Truth or Dare (31 page)

What if.

What if she was making another mistake? What if she was ignoring the writing on the wall again and—

Ava burst through the front door of her apartment where they’d all been waiting, cutting into Maggie’s thoughts, and yanking her firmly into the now. Into the long overdue return of her best friend.

Ava stomped her feet in excitement as Ford trailed behind, toting two hard-sided suitcases his little sister hadn’t owned when she left for the six-week trip that had turned into twelve.

“Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod, I’m home!” she sang, doing her Ava best to squeeze the air out of Maggie’s lungs as she rocked the two of them back and forth with her stronger-than-i
t-looked body. Then, giving Maggie a little shove on the release, Ava hopped over to Sam and sprang into his waiting arms to plant a long, squeaky kiss on his cheek. Tyler scored a double kiss and a smaller hug, and Tony had to settle for a friendly back patting after offering up a pucker Ava avoided at just the last second.

Everyone was talking at once, the noise and commotion like wrapping up in her favorite snuggly, warm blanket.

Sam walked over to the bar he’d built into Ava’s living room while she’d been gone and started mixing drinks as Ava rattled off all the high points and offenses racked up during her trip home. The San Diego airport was awesome. Check-in and security a gentle breeze compared to the high intensity of O’Hare. The flight was tainted by the guy next to her repeatedly taking her armrest but otherwise uneventful, and she was convinced when her bag was the first to reach the carousel, it was Baggage Claim imparting some cosmic message about all being right now that she was back in Chicago.

Ford smiled indulgently, but couldn’t help asking Tyler what he thought it meant that her second bag took twenty minutes to come out. And that good-humored grin her guy offered up in return—God, she loved it.

She loved him.

As always, Tyler seemed to have caught the direction of her thoughts based on the invitation there in his eyes, the challenge in the lift of that one brow.

“Martinis, dirty, just like my favorite girls,” Sam announced, handing Ava her glass with no less than five olives and Maggie a glass with the more conservative three. Tyler had bourbon, Ford a gin and tonic, Tony some kind of tequila thing with a cherry, and Sam a Belvedere on the rocks.

With the drinks handed out, everyone raised a glass to Ava, who did a little curtsy. And as Maggie took her first drink, she felt the teasing brush of Tyler’s hand down her spine before his hand slipped around her hip to hold her close.

It was so perfect.

“
Geeyikes,
you guys with the PDA,” Tony groaned, giving them a disgusted look. “My no-strings hero reduced to cuddles over cocktails. Makes me want to puke.”

Almost perfect.

She didn’t know if it was Sam’s bartending skills, the excitement of having her best friend home, or Tyler’s ready touch…but Maggie’s first martini had gone down altogether too easily, followed by the second “baby” one she’d requested that looked suspiciously sized like the first. Whatever the case, after the initial catching up had been done, the drinks refilled and polished off, and plans made to reconvene outside in thirty minutes, Maggie was feeling warm and loose and easy as she and Tyler walked back to her place.

“You look a little drunk, Maggie,” he said, shooting her a wicked sideways glance. “I’m seeing a window of opportunity for taking advantage.”

“A window that is…” She checked her phone. “Precisely twenty-seven minutes? What kind of damage are you thinking you can get done?”

His answering smile was cocky and full of promise. Holding the door for her, he answered, “The better question would be, ‘What can’t I?’ ”

The door closed behind them and she leaned into him until there was barely an inch of hot, charged air between them. She drew a long, slow breath through her nose.

“You smell so good.”

He stopped her at her door, closing his hands around her hips and pulling her back into his chest.

“Every time I catch a glimpse of that sexy stretch of neck, all I want to do is touch it.” Then, rubbing his jaw along that very same stretch of skin, he murmured in her ear, “Kiss it.”

A tremor shot through her body as he demonstrated his intent.

She could feel him getting hard behind her, the change in his breath, the charged tension radiating off his body. And she loved it.

“Your restraint is impressive. Not sure Tony could handle it if you actually kissed me in front of him,” she whispered, her voice breaking as his palms coasted up her waist and ribs, higher, until he’d taken the weight of her breasts in them.

“No talk about Tony.” His voice lowered to that seductive rumble she felt through her entire body.

Another grazing caress across her breasts.

“Jealous,” she teased, her giggle evaporating at the press of his erection into her back, and the wide hand splaying low across her abdomen, holding her against it.

Skin tingling, heartbeat erratic, she let out a soft moan.

This man affected her like no other.

“Completely jealous.” Tyler was walking them down the hall to her bedroom. “It’s giving me a complex, and I’m thinking maybe I’ve got something to prove.”

“Oh yeah, what?”

How could it be so sexy to
feel
a man smile behind her?

He turned her around to face him and then, guiding her back onto the bed, followed her down. Slowly, deliberately, he reached for her left wrist and pressed it to the soft mattress above her head, then did the same with her right. Eyes locked with hers, he added the barest amount of pressure and answered, “I’ve got twenty-three minutes to show you.”

In the kitchen, Tyler pounded a glass of water listening to Maggie sing off key as she did whatever she was doing to get ready to go out again in—he checked the clock—two minutes. She was fun. Sweet and surly, and making him want to thump his chest every time she rounded the corner, met his eyes, and smiled.

He was so damn lucky.

Something he’d never thought to describe himself as again. But when he thought of everything that had happened, how he’d let her go, watched her pick up the pieces of her life and walk away—
Christ.

That he’d gotten this second chance?

He might be the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet. But no one got that lucky more than once, which was why he needed to make sure he didn’t blow it. Why he needed to figure out what was wrong.

Because something was.

Ever since he’d come back from New York, there’d be these moments where everything was so fucking perfect, where Maggie would be looking up at him with those eyes that gave him everything. And he could feel himself caught in her look. In the depth of emotion running between them—and then he’d see it. This flash of doubt. And whatever connection had been there the instant before, it would be gone.

Maggie would still be smiling up at him. They’d still feel so right it hurt his heart in the best way.

But there would be the smallest distance.

And that distance scared the shit out of him, because it wasn’t going away.

He’d asked her about it. Asked what happened, where she’d gone when one moment they were
there. Together.
And the next…

She’d just wrinkle her nose at him and shake her head. Acting like he was completely off base and then changing the subject, or distracting him with her sweet mouth or her hands or her body—but the one thing she never did was flat-out tell him there was nothing wrong.

Because Maggie didn’t lie to him.

“Hey, handsome. You ready?” she asked, looking more gorgeous than he’d ever seen her, beaming up at him with that smile that wouldn’t quit and those eyes dancing with joy. “Ava just texted and they’re downstairs.”

God, she blew him away.

And she deserved so much more than to live with the doubts he hadn’t figured out how to put to rest.

Tyler hadn’t meant to sleep so late, but hell, Maggie had worn him out. Completely.

For Ava’s first night back, they’d gone to see a band. Ended up dancing until the bar closed. And when they’d come home after all those hours of watching her move and sway, brush against him, cast secret looks over her shoulder, whisper those naughty promises in his ear—hell, yes. They’d barely made it in the door.

And once they had, it was hot. Maggie attacking-him-l
ike-an-animal hot. Up-until-four
A.M.
hot. Burning-through
-the-bulk-box-o
f-rubbers-and-m
aking-an-emerge
ncy-run-to-the-
twenty-four-hou
r-place-for-more hot.