Unforgettable Summer: Wild Crush, Book 1 (7 page)

She stared at him. “How did you know that?”

“When I called your home number, your father took great pleasure in telling me you were about to marry a guy who was the great white hope of modern medicine.”

Ty wished he hadn’t revealed that little tidbit when the look on Summer’s face registered her shock. “You called looking for me?”

Damn, now he really wished he hadn’t been so free with the truth. Ty was surprised to find it still made his chest feel hot and tight. With effort, he managed to maintain his casual air. “About six months after I left. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Not the whole truth, but even those words gave away that he’d still cared about her then. Ty tried not to wince.

Summer said, “Dad never told me you called.”

“I didn’t ask him to.” No, he’d gone straight to getting drunk and being a loudmouth, moving on quickly to getting kicked out of the bar he was in and earning himself a citation for public nuisance in the good old US of A. At some point during his three-day bender, he’d ended up in a tattoo parlor. Ty’s hand moved reflexively to the spot on his left pec where he’d marked himself for the first time, courtesy of Summer Campbell.

“I figured you wouldn’t be interested in hearing from me,” Ty said at last. “You must have been madly in love to get hitched so young. Right?”

Chapter Four

In her shock at Ty’s assessment of the situation, Summer almost blurted the truth. She bit her lip, hard, keeping the words back. What was the point of him knowing now? There wasn’t any, other than to get it off her chest where it sat like an unwelcome pressure, constricting her breathing.

“I thought you’d forgotten about me,” she choked out, inadvertently revealing more about her motivations for marrying Duncan than she’d intended. Not the whole story, but part of it.

“What made you think that?”

Summer blurted, her tone accusatory, “I saw you kiss her.”

“Who?”

“Some girl on the television. You’d won your first event I think. She was all over you.”

Ty frowned. “I don’t remember anything about it. Not about her anyway.”

Summer snorted, offended for some reason by that hole in his memory. “
I
remember it.”

“So what does that have to do with you getting married?”

“Nothing,” Summer said quickly. She’d tried so hard to forget Ty, for the sake of her relationship with her sister. She couldn’t be with him, not without hurting Jasmine, so she knew she had to move on. When her father introduced her to Duncan and he’d asked her out, Summer didn’t see any plausible reason to say no.

She’d let the relationship continue for months because it seemed to make everyone happy. But she’d never given up searching the Net in secret for news of Ty. She’d seen him and that woman. He’d looked so happy, a man on top of the world, and Summer had realized in that moment Ty had moved on with more success than her. He’d forgotten all about her.

That night, she’d been desperate to prove to herself she could move on too. She’d thought Duncan was the answer. But her rash behavior only led her down another path to unhappiness.

“I get the feeling there’s more you’re not telling me.”

Ty’s words made Summer fear her thoughts were showing on her face. “There’s no more. The surf tour has groupies, I gather. It must be hard for you to distinguish one blonde from another. I’m not surprised you don’t remember.”

“Well now, are you calling me a slut?”

Rather than being bothered by the assessment, he seemed rather smug.
Men.
“I wouldn’t know anything about your habits in that area.”

“I haven’t been a monk, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“I’m not asking anything.”

“Seems like you are. So what is it you want to know? How many? My usual type? What positions I prefer?” He held up his hand and used his fingers to check the answers off. “I haven’t exactly kept count. I like women who make me laugh and I can stay friends with after. And I’ve always been partial to a good hard screw against the wall.”

Summer gritted her teeth against the swift rise of heat his description evoked. “Thanks for that mental picture.”

Ty smirked. “You’re welcome.”

“I wasn’t being serious.”

“You’re always being serious. I’ve never met anyone as serious as you.”

“Must be the circles you travel in.” Which were evidently filled with easy, laugh-a-minute women who enjoyed being drilled hard into a wall like a Phillips-head screw. Summer’s marriage had not been characterized by such encounters, and she didn’t think they sounded very romantic. More like dreadfully uncomfortable—possibly even injurious. Most definitely unappealing.

Tell that to the liquid heat gathering in your belly.

Shaking off that traitorous thought, Summer turned away. “I have to go. I have a client coming soon.”

Ty trailed her as she headed to the cash register. “Why are you always running away from me?”

Summer began unloading the fruit, yoghurt and prepackaged salad she’d selected onto the counter. “Have you considered the possibility it’s because you’re rude and vulgar, not to mention prone to oversharing details of your sex life?”

His smile held a wealth of secret knowledge. “I haven’t shared any of the really interesting parts yet.”

Flustered by his grin and the innuendo inherent in his use of the word
yet,
Summer concentrated on searching through her handbag for her purse. Before she could locate it, Ty handed a couple of bills to Mrs. McIntosh and indicated she should ring up all their items on one docket.

Summer shot him a look. “What are you doing?”

“I still owe you something for your time yesterday. You wouldn’t let me buy you dinner so I’m buying you lunch.” He assessed the items being rung up and put into a biodegradable bag. “At least I assume that’s what you call all this stuff.”

“You have a problem with healthy eating? I thought you were a professional athlete.”

“I surf for a living, it’s hardly marathon running. Besides, I eat a good diet, which tends to include plenty of red meat.” He sent her a sidelong glance as he placed his own items—herbal tea, wholemeal pasta, olives and bananas—onto the counter. “Christ. You’re not a vegetarian, are you?”

“No. But what would be so bad about that?”

He showed her that irrepressible grin. “I’d just hate to think you’d become
that
virtuous.”

There was a double meaning in there somewhere, and once again Summer found herself averting her eyes from the bawdy twinkle in his. She let him pay for her food, figuring he did owe her something—for making her shopping trip so unpleasant.

No, not unpleasant, Summer.
She wanted to kid herself that she found Ty’s company distasteful, but the truth was her blood danced in her veins like it was carbonated. Ty’s nearness was enthralling, as it had always been. Annoying at times, definitely challenging, but thrilling too. She felt like she’d been living in the dark for a long time and being with Ty was the long-forgotten sensation of sun touching her face.

If she wasn’t careful, she was going to get burned.

“You two have a good day now.”

Mrs. McIntosh’s farewell comment encompassed both of them, as though she and Ty were a couple. Summer opened her mouth to protest, but the smiling speculation in the other woman’s eyes told Summer that the more she tried to clarify her relationship to Ty the less the store owner would believe there was nothing romantic in it. It didn’t help that Ty picked up her bag, easily carting it with his in one hand as they both exited the store.

“I can carry my own things,” she insisted as it became clear Ty planned to cart it all the way to her practice.

“Better not. I think Mrs. Mac mixed up some of our stuff.”

“Great.” Summer pushed out a breath. “She thinks we were shopping together. That
we
are together.”

“Probably because you mentioned my sex life while we were at the register.”

Oh, God. She had done that. Summer groaned. “That woman is a gossip. People are going to talk.”

“So let them talk. What do you care? You worried about your reputation?”

“I’m pretty sure I don’t have a reputation. I’m not the conspicuous type.”

Ty regarded her sidelong for a moment, then shook his head on a chuckle that held an ironic note Summer couldn’t begin to interpret.

Finding herself in front of the clinic, Summer fished out her keys and slipped them into the lock. Inside the air was cooler, and the abrupt loss of bright sunlight caused spots to dance in Summer’s eyes.

Disorientated, Summer made her way to the little kitchenette out back by instinct. Her eyes had only just begun to adjust when she gestured for Ty to put the bags on the small dining table, where they could sort through the contents. She peered inside the bag of yoghurt and salad. “Looks like the only thing that shouldn’t be here is this tea.”

“I’d better take that.”

His voice was so close to her ear it was all Summer could do to stifle a yelp. She hadn’t thought about how cramped the two of them would be in the tiny kitchenette that was barely large enough for her and Penny to inhabit at one time. She tried not to look at him as she handed him the green box, even though she could feel his attention fixed on the side of her face.

Don’t be ridiculous, Summer.
She had to look at him or risk giving the impression she was afraid to do it. She turned her eyes upward until they met his. Ignoring the little kick her heart gave, she cleared her throat. “You drink peppermint tea?”

His lips twitched and his hazel eyes sparkled. “It’s for my mum.”

“Oh.” There was something inherently sweet about Ty—world-champion surfer, man’s man, ladies’ man, and all-round risk-taking rogue—running errands for his mother. Summer’s insides melted a little.

Okay, a
lot.

“And for the record, I think you’re pretty damn conspicuous,” Ty said. “People notice you, Sum.
I
notice you. I always have.”

Summer’s head spun, both in reaction to his softly rasped words and his nearness. Belatedly she realized she was still clutching the box of tea which Ty held in his upturned hand. The smell of peppermint wafted between them, adding piquancy to the familiar earthy scent of Ty. The air seemed to crackle with electricity. Summer couldn’t tear her gaze from his.

Ty’s whiskey-warm eyes continued to hold hers as he took the tea from her grip and tossed it onto the table. He lifted a hand and touched two fingertips to her cheek, stroking along her cheekbone, lightly, as though reacquainting himself with the softness of her skin.

Then he turned her so they aligned breast to chest. Summer dared not breathe, lest her hardening nipples scrape his pecs and give her away.

“I’m going to kiss you, Sum,” he announced matter-of-factly, causing hot swirls of anticipation to churn in her belly. “Not because I’m proving some point, but because I want to. And because you want me to.”

Given the warning, nobody could describe this kiss as a surprise. But the touch of his lips on hers was a jolt to Summer’s system all the same. Ty brushed his mouth over hers, teasing her lips apart before slowly wetting them with the tip of his tongue. Summer moaned, the sound strangled. Ty responded by dipping his tongue into her mouth, too briefly, before drawing back and nibbling on her lower lip.

Summer’s hands went to his shoulders, and the corded strength beneath her fingers made her tremble in an innately feminine way. He was strong, so much stronger than he used to be. And he kissed even better than she remembered. There was no escaping his grasp, had she possessed the fortitude to try. So Summer allowed herself a moment of surrender. She tilted her head back and let her lips fall apart, an invitation no man could miss.

And when it came to women, Summer suspected Ty missed nothing. Giving her what she couldn’t help but want, he deepened the kiss, turning it into a melding of tongues and lips and teeth. His hands on her back circled, inching downward until he gripped her bottom. He brought her against him, and she felt the hard column of his manhood thrusting against her stomach. An answering rush of heat gathered inside her, so swiftly Summer sucked in a breath. Arousal, for her, was rarely so fast in coming, so enveloping. The liquid warmth spread outward, until her toes curled in her shoes and her breasts tingled and swelled inside her bra. She pressed her body against his, alleviating the ache and exacerbating it as well.

A chair scraped over the linoleum floor, the shopping bags rustled. The next Summer knew, the wall was at her back. Ty pressed her to the cool surface with the solid heat of his body as the kiss moved from hot to scorching. The soft nibbles became sharp little bites to the tender flesh of Summer’s lips. Summer gasped, the unexpected pinching sensation adding an edge to her desire, an urgency. She arched against Ty, needing more. Pleading for it.

Her blouse was a loose fit, and it was an easy task for Ty to slip his hand beneath the hem. Summer held her breath as his touch inched upward, over her waist, her ribs. When he found her breast and cupped it, she whimpered in relief and need. The heavy weight of his hand felt so good, but it wasn’t enough. When it came to Ty Butler, too much had never been enough.