Tyler (12 page)

Emily and Jolene shared a look and shook their heads. “Not this time,” Jolene said slowly. “And not if all y’all show up by three this afternoon ready to work.”

“But if one of you is late, we’ll call Sheriff McClure and press charges,” Emily added.

“You sure?” Tyler asked the women.

Emily nodded and Jolene urged, “Untie them, please.”

Tyler shrugged and did as she asked. “Hand over your keys, guys.”

“No way—”

“You’ve all been drinking, and not one of you is going to drive home,” Tyler told them. “You can either walk home or call for a ride.”

“But if we tell them to pick us up here, they’ll ground us for life!”

“What’s wrong with here, boys?” Jolene drawled.

Not one of them could look her or Emily in the eye. “Um… nothing, Ms. Jolene.”

“Shoot, you know why,” Timmy grumbled. “On account of what Ms. Gorman told my Uncle Ned.”

“I’d start walking if I were you boys,” Jake suggested.

“I’ll call Dylan and ask him to call your uncle and tell him you got caught drinking with four of your friends, and that I wouldn’t let you drive home. He might pick you up by the time you reach our ranch.”

Timmy’s shoulders slumped further. He looked from one man to the other and then at the Langley women. “All right. Thank you, ma’am,” he said to Jolene and then told Emily the same.

“Don’t waste the lesson all y’all have learned here tonight,” Emily warned.

“No, ma’am,” one of the boys called out. “It was a lesson well learned.”

“We’re glad,” Jolene answered.

“Amen to that,” another boy said. “We learned that redheads are way hotter than blondes.”

Emily groaned and Tyler chuckled. “Start walking, guys.”

Once the grumbling group left, Jake walked over to where Jolene was leaning against the bar and asked, “Where’s your sling?”

Tyler noticed the way Jolene had started to lean toward the fire marshal, but then stopped when he asked that last question. Saying the Langley women were prickly was like saying a skunk had a slightly unpleasant smell. Besides the fact that these women spelled trouble with a capital T, reminding him of an old Travis Tritt song, they were like two peas… one pod. He shook his head. May as well tell it like it was. “Difficult as hell,” Tyler mumbled.

Just then Emily shivered.
Was she cold?
He leaned close and checked her eyes, just to be sure it wasn’t a delayed reaction to the night’s events. Up close they were a killer shade of amber, like his grandpa’s favorite whiskey, but clear as a bell.

She shivered again.

“Cold?” Before she could answer, he shrugged out of his unbuttoned shirt and wrapped it around her. Cradled in his arms, she felt like she was the missing piece in his life—the piece that made everything else click into place. Wary, he realized he’d have some thinking to do.

“Em,” he rasped. “I really need to talk to you… alone.”

She looked up into his eyes and smiled. “I’d like that.”

“If you’re going to ride her case about helping me defend our bar, do it here and now,” Jolene warned. “So I don’t have to chase you down to take a piece out of you.”

“Man,” Tyler said, “I can’t catch a break. Somebody shooting up the outside of your place, chicks fighting in your bar, these knuckleheads breaking in to try to steal a keg, and now my boss riding my case for trying to lend a hand.”

“Never a dull moment,” Jake said with a smile.

“You don’t think you could maybe thank me, do you?” he asked Jolene.

She shrugged.

“Come on, Jo,” Emily coaxed. “Tyler and I need some time alone, can’t you give him the third degree later?”

Jolene threw up her hands in the air and started grumbling. “You think you have had a hard day, cowboy?” she asked. “
We
were outside when those shots were fired at
our
sign, and in the emergency room when those chicks were fighting in
our
bar, and tonight we had the bejeezus scared out of us when those kids broke in trying to steal one of
our
kegs.”

Tyler nodded in agreement. “I’m real sorry, Jolene.” He looked at Jake. “Are you sticking around or going on home?”

Jake looked at Jolene. “Sticking around.” He nodded in their direction, “Why don’t you two go have that… talk.”

Tyler’s jeans pocket vibrated before he could grab a hold of Emily and run.

“Is that a cell phone in your pocket, Tyler,” Emily drawled, “or are you just happy to see me?”

He stared at her, shook his head, and then answered his phone.

When she laughed, he felt the heat creeping up his neck to his face.
Damn if his mouth hadn’t been hanging open like a schoolboy.
He needed to get some alone time with the woman before she drove him right over the edge. He clenched his jaw tight and answered through his teeth.

“Yeah?”

“Hey big brother,” Dylan greeted him. “You see tonight’s news?”

“No, why?”

“The Lucky Star was one of the highlights.”

All thoughts of getting busy with Emily flew out of his head. Tyler’s gut iced over and sweat broke out on the back of his neck. God help him, if his secret was out, he’d never be able to live this down. Dylan and Jesse would never let him forget he’d shucked his clothes to—

“You still there?” his brother asked.

“Yeah. I’m here.”

“Why they hell didn’t you tell me?” Dylan demanded.

“I didn’t think it was important.” What a cop out and so unlike him that Tyler’s icy gut started to churn.

“It sure as hell is important,” Dylan bit out. “You have to know it’s not worth it,” his brother continued.

He felt like the scrapings off the soles of his boots, a mix of horseshit, ground-up pissed-on hay and dirt… the dirt being the cleanest part of the mix. Not knowing what to say, he grunted and rubbed a hand across his middle to ease the noxious roiling.

Best to let his brother vent his spleen and get it over with. Dylan would only hound him until Tyler’d fessed up the whole truth anyway.

“Tyler!”

Great, now Jesse had the phone. “Yeah.”

“When did you start thinking with your dick instead of your head?”

Tyler let out the breath he’d been holding and wondered just that. “Probably about the time I peeled off my shirt.”

“Damn, did the shooter get a piece of you too?” his brother asked.

“Shooter?”
What the hell?

“Hey, Dylan,” he heard Jesse yell, “I think big bro hit his head during the shootout!”

By the time he’d convinced his brothers that the story was highly exaggerated and that he was fine and everyone who worked at the bar was fine, he was vibrating with need from standing so close to paradise and not having the opportunity to taste it.

Emily was waiting for him to finish the call. When he disconnected, she reached out a hand to him.

Linking his fingers with hers, he looked down at their joined hands. His was tanned and broad, hers was pale as cream and slender in comparison… but they fit… really well. His gut tightened anticipating fitting together other parts.

“You ’bout ready to come upstairs with me, Tyler?”

He swallowed against the dryness in his throat. “Yes, ma’am.”

“You seem willing enough,” she teased, drawing him closer. “Are you ready and able?”

He ran his free hand through his hair and tugged her along behind him as he made a beeline for the stairs.

“See you later, Tyler,” Jake called out as the couple sprinted past where he stood with Jolene.

“Sleep tight, Em,” Jolene yelled. “Don’t let the cowboy bite.”

Emily couldn’t keep up or catch her breath. “Tyler, wait!”

“Can’t, ma’am,” he rasped, swinging her up and holding her against his heart. “Gotta have you.”

He took the stairs two at a time and reached the top in half the time it would normally take her to climb the stairs. Impressed she giggled. “Why, Mr. Garahan, I do believe you’re in a hurry.”

He squeezed her against him and kissed the top of her head as he opened the door to the upstairs hallway. Disappointed that he didn’t seem to want her as much now that he’d run up the stairs, she sighed. “Thanks for the lift; you can set me down now.”

The deep chuckle rumbled against her side and had her looking up. The heat in his gaze made her weak with anticipation. Desire, hot and strong, was there plain as the nose on his face.

“What part of ‘I can’t wait’ didn’t you get?” He rasped, power and pure male muscle working in tandem as he stalked down the hallway. “Which one?”

She didn’t dare ask him what he was talking about; she didn’t want to break the sensual spell his impatient desire was spinning around them. “Second on the left.”

He shouldered the door open and kicked it shut with his boot.

Emily’s heart stumbled in her breast as he spun around and let her legs slide free, but kept his arms vised around her, crushing her between the hard, hot, muscled length of him and the cool wood door.

She moaned his name, and he pinned his hips to hers, holding her like a butterfly against a swath of black velvet. The image shifted to one of pure pleasure as he lowered his lips to her ear and rasped, “I want to take my time with you, Emily Langley, but I don’t have the strength to wait that long.”

His lips teased the edge of her ear as he nibbled a path down the tendon in her throat. Warmth swept up from her toes, as desire began to build. “Let me have you now, Emily,” he begged. “We can go slow later.”

Bereft of words, overwhelmed by need for this man, she tilted her head back and tightened her arms around his neck. Sliding the tip of her tongue along his bottom lip, she bit it and had the satisfaction of watching his eyes glaze over. She needed to torture him as much as watching him and wanting him had tortured her.

His lips took hers in a ravenous kiss; using teeth, tongue, and lips, he drove every thought from her head but one.
Now.

He came up for air before diving down to sample the deep V of skin above her silky black chemise, licking and nipping the skin until the heat from his mouth seared a path from the depths of her cleavage to the base of her ear.

“Tyler!”

He reared back, nostrils flaring, mouth in a firm straight line. Unsure what he waited for, trying to ignore the way her heart opened to him, ready to let him in, but afraid if she did he’d leave, she murmured, “Please?”

His grin was quick, but lethal. “Yes, ma’am.”

His mouth fused to hers as his hands got busy slipping the straps off her shoulders and easing the silky bit of nothing off of her. His groan of pleasure sprinted through her as he filled his hands with her breasts, teasing them into hard, pointed peaks as his head lowered to sup from their bounty.

“I can’t—”
Breathe. See. Stand.
Pick one; all she could do was feel. Tyler was igniting flames of desire in so many places at once her brain couldn’t keep up.

Her breasts ached and her lips tingled… and then he found the lacy thong she’d put on earlier with him in mind.

Naked.
She didn’t know how he’d managed it so quickly, but she’d lost her chemise, her lacy thong, and her mind. “Now,” she demanded, pulling him closer. “I want you naked, now.”

His head reared back, but his hands never stopped moving. His callused fingers traced her curves, setting off sparks as his hands swept around to grip her backside with his strong capable hands.

“Later,” he promised as he eased back. “Gotta protect you.” Her brain didn’t register what he was saying at first. Tingles zinged through her system, setting the sparks he’d ignited to flames. She reached for him, but he shifted until she could see what he was reaching for. His hands were strong and sure as he ripped open the small square packet.

His erection was huge, straining against the denim of his worn jeans. “Let me help.” Emily grabbed the tab of his zipper and fought against the urge to yank, knowing she might hurt him. Slowly sliding the metal zipper down, his groan of pleasure fueled hers as she reached around to help him out of his jeans. His mouth found hers, tantalizing her with a soul-searing kiss.

“Now?” he rasped.

“Now,” she agreed.

In one smooth, swift move, he filled her to bursting. Before she could adjust to the hard, hot length of him stretching her, his hips began to move. Plunging fast and deep, his hips set the pace, while his mouth stoked the fire.

A scream of pleasure raced up her throat, but his mouth found hers again, muffling the sound. When her legs gave out, he slid his hands beneath her backside and lifted her, holding the injured one still, wrapping the other one around his waist.

Mine
, she thought. “Tyler, I—”

“Come with me, darlin’.”

The tight knot of pleasure he tied around her burst as his lips latched onto her breast and he drove deeper inside her.

Shocked pleasure set off tiny fires that still raged out of control. She couldn’t move or make her brain function long enough to speak. A moan slipped from between her lips.

Tyler couldn’t bring himself to move. Didn’t want to leave the hot, wet, wild woman he’d just taken against a door.

His brain started working again, and his first thought was,
a
door for God’s sake!
What was he thinking? She’d been injured; he should have at least made an attempt to make it to her bed.

“Emily?”

“Mmmm?”

“Darlin’, I’m sorry—”

“For the pleasure, the lovin’, or rendering my brain totally useless?”

His lips twitched, and his heart tumbled closer to the edge. “I should have at least made love to you the first time in a bed.”

She kissed his throat. “And that would be because?”

“You’re hurt.”

“But you didn’t wrap my bad knee around your waist,” she told him. “You only wrapped the good one around you. See?” Damned if she didn’t flex her good leg and tighten it around him.

“Give me a minute.”

“Take all the time you need, Tyler; you are not leaving me tonight.”

“That a fact?”

“Oh yeah,” she murmured. “I’ve got this powerful need to test your back.”

He dropped his forehead against hers and moaned. “You’re going to be the death of me, Ms. Langley.”

“But what a way to go.”

Her lips found his and something deep inside of him clicked, like a tumbler in a lock falling into place. He eased her legs down, watching her eyes darken with desire. “I’m gonna fill that need soon, Em. Let me take you to bed.”

Her smile devastated him and said yes.

He bent to pick her up. His legs were a little shaky, but it had been a full day and he had to admit, this little woman packed a hell of a punch. Setting her in the middle of her bed, he looked his fill, marveling that her womanly curves could be packed into such a tiny package.

“You’re overdressed.” Emily reached up to unbutton his shirt.

Tyler shrugged out of it, need strumming through him like a live wire. He couldn’t wait that long to be naked in bed with his Emily.

His.
He liked the way that sounded.

Her eyes widened, and his ego ramped up a notch. He didn’t think much about how he looked, other than whether he was clean or dirty. The look on her face told him more than words that she liked what she was seeing. Desire for her began to build again.

He crawled over top of her, stealing a kiss as he settled the angles and planes of his body on top of her glorious curves. “Now where were we?”

Her smile was slow and sweet. “I’ve got this fantasy,” she rasped.

His throat went dry. “Do tell, Ms. Langley.” She traced the tips of her fingers along the edge of his jaw, distracting him. Had she been bluffing about fantasizing about him? “You don’t have to tell me now—”

“I’m working up to it.” She slid her hands down to his shoulders and around to his back. “You were looking at me earlier like I was a frosted cake,” she rasped, licking her lips before pressing them to his collarbone, “and you just couldn’t wait to lick your way down to the gooey center.”

Tyler closed his eyes and laid his forehead against hers. He’d need patience to listen without rushing her. “Do you have a gooey center, Em?”

Her cheeks flushed. “Only for you, Tyler.”

“I’m obliged to test that theory,” he breathed against her cheek. “How ’bout if I start right here?” He slid the tip of his tongue along the line of her jaw, nipping at her chin before kissing it. “You do taste delicious… but I think I need to sample more.”

Emily groaned and squirmed beneath him.

“Mmmm, here.” His lips found hers and he moaned aloud. “Cherries: tart but sweet. My favorite.”

“Tyler—”

“I’ve got a ways to go before I get to the sweetest part. Are you gonna deny me that taste?”

The strangled sound and lift of her hips were all the answer he needed. Nibbling and licking a path beneath her chin and between her breasts was pure unadulterated pleasure. Her skin was like satin, her scent a cool combination of lavender and rain.

Sliding his tongue to the left, he circled the tip of her breasts with a deliberate slowness that had her grabbing a hold of his butt, pressing him against her warm, wet heat. “Not yet, darlin’.”

“Tyler, I can’t wait.”

“Yes you can. I’ve only tasted your cherry-sweet lips and just started on your buttercream breasts.”

Her body was on fire! Everywhere he touched tingled before fizzling and erupting into flames. Lord, what had she started? “I want you now.” She couldn’t take any more of this torture.

“We’ll get there, darlin’,” he promised. “There’s this stretch of skin that curves in by your belly,” he said, licking and nipping until her eyes crossed.

“But—”

“I’ll surely come long before I get to your amazing backside.”

Her giggle surprised her. She’d never laughed when making love before.

He paused as if he’d sensed something was wrong. He lifted his head and saw the worried look on her face. He swallowed the chuckle, knowing she needed reassurance that he wasn’t angry or insulted. “Laughing while you’re loving makes it sweeter.”

Her heart just tumbled right on up and over that first peak and began the tricky slide down into love. “Tyler, I’ve never laughed before when—”

His dark eyes gleamed. “I don’t care what happened before,” he ground out. “It’s what’s here and now between us that counts.”

She nodded.

“Do you trust me not to hurt you?”

She didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

“Excellent. Now where was I?” His eyes darkened with desire, and her breath hitched in anticipation. His hands kneaded her hips before sliding around to lift her amazing backside. “I’ve been wanting a taste of this sliver of skin you’re always flaunting.”

Before she could ask which skin, his lips and tongue were sampling the skin near her belly button. She wanted to tell him that she’d gained weight and didn’t want him to notice her there, but the words slid right back down her throat as his tongue dipped into her navel, sending shock waves zinging from her breasts to her toes.

“Tyler, I can’t wait. I’ve got to have you now.” She was desperate and demented. He was making her crazy.

“Not before we ride out your fantasy, darlin’. Just one more flavor I have to sample.”

She tensed; she wasn’t ready for him to taste her there… yet. They’d only made love once, and her heart wouldn’t be able to get over this wild-eyed cowboy if he up and left her in the morning. “Tyler, please stop.”

His head jerked up, and the dark and dangerous look he sent her had her shivering on the sheets. “You playing games with me,” he ground out, “or do you really want me to get up and walk away from you?”

She reached out a hand to touch his heart. “I do not want to you walk away from me.” He was visibly trembling beneath her hand. Was it anger or passion? “I’m sorry,” she confessed, slipping both hands around his neck and drawing him down close enough to press her lips to his. “I may have fantasies about you—”

“Hell, Emily, how can I think when you’re promising more delights than I’ve—”

She wouldn’t let him finish. “And I’d love to act out each and every one with you, but I’m not quite ready to let you make love to me with your mouth… yet.” She deepened the kiss and drew back slowly.

He sighed. “I guess I could wait to taste that gooey center I just know will taste like honey.”

Said center throbbed with need, and she wondered if she were crazy. “I’m not trying to tease you.” She sighed. “I can’t believe how hot and bothered you get me. I swear I wasn’t even going to tell you about that particular fantasy.”

“Ever?” he asked pulling her in close and holding her.

The fire settled down to a warm and cozy glow. “Well, not yet at least,” she said, “until I know you better.”

Tyler didn’t press her. “I can wait, Emily,” he said, licking his lips, “knowing that you’ll let me know when I can sample your honey-sweet center.”

Crazy. Insane. Idiot.
All of the above fit, but she was so lost in the gift he’d given her, she could only nod. He wouldn’t rush her; he’d let her tell him when she was ready to share that most intimate way of loving.

Rolling onto his side and taking her with him, he pressed his lips to her temple. “I’d like to sleep with you for a little while before I get back to where I left off.”

“But I—”

He drew her backside up against the hard, hot length of him and chuckled. “I can work around where I’m dying to taste. By the time you’re ready for me to dip my tongue in for a thorough tasting, you’ll be so hot for me, you’ll be begging me to lick, sip, and nibble my way to that gooey sweetness you’ve been dreaming about, darlin’.”

Shocked to the core and rendered speechless, Emily lay in Tyler’s arms, wondering how to tell him that he’d gotten her juices flowing and her heart pounding and may have changed her mind.
Tease.
Hell, she’d be teasing if, when he actually settled between her thighs and grabbed a hold of her backside, pulling her in, she hesitated, not willing to trust that part of her to him yet.