"Nice. Very nice." And then, "Good thing I didn't know that in high school. I already had a boner every time I saw you walk down the hall. Thinking about you naked in this bed would have pushed me over the edge."

Suddenly Julie wasn't thinking about her parents anymore, about how embarrassed she was at their behavior.

Instead all she could focus on was how good she felt whenever Ty was around. How much she wanted him.

"I have an idea," he said, sitting down on the edge of her single bed. A bed that had never seen a boy, and only the barest bit of mast***ation.

"I'm all ears," she said, even though the more honest response was that she was all hormones, all the time, whenever he was around.

"Come here," he said, patting his lap.

She perched on the edge of his knee and he pulled her into him. His heat and his hard muscles branded her, took her breath away.

"Everyone is busy drinking and talking downstairs. I figure we've got a good hour to kill before dinner. Seeing your bed gave me some good ideas."

"I don't know if we should," she whispered.

"I do," he said with a wink, and in that moment, Julie couldn't stop herself from falling a little bit in love with Ty all over again.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Ty's hands were warm around her bottom. She lowered her mouth to kiss him and he was so tender, so careful with her. Finding out that her father was a cheat and her mother was a drunk could have been the perfect grenade to wave in front of her face. He could have used her shame to force her to back off, to cut him some breathing room during the next week.

Instead, he chose this tenuous moment to be kind to her. To "back her up." She nipped at his lips, wondering why she'd ever thought that jocks were nothing but empty, musclebound shells. Because while Ty certainly had looks and charm to spare, he also had more than his share of warmth and understanding.

Pulling her lips away from his mesmerizing kiss, she said, "I'm ready to hear your ideas now." She felt his erection stiffen even further against the back of her thigh. He picked up one of her hands, traced the tops of each of her fingers with his thumb, then turned over her hand and pressed a kiss into her palm.

"I don't think I've thanked you yet for what you did to me last night under the bleachers." Arousal sizzled deep in the base of her stomach. "You don't need to thank me," she said, her words breathless and excited. Something wonderful was on its way.

"I insist on returning the favor." The lack of blood to her brain made her slow to pick up his implication.

"Oh," she finally said. "You want to .. ."

"Tie you up."

The sensual image hit her square in the chest and she gasped.

"Blindfold you."

She licked her lips, wondering how it was possible for her heart to beat so fast.

"Taste you."

She couldn't take her eyes from his, couldn't think of anything but giving herself to Ty, wholly and completely.

Could it be that she was ready to trust him? At least with her body? She wanted to give her sexual self to him fully and completely.

"We don't have much time," she said, desperate now for the release he promised, wishing everyone downstairs at the party would just go home and leave them alone.

Where she'd once looked at two weeks as an eternity, she now saw that it would be over in a flash. She would miss this incredible man very, very much.

He slid her off his lap and laid her down in the middle of her old bed. He got up and locked the door, then shrugged off his blazer and draped it on the back of a chair.

He was a man on a mission, his sole purpose to make her feel good.

As a teenager, she'd fantasized about what it would be like if Ty kissed her, if he held her close. But she'd never come close to feeling this aroused, this revved up.

Then again, she'd never imagined Ty tying her up so that he could take her any way he pleased. He walked into her closet and emerged grinning. Swinging a woven brown leather belt, he said, "This will do nicely for your wrists."

He dropped the belt beside her hip and she sucked in a breath as he undid the knot of his tie. "And this," he said, "is the perfect blindfold."

She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. Was she crazy? Was she really going to let him do this to her? In her parents' house?

Drunken laughter drifted up through the floor. Didn't her parents realize that people were simply using them for free champagne and caviar, not because they actually liked them?

Perhaps being here with Ty was the perfect way to create a new, final memory in this house. After tonight, her last impression would be of a gorgeous man and the sinful things he'd done to her.

Ty sat down on the bed and his weight tilted the mattress, forcing her closer. He was warm and solid and she didn't hesitate for a second when he slid his silk tie over her eyes and reached beneath her hair to tie it.

Instantly, her remaining senses came to life. She loved his fresh, woodsy scent. The band playing

"The Way We Were" downstairs sounded like the backdrop to their own personal love story. His kiss was minty on her tongue.

She suddenly saw things clearly.

All the sex, the fun, the laughter—it had been more than fooling around. She'd asked Ty to keep their relationship a secret not just because she wanted to keep her professional reputation intact, but because she was afraid that he'd turn on her, like he had before. But he wasn't a teenaged boy anymore. He was a wonderful man.

And maybe, just maybe, she thought as she reached out and laid her hand over his heart and felt its strong, steady beat, he was falling in love with her. fust like she was falling in love with him. He wrapped his fingers around her wrist and she knew what he was going to ask.

"Only if you're sure," he said, and she smiled.

"I'm sure," she said and a moment later he had her arms secured to the bed frame, not so tight that it hurt, but just tight enough that she couldn't escape.

Heat and wetness pooled between her legs and her ni**les grew hard.

"Now let's see what's waiting for me under here," Ty said, his voice and fingers coaxing a soft moan out of her as he found the zipper on the bodice of her strapless dress and pulled it open.

"You're wearing my favorite thing of all," he murmured as he slid the lace over her br**sts, exposing her bare flesh all the way to her rib cage. "Nothing."

Instinctively, she arched her back, hoping he would touch her soon, kiss her, run his tongue over her ni**les. He cupped her br**sts with both hands and pushed them together, so that when he began to lick her, he could pay attention to both ni**les at once.