Tyler’s sweet words stayed with her throughout the rest of that day and into the evening. He made a delicious dinner with pasta and vegetables and crunchy bread. They ate in the living room while they watched another of the many movies that had been delivered by her siblings. Outside the wind howled and snow pinged against the window, but inside . . . Inside was warm and cozy thanks to the fire Tyler had built and the down blanket he’d tossed over their laps.

Charley couldn’t concentrate on the movie because she was too busy wondering if there’d be more kissing. The waiting and wondering took her back to high school, when boys and men were still a mystery to her. In recent years there’d been nothing all that mysterious about the men she’d dated.

She actually couldn’t recall the last time she felt unsure of herself around a man. The feeling was new and not altogether welcome.

Tyler laughed at the movie.

Charley had lost track of the plot twenty minutes in.

He caught her watching him and smiled before returning his attention to the movie.

She wanted to scream with frustration, which had her laughing to herself at how things had changed. A few weeks ago, the thought of kissing Tyler was unimaginable. Now, she couldn’t wait for the chance to do it again. Which led to another, much more disturbing thought. Since when did she, Charley Abbott, wait for any man to make a move? What the hell was wrong with her? Had she lost her mind on the way down that ravine?

A flutter of nerves overtook her belly. It took a moment for her to recognize the flutter for what it was, since she had rarely been nervous about anything. Nerves were for wimps, or so she’d always thought. No one had ever accused her of being a wimp, but she sure felt like one at the moment because the thought of reaching out and taking what she wanted from Tyler made her nervous as hell.

Her hands rolled into fists as she stemmed the urge to touch him. She gritted her teeth and tried to focus on the movie, but it was hopeless.

“What’s the matter, Charley?”

Startled by the question, she went on the defensive. “Nothing’s wrong.”

“Does your knee hurt?”

“Not at the moment.”

“Are you hungry?”

“No, I’m not hungry.” He’d fed her to within an inch of her life since she’d been staying with him. “If you keep plying me with food, I’m going to be nine hundred pounds by the time I leave.”

“Something’s got you wound up.”

“I am not wound up.” Yes, she sounded shrewish, but there he went again acting like he could read her mind.

“Whatever you say.” He got up, taking the popcorn bowl with him, and returned with a fresh beer. Sitting a foot from her on the sofa, he propped his sock-clad feet on the coffee table, his body relaxed as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

To hell with it. She struggled to her feet, nearly falling in her haste.

“Whoa.” Tyler jumped up. “Slow down.”

“I don’t want to slow down.” She made her way, awkwardly and painfully, toward the bedroom, trying to figure out how she could slam the door to his own room in his face. But he denied her the opportunity to carry out her plan when he darted around her, walking backward in front of her.

“Will you please stop and tell me what’s wrong? Please?”

Something about the way he said please the second time infuriated her. She swung her crutch at him, and he darted out of the way. “You kissed my face off earlier and then . . . Nothing. Not so much as a look or a . . . a . . . Nothing!”

He took a step and closed the distance between them, until he was so close that she could count the whiskers on his jaw had she been so inclined. She wasn’t. “You want something?”

Setting her chin, she forced herself to look up at him. His eyes were on fire, and if she could have, she would’ve taken a step back out of sheer self-preservation. “What if I do?”

“You have to say it.” He was suddenly closer than he’d been before, and how was that even possible? “You have to tell me what you want.”

If asked under oath, Charley wouldn’t be able to say what made her do it. One minute she was seething and the next her crutches were crashing to the floor and her hand was around his neck, dragging him into a kiss. She clung to him, hoping he would keep her from falling over and reinjuring her healing knee.

Once again, he came to her rescue, wrapping his arms around her as his lips crashed down on hers. Every muscle in her body turned to liquid and only his tight hold kept her from falling. He kissed her as if his entire life depended on this kiss and this moment.

“If you wanted me to kiss you,” he said between kisses, “all you had to do was say so.” He kissed her again, his tongue delving deep into her mouth, triggering the sort of intense desire she’d heard about but hadn’t experienced personally before. In fact, before him, before now, she would’ve said this kind of desire was a myth.

His hand slid down her back to cup her ass, pulling her in tight against the hard ridge of his erection.

Charley rubbed against him shamelessly, looking for relief from the need that throbbed through her body like a live wire.

And then she was in his arms. He never faltered, and he made sure to protect her leg as he settled her on the bed and came down on top of her without missing a beat in the kiss that had gone from crazy to downright insane. She’d never kissed anyone with such unrestrained lust before him. She’d never wanted to tear the clothes from a man’s body and fully experience him the way she did now.

Her hand found its way under his T-shirt. She loved the moan that came from him when her skin connected with his. It was a huge turn-on to know he wanted her so badly. Other men had wanted her, but not like this. Not like Tyler did. When she tried to get closer to him, her knee fought back, making her wince from the bolt of pain that took her out of the moment.

“Easy, honey,” he said, softening the kiss.

“Tyler . . .”

He nuzzled her neck, setting off another wildfire that traveled straight to her nipples and clit. “What? Tell me.”

“I need . . .”

“Say it, Charley. Tell me what you need.”

“Touch me. I want you to touch me.”

“Where?” His lips continued to do crazy things to her neck and ear while his hands stayed stubbornly still by her sides.

“Everywhere.”

The low groan that came from him was about the sexiest thing she’d ever heard. Charley reached for the hem of her T-shirt and worked it up and over her head, exposing her bare breasts to his greedy gaze. Then she went to work on his shirt, tugging on it until he took the hint and removed it with one hand, while the other arm held him up.

She trailed her fingers over the bulging muscles in his arm, fascinated by the way he was built.

He came down on top of her slowly, carefully, bringing his chest into contact with hers.

Charley wrapped her arms around him and closed her eyes, absorbing the exquisite pleasure. It was almost too much, which was another first. She had always enjoyed sex, but this was something else altogether. This was attraction on a whole other level, and it scared the hell out of her.

“I’m afraid to hurt you,” Tyler said, his voice tense from the effort it was apparently taking to hold back.

“I’m fine. I won’t break.”

He moved slowly at first, rubbing his chest over hers. The feel of his chest hair on her aching nipples made her desperate for more.

She hooked her good leg around his hips to bring him in tighter against the part of her that ached.

“Christ, Charley,” he muttered as he latched onto her nipple, making her cry out from the heat of his mouth and the pinch of his teeth. “You’re so gorgeous and so sexy. I love to watch you move.” As he spoke, he continued to tease her nipple with his tongue and teeth. “I always run behind you at workouts.” His hand worked its way under her to squeeze her bottom. “Ah, God, I’ve wanted to grab hold of your sweet, sexy ass for so fucking long.”

The dirty talk electrified even as it shocked her in the best way possible. Who would’ve thought that prim and proper Tyler Westcott could get down and dirty?

He moved against her, touching her in all the right places, but even that much wasn’t nearly enough.

Charley wanted to toss aside any thoughts of caution or hesitation and give herself over to the desire that had overtaken every cell in her body. It didn’t matter that one of her legs didn’t work the way it was supposed to or that this was Tyler, who she’d held at arm’s length for so long. Nothing mattered but the need.

His hand moved from her breast to her belly, sliding down the front of her.

Charley’s breath caught while she waited to see what he would do next. Would he take it further or stop? She didn’t have to wait long for him to make up his mind. His fingers ducked under the waistband of her flannel pajama pants and straight into the lacy scrap of fabric that covered her. Dear God . . . His assertiveness was hot as hell. Guys who asked permission before they acted turned her off. Tyler didn’t ask. He just took, which was wildly arousing.

And he knew exactly where to touch her.

Charley gasped and then moaned as his questing fingers pressed against her clit before sliding into her, filling her completely and then retreating to do it again. Her fingers dug into the dense muscle that covered his broad shoulders.

“Tell me to stop,” he said in a low growl.

“Don’t you dare stop.”

“Your leg . . .”

“Is fine.”

He took her mouth in another of those kisses that quickly spun out of control while his fingers continued to play her like a maestro. No direction needed. He just knew. He knew her.

Charley tore her lips free of the kiss to scream out the pleasure that overtook her entire body, her muscles seizing from the force of her orgasm, which was cut short by the sharp pain that lodged in her leg when she forgot she couldn’t move it. The pain brought tears to her eyes.

“Ah crap,” he said. “That hurt.”

“Only for a second. It was worth it.” She forced her gaze up to meet his. The way he looked at her, as if she’d just handed him the one thing he wanted more than anything else . . . It was almost too much. She turned her attention to his finely muscled chest. “What about you?”

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“I don’t believe in leaving my partner wanting.”

“Oh, um, I . . .”

Charley laughed at his fumbling reply.

“I don’t like to think about you with other guys.”

The stark statement surprised her. “I’m not exactly a virgin, Tyler.”

“Neither am I, but still . . . I don’t like to think about you with others. That time I saw you and Tim Burke at Kingdom Pizza?”

“What about it?”

“I wanted to lure him outside and beat the shit out of him.”

“Tim Burke is a logger. He could’ve killed you.”

“Still . . . The thought of his hands on you . . .” Propped up on one elbow, he ran his finger over her collarbone and down to the valley between her breasts. Her nipples were immediately back on duty, standing up to see what else he would do. He watched them with that hungry gaze of his before taking a taste of one and then the other. “I could’ve killed him.”

Charley sank her fingers into Tyler’s hair. “He never got his hands on me.”

He lifted his head to look at her. “No?”

She shook her head. “Not for a lack of wanting.”

“The poor guy is only human.”

“You were wanting to kill that poor guy a minute ago.”

“I’ve lost interest in killing him now that I know he never touched you.”

“Others have.”

“I’ll need a list of names and addresses.” His teasing smile made her heart do a funny flip. Jealousy had never been much of a turn-on for her, but under the right circumstances . . .

“I want to touch you,” she said. “The way you touched me.”

A muscle in his cheek twitched from the tension that tightened his jaw.

“Can I?”

“Yes, God, yes, but only if you feel like it.”

“I feel like it.” She felt like she’d expire from wanting to if he didn’t let her. “Come here.” Holding out her hand to him, she brought him over to straddle her hips and then she set about freeing him from the pajama pants he’d put on earlier. She was intrigued to find nothing between him and the pants, but then he fell hard and hot into her hand and all thoughts were erased except for giving him the same pleasure he’d given her.

“Scoot forward,” she said.

“Charley . . .”

“Just do it.”

He moved up, bringing his long, thick erection closer to her mouth, which watered at the sight of him. Ella had been right about the lanky guys packing heat below. At least this one was, and she filed that fact away for her ever-growing list of ways that Tyler had surprised her.

She stroked him with her hand and teased the tip with her tongue.

His head fell back and his eyes closed, which left him unprepared for her to suck him into her mouth. He inhaled sharply, and she smiled to herself, loving the effect she was having on him. As she redoubled her efforts, he fell forward, his hands propped on the headboard, his hips moving in time with her strokes.

“Charley,” he said on a low growl. “Honey, stop. I’m gonna . . .”

She didn’t stop. Rather, she moved faster, enjoying the view of him above her, lost to what she was doing to him. His muscles tightened and his body stiffened as he came with a cry of completion that thrilled her. He came hard, and she took everything he had to give and didn’t let up until he sagged into her, breathing raggedly.

“Fucking hell, Charley,” he whispered. “You amaze me.”

“I amaze myself sometimes.”

He laughed and then moved to stretch out beside her, keeping his head on her chest and his hand flat on her belly. “That was the hottest thing ever.”

“Ever?”

“Ever.”

“Mmm, that’s a pretty good compliment.”

“You and me,” he said, “this . . . It’s gonna be something big. Are you down with that?”

The statement and the question left her reeling. “I, um . . . I don’t really do big.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“If you’re looking for white picket fences and two-point-two kids, I’m not your girl.”

“You are my girl. You’re absolutely my girl.”

“Because I sucked your dick once? That makes me your girl?”

He barked out a laugh that infuriated her. How dare he laugh when she was dead serious? “You’re a piece of work, Charlotte Abbott.”

“Don’t patronize me. How in the world have you made it so I’m your ‘girl’? I’m nobody’s girl but my own.”

“I want you to be mine. I want you in my life and in my bed.”

“I’m not the kind of girl you marry, Tyler.”

“Why in the world would you say such a thing? Of course you are.”

“No, I’m really not. Despite what you think you know about me, that much is true.”

“I don’t buy it. I think you tell yourself that so you won’t have to risk that carefully guarded heart of yours.”

“There you go again with the insight into Charley. Here’s a news flash for you—so we’re hot for each other. Big deal. That doesn’t mean there has to be hearts and flowers. Why can’t two people just have sex and call it what it is instead of making it into a big hairy deal?”

“No reason at all, I suppose. It’s just that if I hadn’t felt the evidence to the contrary, I’d wonder if you were the guy here.”

“Why? Because I don’t want what other women do? I don’t dream about the big white wedding and the Christmas cards with my cute little kids on them?”

“What’s wrong with cute little kids?”

“Not a thing, as long as they belong to someone else.”

His mouth opened and then closed as if he’d thought better of whatever he’d been about to say.

“Don’t know me as well as you think, do you?”

“Maybe not, but that doesn’t change anything.”

“You’ve been amazing to me, but you’re the kind of guy who needs a nice girl to marry and settle down with. I’m nowhere near ready for any of that, so we probably ought to take a step back before someone gets hurt.”

Rather than take a step back, he cupped her breast and tweaked her nipple, which was all it took to get her motor running again. How did he do that so easily? “I don’t want to take a step back. I want you any way I can get you. If you tell me all it can be is sex, I can live with that.”

“For how long?”

“For as long as you want to have sex with me.”

“And you aren’t going to start pressuring me for things I told you I don’t want?”

“When have I ever pressured you into anything?”

“I seem to recall a run up an icy mountain . . .”

“Pressuring is different than challenging.”

“I’m not going to change my mind about these things, Tyler.”

“Okay.”

She eyed him skeptically.

“What?”

“That means a month or two from now, when you’ve had your fill of me and I move on, you’re going to be fine with it.”

“Okay.”

“Just okay?”

He shrugged. “What else would you have me say?”

“You could repeat after me and say, ‘I, Tyler Westcott, have not only heard Charley Abbott say she doesn’t want a serious relationship, but I have listened to her when she says she means it.’”

Tyler looked her in the eye as he recited the words back to her. “Satisfied?”

“I’ll be more satisfied when my stupid leg works right again and we can do a hell of a lot more than we did tonight.”

Other than his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat, he had nothing to say to that.