” because a part of her had held out until the last, hoping she was pregnant.

When a week passed and she didn’t hear back from him to acknowledge he had received her message, a part of her felt hurt at the thought that he could so easily toss aside what they had shared in New York. To rid herself of that pain, she became absorbed in her work and lost herself in a new case. Several times she had caught her parents looking at her with concern over what was causing her dismal mood, but it was something she could not talk about to them, although she had come close to confiding in Raven a few times when they talked on the phone.

Sydney, who’d never had a sister, had bonded with her sister-in-law, thanking God for not only giving her brother a wonderful wife but also for providing her with the sister friendship she needed. Although she and her mother shared a rather close relationship, telling one’s mother about an intense three-week fling wasn’t something she felt comfortable doing.

Although she tried not to think about Tyrone, each day she missed him fiercely, and when she went to bed at night she was reminded of all the things they had done together, and not just the sexual things, but other things as well, the conversations they’d shared and the places they had visited. He was a talented musician and a very intelligent man. He knew a lot about law, and she had discovered that talking to him about some of the cases she’d handled had fascinated him.

She checked her watch. Her mother and brothers had left the office over an hour ago with instructions that she close up shop within fifteen minutes. She tossed aside the file she’d been reading as she thought about her plans for that night. It was Friday and although she had gotten a call from Rafe earlier, inviting her to dinner, she had turned him down flat, not wanting to see him again. After Tyrone, Rafe no longer had a place in her mind or her heart. Besides, Tyrone had shown her how a real man treated his lady in the bedroom.

She stood, stretched, and decided to stop by the bookstore on her way home and pick up Walter Mosley’s latest novel. After preparing something quick for dinner, she would spend the rest of her evening in bed, reading.

Sydney turned another page. Already she was up to page one hundred. The story held her spellbound. She had come home and taken some leftover spaghetti out of the freezer, fixed a salad, and enjoyed a tasty dinner. Then she had taken a relaxing shower before slipping into her nightgown and getting settled for the night.

She had been curled up in bed with her book for a few hours when she heard her doorbell ring. At first she didn’t want to answer it, thinking it was one of her brothers, whom she adored, then decided she was really in a bad way if she wanted to avoid them, although she didn’t think she would be good company for anyone tonight.

Slipping out of bed, she put on a robe and made her way to the door, flicking on a light as she moved around the room. Taking precaution, she looked through her peephole—and her heart stopped.

She held her hand to her heart and quickly opened the door, barely able to catch her breath. “Tyrone, what are you doing here,” she asked breathlessly, not believing he was really there. Her throat felt tight and her eyes burned with tears she refused to let fall.

He looked so good, so darn good. And seeing him standing there, under the soft lighting of her apartment doorway, she became even more aware of just how handsome he was. He was dressed casually in a pair of jeans and a pullover Washington Redskins sweater, and she thought that no man deserved to look that good.

“May I come in?”

She nodded and took a step back to let him enter. When she closed the door and turned to face him, her throat went dry at the way he was staring at her, and that all-too-familiar shiver of sexual arousal coursed through her once more. She took a deep breath and cleared her throat. “Didn’t you get the message I left for you last week?”

He nodded slowly, not taking his eyes off her. “Yeah, I got it, but something you said bothered me.”

Sydney looked confused, trying to remember just what she’d said that could have bothered him.

“I don’t understand. What did I say?” she asked.

“You said that everything worked out the way I wanted.”

She nodded. “Well, didn’t it work out the way you wanted?”

“No.”

His response threw her off balance. She brought her hand to her heart. “And why didn’t it?” she asked softly.

For a long moment he didn’t say anything. He just stood there and studied her as if he were trying to find the right words. Finally he spoke. “I lost my control that night and unintentionally placed you at risk of getting pregnant, Sydney. But once you left New York, I discovered that I lost something else that night as well.”

Sydney’s pulse began beating rapidly. “What?”

“My heart. And because I lost my heart to you, a part of me wanted you to be pregnant. It may have been wrong and unfair to you, but I wanted to get a phone call from you saying that you were carrying my baby inside of you.”

Sydney leaned back against the door as her knees went to jelly. “What are you saying, Tyrone?”

He took a step toward her. “I’m saying that I love you more than I thought was possible for a man to love a woman. I’m saying that I wanted you to be pregnant with my child. And what I haven’t said yet is that I don’t want things to end between us.”

Sydney nodded, still confused. “Are you saying that you want us to continue our fling?”

He shook his head. “No. I want it to become something else, like a very serious relationship that will eventually lead to us getting married.” A gentle smile touched his lips. “Although it would suit me fine if we skip the serious-relationship part and move on to marriage.”

He took another step toward her, until he was so close that her back was pressed against the door. “But you can only say yes if you love me as deeply as I love you. I may be wrong, but I think you do. I believe that only a woman who truly loves a man could give herself to him the way you gave yourself to me. And a part of me wants to believe…has to believe…that you love me. Do you, Sydney?”

Sydney couldn’t hold back her tears any longer. The man she loved had just told her that he loved her and wanted her to have his baby.

“Sydney?” He tenderly lifted up her chin with his finger and met her wet gaze.

“Yes,” she said softly. “I love you, but I didn’t think I could tell you since we had agreed not to take things seriously. But I couldn’t help loving you. I even admit that I fell in love with you that same day we met in Leo’s.”

Tyrone smiled. “It took me a bit longer to admit it, but I fell in love with you that day we met, too. I stayed up most of the night writing that piece of music you heard me play on my sax in my hotel room. I had composed that entire piece while thoughts of you filled my mind. Even when you asked me the name of it, I couldn’t let myself tell you that I had named it ‘Sydney,’ after you.”

A huge smiled spread across her face. “Oh, Tyrone, you did?”

“Yes. So you were right, it
was
a love ballad. Without realizing it, I was telling you with my music just how much you meant to me and how much I wanted you in my life.”

His expression then grew serious. “After you left New York, I kept thinking about everything, all my feelings and emotions, and I was forced to put two and two together. Then I knew that I loved you and began missing you something fierce. Over the last three weeks I haven’t been able to eat, sleep, or think straight.”

She nodded. “I’ve been missing you something fierce, too.”

His smile widened at her admission. “So what do you think we should do to get out of our misery?”

Instead of answering him, she rose on tiptoes and brought her mouth to his, slipping her tongue between his lips. His mouth opened wide over hers, taking everything she was offering.

Moments later he pulled back, breaking the kiss, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small white jewelry box. “This is for you.”

With shaking fingers she took the box from him and opened it, then let out a gasp of happiness when she saw the beautiful diamond engagement ring. “Oh, Tyrone,” she said as more tears filled her eyes.

“Will you marry me, Sydney, and be my best friend, lover, confidante, wife, and the mother of my babies?”

Sydney’s heart soared with all the love and happiness she felt. “Yes!” she said through misty eyes as he placed the ring on her finger.

“And I don’t want a long engagement,” he said immediately.

“Neither do I,” she agreed.

Smiling, he met her gaze. “Do you have any qualms about moving to D.C.?”

She shook her head happily. “No, none.”

“Good.” He took a step closer, bringing their bodies in contact, and she felt the largeness of his erection pressed against her. “Do you have any qualms about my carrying you into your bedroom and making hot passionate love to you?”

“No, none whatsoever,” she said in a deep, sultry voice.

“All night?”

“Yes, all night,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. “We have a lot of lost time to make up for.”

“I agree.” Tyrone picked her up in his arms, she pointed out the direction he needed to take, and he carried her into the bedroom, knowing that the irresistible attraction that had once consumed them had transformed into a love that would sustain them for the rest of their days.

He placed her on the bed, then joined her there. “Let me love you, Sydney,” he pleaded in a deep, raspy voice that was filled with emotions, the same heartfelt emotions that were shining in his eyes.

And she did. She let him love her with all the love the two of them could generate as they sealed their future and reaffirmed their love in a very special way.