Her Man in Manhattan

TWENTY-ONE



If pressured Tyler might have admitted taking Miranda home to meet his family wasn’t planned. But it would have taken extreme torture for him to confess the reason behind it was that it felt as if she had him on the ropes.

Truth was he doubted taking her to meet the family priest would keep them out of the bedroom for much longer.

As she walked beside him, unruly tresses of flame-red hair tossed by the wind, all he could think about was how it felt to have those silky soft strands sliding over his fingers. He wanted to strip her naked and keep her that way until he’d sated his hunger for her. He wanted to map her body with his mouth and his tongue, taking her close to the edge over and over again without allowing her release until she begged him to take her.

He’d used every trick he could think of to get it off his mind. He’d even summoned random pages of books from his memory and recited them word for word inside his head. When his talent for retaining information chose to remind him of the time he’d furtively flicked through a copy of Lady Chatterley during puberty, he’d stopped.

So much for that great idea...

But there was no point denying there was something else going on that had nothing to do with sex.

He’d watched from the sidelines as she smiled, talked and laughed with his family. She’d looked right there—as if she belonged—and Tyler realized on some level he’d known she would. What he hadn’t realized was how much he would like having her there. He’d even looked at Jo and Danny and felt at peace with the past; as if things were the way they were supposed to be.

It felt as if a weight had been lifted.

Studying her from the corner of his eye, he tried to figure out what was different about her—the thing that allowed her to work such a miracle. But when she looked at him and flashed a small smile he was distracted by the sensation something was off.

‘You okay?’

She avoided his gaze and nodded. ‘I’m fine.’

‘Did I ever mention one of my detective skills is the ability to spot a lie?’ Tyler raised his hand and waggled a forefinger over his shoulder. ‘Hairs on the back of my neck stand up.’

‘They all hugged me.’ She shrugged a shoulder, her tone deceptively dismissive. ‘I’m not used to that.’

It made him want to sit her parents down for a little chat. Didn’t they know their daughter at all? Would it be such a damn hardship for them to get to know her?

They obviously needed someone to tell them what they were missing.

Dropping her gaze to the ground for a moment, she took a short breath and asked, ‘How long has it been since your father passed away?’

‘Nine years. He had a heart attack.’

Her voice softened. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘It happens.’ Tyler shrugged. ‘Work hard, play hard—that was his motto. I doubt he had many regrets.’

They crossed the street to the boardwalk before she commented, ‘You were different with them.’

‘So were you.’

‘I don’t usually meet families.’ She scrunched her nose a little. ‘I mean, I do, but...’

‘But?’ he prompted.

‘It was different this time.’

Tyler was about to ask why when he glanced ahead. ‘Can you run in those shoes?’

‘They’re not exactly designed for running.’

‘Try.’ He took her hand. ‘Ferry’s in, we gotta move.’

They were the last people to board before it departed. Miranda looked up at him with sparkling eyes and flushed cheeks, so beautiful she was making it difficult for him to look anywhere else. When she laughed he smiled back at her. Every time she did that it made him want to be a funnier guy so he could coax the sound from her lips.

‘Can we stand outside?’ she asked breathlessly.

‘You’ll get cold.’

She shook her head. ‘I don’t care.’

Guiding them to what shelter he could find at the end of the deck, he watched her reaction to the new experience as she caught her breath from the run. He drank in her animated expression, the way her eyes sparkled with delight, and as always wondered how it felt to see the world through her eyes. The little adventures they’d taken might have been an attempt to keep them out of the bedroom but they’d done more than that. At least they had for him.

He saw the city with fresh perspective. It wasn’t tarnished by cynicism or taken for granted the way he normally did. As a result he’d thought about the small part he played in the greater scheme of things and come to the conclusion a little was better than nothing. One less perp on the streets was one less crime—several in the case of repeat offenders. If it meant she was safe when she began to explore on her own he’d arrest each and every one of them in her name.

‘They liked you,’ he told her, in case she didn’t know. ‘That’s why you were treated to the hug-fest.’

‘I got the impression your family would make anyone you brought home feel welcome.’ A soft smile came through in her voice. ‘You’re lucky to have them.’

‘They’re not bad,’ he allowed. ‘Probably a bit late to trade them in.’

‘It can’t have been easy for your mom with five little kids running around.’ She waited until he looked into her eyes. ‘You’re all quite close in age, aren’t you?’

‘Arrived in an eight-year bonanza of adorability.’

‘That kind of time frame would terrify me.’

‘My great-grandmother had eleven.’

Her eyes widened. ‘Seriously?’

‘It’s why the Irish never have to invade a country. We infiltrate.’ The comment had the desired effect: she laughed. But Tyler shook his head when it was followed by an involuntary shudder. ‘I said you’d be cold out here.’

‘I don’t want to go inside.’ When the wind blew a lock of hair across her face, she raised her hand to brush it back and looked over the water again. ‘This is amazing.’

Releasing her hand, Tyler took a step forwards, folded the edges of his jacket around her narrow shoulders and wrapped his arms around her body. ‘Better?’

She settled in as if she’d always been there, her arms around his waist and her cheek against his chest. ‘Much.’

He rested his chin on her head as they sailed past the Statue of Liberty.

‘She’s humongous.’

Tyler looked down at her with amusement. ‘How can you not know that?’

‘She looks smaller from farther away.’

Fair enough.

‘Did you tell her how you felt?’

It didn’t take a genius to work out they weren’t talking about a national monument any more.

‘I thought she knew.’

‘She might not have married Danny if she knew.’

‘No.’ He’d accepted that long before he came to terms with it. ‘Anyone who sees them together knows they’re good for each other.’

‘Can’t be easy to watch.’

‘Wasn’t for a while...’ A guy could come up with a lot of reasons not to attend Sunday lunch when he needed to, but that would change now, thanks to her.

‘No one else figured it out?’

He sincerely hoped not—because that wouldn’t be at all awkward—but realistically all he knew for certain was, ‘You’re the first person to bring it up.’

There was a palpable moment of hesitation before she asked, ‘Do you still love her?’

Not in that way. He wouldn’t be standing there with her if he was in love with someone else. He wasn’t wired that way. ‘Part of me will always feel something for her. Just because it didn’t work out the way I thought it would doesn’t make it any less real.’

‘Why didn’t you tell her?’

And there it was: the million-dollar question.

When he didn’t answer she leaned back and looked up at him. ‘You don’t know?’

‘We were friends. I didn’t think she was ready to hear it, but the fact is I never knew why until recently.’

‘You don’t want to tell me,’ she surmised.

Considering some of it had to do with his attraction to the woman he was with, not so much.

‘Do you regret it?’

He looked into her eyes. ‘It’s history.’

‘You want to change the subject,’ she said. ‘Okay. What are we doing—you and me, Tyler and Miranda?’

‘What do you think we’re doing?’

‘I thought it was foreplay,’ she answered frankly. ‘Neither one of us is interested in making a commitment, are we?’ There was a beat before she added, ‘We enjoy each other’s company—most of the time—and you know I want you.’

He did. Even if he couldn’t see it in her eyes, he could hear it in her voice. Her tone was liquid as she said the words, thick with sensuality and more potent than any drug. Resisting her was the equivalent of a slow, painful death, every muscle in his body straining towards her.

‘I know you want me.’ Her lips formed a decadently sinful smile. ‘Some things are hard to hide...’

To prove the point she brushed her stomach across his abdomen in a deliberately provocative move. Tyler sucked in a sharp breath through clenched teeth, unable to stop his body from reacting. She had that effect on him even without trying. When she put effort into it he didn’t stand a chance. He dropped his hands to her hips to hold her still.

‘What do you want me to say?’ he asked tightly.

‘I don’t want you to say anything. I want you to take me to your apartment, take me to bed and take me.’

He’d never wanted anything more. ‘I can’t.’

‘Why not?’

‘It’s not that simple.’

‘Yes, it is.’

He wished it were. ‘You need to think this through.’

‘You think I haven’t?’ Removing one of the arms around his waist, she snaked it between them and raised a hand to set fine-boned fingers against his jaw as she looked deep into his eyes. ‘I haven’t thought about anything else since the moment I laid eyes on you.’

Utilizing every microscopic fraction of resolve he had left, Tyler removed her fingers. ‘We can’t do this.’

‘Look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t want me.’

‘I’m not gonna lie about that.’ Not after she’d so ably demonstrated his weakness.

‘Then what is the problem?’ There was a brief flash of fire in her eyes. ‘In case you hadn’t noticed I’m throwing myself at you. That doesn’t happen very often.’

Some of his frustration bubbled to the surface. ‘Damn it, woman, I’m trying to do the right thing here.’ He glanced over her head to see who was watching what they were doing, his fingers tangling with hers at their side. ‘You’re not making it any easier.’

‘And I’m not going to until you can give me a rational explanation for why this can’t happen when we both want it to,’ she said on a note of exasperation.

‘I won’t take advantage of the situation.’

‘Uh...hello...woman willing to be taken advantage of over here.’ She lowered her voice. ‘I want to have wild, uninhibited sex with you. I want to feel your hands on my body. I want...’ she rocked forward and pressed her breasts against his chest ‘...you to make me scream your name...’

Tyler swore viciously beneath his breath. He’d said he was more trouble than she could handle? Man was he ever outclassed on that score. Every strand of knuckle-dragging caveman that remained in his DNA demanded he tame her and tie her down. But the part of him that had made the mistake of looking for something more meaningful in the wrong place wouldn’t let him take her without it.

He wanted to strip her naked in more ways than one. He wanted to climb inside her mind and discover all her secrets. He wanted her to be more herself with him than she’d ever been with anyone else. He wanted sleeping together to mean something to her because he knew it would mean something to him. But he couldn’t say any of those things without discussing a future he couldn’t plan until after the day of reckoning.

From what she’d said it didn’t even look as if she wanted a future with him. Then he remembered she’d asked about commitment. It hadn’t been a statement of fact. The devil was in the detail. Where there was a loophole, there was a way in. He needed to know how she felt and in the absence of words he knew how to get to the truth.

Making the first connection with their eyes, he dropped his guard and allowed her to see how much he wanted her. It drew a low gasp from her lips, encouraging him to continue despite the glimpse of fear he got in return. Running his hand over her back in a soothing caress, he cradled her close, releasing her hand so he could brush the backs of his fingers over her cheek.

‘What are you doing?’ she whispered.

He angled his head and lowered his mouth to her lips. ‘Don’t speak, just feel.’

Moving his hand, he pushed her hair over her shoulder, changing the direction of his lips at the last possible second to place a kiss on the sensitive skin of her neck. He slid his mouth upwards, circled the shell of her ear with the tip of his tongue and felt a shiver run through her body.

‘Tyler—’

‘Shh...’

He kissed his way down her jaw and captured her mouth, alternating between soft and hard, breathless and slow. While she responded in kind he could sense she was holding back, conflicted by the desire to have him take her hard and fast the way he knew she wanted him to and the warm, cherished feeling he was attempting to convey with tenderness. Then she was leaning into him. The kiss became deeper, richer, full-bodied and intoxicating, creating a haze around them that blocked out everything else.

Something he didn’t recognize expanded in his chest. It pushed the air from his lungs and filled the cavity until it felt as if it would break his ribs and burst free. In seeking out the truth about how she felt he’d touched the edge of something so large within himself he couldn’t see to the other side. But before he could figure out what it was, with no more warning than a low moan she wrenched her mouth free and took a sharp step backwards.

‘Stop.’

When he looked at her Tyler discovered her eyes were wide with anguish. He frowned. What had he done wrong?

She sucked in a sharp breath and shook her head. ‘This isn’t what we’re meant to be doing.’

‘I thought you wanted to make love,’ he said roughly, the after-effects of the best kiss of his damn life still rippling through his body.

‘I want us to have sex.’

‘Meaningless sex.’ The empty, emotionless joining of bodies that led to a brief, unsatisfying climax held zero appeal for him. He didn’t want that with her.

‘No.’ She frowned back at him. ‘I mean, yes, but not totally meaningless...something somewhere in the middle... I don’t know... I don’t have much—that’s not the point!’

A surge of affection lifted the corner of his mouth. ‘Might need you to explain that a little better...’

‘Don’t look at me like that.’

Suddenly she was more scared than he’d ever seen her look before—even when she saw him roughing up a low life in an alley.

‘Come here.’ He took a step forwards and reached out to draw her back into his arms.

She took a step back and left her hands at her sides. ‘We’re not dating,’ she said firmly. ‘You don’t have to spoon on the romance to get me into bed.’

‘We’re not having a quick roll between the sheets, either,’ he replied with equal determination. ‘If that’s what you’re looking for it’s a deal-breaker. We do this, we do it my way.’

‘Which is what, exactly?’

His reply got stuck in his throat, what he wanted to say suppressed by self-doubt. He’d known Jo for years before he thought he felt something more—had debated telling her for months and ultimately was glad he hadn’t. If he was wrong again, if he’d misjudged, if the day of reckoning came and he was too far gone to haul himself back from the gates of hell—

‘What kind of game are you playing?’

The tremor in her voice tore a hole in his gut.

‘I’m not playing a game,’ he replied flatly.

‘I won’t be your rebound.’

‘You’re not.’

She was clearly confused—and she had every right to be. Her gaze frantically searched the air above his head. Then it slammed into his, her tone heavy with suspicion. ‘Are you doing this to control me and keep me in line?’

He flicked a brief glare her way. ‘I’m gonna let that one slide ’cos I know you have trust issues.’

‘You were given the talk, weren’t you?’

Tyler frowned again. ‘What talk?’

‘The talk Lou Mitchell gives to all the new bodyguards at the mansion about boundaries. It never occurred to me before but now it makes sense...’ Fire blazed in her eyes, incinerating her fear. ‘What did he say to you?’

Tyler froze when he realized what she meant. He wouldn’t lie to her but if it was taken out of context—

‘What did he say?’

The rise in her voice drew the attention of some of the people at the other end of the deck.

‘You need to calm down,’ he said in a lower voice.

‘I’ll calm down when you tell me what he said.’

No, she wouldn’t. Not if she didn’t let him get it all out. Hauling in a deep breath, he took a run at it. ‘He said to do whatever I had to do to—’

‘Wow.’

‘I’m not finished.’

She laughed sarcastically. ‘Oh, you’ve said more than enough. Congratulations.’ Her hands lifted in front of her body to reward him with a round of applause. ‘Well played.’

Tyler popped his jaw. ‘Miranda—’

‘How do I get off this damn boat?’

It might have been something that worked in his favour if they hadn’t been so close to Manhattan. When she yanked open the door and headed inside, he followed her. ‘We need to talk about this.’

‘No, we don’t.’ Her gaze searched for exit signs as an announcement was made about their arrival.

‘You haven’t got the full picture.’

‘Believe me, it’s in high definition.’ She spun on her heel and marched towards the other end of the boat. ‘I won’t be manipulated by you or anyone else.’

He reached for her elbow. ‘I’m not manipulating—’

Yanking her arm out of his reach, she swung on him with enough ice to freeze boiling water. ‘Don’t. Touch. Me.’

Tyler was about two seconds away from losing it. ‘We’re gonna talk about this whether you like it or not. But not here.’

‘We’re done talking.’ She angled her chin with blatant contempt. ‘And don’t worry—you won’t have to give up any more of your precious time to amuse me as a reward for good behaviour. Just be thankful you didn’t have to prostitute yourself to get the job done. But then you never intended to cross that line, did you? Everyone has their limits.’

‘Step too far with that one, princess.’

‘You’re fired.’

‘You can’t do that.’

‘I just did.’ She smirked and turned away, using her hundred-watt smile to flirt her way through a group of tourists to the front of the line.

When the rest of the passengers moved forwards he had to push his way through, his gaze firmly fixed on a head of flame-red hair. ‘Excuse me. Sorry. Coming through...’ He had to jog a little in the terminal to catch up. ‘Still trying to cut me loose?’

No reply but she picked up the pace.

Tyler simply lengthened his stride. ‘Long walk back to the mansion from here.’ He nodded when she lifted her chin. ‘Okay. Silent treatment is fine with me.’ He held open a glass door for her and followed her outside. ‘I’ll talk. You listen.’

‘Go to hell.’

‘That the best you’ve got?’

She stopped dead in her tracks, turned, took a step forwards and swung a palm at his face. He caught her wrist in midair, glared at her from the corner of his eye in warning and then loosened his grip when he saw the horror of what she’d almost done in her eyes. It was a strategic mistake because the second he did she twisted it free, shoved both hands into his chest and caught him off balance. His heels caught on the kerb behind him and the next thing he knew he was sitting on his ass in wet grass.

Planting her fists on her hips she angled her chin and snapped, ‘Is that better?’

It caused the kind of life-changing epiphany Tyler hadn’t seen coming. For a moment he simply stared at her in shock. Then a vibration started in his chest, moving upwards into the base of his throat. The sound was rusty from lack of use, but familiar.

‘You choose now to laugh?’ She shook her head in disbelief. ‘You’re a twisted individual.’

When she spun around and marched to the edge of the road to hail a cab Tyler scrambled to his feet and jogged after her to try a more persuasive tone. ‘If you let me tell you the rest of the sentence we can clear this up.’

‘I don’t want to clear it up,’ she retorted. ‘I want you to stay away from me.’

‘You don’t want that any more than I do.’

The convulsion of her throat gave him an indication of how hurt she was, instantly causing him pain in response. ‘You don’t care what I want.’

‘You couldn’t be more wrong about that.’

It made her glance sideways at him as a cab pulled up but she didn’t look him in the eye. ‘Don’t follow me.’

He frowned. ‘Where do you think you’re going?’

‘Home. Not that it’s your problem any more.’ She lifted her chin again. ‘I have three weeks left to serve on my sentence. Once they’re done I’m going to go out into the big wide world, find the first available guy who’ll spend time with me because he wants to and not because he’s being paid to do it, and I’ll have meaningless sex with him until neither of us can stand up.’

‘No, you won’t,’ he said with conviction while the words stirred another savage streak of territorialism. ‘We’ve already had that talk.’

‘Wind up a mechanized toy, you shouldn’t be surprised when it keeps moving after you set it down.’ She frowned when he placed a palm on the top of the door to stop it from opening. ‘Let me go.’

‘I’m going to,’ he said reluctantly before taking a step closer. ‘But only to give you long enough to calm down. When you’re thinking clearly and have questions you know how to find me.’ He gave her something to mull over. ‘You might want to make one of them why I kissed you the way I did.’

Pushing against his palm, he stood tall, dropped his arm to his side and watched her get into the cab. As it left it felt as if part of him went with it, but he guessed he would have to get used to that.

When his phone rang he waited a few moments before answering it. ‘Brannigan.’

‘You wanna go on a stake-out?’ his partner enquired.

Tyler’s blood chilled. ‘You found him?’

‘Maybe...’ There was a brief pause. ‘Turns out your friend Jimmy has been worrying enough about being seen as a snitch to become one.’

‘I’m on my way.’