Page 48 of His to Love
Something I didn’t want any part of.
“Okay,” I whispered, and his grip on my arm finally loosened enough so I could walk away from him. “But I do need to get going.” He said nothing as I left the room and went to his bedroom to get dressed.
But I felt my steps grow heavier with every step I took.
—
I saw a shadow appear in the doorway before I heard Tyson. He knocked on the side of the doorframe and I looked at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. I was now dressed in my clothes from the night before, sans panties, and was drying my face with a towel. My skin screamed for moisturizer after I had washed off the remnants of yesterday’s makeup with simple hand soap, but I still felt better.
“I’m sorry for upsetting you,” he said. His Adam’s apple dipped and his head fell forward as he sighed. “I meant what I said out there, I can’t talk about my cases.”
“But you do know something about those girls.”
“I have a client who is concerned about the disappearances of women, yes.”
It was the truth in a lie. I could tell. Yet I also understood in a way.
“You’re a lawyer, not an investigator, though,” I said, more to myself than him. I was missing a piece that would help his reaction make sense, but I still came up empty.
“My grandfather knows powerful people,” Tyson said, as if that would help.
I shook my head and dropped the subject. I wouldn’t get answers if he couldn’t give them, and he had made it clear that he couldn’t…or wouldn’t.
“Okay.” I nodded, resigned to being left in the dark. He would tell me when he was ready, at least I hoped. I understood the need for confidentiality, but Tyson and I used to tell each other everything. If he was honest about wanting to begin a relationship with me again, then I had to trust he’d tell me what he could, when he could.
“If you’re not still too angry with me,” he said, one side of his lips tilting into a grin, “would you like to shower with me?” He stepped forward, and I saw his anger ease from the darkness in his eyes.
I spun around, leaned against the bathroom vanity, and shamelessly took him in, almost completely naked besides his boxers. A thick bulge in them made it obvious that the shower idea wasn’t solely for cleanliness purposes. I couldn’t resist.
Perhaps, looking back, I could have.
I just really didn’t want to.
In the end, Tyson ended up late for work, and I was hours behind in my job searching. But I didn’t care. As he held me in his arms in the bathroom, drying me off after we showered, I asked him the one question that had been on the tip of my tongue when I first saw him that morning.
“My father is hosting my family’s annual benefit next week,” I said, looking at him in the mirror’s reflection. His shoulders tightened fractionally and he stood up behind me, meeting my gaze.
“Yes?”
“I’d like you to go with me.”
“You sure?” he asked, and his head tilted to the side.
I understood the hesitancy. Before, when we were kids, I had to hide my relationship with him. He hated it, but understood.
“I’m sure.”
He was what I wanted. It was early in our relationship—or whatever this was turning out to be—and we’d both changed a lot in the last ten years. But I wanted to see where this could go, and it couldn’t go anywhere if I dated someone else to make my parents happy. My mom would understand.
Eventually.
Hopefully.
With a brush of his lips against the side of my neck, and a twinkle in his dark blue eyes, Tyson smiled. “Okay, then. I’d love to go with you.”
Chapter 12
I hesitated at the threshold of Detroit Premier Agency, still uncertain if I wanted to be as forward as I was being, résumé in hand on Monday morning.
