Only Tyler by Jess Dee Page B

his gaze. Many times, she’d been trapped in this position, ensnared by the love and the longing on his face. The same love and longing she saw now. It was all there. All the desire and yearning and passion they’d shared before he left.
    A wave of dizziness washed over her. She couldn’t stop the crazy buzzing in her belly, or the gentle tug between her legs. Moisture seeped onto her panties, dazing her.
    “I meant what I said, my sweet.” His voice was low, and it hummed over her flesh. “I got you the book because I missed you. More than you’ll ever know.”
    Then why did you leave? She wanted to cry the words out loud, but fortunately this time there was no alcohol dulling her inhibitions. She held her tongue.
    “I read your inscription,” she said hoarsely. Her voice sounded carnal, and she cleared her throat immediately.
    A muscle worked in his jaw. “When you first lost your book, I didn’t understand why you were so upset. I thought you could just replace it.”
    He frowned. Now I know. “You can never replace the things you love the most.”
    She gaped at him. It was one thing reading his thoughts in a book.
    Hearing him voice them out loud threw her.
    “If Steve weren’t standing twenty meters away, Katie,” Tyler said, his voice even lower, now just a gentle rasp, “I would lean over and kiss you. Right here, right now.”
    Her stomach lurched and her heart skipped several beats. How dare he say something like that? Steve was standing twenty meters away.
    She couldn’t help but look up at her fiancé. He stood motionless, Frisbee in his hand, poised and ready to throw but his gaze was miles from his target.
    It was fixed on her.
    Fuck, what was he thinking? Did he know what Tyler had just said?
    Impossible he was too far away to have overheard. didn’t mean he couldn’t read their expressions. She knew her face registered shock.
    Did it also expose her illicit arousal? Could Steve see from so far down the beach what Tyler’s words were doing to her?
    Christ, she hoped not.
    Their eyes locked and held but it was Ty’s voice that rolled like velvet over her skin. “If Steve weren’t here, I would take you in my arms and make up for the two years I left you.” He hummed low in his throat. “Only this time, I would never, ever let you go.”
    She gasped, tearing her gaze from Steve’s. “What are you doing, Tyler?” she croaked. “What are you saying?” Panic clawed at her chest.
    Her fiancé watched as his best friend seduced her with words.
    “I’m back, Katie. I know I hurt you when I left, and I’m sorry about that. More sorry than you will ever know.” He drew in a deep breath. “I believed I had to go, believed there there was no choice. But there was a choice about coming home. I made my decision.” Hunger shadowed his expression. “I chose you.”
    “Are you out of your mind?” What in God’s name was the man thinking? She’d waited almost two years for him to say that. Two frigging years. Now, when finally she didn’t want to hear him say it when her fiancé stood meters away he’d come back for her.
    Fat lot of good it did.
    “I was,” he answered simply. “When I discovered you and Steve were engaged.”
    He turned back to face Steve and the boys then. “That’s why I came home. To see how serious you both are about the wedding.” He said it casually, as though they were discussing the weather, but she could see steely determination in his expression.
    She knew she should say something. Convince him she was dead serious about her wedding, but for the life of her she could not talk.
    She could not think of a single word to say. Even if she could, she wouldn’t be able to speak over the lump lodged in her throat. Two years she’d waited. Two fucking years, and now, when he couldn’t have her anymore, he wanted her back?
    “You can’t marry him,” Tyler said, as Steve flipped the Frisbee one last time, and waved goodbye to the boys. “Because you still