“Well, he’d better start looking through your fashion magazines, right?”
“Right,” Faith giggled as they went to join her father.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“Nothing a man could understand,” Hailey said breezily. “It was girl talk.” Faith giggled harder at his scowl.
The restaurant was crowded and noisy, but everyone was having a good time. The dance floor resembled a boxing ring where couples were jostling each other to the beat of the music. What the band lacked in technique, it more than made up for in volume.
They were finishing up their meal when Faith jumped out of her chair and yelled, “Hey, Kim!” She waved her arms to the girl being seated halfway across the room. “That’s my friend,” she said hastily to Tyler and Hailey before she ran through the maze of tables to speak to her new acquaintance.
Hailey and Tyler watched and, after a brief interchange, Faith was leading Kim and her mother back to their table.
“Hello,” the woman said pleasantly, over the din of the restaurant. “I’m Frances Harper. My daughter Kim met your daughter in the lodge this afternoon. They got on so well and had such a good time, I wondered if you’d let Faith sleep over at our house tonight.”
Faith and Kim, who was plumper by several pounds and shorter by several inches than Faith, were clutching hands, hopping up and down, barely able to contain their anxiety that permission might not be granted.
Now Faith spoke, “Pleeeeze. She has Atari on her television, and that new album I’ve been wanting, and I’ll be nice, I promise. Pleeeeze.”
The adults laughed at her earnestness. “You’d be doing me a favor to let her come,” Mrs. Harper said. “My husband and I enjoy rest and relaxation when we come up here. I’m afraid it gets boring for Kim, especially when we have to take her out of school like we did this time. This was the only week my husband could get off.
“We live on the same road as you in the red brick colonial. She’ll be no trouble and I’ll watch them carefully.”
Mrs. Harper was speaking mainly to Hailey, as though she would be making the decision. Suddenly it occurred to her that the woman naturally assumed she was Faith’s mother. “I know you would …” she hedged. What could she say?
“I don’t see any reason why she can’t go, do you, Hailey?” Tyler asked. From the tone of his voice and the familiarity with which he placed his hand on her shoulder, she could very well be his wife and Faith’s mother.
“No. I think it’ll be all right.”
“Oh, thank you,” both girls gushed at the same time. “Thank you, thank you,” Faith said as she kissed both Tyler and Hailey in turn. Then the two excited girls rushed off to join Mr. Harper who had remained at the table.
“Kim has extra pajamas, so we’ll just take Faith with us from here.”
“We’ll pick her up sometime in the morning,” Tyler said. “Thank you for asking her.”
“Thank you for letting her come. It was nice to meet you, both. I’ll see you in the morning.” She went back to her own table.
Hailey’s spirit had suffered a mortal wound. It was obvious that Mrs. Harper had taken them to be husband and wife. But she wasn’t Tyler’s wife. Not by a long shot. What was she to him? A companion for the weekend? A bed partner until he tired of her? “Few, brief, and dismal.” Those were the words he had used to describe his affairs with women. But were they accurate ones? Would he be repeating those words to the next woman he wanted, making her feel special? Seducing her?
“Hailey?”
“I’m sorry.” At the sound of his voice she blinked up at him. “What did you say?”
“I asked if you were finished. Would you like anything else?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“Let’s go then.”
They weaved their way toward the front door. Faith waved and threw kisses to them from the Harpers’ table, where she was sitting politely while they ate their dinner.
“Are you cold?” Tyler asked her as they were walking toward the parked car. At the touch of his hand on the back of her neck, she had shivered.
“Yes, a little.”
“I’ll build a fire when we get home.”
Home?
She sat stiffly by his side and they didn’t speak during the short drive to his sprawling house. Walking toward the front door, he clasped her hand in his and swung them back and forth. “A harvest moon. Look at the reflection on the lake.”
The moon’s image on the lake was indeed beautiful, but Hailey didn’t want to see it. She didn’t want the night to lend itself to romance. Faith’s presence had kept them apart last night. Faith wasn’t here tonight. Who would protect her from his seduction? Would she have to rely on herself to resist him? If that were the case, God help her.
Tyler hung his corduroy sport coat on a hall tree after closing the front door behind them. “I stacked the fire while I was waiting for you and Faith to get dressed. I only need to light it.”
“Good.”
“Do you want some coffee? Wine? Anything?”
“No.”
“Are you sure? There’s still some of that delicious Chablis left. One small glass?”
“No.”
From his squatting position in front of the fireplace he turned around and looked up at her. “Cat got your tongue?”
“No.”
He laughed then and pushed himself up. Flames were curling around the kindling he had piled under the logs. “All your words put together since we left the restaurant wouldn’t make a simple sentence.” He came to her and squeezed her shoulders gently. “You shouldn’t worry about it, you know.”
Her dark lashes lifted from her anguished green eyes as she looked up at him. “Shouldn’t worry about what?”
“That Mrs. Harper mistook you for my wife. It was a natural mistake, Hailey.”
“Yes. And she will reach a natural conclusion about me when she finds out I’m not.”
“When are you going to stop letting what other people think dictate what you do, and let your own instincts guide you?”
She pulled away from him and went to stand at the wide windows. The tears in her eyes made the silver reflection on the water even more ethereal. The cool October wind bent the trees to graceful angles. The stars were spectacular jewels undimmed by city lights. It was a beautiful night, a display of nature in its most primitive and basic state. She wanted to belong to it.
Tyler had asked her the question she had asked herself.
Why should she care what anyone thought of her affair with him? What did she have to lose? Loneliness. Boredom. A life without depth or color or love. Any kind of love.
She turned back to him slowly. The tears dried before they could be shed, but not before they made her eyes luminescent. Moonlight shone on her hair while firelight danced across her face.
He was what she wanted. Tall, hard, powerful, intelligent, humorous. His hair lay in dark, sculpted waves. From under thick brows, his gray eyes glowed as he looked at her. His pose was casual—one shoulder leaning against the mantel—but Hailey knew the latent strength beneath the tanned skin.
“I think maybe I will have some wine,” she said.
“I’ll have some, too. Will you pour? I want to get something out of the bedroom.”
When she came back into the living room carrying a tray with two glasses and a carafe of wine, he was spreading a quilt on the carpet in front of the fireplace. When he was done, he went around the room turning off lights until the only illumination was the moonlight from the windows and the firelight from the hearth.
She had set the tray on the coffee table and poured the wine. He picked up both glasses and extended one to her. Her fingers were trembling so that she could barely hold the fragile crystal. He clinked their glasses together and then sipped from his while he watched her over the rim.
“Will you do me a favor?” he asked quietly. He took her glass and returned it with his to the tray.
“A favor?”
“I have a trick muscle in my back that bothers me now and then. Today when I was starting the motor on the boat, I aggravated it.”
“Tyler,” she exclaimed softly. “Is it serious?”
“Nothing a good backrub won’t cure.” He reached for her hand and pulled her to him. “You can start by helping me out of my clothes.”
She swallowed a lump of self-consciousness but kept her hand where he had placed it at the open collar of his shirt. Putting aside her last remnant of caution, she undid the buttons of his shirt. She pulled it out of the waistband of his trousers and pushed it off his shoulders. The shirt was negligently dropped onto the sofa. A mere piece of cloth couldn’t compete with the sight of his chest for her attention. Her eyes took in each nuance of his rugged build.
“You may do the belt and pants in two separate steps, or combine the two. It’s up to you.”
She looked down at his belt with the simple buckle and sighed in relief. With her fingers shaking as they were, she didn’t think she could have handled anything intricate. Unbuckling the belt didn’t intimidate her, but unbuttoning the trousers was the most brazen thing she had ever had to bring herself to do. At least she thought so until she had to unzip them.
“I’d never hurt you, Hailey.” The words came huskily from just above her head.
Her fingers found the zipper’s tab and she pulled it down. Her heart was thudding and she feared for what would happen next. As usual, Tyler surprised her. He stepped back as he kicked off his loafers.
“Thank you,” he said. His socks followed his shoes. Then he was stepping out of his trousers without a modicum of modesty. He tossed them across the back of a chair. The deep shadows in the room cast the angles of his body into sharp relief. He looked stronger, larger, more masculine than he had at the swimming pool. In truth she was seeing no more of him now than she had then. But there was a difference, if only psychological, between swimming trunks and a scrap of soft white cotton.
She jumped back a step when he went down on one knee in front of her. “Don’t you want to get out of these boots?” He looked up at her, his eyes lit with the shine of firelight.
“Y… yes,” she said. Leaning down, she propped her hands on his bare shoulders for balance. His hands caressed the backs of her calves as he eased the boots off one by one.
“There. That’s bound to feel better,” he said as he lay down on his stomach on the quilt and stretched luxuriously. “My life’s in your hands, Hailey.”
Feeling awkward and naive, she knelt beside him. Her shy hands were inches from his back when he spoke again, and she drew back skittishly. “Feel free to get more comfortable whenever you like.”
“I’m fine,” she said quickly.
He shrugged, a motion that set the muscles of his back into play. “There’s no rush.” He rested his cheek on his folded hands. “The bad muscle is just under my right shoulder blade. There’s some lotion there by the sofa,” he added, indicating the plastic bottle on the floor. His eyes closed.
Somewhere she had read that the proper way to give a massage was to put the lotion in the palm of one’s hand rather than pour it directly onto the skin. That way it would be warm before application. She squeezed a dollop of the rich lotion into her palm and smoothed it between her hands. Taking a deep breath, she placed her hands on the tanned flesh of his shoulders.
Her motions were timid at first, but she soon gained confidence when he didn’t move or protest her amateurish method. She worked her hands slowly over the broad expanse of his back, then concentrated on the spot that was bothering him. Her fingers gently kneaded. Her palms pressed.
“You’re a born masseuse,” he mumbled.
“Am I?” she asked, not knowing that her breath fanned the skin of his back.
“A magic touch.”
“You mean I don’t rub you the wrong way?” she asked teasingly.
He cocked a brow over a derisive eye as he twisted his head around to look at her. “You’ve got a whole new career ahead of you—the world’s only
comédienne
masseuse.”
“I’d go broke in no time.”
“You could use some more practice.” He shocked her by rolling over onto his back. “If you go into the massaging business, you’ll have to be fully educated. Better learn how to do the front, too.”
Their eyes met and Hailey recognized the challenge. He was daring her. His chest rose and fell with his easy breathing. His flat stomach sloping down from his rib cage invited her to trace the silky growth of hair that disappeared beneath his underwear. One knee came up to a bent position, making his attitude one of relaxed confidence. It was a gauntlet that Hailey couldn’t afford to ignore.
Never taking her eyes from his, she poured more lotion in her palm. Being deliberately slow and sensuous, she spread the emulsion between her hands, sliding the fingers of one hand through those of the other. Then she bent over him and placed a hand on either side of his neck. Working outward, she strolled across his shoulders and down his upper arms. She tilted her chin back arrogantly and watched him through half-closed eyes as she squeezed his hard muscles. Alternately contracting and releasing her fingers, she worked them down to the inside of his elbow. There her fingernails lightly raked his sensitized skin.
“You’ve just sealed your fate, Hailey,” he growled. Reaching behind her, he cupped her head in one hand and forced it down to meet his scorching kiss. To brace herself, she put her hands on either side of his head on the quilt. He slanted his mouth across hers, kissing her with naked hunger. His tongue swept her mouth thoroughly, before employing finesse to bring her to a state of quivering arousal.
Her elbows weakened and, unable to support herself any longer, she slumped against him. His mouth followed the curve of her throat. He wasn’t deterred by her blouse, but kissed her through it, burying his face between her breasts and enjoying the fullness with his nose and chin.
He sat up, pushing her to a sitting position as he did. His hand moved from the back of her head to rub his thumb across her bottom lip. “Now it’s your turn,” he whispered. She was held spellbound by his hypnotic eyes as his fingers began working the buttons down her back. When all were released, he eased her blouse over her shoulders and down her arms.
“You’re so pretty, Hailey,” he said, trailing a finger along the curve of her breasts that the fragile lace and nylon of a half-bra couldn’t contain. He drew her to her knees and unfastened her skirt. Without speaking, he indicated what he wanted her to do.