“Phoenix,” she said without knowing how long they’d been lying there in silence. When he didn’t respond, Shyla rolled onto her side, propping her head on her fist. “Are you mad?”
“Mad?” he asked, his attention snapping around to hers.
She laid a hand on his torso. “Happy? Sad? What do you feel?”
“What do you feel?”
His deflection was unexpected, though it shouldn’t have been. More than once he’d told her that the night was about her. Still, his reluctance to answer didn’t fill her with confidence. But, in truth, Shyla was too energized to feel negative about anything.
Despite the ache in her muscles, she leaped over to straddle him, flattening both hands on his chest. “I’m ecstatic!” He caught the curtain of her hair to sweep it back over her shoulder. “I don’t know what you did to me, how you did it, but I feel so alive, so different, so amazing.”
“Good.”
“More than good! I feel incredible.”
Adrenaline had a lot to answer for. Shyla didn’t care about the cause, she didn’t question her euphoria and wanted it to go on forever. Lunging down, she forced her mouth over his and kissed some of her elation into him.
“Easy,” he said, taking her upper arms to ease her away.
Shyla tilted her head. “You don’t seem happy.” She gasped. “Did I do something wrong?”
“I’m happy.”
Score hadn’t ever been the type to jump up and down. The guy barely smiled, so she shouldn’t expect him to suddenly have a personality transplant. Not disappointed or upset, Shyla was concerned about him.
“Talk to me,” she said, stroking his cheek. “Please baby. We share everything, remember?”
Drawing in a breath through his nose, he took his time about exhaling too. “I don’t like being out of control,” he said. “You make me feel out of control.”
With a smile, she shifted her hands to the pillow on either side of him to get close. “You’re not out of control. I give myself to you. Whatever you need, anytime, I follow your orders.”
He shook his head. “That’s not how I mean.” She still didn’t understand what he meant, but he swept her hair aside to cradle her cheek. “You are different, Shy.”
That made her feel good. Pride warmed her. “Worth your time?”
“Yes.”
Lying down on him, she tucked her head under his chin. “I feel different.”
“You’ll be sore tomorrow.”
Stan’s funeral. Without wanting to dwell on anything negative, Shyla appreciated what Score had said about the distraction. She did need it. They’d done the right thing.
“Thank you for coming with me tomorrow,” she said. “It means a lot to me. I’ll feel better with you there.”
“Anything I should know about this Mick?”
“One thing,” she said, rising to meet the concern in his gaze. “He doesn’t belong in our bed.” His concern ebbed. “He’s a weed. No threat to you.”
“Where you’re concerned, no threat is too much for me to handle. You know I’ll always stand between you and trouble.”
She smiled again and kissed him quick. “What if I am the trouble?”
Moving fast, he put his arms around her and flipped her onto her back. No bracing his weight, no keeping his distance. Nothing stood between them. The physical obstacle had been obliterated. Score didn’t have to worry about scaring her or making her uncomfortable, he’d been inside her. She’d had all of him.
“I’ll discipline you,” he said. “You disobey me, there will be consequences.”
Shyla could hardly wait. “Phoenix,” she said, squeezing her arm out from his grip to trace her fingertips from his jaw down his throat to his chest. “I want to be with you.” Seemed like an odd thing to say given what they’d just done. “I mean… I want to be with you for more than just tonight, more than just a while. I want to be with you.”
“You are with me,” he said, though she didn’t know if he understood just how much she felt for him. “But this is your first time.”
So she couldn’t trust her own feelings, was that what he meant? “I’ve known how I felt about you for a while.”
“You remember what I said about women and McDades?”
“Women don’t leave McDades,” she said. “I wouldn’t, but you—”
“Shh,” he said, using his mouth to silence her.
If he wanted her to keep quiet about how she felt then she would. At least for one night. Making big decisions when she was fired full of hormones and emotions probably wasn’t a good idea. But Shyla wasn’t ashamed of Score or her feelings for him. Whatever it took to prove to him that she wasn’t uncertain, she would do it.
But with his mouth reminding her of how good he could make her feel, Shyla couldn’t hold onto definitive thoughts for long. They had forever, that was the way she saw it. He could silence her for a night, he couldn’t silence her forever.
Shyla panicked upon waking up alone. Score wasn’t in the shower or the closet. So used to him binding her in bed, it took her a minute to figure out he hadn’t tied her down the previous night. Grabbing up the sheet as she leaped off the bed, Shyla wrapped it around herself and hurried out of the room.
“It’s not my call,” Score’s voice carried from the living room. “I’m not weighing in on this one… I get that, Burl, but…” Somehow, as she approached the end of the hallway, he sensed her. It was a helluva skill. He
