Yes. Yes…that button. It still worked if the pulsing at the apex of my thighs was any indicator. Although, it might have just been him, too.
I scowled. “Leave me alone.”
“Not until you talk to me.” His eyes narrowed and darkened. “Ten years, Blue. I deserve an answer.”
I looked back at the carousel and spied my seafoam green luggage. It was pretty, light-colored, and made traveling more fun. I took a step forward and reached for it when his hand covered mine. Before I could protest, Tyson grabbed the largest bag, yanking it up easily. I went slack-jawed, watching how even through his suit coat, I could see his biceps flex before he set it down.
I was too stunned stupid to thank him.
“That the only one you have?”
I shook my head. “One more.” I wanted to kick my own ass. Why was I engaging him? Letting him help me? Nothing good would come from this, I knew it. I didn’t even understand why he was bothering.
He turned his back to me, and we waited among the throng of tired travelers. He quickly grabbed his own two bags before he nestled my last two suitcases quite nicely next to his.
“Thank you,” I finally muttered, my manners returning while I reached to stack my cases. “It was good seeing you.”
Another lie.
My Catholic guilt was building every moment around him. Lust. Lies. Jealousy. My mother’s priest would have been so proud.
Without giving me time to argue or get away, Tyson reached for the handle of my largest suitcase. He had a duffel bag thrown across his chest, my suitcase in one hand, and his in another. He started walking away from me, out toward the line of taxis, and by the time I realized what he was doing, I had to run to catch up to him, pulling the rest of my bags behind me.
“What are you doing?” I asked when I reached him.
He let go of his suitcase and lifted his hand.
“Tyson!” I snapped.
His eyes darted to me before he looked back at the line of taxis coming our way. He didn’t even look at me like he recognized me, and I couldn’t quite place why that stung so much.
It took thirty seconds of him ignoring me, while I stood there gaping at him, before a taxi stopped in front of us. As soon as the trunk popped open, Tyson moved to the back of the car, and tossed my luggage inside.
“Where are you going, Blue?” he asked, an arrogant grin on his face as he passed me on the curb and grabbed his own suitcase.
“Not anywhere with you.” I crossed my arms over my chest and tapped my foot repeatedly on the pavement. Had he always been a bossy asshole? I couldn’t remember. Maybe I was too young to know any different.
“Get in the cab.”
My nose twitched, my foot tapped harder. “No.”
His lips curved at the ends right as the taxi driver asked, “Where to?”
Horns honked in the background, the sounds of annoyed drivers who were pissed we were not getting in the car. We were holding up the line, but I didn’t care.
This was asinine. Stupid.
“Not getting in the car without you,” Tyson said, a wicked gleam in his dark blue eyes. He crossed his arms over his chest, mirroring my stance, except his smile told me he found this funny.
There was nothing funny about this.
“Lady, I gotta get moving,” the cab driver shouted in his thickly accented, Middle Eastern voice.
I had lost. I knew it. Besides, it wasn’t this man’s fault that I happened to know the most conceited man in Detroit, possibly all of the state. Or world.
“Fine,” I huffed and pushed past Tyson. Sliding into the backseat of the car, I quickly told the driver the hotel where I was staying and the address.
Tyson slid in next to me, victory plastered all over his cocky face.
As the taxi pulled away from the curb, I felt the burn of tears in my eyes, and I looked out the window.
I would never let him see how much he affected me. There was too much at stake with my family right now for me to have anything to do with Tyson.
Not that I wanted something to happen, anyway.
Lie.
Argh. I pressed my head against the window, closed my eyes, and spent the next thirty minutes ignoring the man next to me.
—
“You’re kidding me.”
Tyson grinned. “Nope.”
I stared at him in the lobby of the Apollonio Hotel and felt my eyes cross. “You are not staying here.”
He shrugged. It was full of nonchalance and cocky swagger. My fingers itched to smack him. To grab him by the lapels of his suit and shove my lips against his just to wipe the smirk off his face.
Bad idea. Bad, bad, bad idea.
I needed a drink. Or twelve.
“Told you before…I’m not leaving you alone until you tell me what happened. And, what that tantrum on the plane was about.”
I ran my fingers across my forehead and sighed. “Can’t we just…I don’t know…not talk about that? Or just pretend we don’t know each other?”
He slowly shook his head back and forth. Determination heated his eyes, and I hated this. Being too close to him was dangerous. Telling him the truth was worse. It took me years to get over Tyson. Being stuck on a farm in the middle-of-nowhere, Colorado, didn’t help give me other things to think about. Besides my aunt’s goats and chickens, I’d had no one to talk to. No one to help me forget about the boy who had broken my heart.
“Tyson,” I started and he cut me off.
“Just a drink, Blue. Let’s get caught up then. I wasn’t lying when I said I missed you.”
He missed me. Something fluttered low in my stomach. A small grin stretched my lips even though I knew this was stupid.
“Then will you leave me alone?”
His lips twitched, as if the question was plain old silly. He also didn’t answer. No, the new cocky and arrogant Tyson spun on his heels and headed to the check-in counter.
I hustled after him. He could put my luggage in his room and hold it hostage. Based on the way he’d been behaving, I wouldn’t put it past him.
When I reached him, he waved me forward, allowing me to get in line before him. The whole time the front clerk was working, Tyson stood next to me, silent and if I wasn’t mistaken, a little bit broody. His sudden attitude shift unsettled me, and I found myself nervously tapping a random beat on the marble countertop.
By the time I took my keycard and thanked the woman, I was so lost in thought that I barely registered it when Tyson slid up to the counter and asked, “Do you have a coat check where I can store my bag for a few hours?”
My eyes flew open, my head snapped to his. “You’re not staying here.”
That flutter in my stomach intensified as Tyson slowly turned his head, dipped his chin, and raked his eyes over every inch of my body. I didn’t know what he saw through my wide-legged black dress pants or my teal silk top, which allowed for just a hint of cleavage, but whatever he saw, when he met my gaze again, everything inside me flipped and flopped.
I was unbalanced. Turned on with just a look. I couldn’t shake it off and I stood in front of him, my lips parted, completely dumbfounded, when he thanked the clerk and turned to me. His lips curved into a grin that had me wanting to melt into a puddle of mush at his feet.
“Don’t sound so disappointed.”
“I…I’m not,” I stammered and snapped my lips closed.
His grin widened when he leaned closer to me and whispered in my ear. “I just didn’t want to say goodbye yet. Give me a drink tonight, or dinner.”
My head nodded slowly, moving of its own volition. Surely I was not agreeing to this, but as Tyson reached out and squeezed my hand, zaps of electricity flew to my heart, making it beat faster and pound loudly against my chest. He tugged my hand and pulled me toward the elevator bank after leaving his bag with the front desk and taking a claim ticket. The doors slid open and he let go of my hand to help me with my luggage. Then he stepped back and slid his hands into his pockets.
Something unpleasant darkened his eyes and I frowned. “You’re not coming up?”
Why was I asking this? I didn’t even want him upstairs with me! I didn’t want to see Tyson at all, but with the conflicting emotions I saw in his eyes, I found myself wanting to help him. Damn it. I was so screwed.
My shoulders slumped when he shook his head. He reached out and pressed his palm against the elevator door when it started to close. “I’ll give you thirty minutes to freshen up, but then I want to see you down here for dinner.”
I swallowed thickly. “You’re awfully bossy and presumptuous.”
I got a flash of a smile before he leaned forward and whispered, “I think you like it.”
Shivers danced down my body and his smirk told me he noticed. Although, he couldn’t have missed it. I’d just convulsed like a seizure patient right in front of him.
I should have hated it. I should have hated him. But as I opened my mouth to tell him I did, the words lodged deep in my throat.
The warning bell signaling that the door had been open too long chimed, and Tyson’s hand fell away.
“Okay.” I finally nodded and stepped back.
Because I knew…I was going to give him whatever he wanted from me.
I had never been able to stay away from Tyson. And as stupid as it was, I didn’t want to do it now, either. I hadn’t felt like this in years. So…alive. And the only reason I agreed to move back home was to truly start living again, but this time with complete freedom.