Seduction by Design (18 page)

“You think so?” she taunted, coming up behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist. He accommodated her by settling himself back against her. “What can I do to show you that I have absolutely no scruples left?” The tips of her breasts tantalized his back.

The razor was poised over his Adam’s apple, but judiciously he didn’t touch it to his skin. “I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

With a sudden movement, she yanked the towel from around his waist and threw it to the floor.

“You’re right,” he said gruffly as she pressed herself against him, “you couldn’t get more shameless than that.”

The wandering fingers that slipped below his waist proved him wrong. His breath hissed through clenched teeth. The razor was dropped into the basin. He whirled around and, taking her off guard, bent down to grab her under the hips and raise her off the floor. Forgetting the frosting of shaving cream on his face, he buried it between her breasts, still dewy and warm from the shower.

“At this rate I’ll die young but sated,” he mumbled. His mouth traveled from the bewitching valley to the tempting crests, planting firm kisses everywhere it touched.

Hailey twisted away from him and cried out. He knew the way she spoke to him in passion and he knew instantly that this was different. He jerked his head back to look at her worriedly.

“Tyler,” she gasped, tears forming in her eyes. “That shaving cream, is it
mentholated?”

* * *

“I’ll pay you back,” she warned, dripping raw egg from the wire whisk she shook at him. Joining her in the kitchen where she was preparing them a hearty breakfast, he had made the mistake of asking her—with a broad grin splitting his handsome face—how she felt. “You couldn’t even help me wash it off you were laughing so hard.”

“I’m sorry, Hailey,” he said contritely, though he couldn’t disguise the mischievous lights dancing in his eyes. “I didn’t think. Honest. Scout’s honor.”

She scoffed at his penitent expression. “Humility doesn’t fit you at all. You were born to be arrogant, overbearing, and conceited. But you’re forgiven if you’ll set the table.”

“Okay, but first things first.” He came to her and encircled her with possessive arms. Finding her mouth unerringly, he kissed her with a hunger that hadn’t been satisfied even through the long hours of the night.

When they had at last left the quilt in front of the fireplace for his king-size bed, they promised each other they would sleep. It was a worthless pledge that neither could keep. His suggestion that they practice caution—in deference to her recently lost virginity—fell on deaf ears.

Now they caressed and kissed with renewed vigor. Each embrace only enhanced their desire. The butter sizzling in the skillet until it burned and filled the kitchen with acrid smoke brought them to their senses. They didn’t even mind cleaning the skillet and starting over again.

Hailey was feeding him a last scrap of bacon off her own plate when he said, “I need to call Atlanta and check on some things. Do you think you can manage to amuse yourself until I get done?” He licked her fingers free of bacon grease, then decided they weren’t quite clean and started the procedure again.

She watched as each finger was drawn between his lips with a gentle suction. His teeth raked against her fingertips. The words she framed in her mind had a hard time finding their way to her mouth. “I … uh … I guess I can clean up the kitchen.”

“Call me if you need me,” he breathed as he kissed her once again.

Twenty minutes later she found him in his bedroom sitting on the side of the bed, listening in deep concentration to whomever was speaking on the other end of the line. “Okay, but someone messed up. Find out where the breakdown was by this time tomorrow. I’ll want to know then how you intend to get back in the customer’s favor.” He slammed the receiver down without another word, and Hailey felt pity for the employee who had come under such criticism.

“Troubles?” she asked softly and touched his hair.

“Yes,” he grumbled absently. Then as if realizing for the first time that she was there, he pulled her down onto his lap. “To hell with all that,” he said, stretching her sweater tight across her breasts and looking at the results with evident pleasure.

“When do you have to get back?”

“I don’t know,” he said distractedly, still absorbed in his project to display her breasts to their best advantage. He looked at her then and grinned. “But if we stay much longer, I’m going to have to go out and buy more vitamins. A man my age can’t keep up this sexual marathon without reinforcements.”

“Yes,” she sighed theatrically. “You’re really quite old. Gray hair,” she said, threading her fingers through the silver at his temples, “waning strength, no stamina.”

He took her hand and squeezed it tight “Hailey, there’s something I should have told you before.”

His tone was so clipped and his face so serious that her heart lurched with dread. He had four illegitimate children? He wasn’t as rich as he pretended? He owed the Mafia money?
What?
Whatever it was, she’d stand by him. She could face anything with him. Only, please God, don’t let it be his health. Anything but that.
Please.
Her fingers were still lovingly sifting through his hair “What, Tyler?” she asked solicitously.

“You have a hell of a cute fanny.”

She shoved him backward as she shot off his lap. Pulling one of the pillows from under the spread, she pounded him with it while he covered his head with protective arms. “I really had you going there, didn’t I, Red? But I only told you the truth.”

“Well I can’t wait to show it off to all the boys in the neighborhood,” she said as she dropped the pillow on his head and spun on her heels.

“Where are you going?”

“To fetch your daughter,” she called over her shoulder, swaying the object of his admiration saucily in her tight jeans. “And we may never come back.”

“Yes, you will. You crave my body too much,” he shouted after her.

She was still laughing when she slammed the front door behind her. The whole world was suddenly right. Her footsteps were light as she walked up the gravel lane toward the Harpers’ house, which she and Tyler had located last night after leaving the restaurant. Strange that last night she had dreaded what the Harpers would think of her when Faith told them that she wasn’t Mrs. Scott. Now she didn’t care at all.

What she had given to Tyler had been given out of love. No one could take the splendor away from her. She wasn’t naive enough to think that it would last forever. She hadn’t been the first woman in Tyler’s life and she wouldn’t be the last. But while she was with him, she was going to squeeze the last ounce of pleasure from it. This was a once-in-a-lifetime affair. He was the only man she would ever love. Of that she was certain.

She had walked the half-mile or so to the Harpers’ house in no time. Mrs. Harper greeted her warmly rather than with the righteous indignation Hailey had expected.

“Faith is an absolute delight. She and Kim exchanged addresses, so each would know when the other was going to be here. We live in Asheville but we come up here often on the weekends. I hope they can get together again.”

“I hope so, too. Thank you for inviting her.”

Kim and Faith said an emotional good-bye with promises to write. Faith’s depression was soon forgotten as they walked back toward the house. She was bubbling over with things to tell Hailey.

“Her mom was s-o-o-o-o nice. She gave Kim a bunch of makeup she didn’t use anymore and we tried it all! Only we had to promise to wash it off before we went to bed. And we played Atari, but not too long. Mostly we listened to records and talked. It was s-o-o-o-o neat.”

“But did you have a good time?” Hailey asked ironically. It took Faith a moment to catch the teasing in Hailey’s voice, but then they hugged each other and laughed.

“Yes, but I missed you and Daddy.”

Hailey was struck by how easily the words went together. You and Daddy. A unit. “Did you?” she asked. Emotion made the words sound gravelly.

“Yes. Kim’s mom and dad were nice, but they’re not as neat as you and Daddy are. Her mom’s not near as pretty as you.”

“Thank you, but you really shouldn’t judge someone by how he looks, you know.”

“I know, but I couldn’t help noticing.”

Hailey was tempted to ask what Faith had said about her—if the Harpers knew she and Tyler weren’t married—but she couldn’t quite bring herself to.

“I wonder who that is,” Faith said, bringing Hailey’s attention to the car parked in the circle driveway in front of the house.

Hailey faltered and her heart sank with disappointment. Ellen. How had she located them? What could she possibly want?

“It’s my sister’s car.” She released Faith’s hand and opened the front door. Faith went in first, but just inside the door she stopped abruptly. A fraction of a second later, Hailey, too, was struck motionless.

Ellen and Tyler were standing in front of the fireplace, which was cold and gray now with ash. Ellen’s arms were locked behind his head. The heels of his hands were at her ribs. Their bodies were plastered together from chest to knee as they kissed.

Having heard the intruders, he shoved Ellen away from him. She blinked up at him stupidly until she followed the direction of his surprised, guilty gaze. His eyes locked with Hailey’s, and in them she saw a chasm of regret and remorse opening up, widening, threatening to swallow her.

“Hi, Hailey,” Ellen chirped.

“Shut up!” Tyler barked. “Hailey—”

“Go to hell,” she said calmly. She turned away from them and made for her bedroom, where she planned to gather her things together and leave before she was sickened and humiliated further.

“Hailey, stop,” Tyler ordered. When she didn’t obey, but hurried her suddenly leaden feet, he bounded after her. He caught her at the doorway and grabbed her shoulders from behind.

“Let me go,” she screamed, twisting away from the iron strength of his hands.

“No. I know what you’re thinking and you’re wrong. Think about it and you’ll know how wrong you are.”

“You couldn’t possibly know what I’m thinking,” she spat.

“Like hell I don’t. I know that proud thrust of your chin, that ramrod spine. It means you’ve made up your mind about something and nothing can change it. But, by God, you’re going to listen to me while I explain what you saw.”

“What I saw was self-explanatory.”

A blistering expletive was pushed through his teeth, but he didn’t release her. He kept her pinned against the wall. She raised murderous green eyes to him. Later she would die of the hurt. Now all she felt was a blinding rage.

“You got what you wanted last night. Your seduction was carried out. So now you’ve gone on to another challenge. Isn’t that what your life consists of? Challenges? Gambles? Well, congratulations. You won the game with me. Now let go.”

For a moment his eyes lost their anger, and in them she saw pain. “Do you think no more of me than that Hailey?” It was a harsh, low whisper that only she could hear, but she was stricken by the disillusionment it conveyed.

Then his eyes went as hard as flint again. “Ellen,” he shouted.

“What?” Ellen said sulkily from the position she had maintained by the fireplace.

“Come here.”

“What—”

“Dammit, I said to come here,” Tyler roared. Ellen didn’t dare disobey that fearsome command. When she was a few steps away, he anchored Hailey against the wall with a steel forearm across her collarbone and reached behind him to drag Ellen up to them. “Tell her why you came here.”

Ellen looked first at Tyler with her wide, green eyes, then at Hailey. After licking her lips, she said, “I came here to ask him for a loan.”

Hailey sagged under Tyler’s ruthless hold, but he didn’t relax it. For a moment she forgot him and the unscaleable wall between them, and looked with dismay at her sister. “You
what?”

Ellen’s lower lip began to tremble. “They fired me from my job, Hailey. Just because I took a few days off last week because I wasn’t feeling well. When I went to work yesterday morning, they told me to clean out my desk. They were so mean to me.” She was sobbing in earnest now.

“But why did you come to Tyler, asking for money?”

Ellen sniffed prettily and her tears clung to her lashes like dewdrops. “I went to you first. I went to Serendipity and they told me you and Tyler had come here. So I followed.”

“I gave you money last week, Ellen. Surely you’ve got severance pay coming.”

She darted another fearful look at Tyler before turning back to Hailey. “I didn’t pay my rent last month. I had so many other things I had to buy. So now my landlord is threatening to evict me. They’re not paying me severance because I took a few sick days. And even if I find another job right away, it’ll be weeks before I get a check.

“He’s got a lot of money, Hailey,” she said referring to Tyler. “I knew he could loan me some and not even miss it. When I found out you were with him, I decided it was a better idea to ask him instead of you.”

“Oh, my God.” Hailey closed her eyes and bowed her head in shame that her own flesh and blood could be so unconscionable.

“Tell her about the kiss.” Tyler’s voice was low, deep, but intimidating.

“He … he said we could work something out—”

He jerked on Ellen’s arm roughly and Hailey wondered how it managed to remain in its socket. Ellen’s eyes went wide with fear and her face paled significantly.

“Tell her the truth!”

“Hailey, I… You wouldn’t mind … You’d know I was only teasing …”

“When her tearful pleas didn’t work, she tried another tack. She flung her arms around my neck and started kissing me. That’s when you walked in.” Tyler’s eyes had been riveted on Hailey’s as he told her what had happened. Now he swung his head to Ellen and released her arm so quickly he could have been shaking her off like some hideous insect. “Get out.” The words fell into the room like stones.

“Get out?” Ellen asked, aghast. “You can’t—”

“I damn well can. Get out.”

“Hailey,” Ellen said, ignoring him. “You’ve got to help me.” Her voice was a wheedling whine.

“Why should she?” Tyler asked. “Because she always has before? Those days are over, Ellen. Get back to Nashville and wait to hear from me. I think you’d fit in very nicely in a small company I have in Baltimore.”