Chapter Twenty-One
Everything inside Tyler was cold enough to give his internal organs freezer burn—just as it should be. Meanwhile, Everly was a fucking wildfire, stewing in silent fury the entire rest of the way home. The side of him that was always observing, always prepping for disaster, took note. A loud, passionate Everly was dangerous, but a silent Everly was deadly—at least for the poor asshole she was pissed off at.
“What in the hell was that?” Everly asked, pacing from one end of bookshelves lining a large wall in his apartment to the other. “How in the world did you not just let loose on her?”
He didn’t break his stride as he headed straight for the fridge and the cold beer inside it. “Because I know where that leads.”
She threw her hands up in frustration. “To putting someone in their place?”
He grabbed two bottles and headed over to where she’d wear a groove into his hardwood floor if she didn’t stop. After twisting off the cap on each beer, he handed her one. She took a sip, looking at him expectantly, and continued pacing. Everly wouldn’t let this go. That wasn’t the type of woman she was.
However, explaining his upbringing was not something he ever did. Not to Sawyer. Not to Frankie or his family. Not to any of the helpful teachers who asked about the dark circles under his eyes—the only marks they could see. By the time he was old enough to realize that he could go for help, the worst of the physical stuff was in the past. He’d gotten bigger and smarter and knew when to keep his fucking mouth shut and plot his future. The fact that he towered over both his parents by the time he was fourteen hadn’t hurt. The two assholes who’d made him hadn’t taught him much, but they imparted one crucial lesson—don’t let anything stand between you and where you want to be.
“Not to putting someone in their place,” he said. “To becoming like my parents.”
Her feet jerked to a stop and she whipped around, the righteous indignation lighting her up from the inside like an avenging angel tempered by concern. “What do you mean?”
“My dad is everything Irena said he was—a worthless asshole who wasn’t above backhanding my mom when he thought she deserved it. In return, it all flowed downhill.” And he had been at the bottom. “I can’t tell you the number of times my mom swung that wooden spoon of hers and swore that I’d grow up to be just like him—just another Waterbury asshole who couldn’t keep his emotions in check.”
So when he’d gotten that scholarship to prep school in Harbor City, he’d promised himself that he’d be more than he was, that he’d leave that combustible house behind him and never look back. And he hadn’t. Ever.
Everly set her beer down in front of his collector’s edition of The Lord of the Rings and crossed over to him, winding her long arms around and snuggling her head into the pocket of his shoulder. “I’m so sorry, but she’s wrong; that’s not you.”
“That’s only because I won’t let it be.” He’d gotten rid of the accent. Changed his wardrobe. Limited connections to his working-class roots. He’d become a new man.
“Is that why this deal with Alberto is so important to you?”
His first instinct was to lie, to shut down this conversation he’d never had with anyone, but the truth came out anyway. “Partly.”
“Tell me.” She broke away from him, going back and picking up her beer off the shelf.
How in the world she knew that he needed space for his confession, he had no idea, but she did. That fact should have given him pause, but he was in too deep for that. That was a problem. A big one. Everly was the one woman who had the ability to tie him right back to the one thing he’d spent most of his life running away from, and if he wasn’t careful he’d go with her, smiling like a happy idiot. Forget it being a problem. It was a fucking disaster.
“I want to prove them wrong. All of them.” If he closed his eyes, he could picture each one, from his parents to Irena to the society assholes who still called him “Scholarship Boy” when they thought he was out of earshot. “I want to show them that where I came from doesn’t define who I am.” God, he sounded pathetic. Weak. This wasn’t the image he projected. He was success personified, not some kid whining about his rough childhood. “Nothing like screwing with a guy with parental issues to really make you rethink your dating decisions, huh?”
A wry laugh escaped her lips, and she shook her head. “You don’t have the market cornered there.”
Heat rushed up from the pit of his belly. “Tell me.” So he could track down the people who wronged her and make them pay.
The pacing started again, but this time it was slower, more deliberate, almost like a hiker lost in the woods afraid that if she stopped moving she’d lose the last bit of hope she had left.
“My dad was an asshole, too, just a different kind.” She took a swig from her beer, turning at the end of the bookshelf and heading back toward Tyler. “He was a bigwig in the financial district. He and my mom met when she worked for him as his secretary. She fell in love. He thought she was the kind of girl you fucked but certainly never married.” She took another drink and set the half-filled bottle on the bookshelf, this time in front of Great Expectations. “When she got pregnant with me, she thought everything would change between them, and it did, but not the way she thought. He fired her. Promised to pay child support without fighting her if—and only if—she promised to go quietly. So she did—and it broke her.”
“What do you mean ‘broke her’?”
Her bottom lip trembled, and in that moment there was no one in the world Tyler hated more than Everly’s dick of a dad. No wonder she’d been so hard on him in the beginning. He couldn’t discount there were some similarities between them—especially when he’d started things off by suggesting she lose her blue-collar accent. He wanted to kick his own ass again for that ridiculous comment.
She bit her lip like she was struggling not to share too much. He just waited patiently, hoping she felt comfortable enough to open up to him more.
She took a deep breath. “Nunni used to tell me that my mom wasn’t always sad all the time and that she’d come back from it, but she didn’t. When she died, I went to live with Nunni.”
Probably the right choice, but it wasn’t the one a lot of courts would sanction if there’d been a custody fight. “Not your dad?”
“I’d have to really concentrate to even pick that man out of a lineup.” She shrugged, but it was only a shadow of her normal attitude. “I only saw him a few times before my mom died.”
There were some people who deserved a little Waterbury justice. That asshole was definitely one of them. “Who is he?”
She shook her head, her long black strands giving her a temporary curtain. “It doesn’t matter.”
Needing to do something—anything—and since tracking down her dad and exacting revenge was a fight for another day, Tyler strode over to her and enveloped her, pulling her against him and holding her tight. “Our parents were real gems.”
As their bodies melded together, a dam seemed to break in Everly. Her shoulders shook as he stroked her back, trying to offer comfort.
“My mom was all right,” Everly said, her voice a little shaky as she still clung to him. “She just couldn’t handle the hand she’d been dealt. I realized how true that was when I walked into our apartment after school one day and found her hanging in the bathroom linen closet.”
The image stopped him cold.
He forgot how to breathe, his mind grappling with the thought of a little girl with long black hair and big, watery eyes staring up at her dead mother. She must have felt so alone. And abandoned by both parents now. His chest grew uncomfortably tight and he squeezed her closer.
“Jesus.” No wonder Everly held so tight to that badass shell of hers. He didn’t know what to say, so he said the only thing he could. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she said, sounding like it was anything but. They stood there for, hell, he didn’t know how long, while Everly worked to regain her composure. Eventually, a stillness invaded her body, of acceptance or relief he couldn’t tell, and she let out a soft sigh. “The whole situation with my parents taught me a lot about life and the importance of fighting for those you love, caring for them, making sure that no matter what I’d be there for them.”
“That’s why you do so much for your grandmother.” He’d seen her financials, the visits, the cost of care; it all had her right on the border between making it and bouncing her rent check.
“As much as I can. If it hadn’t been for her, I would have ended up in the system, because my dad sure as hell wasn’t going to take in a little girl he couldn’t acknowledge to his country club cronies.”
That bastard deserved to have his clock cleaned with a tire wrench. “He didn’t deserve you.”
“But I still wanted him to want me,” she said with a sniffle. “What can I say, the relationship between girls and their daddies, it matters.”
What could he say to that? He had nothing to offer. He’d run from his family as soon as he could. So he just held her and they stayed like that, hanging onto each other for dear life before Everly took a step back, brushing away the few tears that had dared to fall. With a deep breath, she reset her shoulders and her nothing-bothers-me mask fell back into place. He could call her on it, but he understood the necessity of that barrier some days.
“No more sad stories that explain why we don’t believe in happy endings.” She cocked her head to the side and leaned for him, this time her fingers going to the buttons of his shirt, which she flicked open with determined speed. “This is supposed to be just for fun, remember?”
Just for fun? For her that was it, but for him it was starting to feel like more than that, which meant he had to end it before the stakes got any higher—but not tonight. For once, he didn’t want to have to be the emotionally cold schemer. He wanted to melt in Everly’s heat. Not giving himself time to plan or plot, he crashed his mouth down on hers, claiming her for tonight because soon everything would have to change.
…
Everly didn’t tell that story. Ever. Her friends had either been with her at the time—like Nunni and Kiki—or they didn’t know it. She slipped one of his buttons free. And she’d told it to the one man from whom she was desperately trying to keep her emotional distance. She unbuttoned his shirt a little more. That wasn’t going to work, though, at least not tonight. By the time she got to the third button, she’d made up her mind to pretend—not to him but to herself—that tonight was just sex, that he was just a man, and that none of this mattered, because the truth was that it really had begun to matter more than just a little.
There wasn’t any talk between them. Not yet. The air around them was too heavy, the need too great. When she slid her tongue into his mouth, it wasn’t to challenge or tease, it was to get lost in him. She parted his shirt and slid her fingers underneath, gliding them over the hard planes of his chest as she trailed her mouth from his lips to his jaw prickly with a five o’clock shadow, then down his neck. He was hard, solid, totally there with her as if he’d never go anywhere, and it ripped something open in her, a place she normally kept closed up tight. And for once, she was just going to go with it, consequences be damned.
Grabbing ahold of his shirt, she lifted her head and looked him in those blue eyes of his that were six shades darker than normal and hooded with lust. Then, she yanked his shirt apart, snapping off the few buttons that had been holding the shirt closed and sending them flying across the room. The pings of them hitting this or that barely registered over the desire roaring in her ears.
“Is that how this is gonna go, sugar?” Tyler asked, one side of his mouth kicking up into a sexy half grin.
She whipped his belt through the buckle without ever breaking eye contact. “You gotta problem with that?”
“Fuck no.” He watched her flick open the button of his pants and inch his zipper lower with a gleam in his eyes. “Are you going to suck me deep, take me all the way in that pretty mouth of yours?”
Lowering herself to her knees, she shoved his pants and boxers down to the floor. “If you have to ask, then I’m not very good at signaling my intentions.”
He opened his mouth to say something, but she wrapped her fingers around the hot, hard length of him at the same time, and the words went unsaid. She liked the power of being able to make him stop thinking six moves ahead and to drown in the now. Leaning forward, she circled the head of his cock with her tongue, slow and exacting. His hands were on each side of her head, tangled in her hair, and when she opened her mouth and sucked him in, they tightened in time with the deep groan he let out. As she took him in deep, sliding her hands up the back of his thighs to his tight bare ass, she pushed him forward until there was no farther they could go.
“Everly,” he said, gravel in his voice.
“Yes, Tyler?” she asked between long licks along the sensitive underside of his dick, taking time to swirl her tongue around his swollen head.
“Do that again.”
He didn’t have to ask twice. His ass flexed under her touch as she pushed him forward and sucked in the length of him until he hit the back of her throat. There went the tightening of his fingers in her hair, just enough pressure to make her want more. So she took as much of him as she could and retreated again and again while he stood, legs planted shoulder-width apart, his head tossed back. Only his hands on her head sending electric shocks of want through her, his groans of pleasure, and the strain of his muscles acted as her guide to know how much was too much and just how close to going over he was. Their positions were switched from the night in the parking garage. Now he was the one mostly naked while she was mostly dressed, but he didn’t seem powerless; their power seemed to be growing from each other, and it was a huge turn on.
Pulling back, she licked the tip of his cock one last time as she stroked her hand up and down the length of him, her fingers barely touching. “I need to get naked.”
He looked down at her with enough heat to melt her panties if she’d been wearing any. “Hell yes.”
By the time she stood up, walked over to the bedroom door, and had her dress unzipped, he’d flipped off his shoes and shucked off his pants and underwear.
“You’re too slow,” he grumbled, stalking toward her. “Good thing I have the solution for that.”
Grabbing her hips, he spun her around so she was facing the wall. He unzipped her dress with the speed of an Olympic luge team and shoved the material down her arms and over her hips until gravity took it to the floor where it pooled around her spike heels.
“Have I told you lately how much I love your aversion to underwear?” he asked, his breath hot and teasing on the back of her neck.
She would have answered if she could’ve, but as the question came out of his mouth, he slid the back of his knuckles down her spine from the spot between her shoulder blades to her ass, all the speed gone from his movements stealing away her ability to form thoughts.
“Palms on the wall.”
There was no questioning. No asking. It was an order plain and simple, and it made her core clench. Pressing her hands to the wall, she lifted the back of her foot out of her shoe. A quick smack on her ass stopped her.
“They stay on.”
“So demanding,” she managed to get out, barely recognizing the husky tone to her own voice.
“When I know what I want, you bet your ass.” He rubbed his palm over her ass cheek, removing some of the sting. “Now kick that dress away, spread your legs, and don’t turn around.”
The thrill that went through her body made her nipples pebble into hungry hard peaks. She liked this Tyler. Scratch that. She loved this Tyler, the one who wasn’t concerned with anything but the two of them. So she did what he said. And waited, anticipation making her body thrum. But he didn’t touch her.
“Tyler?” she asked, the temptation to turn around and track what he was doing tugging at her.
“You might be the art expert, but seeing you like this—wet and waiting for me—is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” He trailed a finger, and only one finger, across her back, ending the journey at the crack of her ass before closing in so his hard cock pressed against the small of her back. “I’m going to fuck you just like this, up against this wall, and the whole time you’ll know it’s me even if you can’t see me because there’s no one else who can make you feel like I can.”
He wasn’t wrong, but she wasn’t going to tell him it was too late. She already knew that and had since that first kiss when he’d made her forget the rest of the world except for him. She heard the sound of the condom wrapper being ripped open coming from somewhere behind her. Damn. She hated missing him roll it on. There was something so sexy about watching him take his cock in his hand and stroke it before putting on a condom.
“No looking or I’ll make you wait to come.” Tyler’s command stopped her in mid-motion.
“It’s not fair,” she complained, her voice breathy.
“It’ll be worth it.” His hands were on her again, gliding up her front and cupping her breasts, rolling her aching nipples. “I promise.”
She moaned, arching her back so she pushed into his hands. He responded just the way she loved, by pulling her nipples with just enough pressure to make her thighs quake. Giving in to the moment, she let her forehead fall to the wall, its coolness in stark contrast to the heat surrounding her, threatening to burn her up from the inside out.
“That’s it.” He kissed the sensitive spot where her shoulder met her neck. “Let me hear how much you want me. How good it feels. Tell me what you want.”
“Your dick,” she panted, her core pulsing with the need to be filled. “I want you inside me.”
He chuckled against her overheated skin as he kissed his way up the back of her neck and tormented her nipples in the best fucking way possible. “Are you sure? Don’t you want me to play a little longer?”
If he did, she’d implode. “Fuck. Me. Now.”
He released one of her breasts, and she wanted to cry in disappointment, but the next second his hand slipped between her legs from the front and he spread her wet folds, sending waves of sensation through her. On the next breath he surged inside her, filling her the way only he did.
He stopped halfway. “Is this what you want?”
“More,” she whimpered. “More.”
“Whatever you want, sugar,” he said, and slammed into her. “So tight. So good.”
The gravel in his tone let her know that he was just as on the edge as she was. It wasn’t going to take long for either of them. Then, he started circling her clit with his fingers in concert with his thrusts, timing it so there was no moment where she wasn’t feeling him, no retreat of his cock without an answering swirl of his fingers. She was so wet she could hear the sound of him fucking her over their breathing, over her racing pulse that roared like thunder in her ears.
“That’s it, sugar,” he said, and nipped her shoulder. “Take me deep until you squeeze my cock as you come all over it.”
The combination of his fingers, his cock, and his words was too much to hold back any longer. Her orgasm slammed into her, blocking everything but the two of them as she cried his name.
“Everly,” he let out in a throaty growl before plunging into her quickly once, twice, three times and coming with her name still on his lips.
Her skin damp with sweat and her own desire, she tried to catch her breath as they both came down. Jesus. The things this man did to her. It scared her as much as it thrilled her. She was still floating down to earth when he withdrew and tossed the condom in a nearby trashcan.
“You sure do know how to show a girl a good time,” she said as she turned, glad for the wall at her back to support her because her legs sure as hell couldn’t do the job on their own.
“Oh,” he said with a wicked grin, “I’m not done showing you yet.”
As Tyler picked her up and strode toward his bedroom, Everly had a moment of crystal-clear panic. It was all fun for him. It was supposed to be all fun for her. However, she didn’t know how much fun she could take before her heart forgot the temporary parameters of this game, especially when she was pretty sure it was already too late.