Relentless Liberation (9 page)

“No, open your eyes. I want you to look at me.” His rough
words were compelling and she had no choice but to obey.

Opening her eyes she was once again met by that mischievous
smile of his. “Breathe, Mina.” He positioned his cock against her opening.
Until that moment she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding her breath.

He chose right then, when she let out that pent-up breath on
a slow exhale, to push inside her. It had been way too long for her and he was
big but she couldn’t deny how amazingly good he felt stretching her wide open.

Almost of their own accord, her legs wound around his waist
and she closed her eyes once more to better savor the sensation. And if she
were honest, she couldn’t bring herself to meet his stare, the knowledge that
this was Tyler too overwhelming and just this side of intimidating.

But as soon as she lowered her lids he stopped. “Open those
beautiful eyes,” he growled once again, forcing her to comply. “I want you to
see me doing this to you.
I’m
the one fucking you.” On the last word he
thrust farther into her, then pulled almost the whole way back out, causing her
breath to hitch on a whimper.

The possessiveness in his words gave her goose bumps. The
tone was gruff and animalistic as he gave a hard thrust and bottomed out inside
her in one swift motion. She couldn’t stop her body’s reaction if her life
depended on it. Crying out, she clenched down on him. Hard.

“Oh fuck, baby.” His lower lip trembled as he held himself
still above her. Then he put his mouth to better use and began to kiss her
roughly, his tongue thrusting in and out mimicking the way she wished his body
would move. If the strain in his muscles was anything to go by, he wanted it
too. Badly. She knew what he was waiting for so she forced herself to relax,
easing her inner muscles.

Slowly he started to move, never breaking the kiss, just
rocking his body into hers like a rolling wave. She whimpered into his mouth
and clung to him tighter, running her hands down his back to feel his muscles
tense and release as he thrust into her.

“Mina,” he groaned, lowering his head to nuzzle her neck.
“Your pussy’s so good. So fucking tight, baby.”

Never since meeting him would she have imagined that this
could happen outside of her fantasies. And now that it was? Her fantasies
couldn’t even begin to cover how incredible he actually felt pumping inside
her. He took his time, moving languidly in and out, letting her feel every inch
of his thick cock. And she loved every minute of it but she wanted more. Needed
him pounding into her.

“Tyler.” She groaned as her hands slid from his lower back
to squeeze his ass, pulling him tighter into her.

He gave her a few hard thrusts at the exact pace she needed,
but then went back to his easy, rolling strokes. “Tell me how you want it.”

He knew exactly what she wanted but he was going to make her
say it. She should have known he wouldn’t make it easy for her—he was still
obsessed with cracking her out of her shell. Fortunately, at this point she was
too far gone to care about modesty. She wanted him too much.

“Harder.” She brought her hands up to tangle in his hair.
Pulling his mouth to her she kissed him, filthy, open and wet, before scraping
her teeth against his lower lip. “Oh God, Tyler, fuck me harder.”

“Yeah,” he grunted before he reared up from her and angled
her legs higher, forcing a deeper penetration. “Take it.”

He slammed into her, ground his hips then pulled out.
Repeating the process over and over and each time, he rubbed up against that
fabled sweet spot inside her. The spot she was sure didn’t exist but he hit it
so well it was turning her inside out. Thighs trembling, she dug her
fingernails into his sides. Her mind unraveled and the pressure built beneath
that special place as he pounded into her.

Relentlessly.

“Come on, baby, come for me.” He reached between their bodies
and found her clit with his thumb. “I wanna feel you squeeze my cock when you
fall apart.”

Damn, she loved the way he spoke to her. That alone could
get her off. He was beginning to unravel too, losing his grace as he pistoned
into her, rhythm turning choppy. That he was starting to lose his shit was one
of the sexiest things she had ever seen.

Then he moved his thumb just a little lower, rubbing that
delicious space on the underside of her clit, and that was all it took. Her
orgasm slammed into her, almost catching her off guard in its severity. Words
like
oh God
and
Tyler
flowed out of her mouth like a litany with
random non-verbal articulations that didn’t sound quite human sprinkled
intermittently throughout.

It didn’t matter that the things coming out of her mouth
were unintelligible because she could tell he knew exactly how she felt. Could
even empathize.

Her inner muscles clenched and fluttered on his still-working
cock and it wasn’t long before she heard him make his own unintelligible sounds
surrounded by her name, some growls and a few
fucks
thrown in there for
good measure. His dick swelled inside her as his whole body shook above her,
muscles straining, veins in his neck and arms popping.

If she hadn’t been hopelessly in love with him before, she
most definitely was now. The words fought with her to jump from her throat into
the air but she desperately held them back.

There was no way in hell she was going to enlighten him on
the inner workings of her emotions until he quelled some of her confusion.
If
even then
. She had a hunch he wouldn’t be too receptive to that kind of
declaration.

So she bit her tongue as he collapsed on top of her and
buried his face in the hollow of her neck. He was heavy but she luxuriated in
the feel of him, the way his bare skin felt against hers, the rise and fall of
his chest as he regained his breathing. She wanted to soak it all up now and
store it in her memory banks to savor once this incredibly fantastic and unreal
night was over and things returned to their normal state. Because she knew that
it was an inevitability once morning came.

After a while his lips meandered on her neck and over her
jaw, onto her cheek. He pushed up to once again brace his weight on his elbows
and his questing lips found hers. His kiss was slow and deep, deliberate and
unhurried.

“Damn, baby,” he finally murmured. “I definitely called it
that day in your apartment.”

Okaaaay, she wasn’t following. Then again, she was surprised
she could remember her own name right at the moment. So her brow furrowed. “Huh?”

He chuckled and the sound vibrated from his body into hers.
“That you’re the best fucking lay of my life.” Then he abruptly lifted his head
and narrowed his eyes on her. “You better remember this, though.”

She couldn’t help it—she had to laugh. Even though his words
inadvertently brought back some painful memories of a time before she met him.
He was so adorable and sweet that she found the pain was actually lessening.
And this mind-blowing experience was absolutely nothing like that first one.

“Don’t worry. I couldn’t forget if my life depended on it.” She
kissed his smiling lips briefly and he followed her with his mouth, deepening
it. When her tongue touched his, his length twitched inside her and he groaned.

“Lemme take care of this. I’ll be right back,” he said,
pulling out of her and gripping the condom at the base before levering off her
and the bed. As he made his way into the bathroom, she abruptly missed his
warmth, so she pulled the covers up over her body to try to compensate.

Climbing back into bed, he spooned up behind her, pulling
her in tight against him. “I know we need to talk through some shit but right
now I’m so tired I can’t even see straight.” He kissed the tender spot behind
her ear. “I promise we’ll talk in the morning, okay?”

That was just fine with her. She didn’t think she could take
a serious conversation right now either. So she nodded and snuggled closer to
his warmth, falling asleep in the most unlikely of places.

Tyler’s arms.

The gentle sound of rolling thunder carried Mina to the edge
of her subconscious. It was the soft
tack-tack-tack
of light rain
against the window that had her coming fully awake. Slowly opening her eyes,
she took inventory of her body and her surroundings. She was lying on her
stomach hugging the pillow beneath her, completely naked except for the sheet
draped across her lower back and legs.

The natural light of the room was dim due to the overcast
sky, giving the light gray walls a warm, ethereal ambiance. She’d always loved
morning thunderstorms. If she had the opportunity when they hit, she would
snuggle in bed for hours, feeling protected in her own little cocoon tucked
away from the world.

But this morning was a little different from those precious
lazy days and the difference, in her opinion, was quite an improvement.

Tyler was lying directly opposite her on his side with his
arm propped up under his head and his dark gaze steady on her. Suddenly, she
was thankful for her penchant for sleeping on her stomach. She might have been
brazen in the heat of the moment last night but this morning she was decidedly
on the shy side.

As soon as her gaze landed on his face, his dark eyes warmed
to a deep shade of brown and he flashed her that impish smile. “Morning.” The
low, deep sound of his voice slid along her nerve endings, making her all
tingly.

“Morning.” She burrowed deeper into the pillow, trying to
hide from him in even this infinitesimal way. The fact that her long hair slid
into her face with the movement was an added bonus. “How long have you been
awake?”

His warm fingers brushed the hair off her face, tucking it
back behind her ear. Then they kept going, running in a feather-light caress
down her spine, giving her goose bumps. His eyes tracked his progress before
once again meeting her stare. “A while,” he murmured.

“So you’ve just been lying there staring at me?” A
mischievous spark flashed through his eyes as he nodded and she couldn’t resist
her next comment. “Wow, you’re kind of a creeper, aren’t you?”

Snorting, he rolled his eyes and slid his arm around her
waist, pulling her up close to him. If she lived to be a million years old she
would never get sick of the way his smooth bare skin felt up against hers, the
contrast between his hard body and her softer one.

“Don’t act like you don’t love it.” He nuzzled her neck and
trailed kisses along the skin there.

“See, maybe that’s your problem.” She laughed as she rubbed
up against his warm body like a cat. “You’re far too aware of your appeal.”

“Then we should balance each other out nicely ’cause you’re
far too
un
aware of yours.”

“Up until very recently, I didn’t think you were aware of it
either. So what changed between yesterday morning and last night?” She almost
hated to break their bubble and ask, but seriously, her little theory about him
being a pod person couldn’t be right, could it?

Pulling back only slightly to look at her, he rested his
head on her pillow. His meandering fingers started tracing patterns on her bare
shoulder that she would have found distracting if she weren’t so interested in
what he had to say.

“Nothing changed in the way I see you, Mina. I’ve always
liked your prim-and-proper packaging, that you don’t feel the need to flash all
your assets. You’re not the type to throw yourself at a guy. I’m sick of women
like that and I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I like using my imagination.”

He skimmed his fingers down to her nipple, rolling and
tugging before he cupped her breast. “And I’ve imagined you about a million
times, baby.”

Groaning, she arched into him. Then his words registered.

He’d imagined her? The more he spoke, the less sense he made
and no matter how good he felt, she wanted answers, so she refused to be
distracted. Or let him get off course. “Focus, Tyler,” she said, moving his
hand to someplace safer, like her side.

Sighing, he continued, “Your little stunt pushed me past my
breaking point and I just reacted. You looked so damn edible last night at the
fight it was distracting.” She remembered what he’d said the night before about
almost getting his ass handed to him. Lightly she traced her fingers over the
cut on his left eyebrow that was starting to bruise and she winced. It didn’t
seem to faze him, though, as he ignored her look of concern and kept talking.

“It pissed me off that you left before I could get to you.
Then when I found you dancing with that asshat I saw red and all I could think
about was getting you out of there.”

She couldn’t retain the giggle that escaped her at his
description of Mark. “He wasn’t an asshat, Tyler. He was actually a really nice
guy.” Her eyes narrowed. “A nice guy who probably thinks I’m a pathological
liar who leaves out important details. Details like an insanely jealous
boyfriend I didn’t know I had.”

A grim line went right down the center of his face as his
expression darkened. “Who gives a shit what he thinks? He shouldn’t have been
all over you. Anyway, he got the picture and backed off without my fist meeting
his face. My…” For once he actually struggled for the right word.

“Rampaging?” She supplied helpfully and he pinched her ass,
making her yelp before he settled her back in against him. Apparently he didn’t
appreciate her word choice.

“My gentlemanly warning,” he corrected, “got the point
across. After that I was actually going to take you home. But then when I
finally got your half-naked ass away from the general public, you started
talking all that bullshit about being undesirable and I just lost it. I had to
bring you back here to correct your incredibly misguided self-concept.”

She lowered her gaze to avoid his eyes, instead focusing on
the hollow of his throat and the steady pulse beating beneath his skin. “So if
I hadn’t said that, told you that I felt that way, we wouldn’t be here right
now?”

He tilted her chin up to meet his stare. “We definitely
would’ve ended up here one way or another. It just might have taken me a little
longer to own up to the raging hard-on I’ve been sporting for you for the
better part of the last few months.”

Months?
That would mean he had wanted her almost
nearly as long as she’d wanted him. But that didn’t add up. “If you’ve really
wanted me that long, then why’d you tell Brian you thought of me as your
sister?”

One dark eyebrow quirked, followed by that devilish
half-smile of his. “Spying on me, were you?”

“Not me. Chloe. My ears were more of an unwilling dumping
ground for her acquired information. Some facts I could have gone happily on my
way without.”

“You mean like the ‘fact’ that I thought of you as my little
sister?”

It was her turn to pinch him. “Quit evading my question with
questions.”

“Ow, damn it.” He laughed as he rubbed the now-red mark
right above his nipple where she’d gotten him. “Aim a little lower and this
conversation will get a helluva lot more interesting.”

She growled and he smiled before kissing the corner of her
mouth. “I had a feeling when I spoke to Brian that my words wouldn’t stay with
him. I love the guy but he can’t keep a confidence for shit.”

That had her pulling back with a frown. “So you told him
that knowing it would get back to me?”

“You weren’t my endgame. Chloe was. She’d been trying to
play matchmaker since the day you set foot in that gym and I didn’t want her
sticking her nose into our business. I thought the best way to get her to drop
it would be to let her think I didn’t see you that way.” He shrugged, wrapping
a piece of her hair around his fingers.

“You had to have known she’d tell me though, Tyler. That
didn’t factor into it?”

He suddenly seemed to find the strands of her hair in his
hand fascinating and wouldn’t meet her eyes. “No, it did. But if you thought
that I wasn’t attracted to you, then our friendship didn’t have to change.”

“That would have been a bad thing?” She didn’t like the way
her voice cracked or how melancholy the turn of this conversation was making
her feel. So she did something completely out of character, running her hand
down his back to squeeze his ass as she rolled her hips into him. “It didn’t
feel like a bad thing last night.”

A soft growl rumbled out of him as he hooked her right leg
over his and tugged her closer, his already more-than-awake erection rubbing
against her slit. “Nothing about last night was bad,” he mumbled before taking
her mouth in a slow, lazy kiss.

They hadn’t resolved anything at all but the way they were going
it seemed like she wasn’t going to like the end result anyway. If all they had
was this one stolen moment in time, she wanted all the passion he could give
her. So she tangled her fingers in his hair and deepened the kiss, transforming
it from tender to something rude, wet and open.

Just as she was about to lose herself completely, forcing
the reality of their situation out of her mind, he broke the kiss and pulled
back from her, putting about an inch of space between her hungry body and his.

At what must have been her put-out expression he chuckled
and said, “Focus, Mina.”

It was her turn to sigh as she nodded and willed herself to
get through this conversation. Clearing her throat, she said, “So why, if you
wanted me as much as you say you did, didn’t you want our friendship to
change?”

All the amusement left his expression as he regarded her
silently for a moment, as though forming his words carefully. Though in the end
he just blurted out what he was thinking anyway. “Shit, baby, I know this is
gonna sound clichéd but I tried so hard not to go there with you because I know
that I can’t give you what you want, what you deserve. But you caught me off
guard last night and I couldn’t stop myself.”

She swallowed slowly before she asked her next question.
“And what do you think it is that I deserve?”

Though she knew the answer before she asked—hell, she’d been
mentally preparing herself for this since he’d first kissed her last night—it
still stung when he said it all the same. “A relationship. You’re not the type
of girl a guy fucks once and then never calls again. But I can’t do hearts and
flowers. I just…I can’t.”

The steely conviction in his eyes and the agitated muscle twitching
in his jaw told her that this went way beyond the two of them, in this moment.
For the first time since meeting him, she was seeing a sign of some inner demon
that had rooted itself inside him long before she’d come into his life.

It was a bit of a revelation. His simplistic and carefree
outlook on life had her assuming that nothing fazed him. That he’d found
himself a long time ago and had sorted through all his issues to become the
most well-balanced person she knew. Of course she should have known better.

No one has all their shit together like that but he is
pretty damn close.

But she was no stranger to inner demons herself, and figured
if he had wanted to tell her about his he would have by now, so she wouldn’t
press him about it. There were things she hadn’t told him too. Past wounds that
she didn’t share with anyone. Wouldn’t share with anyone. So she understood.

In a small way, it was a relief that he held parts of
himself back from her. She found herself trusting him far more than she’d
allowed herself to trust anyone in years. That trust, combined with her
attraction to him, made her want to go to that emotional level with him—but
that would only end up hurting her in the long run. So his unwillingness to go
there with her was a much-needed leash to rein herself in and remember all the
reasons why she couldn’t go there either.

“It’s okay, Tyler, really.” She stroked his jaw, trying to
smooth out the tension.

“No, baby, it’s really not.” Covering her hand with his, he
brought it to his mouth, tenderly kissing the center of her palm. “After last
night, things can’t go back to the way they were, so I think we need to modify
our friendship. I can’t give you a relationship but I’m a selfish bastard and I
don’t want you to want anyone else either.”

“So, basically, you just want to be friends with exclusive
benefits?”

He nodded and the seriousness of his expression pierced
through her. “Can you deal with that?”

If she thought about it, really thought about it, as crazy
as this situation was and as hopeless as her infatuation with him had seemed,
this was actually the perfect scenario. It was amazing to her that he wanted
her at all. This way they’d still be friends and she’d finally have an outlet for
the insane lust she felt for him. And he was right—no matter how much they
might want to pretend, they could never go back to the way things were.

But in the spirit of learning from past mistakes, she had to
add one caveat.

“We can do this just as long as you never lie to me about
how you really feel. You have to promise that you’ll never spout off poetry
about how much I mean to you if you’re only going to rip my heart out later
because you never meant a word of it. I always want to know where I stand with
you. Don’t spare my feelings. That I can handle. Lying, not so much.”

The corner of his mouth twitched as she finished her spiel.
“That’s right. Be firm with me, baby.” This time she pinched him right above
his other nipple.

“Shit, seriously that
hurts
,” he half complained as
he nipped at her lips. “But I get you and I can do that. You know I’m not much
of a poetry spouter anyway. I’ll always be straight with you.”

“Good. That’s all I ask.” The thought that they were really
going to do this was making her giddy and she only barely held it in. She
hadn’t thought she’d get to keep being with him like this after one night. But
then something else occurred to her and she had to speak up. “One more
condition. Once you get the itch to be with someone else, we end this and go
back to just being friends. Okay?”