Chapter 4
Four
Paisley felt the eyes on them as they left Elvira’s Tavern.
Curiosity. Jealousy. Nothing she hadn’t faced before, but in light of recent events, they made her paranoid.
She’d come to Eden’s Ridge—to Ty—to escape all that for a little while.
There was no reason to believe her stalker had followed her here.
This was just typical small-town nosiness.
But for those few moments when he’d said they were being followed, she’d been legitimately terrified that this was the escalation she’d been expecting.
That was how much this person had upset her equilibrium.
Something had to be done about it, but, for now, she was going to take a page out of Scarlett O’Hara’s book and think about it tomorrow. She had a sexy man to bed.
In defiance—and just because she wanted to—she slid her hand into Ty’s back pocket, cupping his ass.
It had always been superb. She caught the quirk of his mouth as his arm came around her shoulders, tucking her against his side.
Easy. Comfortable. And so familiar, her throat wanted to ache.
It was yet another flashback to high school and the uncomplicated adoration they’d shared.
A dangerous proposition. Things weren’t easy or uncomplicated with either of them now, and she couldn’t afford to forget it.
Determined to get them back to the naked, fun portion of the weekend, Paisley settled her hand on his leg as he put the truck into gear.
Ty glanced over. “We’re playing that game, huh?”
“If you remember the rules of this particular variation of chicken.”
He slid his hand over her knee, his fingers curling around the inside of her thigh. “As if I’d forget.”
“It’s not quite as easy as it was in that old truck of yours with the bench seat.”
His hand skated up an inch. “I think we’ll manage.”
It was a game of torture, a slow seduction of proximity.
With every mile closer to his cabin, they crept their touches higher, with little swirls and strokes of fingers meant to arouse and tempt.
Her breath grew ragged as he trailed a finger up her inner thigh.
His hissed out as she skimmed the edge of his erection.
By the time he turned into his driveway, she was wet and desperate and wishing she’d worn a skirt.
He threw the truck into park and, with more speed and efficiency than she’d imagined possible, unhooked her seatbelt to haul her over the center console so she straddled him.
“How the hell did we used to hold out doing that all the time?”
Paisley nipped at his throat. “We didn’t always. I distinctly remember us being stupid enough to get each other off while driving when we were teenagers.”
Gripping her hips, he ground into her. “Lucky we didn’t wreck.”
“So lucky.” Fusing her mouth with his, she began to rock.
They weren’t nearly naked enough, but she didn’t think that was going to stop a first orgasm from curling her toes right here in the cab of his truck.
Ty did, though, as his hands stilled her hips. “Shit, slow down. I have no intention of reliving that particular memory from high school. Inside. In an actual bed.” The thrum of order in his tone had her lady bits swooning.
They scrambled out of the truck, grabbing the pizza—miraculously still in its box on the floor—and stumbled up the porch steps and through the door, where they were both confronted with the reality of her cheerful pup determined to welcome them back from an eternity away.
Whole body wriggling, Duke leapt up with a bark of sheer joy.
“Down!” Ty snapped.
The tone worked on Duke too as he plopped his butt to the floor, tail swish swish swishing.
Resigned that naked fun time would have to wait a bit, Paisley scrubbed a hand down her face. “Protect the pizza. I’ll take him out.”
It took longer than she wanted. Duke had to circle the perimeter of the entire cabin, sniffing every tree and bush before picking the right spot to do his business.
Back inside, they had to have a spirited game of tug to work off some of his boundless energy.
By then, her stomach was making a bid to remind her that whatever else the evening held, it wanted food, so she and Ty stood at the kitchen counter, scarfing cold pizza and staring at each other with bedroom eyes.
As he finished inhaling his second slice, his gaze slid up to the loft. “Is Duke going to interfere with things?”
“As in, will he try to climb the stairs or howl through the main event? I have no idea. I didn’t realize there wouldn’t be a regular door. But he’s like a toddler. Distraction is key. I think so long as he’s hooked up with one of his puzzle toys, we’ll be okay. For a while, anyway.”
“By all means, distract away.”
Paisley filled up three of the puzzles. It was way more treats than he’d usually get, but desperate times. As she put them on the floor, Duke bounced from one to the next, overwhelmed by his choices.
“Hurry.” She made a run for the stairs herself, pleased when Ty bracketed her in with his big, strong arms.
“Up we go.”
He nipped at her ass as it came level with his mouth.
She laughed and moved faster, all but throwing herself over the lip at the top.
Her blood was sizzling, and she was desperate to strip him down and lose herself in the frantic, sweaty heat between them.
With that in mind, she faced the ladder.
But as Ty reached the top, he slowed, prowling toward her with a fierce expression of wanting in his eyes.
The muscles between her thighs clenched.
Oh yeah, that look was really working for her.
But there was something else as he slid his hands into her hair, searching her face. Looking for…what? An answering wanting? She had that and more, always, for this man.
She was prepared for explosive heat and the borderline rough desperation he’d shown her after the wedding.
But she wasn’t ready for the soft brush of his mouth or the tender stroke of his hands as he drew her in.
Instinctively, she began to melt at the touch before she caught herself and pulled back.
“Ty.” Could he hear questions in that single syllable? What is this? What are you doing?
He only stared into her eyes, brushing the tumble of her hair back from her face.
“Just let me.” He laid his lips over hers again, drugging.
Seducing. And it didn’t matter that she didn’t entirely understand what he wanted, what he was asking.
She couldn’t help but give in. She’d never been able to deny him anything.
Circling them toward the bed, he began to strip off her clothes with far more dexterity than he’d had at eighteen.
Her heart beat slow and thick as he laid her back on the bed, following her down to cover her with that incredible, battle-honed body.
When she would’ve reached for him, he kept her fingers laced with his and began a lazy journey down her torso, sipping here, suckling there, mapping every inch with his mouth and hands.
Or maybe he followed a very old map, as he lingered at the crease where her thigh met her hip, a spot that had always driven her wild.
“Ty, what are you doing?”
“Enjoying you. I didn’t take enough time for this last time.”
After the wedding, he’d been busy driving her out of mind with orgasms, a fact she hadn’t complained about in the slightest. It seemed he was determined to drive her crazy with patience this time, and Paisley wasn’t at all sure she’d survive it.
Ty rubbed his bearded cheek against the sensitive skin of her inner thigh, and she whimpered, needing so much more.
“I had to learn incredible patience in the Rangers. Sometimes we’d have to wait hours, days even, for the right moment to execute an op.” His tone was conversational, as if his mouth wasn’t millimeters from the promised land.
“Your point?” Paisley gasped.
“There was a lot of downtime to think. I used to think about this.” He nuzzled her center through her panties.
“Sex?” God, please.
“Sex with you. What it felt like. What you sounded like. How you tasted.”
The idea of it had her going impossibly wetter, likely soaking the panel between her thighs. She couldn’t think through the implications of his words, only focused on the fact that he’d thought of her, thought of this, at least as often as she had after they’d parted.
Ty began to work the underwear down. “My memory is pretty damned good.’’ Tossing the scrap of fabric away, he finally, finally settled between her thighs, spreading her open for his hungry gaze.
“But absolutely nothing is better than the real thing.” And then he dove in and proved it, licking and sucking as if she were the best thing he’d ever tasted.
Desperately turned on, Paisley gripped his hair, soaking in the sight of his head buried between her legs and the sounds of pleasure he made as she rode his tongue until she was breathless and flying.
Before she’d even ceased shuddering from the aftershocks, he moved up her body and took her mouth.
The taste of her own release had tension coiling fresh.
She nipped his lip. “You aren’t nearly naked enough.”
“Yes ma’am.”
By the time he’d stripped and come back to join her, she’d found enough muscle control to rise to her knees.
“Your turn.” She pressed a hand to his chest, intending to shove him back and taste those V grooves at his waist that she’d been fantasizing about since the wedding.
He’d had an athlete’s body at eighteen, but these were new.
“Later.” He pinned her hand to his heart and toppled back, pulling her with him. “Right now I want to watch you ride me.”
As if she could resist an invitation like that?
Taking the condom he offered, she rolled it on, loving the thick feel of him in her hand. Hers. For the weekend, at least, this—he—was hers.
Swinging a leg over his hips, she straddled him, torturing them both by rubbing her slick folds over his crown.