WORTH THE RISK

It wasn't until she’d landed in Olkfield after the long-haul flight from Nemford, pale from all the recycled air and a bit drunk from the mess of time zones, that it occurred to Lady Alexia Graham — commonly known to her friends and family as Lexi, to worry about her welcome.

“Don’t be silly,” she told herself, astonished by the raspy sound of her own voice in the too-bright corridor, lost somewhere deep in the Olkfield Airport. “It’s Tyler.”

And the one thing she knew to be true, no matter what else happened or how life kicked her around, was that Tyler Connelly was always happy to see her. Always. That was why she always kept her visa to enter Olkfield current. On the off chance she might pop off down under and visit the man who’d been her best friend since their university days.

In all the years since Tyler had moved to Olkfield, she’d never done it. But here she was at last. Wilted straight through, but here.

Lexi had packed light, mostly because she’d been in denial about what she was doing. She’d thrown a few things in a shoulder bag in her flat in Central Nemford, that was all, because she wasn’t taking a trip. She’d set off on a happy little lark and could as easily have simply wandered about Nemford for a while, playing tourist. Maybe she’d pretended that was exactly what she was doing.

Though she didn’t usually head off to enjoy the sights and sounds of the city with her passport in hand. She was being spontaneous, and that felt weird only because Lexi was rarely spontaneous. Make that never. But she was an engaged woman now and her life was changing, and there was no time like the present to do things she’d never done before—because she never would again.

She certainly wasn’t running from anything, she assured herself as she made it through customs and immigration and officially entered Olkfield for the first time. Everyone deserved a little time to themselves before getting married. An engagement ought to come with a bit of reflection and preparation, surely, before standing up before all and sundry and making vows to become legally bound forever.

But thinking about her own impending marriage was depressing, so she busied herself with finding and hiring a cab when she wasn’t sure she had access to her own brain. It was possible she’d left it somewhere in Nemford.

Once she located a taxi and climbed in, she directed the driver to take her to Tyler's address. Assuming he still lived in the house he’d bought on the coast, south of Olkfield proper. Lexi doubted he would have moved without telling her. They texted all the time. When Tyler had bought this place, right after what he’d called his wee start up went public, he’d sent her pictures.

‘Just bought a nauseatingly posh bachelor pad, complete with ocean views,’ he’d written. ‘Guest room always available, should you find yourself in Olkfield.’

‘Who wants to visit a bachelor pad?’ she’d texted back. ‘That sounds medically questionable. Also, it’s lovely.’

Now here she was.

As the cab navigated the early morning streets, she stared down at the enormous ring on her hand that she kept meaning to get fixed so it wouldn’t slide about so much.

Love…. Love was something not even Lexi could fake. Luckily, her engagement—to Victor Mckay, her friend, Lily's chilly older brother, whose success in business made her father as close to giddy as a man not given to such displays could get—was practical, not passionate. No faking required.

“Tyler will sort it all out,” she told herself, muttering staunchly beneath her breath so as not to alarm the driver. “He always does.”

Lily had always been Lexi's most vivid friend, the mad one who could go out for chips and end up dancing on tabletops in a different city at dawn. She was ardently loyal, she was passionate about everything and Lexi had wanted to be her, some years ago. But Tyler had always been her stalwart. He listened. He gave good advice. He’d been keeping Lexi grounded as long as she’d known him, and If he couldn’t help her now, no one could.

Not that she needed help, she corrected herself. She was fine. Her life was carrying on according to plan. Some people—Lily, for example—might think that was a bad thing, but Lexi knew better. This was life.

Tyler would take the rawness inside of her, name it and laugh at it, and in so doing, make it feel better. And make her feel better.

The driver pulled up before a sleek white building. The street was at garage level, and the only thing to see was the wooden door to the garage and beside it, a closed entryway. Lexi paid the driver, climbed out with her small case and stood there as the cab drove off.

She walked down the street to the door, and just as she was about to knock, she heard a sound, then. Low, male laughter. A higher-pitched, feminine voice. Then the door of the entryway next to the garage opened.

The door swung inward, and Lexi was standing right there. On the curb only a few feet away. For a moment, she couldn’t make sense of what she was seeing. She was too tired, maybe. It was as if she was looking through a kaleidoscope, all bright colors and strange shapes…but then she blinked and it all came into focus. Searing, distinct focus.

She would know Tyler anywhere, even through a cracked open door, with his dark head bent over the woman he had up against the narrow wall of his entryway. She was clinging to him, wearing extraordinarily high heels, and what Lexi thought was a tiny miniskirt, though it was hard to tell. The woman’s leg was lifted in the air, and wrapped around Tyler's waist.

And they were kissing. Though kissing seemed a rather tame word to describe what Lexi was witnessing.

It was too…carnal. The heat was so insane Lexi forgot it was winter. The woman was making little noises, moans even, and her hands snaked up to dig into Tyler's hair. Or maybe the point was to arch her body into his. For his part, Tyler was wearing nothing but a pair of low-slung jeans.

Everything else was bare skin, acres and acres of golden, perfectly packaged male beauty. It wasn’t that Lexi hadn’t noticed that Tyler was shockingly attractive, because of course she had.