Page 61 of Don't You Want Me, Baby?

‘Hey!’ She pretended to swat at him at the same time as clenching his hand tighter in hers. ‘We were best friends first; that’s better.’

He didn’t look entirely convinced, a shadow of something crossing his features. She’d seen him pull that face before, and every time she wanted to kiss it right off his face and dispel it forever. ‘Yeah, we were.’ He bit at his lip. ‘I still wish I’d punched Bradley in the face the second he looked twice at you though. Could have saved a lot of hassle.’ His face was stormy now, but it lifted quickly. ‘We wouldn’t have our little champ though, so fate wasn’t so cruel.’

His expression was pure love now. Calm, content. Her favourite Tyler look.

When he came around to open her door in the restaurant car park, she changed her mind when she saw his dark eyes, lips curledlustily.Okay, so my second favourite.He half pulled her out of her seat and into his arms, his palms settling on the small of her back. ‘It doesn’t matter how long it took to get here.’ He kissed the tip of her nose, then one corner of her mouth. Pulling back with that settled, happy, love-drunk expression on his gorgeously kissable face. ‘I loved you before you knew it. Before you saw me coming. I was like a little stealth love ninja. Feeding you up with cherry pastries.’ He looked at her mouth, his eyes doing that thing they did when he was thinking about her naked. He kissed the corner he’d not tasted yet, slanting his lips to cover her mouth. Take her breathy moan into him like it was oxygen itself. He kissed her hard, deep. Closing the car door with one hand as he gripped her around the waist with the other. She felt the hard surface of the car door as he pushed her against it. ‘My Cherry,’ he groaned as he pulled back. ‘Sweet and juicy.’ This. This was her favourite face on him. The look of pure, unadulterated devotion that shone out of him. Like he would carry the world on his shoulders to protect her. Crush any enemies she encountered. Burn the settlements of her foes and carry her off on his shoulders while everything smouldered around them.

His brows knitted together. ‘You having that lumberjack-carry-you-off fantasy again?’

She giggled before she could stop herself. ‘Nope.’

‘Liar.’ He smirked. ‘What was I doing this time?’

‘Burning my enemies.’

He growled theatrically. ‘The enemy of my woman shall be crushed underfoot.’ His voice was so deliciously low, she felt it rumble throughout her body. Right down into her core. ‘The rivers will run red with their blood as I take my lady back to my mountain lodge for a bit of plundering.’

‘Oooh,’ she laughed against his chest, smelling him as she always did. ‘I do like the odd plunder.’

‘I know,’ he rumbled. ‘You’re smelling me again, like a dachshund would a squeaky toy.’

‘You’re my favourite smell, aside from our baby.’ She curled her fingers into his hair. ‘I swear, I’m about to dry hump you in this car park.’

That elicited another loud groan from him. Releasing her like it was the last thing on earth he wanted to do, he reached for her hands and dropped another kiss on her lips. A chaste one this time. ‘We’d better go in then.’ He released her only to offer her his arm. ‘Shall we, my lady?’

She puffed out a breath, willing her libido to subside enough to enable her legs to walk in a straight line. ‘We shall, my brave protector.’ He held her to his side as if he could sense her shaky legs. ‘I still can’t believe we’re actually doing this.’

They left the car park, both of them coming to a stop together outside Bradley’s latest venture.

Imaginatively named Sloane’s Eatery, it was just how she’d imagined it to look from Brad’s descriptions of his plans when they were together. She didn’t feel a pang, or anything really other than happiness for him. She had her life; he had his. Her dreams had come true and more. Thinking about her and Bradley together now felt like a bit of a bad dream. Like it had been someone else’s life. Someone else’s path. Life was too short to hold grudges. She was done looking back. Bradley was the guy before the guy, and she didn’t take anyone on that journey for granted. Hebblestone was too small a place to avoid the past.

‘You okay?’ Tyler’s voice was strong, but the concern still softened its undertone. He’d been a little squirrelly in the beginning when Bradley had reached out to them. Trying to make amends. He’d had more than a few gym sessions to pound out his lingering emotions on the matter but, somehow, they’d managed it. Bradley had even brought his fiancée with him to The Fitzpatrick Arms,which had raised more than a few eyebrows amongst the regulars. More than a couple of the old boys mumbled into their pint pots a lot more than usual, and the air was decidedly chilly. Bradley wisely kept close to the bar area, and his fiancée looked like she was wearing a Lady Gaga meat dress and had just walked into a hungry lion’s den. Which wasn’t far off, given that the whole of the community had heard about her infamous engagement party. One which, quite frankly, Amber still didn’t like to think about.

Her own engagement was a very different experience. The air that night had been crackling with love and happiness, as everyone who knew her and Tyler, separate and now together, had told the loved-up couple how perfect they were how great they were going to be as parents. It had all worked out and, as he held the door open for her, Amber found herself being thankful for Bradley’s cheating ways, his detachment from her that gave her the space to realise that what she had wasn’t necessarily what she wanted. It had woken her up, in more ways than one.

As Tyler walked into the busy space, arm around her waist, he leaned down. Making her shiver as he brushed comforting words into the shell of her ear. ‘One word, and I’ll light the pyres, my queen.’

She smirked up at him. ‘Let’s just hope you can keep your axe under control ’til we get home.’

‘Oooh,’ he groaned, reaching down to clamp her bottom in his palm before moving it back to a pose more suitable for public. ‘Stop it, or I will fireman lift you back to the car right now. Screw the dinner.’

‘I love you,’ she told him. Because she never grew tired of telling him, and she felt like she was catching up for all the I-love-you’s she could have been saying before. ‘Now feed your woman.’

He rolled his eyes, before leading her to the welcome desk, where a server waited with a patient smile.

‘Stop clenching.’

‘I’m not clenching,’ he said, slipping the words out between gritted teeth. ‘Okay. A little.’

‘You could carry a keg between your butt cheeks right now,’ she half whispered as he gave their names to the server. Their hostess smiled wider, flicking a pen across her reservations book and leading them to one of the quieter tables in the back.

When they were seated, Bradley appeared from the kitchen area. Spotting them, he headed over to their table.

‘Hey.’ He flashed his professional smile at them both, his shoulders high under his polished-as-ever demeanour. ‘I’m glad you came.’

‘Bradley,’ Tyler said, rising from his seat to shake Bradley’s hand. ‘Place looks good.’

‘Thanks,’ Brad took his hand, shaking it just that bit too eagerly as his smile changed to real warmth. He turned to Amber when the two men pulled back. ‘Amber, you look great.’

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