Chapter 17
Kate was frog-marched—frog-rolled—out of the stadium by Tam who refused to let go of her until they were inside Rumba. The bar staff had put up streamers and balloons in honour of the final and Kate had barely pulled off her jacket before someone forced a bright red shot into her hands. She downed it, wincing at the cherry cough syrup flavour and looked around the bar. She couldn’t see Ty anywhere. Tam squeezed her arm. “He’ll be here. No one gets the better of Rapunzel. Let’s get another round.”
Turned out that meant another round of shots, and not a soft option like Cowboys or Skittle Bombs—straight tequila. Tam gleefully ordered chasers and Kate made a mental note to sip it slowly. Rumba had that tangible kamikaze feel of a party about to go off. She couldn’t get too drunk tonight. If Ty had to carry her out of a bar again, he might think she had a problem.
Ten minutes passed without a glimpse of him and Kate’s vodka sunrise vanished. People kept pounding her on the back, telling her how amazing her last play had been, but she could barely concentrate. She ordered another vodka sunrise.
Twenty minutes later and she was drunk. She was just about to tell Tam she was leaving and stagger out into the night to find Ty, when everyone in the bar cheered. Rapunzel appeared in the doorway beaming from ear-to-ear. Propping her up was a red-faced Ty.
“What the hell?” Tam shrieked. “Where have you two been?”
“I fell over on the road and did my ankle,” Rapunzel said gleefully. “If this cunt hadn’t picked me up, I’d have been run over!”
Everyone within earshot started laughing and Tam nudged Kate’s side. “That’s good he’s helping her. I was worried Rapunzel brought him here as part of a hostage situation. Let’s go give them a hand.”
It took the combined strength of Kate, Tam, and Casey to ease Rapunzel off Ty and into a booth. She refused to take off her roller skates (“We just won the fucking final!”) and instead propped up her leg and started icing her ankle with a bag of frozen cherries.
“I’m fine,” she kept shouting. “Someone get me a drink!”
Kate dutifully headed for the bar and Ty came with her. She was relieved to see that he was grinning.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, once he’d ordered a beer and a cranberry martini.
“A bit out of it,” Kate said. “Thanks for coming.”
“Glad I could make it, you were incredible. Here, this is for you.” He handed her the purplish martini. “The beer’s for…what’s her real name?”
Kate laughed. “Jacinta. Jacinta Smith-Bentley. But she gets angry if you call her that.”
“But I feel stupid calling a grown woman Rapunzel.”
“You get used to it.”
“Right.” Ty looked her up and down, his gaze suddenly hungry. “Drink your drink, Middleton.”
Kate took a sip of the martini. It was strong, tart and sweet. “It’s nice.”
“Good.” He kissed her right on the mouth, his tongue sliding between her lips to flirt with hers. When she moaned he pulled away. “Wanted to taste that on you.”
Kate was dizzy, drunk on his lips—and about six standard drinks in the space of an hour. “Was it nice?”
Ty rubbed a thumb over his lips. “Yeah.”
She decided to throw caution to the wind and tell him how insanely happy she was that he had come to see her tonight. “I’m so glad you—” Her skate connected with something squishy and she tipped backwards. “Whoa!”
“Katie!” Ty pulled her tight against him, breaking her fall.
Kate exhaled. “Thanks for saving me.”
“I seem to be doing a lot of saving at the moment. Can you please take off your bloody roller skates? It was hard enough watching you roll around in them when you hadn’t been drinking.”
Emboldened by the alcohol in her blood and the fact he’d been worried for her, Kate pressed her body against his, rubbing her hips along his suit pants. “I thought you said my roller skates were sexy?”
Ty’s smile was feral, a starving dog pacing behind a chain mail fence. “You need to be careful about what you say to me, Little Miss Middleton. I’ve gone too long without your body and I’m in no mood to be a gentleman.”
The implicit threat in his words made Kate’s heart skip a beat. “I wouldn’t mind if you weren’t a gentleman.”
Ty smoothed his hands down her back, resting them on her hips. To anyone else, it might have looked like a sweet gesture, but his grip was hard and his cock was now flush against her stomach.
“Feel that? The way you’re going, you’re going to spend the night sucking it until your jaw aches.”
Kate shivered. “Is that a promise?”
“Disrespectful little thing tonight, aren’t you?” Ty bit her earlobe, sending shivers down her spine. “Let’s get out of here and find out.”
She was just about to agree when one of her nicknames was shouted across the bar. She turned to see Rapunzel pointing at her. “Don’t even think about running off with Dexter until we’ve had a drink! Bring my beer over!”
“Princess Rapunzel has spoken,” Ty said drily, and Kate was sure he was going to suggest he leave and meet her at her place. Then he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and walked with her toward the booth where her teammates were sitting.
“One drink with your friends,” he muttered into her ear. “Then we’re getting out of here so I can pound sixteen days’ worth of frustration into you while you beg me for mercy.”
Kate was so full of conflicting emotions she could only stare. “You don’t have to do this. Meet my teammates like this. Right now.”
He smiled. “I want to, Middleton. I promised things would be different and I meant it.”
“Okay, well you should know the girls can be a bit full on. They’re nice but, um, a bit intense.”
Ty smiled in a way that said she was being silly, that he’d never felt out of place anywhere, never had any trouble getting anyone to like him. Yet for all his confidence Kate’s stomach wouldn’t unclench.
Please let this go well, she prayed. Please let everyone like everyone.
When they reached the crimson faux-leather booth around which most of the team was packed, Ty placed Rapunzel’s pint in front of her. “How are you doing, girls?”
“Good,” her teammates said in a flirtatious chorus.
“Glad to hear it.” Ty squeezed Kate’s shoulder. “Have you got enough room for us to join you?”
“Hell yeah,” Tam said. “Everyone bunch up. And someone go get some more tequila.”
And so, against all Kate’s expectations, she and Ty settled into the booth, his hand clasped around hers. The next forty minutes passed in a blur of conversation and alcohol. Ty laughed and told jokes and listened attentively when anyone talked. He asked thoughtful questions about derby and whatever jobs the person he was talking to worked. It was a full-scale charm attack, so all-encompassing Kate was sure the devil would have been left starry-eyed and woozy. Her teammates were easy fodder, compared to that. Soon they were hanging on his every word. Casey, in particular, kept tossing her hair and laughing a strange laugh Kate had never heard before. It sounded like helicopter blades shredding through a bowl of lipstick.
Rapunzel, who for obvious reasons was completely unaffected by Ty’s charisma, shoved herself closer to Kate. “How are you doing, Peach?”
“Good,” Kate said, swirling a straw around in her martini. “You?”
“I’m all right.” Rapunzel jerked her head at Ty. “He’s a bit charming, isn’t he?”
“Yeah,” Kate said, her belly tightening for some reason. “You should see him at work.”
“I can imagine. He’s a good choice for you, though. You make a good match.”
Kate nodded, then the vodka made her ask, “You don’t think it’s weird he’s older than me?”
Rapunzel snorted. “No, why the fuck would that matter?”
“Maria thinks it’s weird.”
“Look, Peach, about Maria…” Rapunzel broke off and stared up at the ceiling. She’d been drinking steadily since she arrived at the bar, but Kate had a feeling something else was putting the glassy look in her eyes, something that probably wasn’t legal in the state of Victoria.
“Are you okay?”
“Oh fuck yeah.” Rapunzel yawned. “What was I saying? Oh that’s right, old or not anyone can see why you’d wanna hump that breeder. He’s a good looking bloke, charming like we said. Casey’s beyond moist just breathing his air.”
“I know. She keeps laughing weird.”
Rapunzel’s brow furrowed. “You’re not pissed at her, are you? She doesn’t mean anything by it. She just hasn’t had sex in ages.”
“Oh no, I totally get it! Everyone stares at Ty like that. I stare at Ty like that.”
“Cool.” Rapunzel put an arm around Kate’s shoulders. “You’re a good partner for a beautiful person, Peach. Sometimes people can’t handle it. Or they like it at first, but then they get jealous and take it out on their girl—or man, or whatever.”
Rapunzel let out a long, low sigh.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Kate asked.
“Nah, it’s all good, I’ve made my peace with it now. Older and wiser, you know? But I wish I’d had a little more self-respect back then. Understood that Amy couldn’t help people falling in love with her left, right and center. She was beautiful, that’s just what happens.”
Rapunzel tapped Kate’s sternum. “You won’t do that. You know it’s not personal just because his light shines a little brighter than yours.”
Kate thought about Ty’s ex-fiancée. She had been miles prettier than her but it still hadn’t worked out. “I’ll try.”
“Shit!” Rapunzel shouted. “Not that you’re not hot! Sorry if it sounded like I was saying you’re not hot! You’re such a sexy nun, I just mean your boy’s got that Jason Statham charisma thing happening—”
“It’s okay, I totally understand,” Kate said loudly, because Gilly and Jenna had turned to look at them.
Rapunzel nodded, relaxing back into the booth. “Good. That’s very good. And don’t worry about the age gap either. When you’re gay…” She stared up at the ceiling again, as though something fascinating was happening up there.
Kate nudged her side. “Um, you were saying something about age gaps and being gay?”
Rapunzel gave a little start. “Oh yeah, I was trying to say that when you’re gay, those things don’t matter the same way. I’ve dated nineteen-year-olds, and I’ve dated fifty-three-year-olds, and there are differences, sure, but there isn’t this shame or power shit because there isn’t a history of old women forcing hot chicks to marry them and lick their wrinkly old balls.”
“Ergh.”
“I know, but you need to listen to me, Peach.” Rapunzel gripped Kate’s chin, her water-blue eyes boring into hers. “I don’t get called a cougar because I date young chicks and people don’t say I’ve been taken advantage of when I screw older women. Why should it be different for you?”
“I don’t know,” Kate admitted. “I guess there’s a history of older men dating young women without any social kickbacks. Like they’re allowed to upgrade, but women only get grosser with time. Maybe I feel like I’m a part of that, especially, because I like it when Ty—”
Kate clamped her mouth shut. Discussing her and Ty’s age difference was hard enough without bringing up their daedalean labyrinth of a sex life.
Rapunzel hiccoughed. “Okay, so men have been shitty and used their power to attract women who’d never fuck them normally. But does that mean old men and young women can’t fall in love, get married and go down on each other forever?”
Kate felt like this would be a bad time to tell Rapunzel that Ty didn’t go down on her. “No?”
“Right. You’re not helping the cause by telling your fancy little man that he can’t be your fancy little man. Just be with him and be happy, I say.”
Kate smiled. “Thanks, Rapunzel.”
“Anytime. Now, are you sure you don’t wanna sell me some of your Ritalin?”
“No.”
“Fair enough.”
Despite Ty’s claim they’d stay for one drink, they ordered another round, then another. As it neared midnight Kate felt totally justified in ‘accidentally’ brushing her hand across his thigh. She had barely touched him, when he gripped her wrist. “Middleton,” he said in her ear. “We’re done here. Finish your drink.”
Kate obliged, then realised she desperately needed to pee. She extracted herself from the booth with some difficulty and stood, wobbling slightly, but refusing all offers to accompany her to the bathroom. “I’m fine you guys, really.”
“Be careful, Middleton,” Ty said. “If you fall I won’t be there to catch you this time.”
“Why’d you call her Middleton?” Casey demanded.
“Because…”
Kate skated away before she could hear him explain. She felt like a semi-badass tonight with her derby win and her hot date, and Middleton was the girly girl from work.
She was a foot from the Rumba bathroom when someone called her name. She turned to see Maria sitting with a group of women Kate had never seen before. “Katie,” she said. “Come over here!”
Kate was desperate to pee but figured a quick hello wouldn’t hurt. She skated closer. “Hi. How’s it going?”
Everyone at the table said some variation on the word ‘good.’ Their mouths were red with wine and from the empty bottles in front of them, Kate guessed they were as drunk as she was. “Okay, well nice to meet you guys but I’ve gotta…” she gestured to the bathroom.
“Just a second.” Maria said, her accent even thicker than usual. “I wanted to ask if your boyfriend wanted to come sit with us? He might feel a bit more comfortable here with people his own age.”
Everyone laughed, which meant everyone knew. Kate’s cheeks burned. “I think he’s okay.”
“I bet he is,” Maria slurred and Kate decided to leave. Maria said something and the women burst into laughter behind her.
It was only once she’d peed that Kate noticed the walls of her cubicle were careening from side to side as though she were on the deck of a heavily graffitied pirate ship. She needed to leave, go home, take some pre-emptive ibuprofen and have a cuddle with Ty.
Except Ty doesn’t cuddle. You’ll be giving him a nice blowjob without any reciprocal downtown action. Doesn’t that sound fun?
“Shut up,” she mumbled, pressing her hands to her ears as though that might stop the unremitting thoughts. “Shut up, shut up.”
Someone pounded hard on her cubicle door. “Katie?”
She frowned. “Maria?”
“Yes, please come out. I want to talk to you.”
Kate glared at the door. Drunk as she was, she knew she shouldn’t be getting into any arguments, but she couldn’t help herself. She burst out of the stall and almost knocked Maria over. “What the actual hell?”
“Katie, be careful!”
“No!” Kate said pointing a petulant finger at her. “You were super mean to me just now!”
Maria’s expression was pained. Her usually flawless eyeliner wings were smeared and she had lipstick on her teeth. “I know, I’m so sorry.”
“I don’t care! Why did you do that?”
Maria took her hand, her skin was very hot. “Because of him. I don’t like him, Katie.”
“Too bad.” Kate shook off Maria’s hand and skated over to the sinks.
Maria followed her. “That man is using you.”
“Oh my gosh, not this rubbish again!” Kate pounded the soap dispenser so hard it jizzed pink detergent all over the sinks and the mirror. “Shoot!”
She tried to wipe it off as best she could with her vision still swaying from side to side.
“You don’t understand.” Maria grabbed her hips from behind and pulled Kate into her chest. “You think because he came to your game and met all the girls, he’s changed, but it takes nothing for him to come here and buy you a drink. Nothing. He ignores you for weeks and with just one kiss you’re his again!”
Kate shouldered her friend’s body away from hers. “God, Maria, what’s gotten into you?”
“I’m sorry,” she moaned, still holding Kate’s hips. “Please just forgive me and tell me you won’t see him anymore?”
“I can’t do that! I don’t want to do that! I have no idea why you hate Ty so much but I can have sex with him if I want to.”
Maria glared at her in the soapy mirror. Unlike her teammates, she’d changed out of her uniform into jeans and knee high boots. She looked tall and powerful, an Amazon in action.
“Katie, this man is not what you’ve been fantasising about. You want someone to love you and what you have is an old man using you for sex. Unless you make it clear what you deserve, Tyler Henderson will never commit himself to you.”
“You don’t know that!” Kate’s voice bounced off the mirrors and sinks, echoed against the graffitied ceiling. “You don’t know anything about him!”
“Maybe, but I know everything about you. I helped you when you didn’t have anyone else, and I’m not going to see you get hurt again. I’m the only one who cares about you!”
It was a good thing Maria had changed out of her skates. At her words, Kate became so full of bright, white rage, she shoved Maria’s shoulder and sent her staggering backward.
“Katie!” Maria looked shocked. “What are you doing?”
“Why would you say that to me? Why did you hurt me then follow me in here and try to hug me better and say it was Ty’s fault?”
Maria shot a panicky look at the door. “You don’t need to yell, I just—”
“You really think you’re the only person I can trust?”
“What I meant was—”
“No!” Kate had never been so angry in her life. Her whole body was shaking from head to toe. “I know you meant it. You really think you’re the only person who knows me or likes me and you want it to stay that way.”
Tears welled up in Maria’s eyes. “Katie, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come in here. I’m sorry. Let’s just forget this for now. We can talk about this tomorrow or—”
“No.” Kate skated toward the door. “No. I’m done.”
She wrenched the door open, the noise and heat of the bar hitting her right in the face. She turned and looked over her shoulder at her mentor, who stood wiping sooty tears out of her eyes. “We’re over,” she told Maria . “We’re not friends anymore.”
Without waiting to hear what she would say, Kate skated forward, letting the door close between them.
It was as if the booth with her teammates had been frozen in time when she left and quickly defrosted upon her return. Everyone was still drinking the same drinks and listening to Ty explain why they called her ‘Middleton.’ How could so little time have passed when a huge bombshell had fallen and detonated upon her? Maria wasn’t really her friend. Maria didn’t have any of her best interests at heart.
“Macca!” Tam cried. “Sit down, we’ll get more shots!”
Kate shook her head, making deliberate eye contact with Ty. He got the message at once, finishing his glass of water and rising to his feet. “Goodnight girls, thanks for having me.”
There was a chorus of boos. Gilly threw a straw at him.
“Hang on! It’s not even…” Casey grabbed Ty’s arm and turned his Seamaster toward her. “It’s not even midnight. You can’t just leave!”
“Yes, they can, Sabrina.” Rapunzel pried Casey’s fingers away from Ty’s wrist. “Give Peach and her boytoy credit for staying this long.”
Kate knew she was calling Ty her boytoy to reassure her about their age gap. It was so sweet she almost started crying. “I’ll see you later, guys. Amazing game all of you.”
“You too.”
“Later, Mac.”
“Yeah, enjoy the sex.”
A loud burst of laughter followed them from the booth and Ty chuckled as he led her toward the door. It was freezing outside, minus one at least. Ty bundled her into his arms and wrapped his coat around her back.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “You looked a bit dazed when you came back from the bathroom.”
Kate thought about telling him what Maria said, unloading the whole dirty story, then she shook her head. “I’m fine, just a bit drunk, maybe.”
Ty gave her a wry look. “I don’t think it’s a maybe, Middleton, and the wheels aren’t helping. Did you bring a change of clothes?”
Kate slapped a hand to her forehead. “Yeah, but Casey put my sports bag in her car. I should go back inside and—”
“No, we’ll only get stuck talking to everyone for another hour.” Ty peeled off his coat and placed it around her shoulders. “Button it up, it should do you until we get to the car.”
Kate stared at him, running a hand over the thick Ty-smelling fabric. Who would have ever thought she’d be wearing this coat? “What about you?”
“Queenslanders are tougher than southerners. Besides,” Ty smirked at her. “I’ve got something better to keep me warm.”
He bent down and picked her up, wrapping her legs around his waist. “That should do me until we get to the parking tower.”
“I can walk,” Kate protested. “Or roll.”
“Not a chance. You’re drunk and in roller skates. I’m not spending the rest of the night in the emergency room when I could spend it in your bed.”
The thought of them having sex in her bed again made Kate bite her tongue. When they reached the parking tower, Ty stopped in front of a glossy black Toyota Hilux.
“Is that yours?” Kate said, surprised.
Ty pulled a set of keys from his suit pocket. “Course. You didn’t think I was gonna take you home on my bike, did you? You’d freeze to death.”
Ty opened the passenger side door and eased her in. As he walked around the cab, Kate glanced around and tried to absorb any and all of the car’s details. It was a manual, of course, because Ty was butch and butch guys drove big manual cars, even in the city where you were at risk of dinging someone at every turn. It also smelled new and was very tidy. Only a few crumpled receipts on the floor indicated it was in use. Kate wondered if his house was the same, clean and butch and barely used.
Ty jumped in the driver’s seat and shut the door. “Seatbelt.”
Kate dutifully tugged the safety device across her chest and clicked it into the holder. “I haven’t been in a non-Uber car for ages.”
“You have one, right? Red Hyundai?”
“Yeah, but I hardly use it. I keep thinking I should sell it and rent out my parking space.”
Her voice was as husky as if she were telling him all the ways she planned to screw him tonight. Ty caught the scent at once. “What are you thinking about, little girl?”
The truth was Kate’s mind was pinwheeling across a hundred different topics. So much had just happened, so much to absorb and process. She knew she and Ty should talk about why he left and why he came back, but all she really wanted to do was something that required no words whatsoever.
“I’m thinking you have tinted windows,” she told him. “And there’s no one around.”
The interior light had gone off now Ty had shut the door. All Kate could see when she looked across at him were the sharp planes of his face, hard, unforgiving angles. Air hissed between Ty’s teeth and then her seatbelt unclicked itself, the strap sliding across her chest.
“Is that a yes?”
His hand closed over her breast, massaging it softly. “You take something now, you’ll pay for it later.”
Kate smiled, remembering she still owed him thirty or so blow jobs from when she ‘stole’ from his wallet. “Put it on my tab.”
Ty made a soft tutting noise, as though she had no idea what kind of trouble she was in. “You wanna sit on my cock, little girl? You wanna get fucked in a parking garage?”
Kate pictured it, her back against the wheel, riding him up and down. Her pussy clenched excitedly, but she shook her head. “I want to go down on you.”
Ty stopped massaging her breast. “You sure? You must be tired from your game.”
She was, but it didn’t matter. Serving him was exactly what her submissive self-required—to be nothing but a cog in someone else’s machine for a while.
“I want to be a good girl,” she said and even though it was dark, she knew Ty smiled.
“If that’s what you want, it’s yours. But if you suck it now, you’ll ride it as soon as we get home, understood?”
Kate gave a nod that was pointless in the dim light, then she said, “Yes, Daddy.”
Ty’s cock was as beautiful as she remembered. When she opened wide and brought her lips around it, he groaned.
“Stay low,” he said, weaving a hand through her hair. “We get caught, both of us’ll have some job-searching to do.”
Kate knew she should have been worried about that, but she had no thoughts to spare for anything that wasn’t Ty’s cock. She gave herself over to the act of sucking him, ignoring the tricky angle and her sore neck, ignoring everything that wasn’t her job.
Ty’s hand rose and fell with her head. “Fuck, I missed you,” he groaned. “I missed your greedy fucking mouth.”
“I missed you, too,” Kate moaned around his shaft and because she knew all he could hear was garbled nonsense, she added, “I think I’m in love with you.”
When he was done, Ty wiped a thumb over her damp lips.
“You were perfect,” he said. “Now, let’s go home.”
Kate nodded, feeling as though he’d poured warm, glowing liquid into a place that had been empty for far too long—not his semen, obviously—the fact that he’d called Aunt Rhonda’s apartment home. The fact that they were going there together, after a social outing that was almost, maybe a date.
They made out in the elevator, Kate not giving a damn about Stephen who was surely watching them at the security deck downstairs. Kate had barely closed her front door before Ty pressed her up against it, tearing off her underwear and fucking her with a ruthlessness she hadn’t felt since their first night together.
She came within minutes, screaming his name as the wheels of her roller skates bashed against the wood. One of Aunty Rhonda’s daguerreotypes fell off the wall and splintered, but Ty didn’t stop, and Kate didn’t care. He came a few minutes later, groaning about what a good whore she was, his lovely girl, his beautiful little slut.
“You want a shower?” he asked when they’d both caught their breath.
“You mean, me and then you, or you and then me?”
Ty huffed out a laugh. “I mean, together.”
Kate tugged at her ear, unable to fully believe what she’d heard. “Ah, yeah, if you’re having one? Maybe? I guess?”
And so for the first time in their brief, unusual history she and Ty showered together. Initially, Kate stood away from him, shyly admiring his body, but Ty tugged her close, laying her head against his chest. “How are you feeling? Are you warm enough?”
I think I’m in love with you. “I’m great.”
They stood under the hot waterfall together for a very long time, until everything felt floaty and safe and surreal.
Aftercare, Kate thought, is fucking sweet.
No sooner had she thought that than Ty grabbed her body wash and loofa. He applied one to the other then gave her a big cheeky smile. “That’s the fucking smell!”
“Huh?”
“The strawberry fruit smell you’ve been carrying around since February. This is where it comes from, right?”
Kate frowned at him. “You noticed when I switched my lotion?”
To her delight, Ty’s cheeks went red. He scowled at the body wash as though it had just called him an ignorant asshole. Kate giggled. “Do you know what flavour it was before?”
He didn’t answer.
“Please tell me?” she begged. “If you say it, I’ll give you a million blow jobs.”
“You’d give me that anyway.”
“I know, but please tell me? Please, please, please? Please?”
His scowl intensified. “Mango. It was mango, okay? Mango. Now turn around and let me wash your ass.”
Kate couldn’t help it, she laughed. She laughed until she had to press a palm to the shower stall to keep herself upright. She laughed until Ty threatened to spank her into submission, which she took seriously and shut up. The last thing she wanted on top of her evening was a spanking. What she needed, and got, was Ty washing her, his big rough hands rubbing strawberry body wash into her skin with such tenderness it made her stomach twist and flutter like a cut kite. When they got out he wrapped her in a towel. “Better?”
Yes, Kate thought. And no.
The need to ask, to define, was almost overwhelming—do you like me? Will it be different now? Can you be my boyfriend? What will we tell the people at work? Is there a chance you could be in love with me, too? But there was no way to ask those things without sounding insane, even in her own head. So she just said yes and watched as he dressed himself in his suit again.
“I’ll stay the night soon,” he promised. “But this is new for me, and I don’t want to rush things.”
“I understand,” Kate lied, because after sixteen days all she wanted was to stay with him. “I’ll see you soon?”
He kissed her cheek. “Of course. I’m so fucking glad we could do this, Middleton.”
Kate, she thought. My name is Kate.
Once he left, Kate couldn’t sleep. She sat on her couch and stared at the TV without absorbing a single pixel. Ty had come back and things would be different, she’d won a grand final and cemented her friendship with one of the coolest people she’d ever met, so why couldn’t she be happy?
She thought back to Rumba Bar, to Ty smiling and laughing, drawing in her teammates as easily as a fish breathed water. As impressed as she’d been at the time, something about it had felt strange, and as she lay aching on her couch, Kate knew what it was.
For someone praised as an Errol-Flynn-meets-Casanova-meets-James-Bond charmer, Ty had never actually charmed her. From the moment they’d met, she’d only seen him wield his allure from afar while he gave her first indifference, then resistance, then a kind of amused acceptance with occasional flashes of heart-stopping tenderness. When he laughed at her jokes or took her in his arms, it was always felt a little, well, grudging. As though he wished he could stop himself, but couldn’t. What did that say about her and him and their possible future?
Maria’s words came back to her. What you have is an old man using you for sex. Unless you make it clear what you deserve, Tyler Henderson will never commit himself to you.
“She’s wrong,” she told the apartment. “I don’t have to make anything clear, this is just the start of a normal relationship. Everything is gonna be okay.”