Tyler (24 page)

His heart lurched and he hugged her tightly to him. “Yeah. I do, but I was thinking that I don’t have a lot to offer you what with the way we’re struggling to keep our heads above water out at the ranch.”

She shook her head. “Is that what’s worrying you?” Emily laughed. “I’m not exactly a high maintenance kind of woman, you know.”

He nodded. “If you say so.”

She laughed harder. “Was it all of those diamonds and jewels that I keep asking you for or the demands that you constantly take me out somewhere and spend oodles of money on me?”

He felt his lips lifting. The chuckle caught him by surprise. “Well, there is that.”

She smacked him on the shoulder. “You’re not thinking with the brains the good Lord gave you, if you think I’m attracted to you because of what you have or don’t have… it’s who you are in here”—Emily tapped her pointer finger against his heart—“and up there,” she said, pointing to his head, “that count.”

His sigh of relief was loud enough for her to hear, but he didn’t care. She loved him—him—and she’d take him just the way he was, ornery brothers and demanding ranch included. “I guess it’s because the ranch means so much to me and is such a huge part of me that I was worried you wouldn’t accept either of us if we were too much trouble.”

“I already told you that I thought there was something really magical about your ranch. I meant it, Tyler, but even if you didn’t have a penny in your pocket and only the shirt on your back, I’d still be in love with you.”

He nodded, and she placed her hand over his heart again. “I mean that, Tyler Garahan.”

“Same goes, Emily Langley.” He dipped his head down so he could capture her lips and seal his words with a kiss. Confident and feeling better than he had for a while, he asked, “Would you dance on the bar for me?”

Her laugh eased the rest of his worry. “There was a whole lot of José involved,” she said, “and I don’t know that I want to drink that much again anytime soon.”

He rubbed his hands up and down her arms. “So you only dance on the bar if you’re drunk?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You really want me to get up there and dance?”

His heart stuttered. “I can’t get the image of you up there in all your lace-covered glory, arms spread, singing your heart out from my mind.”

“I don’t remember singing.”

“Jake said he would never forget the way you and Jolene looked up there with your—”

“Our what?”

“Hell, I really should have punched him.”

“Whatever for?”

“He saw what I didn’t, and I don’t like sharing.”

She frowned, and he wished he knew what she was thinking but didn’t want to ask. Hell, for a man who didn’t like to talk much, he used up his share of words for the week. “I’m talked out, Em,” he confessed.

“Why don’t you shut up and kiss me?”

Emily’s heart stumbled in her breast as Tyler’s lips pressed against hers.
Lord, the man could kiss.
Her knees wobbled and her legs went limp as he plundered.

Nibbling and licking a path from just beneath her ear along the tendon in her throat to the edge of her scoop-necked top, his tongue skimmed there for a moment before slipping under to sample her. She pushed her worry aside. There wasn’t any reason to worry that Tyler was jealous of the fact that Jake had apparently seen her and Jolene in their underwear dancing on the bar. Tyler stripped in front of dozens of women every night.

He lifted his head and the heat in his eyes seared her. “You don’t have to dance on the bar if you don’t want to.” He reached out and grabbed a hold of her shoulders. “We could always use the bar for leverage while I take my time tasting you.”

He swirled his tongue across her shoulder, flicking it along the length of her collarbone. When he reached the hollow of her throat, he pressed his lips to the wildly beating pulse point and then let the tip of his tongue slip up to her chin. Nipping it, he pressed his lips to the sensitized skin before sliding his tongue back down to the base of her throat.

“Tyler,” she sighed, then she heard someone moan. It could have been her… maybe it was him. She didn’t know or care. “I need you to touch me,” she rasped.

“Tell me where, Em,” he groaned as he slipped her shirt off and the straps of her bra down over her shoulders. Dipping his head down, he let his tongue glide along the edge of her bra, flicking it under the lacy edge, tormenting her. “You taste like heaven,” he murmured, continuing his torturous path along the edge of her bra, teasing her nipples one at a time. “Will you let me look at you, Em?”

“Aren’t you already looking at me?”

He laid his forehead against the top of her head and strained against the need to ravage. Once he had himself under control, he said, “I’ve never just looked at you. Will you let me?”

Her eyes widened as he reached for her. Her bra straps made it a challenge, but she slipped first one arm and then the other free, until her bounteous breasts were bared for him.

“My God, Emily,” he whispered. “You’re so beautiful.” He hesitated before reaching out his hand to brush the back of it against her nipples. They hardened to peaks of perfection. The seducer became the seduced. “I’ve got to taste you.”

She didn’t say a word but didn’t try to stop him. He flicked his tongue out to taste and was rewarded. Sweet and creamy with berry-tart perfection. “You’re killing me.”

“But I’m not doing anything.”

“You beauty slays me, and the way you taste keeps me up nights when I should be sleeping.”

“You’re not alone, Tyler. When you’re not with me, all I can think of is the next time we can be together. I really miss you when you’re not in my bed.”

He grinned, lifted her up onto the sleek ebony bar, climbed up on the bar, and knelt in front of her, getting lost in the glorious depths of her whiskey-colored eyes. His heart stumbled, and his gut felt like he’d been head-butted by an angry bull. He swooped down and captured her lips in a tongue-tangling kiss. “I fall asleep thinking of you, and you’re the first thing on my mind when I wake up.”

Before she could respond, he kissed her again. Remembering the sensitive spot on her neck, just below her ear, he nipped the skin there, then pressed his lips to the spot to soothe it.

“Mmmm.”

“Feel good?” He knew it did but wanted her to be open with him and tell him what was in her heart and on her mind.

“Yes,” she hissed. He nipped her collarbone and dipped his head lower to tease first one nipple, then the other. When she was writhing beneath him, he drew her left breast into his mouth and suckled her.

She was bucking beneath him before he switched to her right breast and lavished it with the same tender attention. Emily gripped his head, holding him to her breast, but he wanted to taste more.

“I want to see if you’re as sweet as I remember… right here.” He slid a finger between her breasts down to her belly button.

He watched her eyes and knew she wanted him to. “Say it, Em.”

“Please?”

“Close enough,” he rasped, baring the rest of her to his eyes and then his lips, letting his tongue follow the path his fingertip had traced. Dipping his tongue into her belly button, he breathed in her scent. Womanly, a hint of lavender mixed with sandalwood, his aftershave. Hell, he wasn’t done branding her with his scent yet.

“Let me taste you again, Em. I can’t get enough of you.” He slipped his hands beneath her curvy backside and lifted it up, waiting for her permission.

Amber fire scorched him, but he didn’t let go. Now that he’d sipped, he needed to taste the very essence of Emily Langley again. He leaned down and blew a breath across the triangle of red curls guarding what he wanted her to yield to him. “Emily,” he drawled out her name and dipped a finger inside of her.

She moaned out his name, long and low. He slipped another in and began to play her body, until she gasped out, “Yes, Tyler, now. Please?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he grinned and lifted her to his mouth, plunging his tongue into her warm wet depths. It was his turn to moan. She tasted just like he remembered: heaven. He licked and sucked, nipping and tasting, until he was full to bursting, and she was writhing mindlessly beneath him, lifting her hips up off the bar letting him taste her more deeply.

“I’ll be back for more later,” he promised. “Maybe not just yet, but definitely soon.” He leaned back on his knees, his boots scraping along the top of the bar as he reached into his pocket for a condom.

He ripped the top of the foil packet and pulled the latex out, but she stopped him. “Let me.”

With a gentleness that had his heart tripping in his chest, she covered him from tip to base. Reaching up, she pulled him home and drove them both over the edge to insanity.

“Mmmm,” she murmured a little while later. “What time is it?”

Emily’s soft voice brought him back to earth. His back ached like a son-of-a-bitch and his knees felt raw, but when he opened his eyes, her face was the first thing he saw. Hell, he couldn’t complain.

“Hey, sweet thing,” he whispered, kissing her luscious lips. “Why can’t I get enough of you, Miss Langley?”

“I don’t know, Mr. Garahan,” she said, “but I’m having the same problem.

“How did we end up on the bar?” he dragged his gaze away from her and looked around them.

Her eyes were alight with mischief. “It seemed like a good idea at the time. I’m just grateful the bar’s a lot stronger than I thought it’d be.”

He wished he didn’t feel like he’d just been trampled by Widowmaker. He had the will, just not the stamina to go another round without eating. “You wore me out, woman. The body’s willing but weak… maybe if you feed me first.”

She drew circles on his pecs with her fingertips. The movement was making him crazy. “I mean it,” he tried to sound stern, but she didn’t stop. He grabbed hold of her hand, and she sighed. “All right, Tyler,” she said. “What’ll it be?”

“Got a side of beef you could fry up?”

She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him close. “I think I have a quarter of a buffalo in the freezer,” she teased. Pressing her lips to his, she slipped her tongue inside to tangle with his. His mind fogged up and his dick sprang to attention. “If you feed me first with a side of aspirin, you can be on top.”

Emily’s wary look told him she either hadn’t had a very patient lover before, or she wasn’t used to talking about what she wanted her lover to do. Either way, he was going to get her to ride him later.

“You’ll like it,” he promised.

He eased out of her, rocked by how hollow he felt without that physical connection to her. “We’d better get you dressed.” But he got hot all over again, fingering what was left of her lace thong underwear.

He slipped down off the bar, shifted himself back inside his jeans and started retrieving her clothes. Her shirt was hooked over the back of a barstool. He didn’t have a clue where her bra had ended up. He’d find it later.

“Let me help you with your skirt,” he said, pumped that she looked so totally disheveled and that it had been at his hands.

“How come I’m practically naked and all you have to put on is a shirt?”

He leaned close to her and pressed his lips to her shoulder. “You couldn’t wait.”

The dreamy look in her eyes only added to the euphoric feeling swirling around inside of him. It had been a long dry spell between women, but that wasn’t at the heart of what he was feeling
. She was.

Emily lifted her hopelessly stretched out shirt, and he wondered if it would shrink back when she washed it. “Do you want mine?” he scooped his shirt off the floor and handed it to her.

She reached out to take it from him, brushing her knuckles against the back of his hand. He felt the jolt shoot straight up his arm.

Emily must have felt it too, her eyes widened as she slipped her arms into the sleeves. “You’re positively lethal,” she rasped, buttoning the shirt before scooting to the edge of the bar.

“Wait,” he cautioned, “you don’t want to scrape that lovely bottom on the edge of the bar.”

She grinned and held her arms out to him. “Lovely?”

“Yeah,” he scooped her up and held tight before letting her slide down the long hard length of him, setting her on her feet. His stomach rumbled breaking the spell she’d cast over him.

She laughed. “Come on, I’ll rustle up some breakfast.”

Half an hour later, he’d decimated the better part of a pound of bacon and a half a dozen scrambled eggs. Emily lost count of the slices of jelly toast he consumed along with about a gallon of coffee. Finally, the dark-haired hunk pushed back from the table and sighed. “I was hungry.”

She couldn’t keep from giggling. “I never would have guessed from the way you plowed through that meal.” Tilting her head to one side, she asked, “Do you always eat like that?”

“Naw.” He grinned and lifted his coffee mug to his lips. “I usually have steak with my eggs.”

“If I hadn’t been out to the ranch, I’d think you were kidding.”

He swallowed the mouthful of coffee and set the mug down. “When you get up before dawn to tend to the cattle and horses, you have to eat enough to keep your body going until about noon.”

She was beyond tired and achy in places that were just getting the hang of being used and abused… in a good way… again. “I’m going to bed.”

Tyler stood when she did.

“Em,” he said, “there’s a couple of things I need to tell you.”

“I’m too tired to talk now, Tyler.” She really was. Besides if she rested up, she could take him up on his offer to let her be on top. “Talk and walk, babe.” She spun on her heel and walked toward her bedroom, glancing at Jolene’s closed door and the muffled sounds coming from behind it.
Sounded like Jolene and Jake were getting along just fine
.

“Emily, can you just give me a couple of minutes to get my head together?”

“I fed you.”

He sighed. “Appreciate it, ma’am,” he said, “but I need to you tell you something important.”

It was her turn to sigh. “All right, but I wasn’t kidding, you talk while you walk. I’m going to bed and it’s in there.”

He chuckled. “Yes, ma’am.”

“And quit calling me ma’am all the damn time,” she grumbled. “Makes me feel old.”

“All right, darlin’.”

How could she resist this man? “I’m halfway to that bed, and once I get there, I’m closing my eyes, so you’d best be getting whatever needs saying, said.”

He spun her around and into his arms. “I love the hell out of you, Emily Langley.” He locked lips with her and proceeded to kiss every last thought out of her head.

***

When he came up for air, she locked her fingers behind his head and pulled him to within a breath from her mouth. “I don’t mind hearing you say it again, but you don’t need to for my sake. I love you too.”

“Why are we standing?” he asked, tugging her into her bedroom, tumbling her onto the bed. “When we could talk just as easily lying down?” He nipped her bottom lip and used her surprise to his advantage, delving deep, tangling his tongue with hers.

Instead of dragging her closer, he pulled back and cupped her face in his hands. “Do you know what scared me the most, Em?”

She shook her head, not wanting to break the spell of the moment.

“The thought of telling you how I felt and having you tell me you just love me for the sex and wouldn’t want me if you knew I came with a broken down ranch and two ornery brothers.”

She grinned, placed her hands on top of his, and confessed. “Well, I really love your talented lips and hips,” she teased. When his brows furrowed over his dark expressive eyes, she laughed out loud. “I’d be crazy not to,” she said. Before he could interrupt, she added, “It works both ways, Tyler. I’m a partner in a business that deals with pleasure—not just any man would be secure enough to get involved with me.” When he stared at her, she smiled. “I’m crazy in love with you, and you can lasso me any time you like, cowboy.”

His grin was lethal. Shifting his hands, pinning her arms at her sides, he smiled down at her, melting her heart. “Prepare to be hog-tied, ma’am.”