Dare to Take (Dare to Love 6)

All conflicting, fucked-up feelings for a kid to handle. So he hadn’t handled it at all. He’d kept the old man’s secrets, never admitting the truth, not even to Ian or Scott, and in doing so, he lived with the knowledge that, had he spoken up, he could have spared his mother the humiliation of how she’d found out. When his father had approached her with the painful demand that all her children be tested as bone marrow donors for one of his other kids. Because when things got emotionally difficult, Tyler ran. And that hadn’t been the only time.

“Tyler, are you okay?” Avery asked, placing a hand on his arm.

“Fine.” He shook off the past. “What’s up?” he asked, focusing completely on what his sister wanted.

“It’s about Ella.”

His dick immediately perked up at the name. “Ella.”

Avery narrowed those violet eyes in confusion. “Yes, Ella.”

“Ella,” he repeated, his brain flickering with images he’d long sought to expunge from memory. A lithe body with pert breasts, warm, silken skin covering his own.

“You know, Ella Shaw,” his sister said, breaking into his memories. “My best friend.”

And the woman whose virginity he’d taken when she was eighteen.

Yes, Tyler knew exactly who Ella was. It was just that every time he saw her face or her heard her name, his brain short-circuited and a mixture of self-loathing and guilt threatened to crush him, followed immediately by a shock of arousal he had no right to feel.

“What’s wrong with her?” Tyler asked, already turning his attention back to the day ahead, potential clients he wanted to acquire, new security systems he thought existing clients should agree to upgrade to.

Whatever issues Ella had, Tyler felt certain she didn’t need him to handle them. Avery was overreacting. She had to be.

He made it a distinct point to keep as far from Ella Shaw as possible. It was better for both of them to pretend that night had never happened, and by silent, mutual agreement, they’d managed to keep that mistake from Avery.

Avery slammed her hands on his desk, bringing his focus back to the situation at hand. “Ella was mugged in the Caribbean. She’s in the hospital with a concussion, her passport is gone, along with everything in her purse, and a hurricane is headed straight for the island.”

Shit, shit, shit. “Is she okay?” he asked, more concerned than he wanted to admit.

“I don’t know. She sounded groggy. The nurse wouldn’t let her stay on the phone, but Ty, she can’t leave the island without proper documents, and all her identification is gone. She can’t get to the American Embassy since they won’t release her from the hospital for another twenty-four hours because she’s alone. And when she is released, the hurricane will have hit and—” Avery didn’t get another word out because she started to hyperventilate.

Tyler recognized the signs. She’d been suffering from panic attacks since she was a kid, and though they were mostly under control now, truly stressful situations caused an attack.

“Come on. Sit.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her to a chair, easing her down. “Do you have your Xanax?” She nodded and, though still breathing fast, began to look through her purse.

“Serena, I need a glass of water, quick!” Tyler called out to his secretary.

She rushed in a few seconds later, a cup of water in hand.

“Thanks,” he said.

Avery took the pill and began to do breathing exercises.

“Can I get you anything else?” Serena asked.

He shook his head, his focus on Avery. “We’re good for now.”

Serena quickly stepped out, shutting the door behind her.

“Okay, look,” Tyler said, kneeling by his sister’s side. “You’re going to write down where she is, and I’ll contact the embassy. I’ll do what I can to get her out.”

“You have to go yourself. Please. I need to know Ella is okay and with someone I trust after all she’s been through.” She grasped his hand and squeezed tight. “Ian will let you take his jet. Private is the only way she can fly out without a passport anyway.”

She gazed up at him with the same big eyes he’d been a sucker for when she was a kid. Except this time she had no idea what she was asking of him, as the past came flooding back.

He’d come home on leave from the Army just in time for Christmas. As usual, Ella had been visiting for the holiday. And holy shit, she was hot. Her body had filled out, with sexy tits and sweet curvy hips; she’d knocked him on his ass. For the first time, he’d seen her as a beautiful woman and not his little sister’s best friend, and he’d had to remind himself many times over the course of the night she was off-limits.

Except nobody had given Ella the memo.