Chapter 141

Tyler didn’t have it in him to pretend that he was anything but shaken. He didn’t have to pretend, because she was asleep. And he could take the opportunity to acknowledge that for all he’d tried his best to scare her off, or prepare her, he was the one who was losing it. Who’d already lost it.

Who could do nothing but sit in a chair next to his own bed, staring at this woman who was every single one of his dreams come true. Only while she slept, unknowing, could he think about the fact that she’d obeyed him completely. That he’d fit inside her, perfectly. There had been no wincing in pain. No adjustments.

It was as if Lady Alexia Graham had been put on this earth for the express purpose of taking his cock deep inside of her.

Tyler knew that not a single one of those little wankers who’d put their hands on her before him had ever treated her like that. They’d bored her silly. They’d made her imagine she was frigid when she couldn’t stop coming. She was supposed to be his.

Tyler had known that from the start. And he’d already spent a lifetime seeing her when he closed his eyes, so tonight, he didn’t want to. He wanted his eyes wide open. He didn’t want to miss a single moment. The way she breathed. The way she looked in his bed. The way her face softened. The way she trusted him this much.

Tyler wanted all of it. Because none of it was ever going to be enough. And it was more than he deserved. It was as if he’d only just found her, and he had to let her go. The real problem was, he didn’t know if he had it in him. How could he possibly let her go when he knew, now? Exactly how good it really was. Far, far better than he’d dared imagine. And he had an epic, detailed, innovative imagination.

So Tyler sat where he was. He didn’t move. He let the night grow later and later, the hour smaller and smaller, and he didn’t care when his eyes began to feel gritty and his body began to protest.

He stayed where he was, because he wanted every single second of this.

Every last second.

When Lexi’s eyes fluttered open, hours later, she looked around in confusion for a moment, then landed on him. And smiled automatically, big and sleepy.

This is how you’ll do it, mate, he told himself. You’ll do it for her. You’ll make her smile and wave her off. And he’d deal with the fallout later. When she’d gone.

When she was finally lost to him forever.

________

When Lexi woke up a great many hours later, she was naked again.

Better yet, she was in Tyler’s bed. And Tyler himself was slumped out in the chair nearby, his brooding gaze on her, while outside there was the faintest suggestion that light might come again. Someday.

“Last thing I remember we were getting into a car,” she said. And that giddiness she’d been after swelled in her, sharp and syrupy and everything she’d imagined it would be. She wriggled a bit, trying to really feel it. And ignoring the other parts that threatened to swamp her with unpleasant recollections that this wasn’t hers to keep. Not really. “Is that your real secret, Tyler? Are you the reason I blacked out?”

He rubbed his hand over his face, grinning. “I get that a lot. My cock is a well-known roofie.”

Lexi sat up, not bothering to clutch at the sheet, and watched the way his gaze dropped to her breasts. And more, made them react. Her nipples pinched tight, and suddenly she remembered when she’d been sprawled out on the floor of that bathroom, his cock pounding into her and his mouth moving over her. His tongue and the hint of his teeth, there on that sensitive point. Her whole body seemed to shiver into awareness.

“I don’t remember what conclusion we reached.” And she was aware of everything about him, now. When he tensed in the chair, though he was still slouching there as if he thought that made him look relaxed. The way his cock pushed at the front of his jeans. “Do I only get a night? Or am I a weekender? I don’t dare to hope than I might have scored longer than that. Not to mention, I’m not entirely sure it would be physically possible.”

“You can have as long as you like, Lexi.”

The remains of his grin were still on his mouth, but his eyes were in shadow. They seemed darker now. And connected to all those things inside her that she wasn’t looking at. That she didn’t want to process. Not now, maybe not ever.

“Good thing you’re not worried about falling in love, Tyler,” she said lightly, teasing him. “You look a little wobbly there.”

And she couldn’t say she regretted saying it, precisely. But there was something in the air of the sprawling room, suddenly. Something like grief, raw and encompassing. Powerful and thick.

But she forgot about that when he rose to his feet.

“I told you,” he said, his voice low enough to be a growl. “No chance of me falling in love with you.”

And she had to wonder why she’d brought up the subject again, when it hurt to hear him say that just as much as it had the first time. More, if she was honest, because she knew better, now. He had been right. He’d been upsettingly right, in fact, about how little she knew about the things that sex could do.

But Lexi still wasn’t thinking about that. Not now.

Not while he was stripping off his clothes, tossing them into the chair behind him, and then standing there a moment when he was done, astonishingly naked. She buzzed a bit, all over, as if her skin couldn’t contain all the things her body did in response to the sight of him. It was different to see him naked, even if she’d seen so much of him before. In his running shorts, for instance. And it was certainly different to look at that huge cock, standing away from his body, and understand not only that she’d taken all of that inside of her, but remembering precisely how it had felt.

She heard a greedy little noise, and was only dimly aware that she’d made it.

Lexi didn’t intend to move, but she did. And next thing she knew she was kneeling down before him, her hands moving over his strong, muscled thighs.