Hailey was saved from meeting his appraising gray stare because she immediately choked on her wine. She coughed into her napkin and gulped for air. When she did raise her watering eyes to meet his gaze, his eyes were twinkling with humor.
“She’s very beautiful.”
Hailey dabbed at the tears in her eyes. “No, I’m not beautiful, Faith. My sister Ellen is the pretty one in my family.”
“You’re so beautiful! I’ll never be pretty because my daddy makes me wear these dumb glasses. He says I’m too young for contact lenses.” She cast her father an accusatory glare. “What do you think, Hailey?”
Hailey pretended to scrutinize the girl, though she wasn’t about to contradict Tyler on the point. “I’ll tell you what my parents did. They let me get contact lenses when my braces came off. Sort of a celebration present.”
Faith’s eyes behind her hated eyeglasses were as wide as her disbelieving mouth. “You wore braces?”
“A whole mouthful of them for three years,” Hailey said, laughing.
“And you had to wear glasses, too?”
“Until I got contacts. And I still wear my glasses occasionally when my eyes are tired.”
“But I bet you don’t look dumb in them like I do.”
“You don’t look dumb at all. I think glasses look chic. Do you realize how many celebrities have started wearing them? Jane Fonda wears them. Robert Redford, Warren Beatty.”
“Gee,” Faith said. She stared into her empty plate as she contemplated what Hailey had said.
Hailey glanced at Tyler. His expression was soft, a half-smile, private. Lifting his wine glass, his eyes asked her to do the same. He mouthed the words “thank you” as he clicked his glass with hers. Then their eyes locked over the raised wine glasses. Hailey could no more draw her eyes from his gaze than she could move her little finger from the scarcely pe
rceptible caressing of his.
Emotion squeezed her throat. A hot flush crept up her neck and suffused her earlobes with throbbing heat. The pad of his little finger rubbed against hers, and she felt an electric current racing up her arm and into her breasts, making them tingle with excitement.
“Can I go play now?”
Hailey jumped at the intrusion of Faith’s voice. She had become oblivious to everything in the room except the man whose stare was mesmerizing her. Perhaps she could have fought the magnetism of his eyes, but combined with the feel of his skin against hers, it left her defenseless.
“May I be excused and may I go play,” Tyler corrected, forcibly breaking his eye contact with Hailey and lowering his glass to the table.
Faith sighed with adolescent exaggeration. “May I be excused and may I go play? Please?”
Tyler smiled. “You may. Here are two dollars,” he said, fishing the bills out of his pocket “Get them changed at the cash register and be careful how you spend them.”
“Thanks, Daddy. I’ll make them last,” Faith promised as she grabbed the money, took one last slurping drink of her Coke, and bolted from the table.
Hailey had used the time to regain her slipping control. What was wrong with her? She felt as faint and flustered as a maiden aunt with the vapors. It was lunacy to be swayed by a man like Tyler Scott. He was a taker, a user, accustomed to having his way. His technique was polished. He knew exactly how to play upon a woman’s emotions. No doubt he had had plenty of practice applying his charm, but Hailey Ashton had had little practice fending it off.
Schooling her features to show no emotion, she sat up straighter in her chair, smoothed her hair, licked her lips, and tried to give off an air of cool composure. From experience she knew that if she gave him an inch, he’d take …
“Coffee?” he asked.
“Yes, please,” she said tersely.
While they were waiting for the coffee to be delivered, she feigned absorption in the parade of foot traffic on the sidewalk, though in truth she saw nothing. He didn’t try to engage her in conversation, but she could feel his eyes, touching her everywhere, seeing everything. Again she had an insane compulsion to cover herself.
“Cream?” He brought her eyes around to him.
“Yes, please.”
“Say when.” He poured the cream into her cup until she gave him the word.
“Thank you.”