Lyssa watched him slide from beneath the covers to follow her, but fought the urge to cuddle up against him. She needed to get this over with. Maybe then he’d understand why she didn’t want him around. “You seem surprised.” The robe he’d pulled off her earlier was draped over a chair. Grabbing it, she slid it on and cinched the belt tight.
“A bit.” He kept his distance. “What happened?”
“Guys tend not to want to be around a girl accused of murdering her father. Especially when she supposedly did it not twenty minutes after being dumped at her door and told she’s worthless and what a lousy lay she is.” Lyssa was actually surprised at how bitter she sounded. She’d always considered herself over Craig’s rejection, but perhaps some of the pain still lingered. “Blows the mood entirely.”
Not to mention it served as proof that her father had been right. If the boy who’d professed to love her for three years could turn his back on her after one night, what chance did she have with Mike? Especially if he learned the secret she’d kept from him for the last four years.
“But you didn’t do it. It wasn’t you who pulled the trigger.” Mike’s fingers slid along the cloth covering her left shoulder, directly over the scar.
Lyssa shrugged off his touch. “I did—”
“You didn’t.” His eyes held hers, the steady brown gaze reassuring even as it demanded she admit the truth—something she’d never revealed in twenty-three years. “Don’t try to convince me otherwise,” Mike assured her.
“Why would I say I did it if I didn’t?”
How can he be so confident?
“For the same reason you took the blame. To protect Mattie.” His fingers went back to her shoulder. “Just like you stepped in front of her when your father was aiming at her.”
“How did you—”
Bryce
. It wasn’t a surprise that her brother-in-law knew things not even Gino could prove. But the fact that Mike knew and understood—Lyssa fought the burn of tears. “It was my responsibility—”
“You were seventeen.” Mike shook his head. “No one would hold you responsible for what happened.”
“I do.”
Mike cocked his head and watched her carefully. “Do you also take the blame for the boyfriend?”
Lyssa shook her head. “No, he was seventeen and hadn’t much experience. I understand that now. Hell, I understood that years ago.”
“He was an ass—”
His vehement response surprised a chuckle from her. “You’ve never met Craig.”
Mike stepped close. “He dumped you because he couldn’t perform.” His finger hooked through the knotted belt of her robe. “That kind of behavior doesn’t impress me.”
“I didn’t say he couldn’t perform.”
“You didn’t climax, right?”
Lyssa rolled her eyes but didn’t comment.
“And the near misses?” He tugged her closer, his fingers loosening the belt and easing the robe open. “Something tells me it wasn’t their idea to put the brakes on.”
“You’d be wrong,” Lyssa confessed.
“I doubt it, but enlighten me,” Mike argued. “Who were they?”
“No one important.”
Mike tugged her close. “Who were they? How old were you?”
His expression warned her there was no avoiding the conversation. Maybe if he realized other men knew how unlovable she was, Mike would figure it out as well. “Jerry was my partner in a design project in school. I was twenty; it was my senior year.”
“Did he try to push you?”
Lyssa chuckled and pulled out of his hold. “No, just the opposite. I thought that meant he cared. That there was something real between us. I even let him talk me into modeling the outfits.” She shook her head and settled onto the side of the bed, tugging her robe around her. “I didn’t find out the truth until I walked up on him snuggled up with one of the other design students. Seems he was glad he didn’t have to ‘fuck the cow’ in order to secure extra credit for
his
full-figure designs.”
Mike sat beside her, his hand covering hers, stilling the fingers plucking at the edge of her belt. “He was a brainless prick, babe. Not worth your time.”
She didn’t look up at him. “Maybe.”
“No maybe about it.” He didn’t elaborate. “And the other near miss?”
This time she looked at him and grinned. “You’ll find this funny.”
“I doubt it. If he hurt you, he’s a dead man.”
“He was a photographer.” She slipped her hand from beneath his and stood up. Taking a few steps away, she wrapped her arms around her waist. “And he asked me to pose for him. Nude.”
“No fucking way,” Mike snapped, pushing off the bed to follow her.
Again his hands went to the belt at her waist, loosening it before his hands slid inside and wrapped around her waist. “I was twenty-three, Mike, just getting started. I didn’t pose for him, but he really knew how to turn a phrase. Drinks, dinner, compliments. Two solid weeks of his attention and I probably would have agreed.”
“But?”
“I walked in on him screwing another model. When I confronted him, he laughed. Told me I couldn’t expect any man to want me. Maybe for a romp in the sheets, but not forever. What man could bear to love me when there were more beautiful, skinnier women in the world?”
“Tell me his name and I’ll bury him.” Mike tucked her close against him.
She shrugged. “It was a long time ago. I got over it.” Lyssa smoothed her hands over Mike’s shoulders. Staying mad at him was growing impossible. Like she’d told her sister, who could resist a puppy? Her eyes drifted over the taut lines of his chest and down his abdomen. It was hard to suppress the smile the sight of his erection brought to her lips.
“What about after me?”
She could have sworn she’d heard an edge of jealousy in his tone. It would only boost his arrogance and give him the impression that she cared, but she couldn’t lie. “No one.”
That made him pause and pull away to look down at her. “No one?”
Lyssa shook her head. “No one. It just seemed unnecessary.”
“Unnecessary?” Mike tugged her close, his hands warm on her hips. “Lyssa, a woman like you was made for loving. Sex fires you up. It practically oozes from your every pore.”
Lyssa laughed. “Well, if it does, the men around me are immune to my charms.”
Mike smiled and eased the robe off her shoulders. “Or maybe you were just waiting for the right man.”
Lyssa draped her arms around his neck. Her senses hummed with excitement at the heat generated by his attentions. “Possibly,” she agreed, snuggling closer. “I guess I’ll settle for you until Mr. Right comes along.”
The slap to her bare bottom startled a cry from her that quickly turned into a squeal of suppressed amusement as Mike lifted her off her feet and carried her to the bed.
“Oh, you’ll
settle
for me, will you?” he growled, dropping her onto the bed and following her down. Crouched over her, Mike pinned her wrists above her head and nudged her legs apart to slide comfortably between them.
Lyssa rubbed against him, tempting him to move over her as she wrapped her legs around his hips. The base of his erection coasted over the taut bundle of nerves peeking from beneath its hood. Labial tissue, plump with arousal, hugged his flesh as Mike rocked against her. “I’m sure you can produce a good argument.” She laughed, arching close and rubbing his chest with her breasts.
“Perhaps I just need to make my point a bit more vigorously,” Mike returned, releasing his hold on her to quickly don a condom before filling her body with his in a single, smooth stroke.
She hadn’t moved her hands, and his fingers returned to grip her wrists. Lyssa gasped, her breath frozen by the fullness stretching her. Even with the numerous times he’d made love with her over the last two and a half weeks, it still required a few moments for her body to adjust to the thickness and length of his penis filling her. She wriggled her fingers, scrambling to hold on to something even as he shifted his grip so only one hand bound her arms above her head. His left dropped to caress the smooth length of her thigh riding his hip.
“I want you to do it again, Lys.” Mike moved against her, thrusting deep, then retreating.
Lyssa wriggled against him. “What? Do what again?”
“Squirt.” He smiled at the surprised look she knew had to be on her face. “Do you know how fucking powerful that is? Knowing I can make you come so hard your body gushes?”
She rose with him, meeting each thrust, absorbing the force and power of his possession and craving more. “I don’t know if I can.” She wasn’t lying. Lyssa truly didn’t know what had created the sudden ejaculation when she’d climaxed.
Mike leaned close and kissed her, stroking over and around her tongue, rocking his body deep inside before pulling almost free, than sliding home in a fast, heated thrust. “Mmm, guess we’ll just have to keep trying until we figure out what does it.”
Lyssa moaned at the images and temptations that flooded her mind. Her body trembled in anticipation. If there was one thing she’d learned about this man, giving up wasn’t part of his vocabulary. Or his nature. The niggling voice whispered a warning, but Lyssa ignored it, surrendering to the fire and passion building inside and channeling those feelings back toward Mike.
Lyssa wrapped her legs tight around his hips, holding him as close as possible. Just thinking about Mike staying increased her arousal, her excitement.
At no time in their weeks together had he even hinted at leaving. As much as she fought the temptation to dream, it was getting harder to stay reserved, to keep her heart guarded against his promises to stay. Forever.
Chapter Thirteen
On the Steak Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the taillights of Tuma’s new car had turned the corner at the end of the cul-de-sac before Lyssa and Mike gave a final wave to Ben and Vance and closed the front door.
“Do you think she’ll make it back to the apartment okay?” Lyssa asked.
“She’ll be fine,” he assured her.
Lyssa glanced over her shoulder at him as she headed into the kitchen and packed the leftovers into the refrigerator. “I don’t think she’ll get any sleep tonight.”
Mike had to agree. “You’d think it was the night before Christmas, not Thanksgiving, as excited as she is.”
The water splashed into the sink, and Lyssa added a squirt of soap, her voice raised enough to be heard over the noise. “Well, she is meeting her family for the first time tomorrow.”
He leaned against the counter. “I think Vance knows.” He wasn’t sure how he felt about the other man being privy to his secret.
Lyssa considered his suspicion seriously before she nodded. “He might. I think he told me he knew a little African and Swahili. And many of the businesses in and around San Diablo have used him as an interpreter because of his language skills.”
“Do you think he’ll keep it to himself?”
She smiled at him. “Oh yes. About the only person he’d tell is Ben.” Her grin faded slightly. “And they’re both very good about keeping secrets.”
When she turned to the sink and shut off the water, Mike had a niggling suspicion Lyssa was talking about more than the secret of his daughter. Not wanting to put a pall on the relaxed feeling he’d shared with Lyssa during the evening, he went into the dining room and collected the last of the dishes. Returning to the kitchen, Mike helped load the dishes into the dishwasher after Lyssa rinsed them.
When he’d set the last one in place, he told her, “Tuma and I can pick you up tomorrow around eleven. Mattie said she was planning Thanksgiving dinner to start by two.”
“I’m going over there at nine to help Mattie and Etta with the preparations.”
Mike wiped his hands off on a towel and then leaned against the counter. “Then we’ll come over earlier.”
“Don’t change your plans for me.” Lyssa set the last of the leftovers in the refrigerator. “Besides, I think it’s best if you and Tuma arrive together.”
Mike wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close. The clean scent of her body mingled with her honeysuckle perfume and the lavender-mint dish soap. “But I’d like to have you with me when I introduce her to our family.”
He sensed the tension spreading through her body, although her expression did little to betray it. Her hands pressed low on his abdomen, and she shifted back so their eyes could meet when she explained, “No… I-I’d rather we not show up at my sister’s house together. There would be too many questions.”
“Too many questions?” He released his hold on her. “What kind of questions are you afraid of, Lyssa?”
His gaze followed her as she wiped the kitchen table off. “You know what I mean.” She smoothed the cloth over the wooden surface one last time before she turned to face him. “Mattie would start dreaming up some happily ever after ending between us.”
“And that’s bad?”
Keep it cool. Getting angry will only make her freeze up.
Lyssa nodded. “Yes, you know it would be. She’ll be hurt and disappointed when our agreement ends in a week and we go back to the way it was before.”
Mike was sure incredulity covered his face. He reined in the jumbled emotions wanting to detonate and focused on the note he heard in her voice. A part of her didn’t believe a word she’d said. Somewhere, deep inside, he was certain she’d begun to trust in his vows to her. At least he hoped she had. “I told you I’m not leaving. After the time we’ve been together, can you really say you don’t believe my promise?”
“Do you?” There was a hint of skepticism in her voice, but Mike was sure it was forced. “I never promised anything beyond these thirty days, Mike. If I arrive for Thanksgiving with you, it would encourage my sister to hope for something that simply isn’t going to work. I won’t hurt her that way.”
“I could make it a command.”
The temptation to tell him to do so glittered in her eyes, in the flash of relief stealing across her face. It was a command he felt Lyssa truly wanted to follow, but she fought that desire. Just as she’d reined in her natural submission during their time together. Instead she snorted. “I don’t think so, Mike. You aren’t my master anywhere except when it comes to sex. No man tells me what I think or do, not even you.”
It was in every line of her body, in her set expression. Like words on a page, Mike could read the way Lyssa fought the urge to give in to him. In the time they’d been together, she’d admitted to seeing why Mattie was so satisfied with Bryce. No other man had shown her the capabilities of her body the way he had. In the last few weeks he had seen how satisfied and content Lyssa was, at least sexually. The temptation to please him in other things beyond the sexual crept into her actions at odd moments. Mike had watched her dither over those behaviors. Sometimes she pushed the urge aside, but more often than not, she gave in to them, and her pleasure was palpable when he acknowledged his. Submitting to him brought her peace. He’d seen it. Felt it. Until now.