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I don’t know if I can do this. Kate texted Tyler, then slammed her phone on the bed. She grabbed her pillow and screamed into it, loud enough that her roommate knocked to see if she was okay.
“Just been a long month,” she said with a false smile, and Ashley gave her a look that Kate knew meant “sure hun whatever you say I can see that dumpster fire of trauma a million miles away and I ain’t a therapist” or something like that.
“That pretty cowboy of a boyfriend coming to visit again soon? Or did we scare him away with our 4th floor walk up and loud city nights?”
“Not my boyfriend,” Kate said, and with that last text it wasn’t even really a lie. They had never talked about it. Had only even kissed a handful of times. She knew people who kissed their friends more than she kissed Tyler.
And it wasn’t that Tyler didn’t want it. She kept seeing his eyes drop to her mouth, and those times they had kissed she had felt how much he was holding back. Kate could feel that he wanted to devour her.
Kate wanted him to devour her. Or rather, she wanted to want it. She wanted it and she wanted to not feel bad about it. Wanted to not feel like it was a betrayal of Jeb and everything they had been to each other.
But every time Tyler held her she could feel Jeb’s arms slipping away. She could hear that last gasp he made as he was pulled away. She could feel the scar on her thigh ache.
Tyler was very sweet about it. He never pushed her, always let her set the pace for their whatever this was—relationship? He called her and texted her and sent her little things in the mail every week. He was steady and patient, so patient, and Kate wasn’t surprised when his text back to her read I’ll wait as long as you need, sweetheart.
Tyler was waiting for her at the airport when she arrived in Oklahoma, and she didn’t kiss him hello. He held her tight and swung her around and called her sweetheart. Kate breathed in the clean scent of his shirt and held on tight.
“Wasn’t sure if you’d want to share with me or Dani.” Tyler held up two keys for her. “I heard a rumor I snore,” he grinned at her, that big stupid grin of his that she loved, and she grabbed the key for his room.
“You,” she said, bumping her hip against his. “I can put up with a little snoring.” His grin shifted to something softer, something more real, and she realized that this, this was the smile she wanted to see from him. Not the cocky grin—he gave that to everyone. This soft smile was just for her.
Tomorrow they would go chasing, but tonight it was just them and this beat up motel room, and Kate felt…nervous. Excited. Happy.
“Two beds,” he told her, gesturing to them. “We don’t have to share, but we can if you want.” He wrapped his arms around her and she felt her heart race. “No pressure for anything, Kate. All I want is to spend time with you and chase tornados together.”
“That’s all you want?” She leaned back to see his face and raised an eyebrow at him. “Nothing else crossed your mind?”
“Nothing worth mentioning unless you’re ready to hear it.” He cupped her face with his big hand, and she shivered. “I told you I’ll wait for you and that’s still true, Kate.”
“It isn’t that I don’t want it,” she said, leaning into his hand. “I do. I just…”
“There’s no rush,” he said, and kissed her forehead. “And you don’t need to explain yourself to me. I’ll wait as long as you need.”
That night she slept in his bed, and she didn’t have even one nightmare.
It was a good day of chasing. They got good data, good footage, and from the news reports she knew that no one had died. There was some damage to farmland, but everyone was alive.
Kate’s adrenaline was still running high when she and Tyler got back to the motel, and she was on him in a minute. Part of her was thinking about all the times she and Jeb had taken advantage of that post chase high, but more her of was thinking about the way Tyler looked in his wet, white shirt, and the way his skin glistened with sweat, and the way his lips would probably taste like rain.
He kissed her back, and she felt that reserve he always had, that feeling that he was holding back something big. For once she wanted him to let it out. Kate wanted him to stop being so nice and kiss her the way he wanted to, without thinking about her feelings.
“Kate…” he sounded helpless as she reached for his belt buckle, and pulled away. “Sweetheart, I don’t think this is what you want.”
“Why not?” She nibbled at his jaw and played with that stupid, stupid belt buckle of his. He was as tense as a bowstring and she could feel him trembling trembling trembling for her.
“This is just from chasing. Wouldn’t mean anything.” He pulled back and gazed into her eyes. She wanted to look away, wanted to hide, but he didn’t let her. “I like you, Kate. I like you a whole lot. And I want it to mean something.”
She groaned in frustration and bit lightly at his jaw, his perfect fucking jaw, and noticed the way his eyes dilated. She noticed the was his hands tightened on her waist.
“But you want me,” she asked.
“So much.”
“And I want you.”
“Would appear that way.”
“But you want to wait.”
“Ain’t nothing wanting or not wanting about it. Do I want to kiss you and make love to you and fucking… claim you like some kind of animal? Goddamn yes I do, Kate Cooper. But more than that I want you to be comfortable with it. I want you to be thrilled about it. I don’t want to be your mistake.” He was clutching her tight, his dick hard against her through their clothes. Both of them were trembling with desire, aching with want.
But Tyler was right. This would be a mistake. She’d sleep with him and then stop calling him and he’d become just another guy she had slept with so Jeb wasn’t the only boy in her head when she thought about sex.
“Okay,” she whispered and pulled away. “You won’t be my mistake.”
They didn’t share a bed that night.
As they were lying there in the dark, she could heard Tyler’s steady breathing. He was here. He was safe. They were all alive.
“Kate?” He asked her, and she loved the sound of her name in his mouth. “You know I want you, right? This isn’t just me pushing you away for no reason.”
“I know, Ty. You’re right. Theres… something happening here. I want you to me more than just a quick thrill.”
“I’ll thrill you but I don’t intend to be quick about it, sweetheart. I’m going to be real slow about it. Gonna savor you like a fine bottle of wine.”
“What do you know about wine, country boy?” She teased him. “Maybe I want you to take me fast. Maybe I want you to shotgun me like a cheap beer.”
“I’m aiming for there to be time enough for both. And everything in between. I want…” his voice was shaking again. “I want so much.”
“Yeah,” she whispered back. “Yeah.”
The rest of that week Kate practiced kissing him. Casually on the cheek. A quick peck on the lips before bed. With tongue. With her hands against the hard, smooth plane of his back. With his hands steady on her hips.
“Next time,” she whispered against his mouth as she kissed him at the airport, “next time I see you, it won’t be a mistake.”
“Premeditated,” he smiled that sweet smile just for her, “not a crime of passion.”
“Oh I’ll be bringing my passion,” she nipped his lip then pulled away. “See ya soon, cowboy.”
It was too long until they saw each other again. Kate realized she was spending her downtime at work daydreaming about quitting to go on the road with them, and spend more time helping Javi with the new project. She realized that she kind of hated living in New York and she kind of hated her job and she kind of hated what she had made of her life for the past five years.
Jeb would have hated it too.
It wasn’t even always that she missed him. She did—of course she did— but more than that she missed what could have been with him. Would they still be together? Would they be friends? What would these last five years look like if her friends hadn’t died?
When she returned to Oklahoma it was with all her stuff in suitcases and with no intention of returning to New York.
The first quiet day they had, Tyler gave her a look over breakfast and she realized she was in love with him. Really, really in love with him, in a way that she couldn’t shake easily even if she wanted to. She loved him, and she wanted him, and nothing about it was a mistake.
After breakfast she dragged him back to their cheap motel room and pushed him onto the bed. “I’m ready.” She told him, stretching her body over his. “I want you.”
“Not a mistake?” He asked, holding himself still and careful, searching her with those gorgeous fucking eyes.
“Not a mistake.” She leaned down to kiss him, and felt him groan into it. His arms came around her, pulling her closer closer closer to him, and a small sound of want escaped her.
He was kissing her, but he was still holding back. Still trying to make she she was okay, that she wanted this for real.
“No more holding back,” she said, sitting back so her full weight was on his hard cock. “I want you. I’m yours, Tyler. I’m yours.”
He growled and a moment later they were flipped, with his large body crowding her against the bed. His lips were on her neck, his hands in her hair. He was straddling her and she could feel all of him, all of that waterfall of want crashing down around them.
Kate ran her hands under his shirt, then started pulling it over his head. “Off. Off,” she murmured, then started kissing his arms, his magnificent arms.
Soon they were naked, and she took a long look at him.
“Like what you see?” He asked, that sweet smile on his face again.
“I want you,” she said again, and kissed him. “I want you.” Kate spread her legs and pulled him down on top of her, touching him everywhere and feeling him everywhere.
Tyler kissed her until she was dizzy with desire. She spread her legs wider and lifted her hips, trying to get him to fuck her, but he pulled back.
“I told you once I would savor you, Kate Cooper. And that’s just what I intend to do.” He slid down her body, kissing her as he went. His tongue found her nipples, her sides, her thighs. She gasped as he buried his head between her legs and started lapping at her there, his hot mouth drinking in all of the wetness and desire that had build up in her and amplifying it a hundredfold.
“A lot of moisture here, conditions seem good for a tornado.” He raised his head to grin at her, and it was that cocky one again. Kate laughed and groaned as he spun his fingers in the air, then moved them down inside her.
“Fuck, Tyler,” she gasped and grabbed at his hair as he continued licking her. “Don’t stop, I’m already so close, fuck.”
He licked her until she came, then kept licking her until she squealed with overstimulation. “I need you to fuck me.” She grabbed at his shoulders. “I need it now.”
Tyler grinned again, then rolled the condom on, too slowly for her needs.
“Now,” she repeated, pulling him down.
“I’m coming, sweetheart.” He kissed her breasts again, then pulled her legs around him. “Savoring you, remember?”
“Shotgun me,” she felt the tip of his cock at her entrance and shivered with need. “Give me all of it.”
“Sure you don’t just want the tip?” He teased her with it, his cock sliding through her wet folds without ever going in where Kate really wanted it.
“Stop teasing me, country boy.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, city girl.” Then finally, finally he was pushing in, hard and hot and exactly what she needed. His mouth found hers and they gasped together when he was all the way in, pausing a moment for her to get used to his size.
He fucked her slow, then fast, and when she shifted he knew right away that she was asking to ride him, even without words.
She ride him like one of those bucking broncos they had seen at the rodeo, squeezing her thighs around him and egging him on faster and faster until she could hardly see or hear anything. Her whole world was just him, just the pleasure and want and love filling her to the brim.
They spent the rest of the day in bed, only dressing to get food and briefly check on the team. Kate was certain it was the best sex she’d ever had and that she’d never get him out of her head now. She had told him she was his and it was becoming more and more true with every kiss and lick and orgasm.
“I love you,” she told him as they were tangled together in the dark, trying to sleep. “Thank you for waiting for me to be ready.”
“You love me?” He asked, his voice softer and more vulnerable than she had ever heard from him. “Love? Oh? Kate, oh sweetheart.” He buried his head in her neck and held her tight. “I love you too. I’d have waited a hundred years for you. I’d wait longer. I’d wait forever. I love you.”
They chased tornados. They visited her mom. They bought a little house with enough land and a detached barn big enough that she and Javi could have a real office. Kate kissed him and kissed him and kissed him as often as she liked. Now when they got back from chasing with their hearts pounding and their bodies buzzing with the knowledge they were alive, they had survived again, he would use his fingers and tongue on her over and over again until they were both begging for more.
This was the life Kate wanted. This was the life she deserved. For the first time in a long time, Kate Cooper was happy.