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Tari couldn’t explain her relief when Galen stepped through the doorway and headed to her side. Gazes locked she latched onto his strength and the feeling of safety he gave her. Not that Baby Boy was a bad man; just...he was a doctor, a male Baby doctor.
Galen was...more than just the man who’d calmed her before, prior to knowing they had a past. Galen had always stood up for her and made her feel protected. Even when he knew he was going to take a beating. The simple touch of Galen’s callused hand upon her cheek calmed her immediately. She wanted to wrap his arms around her and breathe in the heady scent of him. If she didn’t know any better she would have said he had been worried about her.
He ran his thumb along her lips. Flutters of a new kind began to grow in the pit of her belly. Molten silver eyes roamed her face before securing back up to her eyes.
“Talk to me, Tari.” His whispered words were lined in steel and she bristled in return.
“Why?”
Argent orbs narrowed. “Give us a moment, Baby Boy,” he commanded without looking away from her.
Baby Boy responded in Spanish but she played it off that she didn’t understand the language. Soon only the two of them were in the room.
“Don’t make me ask again,” he mandated.
Breathing a bit calmer since Baby Boy had left she moved her shoulder before sliding back from Galen and trying to create some space between them. Trying, the key word. Galen’s strong fingers tightened, immobilizing her.
“Do not test me, Taryn.”
She fought her hiss of displeasure. Fear or not, past or not, Galen had made it clear he wanted nothing to do with her. Hadn’t he?
Why then did he stay with you while you slept? Hold you during that most soothing rest? Tell you how much he enjoyed waking with you on top of him?
Tari scowled at the unwanted and definitely unrequested comments from her subconscious. Ignoring the flux of feeling she felt around Galen she made sure her tone stayed bland and unaffected.
“Nothing is going on. Why are you here?”
“Taryn,” he growled, obviously close to the edge of his control.
“Fine. I get nervous around...around men.”
One black brow disappeared behind a thick lock of hair, which had fallen forward over his forehead. “You aren’t around me. I’m pretty sure I am a man.”
The memory of encountering his stiffened length beneath her hand rushed to the foreground of her mind. She pushed it away for that was a fact she most assuredly had zero intention of pursuing. He was a man to be sure. All man.
“Male doctors,” she clarified.
He stared until he seemed satisfied she spoke the truth. “Do you want me to stay?”
“Yes.” The affirmative slid past her lips before she knew what happened.
“Okay,” he said, his thumb swiped her lower lip with another light pass, leaving her to feel curiously marked. Branded. His.
Galen lingered at her side while Baby Boy finished his checkup. Literally. He stood right next to her, one hand splayed along the small of her back, warmly possessive and protective. The tantalizing brush of his warm flesh seared her skin through the light synthetic material of her borrowed shirt.
“Just continue to take it easy with that shoulder for a while and you will be fine. The blow actually did very little damage, considering.”
She looked to Baby Boy and gave him a slight smile. “Thank you,” she said wishing she wasn’t such a wuss. “For everything.”
Baby Boy flashed a flirtatious grin followed by a wink. “My pleasure, you should be fine now until we get you to shore. But if you need meds for the pain, let me know.”
“I will thank you.” She had no plan of taking any of the pills. She’d not done yet aside from what they gave her when she first got onboard. Nothing since though.
Dark eyes stared at her and she understood he knew she wouldn’t ask for anything. He nodded to Galen and again left the room.
The minute they were alone she slid to the floor. Galen closed his fingers about her wrist. Her back to him, she squeezed her eyes shut, composed her expression to wipe away the turmoil his touch brought, and faced him. Anxiety warred within her and she did her best to ignore it.
“We need to talk, Tari.”
“What for?” she asked with honest confusion. “You’ve made it perfectly clear you would just pretend we’ve never met. There is nothing else to be said. I can never thank you enough for saving us. I know to you it is meaningless words, but you have my eternal gratitude for not letting us...me die on that ship.” She gently removed his fingers from her wrist. “Good bye, Galen.”
Turning she headed for the door determined to make good her escape before the first hot tear fell. He caught her before she even got to the handle. A strong hand caught her right forearm, covering her old scar before he whirled her around to face him. His features were tense with frustration. Quicksilver eyes had darkened dangerously.
“Not good bye,” he uttered with frankness.
Blinding fury threatened to choke her. He’d pushed her away, hurt her with his indifference and now he thought to change the game? She was no one’s play toy.
“Yes, Galen. Good bye.” She glared pointedly to where he held her and back to his face. “I refuse to force my presence on people who obviously don’t want it!” Her words were clipped. She was furious by her unreasonable vulnerability to him, for all she wanted to do was ask him to hold her. Kiss her. Erase the past memories which kept her up at night.
Galen released her only to use his larger, stronger body to trap her between him and the room’s only exit. He stared down at her, hesitating, his expression measuring. Then he moved again. No slow calculated steps but so fast she basically missed it. He had his hands on either side of her head and had his handsome face directly in hers. His hard thighs pressed against her creating havoc in her system.
“Oh, believe me, Tari,” he purred in a deep and dusty voice. “I want it.”
She gulped only to find her throat had become desert dry. He trailed his tongue along the shell of her ear, nipping the earringless lobe.
“I want you naked so I could lick every inch of your delectable body. Learn your curves, sink my tongue deep inside you, and eat your cream. Let it soak my tongue.” Another nip, this time along the pulse in her neck. “I want to bury my cock in you, feel you come apart around me as I thrust into you. Hard and fast.” He nipped again. “Slow and tender. It doesn’t matter so long as it’s me and you.”
He drew back and stared into her eyes. “I wanted you the second I got to your side. You were so brave and so damn beautiful. Still are. All that’s changed is it’s more so now that I know you are my angel from school.” His gaze dropped to her lips and back up. “Mine.”
Her knees shook. He trailed a hand up her side, setting off a firestorm of emotions within her.
“Now that I know...my craving has only amplified. So never think I don’t want you, Tari. I do. I want you with a ferocity I don’t think you realize. I’m so hard right now I could punch a hole in the damn ship.” His eyes were aflame with passion as he raked them over her face. “I have to stay away because I don’t know if I can be gentle right now.”
He kissed her. Slanted his mouth over hers and sucked the air from her lungs. His tongue surged deep, leaving behind his heady masculine taste. Spirals of ecstasy engulfed her as she felt her body going up in flames. His kiss devoured her, hungry and possessive. She wanted more. The cuts on her lips didn’t matter. Only his kiss.
“I expect to see you at supper, Tari,” he rasped, his voice thick and a bit unsteady. Then he slid out, leaving her alone. And aroused.
For a short time, after he’d left she stood there, amazed, perplexed, and shaken to her very core. She brushed her swollen lips with her fingertips. Galen Maxwell wanted her. Regaining control of her facilities, she made her way slowly to her room and lay back on the bed, heart continuing to pound.
A knock at the door startled her and she realized she’d fallen asleep. Sitting up she ran her fingers through her hair. “Come in.” The door opened and the opening filled with the hard body a man she knew as Ryder.
An attractive man. Blond where Galen was dark. Green eyes to Galen’s silver. Ryder had a leaner build than Galen but she had no doubt of his ability.
“Sorry to disturb you, ma’am,” he said with a slight Southern drawl. “I thought you may wish to go above deck.”
Every fiber of her being sounded off with a resounding affirmative. “Really?” she asked, her excitement flaring.
“Yes ma’am. I thought you might want to be out for a while. Sun will be going down but it’s mighty pretty.”
On her feet, she moved to his side. “I would love to.”
He led her in silence through the corridors and up to the main deck. The moment they made it out into the fresh air, she took a deep breath and let the emanations of the sea flow over and through her. For a while, she just stood there and allowed herself to enjoy the sense of freedom being there gave her.
“Ma’am.”
She opened her eyes to stare at Ryder. “Please call me, Taryn.”
“Taryn. I have some food set over there if you’d care to eat up here.”
She trailed behind the warrior and sat on the blanket, which held an array of finger foods. Her stomach growled at the presented spread. Ryder lowered his body to the other end of the blanket. The food between them she almost wanted to weep with the pure pleasure of being unconfined.
“Thank you...for this...for everything.”
He ate a bite of his sandwich and assessed her. She knew the feeling but for the moment, she couldn’t care less. All that mattered was she had fresh air and the stunning array of colors one only got to witness at sea. No walls closed in around her, no anything to make her shiver in fear.
“Nothing to thank.” He waved the sandwich in her general direction. “Why isn’t anyone looking for you?”
A straightforward question. One that sent a shaft of pain deep into her heart. Chewing on the inside of her lower lip, she searched for a good way to respond.
“I have no one.” No one she wanted in her life. That bit she left off for he didn’t need to know.
“No family?” He shrugged. “That’s what Galen said.”
“Bane said that?”
Blond brows rose. “Bane? Is that what you call him?”
She flushed and cursed her lax tongue. “I don’t call him anything. I used to call him that but he’s assured me that person no longer exists.”
Something akin to laughter crossed his expression. “But you knew him as a kid?”
She knew he already knew the answer to that. “I knew him in seventh and eighth grade.”
“What was he like?”
Tari bristled slightly. “Mr. Ryder, if you want to learn of Galen’s past you will have to look elsewhere. If he hasn’t shared it with you, he has his reasons. And despite his claims that person—the Galen I knew—is gone, that boy was my friend and I won’t betray him.”
Ryder grinned and leaned a bit closer. “I think you’ll do just fine, Taryn. And there’s no mister. Ryder is fine.”
Her brows drew together. “Just fine for what?”
“To save him.” She shook her head in confusion. “You see, Taryn, my friend Galen is of the belief he doesn’t deserve to be happy. Like he’s atoning for something from his past. Galen and I have been to hell and back more times than I can recall. Each time more darkness surrounds him. It is beginning to eat him alive.”
She sat there and listened while the sky dissolved into oranges, reds, yellows, and purples. The urge to find Galen ran roughshod over her. She remained instead with Ryder.
“I thought he was an impenetrable wall. Until he realized who you were. Everything changed. I saw him feel something for the first time in a very long time.”
Tari swallowed a few times before placing her fork back on the plate. “I fail to see what this has to do with me.”
“Really?” he asked with disbelief.
Ignoring his doubt, she continued, “He doesn’t even want to remember he knows me. Much less have me try to save him.”
Ryder merely smiled, one that contradicted her and basically for all intents and purposes set her teeth on edge. It dawned on her.
“That’s what this meal is about isn’t it?” she demanded, waving at the food between them. “To test your crazy theory about Galen actually giving a crap about something. And you think I am that something.” She shook her head resolutely. “It won’t work.”
Ryder lifted a brow but said nothing. She fought the urge to squirm under his unblinking gaze.
It wouldn’t work. Would it?
She flushed at the recollection of their last encounter and she almost panted as if Galen touched her versus just the memory of his heated caresses. Deliberately forgetting that she squared her shoulders.
“He doesn’t care.”
Ryder’s gaze moved past her and she turned to follow his line of sight only to come face to face with a scowling Galen Maxwell. Facing Ryder again, he merely gave another almost mocking smile and got up before walking off without a single word. Leaving her alone with an extremely furious Galen. She reached for a piece of chicken.
“I told you to be at dinner.” The words fell like ice.
She chewed slowly ignoring the desire to growl in rebellion at his whip-like command. “I am at dinner.”
“You’re on deck, Tari.”
“Really?” she drolled snidely waving the chicken around. “Is that what this is called? I thought I was still in a small hold with no windows and a rank-ass bag over my head. Thank you for telling me otherwise.”
He sank before her, shoving Ryder’s plate out of the way. “Damn it, Tari. It could be dangerous here.”
“Good thing I was well protected then. Ryder seems capable of ensuring a woman’s safety.”
It may have been only her imagination, but she thought flames licked at his eyes and fury rippled along his expression. With a low curse, he shoved to his feet and glared down at her.
“That who you want, Tari? Ryder?”
No! “Men are men,” she said as the sky deepened to darkness. Her eyes found a star and fixated upon it. “All the same when the lights are off.”
This time he definitely growled.
“When did you get like this, Tari?”
“None of your business, Galen.”
“The hell is isn’t.”
She snapped to her feet, quivering with rage. “Trust me, it is not your concern. I’m not something you get to conveniently forget about until you figure you can use me. I’m not a toy to be on the shelf and played with on occasion. Don’t fool yourself, Galen.”
Tari stepped closer and shoved her finger in his chest. “If I want to sleep with Ryder then that is between him and me. Not you. Remember, we have no past. So stop calling me Tari, Bane. That is a name from my past and she, much like your precious Bane, is gone. I don’t care if you want me and I sure as hell don’t care if I wanted you. It won’t happen!”
Spinning, she saw Ryder and Martha standing there. Tears gathered and when Martha cut her eyes at Galen and back to her before opening her arms, Tari never hesitated before running into them. She needed comfort and allowed the woman to lead her back to her small room, each step opening the crack in her heart even more.
His need for her was only physical. She could have been a whore for all the emotion he would give her.
“Come child.” Martha drew her close and held her while the tears streamed unchecked down her face.
When they stopped she pulled away, embarrassed for her action. Martha merely smiled, got a brush, moved behind her seated body, and began working on her hair.
“This Galen means a lot to you,” she said after having worked in silence for a while.
Tari closed her eyes against the pain just hearing his name brought. “Yes.”
“He cares for you, too.”
Words Tari had no inclination to believe. As Martha brushed then braided her hair, she came to a decision. Perhaps she’d been hasty in her anger. She and Galen were attracted to one another. If he could be calculated about sex, surely she could do the same thing. Surely not just men could do sex for sex sake. Enjoy his body and the pleasure he brought all the while guarding her heart. Her lips curled up in an unconscious smile.
The perfect plan.
