AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But it had. The damp cloth she'd applied between her legs, stirring up his scent, the soreness and searing reaction when she pressed her fingers where his cock had penetrated her, told her that. Even now, seeing him, a knot formed in her throat, her body yearning, wanting him in a way she could not permit herself to want. And there was no way to make him understand it.
Then she noticed the ficus tree in the front entranceway with the fairy lights. As Sarah had noted, the glass ornaments hanging from the branches were inexpensive trinkets, though quite pretty in the way they reflected the tiny lights. Thoughtfully, Marguerite plucked off one figurine that seemed to have the most replicas on the tree and stepped out onto the front porch.
He watched her approach with his serious, unsmiling regard, as if he saw everything she felt on the inside. Maybe if he did, he would understand that he needed to let it go at this.
When she got almost to him, he reached out, took her empty hand.
"Stay with me," he said, making it a soft demand, not a question as he drew her into his arms.
Marguerite pressed her forehead to his chest, closing her eyes tightly.
"No," she whispered. "I can't. "
She pulled back, opened her hand. Tyler looked down at the crystal image of a heron she'd taken off the tree.
"It's beautiful," she said. "The long, graceful legs, the tiny head and slender neck, the silver tone of the glass. You look at it and you want to touch it. You can, lightly. " Her hand closed over it and his gaze snapped to her face as the glass cracked. "But that's all you can do. Look at it, enjoy its appearance, its performance. " She opened her hand, revealed three pieces. "Do more than that and it shatters. " His brow drew together over the welling of blood where the glass had punctured her skin in two places, forming a pool in which the tiny pieces lay, turning them crimson. He turned her hand, made her drop the figure to the dirt and pressed the hem of his shirt into her palm.
"You're not that fragile. "
"Yes, I am. I know what I can and can't have to stay the person I need to be. But thank you for this weekend. You're right. It was definitely enlightening. " She tried to force a rueful smile to her stiff lips, was unsuccessful under his shrewd regard.
"You're determined to go, so I'll let you go. For now. " He looked at her, hard. "I care very much for you, Marguerite, and I respect you tremendously. Do you understand that?"
She swallowed, looked away, then made a conscious effort to look back up at him.
"I want to believe that. "
"Then do, because it's true," he said bluntly. "You've made this a special weekend for me. " He put a hand under her chin, his thumb caressing her lips, his eyes very close to hers. "I'm going to keep doing my damnedest to win you over but I need you to hear something I'm going to say to you, understand it fully. Are you listening?" She nodded, just a twitch of movement under his touch.
"You are very important to me. It doesn't matter if you never accept me or what lies between us. If you need me, I'm here for you. Tomorrow, ten years from now, it doesn't matter. And you know me well enough to know I don't make idle declarations of commitment. "
No one had ever offered to be her champion. Anything that came out of her lips at this moment would be an artificial gesture with no warmth, just something to cover the fragile condition of her psyche, her rising desire to just get away, to go, to drive, be in motion. She wouldn't insult the gift of his words in that way. But not saying anything would be an insult on its own.
"You don't need to respond," he said quietly, demonstrating his penchant for reading her thoughts. "The offer is there now and forever, whether or not you acknowledge it. But before you go, I'm going to ask you to do one more thing. It's simple and if you do it, I'll consider your mentoring requirement fulfilled. " She suspected his definition of simple and hers were very different, particularly since at the moment it felt like the ground had begun to shake beneath her feet.
"What. . . request?"
"I want you to ask me to kiss you and mean it, rather than me making you do it. If you do that, I'll let you leave. "
There were times that a request could be more potent than a command. Apparently Tyler was intuitive enough to know that, damn him. She inclined her head, feeling like she made the gesture in slow motion, wrapped in air as thick as pillows.
"Tyler, please kiss me. " It came out as a whisper of sound.
Bringing his body close up against her, he put his hands on her waist. Moved them around to the vulnerable small of her back to press her breasts to his chest. His lips hovered over hers, his eyes golden lights flickering like the warmth of a welcoming fire, lulling her, hypnotizing her.
"Tyler. "
There was no question, just his name, and he seemed to understand that. He closed the distance, settling his lips on hers, the heat of his mouth seducing her to part her lips, welcome him in. Her body melted into his with a sigh that seemed to come from every nerve, every cell, saying this is where she wanted to be, where she wanted to belong.
The kiss might have gone on five minutes or five hours. She lost sense of time, wrapped up in the tenderness of it, so unsettling. It acknowledged the totality of her, of their experience together. Completely shattering the careful illusion she was building that there was nothing hugely personal about this weekend, nothing she couldn't walk away from.
The hand she'd settled uneasily on his chest went up to the open collar of his shirt, feeling his pulse fiercely beating in his throat, the muscles along his jaw shifting as his tongue caressed hers, her
mouth, her lips. As her fingers tightened on the back of his neck, the power of his grip increased and a noise escaped her, betraying her desire and longing in that one soft cry. She pulled away.
"Marguerite - "
She shook her head, moved around the back of the car, tossed her bag in the second seat and tucked herself in behind the steering wheel. He stayed where he was though she could feel it emanating from him, all he could and would offer to her. Just like the night at the club. Things that could destroy her and she wouldn't care. But she cared about him, so she turned over the ignition and sped away, not allowing herself one look back.
