Seduction by Design
“Watch them for swelling or additional redness. Some insect bites can be serious.” Hard as it was, she faced the flinty eyes that she could feel boring into her. “You may want to pick up some kind of analgesic ointment for her, Mr. Scott.”
“Very good advice, Miss Ashton. What kind?”
Hastily she scribbled the name of a salve on a piece of paper and extended it to him. Instead of taking the paper, his strong fingers wrapped around her wrist. “I’ll be in touch,” he said in a low, threatening voice. For emphasis, his thumb stroked upward and pressed the center of her palm. It wasn’t until he had taken the slip of paper with his other hand, that her wrist was freed.
“Faith?” He opened the door and ushered his daughter out into the heat while Hailey shivered with a cold foreboding.
How could she have made such an atrocious blunder? From the first time she saw Tyler Scott, he had irritated her. She had been rude to him. She had taken a perverse pleasure in increasing his anxiety. She had felt a smug satisfaction at making him walk when there was plenty of room for him to ride in the golf cart. Spitefulness didn’t usually characterize Hailey Ashton.
She wrote the nurse a note explaining briefly what had happened and left the infirmary. Should she call the other department heads and warn them that their employer was in the park? No. She had already gotten Mr. Scott’s ire up. Until she heard from him, she’d keep a low profile and only hope that her colleagues fared better should they encounter the owner of the park.
She walked through the compound quickly, not having to concentrate on where she was going. For the past four years Serendipity had been her turf. She knew its walkways, its waterways, its shops, eateries, theaters, and other attractions like the back of her hand. To do her job well, she had acquainted herself with every aspect of the park’s operation.
Doing things well was Hailey’s most ardent ambition. She was known for her competence. Wouldn’t everyone be surprised when they learned that she had lost her job for bullying a guest who just happened to be Tyler Scott?
She had been at Serendipity for a year when it was sold to Scott Enterprises of Atlanta and it became only a small part of that huge conglomerate. The Scott empire included real estate companies, sawmills, a computer firm, a shopping center, a housing development, as well as various other properties.
It was a standing joke around Serendipity that Tyler Scott wasn’t a real person, but rather a generic name given to a group of doddering old men. Since no one had ever seen him, and all his business transactions were conducted by a battery of subordinates, it was speculated that Tyler Scott, the man, didn’t exist.
Hailey’s private smile was rueful. Tyler Scott was most definitely a man. In no way could the adjective “doddering” be used to describe him, not with those shoulders and that chest. No, he had been all too real.
What would such a man do with an employee who was supposedly an expert in handling the guests of his multiacre amusement park, whose sole purpose was to see to the guests’ well-being and enjoyment, but instead had behaved in a curt, uncompromising, unsympathetic way? What indeed?
It was after nine o’clock when she finally arrived home. Her last official duty of the day had been to see that all one hundred and thirty Boy Scouts on a special field trip were given Serendipity bumper stickers, which they promptly began sticking to each other.
Her sandals were left at the front door, her blazer was dropped on a chair. Automatically going into the kitchen, she checked the refrigerator to see what forgotten treasure she might uncover, but was vastly disappointed. Another omelet tonight, she groaned mentally as she made her way down the darkened hallway toward her bedroom.
She had just stripped out of her uniform when the telephone rang. “Hello.”
“Will you accept the charges on a call from Ellen Ashton?”
“Yes,” Hailey replied wearily.
“Hi, sis.”
Hailey was annoyed that Ellen had called collect again, but pushed aside her uncharitable thoughts with a guilty sigh. Just because she had had a terrible day, that didn’t mean she should take her frustrations out on her sister.
“Hi, Ellen. What’s going on?” She knew before asking that she was letting herself in for a lengthy discourse on the latest events in Ellen’s life. And at her expense. She sat on the bed and prepared to listen.
Hailey barely credited herself with being moderately attractive, but had always felt that her sister, younger by two years, was stunning. Hailey’s hair was a glowing copper, but Ellen’s flamed. Hailey was tall and fashionably slender, but she thought of herself as skinny, the way she had been as a figure-conscious teenager. Ellen hadn’t been cursed with adolescent coltishness. She had gone from plump girlhood to voluptuous womanhood without any awkwardness in between.
Hailey was dependable. Ellen was hopelessly irresponsible. But she was beautiful and bubbly, and everyone adored her. If her flightiness often cost her a good job, she soon charmed someone else into hiring her, despite mediocre skills.
“It sounds like you’re happier at this job than at the last,” Hailey interjected when Ellen paused for breath after several talkative minutes.
“Oh yes! The people are much nicer. The women who worked in that other office were so mean to me. I think they were jealous. They told the boss bad things about me. I had to leave for my own peace of mind.”
Hailey was suspicious about how Ellen’s actual leaving had come about, but she didn’t contradict her sister’s version. Ellen should never be required to work. It didn’t suit her personality. She should find an indulgent rich man to pamper and spoil her for life.
“I’ve made some new friends, Hailey, and we’ve been going out every night and having a ball.”
“That’s wonderful, Ellen.”
“There’s a big party I’ve been invited to next week at the country club. It’s going to be fabulous! All the best people will be there.” Hailey flinched at Ellen’s snobbery. “Anyway, Hailey, I have one teeny-weeny problem.”
Hailey knew immediately what that teeny-weeny problem was. “I need a new dress, Hailey. And I haven’t gotten a full pay-check yet since I just started this jo
b. Could you please send me enough to buy a dress for the party?”