Just Surrender... by Kathleen O'Reilly Page B

Surprising no one, Edie chose to ignore his hint and instead watched him pull on his pants with those brown eyes. Tyler buttoned his shirt, feeling helplessly exposed, but then he noticed the knowing smile playing at the corners of her mouth, and in a moment of rebellion, he left it hanging brazenly undone. Childish? Yes.
    Courageously he punched in Cynthia’s number.
    “Tyler?”
    Tyler cleared his throat, turning away from the allure of the woman on the bed. “Yes? You called?”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Not a problem.”
    “I owe you an explanation,” Cynthia said, talking as if Tyler was the victim. And actually, he reminded himself, he was the victim. He was the injured party in this whole blasted experience. Tyler straightened his shoulders and began to walk the room, listening quietly while Cynthia carried on.
    “I did something terribly wrong, and you didn’t deserve it, and I shouldn’t have, but sometimes I want to… feel. I want to reach out and grab life, and…I could never do that with you. He was there, and it was stupid, and I knew it was stupid, but I did something stupid, something wild and crazy and Tyler, I realized I should have done ended things with you a long time ago.”
    Cynthia had cheated on him? She had hedonistic, indulgent, awesome sex with someone else? And that’s why she had broken up with him?
    “Say something,” Cynthia begged. “You’re mad, aren’t you? You’re disappointed with me.”
    Disappointed? Tyler considered that one, and rejected it. “I’m not disappointed with you, Cynthia,” he offered, which was completely honest. Relieved was probably the more precise description. He felt a gentle tap on his back, and when he turned around, Edie was there, no sheet covering her, because apparently flagrante delicto was the best way to resurrect his conscience.
    Tyler tried to look away from her, but ten million years of male evolution had created a male-cornea female-aureole neural pathway that would not be denied.
    Stay in the moment. Wounded Animal. Victim.
    Now feeling more in control, he muted the phone. “Yes?”
    “What’s going on? What did she do? Are you okay?” And yes, Edie seemed entranced. Not by sexual hypnosis, but human drama. His human drama.
    “She didn’t do anything. There’s nothing going on.”
    Edie didn’t believe him for a second. “Oh, come on. You can tell me. Let me help.”
    “She made a mistake,” he admitted, caving to the lure of her sparkling eyes and rose-tatted breast. Actually, the tattoo was fairly good work, small, with elaborate details, tiny thorns, and a deep pink that matched the pink of her…
    “Oh,” Edie began and then her eyes grew large. “ Really? She cheated? That’s so cool.” Noting the dark look on his face, she quickly rephrased. “Well, not cool, but it speaks a lot to her humanity, and her insecurities.”
    Only Edie would see a mistake as a badge of honor. “Personally I think her humanity stinks.”
    “Yeah, sure…” Her outstretched hand encompassed the bordello bed, the massacred sheets and, most painful of all, Tyler’s Moral High Ground… “But in light of everything, this way you get a free ride. Pardon the pun. Have you thought about what to say?”
    “I have nothing else to say to her. It’s done.” There was no pain, no hurt, just a numbing sense of it being over. He glanced at Edie’s not so numbing body. And there was lust. Don’t forget the lust.
    Edie met his eyes and he could imagine the wheels turning. “Does she want to get back with you?” Then she whacked herself on the forehead. “What the heck? Of course she wants to get back with you. She wants to start anew, rebuilding your trust, using this as a chance to add new support to a previously faltering relationship.”
    It was fascinating to watch her analytical skills at work. All of Edie Higgins’s attention was laser-focused on understanding Cynthia. And why? What possible purpose did she have for that? Unless she