Three soft knocks on my door had my heart pounding. I stared at it for a moment, frozen, afraid. It took a few seconds before I convinced my feet to move. I slid the deadbolt, turned the knob, and opened the door wide.
Tyler stood there looking like sin in a gray skull cap, a fitted black jacket, black jeans and boots. His hands were in his pockets and his eyes were black in the dim lighting of the hallway, yet they burned me alive as they swept over my face and down my body.
Blood rushed to my nether regions so fast I got lightheaded.
Oh, God.
“Can I come in?” he asked. “I need to come in, Ailee. Please.”
I realized I was blocking the doorway and quickly stepped back. “Of course. Come in.”
With one powerful step, he was inside with the door closed and sweeping me up into his arms. “I missed you so much.”
My arms went around his neck.Oh God.I’d missed him, too. More than I’d realized until just this very moment. “I missed you, too.” He smelled like soap and something woodsy and masculine. I wanted to crawl inside his clothes with him. Emotions welled up inside of me. Emotions I hadn’t felt for a man in…well, never. They were real and obsessive and raw, and too much. It was all too much.
“I’m so sorry I took off like that.” Taking my face between his large palms, his eyes bored into mine. “I never meant to be gone so long.”
I tried to play it cool. “That’s okay. Things come up. You did what you had to do.”
One side of his mouth turned up in response. His eyes travelled over my face. “I almost forgot how pretty you are.”
Tears filled my eyes, but before he could notice, he was kissing me.
My hands gripped the front of his coat and I hung on for all I was worth, praying my knees wouldn’t give out. How was this happening? How had I ended up here? Clinging to a man like he was my lifeline. This wasn’t what I wanted.
Before I could go any farther down that trail of thought, I was spun around and my back was up against the door.
Tyler broke off the kiss and stepped back just far enough to rip his coat from his body, revealing a gray T-shirt pulled tight across his muscular chest. His eyes never left my face, my mouth, dipping down to my breasts. And then he was against me, one hand in my hair and his mouth slamming down on mine. I moaned at the warmth of his body. The taste of him. The delicious scent of him. The strength of his arms around me. The hard press of his body.
God, I wanted him. I couldn’t deny it. The entire time he’d been gone, I’d walked around in a fog, going through the motions of my life, and yet never really feeling alive.
Tyler made me feel alive. And I craved this feeling like a drug.
My hands went to the bottom of his shirt and started wriggling it up and off. He growled low in his throat when it forced him to release me. I pushed the hat off his head and dropped it. His dark hair stuck up all over, and it was so damn sexy.
“I missed you,” I told him again, and I meant it. I missed this Tyler. This man who looked at me like he hungered for me more than air, who touched me like he couldn’t get close enough, and made me feel like the only woman on earth. Or, at least, the only woman for him. I don’t know where he’d gone after our date at the casino, but I’d missed him so damn much.
He cupped my cheek tenderly, even as he pressed his hard length against my stomach. “Ailee,” he whispered. “We need to talk.”
“I’d rather do what we’re doing,” I told him. My hands roved over his hard body. Over the tattoos on one side of his chest and upper arms. Whatever he wanted to talk about could wait. I needed this reconnection with him. I wanted to finish what we’d started at my apartment.
“Ailee…” His expression was pained.
I took off my shirt and dropped it on the new pile of clothes we were creating. “After,” I whispered. “Please, kiss me now.”
With a helpless sound, he did. Gently at first, his lips brushing the corners of my mouth, playing with my bottom lip, leaving a trail of heat along my jawline before returning to my mouth. Gathering my hair back into one hand, he pulled, tilting my head back so he could leave wet kisses down my throat.
He slid his other hand over my ass, squeezed, then went lower, brushing my core from behind with his fingertips and pulling one leg up to wrap around his hip. He lifted me easily, my other leg wrapping around him as he balanced me against the door. Bolts of desire shot all the way through to my limbs when he rolled his hips. He was so hard, so strong, I could barely breathe for wanting him.
Still holding me wrapped around him, he jerked me up into him and took me to my room. I felt a brief jolt of fear he was going to run out on me again, but it was gone by the time he sat on the side of the bed with me on his lap. Reaching around me, he undid his boots one at a time and kicked them off. And then his mouth was on me again, leaving wet heat everywhere he touched.
His thumb brushed the underside of my breast, and I pushed him back onto the bed. He laid back, watching me as I unhooked my bra and slid the straps down my arms. His eyes latched onto my chest and his breath stopped as my breasts were freed. Catching them in his hands, he squeezed my nipples, rolling them between his fingers.
My head fell back, and I arched my spine, shamelessly pushing harder into his palms as I moved my hips, rubbing against his hard length. I needed him inside of me. I needed him with me. This woman I became when I was with him, I didn’t know where she came from, but I really liked her. She wasn’t shy. Wasn’t ashamed of her body. She held the power, even as he played her like an instrument and made her weak with need.
With a growl, he sat up and took a nipple in his mouth. I held onto his strong shoulders, watching him. There was a flash of white teeth as he nipped at me, then pulled me closer, sucking the hard nub into his mouth as he teased it with his tongue. One hand slid down the back of my pants, gripping my bare ass. The other arm held me prisoner to him.
I’d never felt as sexy as I did when I was in Tyler’s arms.
