Triple treat (19 page)

Carrie talked as if he'd actually planned all of this, step-by-step, from his deepening involvement with her and her

family to tonighf s debacle with his family. Wouldn't she be surprised to know that he was completely off balance and floundering for the first time in his life? In love for the first time in his life. And while she seemed to have all the answers, he was clueless. Anger surged through him. At least she didn't know that, and he was not about to tell her. His pride demanded that he pretend to be the Machiavellian sharpie that she considered him to be.

He left quietly, deliberately not attracting the triplets' attention so as not to have to stave off their objections. And he knew they would have protested his departure, had they noticed. Those kids loved him, even if their exasperating, pugnacious, thoroughly maddening mother had decided he was the worst kind of calculating fiend.

Maybe he should post watch outside his garage, in case brother Ben came skulking by with his trusty box of sugar. That was the way the intrepid Shaw triplets dealt with those who offended them, wasn't it? And they probably saw no reason to differentiate between real and imagined slights, either. Seething with self-righteous indignation, Tyler stormed into his house.

He savored the peace and quiet for a full ten minutes before the absolute silence struck him as unnerving. He put some favorite music in his CD player to break the oppressive quietude, but the lack of voices and laughter and even squalling made the place seem lifeless and empty.

He gazed down at the house next door, which was blazing with lights. He was not depressed, Tyler assured himself. He was simply readjusting. In no time at all, he'd be enjoying himself and relishing his return to the fun-filled, peripatetic way of life he had so foolishly abandoned all those weeks ago.

When the phone rang two hours later, Carrie raced to answer it. "Oh, hi, Alexa." Though she tried, she couldn't

keep the disappointment from her voice. She'd been hoping, praying, that Tyler would call.

"I wanted to find out how tonight went, meeting the Tremaines and all, but I guess I called at a bad time." Atexa sounded apologetic.

"Not at all. Tonight was awful, just awful. And worst of all, I—I think I blew everything out of proportion and overreacted." Carrie gulped back the lump that seemed to have lodged permanently in her throat since Tyler's departure. "Oh, Alexa, I know I did. After Tyler left, I started thinking about what happened and what he'd said and—"

"Tyler left?"

"I threw him out," Carrie confessed glumly. "I told him I didn't want to see him anymore and he—he went, Alexa!"

"Oh, Carrie!"

"Please, no lectures. I'll be getting enough of that from Ben," Carrie said with a woeful stab at gallows humor.

"I'm not going to lecture you, Carrie. Do you want me to come over?"

"No, I—I'll be okay." It wasn't fair for her to expect her sister to always come running to her side; Alexa deserved a break from her self-imposed misery. "I really will," she said, hoping to sound more convincing.

"I think I'm going to read awhile before I go to bed. Don't worry about me, Alexa. Promise that you won't."

The moment they hung up, Alexa called Ben. "I just want to warn you not to go into your usual raves about Tyler if you happen to call Carrie," Alexa told her brother. "They're having problems."

"What? Oh, no, this is terrible!" Ben howled. "What happened?"

"I don't know anything except Carrie is sorry about it. I don't think she's sure enough of him to call him and apologize, either."

"They love each other, I'm sure of that. Sounds like they could use a little help admitting and committing, though.''

"Stop talking in ad jingles," Alexa scolded. "And don't give Carrie a hard time about Tyler."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Ben said earnestly. "I want Carrie to be happy as much as you do, Alexa."

"I know, Ben."

Carrie put on her blue silk nightshirt, styled like an oversize man's shirt, and stretched out on the sofa with a magazine. The doorbell rang ten minutes later.

Her limbs shaking, her heart thudding, Carrie walked to the door and peered through the peephole. Tyler stood outside.

"I decided to give you another chance," he said the moment she opened the door.

He was pleased with his delivery. He sounded cool and insouciant, nothing at all like the lovesick jerk who'd spent the past two hours manically pacing his house, trying and failing to imagine his days without Carrie in them. It was time she shared his nights, too. Still, a lifetime of fierce male pride made swallowing it difficult. He waited, tense and edgy. Now that he'd made the overture, if she were to spurn him again...

"That's funny. I was going to call you and tell you the same thing," Carrie said, her voice as shaky as her knees. The moisture gathering in her eyes made them shine like brilliant jewels.

"You were, hmm?" Tyler stepped inside and closed the door firmly behind him, locking it.

Carrie looked at the ground. "I—It's possible that you thought it really was a picnic," she murmured.

"You're willing to entertain the possibility that you weren't the victim of a diabolical scheme I purposely hatched to infuriate the Tiemaines en masse?"

Carrie raised her eyes to meet his. He was watching her with his usual intensity but she detected something else there, as well. "Yes," she whispered. A slow, sweet smile turned up the corners of her mouth. "Although you would've been justified in hatching any plot to save yourself from those—those bleached blond wolverines Nina calls her nieces."

For a moment, Tyler looked at her as if he didn't believe his ears. Then he smiled. "Wolverines?'' he repeated, laughing. His dark green eyes gleamed with an unmistakable, irresistible combination of humor and passion.

Carrie shuddered as she was overtaken by simultaneous waves of tears and laughter. Her guard, so zealously maintained, dropped; her staunch control was swept away in a maelstrom of emotion. She flung her arms around Tyler's neck. "I love you, Tyler," she said, stretching on tiptoe to kiss him. "I just want you to know—"

"I know," he said huskily. "I know, sweetheart."

His arms closed around her and his lips claimed hers in a deep, searing kiss. Colors seemed to explode inside Carrie's head like a dazzling rainbow as she tasted him, welcoming his tongue into her mouth with erotic strokes of her own, making love to his mouth as hungrily as he was making love to hers. It had been so long since he had kissed her, and all the fierce, suppressed yearning for him swelled within her and burst forth with head-spinning pleasure.

Tyler was reeling from a similar surge of pent-up longings. He had wanted her for weeks, and finally his desires and his needs were totally unleashed and coursing madly through his body. His hunger for Carrie was wild and raging and all-consuming.

His mouth was hot and hard and urgently demanding, and Carrie's heart lunged excitedly as she realized that he was as out of control as she. Their kiss grew wilder, deeper, and very, very soon kissing, however intimate, was not enough for either of them.

With a rough sound of passion, Tyler slid his hands under her nightshirt, raising the hem and gliding his palms over her thighs, her panties, sliding upward to close over her breasts. He kneaded the rounded softness, rubbing his fingertips over her nipples until they were so taut and so sensitive that she wanted to scream with the exquisite, piercing pleasure of it.

Desire escalated and swept through her like wildfire, heightening her responses, making her breathing ragged and her body soft and pliant. Locked against the long, hard length of his body, she could feel the powerful thrust of his male arousal, and she arched even more closely into him, instinctively rocking against him in seductive, feminine rhythm.

His mouth left hers for only a moment before he urgently reclaimed it. They were both panting, but neither wanted to be slowed down, certainly not for anything as prosaic as air. Carrie's hands roamed over him, tugging his dark cotton shirt from the waistband of his cutoff jeans, and then slipping beneath the material to feel the bare, muscled warmth of his back.

She felt his lips nibbling an erotic trail along the sensitive curve of her neck, and her legs seemed to liquefy, leaving her weak and clinging to him for support. A long shudder ran through her and she pressed closer, nuzzling against him, her surrender complete.

"I wanted you for so long/' she murmured achingly. "I think about you every day, every night— When you left tonight, I—"

"I didn't want to go," he said huskily. His mouth poised over hers and he gazed deeply into her passion-drugged eyes. ''I couldn't stay away, Carrie." His thumb traced the sweet fullness of her lower lip and she shivered at the small, sensual caress. Desire shot through him like a hot spear. "I want to make love to you, Carrie. If I have to wait any longer, I—"

"No." She laid her fingers gently across his lips, hushing him. "No more waiting, Tyler. I love you so much. I want to show you, I want you to—"

Tyler groaned her name and kissed her, lingeringly, deeply. The kiss burned with all the passion and fire of their earlier kisses but contained a tenderness that rendered it sweeter and more meaningful.

Carrie writhed sinuously as his big hands moved over her, molding the blue silk of her nightshirt against her skin. She felt the warming heat of his palms through the cloth, and then on her bare skin itself, as he slowly and sensuously stroked the smooth skin of her thighs.

She kissed him back desperately, drunk on the taste and the scent of him, wanting him with a fierce primal need that she had never before experienced. When his hand slipped from behind to probe between her parted legs, she gasped at the audacious caress. But she wanted it, wanted it

Moaning, she squeezed her eyes shut and clung to him as his fingers slid over the cotton-and-lace barrier of her panties, back and forth, slowly, lightly, before he finally slipped beneath to touch her creamy, swollen center.

"Tyler," she begged in a soft, shaky voice. Excitement throbbed deliciously in the dark, secret core of her, spreading an aching tension to every sensual zone in her body. Her body pressed against his hand as she gave herself up to the voluptuous pleasure he was building.

It took an act of will for Tyler to rein himself in, to remove his hand and hold her slightly away from him. "Sweetheart, not here," he said raspily. "I don't want our first time together to be in the hall!"

"I don't care where we are, I just want you," she murmured dreamily.

The sight of Carrie's face, tilted back, her cheeks flushed with color, her mouth soft and moist and rosy from his kisses, those beautiful blue eyes of hers dark with passion,

sent another stunning bolt of desire through him. He lifted her in his arms, holding her high against his chest.

Though he had never said the words "I love you" to any woman—there were certain lines that even Tyler Tremaine didn't cross—he had never been closer to saying them than he was right now as he stood holding Carrie in his arms. "Let me take you to bed," he whispered instead.

"Yes," Carrie agreed softly, caressing his face with her fingertips. She traced his cheekbones, the strong curve of his jaw, feeling overwhelmed by the sweet, sensuous emotions surging through her. "Yes, love."

He strode swiftly up the stairs, past the partially closed door of the triplets' room, where they lay sleeping quietly inside. Sleuth, the cat, was stretched luxuriously across Carrie's bed, and the sight of the big striped cat made both Carrie and Tyler smile.

"I'll let you escort him out," Tyler said, setting Carrie on her feet. "Old Psycho-Kitty already holds a world-class grudge against me."

"Nonsense. You're just imagining it," Carrie assured him as she lifted the cat from the bed. She put him in the hall, and the cat sauntered off with a haughty meow, as if it was his idea to leave in the first place. "Sleuth likes you, Tyler."

"Yeah, I can tell how much he likes me by the way he bares his fangs and hisses at me whenever I come near him. I appeal to him about as much as—uh—wolverines appeal to me."

Their eyes met and they grinned at each other. Tyler reached out and took both her hands in his, his expression sobering, his voice deep and low. "Carrie, I just want you to know that I would never use you or deliberately hurt you or humiliate you. That scene tonight at my father's house was—"

"It's over and done with," Carrie said quietly. "It was a misunderstanding." Her lips quirked into a playful smile.

"But I have a feeling we'll be long remembered out there. The kids and I did make a lasting first impression."

"You certainly made a lasting first impression on me. I haven't been able to get you out of my head since I met you.' 7 Still holding her hands, Tyler jerked her toward him. When her body impacted against his, they embraced, melding together with a long, mutual sigh. They held each other tightly, savoring their closeness.

The fiery passion between them, never far beneath the surface, flared like a spark to tinder. Their lips met and clung, their hands feverishly caressing. Carrie could feel every hard line of his body against her softer, yielding flesh, and she moaned and moved suggestively, wanting- to offer him an unmistakable invitation.

It was one Tyler was eagerly willing to accept. Pausing to kiss her again and again, he walked her backward to the bed. They sank down onto the mattress, kissing with hungry desperation, their bodies stretched out and intertwined and radiating sensual heat.

Carrie felt his fingers on the top button of her nightshirt, and she drew in a sharp, shaky breath. He performed the task with such deft swiftness that she scarcely had time to exhale before he had unfastened every button and was opening the folds of silk. He slipped the garment from her shoulders and tossed it aside. Deep within her, the coil of desire tightened. There was something so sexy about his urgency and his directness. He wanted her, and he was making sure she knew how much.

She gazed at him, watching him as he stared at her naked breasts for the first time. "Do you know how many times I've dreamed of seeing you this way?" he murmured huskily. "Both at night and during the day." He touched the underside of her breast with his long fingers, then began to knead her soft breasts, plumping their roundness in his hands and gliding his thumbs over the rigid tips.

"I wondered about what color your nipples were." He bent his head and traced the dark pink bud with the tip of his tongue. "I tried to imagine their size and shape." He treated her other nipple to the same arousing treatment. "But my imagination didn't come close to visualizing how beautiful you really are, Carrie. How perfect."

Carrie's body pulsed with a pleasurable tension that kept building and growing with his every word, his every touch. She cried out his name, lost in the magic of the sensual spell Tyler was weaving.

He drew her nipple into his mouth and sucked strongly. Carrie almost sobbed as an electric spasm of pleasure streaked through her. The sensations he was evoking were wild and overwhelming, and the hot throbbing between her legs intensified. She wriggled restlessly, seeking to assuage the ache. In response to her silent plea, Tyler placed his big, warm hand exactly where she most wanted it.

He could feel the dewy moisture there, and the evidence of her deep feminine arousal excited him even more. Stripping off her panties with one deft sweep, he penetrated her hot silken softness gently with his fingers as his tongue, deep in her mouth, was thrusting in deep, sure strokes.

The potent dual mastery evoked an intense, incredible pleasure that rocketed through her with a swift, surging force that suddenly, wildly exploded within her. Radiant waves of heat rolled through her, pulsing through her body and bathing her in a warm, glowing sea.

Her release made her limp and pliant, and for a moment, she lay still on the bed, breathing deeply, her eyes closed. Tyler lay beside her, his hands moving possessively over her in long, lazy caresses.

Carrie opened her eyes and looked into his. They smiled, naturally, simultaneously. The emotional bond that had grown and strengthened between them these past weeks was too deep to allow any awkwardness between them.

"Why have we waited so long for something that is so right?" Tyler asked wryly, kissing her cheek.

"It's right because we waited so long," Carrie said logically.

She gazed at him, her blue eyes shining. A wonderful, powerful rush of love poured through her and it was no longer enough that she lay here passively, luxuriating in her own blissful languor. She wanted to give him pleasure, to take him into her, joining their bodies together. She already felt the power of their emotional and spiritual connection; a physical union would truly make them one.

Carrie touched him, her slender hands moving over him with loving boldness, slipping under his shirt to explore the wiry mat of hair on his chest and following it as it arrowed downward, beyond the waistband of his jeans. Her thumb dipped into the circle of his navel, tracing its shape.

She loved having unlimited access to his body, touching him the way she'd been yearning to for so long. But his clothes were definitely a barrier, one she intended to quickly dispose of. Her fingers tugged at the thick metal buttons of his fly, but she prevailed over each one. Tyler made an inarticulate sound as she boldly slipped her hand inside to take possession of him.

He allowed her to fondle him for a few ecstatic moments, then caught her hands, stilling them. "Any more of that and I'll go completely over the edge."

"Good." Carrie nearly purred with pure feminine satisfaction. "I want you to, Tyler."

He managed a hoarse laugh. "But not quite yet. Carrie, about protection..."

Her eyes widened. "Uh-oh. I don't have anything, Tyler. There's been no reason for it," she added meaningfully.

"I know. Not to worry." He reached into the pocket of his jeans. "I came prepared," he said, triumphantly pulling out a foil packet.

Carrie sat up. "You were very confident, weren't you?"

"Believe me, baby, I had to be. I've never been so desperate or so unglued in my entire life/' He stripped off his clothes as he spoke.

Carrie opened the packet. "So you brought this one."

He pulled three more from his pockets. "I thought about showing up with the entire box of twenty-four but..." His voice trailed off. Carrie was laughing, and he joined in, feeling happier and freer and more lighthearted than he'd ever felt.

He pulled her down to him. "Carrie," he said urgently. His control was rapidly dissolving. Feeling her warm, eager body in his arms, her lips grazing his skin, her hands reaching for him, was too much for him to resist.

There was no need to resist. She wanted him as much as he wanted her, and the reasons they had come up with to stay apart seemed inconsequential and meaningless. The only thing that mattered was the two of them together at last, giving in to the powerful feelings they had for each other.

They had both reached their limit, and when Carrie's legs opened to him, welcoming him into her dark soft heat, Tyler drove into her with an urgent, powerful thrust. For a moment, they lay motionless as they gazed into each other's eyes> acknowledging that her body enveloped his, and that something between them had irrevocably been changed forever.

The indescribable pleasure of their mating consumed them both, and they moved together in a passionate frenzy, the sensual fire flaming to white-hot intensity, until both were seared by the sheer heat of the pleasure coursing through them.

Their wild urgency further incited them. Carrie felt his body surge to completion deep within her, and it triggered her own release. She cried out Tyler's name as her body shook with the pulsing satisfaction that swept her away on waves of rapture.

They spent the rest of the night together, turning to each other again and again, as if neither could quite believe that the waiting and the loneliness were over, that they could touch and kiss each other freely, at will. That they could satiate the burning desire that even the simplest touch or kiss evoked within them.

Finally, deliciously languid and sated, Carrie's eyes drifted closed, and she cuddled back into Tyler, her mind floating dreamily. He fit his body to hers like a spoon and closed his arms around her.

She sighed blissfully. "What are you thinking, Tyler?" she murmured drowsily, exhausted but still unable to break their connection, even to sleep.

Tyler smiled in the darkness. "That now I don't have to come up with a scheme to get you into my bed when we go to the beach this weekend."

She chuckled softly. "Was that your plan?"

His reply was heartfelt. "Oh, yeah!"

"And now you think I'll hop into bed with you the minute we get the kids tucked in?"

"We'll wait till we're sure they're asleep," Tyler corrected. "Then we'll hop into bed."

She laid her hands over his, interlacing their fingers. "I can't wait."

Moments later, they were both asleep.

Eleven

Their weekend trip to the beach was a weekend of firsts. Carrie and Tyler's first as a couple. The triplets' first long car ride and their first sojourn away from home. And the first time that all five were away and out together as a fam-

That was the way everybody saw them, as a mother and father with their three small children. Tyler was astounded by the number of comments the sight of the triplets evoked from strangers. He lost count of the people who came up to them, asking the children's age and all sorts of information about them.

Carrie, who'd grown up a triplet, was used to it. "The curiosity levels off when they get older and don't look the same age and so much alike."

Tyler vicariously enjoyed the attention the children drew. He was proud of them and enjoyed talking about them. And he didn't once correct the misapprehension that he was the daddy in the group.

It was fun introducing the children to the beach and the ocean, to see the wonderment in their eyes as they saw the waves break and ebb, to hold their small hands as the water rushed around their ankles while they shrieked with delight. The water-loving trio had no fear of the ocean—just the opposite, in fact. Carrie and Tyler had to watch them closely to keep them from dashing headlong into the surf.

Playing in the sand was one of the children's favorite pastimes, and the beach, so impressively larger than their sandpile at home; enthralled all three. The wide assortment of sand toys that Tyler purchased at the local old-style five-and-dime store kept them occupied for hour&

At Tyler's insistence, they ate all their meals in restaurants, child-friendly ones. The kiddie pavilion, filled with toddler-sized rides, was another treat. Tyler and Carrie stood with the other parents and waved as the children rode the tiny boats and cars and airplanes around and around.

Dylan, Emily and Franklin were euphoric but exhausted when Tyler and Carrie finally tucked them into their rented cribs. That was when the focus of the brief vacation abruptly shifted to become strictly adult-oriented. After closing the door to the children's room, Tyler scooped up Carrie in his arms and carried her to his bedroom.

"I had a great time with the kids today, but every time I looked at you, I got hard, wanting you," he confessed huskily, as he swiftly divested her of her sky-blue shorts and top. Her underwear immediately joined the small heap) of clothes, his and hers, on the floor beside the bed.

His hands flexed on her waist, then moved up to cup her rounded bare breasts. "I want you so much, Carrie. I can't stop thinking about how good it felt to be inside you."

Carrie reached out to intimately caress him, feeling his hard, male response and glorying in her feminine power to please him. "Make love to me, Tyler," she whispered im-passionedly:

His mouth covered hers and her arms went around his neck to draw him closer. Their kiss was long and slow and deep. They wanted to take their time, to make it last, but the rush of passion was fast and hot and overwhelming. They fell onto the bed, hot and tangled together, kissing and caressing in a feverish frenzy of desire.

Tyler positioned himself intimately between her thighs, and Carrie arched up to accept him, wrapping her legs around him and sobbing his name as he surged into her. He heaved a groan of ecstasy as he thrust deeper into her moist warmth, muffling the noise against her neck.

They moved together in wild primal rhythm, the intense pleasure building until the erotic flames engulfed them and they exploded into a searing, simultaneous climax.

Afterward, they lay together, relaxed and drained and wonderfully content.

"I could get addicted to this," Carrie confessed softly, nestling her head in the hollow of his shoulder. "I love you, Tyler."

Tyler pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head, his lips lingering to caress her silky blond hair. He knew that he was already addicted, but he felt no compunction to tell her so. Cautious bachelor habits die hard; he was not about to blurt out his feelings, to tell her everything. They had plenty of time. He would take things slowly, see where it all led.

"We're great together in bed," he said with a satisfied sigh. Some things were self-evident and safe enough to reveal.

"We're great together out of bed, too," Carrie said softly. She was aching for him to tell her that he loved her. And she knew instinctively that he wasn't going to say the words, that he was holding back. It was maddening. How long was he going to insist on playing it cool? He certainly wanted her and not just for sex. Carrie was sure she meant more to him than that. She would bet her house that he loved her children.

But her knowing all of this and him admitting it were two different things. She wondered how long it would take for their separate perceptions to converge. Weeks, months, years? For the first time since she'd made love with Tyler, Carrie allowed herself to think of Ian and their short, tragic relationship. How fortunate that she and Ian hadn't wasted any time deciding how they felt about each other! They'd committed themselves and forged ahead, without knowing how little time they would actually have together.

She had learned an invaluable lesson there: that time was fleeting and there were no guarantees. It had been wrong to deny her feelings for Tyler simply because she feared the pain of losing him. Fighting the need to love to avoid being hurt was both tragic and foolish, she realized now.

All those games and attitudes that kept lovers apart wasted precious time, and it was a loss that could never be regained. A couple should joyfully acknowledge their love and openly celebrate it. Carrie sighed softly. If only Tyler shared her hard-found beliefs.

Tyler heard her sigh. "Are you all right?" he asked, tightening his arms possessively around her. He'd been pretty wild, taking her with an urgency that he suddenly feared might have been too rough for her. She was so small and delicate, so utterly feminine. "Carrie, did I hurt you?" His voice deepened with concern.