“I know what was on your mind,” she said, trying to maintain her severe expression.
“Guilty. Ever since I collided with a tall, sexy, red-haired lady with glittering green eyes, my mind has been in the gutter. So I plead guilty. Bind my hands and feet with chains. Flay me with whips. I deserve only the cruelest and most unusual punishment.”
“Stop!” she cried, laughing. “You sound like you’re into S and M.”
“Not yet, but I never knock anything until I’ve tried it.” He was smiling, revealing the strong white teeth which she knew were capable of executing delicious torture. But as she watched, his teasing manner diminished and the fingers caressing her hand concentrated all their energy into the thumb that massaged her palm. “I’m guilty of many things, Hailey, but not of having a parade of women marching through my life.”
Every feature of her face contributed to her look of dismay. Uncanny. His perception of her thoughts was uncanny. “That was what you were speculating on, wasn’t it?” he asked. “How many women I’ve brought here or had torrid affairs with?”
She lowered her eyes. “It’s none of my business.”
He tugged on her hand. “Look at me, Hailey,” he commanded, and she obeyed. She didn’t want to know, but she had to. “Since my divorce, my encounters with women have been few, brief, and dismal. I have never pursued a woman with the diligence I have pursued you.”
“No?” She needed so badly to believe him.
“No. I’ve never let a woman come between me and business. On that trip I took recently, I crammed two weeks’ work into one because I couldn’t stand being away from you.”
Her temples were throbbing, not only from his words, but the definitive way in which he spoke them. To cover her emotional response, she stood quickly and began to clear the table with clammy, clumsy hands.
“Normally, when I sit in important, decision-making business meetings I concentrate on nothing except the subject under discussion. Do you know what I’ve been doing in all the business meetings I’ve attended since I met you?”
“We really need to get this cleaned—”
He caught her busy hands with his and drew her against him, trapping her hands between their bodies. “I’ve been thinking about you. About how we must take a trip to the coast so we can make love in the ocean. I want to stand with you in the surf and watch the waves lapping at your breasts.”
“Tyler—”
“And in my mind I must have taken a thousand showers with you, soaping every inch of you and then having you return the favor. I know exactly what you feel like under lathered hands.”
Her hands had opened and flattened against his chest. Now she placed her forehead against his breastbone and shook her head. “You embarrass me, Tyler. You really shouldn’t talk to me like this.”
His mouth was moving in her hair. “Would you rather we skip the talking stage and move right on to the action?” Her breath was released in a half-sigh, half-laugh. Cupping her face between his palms, he tilted her head back. “Worry about something else, Hailey, but don’t worry about other women.”
He kissed her then, sliding his hand under the waistband of her jeans and curving it to the shape of her hips. His mouth was ardent, insistent, persuasive, and for the remainder of the day, she didn’t worry about anything.
Tyler rented a motorboat and they spent the hours of the morning on the lake. By noon, windblown, exhilarated, and ravenous, they were demolishing cheeseburgers, french fries, and onion rings at a local hangout.
“What can we do now?” Faith asked as she dipped the last french fry into the catsup on her plate.
Tyler and Hailey groaned in unison. “Take a nap,” he said hopefully.
“Oh, come on. Let’s go horseback riding. Or hiking. I think they have motorcycles you can rent someplace.”
She settled for hiking, then a rousing game of table tennis in the lodge that was made available to property owners. While Tyler and Hailey were recovering from a five-game match, Faith played the electronic games. She met another girl her age who was just as addicted. In the end, she had to be dragged away from both her new friend and the machines.
By the time they returned to the house, they were all exhausted. “I suggest,” Tyler said, “that we rest before dinner. We’ll go eat barbecue at that place that has the Country-Western band.”
The ladies agreed to that and they all retired to their rooms to recuperate from the day’s activities. Hailey bathed leisurely in the deep tub and reapplied her makeup. She let her hair hang free and it curled around her face and neck beguilingly.
She dressed in a dark plaid cotton skirt characteristic of the “prairie look.” Her blouse was Victorian, having a round yoke across the chest and shoulders. A high, ruffle-edged collar reached to her jawline. The hemline of her skirt covered the tops of her soft leather boots.
The buttons on the back of her blouse had given her trouble, so she had asked Faith to help. “Gee, you look beautiful, Hailey,” she said as she admired her idol.
“Thank you. I was just about to tell you the same. Is that a new outfit?”
“Yes,” Faith said proudly, showing off a new shirt and a bright blue overall with cuffs that banded her ankles. “Do you like it? Daddy bought it for me, but I had to talk him into it. He said he’d never seen pants like this.”
“Well, he’d better start looking through your fashion magazines, right?”