Drive Me Sane Read online

  Yes, she was; every clear detail. Their first time together wasn’t a painful memory. Well, there was a little discomfort, but she much preferred to think of it as a beautifully raw act. Magical came to mind, because the ending had felt very magical, but magic wasn’t real and the memory of what it felt like for Tyler to press into her with ease for the first time was very real. Gentle and understanding when she asked him to take it slower, she couldn’t imagine sharing that experience with anyone else.

  “I was,” she admitted, the fluttering low in her belly back. It was the reason she’d gotten up in the first place, needing something to distract her from making love to Tyler in her head. And what did she do? Start talking to him about it. Smooth, Sera, smooth.

  “So you remember this …”

  The cold jetted spray to her face was so unexpected she had no words at first, but then let out, “That was cold,” with a giggle before scurrying to retaliate. She didn’t even make it to the bucket before he grabbed her hands, clutching them behind her back.

  “Oh, no, you don’t,” he said.

  She twisted, trying to shrug out of his grasp. He tightened his hold, trapping her with his arms.

  “You remember where this got you before, don’t you?” he asked with a smirk. She definitely remembered: wet from the inside out. “Let go!” she yelled. The twisting and turning did her no good. He overpowered her easily.

  Tyler chuckled with pleasure. Sera wriggled her hips back and forth, trying to bend out of his grip. Her face, although strung with intent, teased with a sparkle. She asked him to release her, all the while laughing as she did. The sound only encouraged him to pull her tighter, until her back was planked up against the door of his truck. Stepping in, he trapped her. With nowhere to go, her gaze soared up to meet his.

  The shock of the cold water might be able to explain the tips of her nipples straining through her shirt, but she had no defense for the wanton look blazing out of her eyes. His hands fell around her backside and even in the loosened grip, she didn’t move. He picked her up, not needing to coax her legs around his waist. Her arms swung around his neck and suddenly they were living in the past. Eight years prior with raging hormones.

  The ridge in his shorts jolted to attention. Stretching, it implored to plunge into the apex of her thighs, already feeling the warm encompass it would offer. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured, nudging in deeper.

  Her breath heavy, Sera clung to Tyler’s shoulder, thankful for the support he and the pickup provided. Her calves were lithe—she couldn’t have stood if she wanted to—but her hips were taut with energy. She cupped the hardness pressed firmly against her thin shorts. The flexing and writhing came automatically. His body had an effect on her she couldn’t control. Needing more, she surrendered. Lips parted, she tilted her face up and took his mouth. It was if he was waiting for it. He wanted her permission to move forward, but from the moment their tongues met, he took back over control. Dipping and teasing, leaving her panting for air every time his mouth moved down to her neck, nibbling at the sensitive area on her shoulder. His hands toyed with the swells rising through her shirt. She gasped. He moaned. And then the sound of a car door made them jump out of their sexual trance.

  “Dammit,” Tyler said under his breath.

  She felt his hard point slide up her stomach coming to a rest just below her breastbone as he let her glide to her feet. They’d been so engrossed in their tryst they hadn’t heard the car coming up the drive.

  Legs quivering, she gained her bearings, letting Tyler tend to the visitor—or visitors, she assumed, when she heard several immature giggles all at once.

  “I’m sorry to bother you, but my mom said she thought you were staying here and we were wondering if you would sign our CDs.”

  Sera gave the squeaky-voiced teenage girl credit for her bravery. She was also thankful that the carload had interrupted when they had. A few more minutes and clothes would have been flying in the front yard. Suddenly feeling a chill from the dampness clinging to her body, she stepped out around the truck, gave Tyler a wave, and left him with his adolescent fans.

  • • •

  Not once since he’d started singing had Tyler not wanted to stop what he was doing to sign a few autographs. That was, until the carload of teenagers interrupted his and Sera’s rendezvous. Annoyed to the point of anger, his first reaction had been to pick up a rock and chuck it their way, hoping they’d take the hint and disappear. However, they weren’t skittish animals who would run off with the gesture. They were humans. Young humans, who had spent their money—or maybe their parents’ money, considering how young they were—on his album. No, they shouldn’t have invaded his privacy, but after fifteen minutes spent taking pictures and signing everything from their shirts, hats, and CD covers, he was glad they had.

  He and Sera had been on the verge of losing total control. Not that he cared, except he didn’t have condoms and had no idea if Sera was still on the pill, and he was certain that neither would have mattered if it came to that point. He would have taken her right then. And they didn’t need a little baby Creech added into this already tangled mess. So instead of going in and picking up where they left off, when his company left, he went back to washing his truck.

  But an hour later, as he put up his bucket and went inside, he could still taste every sweet twirl of her tongue, could feel every parting welcome of her hips. The desire to make love to her was consuming. Every time he looked at or touched her, he felt his groin stiffen and while he was ready, he wasn’t sure she was. Her body might have thought so, but her mind was still trying to process what was happening between them and the last thing he wanted her to have was regrets.

  She was sitting on the couch with her phone to her ear when he went inside. He got a drink, then, seeing she was still in the same position, although not talking and just listening, he went to get cleaned up. She hadn’t moved when he returned. Her mouth didn’t look like it had even opened in the half hour that he’d been gone. She wasn’t mad or happy. She looked bored more than anything. The roll of her eyes as he went to the kitchen confirmed his suspicions.

  Grabbing a pizza from the freezer, he was opening the box when she came in after finishing her call.

  “How is Sylvia?” he asked, knowing she was talking to her mom.

  “Good,” she answered, hopping up on the countertop next to the stove.

  “Good as in good or good as in the same?”

  “Actually, she’s doing all right. Same man for over a year now and she’s still working in the office at the insurance company.”

  “That is good.” He popped the pizza in the oven, then went to stand between her legs. Holding onto her waist, he said, “I’m beat.”

  “Those girls wear you out?” she asked, pressing her hands to his cheeks, massaging the skin underneath his eyes.

  The warmth from her palms had him humming with need again. He tried distracting the reaction by focusing on the conversation. “There was a guy too, just so you know.” He tilted his head down, teasing her with a curl of his lips.

  “I’m not jealous of some teenagers,” she said.

  “No?”

  “Nope.” She shook her head, smiling.

  “Good,” he recounted, opening the oven door to check inside. When he glanced back up, he caught a distant look on her face. “Everything okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You got that look.”

  “What kind of look is that?”

  She wrinkled her nose up in this cute little way that had him moving to stand between her legs again. “The kind that usually means something’s wrong.” Except she wasn’t acting like anything was amiss—her thighs trapped him, her core pressing against the bulk of him.

  “I was just thinking that I never thanked you for the tickets.”

  If her arms weren’t clasped around his neck, he probably would have stepped back. The mentioning of the one time he’d reached out to try to make right of the past cut to hi
m sharply. Struggling to remain unnerved, he dropped his gaze to her lap. “Did you go?”

  • • •

  The apprehension of where their conversation might lead marred Tyler’s face. Sera disliked the way he automatically assumed they’d float back into disharmony whenever something of their past was mentioned, but that honestly hadn’t been her plan. She was trying to do right for once and the tickets had been weighing on her for a while. “I didn’t, but I should have at least sent a thank-you note or something.”

  He stepped out of her arms to check the pizza, but didn’t return when he saw it still had a few minutes to go. She already felt a loss, and wanted him back. The reaction was completely crazy, being that they were still relatively new to what was going on between them, but since the mood was set, she decided to delve further. “Why did you send them?”

  He leaned against the counter, staring down at the floor. “I was in Texas. You were in Texas. It seemed like a good idea.”

  He shrugged as if it weren’t a big deal, but it was. Whether it was what happened outside earlier or the ease of which they’d fallen back into acting like a couple, she suddenly felt as if something needed to be said or asked. She just wasn’t sure what.

  Letting him tend to their dinner, she didn’t speak again until he was almost done slicing the pizza. “I couldn’t go.” Giving her a quick glance, he grabbed two plates, seeming to know what she was talking about. “I had just gotten back and I was a mess. I couldn’t have dealt with you then.”

  Putting a piece on each plate, he pushed one toward her, then took his stance back up against the counter, this time crossing his ankles and arms. His forehead scrunched up in concern, and she knew when he opened his mouth, nothing good was going to come out.

  “Maybe if you had dealt with me then, or even taken my call three years ago, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.”

  Nope, definitely not what she wanted to discuss, but at least they weren’t yelling, although the somber tone in Tyler’s voice made her heart ache. “For the record, I didn’t ignore your call. I had to report to formation. By the time it was over, you’d already left the voicemail.”

  Her stomach curdled in response to the gulp of air that she saw slide down his throat as his eyes cast to the side. The pain of seeing him struggle was overwhelming.

  “So you would have answered if you’d been there when I called back?”

  Her throat ran dry. “Yes.”

  The anguish too much, she jumped down and stood behind him when he turned around and pressed his hands into the countertop. “Hey,” she offered, hoping to release some of the tension.

  “Damn.” He shook his head. “I thought the timing of the last week has been shitty, but it was pretty fucking shitty years ago too.”

  Unable to pull back his arm to force him to face her, she wedged herself in between him and the counter, laying her hands against his chest. “Come on, let’s not do this. I didn’t mean to start an argument.”

  His head dropped to hers. He pulled her in tight. “We aren’t arguing. I’m just pissed. Pissed that my future was determined because of a missed phone call.”

  When he put it like that, it didn’t seem fair. She wondered how differently things might have been, had she been there when he called. She would have realized how difficult she’d been and then apologized for it and they would have made up. There was a good possibility that with Tyler still in the picture, she and Rollins wouldn’t have grown as close as they had. If she’d had Tyler to lean on, she wouldn’t have relied so much on Rollins and then maybe things would be different for him too. So much was contingent on that one missed phone call. It was as if her life had changed in that very moment.

  “Hey,” Tyler said, thumbing tears out of her eyes that she didn’t know were there. “It’s all right. I just …”

  He was as lost for words as she. He circled his arms around her and they stood, taking the quiet of the room in, both struggling with what to say next.

  “I thought you would come back,” he finally let out.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I never expected not to hear from you again.”

  She blinked, trying to keep the tears at bay. “You told me it was over.”

  “Actually.” He ran his finger over her bottom lip. “I said maybe we both needed a break.”

  “Same thing.”

  “Not really, but it doesn’t matter because I never meant it.”

  “What did you mean to happen, then?”

  “Honestly?” He let out a sigh. “I thought you’d fight for me. For us.”

  She laughed. “So you broke up with me thinking I’d come running back to you? That’s a little pretentious, don’t you think?”

  “No. I thought you’d at least give me a piece of your mind, though, and then it would just work itself out like it always had before.”

  How many times she’d thought about doing just that. Writing a letter or giving a call, but she could never put the words to paper or force herself to pick up the phone. It was as if the idea of fighting in a war drained her desire to fight for anything else. “My mind was already thousands of miles away. I was dealing with what I would be faced with over there. I didn’t have the strength to fight for you.”

  “I know,” he said, his face dipping down for a kiss. “I realize that now, and I’m sorry. I should have fought harder for you.”

  CHAPTER 15

  Sera looked on hesitantly as Tyler hitched Roy’s boat to his truck. Her uncle had some peculiarities; his lawn and his boat were two of them. She didn’t think Roy would approve of them taking the boat out and she really didn’t want to start off on his bad side when he got back from Florida if something should happen.

  “Tyler, I really don’t think this is a good idea.”

  He simply gave her a look that that implied she was raining on his parade. He’d woken up excited about fishing that morning. She was thrilled with the idea too—that was, until she realized he planned to take the boat.

  “You know how he is with his boat.”

  “Yeah, I know.” He ignored her warnings, continuing to secure the boat to his truck.

  “You should call him.”

  “Sera, it’s okay. Using his boat is one of the perks that comes along with being his stepson.”

  Climbing in the truck, she had nothing more to say. Tyler started the thunderous motor, roaring the engine to life. The sound was completely out of place in the quietness of the holler, yet she paid little attention as the idea of Roy and Tyler now related—although not by blood—seemed even more awkward.

  Finally as they maneuvered down the gravel road, she said, “You know that makes us step-cousins, don’t you?” She cocked her head and smiled, waiting to see what he might say in return.

  Giving a cheesy grin, he replied, “Kissing cousins?”

  “That’s gross,” she threw back.

  “Well, we are in Kentucky.”

  She wrinkled her nose at the thought. “Kind of weird, though, isn’t it? I mean your mom and him?”

  “Not really. They spent a lot of time together because of us. It doesn’t surprise me. I saw it coming.”

  Roy was still on her mind when they got out onto the water. Her uncle, even with his gruff stance on life, and oddities, was the kindest soul she’d ever met. He was the only father figure she’d ever known. Yet he’d been so much more than that. Some people had single moms or dads. She had a single uncle, whom she was certain had saved her from a life destined for destruction.

  “I’m glad they have each other,” she said, happy that Diana appreciated her uncle’s quirks.

  “Huh?” Tyler asked as he cast his line deep out into the lake.

  “Your mom and Roy … I’m glad they’re together.”

  • • •

  Tyler craned his neck to look back at Sera. Perched up on the bench seat at the back of the boat, she showed off her trim arms with an orange tank top, which she’d rolled up, allo
wing the sun to reflect off the five inches of golden skin just below her breast to the edge of her hips. For a moment, he forgot about what he was doing. The woman was driving him insane. Not only emotionally, but physically too. He thought more than once last night about finding an excuse to run into town to buy protection. Having to sleep next to her with the memory of their encounter from earlier in the day still on his mind tormented him in every imaginable way. He was thick with need when they slipped into bed and then had woken in the same manner that morning. If their bodies met again like they had while washing his truck, he wasn’t sure he’d have the willpower to pull back if she was willing to go further. If it did happen, he wanted to be prepared for it, which was why he was running by the store on the way home.

  “I mean, I don’t want him to be alone for the rest of his life.”

  He continued to stare, not paying much attention to what she said. Long strands of hair wisped around her face, and her hand smoothed them back only for it to happen again. With one leg bent up toward the sky and the other stretched out straight, she looked perfectly happy.

  “And I like your mom. She was good to me, kind of like having another mom in a way.”

  He really wanted to cover her body with his and to smother her obsessive chatter away with a kiss.

  “Tyler, are you even listening to anything I’m saying?”

  The high-pitched sound of her voice directed his attention from her legs to her face, which was staring prudently at him.

  He chuckled. “Not really. You’re breaking the rules. Remember? Besides, we’re supposed to be fishing, not flapping our jaws.”

  She stuck her tongue out and stood, baiting her hook. “How am I breaking the rules?”

  “We agreed not to talk about anything bad or in the past today. It’s supposed to be a good day.”

  “Roy and your mom are in the present, not the past.”

  She had him. In more ways than one. Sliding over, he leaned in, nuzzling her neck with his mouth. “You’re right. No rules broken, you win.”