Coming Undone Page 10

  “Come on, Ty, share the wealth.” A man who was almost as wide as he was tall was trying his best to pry her away from Ty. She hung on to Ty’s arm for dear life, even though she wanted to wring his neck for taking advantage of Samantha.

  Ty didn’t let go of her, one arm firmly wrapped around her waist. He used the other to draw the guy close, using the front of his T-shirt to hold him trussed. “Unless you want to get seriously hurt, I suggest that you back the hell off. If you don’t, I’ll meet you outside and teach you some manners.”

  The man held his hands up and Ty let him go with a slight backward push against his chest. He stumbled and then disappeared into the crowd.

  “You were saying?” Ty asked.

  “Do you get into a lot of fights?”

  “Do you ask a lot of strange men to family weddings?”

  “What are you expecting to happen with my friend?” she asked, hand on Ty’s chest, because she was done fooling around now.

  “We’re having fun.”

  “Too much fun,” she said and stopped dancing. “She’s not thinking clearly.”

  “I’m not going to kidnap her, Carly. She’ll have plenty of time to decide on her own if she wants to come with me when I leave.”

  What was he talking about?

  The music shut down and the bartender announced last call before she had a chance to ask Ty. Hunt’s brother walked her back to the table, where she motioned for Sam to follow her, which Sam did, after Ty gave her a lingering kiss. A kiss that left Sam giddy enough to actually giggle as she and Carly waited in the women’s bathroom line.

  “We need to get you home,” Carly told her.

  “I’m going home with Ty,” Sam said. “And then, I’m going with him on his next road trip.”

  “He mentioned something about that.”

  “He’s decided on Vegas, and he invited me along.”

  “I don’t think that’s the best idea.”

  “I think it’s the best idea I’ve had in a long, long time,” Sam said, giggling again.

  It occurred to Carly that she’d never seen her friend this happy or relaxed.

  “This must be how you felt, all the time, when you were riding the waves or stirring up trouble.”

  There was a tug in her gut at the truth of Sam’s words. She had met a lot of people on her travels, but she hadn’t kept many friends, or even acquaintances, from those days. Most of them had managed to fall away with the same speed as the waves.

  Speaking of careers and surfing, what was she thinking? The event was next week, her sister’s wedding right after and she wasn’t prepared for either. “Why don’t we get a cab home and you can sleep this off?”

  “I might get a tattoo.”

  “Good thing they don’t tattoo drunk people anymore.”

  “I’m not drunk, Carly. I’ve had two beers. And Ty said he could do it himself.”

  Perfect. Just perfect. “I’ll bet he can. Probably learned it in prison or something.”

  “He’s never been to prison. I mean, at least I don’t think so.”

  “All I’m saying is that you don’t know much about him, and you’re going to just hop on the back of his bike and leave? That’s not like you.”

  “Maybe it is.” Sam’s earlier giddiness suddenly dissipated, and Carly knew that her friend was high on Ty and nothing else. That made the situation even more dangerous.

  “Do you have a secret life I don’t know about?”

  “Just because I had trouble writing my own fantasy doesn’t mean that I don’t have them,” Sam explained. “And he fulfills all my requirements.”

  All the requirements Sam had spent her adult life insisting that she didn’t want in a guy. No wild men, no commitment-shy bad boys. Ty fit both bills at first glance and beyond.

  13

  BY THE TIME CARLY AND SAM had gotten in and out of the bathroom, the bar was closing, and they followed the crowd outside. Hunt and Ty were standing by their bikes waiting for them, and Sam immediately left her side and went toward Ty. Carly marched up to Hunt because maybe he could bring some common logic to this equation. She stopped next to him.

  “What’s up?” Hunt asked.“Your brother, that’s what. He invited Sam to ride with him to Vegas. And she told him she’d go.”

  “It’s not like he’s leaving tonight.”

  “Do you see what you’ve done? You’ve disrupted everything.”

  “From what I’ve heard, that was the way you used to like things,” he said. She made a mental note to kill her best friend, once she got her away from Ty’s clutches.

  Carly knew she’d started all this with her spice-up-your-sex life, Candy Valentine erotic writing. But from the looks of it Sam would be the one to finish it. From the way she was kissing Ty, it was obvious that there was no need for fantasy writing. There was enough steam coming off them to spark a fire.

  Anger ran through Carly just as hot, but was quickly replaced by defeat and finally, sadness. Things were falling apart, people were raising hell and Hunt was right. There was a time, not all that long ago, when she would have been right in the middle of things. A time she would’ve beaten Hunt to the water for a naked swim and been the one to suggest an impromptu road trip to Vegas.

  There was a time when she’d done things differently, shaken things up even when they’d been shaken. Instead, her enormously shy best friend was ready to hop on a motorcycle and take off cross-country, and she herself was ready to give up.

  Carly’d already admitted defeat when she’d stopped getting on that board. There was no turning back. “I can’t let her go.”

  “He’s not going to take advantage of her,” Hunt said solemnly, and she caught the defensiveness in his voice.

  “She’s had too much to drink,” she lied.

  “She’s having fun and she’s all grown up.”

  “She has responsibilities. A job. She can’t quit and drop all this.”

  “You did.”

  She had. Took off at eighteen and headed to Pipe on spring break and never looked back. Not really. “That’s not the same,” she protested. “And you don’t know anything about me.”

  “I know a lot more than you think.”

  “I’m not looking for someone to know me. This talk about weddings has you confused. I’m not looking for a commitment or a relationship, or a shrink, so if that’s what you’re looking for—”

  “I’m looking for pleasure,” he interrupted her. “Not any sort of commitment. Never wanted one of those, at least not outside my job. I’m not looking for anything but fun. A little bit of fantasy.” He stood. “I’ll take you home.”

  “Don’t bother. I can catch a cab.”

  “I’m not going to run after you, so I hope you’re not expecting that.”

  Her throat tightened, she looked over at Ty and Samantha and her anger fizzled. The next words she said were from that bold place, from the strong woman who’d taken on waves that had reduced bigger people to their knees.

  Carly was through being scared, at least about certain needs. “I’m expecting you in my bed tonight. And anywhere else I want you,” she said before grabbing him by the sleeve of his T-shirt and bringing him toward her. He didn’t resist, in fact, and he kissed her back with a need that rivaled her own.

  “So you’re ready?” Hunt asked when she stepped away. Sam was already climbing onto Ty’s motorcycle, and Carly accepted the helmet Hunt handed her, not bothering to ask why he wasn’t going to wear one.

  He was hard-headed enough already.

  When she was secure on the seat behind him he gunned the motor, leaving her no choice but to wrap her arms around him as he headed the bike up the ramp of the freeway.

  All that power, and Hunt, positioned firmly between her legs. The wind blew in her face, and the force of the loud engine reverberated along every square inch of skin. Her fantasy kicked up to a new level. She knew the SEAL had some wicked plans for her.

  Well, she had some for him, too. He’d be
en right about sooner than later, and about losing control. At least for the night.

  She wondered how Nicole would take it if they rode up to the church on this bike, since Carly had just acquired a newfound fondness for Harleys.

  WHEN THE RIDE UP THE coast toward Samantha’s place didn’t make Ty feel any better, he knew he was in for it. He just wasn’t sure how into it he was prepared to get. To top it off, Jon would be majorly pissed about this, if surfer girl hadn’t been even more so. He owed Jon a big thank you for being so focused on taking surfer girl home, and to bed. Then he asked himself if he wouldn’t have been better off sending Samantha home on her own.

  He wasn’t a guy anyone would accuse of being a romantic soul unless they knew him well. Few did, considering he didn’t stick around in any one place, but if and when the time came, he’d always planned on settling down.Wasn’t it a bitch that he’d found that woman when he could only offer her unsettled.

  And he’d known, dammit, the second he’d talked with Samantha, the second she’d called him on his behavior and then asked him about his secrets.

  Ty stopped brooding when he pulled up to Samantha’s apartment, pushed the bike into Neutral and helped her off the back. When she took the helmet off, her dark hair tumbled out onto her shoulders.

  “What did you think of the ride?” he asked.

  “I loved it.”

  “Most bike virgins do,” he said.

  She stopped smiling. “I guess you’ve had your share of bike virgins, then.”

  “A few,” he said softly. “Look, maybe I should go.” He understood that the rush of feeling in the bar, with the pounding music and alcohol and the anything-goes atmosphere was disappearing quickly.

  She shook her head. “No. It’s okay. I might be slightly sensitive tonight. My boyfriend and I just broke up,” she said. “Honestly, he broke up with me.”

  “His loss.”

  “He wouldn’t agree.”

  “Then he doesn’t deserve you. What was his problem?”

  She hesitated for a second. “He said I was too forward. Sexually.”

  “That would never be a problem for me,” he said, and saw her shift uneasily. He put a hand under her chin and forced her to meet his eyes. “I like you the way you are.”

  “I’m not very experienced,” she said. And she didn’t blush or hide away. “But I know what I like.”

  “And I’m going to make sure there’s an awful lot you’ll like tonight.” He slid the strap of her tank top off one shoulder and kissed it.

  “I may have been a bike virgin, but I think I’ll surprise you.”

  “Baby, you already have,” he whispered against her ear.

  “Go slow, Ty,” she whispered back. Once he walked her inside her apartment and she locked the door behind them, he sat her next to him on the couch and kissed her. He kissed her until she was breathing hard, clutching at his back, and he pulled away to make sure that yes, she was okay with this. So okay that she’d moved onto his lap.

  Her lips were swollen from the kisses, and he ran the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip while his other hand traveled down her lower back to cup her ass.

  “So what happened with the boyfriend to scare him off?” Ty asked, because he had to know more about Samantha. Somehow, he didn’t ever see her turning a man off.

  “I wrote him about what I wanted,” she paused, “in bed. My fantasy.”

  “Do you still have the paper?” he asked.

  “Why?”

  “I want to read it,” he replied. He wanted to make this night special for her, wanted to replace the memory of her jerk ex-boyfriend’s reaction to her fantasy with one that could make her smile.

  She moved out of his arms reluctantly and then grabbed his hand so he would follow her into her bedroom. She riffled through a dresser drawer and brought out a folded paper, and handed it to him tentatively.

  Ty took it, sat back on her bed, propped his head on his arm and began to read. Sam left the room. But not long after he came up behind her in the kitchen, took a glass of water from her hand and put his arms around her. He’d taken off his shirt and instinctively she ran her hands along his chest and his shoulders, and he smiled that lazy smile he’d first given her in the bar.

  “So, what did you think?” she asked.

  “I think we’ll have to act out every single detail of that fantasy,” he said. “But first, you’re going to have to do one more thing for me.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Read it for me. To me. Out loud.”

  “Ty, I can’t…”

  “Yeah, you can. Trust me,” he whispered, then started to lead her to the bedroom.

  “Wait. Now you know some of my secrets,” she said. “So isn’t it only fair you share some of yours?”

  She ran a hand down his arm, over the tribal tattoo that circled his bicep, and he felt the instant connection with her touch.

  “You don’t want to know the half of it,” he said.

  “Then tell me half of it.”

  He almost didn’t, urged himself to hold back completely—the way he always had because it was easier not to speak about it or think about it. But it wasn’t going away, no matter how hard he tried, and he couldn’t bring himself to tell Jon. Not yet.

  “Tell me,” she said again, right before she stood on her tiptoes and put her mouth on his, with such ease that he crumbled.

  To be fair, he’d crumbled earlier when she’d seen right through his act.

  Hours before, she’d been telling him off and now she was his.

  “One secret,” she murmured against his mouth

  “I think you’re so right for me that it hurts.”

  She smiled in a way that told him she hadn’t had as much to drink as he’d thought, that she was here because she wanted to be, not because of beer-goggles or an ex-boyfriend or a rebound.

  “Tell me more,” she urged.

  “Not tonight, Samantha. I’ll tell you everything in the morning.” He looked her in the eye and waited for her reaction.

  When she tugged him close again, he knew that everything was somehow going to be okay. He didn’t want to question it further. Tonight, he would find some peace in Samantha’s willing arms.

  14

  THROWN OVER HUNT’S shoulder, his arm securely around her waist, Carly was ready to give the term sex on the beach her own special meaning.

  Something, everything about the caveman style move he used was more of a turn-on than she’d ever had. And when he set her down by the dunes behind her lanai, hidden by palm trees, her breath was already fast.“What do you want?” he asked, his eyes heavy-lidded with the same lust she’d seen on the dance floor. Except he wasn’t going to wait the way he had on the dance floor.

  “I want to be able to let go and not worry about anything else.”

  “Were you thinking about other things last night?”

  “I was thinking that I wanted more,” she whispered while his hand traveled under her shirt, along her stomach and skirted down to the button on her jeans.

  “Me, too. A lot more.”

  She pressed her lips against the base of his throat, and the rumble of his suppressed groan vibrated against her mouth while he pulled her jeans down. She kicked out of them and he didn’t bother with her top when he put his hands on her hips, picked her up and carried her to the large palm tree that backed up to the dune.

  She didn’t stop kissing him. Her hands firmly around his shoulders, her tongue teasing his, he pushed back and sank to his knees on the sand in front of her.

  So this is what it takes to bring a warrior to his knees.

  She watched him watch her and took a long, hitched breath. He was waiting for her to make the next move and part of her wanted to let him lay her down on the sand and take over. But this was her show. No turning away now.

  “Take these off,” she said finally, brushing her thumbs against the bands of lace riding low on her hips. Carly could barely hear her own voice.
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  The way he looked at her, she’d never felt more desired in her life, or more desirable. She wasn’t broken or scared and she wanted Hunt, all of him and any way she could get him.

  She wanted to finish this fantasy.

  Impatiently, he whisked off the slip of fabric and waited for her direction.

  “Hunt, please,” she said, not sure if she would be able to get the words out. “I want…”

  She stopped, guided his head toward her and he let her off the hook, dipped his face into the blond triangle at the juncture of her thighs and she moaned.

  Her hands tightened in his hair as he held her hips and spread her legs apart. She leaned against the trunk of the old palm, the bark biting the skin between her shoulder blades. She didn’t care about that, or that she was exposed to the night air and to Hunt, who looked up at her one final time before kissing her, right between her legs. His tongue found her sweet spot, kissed and licked until she was pulsing with need. She arched away from the tree, pushing herself into his hands and his mouth.

  He urged one of her legs over his shoulder, allowing him more access to her and the frenzy shivered through her. The leg still on the ground trembled, the other spreading her wider, and his tongue took full advantage. Right about there she knew she’d lost the power of coherent speech because it was random moans and sighs and more, Hunt, please more, more, more. The sensations rose up and filled her as his tongue danced around her clit.

  And then she was coming, hard against his mouth, hips pressing wantonly forward as he continued to tongue her, not easing up at all. His fingers bit into the soft flesh of her thighs. Everything on her body was more sensitive than it had ever been, and just when she thought she couldn’t stand it any longer, one orgasm rolled seamlessly into a second.

  When the night breeze fluttered by her, she became vaguely aware of Hunt disengaging and holding her steady against the trunk of the tree.

  “Did you ever do that before, like that, with anyone?” he murmured against her neck.

  “No…never…”

  “Good. I like being first. And this night is far from over.” With that, his hands skimmed her shirt up over her breasts, urging her out of it.