SAFE (10 page)

This is my first Christmas away from home and I’m not going home for Christmas break. There isn’t anything there for me this year since Gram’s is gone. My counselor helped me locate a part-time job so I’m staying here, working and living in the dorm. Dad is not happy but it will make things easier. It’s the first time I’ve ever been away during the holidays but I just can’t go back there right now. Can’t do it.

The fight with Dad was awful but it’s a year since Ty’s been gone, six months since Momma died after Gram’s death. I won’t apologize to any of them for the fight Momma and I had and I can’t change the way I am. So it’s best if I just stay gone.

It will be quiet here in the dorms so I plan on starting a correspondence class while I’m on break. It will help me with the Academy but I haven’t told Dad yet what my major is because he will totally freak out. No daughter of his will ever be in law enforcement - his words. I hate it, this distance between us but don’t know how to fix it. Someday, maybe I can prove to him that it doesn’t matter that I was born a girl. I’m still just as smart no matter what.

* * *

Melissa woke to bright light filtering in from the window and music playing from the bathroom. The shower was running and it took several tries to realize that a man was singing in the shower to an old Bon Jovi tune. Her head was splitting open and the back of her head hurt but for some reason Melissa couldn’t figure out why.

The shower shut off and a phone rang in the bathroom. Ty voice was low and hard to understand but at least Melissa recognized it and felt a little better. Instantly everything from the caves, Ty getting her back to the hotel and how badly she had been bleeding came flooding back.

Shit! Fur balls couldn’t have been worse at the moment.

A frantic look at the door and she knew there would be no running away from this conversation, not this time. Ty would demand answers and if she didn’t come clean he could remove her from this case, even her job. She couldn’t lose her job. It was her life.

Melissa looked up as the bathroom door opened, her startled eyes meeting Ty’s smile. What the hell did he have to smile about? she wanted to know.

“Good morning, sunshine.” She just hated morning people!

With a huff, Melissa got out of bed and headed for the en-suite coffee station only to see that it was already set up and gurgling away.

“Thank you baby Jesus!” she whispered under her breath and jumped when Ty came up behind her.

“What was that?” he asked, his hand pulling back her long hair, which of course had come lose during the night.

Shit, she always looked like a wild woman first thing in the morning and she didn’t need Ty seeing her like this. Trying to step around him, she started to walk past him for the bathroom but Ty pulled her up short.

“Hey,” he said softly. “Are you ok?” His eyes where full of concern as he pulled her around to look at her. One large hand forced her chin up so he could look into her face and Melissa closed her eyes.

“Yeah,” she whispered back. “Just peachy. I need to brush my teeth and fix my face before anyone sees me in the mornings, Ty. And coffee! Please, I need coffee.”

“I think you’re beautiful just the way you are,” he whispered back, leaning down to place a soft kiss on her lips. Melissa’s eyes popped open and looked at him like he had just lost his ever lovin’ mind! She reached up and touched her lips, trying to make sure he had actually kissed her and this wasn’t one of her waking dreams where she was going to wake up crying again. After one of those dreams the loneliness tend to be worse, stay just a little longer and be harder to lock away. But it was real, and the warm breath over her face told her that she was awake and not sleeping.

“Ty, why are you here?” she asked, stepping away. She had to put some space between them. She couldn’t do this, knowing he wouldn’t be staying.

“We’re partners who are working on a case, and I want to make sure you are not injured too badly after what happened yesterday.” He stepped closer to her and that was when she finally realized Ty only had a towel wrapped around his waist. A very thin towel that didn’t hide a damn thing.

“You need to get dressed. I need to get dressed. This isn’t a good ideas!” She was shaking her head and refusing to look below his chin again. Her breath started coming fast, almost hyperventilating and she knew it, but hell, Melissa had never found herself in a situation where the only wet dream she had ever had in her entire life stood directly in front of her and all she had to do was strip off the towel to have everything she had ever wanted.

She wasn’t a virgin, but it had been a long time since she had allowed herself the luxury of indulging in the carnal side of sex. Even if her body craved to be held, to just be touched once in a while, she refused to go down that lane again. Her last attempted date had freaked when, tired from a job and seeking some downtime distractions and a little sexual release she had found herself in a local drinking hole in the town they were working. Several drinks later and back at his hotel they had just gotten hot and heavy when Melissa did the unthinkable.

She had allowed her blocks to slip, reaching out to just feel the strong emotions that can be shared during sex and allowed them to flood both of them. The young man had almost had a coronary. In fact, she found out passing out during sex was possible and not a good thing in such circumstances. It had taken her almost ten minutes to bring him back around and when she had him awake the first thing he did was freak out, again. Melissa had finally promised him that she would leave, and he could check with his personal doctor to make sure everything was good. The experience had left a bad taste in her mouth and she refused to repeat it.

All of this flashed through her brain as she fought to bring reality back into focus so she could see the hotel room where she now stood frozen in front of Ty. However, Ty wasn’t ready for her reality.

“Melissa, breathe.” It took a moment to realize he knelt in front of her. Had she sat down at some point?

God, the towel was barely covering him as his hands cupped her face and she forced herself not to look down. She focused on his eyes, the movement of his mouth, the warm breath blowing over her face.

“That’s it, baby. Breathe for me. You’re good, just breathe deep.”

“Ty, what…” she never finished.

Ty gently took her lips in a slow, simmering kiss that sucked the air right out of the room and sent her head spinning again, but for completely different reasons. Her eyes popped wide open as his large hand cupped the back of her neck and held her gently, deepening the kiss. It was like lightening before the storm hits, tingles down her arms and the hair standing on end. When he pulled back she could barely breathe.

“Now, are you going to argue with me?” he asked softly, licking her bottom lip.

“Argue?” she whispered, eyes latching onto that wet tongue of his as he licked his lips again. “Who was arguing.”

“That’s what I thought.” With the slow moves of a jungle cat, Tyrone DuValle reached down and picked her up as if she weighted nothing more than a feather pillow and placed her on the unmade bed next to them. He followed her down, blanketing her body with his. The warmth of his body even with just a towel covering him seeped into her like a thermal blanket and her bones soaked it up like life-giving water. The shaking stopped, her muscles began to relax, and she finally took the first deep breath since he had stepped out of the bather from his shower.

Chapter 14

He couldn’t stop kissing her.

Lord have mercy, ever since Ty had seen her lying there on the cave floor his heart hadn’t felt right until last night when he had finally wrapped her in his arms while she slept. He didn’t think it would ever be the same after the last 24 hours. There was just no way he would ever be able to let this woman go again.

There was a legend in the DuValle family that went back as far as his great-great-grandparents, and his parents told him the stories about the men in his family and the women they loved. It was said that once they found the love of their life, be it at age six, sixteen, or sixty, it was over. They were never the same and there was never another woman for them. His grandpa told him about it from the journals he had of his father and grandfather, of how they had left the old country because of how people didn’t like who they wanted to marry. It was why his ancestors came to be in the United States, much like so many others that eventually came to this land.

Ty DuValle had loved Melissa McKinney since the day he first looked at her as a gangly, awkward tomboy at the age of twelve and the oldest of four living across the alley from his parents’ house. She was the first friend he made in school, the first girl he ever kissed, and the only girl he ever fought over. However, she never knew the last one.

As he lay there blanketing her now, looking into those deep blue eyes so wide and scared, Ty realized he had waited his entire life for this one moment. To hold his soul mate in his arms and tell her how he truly felt.

“What are you doing, Ty?” she whispered, pushing back on his chest just a bit but not so hard as to move out of his arms.

“Do you want me to stop?” he asked, chuckling. Ty wiggled his hips, and watched her eyes widen bigger if that were even possible. “Baby, I finally have you where I’ve wanted you since you were seventeen years old!” Her face went flaming red and Ty couldn’t stop from laughing.

“What? You thought I was a saint?”

“Well, no!” she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and refusing to look at him. “But you could have said something before now.”

“No, baby, I couldn’t.” Ty licked her bottom lip and waited for her to look up at him. When she finally did, he smiled. “Someday soon I’ll explain why we left so quick during my senior year but not right now. It’s not important at the moment. What is important is us, and the fact that you need to be more careful.”

“Ty, you don’t understand.” She knew this was going to be the way it would go but it was unfair for him to use his body to distract her. Melissa tried to push him off but it was like moving a boulder.

“You are staying right here until we talk,” he growled, pulling her hands over her head.

Wiggling and pushing against him, Ty felt her legs come up and around his waist in an effort to leverage him off but all it did was put him in the perfect position he wanted. Groaning, he laid his head on her chest and closed his eyes.

“Woman, you’re going to be the death of me yet!” Taking deep breaths, he closed his eyes, working to keep from embarrassing himself.

“What? You mean this?” she asked, and hooked her long legs around his waist even tighter and snugged the apex of her body against his raging hard-on. Ty looked down at her and growled again.

With quick fingers he pushed her skimpy sleep top up her chest and latched onto her left breast, his lips engulfing it while his teeth teased and tormented the nipple in slow draws. He felt her buck but his body stayed right where it was, enjoying her heat as she pushed against him. Switching to the other breast, he gave it the same attention as the other one, making both of them stand up pert and red in the chill of the room. He blew over the top of each of them and Melissa gasp, her body shuddering beneath him.

“No one is leaving here today until I’m sure you are 100%, so no arguing. I’ve already talked to Buck and we’re on a stake out as far as anyone is concerned.” He blew across her nipples again, feeling her continue to shake in his arms.

“Please!” she whispered, eyes closed but her body begging to be touched like a cat that craves being stroked.

“Tell me baby. What do you want?” he growled softly, kissing down her chest, across her tummy and licking deep into her navel. One hand continued to hold her hands while the other forced her legs together so he could pull the boy shorts down her legs and toss them over the side of the bed. His large hand rubbed slowly back up the long length of leg as he pushed her legs apart and settled between them like a large cat settling down for a long nap. The sleepy look of his eyes was deceiving if anyone else had seen it because Ty’s heart was racing so fast it was almost beating out of his chest. He didn’t want to frighten Melissa any more than she already had been but he was determined to show her how much he wanted her before they left the hotel room. His cock ached with the pressure of his body against the heat of her soft skin, aching in a way that was making his head spin. Nothing in his dreams had ever prepared him for the reality of the sweet body lying in his arms. The long limbs, her unique smell of vanilla and lavender, or the womanly scent that was all Melissa.

“Baby, tell me what you want.” Ty licked the soft skin of her stomach again and waited, watched those blue eyes darken to almost black with a grey ring around them. Their normal laser focus was absent as she tried to wiggle, making him groan again.

“You’re going to be the death of me,” he breathed as he closed his eyes, trying to get his throbbing dick under control before he lost all control all over her stomach. “Woman, do you have any idea what you do to me?”

The surprised look in Melissa’s eyes was a thing of beauty. Ty knew she wasn’t a virgin but it was clear she had no clue just how much she affected him on a cellular level. Taking it slow, he moved back up her body and took those lips that temped him to distraction.

His soul opened at the feeling of finally coming home as he allowed his feelings free the way this woman had taught him so long ago. Ty had practiced all these years, found every self-help book, went to every mystic and crack pot he could find without it jeopardizing his job on the pretense of it being a hobby so he could learn what he needed, learn and understand what made his woman tick.

His woman.
Ty opened his mind and gently reached for the tentacles of light that were Melissa McKinney.

Softness and velvet floated out on the vastness before him that glowed with a tinge of sadness and he recognized it immediately. Reaching out, Ty pulled it to him and immediately felt the innate goodness and power held within her, yet sensed the reserved core she protected at all cost. So much hurt, so many times she had been crushed by those who should have protected her and didn’t. No more!