He wrapped his arms around her and moved close, pressing her between the solid wall and his unyielding body. “The only thing I want to use you for is to slake this desire I have for you. And I want you to use me in the same way.”
For a second, she was caught up in the seductive power of his gray eyes. She wanted to believe him. The loneliness she had suffered last night had been almost too much to bear. While he’d been away, she had missed him. Even though they had battled every time they saw each other, she had missed not seeing him, not hearing his voice. She wanted him in her life, yet … She straightened and said firmly, “I’m still your employee.”
“Yes, you are. And you have the most beautiful breasts of anyone on the payroll.”
“What—”
“I was looking at them just this morning down the length of that conference table while someone was rattling on about something—the wardrobe department, I think. Anyway, I was thinking about how they look when we’re—”
“Tyler—”
“Kissing. They’re beautifully shaped. Full and round—”
“Tyler!”
“White and dusky—”
“Please,” she groaned.
“I’m going to keep talking like this until you kiss me. And when I touch them—”
She went up on tiptoes and pressed his lips with hers. He opened his mouth, sent his tongue on an erotic venture between her lips, and pulled her inexorably closer to his hard frame. He kissed her with a passion that, in his opinion, had been cruelly left unsatisfied the day before.
Hailey didn’t combat the need within her to kiss him back. She strained against him in a way that would have shocked her only weeks ago. Under the soothing strokes of his hands between her blazer and her blouse, she moved invitingly.
“We’ll continue this discussion after dinner at your house tonight,” Tyler said between the kisses he was showering on her mouth. “I’ll bring the steaks and wine. You provide everything else. Eight o’clock?”
“Yes,” she sighed, unable at that point to refuse him anything.
Trancelike, she rode down with him in the elevator. He tucked a telltale curl behind her ear seconds before the doors came open. Randy was waiting for them anxiously. “Everything okay up there?”
“Everything was perfect,” Tyler said, slanting a knowing glance at Hailey.
“Thanks,” Randy said as they walked away from him.
“I’m on my way to Sanders’s office, Miss Ashton, if you should need me,” Tyler said loud enough for Randy to hear.
“Thank you, Mr. Scott.”
He turned away, only to stop, snap his fingers, and call back to her. “Oh, Miss Ashton?”
“Yes?”
He came up to her, put his mouth directly next to her ear and whispered, “I meant what I said about your breasts.”
She found herself studying that part of her anatomy as she stepped out of the shower late that evening. Looking at her reflection in the full-length mirror on the back of her bathroom door, she decided that her shape wasn’t too bad for a woman her age. Her slimness, which she had cursed in adolescence, she now looked on as a blessing. Her slender figure took years off her age.
All day she had been in a state of anticipation, looking forward to her dinner with Tyler. He hadn’t quite convinced her that his motives for wanting to seduce her had nothing to do with either her work or his daughter. She smiled as she slipped into her underwear. Was it possible she was looking forward to more of his convincing?
Whether she was or not, she certainly had chosen a seductive outfit for their dinner, she thought as she stepped into black silk pants and pulled on an open-weave knit top. She knew she wore black well. It contrasted with her vibrant hair and fair complexion. Tonight she decided to forget her usual inhibitions and see what happened. She let her hair dry naturally and put large gold loops in her ears. Her fragrance was subtle but undeniably there. Beneath the revealing knit top, she wore a black, lace-trimmed camisole.
Not bad, she thought, eyeing herself critically in the mirror one more time. Certainly a departure from the prim and proper, competent, no-nonsense Miss Ashton.
But what would Tyler think of her? As she went through the house, checking last-minute details, she wondered at her rapid heartbeat and the catch in her throat each time she thought of the night to come. She hadn’t had all that much experience with men. Could she trust him to mean what he said? Did he find her beautiful? Desirable? Sexy?
The salad of three varieties of lettuce, black olives, cherry tomatoes, and artichoke hearts was chilling in the refrigerator. The foil-wrapped potatoes were baking in the oven while their trimmings of sour cream, chives, and bacon bits had already been arranged on a tray. Chocolate mousse was firming in par-fait glasses.
Everything was ready. Except for Hailey. She was a jumble of nerves. So much so that she jumped when she heard his car door slam and his quick tread on the decking.