Текст книги "Slaying the Dragon"

Автор книги: T.K. Leigh

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Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 25 страниц)

Mackenzie

WITH A RESTORED SENSE of belonging, I drove through the streets of South Padre Friday evening to meet Jenna and Brayden for girls’ night. The island again held the promise and magic it did months ago, and I knew it was because Tyler was back. As I went about my routine throughout the day, I did so with him on my mind. I had hoped he would stop by the restaurant, but he didn’t. Instead, we sent text after text to each other. With each message that popped up on my phone, my grin grew wider and wider. The butterflies were back after their long absence. His words were sweet, passionate, and even a little hot, reminding me of why I had lowered my walls and allowed him in after years of remaining distant with people.

Pulling up to the tapas bar, I threw the valet the keys to my brand new Audi and entered the restaurant. As I walked through the glass doors, I grew breathless, the scene that greeted me reminding me of that fateful Friday night when I first met Tyler. He sat in the corner, on the same barstool, a dark liquid in a tumbler in front of him, five cherry stems on his napkin. He wore the same green shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, exposing his muscled forearms.

As I stood admiring him, I noticed his physique had become more pronounced. His shoulders appeared broader, his leg muscles incredibly defined. His skin was a tad darker than I recalled, and the ends of his dark hair were lighter. I could only assume all that time in the African desert had an effect on his appearance…in a good way. He was more rugged, the slight stubble on his jaw causing a burning need inside me to feel it on my skin.

I approached the bar and sat next to him. He looked at me, an excited smile on his face before his expression flattened. “Mackenzie, you can’t sit there.”

Straightening my spine, I asked, “Why?”

“I want to go back to the start, where it all began. You say you want to trust me, and I really, really want you to trust me, but we need to start over. I need to show you how that first night would have gone if I wasn’t on a job. So, please, sit in your normal seat and pretend you don’t know me, okay?”

Slowly lowering my legs back to the ground, I slid off the barstool. “Well, you better hurry up. Brayden and Jenna will be here any minute.”

“Since when are they on time?” he commented sarcastically, and I shrugged my shoulders in agreement. I loved my friends dearly, but punctuality was not their strong suit. “I have some time to work with.” A mischievous grin spread across his face.

A flurry of jitters rushing through me, I retreated from him and took a seat at my usual barstool.

The bartender approached, beaming, asking me what I wanted to drink. I glanced at Tyler, seeing he had ordered the same exact thing he did all those months ago, right down to the number of cherry stems. But I couldn’t exactly order a bottle of wine, as I had that night.

“A bottle of sparkling water, please,” I said with a smirk on my face.

She retreated from me momentarily to get my drink. Within seconds, she reappeared with a tall green bottle and a wine glass. Opening the bottle, she poured a bit into the glass and garnished it with a lime.

When she left me alone once more, I took a sip, my body alive with anticipation.

“You gonna drink that whole bottle by yourself?”

Glancing to the far corner of the bar, I couldn’t help but laugh. “So what if I am?” I shot back, trying to revert to the cold-hearted, detached woman I was that night. However, that wasn’t who I was anymore. I was no longer the girl who would live her life in accordance with her schedule. I was a woman who finally learned to live again, who took risks, who loved, who jumped…who was all in.

“Didn’t mean anything by it,” he said, toying with the cherry in his drink. “My apologies.”

My eyes remained glued to him, waiting for his next move. Looking up from his drink, a brilliant smile crossed his face. “My name’s Tyler,” he said, scooting down several seats and holding his hand out to me.

I surveyed it skeptically, a nervous tingling spreading through me. I didn’t know if I was supposed to shake it or not.

“It’s just a hand. See, what happens is–”

“Serafina,” I interrupted, allowing him to take my hand in his. “My name is Serafina.” My chin began to quiver as the name left my lips. It wasn’t until this moment that I realized not only did Tyler cover up his true identity from me, but I did, as well. He wanted me to fall in love with the real Tyler. I wanted him to fall in love with Serafina, even if I wasn’t sure who that was anymore. Still, I wanted to find out, and maybe Tyler would help me discover exactly who that was.

“Serafina,” he crooned, his voice barely audible. Closing his eyes, his fingers lingered over my hand and traced a delicate pattern on my skin. “That’s a beautiful name.”

“Thank you,” I murmured, lost in the moment. All too soon, he withdrew his hand from mine, leaving me with an empty feeling.

“So…,” he began, nervously playing with the ice in his drink. “What do you do?”

“Ummm…,” I started, feeling my face flush red with nerves. For some reason, regardless that Tyler already knew all my secrets, I wanted to make a good “first impression”. Something about being there with him, getting to know him all over again, made it feel like the first time. “I own a restaurant.”

His eyes widened. “Really? You look too young.”

I shrugged. “I guess you can say I’m your classic overachiever. When I put my mind to something, nothing will get in my way. So when I said I wanted to open my dream restaurant before I turned thirty, it would have taken a disaster for it not to happen.”

He nodded, remaining silent. I took a sip of my sparkling water, my eyes never straying from his for too long. “So what about you?” I finally asked. “What do you do?”

“Oh, a little bit of this, a little bit of that.”

I frowned playfully.

He smirked. “Actually, I own a multi-billion dollar private security firm.”

“Are you, like, a spy?” I joked.

“No. My brother’s the spy.”

“Your brother?”

“Yeah,” he said. “He runs the company. Up until a few years ago, I was just an owner on paper, then I thought I could help make a difference.”

“And did you?”

He tore his gaze from mine, an unsettled expression on his face. “The opposite, actually. I realized that no matter if it’s for what you’re led to believe is a noble cause or not, there are always some casualties. Not everyone gets out unscathed.” He was silent for a moment as I tried to adjust to his sudden change in demeanor. He was troubled, a tortured soul.

“You see, I hurt someone during the last job I was on, and I’ll never forgive myself for what I did.” He raised his eyes and I saw the torment he had been living with since the day he began the mission. I had seen that look on his face during our time together, and I knew he was struggling early on with his assignment. I had seen it on that first night at this precise restaurant. That knowledge made me relinquish yet another piece of my heart to Tyler.

“I’m sure you didn’t mean to,” I offered, my voice soft.

“No. I knew all along that I was going to use her, yet I still did it.”

“Yes, but once you got to know her, it must have been eating you up inside, knowing the role you had to play.” Part of me couldn’t believe I was sitting here, rationalizing what Tyler had done to me, but I couldn’t help it. I finally understood. I felt his pain, his reluctance, his heartache for the role he played.

“Yet I still continued on in my course of deceit. I made her fall in love with me. I pretended to be someone I’m not.” He returned his gaze to his tumbler, toying with the liquid. “I guess part of me doesn’t really know who that is anymore…”

“I know who you are,” I whispered.

His head shot up and he stared at me. “How could you? We just met.”

I turned in my barstool to face him. He mirrored my movements.

“You like to give off the impression you have everything under control, that nothing really affects you. You’ve loved and lost before, and you remember how broken you felt afterwards. You vowed to do everything to never feel like that again.”

I reached for his hands and it was as if the world disappeared. We weren’t sitting at the bar of a bustling restaurant, plates and glasses clinking all around us. We were in our own world, our own universe. A universe that circled around him.

“You love your family and would do anything for them. That’s why you took that assignment. You had wandered listlessly through life, unable to figure out what your passion truly was. You tried a little bit of everything, even joined the navy to forget the past. When this assignment was brought to you, you thought it was your chance. You wanted to prove to your brother that you were capable of doing something right. You wanted to make him proud of you, but you never expected to be faced with having to decide between your family and a woman you had just met. Maybe if you had talked to her about it, had been open and honest with her, she would have understood.”

“I doubt that,” he said, pulling his hands from mine and avoiding my gaze. “Anyway, if I told her, it would have blown my cover.” He returned his attention to the drink in front of him, playing with the cherry once more.

“But didn’t your cover get blown anyway?” I pushed.

“Yes, but–”

“So you had nothing to lose.” Placing my hand on his leg, I tried to comfort him. “If you had been honest with her, if you helped her see everything from where you were standing, she would have said those words you’re so desperate to hear right now.” A lone tear fell down my cheek, the connection between us more intense than any other interaction we’d had since we met.

“And what’s that?”

“That I understand and I forgive you.” Raising my hand to his face, I cupped his cheek, reveling in the feeling of his stubble on my hand. I studied the anguish he tried to mask with his forceful demeanor and hesitated. No matter how much I didn’t think I could ever forgive him for how he had deceived me, I was wrong. His mother’s wise words rang true. We didn’t forgive people because they deserved it. We forgave because they needed it, and if anyone was in need of forgiveness so they could move on, the suffering man sitting next to me was. “Tyler…” I took a deep breath. “I understand and forgive you.”

“You do?” he asked. I could hear the surprise in his voice. “You don’t have to say that for my benefit. I know we have a lot to work through–”

“Yes, we do, but I finally see everything from where you stood, Tyler. For the longest time, I refused to do that, despite everyone telling me I needed to. I was so angry with you and wanted to hate you, as difficult as it was. But listening to your side, finally listening, it made me put myself in your shoes. I know this assignment got out of hand for you. You weren’t expecting to fall for me.”

“No,” he agreed. “I certainly wasn’t. I hated myself for what I had to do to you, especially once I met you. That first night, when I finally felt you, I couldn’t sleep. All I saw whenever I closed my eyes was your face, the tears I would cause when you found out I used you. Then something entirely unexpected happened.”

“What was that?”

“I stopped being the Tyler persona I developed to make you fall for me and started to show you the real me.”

“I know,” I admitted. “I finally realized that last night when I was reading your journal.”

He nodded. “I don’t know why. I didn’t want you to just know the deceptive me. I wanted you to know the real me.”

“And I do,” I said, running my fingers through his hair. Leaning my forehead on his, I closed my eyes. This moment was so much more than I expected. Words couldn’t accurately convey the depth of emotion I was feeling from being back in a place that once held painful memories of what I thought to be my biggest mistake. Now I had a new memory…a happier one. I was so grateful Tyler knew enough to realize I needed this.

Lost in the moment, I instantly felt an emptiness. Flinging my eyes open, I saw that Tyler had pulled away from me and was fishing money from his wallet.

“What are you–”

Returning his blazing green eyes to me, he reached for my hand and raised it to his lips. “It was wonderful to meet you, Serafina. I do hope our paths cross again.”

With a heated stare, he released my hand. I remained dumbfounded, confused as to why he was so abrupt to leave. I thought we had just made so much progress.

Finally snapping back to reality as his chiseled backside walked out the door, I leapt from the barstool and stormed out of the restaurant, spotting Tyler as he was about to hop into his Jaguar.

“That’s it?” I shouted.

He halted and looked over his shoulder, meeting my eyes.

“Seriously? After all that, you’re just going to walk away from me?”

Signaling the valet to give him a minute, he strode toward me. Each step he took was slow, determined, his gaze fierce. “I’m not walking away. I’m just…”

“You’re what?” I crossed my arms in front of my chest and leaned against the brick of the building, quickly transported back to that night all those months ago once more.

“I had a plan for how tonight was supposed to go, and…” He trailed off, avoiding my eyes. The dominant man I once knew was nowhere, the guilt he was still living with covering his body. I didn’t want him to live with that guilt. I wanted him to finally feel like he was in control of his life again. I wanted to give him back that control.

“And what, Tyler?”

“And it hurts, all right, Mackenzie? Looking into your eyes, I can’t stop being reminded of your face when you learned the truth. It cuts me open and, no matter how many times you say you forgive me, I will never be deserving of it. I’ll never be deserving of you!”

“So…what? You put on this whole act, you come back from wherever you were to win back my heart, but now that you have it, you don’t want it because of what you did to lose me in the first place?”

“That’s not it at all, Mackenzie, and you know it,” he growled, catching me by surprise. It was as if he flipped the switch, had become more self-assured, more passionate, more…himself. “You want to know the truth?”

I nodded, unable to find my voice.

“I’m fucking scared, Mackenzie. This,” he said, gesturing between our bodies, “scares me more than anything. I’m worried if I make one wrong move, say one wrong thing, you’ll leave and not look back. So, yes, I had a plan for tonight, one to try and help you see who I really am, and–”

“And I told you! I know who you are! Some things can’t be planned!” I exclaimed in complete exasperation, surprised at my own words. “Some things just happen, Tyler.” I softened my voice. “Sometimes the best things in life are those that are unplanned, unexpected.” I looked down, my hands settling on my stomach. “Please… Let me in. Don’t give up on us.”

His breath caught and he mouthed us as he stared at me. Before I knew what was happening, he had his hands on my hips and lifted me up, forcing my legs around his waist. His eyes met mine, my heart racing at the feel of his body against mine. “Say it again,” he growled.

“Us,” I whimpered, turned on by his dominance and power.

“Again,” he said, his voice still firm, as if the only thing that could chase the demons away was my voice saying that one singular word, assuring him there was hope.

“Us.”

His stature relaxed slightly as he leaned in and pressed his mouth against mine. Sighing, I wrapped my arms around his neck, trying to pull him closer. His tongue forcefully met mine, as if my kiss alone could soothe his fears. I knew he needed this, needed this physical connection to me. The truth was, I needed it just as much as he did. I needed to know he was real, he was here, his love was real. It was euphoric, his mouth covering mine, his hands supporting me, letting me know he would never let go.

“Again,” he murmured against my lips.

“Us,” I whispered.

He groaned. “Again.”

“Us. Us. Us.”

He exhaled, the unease and torment that had plagued him seconds ago leaving him with each instance of me saying that word. And each time, it gave me the same thing it gave him… Promise.

He trailed soft kisses across my cheek, down my neck, lingering on my collarbone. I threw my head back, a surge of electricity washing over me with each nip of his lips, each brush of his tongue. With each kiss, he was saying “I love you”, “I cherish you”, “I treasure you”. I didn’t need to hear his voice say those words. I just knew. Instead of simply declaring his love to me with mere words, he did what he had always done. He proved it with his benevolence, his passion, his desire.

A loud throat clearing sounded, startling both of us. Reluctantly, Tyler pulled away from me, helping me lower my feet to the ground. He smiled mischievously as he glanced at Brayden and Jenna standing just off to the side.

“Get a room!” Brayden joked.

“Brayden,” Tyler said, nodding at him, shaking his hand. “Thanks for going along with everything tonight.”

I looked between Tyler and my two best friends, who had guilty, yet satisfied expressions on their faces.

“This was planned?”

Tyler shrugged. “Yeah. I wanted to make sure I had a few minutes alone with you.”

“We were a bit hesitant at first,” Jenna added, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “After everything, we didn’t want to see you get hurt again, but Brayden took care of that.”

“How?”

“I told him I have ties to the gay mafia.” He winked.

“Gay mafia?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yeah. Seriously, Mack. We’ve stood by your side through everything, but this schmuck made you happy for those two weeks. Then, when we saw the look of remorse on his face early this morning, well… I couldn’t help but get a good feeling about this time around.”

Tearing my gaze from my friends, I met Tyler’s eyes. “Me, too.”

He smiled back at me, planting a soft kiss on my forehead. It was the most innocent of exchanges, but that didn’t stop those butterflies from erupting within my stomach at the feel of his warm lips on my skin.

Too soon, he pulled away and retreated toward where the valet attendant still stood next to his Jaguar. “Enjoy your evening, Mackenzie,” he crooned, his eyes dark and full of longing.

“You’re not going to stay?” I could hear the disappointment in my voice.

“No. It’s girls’ night.” Returning to me, he grabbed my hand in his. “You need time to catch up and you can’t do that with me around.”

“When am I going to see you again?”

“Why? Missing me already?”

“No.” I rolled my eyes in fake irritation.

Brushing a wayward curl behind my ear, he caressed my face.

“Okay, maybe a little,” I admitted.

“Can I take you out to dinner tomorrow night?”

“On a date?” I asked coyly.

He nodded. “Yes. A proper date. No expectations for anything more. Just two people getting to know each other.”

“I’d like that.”

“Does seven work for you?” He raised his eyebrows.

“Yes.”

He grinned. Bringing my hand to his lips, he murmured, “Until tomorrow, mi cariño.” With that, he hopped in his car, leaving me completely satisfied and feeling as if things were going to be okay.

“You were totally eye-fucking him,” Jenna commented as she pulled me into the restaurant, Brayden right on our heels.

“It’s not eye-fucking if she already knows what the goods look like,” Brayden countered when we all took our normal seats at the bar.

“Says who?” Jenna retorted. “I still eye-fuck Richard and we’ve been married for a year!”

“Speaking of which,” I said, sipping my sparkling water once more, trying to get the focus of the conversation off me. “How’s everything going with you two?”

“Good. Better than good.” She swirled the liquid in her wine glass that the bartender had just poured for her. “I took your and Brayden’s advice and talked to him. He explained everything.”

“What did he say about the lack of any record of his previous marriage?”

“Well, it was like you said. He agreed to give his ex-wife a very hefty settlement, but a contingent of doing so was her agreeing to have all records of their marriage and subsequent divorce completely expunged. I had always just assumed she served him with divorce papers, not the other way around.”

“Why did he want that?” Brayden interjected.

“He said he didn’t want one of the biggest mistakes of his life to always follow him around. He wanted a fresh start, a new beginning, and he didn’t think he’d have that if his previous marriage and subsequent divorce were always lurking in the background. It was really kind of sad, listening to him talk about her. I was always hesitant to bring her up because I know all about wanting a fresh start, but…”

“Yeah?” I popped an olive in my mouth. “What is it?”

“I actually felt bad for him. He was more or less conned into marrying her. He was in his early forties when they met. She was in college.”

“He’s got a thing for younger girls, doesn’t he?” Brayden commented, winking.

Jenna smiled, a small laugh leaving her lips. “Yeah, I guess he does. Anyway, they dated, but it wasn’t anything serious. He said they were better off as friends, and that’s what they remained for a few years. He was tapped to take over the entire hotel chain, and she continued with college. One day, he got a phone call from her and she was sobbing. He said he had never heard her so frightened.”

“What happened?”

“She found out she was pregnant. When she confronted her boyfriend at the time, he split, disappearing into nowhere.”

I glanced down, placing my hand over my stomach. I could certainly sympathize with how she must have felt. Although the circumstances were different, I knew what it felt like to think you were alone.

“She came from a very strict Irish Catholic family and she couldn’t go home as she was unless…”

“She was married,” I finished.

Jenna nodded. “And Richard, being who he is, agreed to the marriage. They had a small ceremony a few weeks later. He called it a blessing in disguise. He had been so busy with the hotels and building the brand, he never took a minute for himself or his personal life.”

“Sound familiar?” Brayden mumbled under his breath, looking at me.

I shot my eyes to him and slapped him playfully.

“So he settled down with his new bride and began buying baby clothes. He couldn’t wait to be a father. He didn’t care that the kid wasn’t technically his. He said that’s not what makes someone a father… It’s being there, supporting them, putting their needs above your own. And he was ready and willing to do that.”

“But…”

Jenna took a deep breath. “About a month later, she came home from her doctor’s appointment and told him she lost the baby. She was upset, but he told her if she wanted to be a mother, they could try to have a kid themselves. They had trouble conceiving, and Richard became increasingly busy with the hotel. They would argue and Richard would suggest just stopping the whole charade, considering the only reason they married in the first place was because she had gotten pregnant and was worried about telling her parents. She didn’t have that problem anymore. However, each time he was ready to walk away, she would tell him she was pregnant, but she kept losing the baby. Finally, after the fourth or fifth time, Richard grew suspicious and called her doctor, then a private investigator. He soon found out there was never a pregnancy, not even at the beginning. He realized this woman, Ariana, was simply after his fortune that was slowly growing as his hotel brand became more and more popular.”

“That’s why he was able to convince her to sign off on wiping the slate clean,” Brayden interjected.

Jenna nodded. “Yes. Instead of facing a very public divorce based on who he was and everyone learning what she had done, he offered her a way out and she took it.”

“Well,” Brayden said, raising his own wine glass. We both followed suit. “Here’s to both my girls being happy with the men they love once again.”

“Here, here!” Jenna said.

“I’ll drink to that.”