Montana Creeds: Tyler (22 page)

“So we get to watch you take the hardware out of your face, like you said?” the bigger boy asked, sounding both thrilled and wary.

“Yeah,” Davie responded, happily generous, leaning from his horse to work the latch on the corral gate. “And it's only going to cost you five bucks. Apiece.”

“It'll be a free show,” Tyler interceded.

“Good,” the younger boy crowed, lighting up. “Because we're
broke.
”

Tyler chuckled, swung down off his horse and led it into the barn.

Both boys followed, though whether they were tagging after him or Davie he didn't know.

“I guess you're sort of our uncle,” the little one said eagerly, “since Logan's our stepdad and you're his brother.”

“Guess so,” Tyler said, amused. “Are you Josh or Alec?”

“I'm Alec,” the kid said, jutting a thumb toward the other kid. “And he's Josh.”

“Pleased to make your acquaintance,” Tyler said, hauling the saddle off the horse he'd ridden and handing it to Davie to put away.

“My mom said you'd come around eventually,” Josh informed him. The shyer of the two, apparently, he'd taken his time closing the distance.

“But
Logan
said hell would freeze over first,” Alec supplied.

Tyler grinned to himself. Ruffled the boy's hair. “Did he, now?”

W
AS SHE
CRAZY
?

Lily stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, at her carefully applied makeup and just-washed hair, tumbling in loose curls around her face the way it always did if she didn't tame it with gel. In the kitchen, Hal and Tess were chatting happily as they cleared away the supper dishes.

Neither one of them had murmured a word of complaint when she'd served them tacos made with soybean crumbles, a meat substitute she'd bought on a quick run to the store after Tyler left.

She'd pressed the red polka-dot sundress as soon as she got back from shopping, and told her father and Tess she was meeting Tyler for a drink over at Skivvie's and might be home late.

Now here she was, all dolled-up and hot to trot.

Again.

She
was
crazy, she decided. She'd basically thrown herself at Tyler Creed, invited him to have his way with her in the old cemetery, of all places, and pregnancy
was
an issue.

Along with the soybean crumbles, she'd picked up a
box of condoms, blushing as she paid for them at the checkout counter, praying the clerk wouldn't hold the box up for everybody to see and loudly ask for a price-check.

The woman who had the spontaneous orgasm in aisle two the other day needs condoms,
she'd imagined the woman bellowing into the PA system.

None of that had happened, of course. The clerk, a nice middle-aged lady with thick glasses and the name Connie stitched onto her vest, had simply rung up Lily's purchases and told her to have a good day.

The condoms, Lily reminded herself firmly, as she left the bathroom to face her family, were proof that she still had a
few
tattered shreds of sanity left.

“You look pretty, Mom,” Tess said innocently, admiring the dress.

“Yes,” Hal agreed, and though his expression indicated that he'd like to add to that brief comment, he refrained.

Bless him.

“Thanks.” Lily took her purse and the keys to her rental car from the counter. That afternoon, she'd made plans to drop the Taurus off in Missoula and then fly on to Chicago from there. Tess would be able to spend a few days with Eloise, while Lily emptied her desk at work, made arrangements to lease or sell the condo and packed up some things she'd need when they all returned to Stillwater Springs.

Hal had agreed to make the trip, too, probably well aware that Lily had asked him along so she could keep an eye on his food intake and make sure he took his
medicine on time. Of course the idea would have to be cleared with his doctors first, but he didn't seem to anticipate any problem there.

The flight out would be easy enough, barring the always-possible airline snafus, and if the drive back to Montana proved too tiring for him, they could always stop somewhere along the way and buy him a plane ticket.

He and Tess had immediately high-fived each other and shouted, in comical unison, “Road trip!”

“One way,” Lily reminded them.

They'd be gone two weeks at the longest, allowing time to do all the things that needed doing and drive home again at a sensible pace.

Maybe by going away, she could get some perspective where Tyler was concerned. Stop wanting to jump the man's bones every time she got within a five-mile radius of him.

Fat chance. After being away from him that long, she'd probably be doing well just to slow down long enough to drop Tess and Hal off at the house before she raced off over several bumpy country roads to find Tyler and screw him silly on the spot.

The prospect flooded her face with heat all over again, heat her dad clearly noticed, though thank God, Tess didn't.

“I'll just walk your mom out to her car,” Hal told Tess mildly. “You finish loading the dishwasher, and then I'll beat you at a game of checkers.”

“You mean
I'll
beat
you,
” Tess responded. “Just like the
last
time we played.”

Hal chuckled at that, and even though Lily gave him a look that said she could get to the Taurus just fine on her own, thank you very much, he put a fatherly hand to the small of her back and steered her out onto the porch and over the grass to the car. He didn't say anything at all until Lily had unlocked the Taurus and he'd opened the driver's-side door for her.

“Try to keep the dress clean, Lily,” he said, with kindly amusement. “It'll be pretty obvious what you've been up to if you have to wash it and hang it on the clothesline again so soon.”

Lily plunked herself into the car seat, took a couple of jabs at the ignition with the key before she managed to hit her mark. “Thanks for bringing that up, Dad,” she said. “As if I'm not embarrassed enough already.”

“You're a grown woman,” Hal reminded her. “If you want to spend the night with Tyler Creed, or anybody else, that's your business. No need to be embarrassed.”

“Now you're going to warn me to be careful, right?”

“Already did that,” Hal answered lightly. “And, anyway, I think maybe you've been a little too careful, up to now.” He paused, leaned in when she buzzed the window down. “What I'm trying to say, Lily, in my own awkward way, is that it's okay to cut loose a little. Stay out all night if you want to. Tess and I will be just fine.”

Lily swallowed. Nodded.

Hal smiled. “And thanks for calling me ‘Dad' just now. I like the sound of that.”

“I've got my cell phone,” Lily said, wanting to look away from the earnest love she saw in her father's eyes,
but unable to do so. “It's all charged, and I wrote the number on a sticky-note—”

“Lily, just go.”

“If you need anything—anything at all—”

“Go.”

A nervous little chuckle erupted from Lily's throat. “We're not really going to Skivvie's,” she confessed, in a near whisper. “I just said that to throw you off.”

Hal grinned again. “Didn't work,” he said. Then he stepped back, so she could drive away into the waiting night, headed for a rendezvous a smarter woman would have avoided.

 

T
YLER WAITED
near the cemetery gate, leaning back against his truck with his arms folded. He was going for casual, appearance-wise, but when Lily zoomed in, the headlights of her car splashing over him as she parked, his heart pounded and his mouth went dry and he nearly lost what little cool he'd been able to muster up.

He realized, as he pushed off from the truck, that he hadn't really expected her to show up at all. One of these days, she was bound to come to her senses, remember that he was a Creed and upload all the memories of that summer when he'd broken her heart.

“This is kind of kinky,” he said, referring to the location, when Lily got out of the car and started toward him.

She stopped instantly, and since her face was in shadow, he couldn't gauge her reaction to the dumb-ass thing he'd just said. Like as not, she'd bolt for the Taurus now, and lay rubber getting out of there.

Smooth, Creed,
he told himself.
Real smooth.

Lily didn't move, either to flee or come any closer.

“I don't think it's kinky,” she said tentatively. “I've always liked this place.”

Tyler walked toward her, looked down into her face. Up close, he could see that she'd taken some trouble with her appearance, not that she wouldn't have looked good covered in coal dust from head to foot, and he took the effort she'd made as a favorable omen.

“Me, too,” he said. “Never thought it was spooky, like most graveyards would be, especially at night.”

Keep on diggin', Creed. You'll run her off yet
.

The moonlight touched her face and he saw that she was smiling, though just a little, and kind of cautiously. The faint scent of her perfume made him dizzy.

“I brought you a present,” she said, with a twinkle in her eyes. She reached into her handbag and brought out a box, extended it to him.

Condoms.

Tyler laughed. “Thanks,” he said. “But I brought some along myself.” He had blankets, too, old but clean, in case the ground was too cold for her, or too hard, or a little damp.

She took the box back, dropped it into her purse again. Swallowed visibly. The motion of her neck muscles made him want to nibble at the hollow of her throat, make his way to her earlobe—

“What happens now?” he asked, when she didn't say anything. Damn, but he was batting a thousand tonight.
What happens now?
Why didn't he just ask what her sign was, or some other stupid question, and be done with it? Consign himself to the Fool's Hall of Fame once and for all?

Lily chuckled, sounding a mite less nervous than before, but not by much. “I really thought you'd have that part all figured out,” she teased, almost shyly. She looked around a little, hugged herself, even though it was a warm night. “Nobody else is likely to show up, right?”

“We're alone, except for a few ghosts.” Tyler moved in, drawn to her like steel filings to a magnet, tucked a blond curl behind her right ear. Wondered if she had any idea that she looked just like a moon goddess with her hair like that, and all awash in silvery light. “Are you cold? I've got a jacket in the truck.”

She shook her head, rubbed her palms up and down her bare arms once more, then dropped her hands to her sides. “Just feeling a little shy.”

“I think you need to get over that,” Tyler said. His voice was hoarse now, with the need of her. With the things she made him feel, even with both of them standing there like a couple of kids about to step out on a dance floor together for the first time.

They weren't even touching, for God's sake.

“I think so, too,” she replied. “I'm just not sure where to start.”

“Here's an idea.” He drew her close, bent his head, kissed her. Lightly at first, then with tongue.

When it ended, they were both breathless.

“That works,” Lily said.

Tyler chuckled and took her hand then, led her to the spot he'd chosen, after considering several. He'd already spread the blankets on the ground, in the softest place he'd been able to find, under a gnarled but beautiful old maple tree with stars caught in its branches.

Lily stepped onto the thick nest of blankets, tossed her handbag aside and kicked off her sexy sandals. Hauled that little red dress right off over her head and stood there in her lacy underpants and a bra that barely covered her nipples.

“I guess foreplay's out,” Tyler said, stricken stupid by the sight of her.

Lily unhooked her bra, slipped out of it, freeing those lush, perfect breasts of hers. “
Waiting
was foreplay,” she said, shedding the panties next. “I haven't been able to think about much of anything else all day.”

She was a moon goddess, all right. She might be offering herself up to him, but there was an elemental power in that, ancient and irresistible.

Tyler just stood there, staring at her, wondering when he'd gotten to be such a lucky son of a bitch.

Still, power or no power, if Lily thought he was going to play this game her way, after the way she'd made him sweat on her father's back porch that morning, she was mistaken. He'd meant what he'd said about paying her back.

He was going to kiss and caress every inch of her.

He was going to suck her breasts and part that nest of moist curls at the junction of her thighs and do some sucking there, too. He'd bring her within a heartbeat of orgasm, as many times as he could, and then let her settle slowly back down into the wanting again.

When he finally had her in earnest, she'd be way past ready, and so would he.

“You're not going to get off that easy,” he told her, watching with appreciation as she lowered herself onto
the blankets and reached her arms out for him. He hadn't planned the double-entendre, but it worked.

She blushed, and it was quite a sight, since the color swept, pearly pink in the moonlight, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. There was some mighty nice territory in between, in need of some careful—and close—attention.

“Tyler,” she murmured.

He took off his shirt, got out of his boots, unbuckled his belt and worked the buttons on his jeans. When he was as naked as she was, she looked him over with frank hunger and some trepidation, but her arms were still out.

Tyler knelt on the blankets first, relishing the view. Her nipples stood up like pink pebbles, and though she'd been shivering earlier, a fine sheen of perspiration glistened around her hairline now, between her breasts, on her flat belly.

He cupped his hand around those private curls of hers, slipped a couple of fingers inside her, worked her clitoris with a slow circling of the heel of his palm.