Page 66 of Protected from Torment

Suddenly, it’s hard to breathe. “That sounds perfect.”

Tyler grabs Oscar’s leash off the coat rack by the door. “I’ll be right back,” he promises. “Just…” His cheeks go pink. “I’ll be right back.”

He’s nervous, too, I realize. Nervous but excited, just like me.

On the heels of that realization, a rush of protectiveness hits me. This isn’t just about my anxieties. My insecurities. It’s about Tyler’s, too.

And what of his leg? Is he nervous about it? Worried I might look at him differently once I see him without his prosthetic?

I won’t. I don’t care what his leg looks like. In my eyes, Tyler is handsome and sexy and nothing can change that. Not a prosthetic or any amount of scars.

As soon as Tyler goes back outside with Oscar, I race into the bathroom to check my face and hair. Yes, he just saw me. And he wanted to have sex with me then.

Still. A little extra sprucing up can’t hurt, either.

Like a dervish, I brush my teeth, apply a fresh coat of mascara and light dusting of bronzer, give my hair a quick spray of curl refresher, and dab my favorite perfume on my wrists and neck. I briefly consider changing my clothes, but dismiss it just as quickly. No time, and it would be kind of weird, really, for Tyler to walk back inside to find me wearing a new outfit.

I rush back into the living room just as the door opens. Oscar bounds inside and makes a beeline for the kitchen, where he knows the treats are stashed. Tyler follows him in, then turns to lock the door behind him. When he turns back to face me, his eyes widen with appreciation. “You look beautiful, Mel.”

“I look the same as I did before,” I reply, while wondering if I accidentally put on too much blush or if the extra application of mascara made my eyelashes look like caterpillars.

Tyler hurries into the kitchen and grabs a treat for Oscar, leads him over to the doggie bed set up beside the fireplace, and sets the treat on the floor for him. Once Oscar is munching away happily, Tyler crosses the room to me.

“You look the same,” he says, “but I didn’t see you for a few minutes. Whenever I see you again, whether it’s after a few minutes or a few hours, I’m always taken aback by how beautiful you are.”

For a second, I just gape at him.

“What?” His cheeks go all ruddy. “It’s true.”

“That might be the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard,” I reply.

Tyler closes the last few feet between us and pulls me into his arms. “Is it?”

I lean against him, letting his strength envelop me. I breathe in the scent of his soap—Irish Spring, I now know, the same soap he’s been using since he was a teen—and nuzzle the soft skin of his neck. “It is.”

His hand comes to my chin, tipping it up. As he looks down at me, his gaze burns into mine. “You’re beautiful, Mel. Outside and in.”

“So are you.” My hand comes to his biceps. “Everything about you is.”

Tyler traces the line of my jaw with his finger. Then he trails his finger along the side of my cheek, up to one eyebrow, and across to the other. “The first time I saw you,” he says, “I thought you were beautiful. Even in the middle of a storm, I could see it. The sweep of your eyebrows. The lines of your face. The stubborn jut of your chin when you wanted to argue with me. Your eyes that look like the sky in summer. And your smile...”

My heart is a puddle. “What about my smile?”

Tyler’s mouth dips to meet mine. “I’d just knocked you down, and I was holding you in my arms. I was a complete stranger at that point. You could have been mad at me. Scared. But you weren’t. You just smiled at me. And from then on, I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

“I wasn’t scared. Or mad.” As I look into his eyes, I tell him just how I felt. “It felt right, being in your arms like that. I didn’t know why. It just did.”

“Mel.” He kisses me again. Then he lifts me into his arms and cradles me to his chest, which might just be the sexiest thing I’ve ever experienced. “It felt right for me, too.”

CHAPTER 13

TYLER

Everything about Mel is perfect.

The softness of her lips, slightly damp from our kisses and tasting sweetly of the cake we ate at the party.

The silk of her hair as it brushes against my neck, carrying with it the faint aroma of coconut and vanilla.