“Yes, really.”

“We’ll see about that,” he growled, grabbing my hips and hoisting me onto the balcony railing. Looking over my shoulder, I was thankful the railing was quite wide, at least several feet, making it nearly impossible for anyone to lose their balance.

I yanked at his boxer briefs, pulling him toward me. Wrapping my legs around him, I locked him in place. His eyes grew even more hooded, his chest heaving, his stare carnal and full of lust.

“Kiss me.” I closed my eyes, desperate to feel his lips on mine. Since that first kiss all those months ago, I had grown addicted to them, each kiss different and unexpected.

“Not yet.”

“Why?” I whined playfully, loosening the grip my legs had around him. This was all part of his game and I loved every exhilarating moment. The anticipation was almost as fulfilling as the catch. The longer we waited, the more I burned for him, and he knew it. My body gave me away by the way it reacted to his nearness, my nipples alert, my skin flush, my breathing uneven.

“Because I want my lips on other parts of your body first,” he explained, yanking at the tie around my robe, allowing it to fall open.

I shrugged the robe off my shoulders, leaving me totally exposed. Tyler’s eyes remained fixed and calm as he surveyed my body. He took his time, raking over me as if trying to memorize every dimple and curve. Without warning, he grabbed my hair, forcing my head back as he ran his tongue down my neck. My skin flamed, despite the chilly temperature.

“Do you like that we’re outside where anyone could walk by and see us?”

“Yes,” I said quickly, feeling as if I was about to fall over the metaphorical edge the second he touched me. It didn’t matter that he had given me too many orgasms to count throughout the night as we made love over and over again. This was different. Another unexpected side of Tyler.

“Do you remember the night we met?” he whispered, his tongue traveling down my body.

I nodded, not uttering a sound.

“Do you remember what you told me? How you tried to convince me that your body was flushed because you had been drinking?”

A finger trailed over my protruding stomach, finding its way to the spot I needed him to touch.

“I was able to read your body that night, Mackenzie. You wanted me. God, you wanted me so fucking bad, but you refused to admit it.”

Kneeling in front of me, his hands clutched onto my thighs, spreading them, and the warmth of his breath between my legs made my chest rise and fall. The promise of what was about to happen would be my undoing.

“Do you want to know what I thought about all night long?”

“Yes,” I responded, although I knew it was a rhetorical question.

“Your pink lips and how they would taste.”

I moaned as his breath grew closer to my center.

“And I thought about doing this to you all night long, how much I wanted to hear you scream my name.”

Finally, his mouth was on me, his tongue circling me, exploring as if it were the first time.

“But you played hard to get,” he said, pulling away. I cried in frustration and opened my eyes to see a frisky smirk on Tyler’s face. “There was a moment when I considered throwing in the towel, thinking no woman was worth this amount of effort, mission be damned.”

Grabbing onto the balcony railing, he slithered up my body, his tongue roaming over every dip and crevice as he stepped out of his boxer briefs.

“I tried to stay away,” he admitted, his lips hovering over mine. His eyes burned into me, his formerly lascivious gaze replaced by one of yearning and idolization. “I didn’t want to do anything to hurt you and I knew being with me would destroy you. But I couldn’t stop thinking about you. We had barely spoken ten words to each other, Serafina, but the thought of letting you walk away crushed me. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t exist. So I let down my walls. I let you see the real Tyler. I wanted you to fall in love with the real me, not the person I was supposed to be for my job, not the person I had been for years. You brought the real Tyler back. You breathed life into this dead heart with your kiss…”

Pressing his lips to mine, he caressed my tongue with his. I wrapped my legs around his waist, the space between us too much. He was a part of me and I never wanted to be separated from him again.

“With your touch…” He traced the outline of my neck, his tongue following, lighting me on fire.

“With your love…” His voice was serene as he pushed into me, filling me and withdrawing in quick forceful movements. His motions were at odds with his calm voice and gentle eyes. I tried to hold back my screams, but was unable, both of our voices rebounding in the air on that perfect November morning.

I grasped his hips as they continued their relentless motion, my fingernails digging into his skin. His rhythm grew more frenzied and punishing, a guttural moan escaping his lips as sweat dotted his forehead.

“Harder,” I murmured, a surge of electricity running from my toes and everywhere in between. My mind was blank, all my decisions motivated by that unmistakable sensation of euphoria and bliss only Tyler Burnham could give me.

He grabbed my hair, forcing my head back once more and clamped onto my neck, causing me to yelp and moan, the pain only heightening the pleasure coursing through me. I had never felt as alive as I did at that moment, Tyler’s teeth digging into my skin, forcing an orgasm to ravage through my body. He picked up his pace even more, finally letting out a low grunt, signaling his own release.

Cupping my face with his strong hands, he pressed his lips to mine, his kiss tender as we attempted to control our breathing. Our gaze held and we shared our love through our eyes, our flesh, our bodies. It was fitting. Our first declaration of love wasn’t said with words. One look was all it took. With one look at the bar the night we met, I knew I had met my match. With one look on the dance floor during opening night of the restaurant, I knew I never wanted to be apart from this man. With one look when I found out the truth, I knew his love was true, despite being surrounded in a myriad of lies. And not a day had passed when I didn’t feel his love for me.

Tyler

“FEELS GOOD TO BE home, doesn’t it?” I asked Mackenzie as we walked down the hallway toward her condo. After spending a final few days in Palm Beach, we arrived back on South Padre the day before Thanksgiving. I was anxious to get back into the swing of things, but knew a lot of that would have to be put on the back burner to what was now becoming the more important issue… The arrival of our baby in just a few weeks. I still couldn’t believe I would become a father in less than a month.

“It sure does. At least we won’t have to live out of a suitcase anymore. And I’m sure Meatball missed me.”

“Did Jenna look after him?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Between her, Richard, Brayden, and one of the girls at the restaurant, he’s been well taken care of.”

“You could have just had Martin arrange for one of my team members to make sure he had food and clean litter, ya know?” I said, trying to hide my unease about anyone I hadn’t done a thorough check on being in her condo unsupervised.

“Tyler…,” she cautioned. “You have nothing to worry about with any of my friends. And Mia, my hostess, only came to watch Meatball when everyone else so graciously dropped everything they were doing to be there when we got married. And look,” she said smugly, sticking her key in the knob and pushing the door open, her eyes still trained on mine. “Everything’s just fine.”