Truth or Dare (30 page)

They’d talk. She’d ask about his trip. About how he was doing.

He’d tell her his plans.

And once she knew where they stood, what she was in for—she’d position her defenses as necessary and haul him into bed.

But then Tyler was there, one hand settled over the small of her back while the other covered hers at the doorknob.

Her head turned.

Their eyes met.

And that was it.

He gripped her waist, spinning her into a crushing kiss so hot it surged through her veins, washing away her questions and worries. Giving her belly that lost-at-sea feeling that had her clinging tighter to the only anchor she wanted. Pulling him closer, pleading for more, and moaning around the thrust of his tongue when he gave it to her.

His arms banded tight around her, one hand moving up into her hair while the other crossed over her ass in a hold that somehow managed to beg and demand all at once.

Tyler’s mouth moved over her jaw and down her neck, his lips pulling, teeth scraping, the rumble of his mindless words vibrating against the sensitive skin where they fell.

They worked buttons and opened belts, peeled shirts and toed off shoes. With a flick, her bra was free, ending the breadcrumb trail of seduction down the hardwood of her hallway.

Then Tyler had her on the bed, knees together so he could slide her panties down her thighs and off her feet. Shedding his own underwear, he stood at the foot of her bed, eyes hungrily running the length of her naked body.

“So pretty.”

For some reason the way he called her pretty, rather than beautiful or gorgeous or sexy, warmed her heart and made it beat faster. Made it ache with tenderness even as she burned with need.

But it was always like that with Tyler. From the first interaction, there’d been more than one emotion at play. Attraction and animosity. Frustration and fury. He made her want to laugh as much as he made her want to trip him down the stairs.

And now as much as she wanted him to fuck her hard and fast, use her body and let her use his, she also wanted the sweetness. The friendship.

That stealthy connection she hadn’t seen coming until it was too strong to break.

He rolled on a condom, and the way his hand looked sliding over his shaft—it made her wild. Thighs shifting together in restless anticipation, she urged, “Hurry.”

One dark, masculine brow pushed up. “What if I wanted to go slow with you?”

“That’s a bad idea.” She was breathless and squirming, the movement of her body only increasing her need. “Terrible. Next time, maybe.”

Please let there be a next time.

“Not slow? Okay, then,” he said, realigning their bodies so all that hard length was positioned between her legs. “Tell me what you want.”

He’d just agreed
not
to go slow, but it was with painstakingly measured pace he began to slide forward through her folds, setting every nerve ending to tingle and burn through the slick, wet friction that seemed to go on and on—
oh God
—and on.

Oh yeah, and if that wasn’t the most smug, self-satisfied hint of a smile on his lips she’d ever seen. But she couldn’t think too much about it, because he’d begun to reverse his course, dragging that heavy shaft along its return path, riding slowly against the sweet spot that was making her stupid.

She had something to say; she knew she did. Only the feel of him there, teasing her,
rubbing
her…it blanked her mind of anything beyond the fast-rising pleasure.

Tyler braced himself on one arm, allowing his hand to run from her hip over her waist and ribs up to cup her breast. His palm pressed upward as his thumb tormented her nipple with deft strokes that mingled with that decadent friction between her legs—stealing her breath, holding her captive beneath his seductive assault.

“Tell me, Maggie.”

So slow.

So good.

“P-Please…Tyler…”

So close.

“Please, what?” he asked, his own words coming harsh as he slid forward and back.

Then, notching himself at her opening, he met her eyes. “Tell me what you want, Maggie. I want to hear you say it.”

She was lost. The words pushing past her lips without thought or restraint.

“You!”
she cried, the teasing pressure too much to bear. “Please, Tyler, oh God, please. I want you inside—”

Thick and hard, he gave her what she’d asked for.

The breath burst from her lungs, his name breaking on her lips, as he filled her past capacity, the sensual strain so intense, for one terrifying moment she was pulled beneath the surface of control, swamped by a sensation so great it overwhelmed her in every way. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, could only experience the rush as she hurtled toward climax, bursting through in a dizzying spiral of pleasure. Pleasure that went on and on through each hard thrust, until she realized there was no end in sight. Tyler already had her halfway to coming again.

“Like that?” he growled, sliding in and out.

“Yes.”

His hand caught the curve of her ass, tipping her up to allow just that much more penetration.

So deep. So hard.

Her eyes clenched shut.

“Look at me, Maggie.” He stilled, holding her in place, in this unbearable point of suspension until she met his stare. He sank home.

Free fall.

Her body clamped hard around his, spasming with each thrust, as wave after wave washed over her. And when the pleasure was little more than a gentle lap, a wash of lingering sensation, only then did his steady strokes turn faster.

Urgency drove his movements until sweat dripped from his temples and the muscles along his neck stood out in stark relief. His hips slammed down and with a last ragged curse that, tangled with her name, somehow sounded tender, he followed her into bliss.

Once he’d dealt with the condom, Tyler climbed back beneath the covers, pulling Maggie blissfully close. Propped on his elbow, he looked down into her face. “I meant for us to talk first.”

“Me, too. But then I couldn’t wait,” she admitted. “And I realized no matter what you said, I wanted this. So what was the harm in talking after?”

“I missed you.”

He’d told her the same back at Ford’s place, but the way he said it this time—her heart did a little flip in her chest, and she stroked the evening-rough line of his jaw. “I missed you, too. But it was good, right? Going home?”

“Yeah, it was good. My family…it’s been hard for them. So to finally know—” He let out a slow breath. “There was some relief in that. For all of us. So it was good, and in a messed up way, that might have been the worst part. Feeling like I could breathe and knowing that even though I didn’t get Charlie back, that I couldn’t give him what I believed he needed—at least it was over.”

The tears were there, pushing at her lids again as she thought about Tyler facing that kind of guilt.

“You did everything, Tyler. Everything you could have.”

“Hey,” he crooned, reaching over to brush the wet trail that had formed from the corner of her eye. “Everything I could think of. But this week I’ve realized maybe it was for the best I couldn’t get him back. That I couldn’t take him from Ray the way Gina took him from me.”

He explained about what he’d found on Ray’s fan page and how he’d finally been able to see the events of the last year in a different light. How it was to be with his family.

“I’m sure they were glad to have you home. So they could see you were okay for themselves. They’ve had to have been worried about you.”

Eyes closed, he let out a laugh. “You could say that.”

“They want you to move back?”

“Like yesterday. Except for my brother Mitch. He likes my stuff.”

She had to ask. “What about you? Things are different for you now. Have you figured out what you want to do?”

She’d tried to make the question as casual as possible, but something in her voice must have given her away, because then Tyler was searching her eyes, looking into her so deep she wondered if there was anything he couldn’t see.

“Yeah, I want to be with you.”

Her heart skipped and she was so tempted to just leave it at that. Be cool and casual and accepting. But she loved him. Her heart was on the line and she needed to know. “For how long?”

What they’d just shared was beautiful. Critical. Something she wouldn’t trade no matter what his answer was. But she couldn’t pretend there wasn’t a life waiting for Tyler back in New York he’d never fully let go of. The one he never would have left if it weren’t for Charlie and Gina. The apartment that was there waiting for him. The job he could have back with one phone call.

The family.

The friends who’d known him before his life had become the tragedy he wanted to move past.

All of it was still there waiting. All of it good.

And when weighed against
her
— She tried to look away, but Tyler caught her jaw in his palm, bringing her back to him.

“Aww, Maggie. I’m not going anywhere.” He shook his head, muttering a quiet curse. “This was why we should have talked first. Tell me what you’re afraid of, and I’ll tell you why you don’t have to be.”

Sitting up, he backed up to the headboard, pulling Maggie with him.

Maggie felt a pressure pushing up in her chest. All the fears she didn’t want to face and words she didn’t want to say, bubbling toward freedom. But this time, there was no holding them back.

“You have so much back in New York. All the people you left behind. The job.”

“I’ve got people here. An apartment, too. And a job—though hell, the job can go anywhere. But none of that matters as much as you.” He shook his head, eyes filling with pain. “Maggie, letting you go nearly killed me. And I won’t do it again.”

Her heart hurt, it was beating so hard. He was staying. Because of her.

“Tyler,” she whispered, terrified to let herself believe in what this man was saying. But knowing it was everything she’d hoped to hear. Still, there was more. She swiped at her eyes with the insides of her wrists, trying to clear her vision because with what she was going to say next, she desperately needed to see how he would react.

Shaking her head, she swallowed past the rest, the parts that were choking her. Afraid that by giving them voice, she might give them power as well. The power to stop Tyler from living. From moving on.

“What? Tell me, so I can show you why you don’t have to worry.”

“But what about Gina?” she asked, hating herself for having to say the words. For the pain that flashed in Tyler’s eyes. For picking at the wound she knew had only barely begun to heal. Her name alone was enough to make him wince. To cause the muscle in his jaw to jump and the tendons in his neck to go taut.

“She married Ray.”

Okay, and this was the part that scared her the most. “I know. And I’m so sorry for it. And I’m sorry for what I’m about to say now, too, because I know you don’t want to hear it. But
what if it doesn’t work out with him
?”

God,
she could see the hurt in his eyes. See the pull of what he’d tried to move on from.

Tyler opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it again. With a shake of his head, he looked away.

“It’s over. All of it. I wouldn’t be with you like this if I hadn’t already worked through the different scenarios. That’s what I was doing in New York. Why I needed the space, and the time.”

He broke off, rubbed the evening scruff of his jaw. “Maggie, I knew I couldn’t come back and have you again unless it was all the way. Unless I’d accepted that all the maybes with Charlie had to end. You showed me what it was to be alive again. You made me want it, want a life that’s about a future instead of a past.”

Taking Maggie’s face between his hands, he brushed his thumb across the ridge of her cheekbone, wiping at her tears. “I love you, Maggie. Please don’t doubt me.”

Staring into his eyes, she shook her head. “I don’t.”

She didn’t doubt that
he
believed every word he was saying.

And she’d already accepted that that was good enough for her. “I love you, too.”

J
UNE

After months of feeling her life was being systematically dismantled, that everything Maggie cared about and depended on was unraveling, finally it was all beginning to pull back together. There were still loose threads, sure, but overall, life was good.

She’d found her rhythm in her new job. Ava was finally coming home, thereby restoring Maggie’s go-to group of friends to their complete set of crazy. Her plans for opening her own gallery were slow in coming, but with every step her vision became sharper and her confidence grew.

And there was Tyler. It had been two weeks since he’d returned from New York, and she’d seen him nearly every night.

Being with him was unbelievable.

He
was unbelievable. Amazing. Mind-blowing. And for now, hers.

She’d arrive home from work, and within an hour, he’d be there with a pizza from Lou’s, or his hands hooked over the top frame of her doorway, leaning into her space with those eyes that were all charm and seduction and everything that made her heart go from zero to six thousand within the span of a single telling smile, offering to take her out or promising to keep her in. Either way, the answer was
yes.

He talked like they had forever. Like she was his future. And she wanted to believe.
God,
more than anything she did. But still there was this small part of her that couldn’t stop bracing for impact. For whatever was coming next.

Tyler had breathed life back into the part of her soul she’d thought was beyond saving. And while there was nothing like the way it made her feel, there was suddenly so very much to lose.

It was terrifying.

She tried not to dwell on it, tried to shut down the part of her that was chronically borrowing trouble. But every now and then, when things felt so very right and she started slipping into that place where all she wanted to do was float, go with it, give in completely and let the current take her wherever that unbelievable feeling might lead…she’d hear it.