Again.
“Of.”
Again.
“This.”
Annie comes, and the feeling of her gripping me drags me there too. She shakes in my arms, and I hold her tight, knowing nothing in life has ever felt this good… and for the first time, believing it’s possible to keep feeling thisway.
21
Sex can’t change a person.I get thatintellectually.
But as I lie next to Tyler in the hotel bed, I want to argue with thatstatement.
A smile tugs across my face, and it’s reflected in Tyler’s expression as he shifts over me. “Hi,” hemurmurs.
“Hi.”
His body’s beautiful, strong, and muscled. As I trace the lines of his bare shoulders, his pec, his bicep, the ink has me staringagain.
“Your food get lost on the way?” heasks.
I glance past him at the door, thinking for the first time in a long time about my meal. “Maybe they heard the noises and turnedback.”
Tyler presses his smiling mouth to my shoulder, and I grintoo.
My fingers dig into his arms, holding him still as my attention drags back to the ink on his chest. “I can’t believe you’ve had all these done since you left. Tell me aboutthem?”
“Pick one and Iwill.”
I bite my lip. “The boat and thewaves.”
“I got it after I left Dallas and spent the week at my dad’s bedside. I remember feeling as if I was being tossed about in the storm. One night, all I could think was, ‘I can’t control the storm. I need a biggerboat’.”
I trace the lines of the ship. “So, you gotone.”
“I can’t control the world, but I can control myself. That there are things life can never take fromme.”
“Maybe you should write the songs,” I murmur. “That’s kind of beautiful. How do you come out withthat?”
He leans down on both elbows, caging me in. “How do you write the lyrics youwrite?”
I wet my lips under his heavy stare. “Easy. When the boy you love leaves, there’s an infinite supply of heartache to goaround.”
Pain flashes in his eyes. “Never again.” He lowers his lips to my jaw, and I thread my fingers into his hair. “But don’t diminish yourself. You might’ve written when I left, but I’m not the reason. You have a talent that goes beyond the words. It’s how you see theworld.”
I smile. “I love writing. Maybe even more than being on stage.” It’s the first time I’ve said it outloud.
Tyler doesn’t look at me as if I’m nuts. In fact, he doesn’t look surprised. “If that’s what you want, I’m allin.”
Warmth washes over me. “Can we stay here forever?” I take in the mountain of plush hotel blankets. “We could build afort.”
He skims lower, to my breast, and my laugh is cut off. “Go nuts, baby. I’ll be rightthere.”
God, he’s good at touching me. Was he always this good, even without the practice? Or is it me—that I’ve wanted him so bad for so long that even the slightest reward has me going off? My body is a shimmer of sensation, the pleasure from his hands tracing a leisurely path down my sides to my hips blending with the lingering high from theorgasms.
When his hot mouth closes over my nipple, the sharp tug of need makes me moan. Judging from the way his hands get impatient and one slips between my thighs again, teasing me where I’m still wet from him, he likes thattoo.