Where Forever Lies (23 page)

“Yeah,
that’s what I wanted,” he breathed and within seconds,
she felt his body stiffen as each thrust became harder, deeper, until
he let out a final grunt.

She pulled
him down to her, both their bodies dripping with sweat, and she
wrapped her arms around him as his head rested on the pillow, his
face nestled into her neck. She felt him trembling slightly, the only
sound in the room was their heavy breathing as they held each other.
Her legs were quivering beneath him and the coolness of the room was
now hitting her sweat soaked body, causing goose bumps to form.

Turning
her head, she was within inches from his face and the words that came
out were filled with hope. “Please tell me this will never end.
That what I’m feeling, you’re feeling too.”

His hand
came up and cupped her cheek and his eyes danced wildly around her
face before settling on her hopeful eyes. Finally, the silence was
broken as he said, “Darlin’,” he said, his voice
lazy with lust, “this is just beginning and I don’t see
any end in sight.” He kissed her lips hard as he pulled her
body on top of him, letting his hands explore her backside. Her hair
was hanging down; concealing them in their own private moment and the
sun began to set, causing the light in the room to fade.

Their kiss
lasted several minutes, neither one of them wanting to part, but it
was already getting late and she knew she needed to get home. They
reluctantly got up and found their clothes strung all over the
bedroom. As she pulled on her shirt, he reached out and pulled her to
him, crashing his mouth urgently to hers.

“If
you didn’t have to leave, I’d already be having you on
that bed, again,” he said between her lips.

She smiled
against his mouth, gently pulled his bottom lip into hers, and then
said, “There you go being your arrogant self.” And then
added, “But that’s one of the things about you that turns
me on.”

His eyes
sparked with curiosity. “Oh yeah? What else does it for you?”

She turned
to leave the room and stopped, looked back over her shoulder, and
said, “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

And with
that, she left him standing alone in the room.

Tyler ran
down the hall after her and saw her leaning against the counter,
sipping on her glass of tea from earlier. Her hair was slightly
disheveled, thrown back into a half haphazard pony tail, her clothes
were dirty and a little on the wrinkled side but to see her standing
in his kitchen making herself at home, was incredibly sexy.

He stopped
in the kitchen and said, “Do you have to leave right now? I
kinda feel a little used, here.”

The laugh
that came out of her was flirty and apologetic and she walked over to
him, wrapping her arms around his waist as she looked up into his
face. “Tyler, you know I have to pick up Kyra or else I’d
stay longer.”

He rested
his chin on her head and hugged her tighter, hating the fact that she
had to leave so soon after they’d made love, but he knew that
she had to. If he had a choice, he’d carry her back to his bed
and never let her leave. The thought made him crazy with want. A want
that he couldn’t have right now. And it made him feel like
swooping her up and never letting her go. He leaned down and kissed
her cheek then her lips before saying, “I know. I’m just
not ready for you to walk out the door just yet.”

She
sighed, “Me, either, but my daughter is waiting on me and I
need to pick her up and get her home to bed.”

He pulled
away and grabbed her hand, “All right, let’s go. I’ll
walk you out. Next time though you’re staying the night so I
can have my way with you all night long.”

“I
might be able to arrange that,” she teased.

He opened
the door and as they stepped out onto the front porch, hands wrapped
around each other, he pulled her in for another kiss. Just as his
lips met hers, he heard someone in the distance clear their throat.
They both stopped abruptly and turned to see who was standing in the
driveway. As his eyes focused in on the person, his heart plummeted
into his gut.

“Sarah?”
As soon as her name was out of his mouth, it was as if it were her
cue to start talking.

She stood
with her hands on her hips, one leg cocked out to the side and her
eyes were narrowed into angry slits towards Paige. Tyler wanted to
cuss her out and ask her why on earth she was even here, because he
thought he’d made himself crystal clear with how he felt about
her. He felt Paige’s grip on his hand loosen as she took in
Sarah’s presence before them. He knew doubt was running rampant
through her thoughts and he hoped she’d put some faith in him.
If not in him, into what they’d just shared moments ago. Their
feelings had been so strong in his bedroom that he didn’t think
there was any second guessing with how he felt about her.

Sarah
began strutting towards the porch, her heels crunching against the
gravel, never letting her eyes leave Paige. Finally, she turned
towards Tyler. “So, this is what you’ve been doing behind
my back?” she seethed, throwing her hand up at Paige.

Tyler
roughly dragged a hand through his hair, almost to the point of
pulling it out.
What
was wrong with her
?
He thought. He felt Paige pull away as she stared up at him, her face
full of unanswered questions. He looked between her and Sarah, anger
beginning to boil over. The night had been unbelievable and he knew
their relationship was heading in the right direction, felt it
heading that way. And he wanted it to head that way more than
anything, but now Sarah was showing up and threatening to ruin
everything for him.

He
clenched his hands into fists as he stared at Sarah. “Why are
you here? I thought I’d made myself more than clear,”
Tyler fumed.

Paige
looked over at him, “Tyler what’s going on? Are you
dating her?”

He could
feel her uncertainty for what they had waver even more and it made
his anger escalate. “No, I’m not seeing her. I don’t
know why she’s here,” Tyler answered, his face becoming
hard as he continued to look in Sarah’s direction.

Sarah’s
eyes widened in shock at his remark and then she said, “Tyler,
you know I come over all the time. I thought you’d be expecting
me tonight.”

So she
is going to play that game
,
he thought. He saw Paige take a step away from him and he looked at
her questionably. “Paige, you don’t believe her, do you?
After all that we’ve shared. She’s just a jealous woman
who can’t seem to get the point.”

Paige took
another step away from him, her eyes glistening with hurt and doubt.
“Tyler, I don’t know what to believe. Why would she just
show up here like this if you guys didn’t have something going
on?” Her voice was low and unsure as her eyes tore into him,
demanding answers. The thread that had been tying them together was
slowly unraveling.

Tyler
gritted his teeth together, “Dammit, Paige, you have to believe
me, not her. She’s crazy.”

“I
am not crazy, Tyler!” Sarah shouted in the background. “You
know we’ve been seeing each other for months now.”

Paige’s
face crumpled at that and Tyler glared at Sarah as her face gleamed
with amusement and satisfaction. He couldn’t entirely read
Paige’s thoughts but he knew she was on the verge of believing
Sarah entirely, and leaving him. He knew he had to do something but
he wasn’t sure what. He saw her eyes jerk back and forth
between him and Sarah, contemplating who to believe as Sarah kept
yelling things in the background. “Sarah will you just shut up
and leave!?” Tyler yelled, causing Paige to wince.

With
Sarah’s high pitched voice drowning out his, Tyler saw Paige
begin to walk towards the steps. He couldn’t let her leave like
this it would just kill him. He knew he’d lose her for good if
he did. He walked after her, reached out, and grabbed her arm,
pulling her around to face him. “Paige, don’t leave like
this. Let me get her outta here and we can talk and I can explain
everything.”

She jerked
her arm from him, her voice was nothing but a faint whisper, but her
eyes were sharp with accusation, “Tyler, I can’t deal
with this. It’s obvious that there’s something going on
here and I don’t want to be in the middle. I thought you were
different, and I thought you were single.”

With that
last comment, she stomped down the stairs and towards her car, giving
Sarah a cutting look as she passed her.

By the
time Tyler shook her words from his head and ran after her, she was
already in her car. He pounded on the window, holding himself back
from breaking the glass, and pleaded with her to roll it down and
just talk to him. She gave him a hard look back as she shook her head
and started the car. He reached out and grabbed the side mirror and
banged on the window one last time as she slowly drove off.
Aggravated, he kicked at the ground, causing pieces of gravel to
ricochet off his house.

The last
thing he saw in her eyes were tears full of regret spilling down her
face.

♥♥♥

He stood
there staring after her car as dust blew towards him. It hit him in
the face, making his eyes sting, but that was the least of his pain.
His heart hurt. His chest was heaving from all the anger and emotion
that was brewing inside of him and he felt like his legs were stuck
in the ground, hoping that if he stayed planted here that she would
realize leaving was a mistake. The clanging of Sarah’s
bracelets brought his attention behind him and he turned his anger on
her.

“What
the hell is wrong with you? Do you have more than a few screws loose
or what?” he yelled as he stormed up to her and stood inches
from her face. The strong perfume she wore was burning his nose and
all the makeup she had caked on was showing how fake she really was.
He had to rein his anger in; he didn’t trust himself right now.
He couldn’t remember the last time he was so angry. All he
could think about was the look in Paige’s accusing eyes as she
made that last statement.
I
thought you were different and I thought you were single.

She took a
step back, the distance making him feel slightly better and said,
“Tyler, I thought we had something here. I thought you just
needed a break to clear your head but instead I find you already
moving on? Have you been seeing her the whole time I’ve been
coming over?” Her arms were crossed as she stood in front of
him, waiting on his answer.

He hissed
through clenched teeth, making the words come out in a flat tone.
“No, Sarah, I haven’t. I just started seeing her after I
told you I didn’t want to see you, anymore. Did you not hear
that part of the conversation we had the night you came over and
trashed my room?”

Not
expecting this reaction, she lunged forward and hit him in the chest,
catching him off guard and making him stumble backwards. He regained
his footing and grabbed her arms, pushing her towards her car. She
started flinging her arms, hitting him in the face. He felt her nails
slice against his skin and cursed. “Dammit, Sarah, I told you I
don’t want to see you, anymore. If you don’t leave I’m
going to have to call the cops to get my point across completely.”

Without
thinking, he opened the door and shoved her in, hearing her let out a
yelp as her legs hit the steering wheel. Once she was completely
behind the wheel, he slammed the door shut, only briefly noticing her
shocked reaction staring back at him from the window. He turned to
leave, praying that she finally understood that he was serious. He
didn’t want to call the cops on her for harassing him, but he
would if she came back, again. She’d probably screwed up his
relationship with Paige, and he wasn’t going to let her keep
interfering, anymore.

As he
stepped onto the first step of his porch he heard her car start up
and then pull out. This time she didn’t sling gravel everywhere
and he was glad to have one less mess to clean up.

He stood
on the porch watching Sarah leave and pulled out his cell phone. He
dialed Paige’s number and held his breath in anticipation.
Leaning against the railing, he let his face fall into his hands when
it went to voicemail. He rubbed his eyes not believing this had
happened. He had a bad feeling that he was going to lose her. He
called again, and this time he planned to leave a message. There were
only four simple words to say but he had never put so much of his
heart into a message before. He just hoped she would hear it. When
the message beeped, the words that came out were nothing more than
begging. “Paige, please call me.”

With
blurry vision from the tears streaming down her face, Paige drove
furiously down the curvy country roads. She knew she needed to slow
down, to pull over, and dry her eyes before she wrecked, but the only
thing she wanted to do was get home.

She had so
many emotions rushing through her. Anger. Hurt. Pain. Just to name a
few. She couldn’t believe what had just happened. And all after
the intimate, wonderful time they’d just had. She had the music
blaring, trying to drown out all her anguish but it wasn’t
helping. Nothing could help. Tyler had shredded her heart and stomped
on the broken pieces. Just when she was beginning to heal, to do
something that made her happy, things sky rocketed even more
downhill. Tyler had had a part in helping her mend, but after putting
her back together he then tore her right back apart. Her gut had told
her something was not right when he didn’t call her for so long
and purposely ignored her texts. Now she knew the reason. He was too
busy with that girl, Sarah, to call her back.

She
gripped the steering wheel tighter, pushed on the gas further, and
turned the radio up another notch. Her heart ached. More so than she
thought it would and she realized he had slipped his way into her
heart farther than she had anticipated. He had seemed so perfect and
that was where she knew she went wrong. She never should have let him
into her heart. She knew she needed time to heal from her grief and
that adding in another loss would only devastate her even more. But
she let her guard down and now she was hurting all over again.