“I can do it,” she says. “Thank you, though.” She holds up her arms. “Girl power and all that stuff.”
“My mother would disown me if I let you change your own tire,” he assures her and he strides toward his car, leaving me a bit stunned by the comment about his mother. It hits me then, what has changed about Tyler, and my reaction to Tyler.
Since Dash crashed and burned not so long ago, Tyler has been around here or there, and I’ve seen a side to him that I didn’t know existed. One that is human. One that wouldn’t have done to me what he did tonight, and that little soft spot in my heart for him goes hard again.
Kelly turns to me. “I can’t let him do this.”
“You don’t tell Tyler what to do or not do, believe me, I’ve tried. Take the help, but I should go so it won’t seem like I’m watching him work.”
Tyler is already headed this way, his jacket gone, his shirt stretched over a well-defined body, and approaching from behind Kelly. She is completely unaware of him as she grabs my arm and says, “Please don’t leave me alone with him.”
Tyler steps to our side and says, “Where are your keys?”
She looks like she might fight him but seems to think better. “I’ll get them.” She moves toward the car. Tyler steps closer to me. “Aside from keeping her from having a meltdown, it would be more appropriate if you stayed.”
A million rebuttals rest on my tongue “It’s too late for that” among others, but Kelly is back, holding up her keys. “Thank you so much for this.”
Tyler eyes me, a question in his eyes that borders on a demand. “I’ll be right here, making sure you do it right. You know my father taught me to change a tire when I was five.”
Tyler’s eyes light with amusement. “Feel free to backseat drive,” he replies. “Just shout out what you want. I’ll be down on my knees, doing the heavy lifting.”
My cheeks heat and it’s all I can do not to call him a bastard again, in front of Kelly. But I bite my tongue almost as hard as he did my lip earlier. I also decide that if he sticks his tongue in my mouth again, I’ll bite his too. The problem is this man might just like it.
I fold my arms in front of me, and I eye Kelly. “Let’s get us and him some coffee, shall we?”
“That’s a great idea,” she approves, clearly happy to place distance between us and him.
I walk closer to Tyler, who is indeed on his knees. “Bastard.”
“I love it when you talk so dirty to me.”
“We’re going to get you and us coffee, mostly so I won’t kill you and she won’t melt down as you suggested.”
“Good idea. It saves me your backseat driving too.”
My hand balls in between us and he eyes it and me. “I can think of better ways to take your anger out on me than hitting me.”
I ignore him and stand up, motioning to Kelly for us to head to the elevator. We take our time, chatting about Tyler, of course. “How do you get away with having such a debate with him?"
Debate?
I chuckle. “I make him money. Lots of it.”
“Oh. Yes. That is a good plan. I clearly need to make him and me money.”
After that she lets that topic sleep a good slumber. It’s an explanation she can accept.
It’s a half hour later when Tyler is still struggling with the tire. I kneel next to him and whisper a little trick my father taught me. He tries it and it works. “Good work, Ms. Bailey,” he says softly, and I have no idea how my last name and the tire tip turned the air all crackling and heat filled, but I’m suffocating in this man.
I pop to my feet, and a few minutes later, Kelly is pulling away and I’m left standing there with Tyler. He turns to face me. “Malcolm and I talked for two hours, and I lined him up to be in the studio with Jesse Bates Saturday.”
“What about golfing?”
“I managed to dodge that bullet. How did you know my whiskey collection would open him up and calm him down?”
“I never thought the whiskey would do the job. I thought you would. The way you did Dash.”
“I pissed Dash off.”
“When necessary. Not all the time.”
He studies me for several beats, his eyes dark and unreadable. “Go home, Bella.”
It rings like a warning, and I have a flash of that moment in his office when he dragged my skirt down and treated me like shit. That’s all it takes. I rotate on my heels, and I don’t stop until I’m inside my car and the engine is cranked.
I drive away and I know without looking he’s standing there, watching me leave.
Chapter Sixteen
Bella
Home is where the heart is usually refers to family, but my cute little two-story house in downtown Nashville is empty for me. Okay, it’s not little. Just last year I bought a huge place, had it remodeled, and finally moved in six months ago. As if buying a huge home somehow validated my success and therefore created happiness. If it works for my father, it could work for me, had been my mentality, but as of late, I can see that he’s alone too.
He loved my mother and not one of the women chasing him and his stardom has ever replaced her. What I missed in the big picture was how he lives for fast cars, fast women, and stays so busy he never feels the pain.
Only I didn’t miss it at all. I copied his formula.
My job has controlled my life for years now, to the point that I now go to Dash’s place for waffles to feel the bond of home and hearth. I feel alone when I enter my foyer, with no one to greet me, not even the pitter-patter of furry paws. I just worry that I travel too much and work long hours.
But I need my home to feel like home, and a furry child would help. Lord knows kids are not in my future any time soon. Dash was feeling the same things when he found Allie. My father does as well, even if he won’t admit it. I wonder if Tyler does as well, which is sort of how I got into this mess. My choice to go to Tyler after his father died came from me watching Dash struggle with the loss of his estranged father. Family matters, and Dash, fortunately, had me and Allie to get him through that. Tyler is so like my father—shutting everyone out—that I thought he needed someone.
And maybe I was right, but I wasn’t that person. He treated me like my father treats women, like a physical escape that allows him to hide from a more emotional connection. I am no one to him. I’m not sure why that bothers me. But it does. A little too much, which I tell myself is about me and whatever I’m feeling about life lately, not about him.
I need something to feel fulfilled.
Tyler Hawk is not that something. He is not my someone.
He’s my boss. The end.
Chapter Seventeen
Tyler
I can still taste her on my tongue.
Hot water runs over my body in the shower of my master bedroom, after rejecting a cold shower to combat my body’s craving for Bella. A better option would have been to say screw the party going on above us and her brother in the building. I could have just bent her over my desk and fucked her right there in my office. No one would have known but us. Then I wouldn’t be hard as a rock with my own cock in my hand.
I pump my cock with images of Bella in my mind. Those breasts. Her perfect, pink nipples. Her moans and sighs. The tight grip of her body around my fingers, all slick and hot for me. The shy way she refused to say what she wanted. The moment she finally said, “I want you to lick my pussy.” She didn’t say my name, though. I should have made her. God, to have her naked and on top of me.