Only Tyler (13 page)

“Good morning,” a voice murmured in her ear.

She nuzzled her back into the warm strength of his chest, and pressed her thighs against his. “Morning,” she answered, not quite conscious. Reality and dreams blurred together.

“Sleep well?” he asked.

“Mmm. Like a log.”

He caressed her breast, flicked her nipple. “Me too. It’s easer to sleep when your bed mate’s not tossing and turning the whole night.”

“Steve!”

She pressed her palm over his hand to still his movement, and was at once fully conscious.

“Come down from yesterday’s adrenaline rush yet?” he asked.

There’d been no time to talk last night. By the time he’d joined her in bed, she’d been dead to the world. Utterly shattered from the day’s jump, she hadn’t needed to feign sleep.

“Yes. I think so.” Oh jeez. His hand was on her breast.

“Good.” He chuckled quietly behind her. “Ready for another one?”

“Skydive?” Katie asked stupidly. Did she want his hand there?

“Nope, babe.” She heard the smile in his voice. “Adrenaline rush.”

He pulled her closer, pushed his erection against her ass, and her heart lurched in her chest.

Her already-frustrated body reacted instinctively to his advances.

Her panties grew damp. Yes, she was turned on, but it wasn’t Steve who’d made her horny. It was Tyler.

Her nipple tightened against his Steve’s hot skin. His palm felt good there, sensual. She wanted it there.

No, she didn’t.

Yes, she did.

Christ, she didn’t know what she wanted. She wanted sex, that much was for sure. Tyler’s teasing and tormenting had left her in a permanent state of arousal. One touch of her breast was all it took to ignite the fire that had lain temporarily dormant in her belly. Her fiancé and lover lay behind her an instant fix to a pressing problem.

How could she resist?

She relaxed back against him.

He moved his arm lower, freeing himself from her grip, and touched her belly.

Fuck, who was she kidding? She couldn’t make love to Steve. Not like this not without him knowing the truth.

“Stop!” The word was torn from her throat.

He wrenched his hand away. “Jesus, Kate. What is it?”

She sat up, quickly. So did he. “I can’t do this.”

“You can’t do what?”

“I can’t you know” She waved a finger between them, back and forth. “You and me. This. I can’t do it. Not until I tell you the truth.”

He eyed her warily. “What truth?”

Katie dropped her head in her hands. The time had come to stop hiding behind her cowardice. To stop hiding behind her promise to Tyler. So what if Tyler had sworn her to secrecy? Steve deserved more than lies and half-truths. He deserved to know everything. “The truth about me and Tyler.”

The bed shifted as Steve collapsed on his back. He drew in a deep breath but didn’t speak.

She peeped at him through her fingers. “You were right about us,”

she whispered. Yes, she’d promised Tyler, but she wasn’t marrying him.

“Right about what?” He might have asked the question, but he knew the answer.

She lifted her head so she could face him when she spilled the facts. “I… We… um. He and I, there was something between us.”

Steve stared at her.

“We were lovers.” Lord, it was just as difficult to tell him as she’d always feared.

“You were lovers?” he repeated.

“Briefly. Just before he left.” Please, don’t let him be upset. Please.

“When, exactly?” His voice was chillier than she’d ever heard it.

Details? He wanted details? “Uh the night of your tennis match in Noosa.”

“That’s it? Just one night?” Steve’s eyes narrowed.

“No.” She rubbed her arms, feeling suddenly very cold. “Not just one night. We were lovers until he left for London.”

He shook his head. “Tyler was the bastard who broke your heart.”

Her chest tightened. “Please don’t call him that. He’s your best friend.”

“He broke your heart,” he repeated again.

“Don’t blame him. I gave it to him to break. Wrapped it up in a red ribbon and handed it to him.”

Steve squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them again. “You have to give me a minute with this one, Kate. It’s not every day a man hears that his fiancé was once his best friend’s lover.” He closed his eyes. Opened them. Stared at the ceiling.

Katie touched his arm, but he shrugged her off. A minute later he threw off the covers and launched himself out of bed. The bathroom door closed with a soft bang behind him.

Katie sat, unmoving, her heart pounding in her chest.

Water ran, the toilet flushed. More water. Then silence. Her heart beat harder. Had she done the right thing?

The door swung open.

“You loved him, didn’t you?” He stood in his boxers in the doorway.

“He couldn’t have done such a number on you if you didn’t.”

She nodded silently. Steve had been there. he’d helped put the pieces of her broken life back together. She didn’t need to tell him how much Tyler had meant to her.

“He loved you too?”

“Yeah, Steve. He did. Not that it mattered he’d left anyway.”

“For a month you two were lovers, and neither of you thought to mention it to me?”

Katie blushed with shame. “I wanted to tell you. I honestly did. But at the same time I didn’t want you to find out. I didn’t want to exclude you from our circle, didn’t want to isolate you. You were still upset about Penelope. Throwing my new relationship with Tyler in your face would only have made it worse. So I pretended everything was still the same, even though it wasn’t.”

His face darkened. “What about when he left, Kate? The dynamics changed again. It was just the two of us. Telling me about you and Tyler wouldn’t have made a difference then.”

Of course she should have told him then. She hadn’t. “Yes, it would have. You were like my big brother, ready to kill anyone who hurt me.

Jeez, Steve, how many times did you threaten to beat the shit out of the bastard who broke my heart? If you’d known it was Tyler, you would have been furious with him. I… I never wanted to come between the two of you.”

“Big of you,” he said cynically, and curled his fingers into a fist. His thunderous expression told her he was mad enough to hit someone.

Her? Or Tyler? “Thanks for saving me from myself.” He walked across the room and put on his jeans. “Ever think that marrying your ex-lover’s best friend might get in the way of their friendship?” he asked with studied casualness. “You know, the friendship you strove so hard to protect?”

His barb struck home and stung deeply. “Tyler was gone,” she said hoarsely.

“I didn’t think he would come home. Ever.”

“Ah. So you settled for second best. You accepted my proposal.” He pulled on his T-shirt.

Her jaw dropped. That one she could argue without the slightest hint of shame. “Dear God, Steven Sommers. You are not second best.

You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. Without you I would never have survived the last two years.”

He shrugged. “I’m not Tyler.”

“I’m not Pen,” she rebutted. “That doesn’t make me second best, does it?”

He didn’t answer, just sat on the floor and put on his shoes.

She jumped out of bed and plopped down next to him. “Shit, Steve, we discussed this when you proposed. You’re not Tyler. I know that.

Marrying him was never an option, just like marrying Penelope wasn’t an option for you.”

“This isn’t a question of second best. This is a question of what, or should I say who, is right for us now.”

Steve tied his laces.

Her temper frayed. “Damn it, Sommers, you can’t blame me now for loving Tyler in the past. That is not fair.”

“It’s hard to remain neutral, Kate. Your ex-lover is sleeping next door.”

She bit back her anger. She had no right to lose it with Steve. He had done nothing wrong. Unlike her. “That’s right. My ex-lover!” She tried to say it emphatically but nearly choked over the truth. Not two nights before he’d almost become her current lover. “Ex, Steve. I’m marrying you.”

“You don‘t love me.”

“Of course I do.”

“Not like you loved Tyler.”

“We never, for one minute, pretended our marriage would be something it isn’t. Of course I don’t love you the way I loved Tyler.

You’re not Tyler. You’re Steve. My best friend, the man who worked with me to make my dreams come true. I love you for that.”

“We opened a practice together, Kate. that’s all.”

“No, that isn’t all. You knew how important having my own practice was to me. You knew it was a lifelong dream. I could never have done it without you.”

“Is that why you re marrying me? Because I helped you achieve your dream?”

“If my best friend could help me attain my life’s goal, then he’d have to be pretty good marriage material, don’t you think? Besides” she smiled at him, “you’re a stud, and you make me happy.”

He didn’t return her smile. “I’m still stuck on the fact that you never told me, Kate. I can’t get past it.”

“I couldn’t tell you, Steve. Tyler asked me not to,” she said in desperation.

Steve froze. “Excuse me?”

Shit. She hadn’t meant to tell him that. It was one thing betraying Tyler by telling Steve about them, it was another to blame him for not saying anything in the first place. He said it was important that you not find out. “I honestly think he had a good reason for not telling you, I just don’t know what it was. He won’t tell me.”

Steve swore. “This is doing my head in.” He stood and walked to the door.

“I’m not… I’m not okay with this, Kate. I can’t pretend I am.”

“Wait!” Alarm jolted through her. “Where are you going?”

“Anywhere that’s not here.”

“Please don’t leave.” They couldn’t settle anything if he walked out.

“We need to talk about this some more.”

“We will. But not now.”

“Then when?”

“When I’ve got my head around this mess.”

Okay, he needed time. She could deal with that couldn’t she? “Will I see you at work?”

“No. Yes. Shit, I don’t know, Kate. I’ll be there, but I need space.”

“Tonight?”

He shook his head and said very slowly, “I will not sleep in your bed while Tyler is living in your house.”

She nodded helplessly she couldn’t blame him.

He opened the door.

“Steve,” she said as he stepped outside.

He turned to look at her.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry we never told you.” She wasn’t just sorry.

She was deeply, deeply remorseful.

He frowned. “Yeah, babe. Me too.” And then he was gone.

Today was the day. Tyler would wait no longer. It was time to tell Katie why he’d left her. Not that he relished the idea. Damn, he detested it, detested the weaknesses he’d reveal about himself. Hated the pain he knew he’d see in her face pain he had caused her. But there was no choice. he’d come home to tell Katie the truth and to see if he stood a chance with her.

It would be unfair of him to lump the whole damn confession on her shoulders a few minutes before she set off for work. The issues were too big to discuss over a quick breakfast. Tyler preferred to warn her now that they needed to talk, so that when she got home she’d be ready to listen.

He knocked on her bedroom door, knowing Steve wouldn’t open it.

His friend had left a couple hours earlier in a hurry.

The door was flung open seconds later. Katie stood before him in a baby pink terrycloth robe.

“Oh,” she said, and her face fell. “I… I thought you were Steve.”

“Sorry to disappoint you.” Or was he the one who was disappointed?

“I need to talk to you about something.”

In an unusual display of discourtesy, Katie turned away from him without answering and stalked across to her wardrobe. After staring into its depths for several minutes, she grabbed a dress, pulled it out, inspected it, then shoved it none too neatly back inside. She took out another dress, gave it a cursory glance then jammed it in the cupboard.

She did the same with two skirts, two pairs of pants and four shirts.

The more she did it, the more harried her actions were and the less ordered her shelves became. She didn’t seem to care.

Right. She was good and mad about something. What? Was it connected to Steve’s hasty departure?

Finally she threw a pair of black pants and a white blouse on her bed. They landed in a heap beside her panties and bra. White lace panties and a matching bra. Tyler tried not to stare at them but had little success. The panties were no more than a wisp of lace held together by a thread of cotton.

The thought of the less-than-virginal underwear on the red-hot and furious Katie raised his blood pressure dangerously.

Ah, Christ. It was never a good idea to start a serious conversation off with an erection. “Katie?”

She turned to look at him and her face hardened. “You’re still here.”

“Yes,” and feeling most welcome too thank you. “I have to discuss something with you.”

“No,” she lashed out viciously. “There is nothing you have to discuss with me. Nothing! Whatever you have to say, I don’t want to hear it.

Not anymore. Got it?”

Fuck, where had that come from? “I get that you’re angry,” he said calmly, his mind frantically wondering what had her so worked up.

“Angry, huh?” She raised an eyebrow. “You think?”

“Do you want to talk about it? Steve?”

“No, Tyler. I’m through talking to you. The only thing I want is for you to pack your bags and get the hell out of my house.”

His gut lurched. Jesus, he hadn’t seen that one coming. Only last night she’d insisted she had as much time for him as he needed. “What happened, Katie? he asked quietly. Why are you so upset?”

His composure seemed to fire her up more. “You happened, that’s what.”

“Me?”

“You came home.” Waves of fury radiated from her. “You interfered with my relationship with Steve. Now I want you to go. I want you to walk away and not come back.” She pursed her lips. “Got it?”

Yep Steve. “Did you have a fight?” That would explain why he’d been in such a hurry to leave this morning.

“Yes, you dickhead. We had a fight.”