He shook his head. "You're wrong, Libby. I do know you." He sighed. "Here's the thing, Libby. I've never felt happy before. I didn't realize it. I knew something was missing, but I didn't know I wasn't happy until I actually sat down with you and talked. Being with you makes me happy. I feel good about myself. I don't actually think that much about myself, or life in general for the most part, and then when I'm with you, there I am. All the adrenaline rushes in the world just don't compare to the way you make me feel."
Libby could see it was a terrible struggle for Tyson to choose his words with care in an attempt to convince her he meant what he said. And what was he saying? Surely he wasn't proposing. "I'm not positive where you're going with this, Ty. Obviously I enjoy being with you or I wouldn't keep saying yes when you ask me out."
"But then you didn't really say yes. I tricked you the first time and bullied you and then seduced you."
He let go of her hand and walked along the circular drive toward the path that led to the bluff. Libby followed behind him, hating that she was enough of an empath that she could feel the ache in his heart. It seemed an intrusion on his carefully constructed world. He didn't let people in and yet he was wide open to her.
"Tyson," she told him softly, "if I didn't want to be with you, I assure you, I wouldn't be. Each one of those times we spent together, I came of my own free will because I wanted to be with you."
Looking around at the beautiful house, the grounds, the view of the sea, Libby knew this was everything she could have ever wanted in a home. The path made of marble ended in a wide circle at the edge of the cliff. A wrought iron fence provided a barrier, but it was a perfect vista for the incredible view. She stood beside Ty, aching for him, wanting to find the right words to stop whatever storm was coming. She could feel the tension in him, feel it building around them, so she felt edgy and restless.
"I bought this house for you, Libby." He sounded bleak, almost harsh, the expression in his eyes desolate.
Her heart boomed nearly as loudly as the sea below them. "Why, Ty? Why would you do that?"
"I wanted you to see all of me, not just the person the rest of the world sees." His smile was grim. "I do have good parts in me somewhere."
"Do you think I need you to buy me a house to see what's inside of you, Ty?" She wrapped her fingers around his wrist and gave a little tug until he turned to face her. "I'm looking at you, Tyson Derrick, and believe me, I see who you are."
"You deserve the best in the world, Libby."
A small smile curved her mouth, but failed to reach her eyes. "Maybe you should see the real me. You're so worried I won't see all sides of you, but I think you're only seeing what you want to see of me. I'm not perfect and I never will be. And you're right, I don't know how to say no to people even when I should--especially when I should." She ducked her head. "Healing comes with a price. Most of the time, I don't take on the injury, I just send the energy needed to promote healing. That weakens me, but it isn't that dangerous. My sisters are tied to me, just as I am to them. If I choose to heal someone who is mortally wounded . . ."
"Like Jonas." Like me. He couldn't even think about what she'd risked for him.
She nodded. "Like Jonas, then I endanger not only my life, but the lives of my sisters as well. I'm usually very cautious, but it can be difficult to say no or to turn my back when a parent is begging me, or a child is injured beyond normal aid--or if it is someone who I feel affection for."
"You aren't God, Libby, any more than I am. We do what we can and live with everything else." And if he had anything to do with it, she would never put her life or health in jeopardy again.
"I've been to Africa, Ty, and many other countries where they have no food or medicine, where children can't go to school and be educated. It's difficult to see and feel so many children, so many people just thrown away as if they don't matter."
He framed her face with his hands, bending down slightly until his head was nearly touching hers. "It won't help them to hurt yourself, Libby. You're a doctor and in that capacity alone you can do tremendous good. And you don't have to apologize for the way you are or explain it to me. I just know I'm supposed to be with you. I know I can make your life better in so many ways." It seemed so much easier to talk to her there in the dark, with the ocean booming below and the night sky scattered with stars. She was restful and yet exciting. She was also a mixture of compassion and steel that intrigued him.
"I know what Harry and Sam said upset you, Ty," Libby said. "I have no interest in your money."
"That doesn't make me as happy as you think it would. If you were interested in money, I'd have something to offer you."
He was like a small boy offering her his treasures, one by one, in an attempt to entice her to stay with him. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and hold him safe forever. "I thought you said I needed you."
"You do, but you probably aren't ready to admit that yet."
She shrugged. "I don't know. Thinking about needing someone in my life other than my family makes me feel more vulnerable than I've ever felt before. We have a prophecy in our family about a gate and finding our true love." She laughed softly. "My sisters and I padlocked the gate just to make certain we were safe."
He touched her face, his gloved finger tracing a path over her cheekbone. "You locked out your true loves? You're dashing all my illusions. Aren't women born wanting marriage?"
Libby burst out laughing. "I think men want to believe that, but no, surprisingly enough, many of us like our independence and view marriage as a male institution."
He threw both hands into the air. "Now you're really shaking me. How is marriage a male's institution?"
"All the advantages are on his side. We women earn money and run our own lives now. If we take on a male, we have to still do all the other wifely chores as well as earn the money." She grinned at him. "How is that appealing?"
"Fine, I'll learn to cook."
"You'll never learn to cook, Ty, so don't even go there."
"Can't you wiggle your nose or something and have dinner on the table?"
"You sound so hopeful. I think Hannah can do that. Maybe you're going for the wrong sister." The smile faded from her face. "I thought about you so often, but you seemed to disapprove of me. I had no idea you looked at me."
"How could I not look at you? Come on, Libby, you're beautiful and intelligent and sexy as hell. Any man in his right mind would be looking at you. I just didn't think in terms of permanency."
"You mean you thought my entire family was a group of charlatans."
"Well, yes. How in the world did you ever come to accept that you could manipulate energy in some way without trying to find a scientific explanation for it? I would have been conducting experiments every day until I figured it out."
"Not if you grew up with it as commonplace. The talents have been in my family for generations. No one thinks about how we do it, just that we do and we have to learn to control and accept the gifts from the time we're children. It isn't all that easy, so the wonder of our talent sometimes gets lost in the wielding of it."
"You should feel special, gifted."
Libby turned in his arms, sinking back against him to look out over the ocean. "Not most of the time. Most of the time what we do is taken for granted, just a part of our lives we don't think about. When we were children, we felt different, apart." She glanced up at him. "Probably the way you felt when you realized you thought and learned on an entirely different level than most people."
He rubbed his chin on the top of her head. "Superior maybe. I was pretty full of myself growing up. I think I had a chip on my shoulder."
"You're bossy and a bit on the arrogant side."
"I'm right. And you need me to help shield you a little bit from all the demands you place on yourself."
"I do?" She laughed softly. "That's the arrogance talking."
"No, it isn't. Don't you want a family? Children? Do you see yourself without a family? Striking a
balance is a good thing, Libby."
"With you telling me what that balance is?"
He shrugged. "Someone needs to, Libby."
She pulled out of his arms, spinning around to glare at him. "Has it occurred to you I've done a pretty good job of running my life so far without anyone telling me what to do?"
"I didn't think it would fly, but I thought I'd give it a shot."
He gave her a lopsided grin that tugged at her heart. Libby shook her head. Sadness lurked in the shadows in his eyes. Always there. No one else seemed to see it, not even Tyson, but it never went away. Something deep inside her responded, needed to take away that look of lonely pain and replace it with something altogether different. "Someone has to take you in hand, Ty. It may as well be me."
"Let's go look at the house."
"No way. If I go up there you're going to try to seduce me and I get weak every time you kiss me."
"I'm going to seduce you whether we're in the house or out here, so you may as well be somewhere warm." His voice roughened, a seduction in itself.
A tremor went through Libby, her body tightening with instant response. It wasn't going to take much on his part. She felt she'd wanted him her entire life. Alone, in the middle of the night when her life was empty and she felt empty, she dreamt of this one man, fantasized a thousand ways of pleasing him. Of having him for herself. Even when she'd cried at a perceived slight or a careless word from him, she'd still dreamt of his hands stroking her body and his mouth taking control of hers.
Tyson groaned as he swept her into his arms. "You can't look at me like that and not expect me to take you up on it." The naked longing on her face was his undoing. He began walking her backwards up the path toward the double doors. He didn't give her time to think about it, kissing her over and over. Erotic, hot, arousing kisses as he shoved her leather jacket off her shoulders, so that it fell unnoticed on the walkway.
He opened the door and pushed her inside, following after her, crowding her up against the far wall, his arms caging her in as he leaned his weight against her, his mouth already devouring hers. Libby might not want his money, but she wanted his kisses and there were other ways to make sure she didn't want to leave him. He had tonight to convince her she belonged with him, and he meant to take every advantage, keep her off balance and unthinking until she was so wrapped up in him she'd stay with him forever.
Behind them, the door swung closed and she was his. How long had he waited for this moment? Years. He had wanted Libby for far too long and his control was fast slipping away. Her mouth was dark and hot and moist and the taste and feel of her was wildly addicting. He needed her skin beneath him, all of it, her body open to his, wanting his. No one in his life that he could ever remember had been his alone and he wanted Libby. This one woman. It was all he was asking, all he would take. This one gift for himself.
"I can't breathe, Ty," she whispered against his neck, her fingers biting into his shoulders. "I really can't."
"You don't have to breathe, Libby, I'll breathe for you," he answered, ravenous for her. He needed her the same way, needed her willing to do anything for him. God help him, he needed her. That was all there was to it. Reality. He was locked away from the rest of the world in a dark place where nothing could touch him until there was Libby. She was his passport, his sunlight, his one way out of solitary confinement--the dungeon that was his life. Libby with her sexy mouth and her sultry eyes and skin that cried out to be touched. If he didn't have her tonight, he wouldn't survive.
He kept her pinned against the wall, holding her in place with his mouth on hers, while he tossed his jacket aside and managed to get out of his shirt. He was fast losing his ability to think clearly. There were so many sensations crowding in, his body harder and fuller than it had ever been. He'd always approached sex as a science, the art of anatomy, the top of his class. It was all about the right spots, the right touch, skill, but most of all control. But everything was all different with Libby.
"Don't say yes if you plan on walking away from me, Libby. I don't work that way." His voice was harsh, strained, even as he tugged the blouse over her head to toss it away from them. He didn't wait for her reply, already leaning into her to find her neck, her throat with the heat of his mouth as he flicked away the catch on her bra. He slid his palms up her waist to cup the slight weight of her breasts in his hands, his eyes closing to savor the feel of her satiny skin. It was softer than he'd ever imagined.
Nothing he'd done before had prepared him for his reaction to her. His heart pounded with need, his body trembled with it, and air refused to pass through his lungs. Somehow, Libby managed to shatter his iron control. He kissed his way down her neck to the edge of the swell of her breasts before opening his eyes.
"You are so damned beautiful," he said. "Kick off your shoes, and get rid of your jeans. Hurry, baby, I'm burning up."
Libby felt helpless to resist the command in his voice, the aching hunger that roughened his voice or the intensity burning in the depths of his eyes. His hands were so sure on her body, no hesitation, no holding back, possessive and authoritative as if he knew exactly what he was doing and where he was taking them.
She couldn't look away from his gaze as she managed to struggle out of her shoes and drop her hands to her jeans. Her breath caught in her throat. She was already throbbing for him, her desire past any point she'd ever been before. She just wanted to give herself to him, and give herself up to the pleasures his mouth, teeth, tongue, hands and body could give her. She wanted him for herself with almost a desperation.
Holding his gaze, she slowly began to peel off her jeans and underwear, stepping out of them and letting them drop to the floor. Libby lifted her chin, as his blue eyes shifted to inspect her naked body. His gaze slid over her small, pert breasts to the tucked-in waist and flat belly, then lower still until she saw him still, his breath stopping abruptly, his tongue touching suddenly dry lips. She loved the shudder that went through his body, the lust that darkened his eyes when he saw she was smooth and soft everywhere.
Ty drew off his boots and socks and threw them a distance from them. "Now my jeans, Libby."
She couldn't tear her gaze from his as she did as he said. Each brush of her fingers against the bulge stretching the front of the material sent another shudder of pleasure through his body. Her entire body tingled, pulsed with life, was aware only of him. Slowly, loving the expression on his face, she unzipped his jeans and put both hands into the waistband to begin pulling the denim down.
She had to work to get his jeans off and in doing so she found herself staring in awe at his heavy erection. The breath rushed from her lungs and a soft moan escaped. His shaft jumped in response. She straightened slowly, leaning back against the wall and allowed her gaze to drift over his naked body, inch by slow inch.
"I want to feel your hands on me," he said. "Now, Libby, wrap your fingers around me."
His voice was so hoarse, so rough, she felt a tremor run down her spine. She cupped his sac in her palms, slid her fingers in a long caress over him, shaped the thick shaft and ran fingertips over the engorged head. The heat was astounding.
At the first touch of her hands, he lost all control and with a groan of pure carnality, he lowered his mouth to her nipple. A strangled groan escaped her as she arched her body into his, one hand stroking down the silken length of him, while the other clutched his hair. Her breathing turned ragged. He used his tongue, stroking as he suckled, wringing a shocked gasp of pleasure from her.
His hand slid up the inside of her thigh, knuckles brushing the sensitive bare mound between her legs. Her skin was softer than he'd ever imagined. She was so moist and ready and he hadn't even gotten started. "I could eat you alive, Libby."
She ran her hands over his chest, up to his neck and pressed close to him. "Now you get hungry."
"Don't worry." Tyson lifted her easily into his arms. "I've got plans to take care of that." He laid her on the rug in front of the fireplace, his body stret
ched out beside hers, his hand covering the perfection of that soft mound. At his touch, her body jerked and a soft cry escaped. He leaned over her to catch her next sob of excitement with his lips as he slowly sank one finger into her inviting wet channel.
He loved her mouth. He'd dreamt of her mouth, the shape and fullness, the way she could look so sultry one moment, pouting and laughing the next. He tugged at her lower lip with his teeth, his tongue shaping the curves and sucking lightly while she moaned softly. It aroused him even more to watch the expressions chasing across her face, the naked need and stark emotion. For him. All for him.
Libby couldn't look away from the harsh lines in Tyson's face. His expression should have been sculpted for all time, pure sensuality, a dark promise of pleasure. He swept his tongue over her nipple, a curling flame that seemed to sink through her skin to rush straight to her groin. Her muscles clamped around his fingers. He pressed kisses down her belly, alternating with licks and tiny teasing bites until she thrashed under his lips and teeth, thinking the pleasure was nearly unbearable.
He moved down farther, pushing her thighs apart, leaning close to nuzzle her bare mound. The sensations on the swollen nerve endings caused her to gasp, to jerk her hips as another small cry escaped. Libby couldn't seem to catch her breath. He watched her, his gaze hot, his tongue tasting his own lips before he settled between her thighs. The sensual look on his face sent her pulse careening out of control.
"Ty. I don't think I can take this."
His small smile was all knowing. "I think you're going to come apart in my arms, Libby. Just give yourself to me."
Control. He was telling her he wanted control. Libby closed her eyes, fingers digging into the thick rug beneath her as he lowered his head and licked across her sensitive mound. Her entire body jerked. The hell with control. Libby Drake was going over to the bad girl side. Nothing had ever felt so good. Nothing had ever made her feel so alive, so beautiful, so wanted, so sexy. Or rather, no one ever had. Stretched out naked on the thick rug with Tyson between her thighs, she gave herself up to the sheer beauty of just feeling.
Tyson breathed on her shivering body and his tongue moved over her again in another long stroke, curled and caressed, dipped deep and then she heard herself crying his name as he suckled hard, tongue stabbing deep, rasping and rubbing over her most sensitive spot. She couldn't stay still, thrashing under him, her head falling back and forth, her lungs burning, burning for air, while her body tightened and tightened, straining and building until she though she'd explode.